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FOUR DOLLARS SEVENTY-SIX ELECTRONIC EDITION Contents [TOUCH ANY TITLE TO BE TAKEN TO THAT PAGE] Maximum Marmalade Maximum Marmalade ...... 1 For a book on the history of marmalade, I Is it possible for an American to make am seeking information on how marmalade marmalade that will kick British butt? has developed in former British and other Maybe—with a new twist based on an European colonies since it was first taken there. old preserving recipe. With a sidebar — C. Anne Wilson on the Florida juice orange...there’s not HEN THIS QUERY APPEARED in Petits Propos one but several, each with a personality Culinaires back in 1984, I had just all its own. acquired my first computer, a Systel II. Fiore di Finocchio ...... 12 WI could afford to buy it because it was designed to use an electric typewriter (which I already owned) The translation is “fennel flowers”; the as both its keyboard and its printer. There reference is to the coarse-textured, were certain drawbacks to this arrangement, pungent-tasting powder made by hand- one of which I discovered the first time I used crushing tiny, pollen-laden wild fennel it to print out the text of SIMPLE COOKING. The flowers; the bottom line is a mouth- typewriter had never before been subject to filling herbal seasoning that is worth its such relentless use, since no mere human rather astonishingly high price. could type so fast for so long. Its anguished clatter reverberated down the legs of the typing Table Talk ...... 14 table to pound a loud tattoo on the floor. Cynthia Caldwell takes us to a maple My landlord lived directly beneath me, syrup farm for pancakes in the snow and after a half an hour of this he went storm- Sylvia Lovegren remembers eating ing out of the house, slamming the door breakfast at The Studio Grill in Hol- behind him. I didn’t know which to lywood Kathleen Cooper samples the morning buffet at a Singapore hotel. Plus tasting notes on wild fennel pollen and a last offer for our first book. With recipes for ......

MAXIMUM ORANGE MARMALADE 7, TEMPLE ORANGE MARMALADE 8, FLORIDA NAVEL ORANGE MARMALADE 9, MEYER LEMON MARMALADE 10, KEY LIME MARMALADE 10, PINEAPPLE LEMON MARMALADE 10, SHRIMP WITH WILD FENNEL POLLEN 13, PORK TENDERLOIN CASA NOSTRA 14, MAPLE SYRUP SUNDAE 15. expect first, the self-destruction of the typewriter kitchen shelves were filled with stoneware or the arrival of an eviction notice. crocks, both large and small, in which James However, the Systel II was ideal for tasks Keiller & Son’s Dundee Marmalade was then like copying out a bunch of marmalade recipes sold. These possessed a majestic solidity that from my old American cookbooks, because with not only made them impossible to discard but it they could easily be proofed, reorganized, suggested a fierce loyalty to secret receipts, and annotated without the mind-numbing uncompromising standards, and eccentric tediousness of endless retyping. And, as it production methods. Marmalade wasn’t happened, I uncovered some truly odd variants, something you made; it was something you went including one marmalade made from green to a fancy grocer in Boston to select. tomatoes and pickled limes, another from And what a choice there was. It ranged rhubarb and figs, and another still from from the relatively ordinary—Chivers Olde “oring roots,” an ingredient Wilson would later English, Robertson’s Golden Shred, the above- identify not as orange tree roots (as I had mentioned James Keiller & Son’s Dundee—to the wildly surmised) but as eringo, “a well-known increasingly singular, such as Frank Cooper’s aphrodisiac of Tudor and Stuart times.”* Coarse Cut Vintage Oxford or Wilkin & Sons’ As far as I was concerned, all this Tiptree Tawney Seville. Still, no matter how they effort—I eventually sent off a couple dozen sliced it—coarse cut, thin cut, chip cut, silver recipes—had nothing to do with cooking and shred—or how long they aged it, every serious everything to do with getting a pat on the head British producer agreed on one fundamental from a culinary historian whose FOOD AND DRINK rule: to be authentic, it must be made with the IN BRITAIN had greatly impressed me. I was fond impossible-to-find-in-America, famously bitter of marmalade, it is true, but I was even fonder Seville orange. As the British food historian, of marmalade’s mystique. My grandmother’s writer, and rather prodigious marmalade maker Alan Davidson states unequivocally in THE OXFORD * The original source of this recipe may be a famous COMPANION TO FOOD: marmalade concocted for Mary, Queen of England (1553 to 1558), and given to her as a New Year’s present, as Only bitter oranges can be used to make she wanted desperately to conceive a child. Fortunately for England—her reign was a disaster—she died instead, proper marmalade, which depends not only allowing Elizabeth I assumed the throne. on their bitterness but also on the aromatic rind, which is quite different from that of the sweet orange. Although this sentence appeared in print decades after the time about which I write, the unspoken sentiment, like some irrefutable first cause, cast a disheartening pall over the idea of making marmalade—real orange marmalade—in these United States. “No Seville oranges, dear chap? Don’t waste your time.” The worst of the thing is that there’s more than a little truth to this. It lies in that phrase “proper marmalade,” which can roughly be translated as “marmalade as we Brits know and love it.” Once you’ve tasted the stuff, you

don’t forget it, especially if you’re susceptible E LECTRONIC to its dour charm. It is, after all, the only fruit preserve with an attitude problem. Where the others are all lambs, this one is a lion. Ordinarily, sugar works as a calmative, E DITION soothing everything into unctuous fruitiness. With marmalade, it plays the lion tamer, which with whip and chair just manages to keep its bitterness at bay. page two Simple Cooking 76 LECTRONIC DITION might think of the habit, to try it once is to is once it try to you habit, the whatever of think might And, day. drizzling and gray boosted the do), spirits sufficiently to face another could fireplace the provided the system with a salutory slap, and in peat of smoldering chunks the than more was (which body E E I was it replaced. that marmalade what breakfast...and for marmalade ate first who Scots the was fruit it that learns one of Roy Rob the jams—an words, analogy that other is all the in more apt is, when It uncouth. the and noble the of mixture potent no has added pectin—but what it makes it special is peel, its of chunks contains it fruits, citrus from only made is preserves—it other finger on what distinguishes from marmalade statement. under- an almost seems once, for “Unique,” & Sons Tiptree Tawney Seville is made: Read, for instance, this descriptionbeachballsjumpandthrough flaming hoops. of how Wilkin persuade the Seville orange to balance itself on control that they have gradually learned how to gottenso good at maintaining this fine edge of orange peel. and toasted butter bread, besides honey always, is and there jelly breakfast] of...preserved[At well is that inthemaking. worth theextraeffort the product caramelise unique to quite time sugar—a third a cooked and overnight cool to whole, left sugar, with cooked cooked then been have that oranges from come flavour spicy and colour dark The else. oranges that are cooked with sugar and nothing This rich dark marmalade is made from Seville Simple Cooking 76 neat dram of Scotch whisky. It warmed the a with day the start to century, eighteenth T

WAS —Bishop Pococke, There have been many efforts to put a put to efforts many been have There have makers marmalade Traditional

THE S COTTISH T

OURS HABIT

OF , well into the the into well , S COTLAND

(1760) even as he waxed poetic about the latter. former,the of males)universality(among the and the Hebrides and made Scottishbreakfast during histourScotlandaof point of mentioning encountered Johnson Dr. both ale. the the dram as abandonand tothe easynewfangled so marmalade? bitter-orange and raspberries, currents, strawberries, along with the now ever-present black of preserves with made served toast, and oatcakes, bowl wheaten scones, came barley bannocks, creamer,teapot, the with when ale sugar and in the price of sugar. Who drop wanteda with coincided adoption its but about, hot mush and itself might never have been able by to bring this Tea habits. breakfast Scottish in change sea a off touched drinking tea in popularity popularly among the menfolk—a jug of or—more ale. buttermilk with down washed was Everythingabove. the of all hadwealthy very The head.sheep’s singed a or ham mutton a from cut slice a or smokedfish someeat also might to afford could who Those cream. and bowl another or fried into a cake and or eaten with butter one was variation Scots of oatmeal mush, most either poured for into a which usually played an important role. following a formula in which bitter-orange peel by the addition of medicinal herbs and spices, been transformed, as it often was, into a tonic was underscored aspect still further analeptic when the whisky this had And oil. hedonistic—but cod-liver from of dose far a or bath cold a with par is a on rather it that know he would breakfast inScotland. he wouldbreakfast of quest sensual in gratifications, wherever wish, he had a supped by remove could epicure but butter with an If marmalades. and conserves, honey, with only not accompanied coffee and are tea The us. excel to Scots, confessed be the must mountains, which or lowlands in the of whether meal a breakfast, the dram, whichtheycalla no but man is so intemperance; abstemious as to refuse the much morning at present was never I least at race, drunken a not are they in the morning, swallows a glass of whisky; yet appears he as soon as account, no give can I A man of the Hebrides, for of the women’s diet Not long after the dram, may be expected h mrig rm rvd o nearly not proved dram morning The rising the time this just at However, itself, breakfast came dram the After skalk .... pagethree Still, the ritual of the skalk was doomed A minor but interesting facet of this British to fall from the favor of all but rural diehards. attainment is that, among all the numerous Caffeine and alcohol are uneasy companions, culinary operations carried out in British especially in the morning, because they propel kitchens, marmalade-making is one which is the drinker in contrary directions. Alcohol quite often performed by men. prepares you to face hard physical work in I was a pipe smoker during the same the cold outside; a dose of tea or coffee, the period I was developing my taste for this sort of rigors of indoor occupations where intellectual marmalade. Both of these are hallmark pursuits alertness is the primary concern. The morning of the English male, and it was impossible not to snort, whatever its analeptic benefits, aided notice the uncanny resemblance of the language not a whit in this. of the English marmalade maker to that of the To the Scot who cherished not the alcohol English tobacconist. Not only do they share such itself but the austere cathartic it embodied, terms as “coarse cut,” “fine shred,” “vintage,” the disappearance of the dram threatened to “tawny,” and the like—to the point where in some reduce the breakfast table to nothing more than instances it is hard to tell by name alone which a simpering synecdoche of self-indulgence. is which (MacBaren’s Golden Ambrosia, Stute’s Casting about for something—anything!—among Thick Cut, Thomas Radford’s Old Scotch)—but all this feminine frippery that might offer an both emphasize the rough-and-tumble physicality echo of that manly physic, he found it in the so appealing to the masculine temperament. pot of marmalade. There, in profuse quantity, Since the pipe smoker can be sent out of was the same bitterly astringent peel that had the house or at least into the study when he for centuries been prescribed to revivify the craves this kind of pleasure, pipe tobacco has heart, calm the stomach, and cure rheums, it all over marmalade when it comes to macho coughs, and colds.* noxiousness. However, the comparison prompts This link between marmalade and the us to shove aside the genteel, even aristocratic, virile tonic that preceded it† is possibly the reason pretension with which British firms wrap their why the former managed to sustain its refractory products. The truth is that any touch of genuine nature over the centuries: it was abetted by nobility about marmalade comes not from the a substantial constituency who possessed the English kings and queens who have lent it their same qualities themselves. To put it another way, patent but from the Scottish laird who sought marmalade, at least the tough-love variety, is out a decoction to break his fast that was as preeminently a guy thing, and not only in terms of rebarbative as himself. consumption. As Alan Davidson notes in the same entry from which I quoted above:

*According to Sir Thomas Elyot in THE CASTEL OF HELTH (1574), “The rinds [of the Seville orange] taken in a little quantity, do comfort the stomach, where it digesteth, specially condite [candied] with sugar, and taken fasting in a small quantity.” According to C. Anne Wilson, this popular dietary lore helped shift marmalade from an The imported English and Scottish marmalades ordinary sweetmeat to a morning “break-fast.” also have a role, often as a small food-gift. †In 1952, initiating one of those peculiar reversals which Although these marmalades are widely make culinary history so fascinating, Baxters began purchased, they tend not to go into everyday producing a Scotch-flavored marmalade that had been use, but to sit for long periods on the refrigerator matured in Speyside whisky casks for five years—resulting shelf before a suitable occasion can be E in a product that was so successful that other manufacturers LECTRONIC swiftly followed suit. Today, at least in Britain, it is possible found to broach them. It is probably true to purchase marmalades flavored with single malts—such to say that interest in Seville orange marma- as English Provender Laphroaig Whisky Marmalade. Thus, lade [ in America]...is now at a low ebb. where once the peel of bitter orange was added to the whisky, —C. Anne Wilson, THE BOOK OF MARMALADE E now the whisky is added to the conserve of bitter peel. The DITION difference, of course, is in the self-conscious referentiality HAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT is how a foodstuff of the latter—Scottishness squared. Marmalade purists are can come to resonate with a meaning not best pleased by this meddling with tradition, but, even so, it does possess a certain perverse historical resonance that Wthat words can only approximately even they must appreciate. And it tastes good, too. capture and certainly never hope to define. page four Simple Cooking 76 LECTRONIC DITION directed, these marmalades would have been have wouldmarmalades these directed, recipes—I would have noticed that, prepared thesefollowingofas wasn’tthinking anyof I all, be made Depression often directed the that the marmalade before I written However, recipes that sets. noticed soon it until down mixture the cook and sugar add you Then hour. an half about for it boil and water, generously—with the up fruit, cover it generously—sometimes very cut and clean to directed essentially are you marmalade, orange For process. with the made marmalade have before, of you you If horde will cookbooks. that be American generally in old familiar immersion my and query it...and that brings me back to C. Anne Wilson’s E E quietly faded marmalade away. entered my life, my interest in my buying really noticing it, once preserves and like these eating without doubt, but enthusiasts, apparently not Genuine me. Because, marmalade? without from, choose who’s going to to reach for the Preserves dusty jar of Peach British California and Boysenberry Oregon Farm’s Clearbrook Sour Cherry and Wild Thimbleberry Preserves, Spoonfood’s American Jam, Raspberry Black and Preserve Gooseberry Kitchen’s Stonewall like products American high-end fruit-laden, because those qualities to have become but less special. With fail qualities we special because its appreciate isn’t it it, to preserve indifferent market’s upscale we that extent the to And shelf. the on choice bitter-orange marmalade becomes just another versions as Tiptree Tawney Seville. they know of the existence the exception moreof such are than theyultra-puissant the But fanatics.rule,marmalade same and the I like don’t anything thinklengths. to thatI it certainlyeven pursue know guys don’t who they are but masculinity, hairy aggressive of model the tweed Harris to indifferent entirely aren’t men it, and mostly, I think, they are right. American most Americans possess the equipment to detect the wavelength of the original. up pick to able those for plangency same the have bitter, never produced—will similarly however however delicious, lemon—however grapefruit, marmalades—lime, citrus Other Simple Cooking 76 If I had been paying more attention—after Even so, I continued to to continued I so, Even resonance, that on up pick don’t you If Britishdubious,Thesuspect,are Ithat without adding any water at all. have think think become about about

contemporary recipes in for economy except reasonthat no liquid was there tothat be thing, because what came to me in a flash was paste “ H in suggested Dods Margaret as table—perchancethe atdone wasrequired, it to buy it regardless. (Previously, if resultingsoftening“spreadability” persuaded publicthe was reduced the amount of fruit required, while the producers discovered that adding water greatly the way the ispreserve was thismade before fact,commercial in And, spread. to thick too hs ehd was method this very a the adult preserve. in demanded, was, it It level. response new complicated a to it lifted that quality three-dimensional a marmalade the ishness, that edge of medicinal bitterness pucker- gave sourball usual the of Instead sweet. the and flavor tightness of of density balance its between in bitter marmalade and sour grapefruit and ordinary from different noticeably from-concentrate ruby red grapefruit juice. standard grapefruit marmalade recipe with aexperimenting not-inmyreplacingwater theby began I case, any In way. that read certainly be could evidence the fruit...but additional reluctancea squeezetojuicethattheallfrom procrastinated I reason was the that think to orangeand grapefruit juice. It embarrasses me not-from-concentrate half-gallon of cartons of the test was the introduction several years later as any carriage-trade preserve? produce a marmalade as equally fruit-intensive waterwiththe fruit’s ownjuice. Wouldn’t that it days these shouldn’t Butcost all times. that hardmuch persuader,more in to potentespecially replace a the is course, of Economy, However, the most that this demanded of the of demanded this that most However,the once. at three all of much too but sweet, too of the marmalade being too bitter, too sour, or was one of pleasure or panic. It wasn’t buds taste my a from yelp the matter whether sure be to impossible was It masochistic. almost was it that intense mouth-fillingly so was result the There, lemons. organic with the experiment repeated I and Matt when evident more the all became exaggeration no was this that OUSEWIFE This misreading, though, was a fortunate The name I gave to the outcome of of outcome the to gave I name The was result tawny-colored thick, The Whatgot meto finally put this notion to ex tempore ’ S M ANUAL with a little tea.”) aiu marmalade maximum 12)b lqiyn the liquifying (1828)—by T pagefive HE C water OOK and , & . preserve maker was some effort to control and dull and dingy; its texture was as rough and shape the results. When we tackled key limes blotchy as the back of a toad. A casual glance soon afterwards, we got it exactly right. was also enough to know that they would not Even when the fruit wasn’t especially be bursting with juice. But a fingernail pressed sour, the intensification of flavor brought the into the peel released a pungent citrus aroma marmalade to life. The one we prepared from with hints of tangerine (something also present Florida navel oranges, which would otherwise in its deeply bitter taste). We opened our copy of have been pathetically sweet and bland, Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book to the recipe for whole proved instead to be innocently refreshing—a orange marmalade (“the simplest, easiest, and maximum marmalade that, for once, children best flavoured”) and set to work. could love. And a small step up in acidity and Again, however, I adapted the recipe, brightness of flavor meant that a marmalade replacing the water called for with orange juice, we made from Temple oranges was revelatory and not that squeezed from the remaining sour in its easy accessibility combined with a oranges but from sweet Florida juice oranges. wealth of citrusy flavor notes. Kids would Although the former had it all over the latter love this one too, if grown-ups let them when it came to potency, to citric punch, the anywhere near it. sweet orange won hands down in terms of By then, I thought I had this marmalade brightness and clarity of flavor. Maybe it was business in the bag, but there was one final time for the two of them to get together and twist to the story still to come. Our pal and pool their resources, instead of duking it out subscriber Ed Ivy has corresponded with us for the title of Marmalade King. over the years. At one point we learned that he The result, after all the soaking, cutting, owned some land in Florida with wild orange and boiling, was, to put it simply, the best trees growing on it and begged him to send orange marmalade I’ve ever eaten in my us some of the fruit. life. And I wasn’t the only one who thought These trees are a source of entertainment this—we gave some of our very limited supply for native Floridians. Tourists, seeing a citrus to marmalade fiends of our acquaintance who bonanza for the taking, often pull their cars said exactly the same thing. Who begged us over to the side of the road and pick armfuls for more. This is because the stuff brought of the wild oranges before they think to bite into you back to the first time your taste buds one, only to discover that they are as sour as encountered real British marmalade and lemons. All sweet oranges in Florida grow on shouted, “Wow!” And here they were, shouting trees grafted to sour orange rootstock—which it all over again. often takes over the whole tree once an orchard This, in short, was a marmalade to make is abandoned. Pick a wild orange and chances a Scotsman sit up and take notice...and, for are the fruit will be inedible, at least for an American marmalade maker, if that isn’t a eating out of hand. triumph, I don’t know what is. The likelihood that these same trees will be bearing genuine Seville oranges is, of course, rather negligible. That fruit is also three important notes about a cultivated variety, selectively bred for the marmalade making perfume of its peel. In fact, Seville oranges were once widely grown in Florida, and—as we Choosing the fruit. Select fruit that has shall see—some are still. But even if all you smooth, firm skin and feels heavy for its can get hold of are the wild native sort, they size. Smaller fruits generally have more E LECTRONIC are close enough kin to the Seville to make flavor than their larger siblings. Organic excellent British-style marmalade...as we were citrus is best (no pesticide residues); about to discover for ourselves. don’t be put off if the peel has greenish When Ed’s shipment arrived and we cut E patches—outside color is no indicator of DITION open the box, what met our eyes was as motley inside flavor. a crew as can be imagined. As with most wild fruit, there was clear visual evidence of a Boiling the peel. Marmalade recipes lack of pampering. The color of the peel was universally direct you to boil the peel page six Simple Cooking 76 ELECTRONIC EDITION Simple Cooking 76 using them. However, we did try making it doubt don’t resultsthe that moreeven be may exciting I but oranges, with Seville “real” it made haven’t We success. great had we which with oranges, sour Florida This is the recipe we developed using wild storing them away on a closet beforeshelf. bath water final a jars sealed the contemporary preserving should manual for you giving seek refrigerator, out and follow the your instructions in any in conveniently store can you than marmalade moremake todecide you supermarket. If appearance of little the a bags say, of key with by, limes motivated at dealing but the crop of bumper way a not is making more sense when—as it is for us—preserve that of the fruit. This approach makes even ofthe increasingly caramelized sugar over sincelonger cooking emphasizes thetaste marmalade, best the make but cook the on easier are only not Thesemarmalade. of batches for small, very oranges)—are sometimes soursmall, of load box our with dealt (which them of first the from Batch Size. soft, it the bestguide. prove like will experience you Here, more. if it boil less; it boil peel your chewy, like you Meyer if Otherwise, the lemon. is pre-boiling require didn’t again. The chewy only citrus fruit I’ve encountered that and resilient it become marmalade, will the make to sugar peel result with the the cook if you worry mushy—once seems Don’t it. soften to Maximum Orange Marmalade Based on a recipe from The recipes that follow—apart Seville Orange J ANE G RIGSON ’ S F RUIT B OOK 12 cups (3 quarts) freshly squeezedorpackaged 12 cups(3quarts)freshly of water. Bring this up to a simmer and simmer a to up this Bring water. of Put them into a large pot with the 3 quarts scrubber, clean the surface of the oranges. • difference thatmade. beforeWesampling. the wereat surprised weeks few a age result and the let to juice, sure be extra the produce to oranges same the use route, this go you If page). following the on sidebar the oranges—see juice or Valencia Pineapple for (look flavor orange of full and tangy be to proves juice surprisingly good results—especially if the with oranges, juice Florida ordinary with the heat some, but keep the contents contents the keep but some, heat the roiling boil over high heat and a then reduce to Bring sugar. warmed the and juice, orange the oranges, cut-up the put tall, • pulp together, intothinstrips. in half again and then cut these, peel and a very sharp knife, slice the orange halves Using cheesecloth. of piece small a in up them tie and together these Gather pips. the remove and half in them cut handle, • you remove them from the pot. cooks, marmalade setting them the out on while a rack to lidsdry as their and jars it boiling. Use this to sterilize the preservingmedium-size pot half full of a water fill and compartment. Also,start freezer the into making.)Put one ortwo thick china plates optional, but it will speed bowlup ovenprooftheand setitin the oven marmaladeto orheat. (This step is pan a into sugar the • and off pour and thewater.discard cool to out be oranges the Set will pierced. easily this oranges and At tender the quite of half. skin a the and point, hour an for cook 3 poundsSevilleorwildsouroranges(seenote) rha te vn o am 10F. Pour (170°F). warm to oven thePreheat In a largepot,apreferably In wideristhanit hn h oags r co eog to enough cool are oranges the When Using a vegetable brush or plastic plastic or brush vegetable a Using 3 quartswater from-concentrate orangejuice from-concentrate [ MAKES • 12 cups pure canesugar 12cupspure

ABOUT 4 PINTS ] page seven not- boiling steadily. Use a ladle or skimmer to remove any persistent scum. After 20 The Tangy and the Sweet minutes, deposit half a teaspoon of the Oranges.—There are several varieties of this most excellent and refreshing fruit. The largest and best contents of the pot onto one of the chilled are from St. Augustine, and sell at the highest prices. plates and return it to the freezer. Continue —Thomas De Voe, THE MARKET ASSISTANT (1867) to do this every 4 or 5 minutes until the

HE FLORIDA JUICE ORANGE is less a fruit than a selling last bit, when prodded with a finger, is strategy, a way of acknowledging—while at the clearly jelled and semi-firm. (At this point, Tsame time waving away—the fact that the orange when to stop is a matter of taste; in our in question probably has seeds and may prove difficult opinion, cooking jam to a rigid set is like to peel and impossible to divide into segments. The word “juice,” it seems, has the evocative strength to grilling a steak until well done.) overcome almost any number of negatives. But to the •Discard the bag of pips, stir the marma- marmalade maker, who might like to know the variety lade to evenly distribute the peel, and ladle of the orange at hand, it tells us precious little. The it into the waiting jars, using a preserving best way to tell juice oranges apart, in most instances, is by season, as the crop of one variety supplants the funnel to keep the hot marmalade from one before as winter passes by. landing on your fingers. Fill each to within Parson Brown (October-December). Originated as a 1/2 inch of the top, then seal tightly with chance seedling in the dooryard of Rev. N. L. Brown, near the screw-on lids. Set them back on the Webster, Florida, the Parson Brown has been in cultivation rack to cool overnight. Then refrigerate since 1856 and was Florida’s leading early orange until and let mellow for at least two weeks it was edged out by the HAMLIN in the 1920s. It fell out of favor because it is seedy and almost impossible to peel. before broaching. But its flesh is juicy, full-flavored, and an attractive deep COOK’S NOTES. If you don’t have a friend orange color. Good bet—if you can find it. or relative in the citrus-growing states Hamlin (October-December). The Hamlin also first to send you wild sour oranges (or if you appeared as a chance seedling—this time in 1879, near Deland, Florida, in the orchard of A.G. Hamlin. These simply want to use the real thing), you oranges are medium-size, range in color from deep yellow can order genuine Seville oranges from to pale orange, and have a smooth, thin, easily removed the Florida Citrus Stand, in amounts skin and few seeds. Their juice is sweet but somewhat ranging from a quarter bushel (16 to 20 thin— not best for marmalade. oranges) for $19.95 to a full bushel (60 Pineapple (December-February). This orange was brought to 80 oranges) for $39.95 (prices do not from China to Charleston, South Carolina, and planted by Rev. J.B. Owens at Sparr, near Citra, Florida, around include shipping, which is reasonable). 1860. It is a smooth, thin-skinned variety with a bright Orders can be sent to Canada as well (and yellow-orange rind (hence its name). The flesh is seedy, to Europe, although talk about coals to but it produces a bright-colored orange juice with a Newcastle...). Florida Citrus Stand • 1715 notably tart taste. A good bet. E. Fowler Ave. #102, Tampa FL 33612 • Temple (January-February). Although categorized in (866) 818-2700 • www.flcitrusstand.com. most supermarkets as an orange, the Temple is actually a Tangor (a cross between an orange and a tangerine). Apparently it originated in Jamaica and was introduced to Florida about 1896—although it was not named until 1919. Temple Orange Marmalade It is medium-size, deep orange in color, and possessed of a (based on a recipe from PRESERVING TODAY, by pebbly peel that is easy to remove. Top rated. Jeanne Lesem) E

Valencia (March-June). This orange, by far the best of LECTRONIC all juice oranges, was discovered in the Azores in the “[Temple oranges] make an exceptional early 1860s and sent to a nurseryman at England, who marmalade,” writes Helen Witty in FANCY in turn sent it on to America. The Valencia is orange to PANTRY, and her enthusiasm for this cross yellow in color, sometimes with hints of green. The rind E

between an orange and a tangerine got DITION is smooth to lightly pebbled, thin, and easily removed. The flesh is nearly seedless and very juicy, producing us interested in trying it ourselves. We a medium- to bright-colored orange juice that is sweet, had already been experimenting with full-flavored, and tangy.Top rated. Jeanne Lesem’s single-piece-of-fruit lemon

page eight Simple Cooking 76 ELECTRONIC EDITION Simple Cooking 76 • and soadded1 boiling, after pulp and peel, juice, orange in of cups 2 approximately had we example, stir and pot, three-quarters that measure of preserving sugar. (For your into this pour saucepan, the of Measure contents the above). peel the boiling the about until note (see or translucent and tender minutes, is peel gently 20 boil to 15 then about uncovered, boil, a to • room temperature for about at 24 hours. sit let and Cover cups). 2 about used to orangesslicedamplycoverjuicefruitthe(wewith Temple other the of enough as about yieldshould This together, seeds. any pulp discarding these possible, as thinly and of each rind a slice quarters, Using knife, way. sharp same very the again half in stemto blossom end and cut these halves from half in fruit the slice Then bottom. to scrubber clean its plastic surface. Trim off the or very top and brush vegetable • tler—but stillfull-flavored—marmalade. gen- this with perfectly marry that slivers fruit rind very thinly, the creating tender, thread-like Slicing the taste. cut to possible it beforemakes cooking fruit fresh with packed follow preserve clear that notably a variations produce the and one In this oranges. Temple contrast with the marmalade recipe with above, well worked it equally found and recipe marmalade about 6 to 8 Temple oranges about 6to8Temple Putone or two thick china plates into the Transfer Transfer everything to a saucepan, bring hoe h ncs oag ad s a use and orange nicest the Choose [ MAKES 1 /

2 ABOUT cupsofsugar.) 2 3 • / CUPS pure canesugar pure 4 cup. Squeezecup. ] from landing on your fingers. Fill each within Fill to fingers. your on landing from preserves hot keep to funnel preserving a using jars, waiting the into it ladle and peel, the distribute evenly to marmalade • a with finger, isclearlyjelledandsemi-firm. prodded when bit, last the until minutes 5 or 4 every this do to Continue freezer.the to it return and plates chilled the of one onto pot the of contents the of • the preserving jars and their lids. Meanwhile, sterilize persistent scum. any steadily.Use ladlea orskimmer toremove the heat some, but keep the contentsroiling boil over boilinghigh heat and then reduce jars. Bring the sugar and fruit mixture to a with enough water to pot sterilize another fill the compartment and freezerpreserving squeeze enough additional oranges to to juice. with amply orange oranges sliced the cover additional enough squeeze yield, on Depending halves. than rather eachcutnavelbutorange halfinto thirds above, the marmalade Temple following for directions orange 1 Prepare skins.) tight smooth, with choose oranges firm plump, navels, California Marmalade substituting Orange Navel Florida require more), andcookituntiljells. add it, of sugar (sour fruit like lemons or measure limes will peel, amount that three-quarters the approximately soften to boil juice, it with generously the it cover up fruit, cut simple: is however, The formula, as—ironclad. treated be be—and not cannot should directions weight, size in and variations Given fruit. particular necessary to the as needs and virtues of each it adapting marmalades, small-batch we of how series a make to recipe above of the used examples are following The broaching. before days few a for mellow let and refrigerate Then overnight. cool to rack the on back them Set lids. screw-on the with tightly At this point, turn off the heat, stir the stir heat, the off turn point, this At After 15 minutes, deposit half a teaspoon 1 / 2 Variations nh f h tp te seal then top, the of inch page nine . (If (If . (We got 11/3 cups of peel and pulp from our Key Lime Marmalade . We bought a mesh largish orange and covered this with 3 cups bag of key limes (a little over a pound) of juice—which required 8 more navels). at the supermarket and selected half a After the initial boiling, the pulp/juice dozen of the nicest looking, which together measurement was 31/3 cups; to this we weighed about as much as a plump lemon. added three-quarters this measure of We scrubbed these, halved them from sugar, or about 21/2 cups. The yield was stem to blossom end, and sliced them as about 3 cups. Note: Navels vary widely in thinly as we could (easiest to do when the vivacity of flavor; taste the contents of the cut side faces down), discarding the tiny pot after all the sugar has been dissolved. seeds. This resulted in about 2/3 cup of If the flavor is insipid, perk it up by adding sliced peel and pulp. Then we juiced the 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice for each rest of limes, getting a total of 1/2 cup. To cup of pulp and juice that went into the pot this we added 1 cup of water, We poured before you added the sugar. this over the lime slices and let everything sit at room temperature for 24 hours. After the initial boiling, the pulp/juice measurement was close to 2 cups. As with the Meyer lemon marmalade, we added an equal measure of sugar, then proceeded as directed in the master recipe. This set very quickly—in about 20 minutes—and produced 2 cups of marmalade. Note: We also made this marmalade using Persian (common green) limes. It was perfectly Meyer Lemon Marmalade . A friend in fine, but not quite as good as this. California sent us a small box of these, and we immediately made a lovely marmalade from them. Meyer lemons have a more flowery aroma and sweeter flavor than ordinary lemons; they make a choice marmalade. Also, their peel is so thin and tender that it shouldn’t require a preliminary boiling. Our lemon, trimmed, quartered, and sliced very thinly, produced about 2/3 cup of sliced peel, to which we added 3/4 cup each of lemon juice and water. After a day of soaking, we added an equal (instead of three-quarters) measure of sugar and prepared the marmalade lemon-pineapple marmalade boiling in the pot following the master recipe, with a yield of approximately 2 cups. Note: To make a marmalade of ordinary lemons, choose Pineapple Lemon Marmalade E

especially firm fruit with smooth, tight (adapted from FINE PRESERVING, by Catherine LECTRONIC skins. Follow the instructions and propor- Plagemann) tions for Temple orange marmalade, but as I came across this recipe in a search

with the Meyer lemon version use a half- only casually related to the marmalade E and-half mixture of lemon juice and water adventures narrated above. One day, DITION and use an equal measure of sugar. after Matt and I had eaten a particularly fine pineapple that had been filling our apartment with its lovely aroma for days, I page ten Simple Cooking 76 ELECTRONIC EDITION Simple Cooking 76 bi oe medium-high over boil a heat, watching it to mixture this bring pineapple and juice • to theslicedpineapple. water) remaining any (and peel the Add if water more dry. boiling from them keep to necessary adding minutes, 15 for strips lemon simmer,the a cook to and it reduce boil, a to this bring water, of cup half the with pot small a in it Put strips. • cups. Pourthelemonjuiceoverthis. 3 approximately be will yield The well. as juices any Reserve processor). food a of disc slicing the through time, a at ments as thinly as you can (or feed it, 2 or 3 seg- then slice the flesh with a very sharp knife away the tough Trim core section from each of these, all. to in segments quarters, eight into make cut lengthwise and half half in each fruit remove the and Cut eyes. peel, the the away cut apple, • it from boilingover. keep to carefully it watch and pot deep a in syrup the Prepare muted. be would otherwise which taste, pineapple bright the capturing so and itself, marmalade the of time cooking the shorten to is syrup sugar instead of green. The reason for making yellow/orange the all is that exterior an with noticeably a spot you fragrant pineapple that signals its until ripeness this to Wait make zest. bitter of touch welcome an otherwise what would be a curbs cloying sweetness while lemon adding added the actually improved on that fantasy, recipe because Plagemann’s Catherine itself. fruit and aroma flavor with lots of chewy shreds of that the combined that marmalade a make could you whether wondering to got 1 n lre o, isle h sgr n the in sugar dissolve the pot, large a In lc te o ad otm f te pine- the off bottom and top the Slice Slice the lemon zest into thread-like thread-like into zest lemon the Slice 1 / 2 juice of2lemonsandzest1them cupscannedunsweetenedpineapplejuice 1 ripepineapple(seeabove) 4 cups pure canesugar 4 cupspure [ MAKES 1 / 2

cupwater ABOUT 2 PINTS ] Alexander MacLehose, 1932). The subject is the British (as regards this essay), K McNeill— Marian F. by books excellent two are way own their in rewarding Equally recipes. many many, and lore, Scottish insight, historical book with rich a 1945): (circa slum Glasgow tavern a or anEdinburgh 1786) in (circa is she as fireplace crofter’s a before to home at much as allowed is Brown print. been of out fall unconscionably has which 1990), S passionate quietly a out and scholarly seek Brown’s Catherine of copy should secondhand foodways Scottish in interested concluding a and photographs, section of historical and contemporary vintage recipes. Anyone wit, dry of the subject full justice, enlivening the tale with flashes edition; Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania, 2000) gives rewarding and pithy, short, Wilson’s Anne C. and study, serious of worthy is Marmalade surely one of very few preserves that are COTLAND ITCHEN • a withfinger, prodded is clearly when jelled bit,and semi-firm. last the until minutes 5 or 4 every this do Continue to freezer.the to it returnchilledandplates the of oneonto pot the liquidfrom the of teaspoonminutes,a deposithalf 15After persistent scum. any remove to skimmer the contents boiling steadily. Use a ladle or keepbutsome,heat reduce thethen and heat high over boil roiling a to thisBring • the sterilize to jarsandtheirlids. preserving water enough with pot another fill and compartment freezer the • skimming away any persistant minutes, 5 boiling rapidly forscum. it keepbut Lower the heat as soon as it allthestartswhile toprevent toitfrom boilingbubble, over. n h rc t co oengt n then and refrigerate. overnight cool to back rack them the on Set lids. screw-on the with within to each Fill fingers. your off marmalade jars, waiting hot the keep to funnel preserving the a using into it ladle and the peel, distribute evenly to marmalade the concluded onpage 17 Combine all the ingredients in a large pot. Put one or two heavy china plates into plates china heavy two or one Put At this point, turn off the heat, stir stir heat, the off turn point, this At (London: Blackie & Son, 1929) and, especially and, 1929) Son, & Blackie (London: 1690 1690 1 / 2 Bibliography inch of the top, then seal tightly TO

THE B P ROTHS T T HE HE RESENT B B

OOK OOK TO D B

OF OF AY ANNOCKS B M ( REAKFASTS odn Murray, London: ARMALADE page eleven C : T (London: OOKING (revised (revised HE S COTS

Fiore di finocchio Good Things Fennel pollen is one of the most exciting flavors of central Italian cooking and a well-kept When Ari asked about the possibility secret....[It] is never sold commercially, which of purchasing the fennel pollen alone, Dario is why almost no one knows about it. Even in showed him a baby-food-size jar, and Ari Sicily, where wild fennel grows with abandon and the green fronds are used in many dishes, decided he might as well buy two. After all, he no one has ever heard of using fennel pollen. wasn’t in the neighborhood that often. Dario —Faith Willinger, RED, WHITE & GREENS filled the little jars and, with them, presented a bill that, incredibly, seemed in the vicinity HATEVER ELSE MIGHT BE SAID about fennel of a hundred dollars. pollen, it is certainly a secret no Wlonger. And I suspect that the entire Not wanting to look like the ignorant American page Faith Willinger devoted to it in RED, WHITE tourist I am, I reach into my pocket to get some & GREENS: THE ITALIAN WAY WITH VEGETABLES had money, hoping I have enough, all the while quite a bit to do with that; her introductory recalculating the conversion. For better or worse, sentence, quoted above, is the sort of statement my original calculation is about right. Whatever that publicists kill for, all the more so since this fennel pollen is, it isn’t inexpensive. it’s actually true—including the “almost no No joke. When this essay appeared in the one knows about it” part. I wasted several November/December 2000 issue of Zingerman’s hours going through our collection of Italian News, the price for 49 grams was eleven cookbooks to see if I could find a single mention dollars, or $102 a pound. Today, two years of it prior to this one—even in the Tuscan later, Zingerman’s is asking twenty dollars for ones (although I’m sure this omission will be the same amount ($185 a pound) and having rectified from here on in). a hard time keeping it in stock. True, saffron Before we move on to the “one of the is more expensive still, but producing saffron most exciting flavors” part, it’s worth noting is so labor-intensive that, like true balsamic that if anyone had written about wild fennel vinegar, you at least feel that you are paying pollen a decade or so ago, the tone, even for something else besides the failure of supply the import, of that mention would have been to catch up with demand. quite different. If someone decides to devote a Wild fennel, which looks very much whole page to an unknown, impossible-to-find like dill (to which it is closely related)—the ingredient, it’s because their sixth sense says same bright green, feathery leaves topped with that its time has come. As with extra-virgin olive oil in the 1970s and balsamic vinegar a decade later, at a certain moment a willingness to pay what previously would have seemed an extortionate amount becomes palpable enough to be sniffed out by a food writer on the spot...and, perhaps more importantly, by an adventurous entrepreneur. In this instance, it was Ari Weinzweig, the guiding palate of Zingerman’s Deli, who, in 2000—four years after Red, White and Greens appeared (and two after FLAVORS OF TUSCANY, E LECTRONIC in which Nancy Harmon Jenkins discussed the same subject with equal fervor)—dropped by at the butcher shop of Dario Cecchini, in Panzano, a small Tuscan town. An enthusiast E DITION of traditional practices, Dario hand-gathers, dries, and crushes the pollen-laden wild fennel flowers himself, using the result to season cuts of pork. continued on page 16 page twelve Simple Cooking 76 ELECTRONIC EDITION sneak up on you. exactly doesn’t effect the details, Ari as And, awesome. freakin’ is stuff The did. I why you tell can I least at is—or there Well,yes, now. right pollen fennel wild of container tiny a for bucks twenty spending in point any is there starting to nip at saffron’s heels.) twelve dollars, or $363 a pound...which is expensivereally than the Tuscan all version—15over gramsit, for CaliforniaBut, wildlike everythingfennel elsepollen buy with is thetrendiness even pollen stamped more from already can California, you fennel is and wild a company harvesting it there. hillsides seal of authenticity. hand-plucked-on-Tuscan- the require don’t in the foreseeable future—at with least for cottages those swags their who of the stuff. of If so, prices outsides may well plunge the draping Sicilian (or even Croatian) peasants are already finocchio into di blossoms its turning Since there. native to southern flowers—is Europe yellow and grows tiny profusely of umbrels spreading was suddenly drenched in color. world black-and-white a and switch a flipped version. Then, as dried now, the it of was flavor as one-dimensional only if the someone familiar with had been had I before when basil, did remind me of my first encounter with fresh comparison, my first sniff of wild fennel pollen resiny complexity. While there truly is no easy potent highly a with it imbues and monotone anise-drenched that takes pollen fennel wild But me. from snicker incredulous have an elicited would fennel” about great “everything Simple Cooking 76 aroma alone, the stuff isamazing. alone,thestuff aroma on but yet, it eaten even haven’t I some. then and fennel about great everything of intensely smelling pungent, sweet, is aroma Its it. like never before, nor since, smelled anything I’ve quite traveling, and cooking betold, of years Truth twenty in quickly. rather room the fills is, quite seriously, something else. The pollen fennel perfume wild of smell The close. get even I before long me hits aroma the but so, do to over lean I smell. to me towards it pushes and jar the opens [Dario] swagger, certain a With rne al hs yu ih wne if wonder might you this, all Granted placestheblessedacresofofwith(One p o o, ut faky te phrase the frankly, quite now, to Up is no big deal, I don’t doubt that doubt don’t I deal, big no is fiore made a spectacular match with sautéed sautéed with in same for match recipe the (see zucchini spectacular a made pinch tiny a Even cooking...cautiously. our all by itself, starting with 67-68). pages Furthermore, it same, called up (see some ideas risotto for dishes butternut our to flavor of depth appreciable an added O (see regulars as pasta fusilli with such chickpeas to and spinach gave it flair the liked also We Shrimp with Fennel Pollen fish soups or sprinkle with it on roasted it well vegetables....with other poultry—mix dried herbs and or spices. Add it pork to rosemary and for crushed garlic—it also combines rub a as of Italy in salamis and sausages. Often applied of repertoire dishes, traditionally region’s as a spice in that the salumerie throughout ingredientused Tuscan typical a is pollen Fennel

1/4 cupdrywhitewine,dilutedwithalittlewater in the seasonings, mixing well. Rinse the Rinse well.seasonings,mixing the in • or h oie i it a ol n stir and bowl a into oil olive the Pour —Rolando Beramendi, Manicaretti Imports P OT from Zingerman’s, I from Zingerman’s, started using it in ordered had I that pollen fennel wild NCE 1poundjumboshrimpintheshell

1 / ON crusty bread formoppingduty crusty bread 4 I 1 teaspoonwildfennelpollen 2 garliccloves,finely minced teaspoon hot red pepper flakes pepperflakes teaspoonhotred 1

/ THE TIRED 4 cupextra-virgin oliveoil F 1 [ SERVES / 2

IRE teaspoonsalt OF pgs 0-0) Ad it And 203-204). pages ,

SNIFFING 2 OR 3] the container of container the page thirteen SC • 73). shrimp under cold running water, shake freshly ground black pepper to taste dry, and add to the bowl. Stir with a spatula bamboo skewers for securing the meat

so that each shrimp is coated with the 2 tablespoons butter OR olive oil OR a mixture of both seasoned oil, then turn everything out into •Trim off the tapered ends of each tender- a deep skillet. Put this over medium heat loin, reserving these for another purpose. and cook, stirring often, until the shrimp Divide the remaining pieces of meat into shells are bright pink and the meat no halves or thirds, cutting crosswise to make longer translucent, about 6 to 8 minutes. equal-size cylinders. Using your sharpest At this point, pour in the wine-and-water kitchen knife, gently cut down about a mixture, turn up the heat a bit, and bring the liquid to a boil, turning over the shrimp as you do. The moment it reaches a boil, remove the skillet from the heat, divide the shrimp and the cooking liquid into heated bowls, and serve at once. Peel and eat the shrimp with your fingers, using the bread to sop up the juices.

Those fennel-pollen-seasoned pork cuts in Dario Cecchini’s meat case also got me thinking. Nancy Harmon Jenkins published a very tasty-sounding pork roast flavored with it in Food & Wine a while ago, but we don’t quarter of an inch into each piece, then prepare that dish very often. Recently, though, turn the blade and slice the meat as if you Cryovac-packaged pork tenderloins have been were using your knife to unroll it. If you on sale (buy one, get one free) at our local accidentally cut through to the surface supermarket, and I had tried several ways of (or even slice off the piece entirely), preparing these—slicing them into discs and just pretend you didn’t and keep going. pounding these into cutlets; marinating them When you’re done with both tenderloins, and grilling them over charcoal—none of which resulted in any desire for an encore. What, I you should have four or six hankie-size wondered, would happen if I sliced the meat rectangles of pork. Unless you’re quite open into a long, thin slab, spread it with talented at this, they’ll look a bit ragged, but fennel-pollen-intensive seasoning, and rolled no matter. This is a very forgiving dish. it up again? A simple trick—but, as it turned •In a small bowl, stir together all the other out, a very successful one, which I can happily ingredients—through the salt and black recommend to you. pepper—and brush this mixture evenly onto Pork Tenderloin Casa the upper surface of each piece of meat. Roll these tightly back up and secure the Nostra seam with a small bamboo skewer or similar object. (The advantage of using bamboo [SERVES 4 TO 6] skewers is that you can snip off their excess

length with a pair of scissors.) E

2 large pork tenderloins (about 12 to 16 ounces each) LECTRONIC • 1 large garlic clove, finely minced Heat the butter and/or olive oil over 1 teaspoon wild fennel pollen medium heat in a skillet large enough to hold the pork roll-ups comfortably. When 1/2 teaspoon paprika or mild chile powder E the mixture is hot, add the meat. Turn DITION 2 tablespoons very fruity extra-virgin olive oil it every 3 or 4 minutes, until all sides 2 tablespoons good-quality balsamic vinegar are nicely brown. Then lower the heat 1 teaspoon salt concluded on page 16

Simple Cooking 76 TABLE TALK Breakfast Doings However, the savory breakfast of my dreams I remember from years ago, when I first MAPLE SYRUP SUNDAES, CYNTHIA CALDWELL (WHATELY, moved to Hollywood. It was always sunny then MA). Down the road from us is the Bean’s farm (probably still is, there), and I was working at and sugar shack. Roger Bean is primarily a the Sam Goldwyn Studios, which was a totally syrup producer, but once a year he and Lois set magical thing for a young, impressionable up folding tables and invite the neighborhood woman. On my way to work in that pink to a free pancake breakfast. You have to stucco/white concrete/smoggy-blue-sky world, dress very warmly (think snowmobile outfits) I stopped every day at the Studio Grill, a because the shack isn’t heated—except when small, old-fashioned, linoleum-and-chrome the sap is being boiled down—and the lines luncheonette, populated almost entirely with are long. But everyone bundles up and chats other employees of the studio reading the trade in line as they wait for a plate of pancakes, papers over their coffee and exchanging an sausage, home fries, egg soufflé, and muffins. occasional companionable remark. Folks show up with a dozen eggs, some fruit Every morning I’d order the same salad, or a few muffins. Others bring money to breakfast: a small hamburger patty cooked buy a half gallon of syrup. Our local country rare, two eggs over very easy, a few fat slices bluegrass band squeezes in somehow and of vine-ripened tomato, hash browns, raisin entertains everyone with live music. toast, and coffee. The thing to do—after heavily To help combat the cold, Mrs. Bean serves salting everything but the toast and coffee—was a recipe her daughter came up with—Maple to have a few bites each of hamburger, egg, Syrup Sundaes. The main breakfast is okay, and tomato. This would give me a glorious but what I return for year after year is the puddle of juices—a soul-satisfying blend of paper coffee cup filled with creamy oatmeal deep, dark, salty beef; smooth, creamy egg and maple syrup, topped with whipped cream yolk; and then the high zing of the acid from and toasted wheat germ. The hot oatmeal melts the tomato—perfect for dunking the next bite the whipped cream just around the edges, and of each into. Any juices left over would be each bite mingles all those different textures scooched up with the last of the hash browns. and temperatures, creamy and crunchy, hot To round off all the corners, dessert was the and cold. The dish is truly divine. buttered raisin toast with a second cup of hot Nowadays, I don’t bother waiting a coffee. A perfect meal. whole year for this treat. I make it at home, Of course, I don’t eat like that anymore, adding dried cherries or raisins or banana at least not very often. But then it’s not as slices—whatever fits my mood. It’s not the sunny in New Jersey as it was in Southern same as standing outside in the snow, shoulder California. And I’m no longer a young woman. to shoulder with neighbors I haven’t seen since So, for cholesterol’s sake, it’s mostly oats and fall, stamping my feet to keep them warm, lowfat yogurt these days. But there’s always with my mittened hands wrapped around a California dreamin’.... steaming hot cup of Maple Syrup Sundae. But sometimes I just can’t wait. BREAKFAST HEAVEN, KATHLEEN COOPER (FALLS CHURCH, VA). I thought of you and breakfast when we SAVORY BREAKFAST DREAMING, SYLVIA LOVEGREN were in Singapore recently. Our hotel laid out a DITION IDGEWOOD large breakfast buffet with offerings for guests

E (R , NJ). My favorite breakfasts these days always fall around the holidays, because from every imaginable country. There was jook there is leftover duck liver pâté and/or blue and congee and condiments, a dal porridge or cheese spread, both of which are delectable soup, roti, steamed pork buns, little potsticker- LECTRONIC

E on crisp hot toast and, strangely enough, also type dumplings, ham, bacon, beef bacon, delicious with piping hot fresh coffee—but sausages of all types with mustards, eggs cooked only in the morning. Western-style, eggs done Chinese-style—the Simple Cooking 76 page fifteen thousand-year-old method, it looked like—and, Tasting Notes: in the European section, cold cuts, cheeses, rye crisps, and salads. Also: soups, thin and Wild Fennel Pollen brothy with long noodles; fried rice and fried URRENTLY, I know of only three basic noodle dishes; fried potatoes, country-style (with sources for wild fennel pollen and, of chunks) and rosti-style (with shreds); yogurt, Cthose, have tasted only two. I write sweet, nonsweet, and drinkable; mueslis, sweet “basic” because while it is available from several and savory; and juices, at least ten different different purveyors as far as I can tell, apart kinds—watermelon, mango, orange, lime, from Zingerman’s Deli, which has its own tomato, carrot. There were sweet breakfast source in Tuscany, these places are all selling rolls, like pain au chocolat, but also others with the fennel pollen imported by Manicaretti or cheese and bacon and ham in them. There were harvested in California by Sugar Ranch, a croissants and doughnuts and plain French division of Pollen Collection & Sales. (Both Faith rolls with butter from New Zealand. It looked Willinger and Nancy Harmon Jenkins pointed to like almost every culture ate savory breakfasts California, where wild fennel is a common weed, as well as sweet—in fact, the nonsweet offerings as a promising source for the pollen.) predominated. Jim, my husband, was in Comparing the sample kindly provided to heaven. He is a savory breakfast guy, and here me by Sugar Ranch with Zingerman’s Tuscan was his opportunity to sample every savory pollen, I found the former to be more visually breakfast option in the world. attractive, its coarser texture revealing bits of the yellow dried flowers as well as pieces of green SIMPLE COOKING THE BOOK. I was rooting around twig (see photo on page 12). But its aroma was in one of our closets the other day and, to my monochromatically pungent of anise, with none surprise, uncovered a carton of mint copies of of the heady complexity of the Tuscan variety. the paperback edition of my first book, Simple As far as taste was concerned, the Tuscan Cooking (the 1996 North Point reprint, that pollen was distinctly bitter, with overtones of is, not the 1987 original Penguin edition). anise, whereas the California pollen lacked any If you’ve sought to buy a copy recently, you bitterness and tasted strongly of licorice. will have discovered that the book is out of A possible explanation of this can be print—and we know of no plans to reissue it. found in THE OXFORD COMPANION TO FOOD, which So, if you’d like to own a new, autographed distinguishes between two forms of wild fennel, copy, this is your chance. A carton holds only the bitter and the sweet. (The fennel grown twenty-eight and, while we don’t anticipate a for its bulb, which is eaten as a vegetable, is stampede, we’re asking those who want one to separate again.) Bitter wild fennel is the plant simply send us a postcard saying so. Then, if that grows wild in Tuscany, whereas sweet demand exceeds supply, we’ll hold a drawing, fennel, which was domesticated from it, grows with the winners being those whose postcards wild in California as an escapee from the have the best pictures. No, no, just joking—we’ll gardens of Italian immigrants—who cultivated draw them at random. The winners will receive a book and an invoice for $15.50 (which ELECTRONIC EDITION includes shipping), plus Massachusetts sales Simple Cooking 76 © 2001 John Thorne and Matt Lewis E tax if applicable. LECTRONIC Thorne. All rights reserved. SC is published every other month. A subscription to the electronic edition is $24 for six issues, worldwide. Unless stated otherwise, we assume

letters to us are meant for publication and can be edited E accordingly. P.O. Box 778, Northampton MA 01061. DITION E-MAIL: [email protected]. WEBSITE: HTTP://WWW.OUTLAWCOOK.COM. SUBSCRIBE: HTTP://OUTLAWCOOK.SAFESHOPPER.COM/

page sixteen SimpleSimple Cooking Cooking 71 76 ELECTRONIC EDITION 93227 ordered online. Sugar Ranch, P.O. Box 608, Goshen, CA for a 15-gram (0.5-ounce) tin, plus $6 shipping. Can be variety. Comes with recipes and helpful information. and $12 flavor, more potent aroma butanise Aggressive notCalifornia. from pollen asfennel complex as the Tuscan Tell Mo we www.zingermans.com. sent you. 48104 $8 MI Arbor 422 Ann plus St., Zingerman’s, Detroit online. canister, ordered be (1.6-ounce) Can shipping. 45-gram a for information. helpful $20 and recipes with Comes of anise. overtones with bitter, intriguingly is taste complex aroma; Powerful, Tuscany. from pollen fennel wild it in our cooking. using experience more had we’ve until least the same ilk. So I’m keeping an open mind—at superior to twiggy—much littlethe a dill- if and good, surprisinglysage-flavored it found cheeses I of and pollen, their with flavored Jack also sent me a sample of a farmhouse I would Montereybe writing about it now. However, they the California pollen gathered by Sugar Ranch first encounter withmy wildif thatbelieve fenneldon’t of I and pollen flavor not, I’m anise? had the been about you are crazy how way, complexity or raw power? Or, to put it another anise flavor. sweet fennel precisely because of its intensified aisn Aa (ed.), Alan Davidson, body the in of the essay include: to referred the in texts is Otherwise, heart Highlands. book’s the but general, in breakfast the in wordthe description.] “California” are reselling that gathered by the Sugar Ranch. Look for wild fennel pollen and have found that a majority of [Note: I’ve these spent some time online checking out sources of for some excellent Christmas presents). make would it jars, tiny in up divvied (although, years several you last will grams 200 chef, a you’re unless remember that buy, a fantastic little a of is this seasoning this goes While a online. long ordered way; be Can WI Horeb Mount 53572 468, Box P.O. Museum, Mustard cellophane (7.1-oz.) bag, plus 200-gram $7 shipping. Available from the a Mount Horeb for $65 tasted. Not Manicaretti (a noted importer of Italian artisanal foods). gathered and -processed from Tuscany and imported by continued from page11 Simple Cooking 76 (Oxford: Oxford University, 1999). Oxford (Oxford: ogii id enl Pollen Fennel Wild Borghini Ranch Sugar Deli Zingerman’s • • The choice is yours: do you want want you do yours: is choice The 800-821-5989 800-438-6878 Hn-ahrd n -rcse wild -processed and Hand-gathered . Sources . Hand-gathered and -processed -processed and Hand-gathered . T • • HE www.fennelpollen.com. www.mustardmuseum.com. www.mustardmuseum.com. O XFORD . C ET BUY BEST • 888-636-8162 OMPANION

Hand- . TO F OOD •

Witty, Helen, Helen, Witty, Samuel, Johnson, Catherine, Plagemann, Jeanne, Lesem, Jane, Grigson, potency and flavor. an to give we herb in terms of respect, it what gives back to us in that again us reminds import pollen fennel Wild Eastern them. of hold a Middle get to store find to have you stores. But interest waned—and now, usually, hand-gathered bunches at most specialty such food purchase could you when time short a intensity can be resiny its equally and pollen, provocative. of full There also was are flowers the with These attached. stalks still flowers blossoming in just is, fennel wild as gathered much is it appreciated, truly is it where Greece, In be. can it good forgottenhow have we paradoxically, that, us to familiar so herb powers. genuinely transformational other herb, even if within that range to shove, it it has the same exercises limited range lasting as any a comes push When cooking. our than on influence syrup) pomegranate ingredient-of-the-minute (think another being to fennel as wild pollen. Even so, in impression my own opinion, first it is closer stunning a S continued from page14 1986). S er’s AnnotatedEdition,Berkeley:Aris,1986). 1992). Atheneum, 1982). roll-ups are done, transfer them from the from them transfer done, are roll-ups the as soon As heat.) the from removed is it after cook to continue will meat the that (Remember pink. light a be to center a the in until meat the shows or inspection visual 155°F to 150°F reads ends) its of one (via roll-up each of center the into inserted an until thermometer cook instant-read to continue and slightly removing theskewersandserving. removing before foil, with covered minutes, 10 for skillet to a warmed plate and let them rest COTLAND especially to new, something the of that tug makes the to such guy next the as OME n hs ead tik f rgn, an oregano, of think I regard this In (London:Stahan&Cadell,1791).

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