How to Make Furmenty - The Victorian Way
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- čas přidán 26. 03. 2024
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Mrs Crocombe is back in the kitchen, preparing a warming spiced dish for Easter. Furmenty - sometimes called frumenty - is similar in some ways to porridge, comprising grain, milk or cream, currants and spices. It’s thought to date back to Medieval times and was eaten by
rich and poor alike.
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INGREDIENTS
For this recipe, you will need...
● 500g / 1lb wheat grain
● 1.2L / 2 pints full fat milk or cream
● 2 tsp mixed spices, cinnamon or sweet spices
● 1 tsp ground nutmeg or mace
● 100-150g / 4-6oz currants or raisings, plumped in hot water or wine/spirits
● 2 eggs
● Sugar, to serve
METHOD
● Prepare the wheat grain according to the packet - this may well involve overnight soaking. Cook it in water until very soft (generally 45-60mn, or 15-20mn if using a pressure cooker, unless it is quick-cook). You can set it aside, covered, in a fridge, at this stage and do the rest up to three days later.
● When you are ready to cook the frumenty proper, put the grain and milk in a pan and heat them until the wheat is hot through. Whether you use double (heavy) cream or milk depends on how liquid you want the result to be.
● Add the spice, fruit, ensure it is heated through.
● Briefly beat the eggs and add in - off the heat if you like a just-cooked result, or on it if you prefer your eggs scrambled.
● Serve with sugar to sprinkle on top.
Note: In the UK chickens are treated against salmonella. If you are in a country where this is not the case, it is best to heat your eggs until cooked to be on the safe side.
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We hope you enjoy this new instalment of The Victorian Way. Here are the answers to some questions you may have about the recipt...
• Is it frumenty, furmenty or furmity?
It’s all three (and others) depending on the region and the era in which you’re talking about it. This is very much a working class dish, rarely committed to paper, and therefore spelling and pronunciation changed according to oral tradition.
• Isn’t this going to be cold by the time Mrs Crocombe serves it?
Not necessarily. Our copper pans are very thick and hold the heat well, so we were able to work fast and keep it hot. If you are making it at home, you may well want to keep it on a low heat while you cook it. However, it can also be served cold, as it is essentially a type of porridge.
• Why does Mrs Crocombe says it is food for the poor and the rich and then say she’s lucky to eat rich people’s food?
We do have some frumenty recipes from the seventeenth century. Robert May’s 1660 recipe is very much a rich person’s dish, containing dried fruit, sugar, saffron and lots of spice. However, we also know that at its most basic - i.e. just wheat grain and water - it was widely eaten by the poor. By 1881 the price of spice had come down as more was being grown, as had the price of sugar, both through a reduction in tax in the 1870s and the development of the sugar beet industry, which resulted in British-grown sugar (sugar beet is a root vegetable), which was chemically identical to imported cane sugar.
• What’s this about Mothering Sunday being a day for religious pilgrimage and nothing to do with mothers?
It’s true! Mother’s Day in its modern sense was an American invention, and didn’t take off in Britain until the mid-twentieth century. For more on this, have a look at the Simnel Cake video we made last year (and read the pinned comment). czcams.com/video/-z4bIJgfCSw/video.html
"Nobody writes down the everyday" written down tearfully by the researcher working on this episode. We feel you
We should write down the everyday so it won't be forgotten.
I was fortunate enough to have a great aunt born in 1907 who lived until 2008, who also could remember almost her entire life with great clarity. I realized at a fairly early age that she could tell me things that I would never learn from any book and so I should listen to her as much as I could.
I think the internet is a great way to preserve such 'everyday' knowledge. I've an interest in historic cooking and more and more people show their everyday cooking or that of their parents/grandparents. For example, some of the dishes John Townsend is cooking are quite similar to thing my grandmother (born 1923) has cooked as everyday meals. Few and simple ingredients, simple procedures, great taste. Unfortunately, I didn't do my fair share of recording when she was still alive, something I keep regretting since then.
@@ThomasDawkins88 hopefully you also have the wisdom to write down as much as you could, of what she shared with you? Thus her knowledge doesn't end with you...
That comment reminded me of a scene in _By the Shores of Silver Lake,_ one of the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Their old friend Reverend Alden was traveling through with another religious man, who was a young man who would be "batching it" on his homestead claim (a bachelor fending for himself). The young man asked Caroline (aka Ma) if she could tell him some of her recipes (receipts in those days) so that he could write them down to use to make his meals. Caroline said that she didn't measure anything, but she could do her best to estimate the amounts. She likely didn't have anything written down, and verbally passed on her knowledge to her children as they grew old enough to help in the kitchen.
I do cook some savory dishes from memory, but baking is more of an exact science, and I need a recipe for such things!
When the world needed her most, she returned
Absolutely true!
Return of the Queen.
True😊😅
Townsends: Did someone say
N U T M E G
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I just came over to this channel from Townsends.....NUTMEG!!
I just came over to this channel from Townsends.....NUTMEG!!
😂
I laughed way too hard at this comment! 😂
Mrs Crocombe makes a good point about “way of life” dishes that have no recipes set. If you have a favorite family dish from a relative, it’s very important that you get that recipe from them. It doesn’t matter if it’s an original recipe nana made in the old country, or a 1950s Kraft recipe, it’s special to you. The beauty and fun of channels like The Victorian Way, or Townsend and Sons and others, is that recreating old recipes is the only way to effectively time travel.
For you, dear reader, personal family recipes are even more special. You can go back to a time when mother served you rice pudding when you were sick, leftover turkey casserole after thanksgiving, or a birthday cake you once had and never forgot. The smells and tastes can literally transport you back in time to old forgotten memories.
So while we enjoy Mrs Crocombes recipes, don’t forget to immortalize your own family favorites, don’t let them be lost to time.
Very well stated. Yes, to remember your family dishes you should write the recipes down.
@@westzed23 Sometimes the formula seems to change with time, and then it's a double mystery of which recipe was which.
I will forever regret not getting my Dad's recipe for giblet gravy.
🥰🥰
I can not agree with this enough. My mom use to make this soup. I can still taste it but I don't know how she made it. I remember it had a oniony tasting very light broth, she would just put potatoes, maybe carrots and little clumps of minced meat. I THINK that was it. I can't imagine that's all there is to it, but for the life of me I can't duplicate it. I just want it so bad when I have a cold. I think the onion broth would just settle so well in me. She passed away before things like recipes were important.
Thank you. My mum really loved these videos. She passed away last year at the age of 88. They are so well done! I also enjoy them and find them very comforting.
Sending love! 💗 these videos are comforting to so many 😊
So sorry for your loss 😢 I also find these very comforting ❤
May her memory be a blessing!
Sorry for your loss.
❤️🙏
6 minutes every couple of months is not enough Mrs. Crocombe.
You're right - time to start binge watching the old episodes....again....
Its strange watching a dish that the Victorians would consider old fashioned only to realise its basically a porridge
The novelty at that time was the cucumber ice cream.
Tbf porridge is nothing new
Porridge was once called pottage, and was basically made of oats (or stale bread) and any leftover edible food.
Basically that's what the name came from. In Latin, frumentum, "grain".
I’d consider it more like rice pudding than porridge which is a breakfast food.
The "Nobody writes down the everyday" line hit me unexpectedly hard.
I'd love to see an episode where the servants are eating Mrs. Crocombe's food and commenting on it. After all, Mrs. Warrick and Mr. Lincoln loved furmenty. The lower servants love amber pudding. Everyone loves Mrs. Crocombe's cooking.
@Windjammers1 - So Mrs Crocombe says....
Ideal cook for Mrs. Crocombe:
Excellent ✅
Good ❌
The emphasis on excellent 😅
The lighter mood from a recipe being a personal favorite, and the lack of pressure since it's not going to the table but to her own table as a surprise-
The acting is just so spot on, lovely recipe too. I bet it's the kind that warms you to your toes
Reminds me of a dish that Greeks and Middle Eastern Christians eat year round. Sweetened wholegrain or barley, with raisins and other dried fruits and cinnamon
That’s right Mrs C. Get Annie to do the hard laborious jobs like removing every individual husk on tiny kernels.
Delegating to junior staff.. an age
old tradition. For every age.
I'm pretty sure she just rubbed them through a coarse sieve. I can see poor Annie sitting in the corner with a bowl between her knees peeling wheat grains. 😄
😂
When I think of furmenty I automatically think of Michael Henchard getting drunk on several bowls of furmenty that had had alcohol added to it and then selling his wife and baby daughter in Thomas Hardy’s book “The Mayor of Casterbridge”.
Totally!! 😊
Absolutely love these episodes featuring Mrs. Crocombe (Kathy Hipperson). Regardless of the recipe being prepared, she's the main dish. 👍❤
I adore Mrs. Crocombe! She has such a sharp wit, and that raisin shade me laugh!
It was subtle but it was there!!
She's right, though
the queen of Victorian cuisine has returned 🤩
I love that spice holder and I feel I must now soak my raisins before use.
That spice holder is excellent. I wonder if it's a new acquisition for the real life kitchen?
I’d love to hear more about that spice holder. The integrated nutmeg grinder is everything.
@@dictyranger I gasped when I saw that! How ingenious!
I mean, if you want to be excellent rather than good...
She didn't really soak them long enough - you want them to be fat and juicy
Wake up, everyone! We got a new Victorian Way video!
A sweet version of frumenty. I have always made it with chicken broth, onions and garlic and herbs and raisins, and yes i always soak my raisins before using them.
FINALLY my "The Mayor of Casterbridge" wish come true! IYKYK!
This really reminds me a lot of "coliva", which is also a grain and spice based dish that, in Romania at least, is served at funerals and memorial services at certain milestones after a person's passing, as well as All Saints' Day. This seems much heartier with so much cream and egg, and I would certainly like to try it! I often thought it was a pity coliva was reserved for the dead.
I didn't know you have it, we have koliva in Greece
My favorite Victorian Lady is back! Missed you, Mrs. Crocombe!
OUR favorite Victorian lady!
My grandma made the most delicious fruitcake. Sadly, when she passed we found there was no written recipe left behind. She did everything with "a pinch of this" and a "handful of that". ☹
I've found a Crocombe in my family tree from around Devon ❤it was quite a bit earlier, but it made my year
that's actually really cool, did you inherit Audley End House? (joking)
@@imJustAnAltAccount I have Brooks but no Braybrooks yet 😁
I've MISSED YOU SO MUCH Mrs. Crocombe, so informative about the dishes and their histories not to mention no one can do the verbal side eye like you can with such precision.
A lovely sweet-fruit wheat porridge? Sounds like a delightful way to fill in the last nooks and crannies of hunger after a hearty meal.
Jon Townsends bemoans the lack of everyday receipt also.
Thanks for sharing one you have with us.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🌹
Frumenty might only be eaten on Mothering Sunday but Mrs Crocombe is mothering and it's only Wednesday!!!
I’m a simple man with simple pleasures. I see any video with Mrs. Crocombe, and I watch it
My mama used to make this, minus the raisins. It was a real treat. I used to love the way the wheat berries squeaked when you ate it
1:45 THE SHADE IS BACK👏
It was subtle but it was there!
Hooray for the Victorian Way! Especially on a day where it'cloudy and rainy and damp. Time for a cuppa!
What a delight to see you today Mrs. Crocombe! It's been to long.
Mrs. Crocombe!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!!!!! So wonderful to see you again! You have been missed!
So excited! Mrs Crocombe is back along with the crocuses! Sunny springtime but Mrs Crocombe is bringing the shade!
Welcome back Mrs Crocombe! ❤
I'm gonna make myself an excellent cook, not only a good cook by soaking raisins in hot water. Thank you for the tip and secret, Mrs. Crocombe!
Also delicious soaked in orange juice or rum
Soaked in tea is nice
this makes me think of how I like my sweet oatmeal or cream of wheat.
But it also reminds me of tapioca pudding, but with wheat berries instead of cassava pearls.
My Mum used to make us Frumenty, she got the recipe from a 1970s Look and Learn magazine. I think it may have had flour as a thickener, it was more pudding consistency. We had it for breakfast quite often.
SHE IS BAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHEN WE NEEDED HER MOST!!!!!!!!!
The only thing I can think of that would take precedence over your mother's recipe is your grandmother's recipe.
Mrs. Crocombe is back - life is beautiful!!
My day was starting out bad, but then a New Victorian way popped up & my day brightened 😊
This dish will always make me think of The Mayor of Casterbridge
It sounds like “cream of wheat”, but looks much coarser in texture.
Glad to visit Mrs. Crocomb again! My son (3yrs) says you're cooking is adorable 😁 Thank you to everyone for producing these videos!
I made this many long times ago. Boiled the bulgar in beer and saffron, stirred in a bit of shredded meat, raisins, sugar, and almond milk. That recipe had a unique taste. I prefer it make like oatmeal without the beer, meat and saffron.
This feels like a gentler Mrs. Crocombe. No shade given.
Really? So you're comfortable being simply a "good" cook? Because I felt like I have to somehow step it up from being simply good.
Maybe she's given major shade up for Church of England Lent 😊
@@spacewolfcub😂Bawahahaha.
I love these videos way too much. There is a ritual to watching them. Put on the kettle, parse the tea out, slice a couple of pieces of banana bread (or whatever tea treat you have in the cupboard), pour your boiling water over your tea, then steep. Now take your tea and treat and settle in for Mrs. Crocombe instructions. ❤❤. Heaven. TeresaSue
Unless you are too poor to have a fire...
How nice of Mrs Crocombe, to make a dish suitable for her humble viewers as well 😉
This is one of those recipes that, sans the spices and sugar, probably has been made for thousands of years in one way or another. A simple meal of filling boiled grains and dairy. I'm sure other cultures that've had wheat grain as a staple has something very similar.
I was just thinking about this for my Easter cooking, because my family is Italian; in Naples there is a traditional Easter dish called Pastiera, which is a pie that is essentially filled with frumenty! Of course, they call it "grano cotto" or "cooked grain", but it is whole wheat grains, cooked with milk, butter, and flavorings, mixed with ricotta cheese, milk or cream, eggs, sugar, and more flavorings, and baked in a pastry-lined dish.
Minus the sugar, milk/cream, eggs, and flavorings, it is definitely just porridge or pottage, one of the simplest and oldest dishes.
This minus the milk reminds me a lot of a dish eaten in Slavic countries on Christmas Eve (and another couple feast days) called kutia
i love the spice container! this seems interesting
"Nobody writes down the everyday, do they?" I love that line. It's like something out of Sherlock Holmes.
Welcome back Mrs Crocombe! We have misse you
That presentation with the violets looks so cheerful and lovely!
I have never heard of furmenty before. Thank you for teaching us Mrs. Crocombe.
I thought from the name that this would be some kind of horrible fermented dish, but this actually sounds quite nice, especially served warm and with sugar!
I wondered about the final heating as a raw egg was added at the end. I expected the final result to be a light custard throughout the grain.
Southern Italians eat something similar on the feast of Santa Lucia, December 13: boiled grain with ricotta and sweets, called cuccià. Frumentum is the Latin word for grain. (Btw, All this stuff about "shade" feels kinda creepy to me.)
Oh how I miss this!! 😌
Perfect for our 1wk holiday here!!
Her spice container is simply wonderful! 🖤✨
It's not a Victorian Way episode without Mrs. C. throwing shade at the poor.
An antique Oatmeal? That's what it reminded me of anyway...lol.
"Isn't it nice to see spring has arrived at last?" IT'S STILL SNOWING HERE
Up 13 minutes. Never been so early to a Mrs C video before. And lovely as always only spring hasn’t arrived for me. It’s autumn!
It’s lovely to see you Mrs. Crocombe!
It’s always a good day when Mrs. Crocombe makes an appearance 😊
I thought it was going to be baked after the raw eggs were added anyhow thanks for sharing such an old recipe
Me too. I guess the wheat and cream still being hot would cook the eggs, but I can't say for certain.
The heat of the cream cook the egg and it’s so good
So basically I can watch her cook all day.
Furmenty sounds like a better name for kombucha
I will be visiting there in June. I cannot wait!!
I googled "Mothering Day" just to make sure that it was, in fact, another expression for "Mother's Day." I had never heard it before this video, perhaps because we don't use the expression in the US. It has a lovely ring to it. :)
It is also on a different day from north American mother's day
We call it 'Mothering Sunday' 😊
Fun facts: it actually is on a different day (in March!) from US Mother's Day (May) and also has a religious origin compared to the US holiday.
Mothering Sunday is a church based celebration in the Churh of England, it originated before the American mothers day
Yeah it’s normally Mothering Sunday but the term is still around
Even though she doesn’t know it, Mrs. Crocombe is my bff. If Maryann ever quits I call dibs on her job. 😊❤
Spring is back and so is the shade.
Perfect timing. At a home from work not feeling well this is just what the Dr. ordered
Mrs. Crocombe makes me smile yet again. Yet another cracking video from Audley End House
Mrs. Crocombe is back. YYYEAAAAAAAAAAA. I have really missed you.
You know it’s a great day when our favorite Victorian chef is back
I wonder who was whistling at 5:30 . I love how the technology progresses through out the episodes as though we are visiting at different parts of the Victorian Era.
Mrs Crocombe certainly wouldn't allow her girls to become mere good cooks when she can make sure they are excellent cooks.
This reminds me of rice pudding, just with a different grain. I wonder if there is shared history.
For those who might not know, Mothering Sunday is the UK (and a few other countries) version of the May U.S. Mother’s Day. Mothering Sunday moves from year to year like Lent does, but is always in March. This year, 2024, it was the tenth of March.
Yay! Mrs. Crocombe is back!
Question: is the three day soak of the wheat berries required, or can it be replaced with a longer boil?
I have always made it with cracked wheat, aka bulgur. Then you just boil it.
With that long a soak, I'd think the berries will begin to sprout, adding a malted flavor.
Definitely don't lengthen the boiling time, as you're liable to blanch the wheatberries doing that (I have done this when attempting a different porridge, the result is quite tasteless). The soaking time is needed for the wheatberries to ferment: hence "Furmenty". The boiling stops the fermentation and gets rid of the alcohol produced, leaving only the sourness. A three day soak will likely give a flavor similar to sourdough bread, though your results may vary. Yeast is more active in warm environments and sluggish in cold ones, so you can use this to adjust the fermentation time. If you don't like the sourdough bread flavor, an overnight soak plus the boil would be sufficient to break down the wheat proteins so they will absorb the milk and eggs.
It depends. In Chile (I guess other places in South America) you can buy hulled wheat, raw or cooked. It's called "mote," and is used in traditional dishes and a famous drink/dessert (mote con huesillos).
The raw wheat can be cooked like rice is, in boiling water; it takes about 20 min. If you start with regular wheat with hulls - things will take way longer.
If you have any Chileans nearby, ask them whether there's any "mote" available in town. Good luck. ✌
An interesting note-in the Balkan countries, we eat a similar dish to this in memory of our deceased family members at funerals and Slava (a family's patron saint's day). It can be called "zhito" or "kolivo" (or some variant of those, depending on the country). Our version doesn't have dairy or raisins and is usually pureed, but it's made of similar ingredients and spices.
I immediately stopped what I'm doing just for Mrs. Crocombe ❤️❤️❤️
yay- starting the day with Mrs C!
I bought the book Cooking the Victorian Way, featuring Mrs Crocombe. It has all the recipes that Mrs. Crocombe makes and the modern equivalent. A lot of history about the real Mrs Crocombe too.
I hope they make a second edition for the dishes she makes that came after the book was published.
Just want to let you know I discovered this from the Novympia parody, and honestly Mrs. Crocombe is just fun to watch!
Oh my, this dish doesn’t help England’s stereotype for its (ahem) interesting culinary endeavors. 😅
Looks good. If I can find some wheat berries I’ll give it a try.
Yes!!!!!!! She is back!!
Always a pleasure to discover Mrs Crocombe's recipes! Hi from France.
Sobbing at the miniscule amount of nutmeg used in this.
You know its gonna be a good day when mrs crocombe posts lets goooo
Indians have a similar recipe made with broken wheat grains called Dalia. It is made with milk and is kept savory, but of course, many prefer it sweetened, so sugar can be added. My grandmother loved it and it was her go to meal in her frail age.
(I'm American) I only know about this from Thomas Hardy, who also called it furmity, which I guess is not surprising since Devon and Dorset are next to each other. Now I know it's exactly what I pictured from _The Mayor of Casterbridge_.
every of these episodes are very therapeutic 🙂, Thank You!
She’s back!!!! Woot woot!
I still say, no one can wash at with authority like Mrs. Crocombe, aka Kathy Hipperson! Viva la Regina de cuisine!