TRADITIONAL RECIPES

A pirate botanist named William Hughes had documented his adventures to the Americas and the plants he encountered in 1672. He dedicated a portion of this book to the cocoa tree and its fruit. He even describes the properties and preparations for the cocoa fruit in a drink he named the American Nectar. This nectar was a combination of chocolate melted into milk or water and combined with spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, almonds, sugar, pepper and cloves to help strengthen the stomach.

Hughes, William. The American Physitian. London: Crook, 1672.

Hot Chocolate Mayan Style - Makes 4 Cups

2 ounces (squares) bitter, unsugared bakers' chocolate
1 cup hot water
3 tablespoons honey
dash salt
3 cups hot milk
4 sticks cinnamon bark

Chop the chocolate and heat it in the water until melted. Add honey, salt, and beat the hot chocolate water with a balloon wire whip as you add the warmed milk. To make it more frothy and give more food value, you can beat up an egg or two, add hot chocolate to it, then pour it into the chocolate cooking pot and continue to whip. Serve the hot chocolate in mugs with cinnamon-bark stick stirrers in each.

mexican hot chocolte

Mole Rojo (Red mole sauce) for turkey or chicken

6 whole dried pasilla chiles
10 whole dried ancho chiles
8 whole dried mulato chiles
2 quarts water
4 tomatillos (yellow ground cherries in lantern husks)
5 Roma tomatoes
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup sesame seeds
2 corn tortillas dried in oven and chopped up
6 cloves garlic, roasted and peeled
2 cups duck, chicken or turkey stock
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves (ground)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp salt
5 oz squares of unsweetened baker's chocolate
3 tablespoons chicken fat or peanut cooking oil

Start raisins soaking in warm water (20 minutes). Prepare the chiles: remove stems and seeds. On an ungreased cast-iron frypan (or in a 250 degree oven) dry roast them 5 minutes, shake a couple times, don't blacken them. Add water to a covered pan and simmer the roasted chiles very low for 30 minutes. Strain, cool. Husk tomatillos, wash tomatoes. Blacken in a dry skillet or under broiler (or in gas flame on a fork) for about 5 minutes. Dry-roast sesame in a fry pan 5 minutes until they finish popping, don't burn them. Saute almonds in the oil over medium heat until browned. Drain almonds, reserve oil. Puree the prepared tomatoes, tomatillos, sesame seeds, crumbled tortillas, and almonds in a blender to a fine paste. Add chiles, soaked raisins, roast garlic (peeled), stock, spices, and puree all together fine. Melt chocolate in a little hot water, add to blender paste. Check the volume. Add enough water to bring it all to 5 cups during the blending process. Put all the oil in a high-sided pan and heat almost smoking hot. Refry the sauce over medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Don't let it get too thick, add more water or stock if necessary. Strain sauce through a sieve. Serve warm, not hot, over chicken or (especially) turkey.

Mole

Milk Chocolate

"Water, Milk, of each half a Pint, Chocolate All-Nut, Two Ounces, Sugar, Two Ounces,

mill them together and let it boil about Ten Minutes, then mill it and brew it and it's done”

Broadbent, Humphrey, and Thomas Tyron. The Domestick Coffee-Man, Shewing the True Way of Preparing and Making Chocolate, Coffee, and Tea. London, 1722.

This is a french chocolate pot which is traditionally what classic thick French hot

chocolate is made in. This pot from the 19th century was crafted from silver and has a wooden handle. The depth of the pot allows the thick chocolate to melt by distributing the heat evenly, as well as having a small amount of flat surface on the bottom to keep the chocolate from burning instead of melting.

Broadbent, Humphrey, and Thomas Tyron. The Domestick Coffee-Man, Shewing the True Way of Preparing and Making Chocolate, Coffee, and Tea. London, 1722.

Milk Chocolate

"Charlotte Polonaise Cake

(Mason Family)

Two cups powdered sugar
½ cup butter
4 eggs, white and yolks beaten separately
1 small cup of cream
3 cups prepared flour.

Filling

Six eggs
2 tablespoonfuls flour
3 cups cream
scalding hot
6 tablespoonfuls grated chocolate
6 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar
½ pound sweet almonds blanched and chopped
¼ pound of chopped citron
½ pound macaroons
¼ pound crystallized peaches, cherries, or whatever preferred.

Beat the yolks very lightly. Stir into the cream the flour wet with a little cold milk; then add very slowly the beaten yolks. Boil slowly, stirring all the time, for five minutes. Take from the fire and divide the custard into three parts. Put the grated chocolate with the macaroons, finely crumbled, with one tablespoonful sugar, into one part of the custard, stirring well, then boil five minutes, stirring constantly. Take from the fire and beat with an egg beaterand set aside to cool. Now pound the blanched almonds a few at a time in a wooden mortar, adding now and then a few drops of rose water. Chop the citron fine, mix with the almonds, adding 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar. Stir this into the second part of the custard. Heat to a boil and set away to cool. Chop the crystallized fruit fine and mix with the third part of the custard. Heat to a boil and set aside to cool. Season the chocolate with vanilla, the almonds and citron with bitter almonds; the fruit needs no flavoring. Bake your cake in four layers. Between the first and second put the chocolate, between the second and first layer (the top layer) put the fruit. Ice with a lemon icing.”

Bomberger, Maude Ada. Colonial recipes, from Old Virginia and Maryland manors, with

numerous. The Neale Publishing Company , 1907.

charlotte

Chocolate Tartlets

Four eggs, half a cake of grated chocolate, one tablespoonful of cornstarch dissolved in three tablespoonfuls of milk, four tablespoonfuls of sugar, half a teaspoonful of vanilla, a pinch of salt, and a heaping teaspoonful of butter. R u b the chocolate smooth in milk, heat over the fire, and add the cornstarch wet with milk. Stir until thickened, and pour out. When cold, beat in the yolks of the eggs, the sugar, and the flavoring. Bake in patty pans lined with leaf paste. Cover with meringue, and serve cold.”

Hulse, Olive M. Two hundred recipes for making desserts: Including French pastries. Google Scholar Books . Chicago: Hopewell Press, 1916.

tartlets