Victoria, Francatelli, Crockford's Club and Quail à la Sefton

Victoria and Albert Wedding

Have you been watching,  the PBS series, Victoria ?

The real Victoria and Albert wedding, 1840

It is a real treat for the eyes with astonishing locations, voluptuous set dressing and costumes to die for. It’s a decent script with a now ubiquitous upstairs/downstairs story that includes a famous chef – Charles Elmé Francatelli (1805-76), in a fanciful, romantic below-stairs subplot.

chocolate covered ice cream bombe

Francatelli and Skerrett

Illustration from Francatelli’s The Modern Cook 1859

The fictional Francatelli (played by Ben Kingsley’s handsome son) is forever conjuring up faultlessly executed sugar confections for the royals and delicacies to impress Miss Skerrett, the ladies’ maid with the solid gold palate he is courting (the chocolate bombe scene is charming).

Francatelli (whose recipes I recreated HERE, HERE and HERE), was an English-born chef who studied in France. Although most of us are only familiar with him because of his association with Victoria, the truth is he only lasted at the palace for 2 years (a battle of wills with castle staff shortened his tenure there). 

Before his royal appointment, he gained his reputation by cooking at Crockford’s –– a gambling club famous for the amount of money that it siphoned from the upper classes and for its fine food that was almost as legendary for it’s quality and novelty—no one had done club food well until then. The whole environment was, at least in its first decade, nonpareil – the best customers, staff, appointments and food.

I must admit, I had no memory of Crockfords - it had slipped by me completely. I knew the Reform Club well –– both Soyer and Francatelli manned the stoves at that venerable institution, but not Crockfords. As I began to research the club, I was astonished how famous the place had been for the 20 years of its existence (1828-48).

Rees Howell Gronow

Thanks to an article about it in the Smithsonian Magazine, I discovered a remarkable chronicler of the early 19th century.  Rees Howell Gronow (1794-1865) was a Welsh Grenadier, a crack shot, a well-dressed dandy and an Etonian classmate of Shelley. His 2 volume Reminiscences and Recollections of Captain Gronow written in 1862, is rich with tales of all the celebrities and royals of the day (they are a fun read and there are 2 other recollections of London and Paris if you want a full, 19th century immersion). He shares their adventures as well as their stories and witticisms. His chapter on Crockfords began:

William Crockford, 1828 (1775- 1844)

“In the reign of George IV, a new star rose upon the horizon in the person of Mr. William Crockford  …. He built the well-known palace in St James’s Street, where a club was established and play organized on a scale of magnificence and liberality hitherto unknown in Europe. One may safely say, without exaggeration, that Crockford won the whole of the ready money of the then existing generation…in a few years, twelve hundred thousand pounds were swept away by the fortunate fishmonger.”

Crockford  gaming room

At one point Crockford was worth the equivalent of $160 million in today’s currency earned through a preternatural skill at calculating odds and the brilliant manipulation of his patron's financially fatal hubris. He developed an ingenious human inventory with an inheritance calendar noting the moment young aristocrats came into their fortune. From that moment, the mark would be expertly lured to Crockford's tables (usually to play the dice game called Hazard). He would often soak much of their new money away before they knew what hit them. He liked his patrons young, rich and bored or war weary and in need of excitement. It has been said families are still recovering from the damage to the family fortune wrought at Crockfords.

Crockford gaming room

Gronow continued: “The members of the club included all the celebrities of England… and at the gay and festive board, which was constantly replenished from midnight to early dawn, the most brilliant sallies of wit, the most agreeable conversation, the most interesting anecdotes, interspersed with grave political discussions and acute logical reasoning on every conceivable subject, proceeded from the soldiers, scholars, statesmen, poets and men of pleasure, who, when … balls and parties at an end, delighted to finish the evening with a little supper and a good deal of hazard at old Crockey’s. The tone of the club was excellent. A most gentleman-like feeling prevailed, and none of the rudeness, familiarity, and ill-breeding which disgrace some of the minor clubs of the present day, would have been tolerated for a moment.”

But it wasn’t just the gambling. Where most gambling clubs of the day served gray plates of boiled meat and pallid cheeses to fortify the gamblers as they played through the night, in 1828 Crockford hired Louis Eustace Ude (who had cooked for Louis XVI, for the 2nd Earl of Sefton and the Duke of York) to ply his well-healed clientele with the finest French food for an astronomical £2,000 a year (when a good cook made perhaps £20 a year). 

Louis Eustace Ude

Eustace Ude’s The French Cook, 1822 – a lavish table setting

Regency Mahagony wine cooler

The gamblers could eat and drink all they wished all night long for free (giant tubs of French champagne were always at the ready -"not in bottles but in dozens ... the pride of Rheims and Epernay" -- the wine cellar held tens of thousands of bottles). Ude continued there for 10 years, at which time Francatelli took the reins for 2 years before his appointment to Queen Victoria’s kitchen.

Henry Luttrell

In 1827, poet and renowned wit Henry Luttrell wrote a 112 page poem in two cantos entitled Crockford House, A Rhapsody. In it, he waxed poetic about the food – for many, many lines -- this is the beginning:


“Eyes were pleased, but Crockford, knew
Stomachs claim their pleasures too;
And that nine, at least, in ten,
Dully polled, of moral men
Think, no mater what the treat,
‘Tis but fudge – unless they eat.

Hastening, having bribed the sight,
To engage the appetite,
First, he turned his conjuring book
For a spell to raise a cook.
Thrice invoked, an artist came,
Not unworthy of the name;

One who with a hand of fire
Struck the culinary lyre,
And through all its compass ran”
Taste and judgment marked the man:
Ever various, ever new,
Was this heav’n-born Cordon Bleu.

Next, he waved his golden wand.
Earth and sea, at this command,
Gave their choicest treasures up,
That his customers might sup,
And his judgment was, in this
Clearly not so much amiss:

Thirst and hunger, as they say,
Being mortal foes of Play.
But as high celestial blood
Reckons on ambrosial food,
Every luxury was there
Deemed (to borrow from Voltaire)
Superflu si necessaire…”

Earl of Sefton

Ude and then Francatelli set groaning boards of ever changing delights from midnight on to the early hours to stoke the player’s fires to play and spend. How to choose from such wonders?  In the end, I decided to go to the last of my quails  to make Ude’s Fillets à la Sefton to honor his generous patron (upon Sefton’s death, Ude received a bequest of 100 guineas p.a. – a bit over £100 a year, even though he hadn't worked for him for many years).

Ude honored Sefton well with this recipe.  It is a very elegant dish and terribly good. This makes a wonderfully luxurious dinner and a fun presentation. Since it’s so rich, I think one full breast is fine per person, but you can double it if you want a lot more meat. I even found an early 19th century dish to serve them in to give you the flavor of the day. You can see why everyone thought life at Crockfords was heaven when you bite into this – and you don’t have to worry about gambling a fortune away to taste it!

Fillets of Quail à la Sefton

2  Dartagnan French quail, breasts removed – either 2 bone-in or 4 boneless pieces (save the rest of the bird and bones for stock)
2 T Dartagnan black truffle butter
1 black truffle from Dartagnan, sliced and notched – reserving trimmings
Sauce à la Lucullus

Sauce à la Lucullus

2 ½ c stock (either game stock made from bones or chicken stock)
1 slice of ham
2 sprigs of parsley
pinch of mace
1 clove
½ t thyme
2 berries or ½ t allspice
truffle trimmings
2 mushrooms, chopped
2 green onions
small bay leaf
truffle trimmings

2 T Dartagnan black truffle butter
2 T flour
1/3 c cream

Make the sauce by adding the seasoning to the stock and cook for 20 minutes then strain.

Take 1 cup and reduce it to a glaze and reserve (your should have around 3-4 T).

Put the butter in the pan and add the flour. Slowly add 2 c of the hot stock, stirring all the while. Add the cream. Cook over low heat for about 20 minutes to ½ an hour (this does make a difference – I always used to make a velouté quickly but this adds more flavor and texture).

Cook the quail breasts in 2 T truffle butter till browned and cooked through. I left them on the bone but you can also make 4 – half breasts. Remove them and make a deep slice in each for the truffles. Keep warm in a warmed serving dish.

Put the truffles in the pan the quail was cooked in for a moment – don’t make them too thin or they will disintegrate.

Dip the truffles in the reserved glaze and place some in the cut in the quail. I then brushed the quail in the remaining glaze.

Pour the sauce around the quails and lay the other truffle slices in the dish.

Christmas with Queen Victoria & Plum Pudding with Scotch

London Illustrated News, 1848

No matter where I (virtually) turned, everyone wrote Queen Victoria popularized the Christmas tree.  But you see, the dear lady did something much more important, she revitalized the warm spirit of Christmas.  The Weihnachtsbaum  (Christmas tree) had been part of German holiday celebrations for centuries and although the myth is that Albert brought the tree with him, Victoria’s Hanoverian heritage had put table trees in her childhood memories long before her marriage to her beloved German Prince Albert.  When Godey’s Ladies Book published their American version of the 1848 London Illustrated News  engraving of the royal family around the Christmas tree in 1850 … well suddenly everyone wanted a Christmas tree!

Osborne House

Victoria loved to celebrate Christmas at Osborne.  It was a magnificent Italianate palace designed by Prince Albert, and built by Robert Cubitt from 1845 to 1851 and the family spent many Christmases there, tucked away from Court life at Windsor.  It was the young couple’s style of family warmth (there were to be 9 children from their 20 year marriage, after all) and caring that changed the face of Christmas.  Before them, Christmas was only celebrated by the well-to-do.  Everyone else worked that day, as always.

1843 A Christmas Carol

With their influence, many of their subjects broke the shackles of the old Cromwellian Bah! Humbug! holiday and once again honored the spirit of Christmas as immortalized in Charles Dicken’s 1843 A Christmas Carol with family parties and gifts.

Durbar Room at Christmas in Osborne House

 I read all about the Osborne House Christmas at Edwardian Promenade. The largest tree went at the foot of the grand staircase at Osborne House but the household tree went into the Durbar room  (after it was constructed in 1891--you can read more about Durbar HERE at Art and Architecture Mostly ) where it was decorated with candles, tinsel, ornaments and spices. Large tables were laden with confectionary delights and presents for staff and individual tables were set with gifts for each family member so Queen Victoria could inspect them easily. 

1896 Christmas Menu for Queen Victoria 

 Christmas dinner started at 9pm and for that “50 turkeys, a 140-pound baron of beef [both sides of the rump with the back part of the sirloin] that took ten hours to roast over a spit, hundreds of pounds of lamb, dozens of geese, and crate after crate of vegetables, all shipped by train from Windsor. The confectionery chef and his staff spent days crafting 82 pounds of raisins, 60 pounds of orange and lemon peel, 2 pounds of cinnamon, 330 pounds of sugar, 24 bottles of brandy into the Christmas mincemeat.”  I would imagine that the Plum Pudding had been stashed away earlier (they were traditionally made on Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent – Nov 21 this year) so that they would be perfect for the festivities.  Some people make the pudding the year before and continue to splash it with liquor from time to time.  Nigella Lawson makes hers the day of the celebration so… your choice.

1851 Victoria Minton Dessert Set

For the royal sweets display, staff might have used pieces from the Minton dessert service, personally chosen by Queen Victoria at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and called The Victoria Dessert Service.  Although it was originally 116 pieces (and cost 1,000 guineas), the Queen gave 69 pieces to the Austrian Emperor (delivered by Herbert Minton himself) but kept the rest for herself.  She later added plates to the service (she had given the originals to the Emperor!). It is on display in the State Dining Room at Windsor till Jan 1.

Victoria Dessert Set

1851 Victoria Minton Dessert Set

Osborne House Dessert table

The amazing Ivan Day did an intimate dessert service at Osborne House using similar Minton pieces with an elegant sterling epergne and gorgeous molded desserts (including a Nesselrode pudding fashioned after a beehive) and colorful jellies that must have made the assembly giddy with delight (you can take classes with him to learn to make these beauties)!

When I looked at good Queen Victoria’s 1896 menu I was torn between "Les Dindes rôties à la Chipolata" (turkey with sausages and chestnuts -- how good does that sound?) or the plum pudding.  The pudding won out since I hadn’t made it in ages and I just had a week’s worth of turkey after Thanksgiving.  I made this baby 2 weeks before Christmas and it will sit until Xmas day when its’ boozy Scotchy goodness is ready to be devoured after dinner just like Victoria might have done… or Dickens or… well anyone English or English at heart! 

Cooking the Christmas Pudding, 1848

Plum pudding or something like it goes back at least to the Middle Ages in England.  Lovely Elinor Fettiplace had a recipe that is nearly the same from 1604 save that it was cooked with a technique the Romans used… in a sheep’s stomach instead of a cloth or bowl (it had eggs, flour, suet and the ubiquitous currants and raisins like its modern cousin).  I believe that it was during the 18^th century that the stomach was replaced by a cloth (sadly, I can’t nail down the exact time) that enclosed the pudding and then was boiled in a large pot, suspended on a pole stretched across the top of the pot.  The bowl came in toward the end of the 19^th century and is what is most commonly used today… although a few diehards do still use the pudding cloth!

This is a combination of many recipes that I’ve done over the years… the scotch makes it a little earthier.   Using it was a happy accident. I had run out of brandy when I was all ready to make it once upon a time, and substituted scotch… and scotch it has remained.   I recommend the peaty goodness of an Islay scotch (Lagavulin is my favorite!).  It makes the dried fruit really dark and delicious and does spectacular things to the orange marmalade.  May I suggest a genius ancient idea for leftover pudding?  Slice it and stick it under your spit to catch meat drippings (or save them to soak up meat juices) as they did in the old days… what a flavorful treat that would be (I can’t wait to try it!!). Use the final alcohol warmed and set aflame for the special presentation of the pudding.  Often, people turn out the lights to better see the flaming dessert… quite a bit of Christmas drama. Oh, and if I may say... I spent years avoiding suet in my pudding (called it bird food).... now that I have a grass-fed supplier in Grazin Angus Acres... well it makes all the difference... what I was missing!

Plum Pudding with Lagavulin Scotch

6 oz shredded suet from  Grazin Angus Acres 

6 oz raisins

8 oz currants

1/3 c Scotch (Lagavulin or any peaty Scotch will work well)

1 c cider

1 quince, peeled seeded and grated

3-4  c breadcrumbs

1 c flour

4 eggs from Grazin Angus Acres in Union Square NYC

1 t grated nutmeg.

½ t ground mace

½ t ground cinnamon

½ t salt ( I used a smoked salt)

1 c.milk (or a little more)

1 ½ c light brown sugar (demerara)

½ c Candied lemon peel, chopped (I took the peel of 2 lemons and cooked it in sugar syrup [1 c sugar to ½ c water] for 1 hour over a slow flame until peel is soft and translucent, drain, sprinkle with sugar and let dry)

1/3 c bitter orange marmalade

½ c Citron peel (this is available at Market Hall Foods made without corn syrup) 

You will need a 6c pudding bowl/basin or mold, lightly buttered.

Sauce:

4 egg yolks, beaten well

1/3 c brown sugar (demerara)

¼ c scotch

1/2 lemon (zest only)

½ c cream

grated nutmeg

50ml  2 oz scotch

holly with berries.

Marinate the raisins and currents in the scotch and cider for at least a day.

In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs and spice well together, mix in the milk a little at a time, then add the rest of the ingredients including the liquid from the raisins and currants, stir thoroughly. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and leave for two hours (or overnight). Uncover the bowl, mix thoroughly once more, if the pudding mixture is a little wet add in some more plain flour and stir.

Butter a pudding bowl or mold, pack within 1½” and cover it with a center-pleated piece of parchment, cover that with a pleated piece of foil and tie both securely.  The pleats will allow for expansion… there will be a little.   You will have enough left over for 1 or 2 small custard cup size puddings.  They are cooked in about 3 hours instead of 6

Put the pudding in a steamer with a rack on the bottom (or an upturned plate or crumpled foil) so the pudding doesn’t sit on the bottom of the pot.

Pour boiling water ½ way up the pudding and steam slowly at a low simmer for 6 hours… taking care to check that the water level stays constant.  Add boiling water when needed.  Remove from water, cover with new paper and refrigerate till ready to use.   When ready, repeat the process and warm for 2-3 hours till heated through.  If you are making it the day of, steam for 7 hours.  


To make the sauce:  warm the cream, sugar, lemon zest and scotch till the sugar melts.  Add the yolks and under low heat, stir constantly until thickened... taking care not to curdle the eggs.  


Then soak the pudding with some scotch and store.  Put holly in the top of the pudding, warm the last scotch and light for a little Christmas drama!

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This is another lovely drink from 1869's  Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks  and it's a great one for holiday celebrations.

Trinidad Punch

2 c rum (I used Haitian Barbancourt)

3-4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ vanilla bean or 1 t vanilla

4 c coconut milk

½ c sugar

lime for garnish

Warm and combine coconut milk and chocolate and sugar till melted.  Add the vanilla and rum.  I did add more chocolate… the original is 1 ounce.

May be served warm or cold and is delicious both ways.

Thanks to Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday!

Aftelier

* If I may recommend, a great foodie gift for the holidays (or a treat for you!)  would be a selection of chef's essences from Aftelier. The fir has just come out and it is TO DIE FOR!  I had it in a gin drink at Astor Center and felt faint from pleasure... 

**Tis the season to give… to WIKIPEDIA!!  It’s a great service that most everyone uses and it is done out of the goodness of many hearts.  Fill their holiday coffers, won’t you??

Donate a few bucks to keep them going. 

Thanks!