In the
recipe for Beef Tea Ice-cream which I posted the other day, the beef tea itself
was made in a stone jar set in a pot of boiling water. Before electric
slow-cookers, this was also a great way to cook things like chutneys, sauces
and conserves which need to slowly thicken by evaporation, but are in danger of
burning if put directly on a low flame (see links below for examples.)
This method
of cooking is called ‘jugging.’ The Oxford
English Dictionary definition is interesting as it is more specific. It
says that ‘to jug’ is ‘to stew or boil in a jug or jar (esp. a hare or rabbit)’.
In yet another common interpretation, ‘jugging’ refers specifically to cooking
the hare or rabbit in its own blood – resulting in a dish which in the classic
French tradition is called a civet.
I give you
the earliest recipe I know for ‘Jugged Hare’. It is from Hannah Glasse’s Art of Cookery (1747)
A Jugged Hare.
Cut it to
Pieces, lard them here and there and with little slips of bacon, season them
with a very little pepper and salt, put them into a earthen jugg, with a blade
or two of mace, an onion stuck with cloves, and a bundle of sweet-herbs; cover
the jar you do it in so close, that nothing can get in, then set it in a pot of
boiling water, keep the water boiling, and three hours will do it; then turn it
out into the dish, and take out the onion and sweet herbs, and send it to the
table hot. If you don’t like it larded, leave it out.
As an
interesting aside, the OED also gives
one definition of ‘jug’ as: “the sleeping place of partridges, where they ‘jug’
or nest together’”. I guess this would give an added poignancy to using a brace
of the birds to make Jugged Partridges. The dictionary also defines ‘a jug’ ‘a savoury Barbadian dish served esp. at
Christmas.’ I am profoundly ignorant of this dish, and sincerely hope one of
you can enlighten me.
‘Jugged’ Recipes.
Quotation for the Day.
Happy is said to be the family which can eat onions
together. They are, for the time being, separate, from the world, and have a
harmony of aspiration.
Charles Dudley
Warner
5 comments:
Good one, thank you. I will post your link.
Keith.
http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com
Jug-Jug's the Caribbean version of Haggis.
Back when the Scottish clans were shipped down to the sugar plantations in the Caribbean Islands (post-Clearances), they brought their recipes for Haggis with them; but, they replaced the oats with either durra or corn meal and pigeon peas.
Eventually most of the Scottish indentured servants on the plantations were replaced by African slaves.
As these things usually go, the slaves learned the recipe, and they ended up passing the recipe down to their descendents.
Thanks Dee! I was hoping someone would come up with the information. I would never have guessed haggis!
"Jugging" has always sounded rather like cooking in a double-boiler to me (or a bain-marie?).
Sandra
Hi Sandra - you are right - it is more like a double boiler than a slow cooker. A bain-marie is primarily used for keeping food warm.
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