English Monkey

I've certainly heard of Welsh Rabbit before (or rarebit, yeah, whatever) but not English Monkey. I would like to think that this was invented in Wales in answer to the British making fun of them with their "rabbit." I guess Monkey would be the grossest thing they could think of to eat. In the U.S. maybe we'd call it Road Kill Possum. I guess if you used stinky enough cheese.

English Monkey

1 Cup bread crumbs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup mild cheese
1 egg
1T butter
salt and cayenne

Soak bread crumbs in milk 15 minutes. Melt butter in saucepan, add cheese cut in small pieces and let it melt; then add soaked crumbs, egg beaten a little, 1/2 t salt and a few grains cayenne. Cook 3 minutes. Serve on crackers.

Matthew Arnold, British poet.
An English monkey? Or the prototype for Wolverine.

This recipe is also from the undated 1890s(?) Perfection Stove Company Cook Book. A few other odds and ends that are noticeable:

• In older cookbooks they always talk about breaking macaroni in pieces so it must have originally been sold as long tubes.
• Either they had such sensitive taste buds they needed very little flavor, or the food tasted more flavorful, which is possible given the huge but styrofoam veggies the abound in the American marketplace, or we have completely jaded palates. If there's one thing I have to adjust with these old recipes it's to give them some flavor. ("A few grains cayenne." Sheesh)
• Bread crumbs abound in old cook books. Not a scrap was left unused. Consequently the next item:
• There's often a section for ways to reuse leftovers, especially in croquettes. I have not, to my knowledge, ever actually eaten a croquette. But in the past there was nothing that couldn't be smashed together, rolled in bread crumbs, and fried.
• There's an opposite dearth of vegetable recipes. Boil the crap out of them and put them on the table. Enough said.

Welsh Griddle Cookies

When my Dad first came to the U.S. as a student, the mother of one of his new American friends took him under her wing. Mrs. Donovan came to visit us many years later when I was a child, and she left us with this recipe. They are quite different than the typical American cookie, baked in a very old-fashioned manner like an English muffin rather than in the oven.

2 t baking powder

4 c flour

1 c sugar

2 t nutmeg

½ lb butter (2 sticks)

3 eggs

1 c currants

Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs. Sift dry ingredients and add. Add currants by hand and stir.Work small amounts into flour on a board to a soft dough. Roll and cut out like sugar cookies. Fry like pancakes. Don’t oil skillet. Thinner will cook faster and more completely. Too thick won’t cook in the middle.