Mrs Beeton's Hot Chocolate Recipe
Have you ever tried recreating a very old recipe? Do you think our modern ingredients can compare with what they were cooking hundreds of years ago and also how they were cooking?
On a hot chocolate whim and wanting an adventure, sadly just in my kitchen as that is all time would allow, I opened up Mrs Beeton's cooking book and grabbed the ingredients for her hot chocolate. As you will see from the recipe below there are very few.
The questions I had in my mind though were ... what chocolate was she using? Was it 100%, was it more like 70% or was it milk chocolate? Was the milk she using fresh from a cow or pasteurised?
I went for the first recipe option rather than the 'foreign way' and with 90% chocolate and organic full fat milk. I could identify with Mrs Beeton's reference to it being a 'nourishing drink'. With the 3 pints of liquid the chocolate has a subtle undercurrent of flavour in the drink. The consistency was obviously very liquid, compared to hot chocolate we know today.
795. Chocolate
Ingredients:
3oz of chocolate
1 1/2 pints of milk
the same of water
Mode:
Make the milk and water hot, scrape the chocolate into it and stir quickly till it is dissolved; bring to the boiling point, stir well and serve directly. Chocolate looks and is very nice if done in the foreign way with a mill*. The milk is made boiling, is poured over the scraped chocolate is then whisked with the mill till dissolved and the mixture very frothy.
Time - 10 minutes
Average cost - 6d
Sufficient - for 6 persons
Seasonable - at any time
*You can use a whisk though at this time a molinillo would probably have been used.
I would love to know what you opt for and how you get on so promise to let me know.
