Kitchen Witchery
The kitchen is one place in which many omens manifest. For instance, a rainstorm is portended by the repeated boiling over of a coffeepot and also by the accidental spilling of water on a tablecloth. Other omens include the following:
Money will soon come your way if any of the following things should occur:
bubbles appear in a cup of coffee,
you accidentally knock over a sugar bowl,
rice forms a ring around the edge of a pot,
or tea leaves float to the top of the cup.
If your apron comes untied by itself and falls off while you are working in the kitchen, this is generally seen as a sign that someone is thinking about you. Some say that it means your sweetheart is having romantic thoughts about you at that moment.
If a fork accidentally falls onto the floor, a woman will soon knock on your door; a spoon indicates the arrival of a gentleman. (In some parts of the world, the fork means a man, and the spoon a woman.) Unexpected or unwelcome visitors are also presaged by the dropping of a knife that sticks in the ground and by cracks that form on the shells of eggs boiling in a pot of water.
If you are engaged or wish to get married, according to an old belief once common in England, you should take care to never sit on a kitchen table, for this will break the engagement and also prevent you from ever being wed.
It is considered unlucky in certain countries to wash a bread-knife on a Sunday, cut both ends of a loaf of bread, leave a knife stuck in the loaf, or take the last slice of bread. Accidentally dropping a slice of bread with the buttered side down is also said to be a bad omen; however, it is a good sign if the dropped bread lands with the buttered side up. If you and another person reach for the same slice of bread at the same time, an unexpected visitor will soon appear.
If a woman happens to be the accidental culprit placing new shoes on a table then this is supposedly an omen about an upcoming birth of a child within a year's time. It may be that particular woman's own child being predicted or one coming to another member of the family. It may depend on whom is the person to become pregnant on if this will be viewed as a good omen or not.
In Shropshire, about Shiffnal, it is thought very unlucky to place a pair of ... new boots on a table. If you do so, there will certainly be a quarrel in the household."
People who pulled parsley for uses outside of the kitchen. Woven into wreaths, party-goers believed these corsages would prevent intoxication by absorbing fumes.
On St. Luke's Day, says Mother Bunch, take marigold flowers, a
sprig of marjoram, thyme, and a little wormwood; dry them before
a fire, rub them to powder, then sift it through a fine piece
of lawn, and simmer it over a slow fire, adding a small quantity
of virgin honey and vinegar. Anoint yourself with this when you
go to bed, saying the following lines three times, and you will
dream of your future partner that is to be:
'St. Luke, St. Luke, be kind to me,
In dreams let me my true love see.'
Before slicing a new loaf of bread, make the sign of the cross on it.
A loaf of bread should never be turned upside down after a slice has been cut from it.
A fish should always be eaten from the head toward the tail.
If 13 people sit down at a table to eat, one of them will die before the year is over.
If you bite your tongue while eating, it is because you have recently told a lie.
To make Crabapple Pie.
Recipe: crabapples & boil them in water til they be soft, & take honey & strain the crabs therewith through a cloth. Put to a 3rd part of clarified honey & a quantity of sandalwood, & colour it with saffron; then put thereto a quantity of powder of pepper & 2d worth of the flour of anise & a quantity of powder of licorice. Then take grated bread & mould it up therewith, & put it in pie shells & serve it forth, & you will go well.
Gingerbread
"Take a quart of honey and seethe it and skim it clean. Take saffron, powdered pepper, and throw thereon. Take grated bread and make it so stiff that it will be leeched (cut in slices). Then take cinnamon powder and strew thereon enough. Then make it square as though thou wouldst slice it. Take, when thou slicest it, and cast box leaves above, stuck thereon in cloves. And if thou will have it red, color it with saunders (sandalwood) enough."
Making a Prize-Pie
One of the most charming old English customs is the prize pie. Not of the edible variety, this centerpiece is made of little presents concealed in a decorative pie. First, shop for some small trinkets to give to each of your guests. Novelty key chains, bookmarks, mini books and picture frames, fridge magnets and the like all make for fun prizes to stuff your pie with. Wrap the gifts and attach a long ribbon with a tiny name tag to each one. Place the gifts in a large round tin. If you can find tan colored crepe paper, this works best for covering the top and bottom of the tin. Any other thin brown paper will work just as well. Before you put the top on, cut slashes in it, like you would in a pie crust. Thread the ribbons through the slashes and then attach the crust with a tan rubber band. At a sit-down dinner, each ribbon leads to the corresponding guest's place setting. If serving a buffet, set a separate card table with the prize pie. When the host gives the signal, everyone pulls their ribbon and receives their prize.
The World-Famous Pasty
Called Oggies locally (from the Cornish Hoggan ) the pasty was designed to be a meal in itself for the farmer mid-harvest or the miner hundreds of feet underground. Some say the original was savoury at one end and sweet the other, with the man's initial carved in the pastry to tell where to begin. But as the old song goes:
Oggie,
Oggie, Oggie,
Oggie,
Oggie, Oggie,
Now we all go back to Oggie Land,
to Oggie Land, to Oggie Land,
Now we all go back to Oggie Land,
Where they can't tell sugar from tissue paper, tissue paper, Marmalade and Jam.
Upper Crust
Visitors to Anne Hathaways cottage near Stratford Upon Avon will see this explanation when looking at the bread oven in the kitchen. "The bread was placed as a raw lump of dough, straight into the bread oven. With no bread tin, it just sits on the floor of the oven. The oven is heated by the adjacent fire and is very hot at the bottom. When the bread is done baking and taken out to cool, the base of the loaf is overcooked black and also dirty. The top of the loaf is done just right, and still clean. The bottom of the loaf is for the servants to eat, while the upper crust is for the master of the house.
Eccles Cake
Eccles cakes originated in the Lancashire town of Eccles. The word 'Eccles' means Church derived from the Greek word 'Ecclesia' which means an assembly. An annual service 'Eccles Wakes' took place at the Church in Eccles and afterwards there was a fair in which food and drink was sold. Amongst the included Eccles Cakes. In 1650 when Puritans gained power, they banned these Wakes and the Eccles Cakes which they considered to have pagan significance and were too rich. There is a bakery in Eccles which claims to have made Eccles Cakes for many hundreds of years.
Clotted Cream:
Both Cornwall and Devon are famed for this delicacy. Traditionally this is made by pouring milk into shallow pans and leaving, undisturbed, for 24 hours allowing the cream to rise.
Dorset Jugged Steak:
This traditional Dorset dish was often prepared to be eaten on days when the fair came to town as it is good-tempered enough to wait until the revelers came home, although the forcemeat balls should not be cooked for too long. Jugging is a method of slow cooking which retains all the flavours of the meat while mingling them with those of the other ingredients.
Priddy Oggies:
A West Country 'pasty' first made at the Miner's Arms in Priddy, Somerset containing bacon, pork and cheese. Oggie is a West Country word for 'pastry'.
...
Courtesy of Miss Daney of Folklore,Magic and Superstitions 
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
First 