In my last post I covered the origins and easy history of tamales, moving on, this post will look at the canned tamale industry that sprang up in the early 20^th century.

The dusky hued Tamale Vendor of olden times is fast disappearing like ‘Lo the poor Indian.’  His wares so tantalizingly delicious, which were offered for sale at every street corner are now the basis of a huge industry.  The tamale is now a known quantity; its manufacture employs thousands of Union men and women.  Clean, sanitary kitchens displace the dingy, unsanitary places of manufacture of the old time husk tamale with its doubtful ingredients.  White men and women are employed the year around to prepare this delicious condiment for the tables of the world.  Ingredients of the highest quality enter into its manufacture.  Since 1900, when the first canned tamale was placed upon the market by C. H. Workman, of the Workman Packing Company, the consumption of husk tamales has decreased from 4,000,000 annually to a mere 40,000.  The canned variety has enjoyed a correspondingly phenomenal INCREASE.  This year the Workman Packing Company will produce over 4,000,000 tins of their I X L Brands.  San Francisco, through the Workman Packing Company, now practically controls the tinned tamale market of the world.  The wonderful growth of this company in the ten years of its existence is an evidence of the quality of its products and the business acumen of its officers. 

Although tamales were always the company’s best selling product, from, “the largest white tile kitchen in the West”, the Workman Company also made Chicken Tamales, Enchiladas, Chili Con Carne, Deviled Chili Meat, and Liver Paste.  – Yearbook.  California State Federation of Labor.  1916.  San Francisco.

C. H. Workman began selling tamales in 1900 and, the North Carolina native was widely known as, “the originator of a popular brand of canned tamales”.  His obituary, published in The Western Canner and Packer on May 1922, outlined his success as the unrivaled canned tamale king.   – Sheilds, George.  Recreation.  Vol. 15.  Oct. 1901.

After failing at producing canned clams, Workman found himself a partner with experience at making tamales, and to get the company off the ground they made and packed the tamales at night and sold them by day.  He called on 32 grocers his first day as a tamale salesman and sold to 31 of them.  Business boomed, and in 1904 he purchased the IXL Packing Company which was a model successful business until the San Francisco earthquake.  It took just 14 minutes for his factory to lie in ruins. 

In 1911, he organized the Workman Packing Company and set out to design machinery to speed up production in order to stay ahead of his competitors.  By January 1920, 17 of his employees had attempted to open canneries and duplicate his success, however, none were successful. 

To promote his tamales, Workman provided a demonstrator to introduce the tamales to the customer right in the grocer’s store.  Next, he sent employees door to door, and then took ads in magazines and cookbooks offering customers genuine Rogers brand knives, forks, and spoons in exchange for labels from his canned tamales, enchiladas, chili con carne, and pork and beans.  – Printer’s Ink.  Vol. 81.  Oct. 1, 1912.  Philadelphia.

I applaud his business savvy, however, my experience with canned tamales has been rather dismal.  Upon opening the can, a copious amount of thick red grease sits atop paper-wrapped tamales which have been extruded one after another by a machine, independent of human hands. 

Workman’s life is a genuine rags to riches story and he was considered a model businessman during and after his passing.  He began his career working a cable car in San Francisco and by the time of his death, his company was estimated to be worth a million dollars.  That, folks, in the 1920’s, was a lot of tamales.  – The Magazine of Business.  Jan. 1920.

A tamale vendor

Captain John Smith found Native Americans in Virginia preparing tamale-like products in 1612 and left a detailed description of how they were prepared.  “Their corne they rost in the eare greene, and bruising it in a morter of wood with a Polt, lappe it in rowles in the leaves of their corne, and so boyle it for a daintie.”  (1)

Smith did not use the name tamale but in 1691 Casañas did use the word.  “There are five or six kinds of beans–all of them very good, also calabashes, watermelons and sunflowers. The seed of all of these, mixed with corn make very fine tamales.”  (2)

They…cultivate certain kinds of sunflowers from which, after enjoying their beauty, they use the seeds, which are like little pine-nuts, and which, ground, they mix with corn, and form a dough, which they make into small cakes or tamales of good taste, and much nutriment. (3)

Swanton quoted Ramón who, in 1716, along with a group of missionaries, was presented with tamales (rolls of corn), beans cooked with corn, and nuts by a group of Indians. 

Most Americans had probably at least read about tamales as they turned up fairly frequently in travel documentaries for various countries of the Americas.  In 1861, the U.S. Minister to Equador noted the locals enjoying tamales, (4) Gabriel Ferry described the tamales being sold in Mexico in the 1850’s as a type of mead pudding, (5) and James Orton wrote about peddlers selling them in the Amazon in 1870 (6)

Tamales do not appear to have become commonly eaten outside of Native American and later Mexican influence as several late 19^th century writers thought they had been only recently introduced.  It may be that most European-Americans found them too rustic to discuss in cookbooks and culinary histories and had no desire to prepare Native American foods. 

Around the turn of the century, archaeologists declared the cuisine of the Indians of Mexico was little different to the Indians of the U.S.  “All things considered, the food of the Indians of Cholula is not very different from that of the New Mexican aborigines,–not even from that of the Iroquois.”

The habit of grinding corn well soaked, of making out of it thin cakes or mush, of boiling beans and calabashes, of broiling and stewing certain kinds of meat, forms the substance of the knowledge of cookery which they had acquired before the Conquest.  The advance they had made over the northern Indians is reduced, therefore, to the tamales, a composition of mush, meat, pepper, and sometimes of fruit like ahucate or even the exotic banana, and to a more perfect and varied seasoning…Tamales are nothing else but North American mush, sometimes with slices of meat and peppers enclosed, and baked in corn-husks.  (7) 

A written account of a “new” food is usually no hard evidence of when it was first introduced.  It is a proven occurrence that when introduced to a new food we tend to assume it is new to the entire populace when in fact it may have been around for ages. 

The American opinion of Mexican food, including tamales, varied widely and prejudices toward it were common in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, due in part to the noticeable lack of cleanliness in many areas where they were prepared; however, in fairness, the people who made and sold tamales were actually from various cultures.  In San Francisco in 1910, there were 17 East Indians known to be making tamales and selling them on the streets.  (8)    

Like the others, however, they take no care of their quarters and allow them to become very dirty…Every group has a gas stove on which they manufacture their tamales in their quarters…They are all Mohammedans and consequently wear their hair short without turbans. (9)

Some did find it, “exceedingly appetizing, but for most palates too highly peppered, chile entering largely into the composition of every dish”.  (10)

It is difficult to know exactly when tamales became common fare throughout the U.S., and to what degree they were first eaten by non-natives, but once tamalero’s began selling them accounts began to surface in printed materials.  Some writers claimed they were of Spanish-American origin and became popular in the U.S. about 1880 although Smith’s account says differently.  (11)

Our Eastern friends who seldom come in contact with Spanish, French, and other semi-barbarous customs, have little idea of the number of curious dishes and culinary compounds that this coast affords.  One of the most common forms of lunch to be had late in the evening and upon the street corner is the tamale, which the belated business man and home-returning theater-goer often avails himself of.  (12)

In 1895, the Tejas Indians were documented as routinely making tortillas and tamales, with dinner for dignitaries consisting of tamales, nuts, pinole of corn, and a large earthen pan of corn, ground nuts, and beans all cooked together.  (13)

Fair-goers in various states were often introduced to tamales at concession stands on the fairgrounds in the late 1800’s. 

To the uninitiated there is nothing particularly appetizing in the outside appearance of a tamale.  Its coarse husk is suggestive of the fare craved by the prodigal son…the steam from the oblong package has the homely flavor of country suppers away back in one’s childhood, when cornmeal mush was the favorite dish of Yankee farm folk…You carefully undo the wisps of corn-fiber neatly confining the almost transparent husk, and expose a thin layer of yellow meal, which has just the faintest spicing from close contact with interior layers.  You eat the meal slowly and with relish, and turn back another husk leaf only to find another layer like the first.  The next unfolding opens the heart of the tamale, and you note with increasing ardor and appetite pieces of chicken and olives buried in an indefinable mixture of ground chiles and corn and the whole deliciously peppery and savory.  (14)

American Indians found a way to make money by competing for the premiums offered for excellence in various crafts at fairs as evidenced by those in Arizona winning awards for their tamales at the Arizona State Fair in the early 20^th century.  (15)

In closing, I’ll share a few early published receipts and maybe the reader will be inspired by my latest food adventure.  Blissful Meals!

Tamales.  Chop one pound of beef, pork or chicken, add a little chopped tallow or one tablespoonful of lard and a little salt; fry in a pan until tender; chop again very fine; return to pan; add a little warm water and pulp of two red chiles; stir and fry a few minutes.  Add to one quart of cornmeal two tablespoonfuls of salt, two tablespoonfuls of lard, and boiling water to make a thick dough.  Cut off one inch of corn husk stalk ends and soak in hot water ten minutes; dry and rub over with hot lard.  Put a layer of dough on the husk about four inches long, and one and one-half inches wide and one-fourth inch thick; along the center spread two teaspoonfuls of the prepared meat; roll and fold the small end of the husk; place them folded end down in a strainer over hot water.  Cover and steam several hours.  Serve hot. (16)

Chicken Tamales.  Soak some trimmed corn husk for several hours in cold water, then boil until soft, remove; dry on cloth, and rub with lard.  Cut up a fat chicken, cook until very tender in just enough water to leave about four cups.  Chop up cooked chicken, add corn meal or masa to boiling hot chicken broth until a thick dough; add salt to taste, one tablespoon chile powder, or chile sauce No. 1; add tablespoon of lard and knead all together until light and smooth.  Now to all the chicken add enough chile sauce No. 1 to mix thickly together; add about one-fourth cup of sliced olives and a few whole ones and one-fourth cup seedless raisins, and a few whole ones, salt to taste and cook together for five minutes; spread corn dough evenly over shuck or husk about one-eighth inch thick.  In center of one larger husk place a large kitchen spoonful of chicken; spread over this one tablespoonful of dough; place another husk spread with dough; continue placing husk around on all sides until about ten are used.  Tie ends together over a strip of husk and place on end in a colander over boiling water for two or three hours, or place some corn husk in bottom of vessel, pile tamales on top, pour in about a quart of water and bring to a boil and steam slowly for three or four hours. (17)

Green Chili Sauce for Tamales.  Split, remove seeds and veins from green chilies and boil in a little hot water till tender; mash, press through a sieve, melt one-fourth cup lard, add 2 tablespoonsful flour, teaspoon salt, brown just a little, add 3 cups green pulp, cook slowly half hour. (18)

Chili Sauce.  Take some ripe peppers and toast on the fire until they are the color of gold.  While they are still warm, remove the outer skin, the veins and seeds.  Add to what remains, when cool, the juice of an equal number of tomatoes toasted in the same manner as the peppers, a little salt, an onion (if liked), and crush all together with a little water.  (19)

Tamale Gravy.  Fry a small piece of garlic in the bottom of the pot of beef suet, add onions and let them fry, when the onions are partly cooked, add tomatoes and when they have begun to stew, add chili peppers and salt, and a little butter to season.  (20)

Bibliography:  1.  The American Museum Journal.  March 1917.

2.  Swanton, John Reed.  Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians, quoting  Francisco Casanas de
Jesus Maria #2.  Southwestern Historical Journal.  Descriptions of the Tejas or Asinai Indians, 1691-1722.  Translated from Spanish by Mattie Hatcher. 

3.  Swanton, John Reed.  Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians.  Quoting Morfi, 1932, page 44. 

4.  Hassaurek, F.  Four Years Among the Spanish-Americans.  1868.  NY],

5.  Ferry, Gabriel.  Vagabond Life in Mexico.  1856.  NY. 

6.  Orton, James.  The Andes and the Amazon; or, Across the Continent of South America.  1871.  NY

7.  Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America:  American Series.  Vol. 2.  1881.  Boston.    

8.  Immigrants in Industries.  U.S. Immigration Commission.  1911.  Washington.

9.  Ibid.

10.  Harper’s Magazine.  July 1890.

11.  Recreation.  Vol. 25.  Oct. 1901. 

12.  California Medical Journal.  Sept. 1889.

13.  U.S. Congressional Serial Set.  Issue 3343.  Annual Report, House of Representatives.  1895.  Washington.

14.  Overland Monthly.  April 1894. 

15.  The Native American.  Dec. 9, 1916.

16.  Haffner-Ginger, Bertha.  California Mexican-Spanish Cookbook.  1914.

17.  Haffner-Ginger, Bertha.  California Mexican-Spanish Cookbook.  1914.

18.  Haffner-Ginger, Bertha.  California Mexican-Spanish Cookbook.  1914.

19.  Lummis, Charles Fletcher.  The Land of Sunshine.  Vol. 3.  Nov. 1895.

20.  California Medical Journal.  Sep. 1889.

illustration, 1880's, Sugar Making

Having looked at the use of brass kettles over an extended period of time (for they remained in use well into the 19^th century), we’ll look at the brass kettle as used by Native Americans who acquired it by trading with the whites.  Brass was so much more durable than their native pottery vessels that once a line of trade was established few tribes continued making pottery pots. 

In 1684, La Salle wanted 2000 pounds of small brass kettles at Ft. Frontenac, costing 1 livre, 5 sous, a pound.  They would sell for four francs a pound, yielding a great profit.  The English and Dutch sold them and included them among presents.  In 1693, Gov. Fletcher gave the Mohawks 24 brass kettles for cooking to replace those the French had destroyed earlier, some two or three pounds weight, are among the presents of the following year.  They prized small brass kettles, but large ones were needed for public occasions. 

When Schuyler and Livingston went to Onondoga in 1700, the Indians, “according to their custom, hung over a great kettle of hasty pudding made of parched Indian meal, and sent it to us.  The great kettle is now of iron, but is still a feature of the New York reservation life”.  (1)

In 1694, presents recommended for the Five Nations were, “50 brass kettles of two, three, and four pounds apiece, thin beaten, and light to carry when they go a hunting or to war…”.  Another 30 small and 14 large were called for in 1696.  (2)

Kettles dug up at the turn of the 20^th century included many approximately 5 ¾ inches in diameter and about 3 inches deep.  Some were tapered, about 5 ½ inches at the top and about 4 1/8 inches at the bottom, still about 3 inches deep.  The ears were cut out and riveted in place. 

Nesting kettles were found in the early digs varying in size from the largest which held about two pails to the smallest which held about two pints.  (3)

When the brass kettles were no longer serviceable they were used to make arrowheads, knives, saws, and ornaments of many kinds.  Early histories are filled with accounts of such articles that were turned up by the plow.  The ears, however, served no purpose for the Indian and were usually discarded, thus early digs often yielded large numbers of them in relation to the number of kettles that were found.  (4)

One dig produced a penny dated 1728 which left no doubt as to the time the items were put aside.  With the penny were found a brass spoon made from a kettle, a comb cut from a fragment of a kettle, and some pewter pieces.  (5) 

Plowing often turned up buried items, the bodies and belongings buried as shallowly as seven inches.  (6)

In some areas, Canada for instance, dug brass kettles often had holes knocked in the bottom.  Damaging the kettles discouraged looters from taking them because a kettle with a hole in the bottom was of no use in the earthly world, but it was still serviceable in the spiritual world and would serve the deceased well. 

Both Europeans and Natives hid kettles along routes they traveled frequently so that they could be retrieved and used without the burden of carrying them along on the journey.  An account penned in 1750 documented that practice, “There we found the kettle which we had concealed when we passed here the last time”.  (7)

When carving a farm out of the wilderness, a hired hand dug up a brass kettle while plowing and gave it to the farm wife who cleaned it up and began using it in her kitchen.  After some years, an Indian man came to the farm and told her husband when he was a boy his father had buried their belongings before fleeing the area and that he, himself, had carried a “kettle of gold” which was buried with the other possessions.  The man and his family had gone to great lengths to find the farm in the hopes of retrieving a valuable golden kettle, and were much disappointed to learn that the golden kettle he remembered from his youth was brass and had little value.  The farmer dispatched his son to the house to fetch the brass kettle and gave it to the Indian as he felt it was rightfully his.  (8) 

The following account from present-day Alabama will dispel any doubt that brass kettles were used by Native Americans in the South since the previous accounts have come from New England. 

In 1894, a Creek town near the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers [where Ft. Toulouse and Ft. Jackson stood], the oldest Creek town known at the time, was noted for a skeleton that was unearthed from a depth of about three feet with a brass kettle filled with glass beads, brass buckles, brass rings made from wire, and bell buttons.   Other skeletons were found at various depths with earthen pots and various other items including brass plates.  (9)

A captive taken in the 1780’s left an excellent description of an Indian woman’s possessions including her brass kettle:

Her household furniture consisted of a large brass kettle for washing and sugar making; a deep close-covered copper hominy kettle, a few knives, tin cups, pewter and horn spoons, sieves, wooden bowls, baskets of various sizes, a hominy block, and four beds and bedding comprising each a few deerskins and two blankets so that altogether her circumstances were considered quite comfortable. (10)

While the early Native Americans left no written accounts, the early explorers and settlers did leave appreciative accounts of the food the Natives prepared in those brass kettles ranging from wild rice or, “the three supporters of life, corn, beans, and squashes”, and hasty pudding made from Indian meal to, “boiled pig and Indian corn”.  Their accounts substantiate the earliest use of brass kettles among the Native people. 

Bib: 

1. New York State Museum.  Bulletin 55.  1901.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid
5. Skinner, Alanson.  The Pre-Iroquoian Algonquin Indians of Central and Western New York.  1920.  NY. 
6. Mather, Increase.  Early History of New England.  1864.  Boston.
7. Callaghan, E.B.  Documentary History of New York.  1849-51. NY. 
8. Catlin, George.  Life Among the Indians; A Book for Youth.  1861.  London.
9. Smithsonian Institution.  Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology.  1894. 
10. Spencer, Oliver M.  The Indian Captivity of O. M. Spencer.  [1780’s].  Pub. 1852.  NY. 

Emil Carlsen painting

Cato’s descriptions of an olive farm and a vineyard farm are among the earlier accounts of brass kettles, specifically a brazen [made of brass] kettle holding 30 quadrantes*, a kettle lid, a brazen kettle holding 5 quadrantes, a kettle lid, and one brass kettle for cooking.  (1)

Brass kettles were among the first utensils brought to America and Myles Standish had three of them.  The kettles were hammered out of sheet brass or copper, first by hand and then by trip hammer.  (2)

Estate inventories from the 17^th century are filled with brass kettles being bequeathed to heirs in the U.S. and in Europe.  For one household, an early Connecticut inventory listed a great brass kettle, lesser brass pan, brass scummer [skimmer], brass chafing dish, brass skillet, small brass kettle, and brass candlesticks.  (3)

Brass kettles were often described as great [very large], lesser, and least.  (4)

Other brass utensils found in those early records included brass mortar and pestles, a brass box with pot hooks [1694], cullenders [colanders], strainers, ladles, dripping pans, shivers and [stop]cocks (a hand operated valve or faucet), boilers, warming pans, saucepots, frying pans, hand washing basins, etc. 

One inventory included a brass kettle weighing 31 lbs., a great brass kettle, lesser kettle, little kettle, and a little brass kettle, with 2 brass posnets, 4 ladles, 3 skimmers, and four candlesticks, all brass. (5)

Esther Singleton studied Colonial era estate inventories at the turn of the 20^th century and wrote that those documents showed a great deal of pewter, brass, and copper in the South.  She gave the inventory for Colonel Stephen Gill of York County, VA [1650’s] as an example.

1 copper kettle, 1 old brass kettle, 1 brass pott, 3 brass candlesticks, 1 brass skillitt, 1 small brass mortar and pestle, 1 brass skimmer, 1 brass spoone, 3 old iron potts, 1 small iron pott, 3 pesites, 1 frying pan, 2 spitts, 2 pair of potthangers, 3 pair potthookes, 1 iron ladle, 1 flesh hook, 3 tin cullenders, forty-six pounds of pewter, 4 old porringers, 19 pewter spoons, 4 old pewter tankards, 1 flaggon, 2 salt sellers, 6 tin candlesticks, 2 dozen old trenchers, and 2 sifters.

Brass kettles were used for most sorts of foods, but specific accounts of what was prepared in brass kettles include meat, pickles, vegetables, soup, jams and jellies, and large brass kettles were used for evaporating salt, melting tallow for candles, and laundry and dyeing. (6)

About two miles from West Liberty Town I passed by Probe’s Furnace, a foundry established by a Frenchman from Alsace, who manufactures all kinds of vessels in copper and brass, the largest containing about 200 pints, which are sent to Kentucky and Tennessee, where they use them in the preparation of salt by evaporation.  The smaller ones are for domestic uses.  (7)

The use of copper or brass cookware which does not have a tin lining is considered by many unsafe today and even when it was in common use was questioned by some in the preparation of acidic foods.  It was a common practice to make cucumber pickles in brass or copper pots because the vinegar reacted with the metal and made the pickles greener than when made in iron pots.  Some said doing so was unhealthy while others insisted there was no danger so long as the pot was properly cleaned before and after use. 

My mother always used a brass kettle.  I never heard of its hurting anybody.  If you have good cider vinegar, the green pickles will be wholesome enough.  Everybody in Hookertown cures ‘em in this way, and we are not an ailin’ sort of people.  (8)

Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, mother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and cookbook author Catherine Beecher, said her family had always used a brass kettle and never seen any injurious effects from it.  She told her readers that brass kettles had to be kept scrupulously clean, cleansed with salt and hot vinegar, and rubbed till every part of it shone like gold. 

After it is used [cooked in] and taken from the fire; remove the contents at once.  When a kettle is thoroughly cleaned, no harm comes from its use so long as it is kept over the fire; the mischief arises from letting anything stand in it and cool.  (9)

Methods of cleaning brass kettles differed over time.  Accounts are commonplace of using salt and vinegar during the colonial era and into the 19^th century although by then others thought vinegar caused the newly cleaned brass to tarnish even faster between cleanings. 

CLEANING A BRASS KETTLE.  A brass, bell-metal, or copper kettle should always be cleaned immediately after using.  Even when not used, it will require occasional cleaning; otherwise it will collect rust or verdigrease, which is a strong poison.

To clean it properly, after washing it out with a cloth and warm water, put into the kettle a large tea-cupful of vinegar and a large tea-spoonful of salt and hang it over the fire.  Let it get quite warm; and then take it off, dip in a clean rag, and wash the whole inside of the kettle thoroughly with the salt and vinegar; after which, wash it well with warm water.  Next, take wood ashes and clean rags, and scour it well.  Afterwards, wash it with hot-soap-suds, and finish, by rinsing it with cold water, and wiping it with a dry cloth, both inside and out.  These kettles should be kept always clean, that they may be ready for use at any time they are wanted.  So also should every vessel of brass or copper.  (10)

Between Eliza Leslie’s account published in 1850, still carrying over from earlier times, and one from some 36 years later the reader will notice the difference of opinion.

It is a great mistake to use vinegar and salt in cleaning a brass kettle, as the corrosion of the acid turns it black as soon as set aside.  The best cleansing medium is a flannel cloth wet in hot suds; rub this with soap (soft if you have it), and plunge into wood ashes; with this scour briskly your brass which, like all metals, will take a high polish more readily if warm.  Ashes taken warm from the fire are also more effective.  After scouring, wash quickly in warm suds and wipe thoroughly dry before putting away.  With this care a brass kettle may be used daily, even in a damp climate, for boiling vegetables…and without anything more than a “rub-over” with ashes every day or two, present a shining yellow face the year in and year out. (11)

Some accounts indicate brass kettles were more common than copper because they were generally less expensive.  The weight is often given for brass kettles and Rogers wrote that various copper and brass kettles sold by the pound, some weighing up to 66 lbs.  Prices in England during the 18^th century for a small brass pot averaged 10 to 14 shillings and smaller ones from 2 shillings 8 pence to 6 shillings 8 pence.  A great kettle purchased in London in 1585 cost 44 shillings 3 pence.  (12)

I have purchased original brass kettles and saucepans of various sizes in the U.S. and in the U.K. and have used them in preparing foods with never any more problem than with the tin-lined reproductions I own.  I do not use them with acidic foods and I do not allow food to sit in them after it has finished cooking.  I do keep them scrupulously clean, just as the early authors instructed, and I use them for historic cooking demonstrations, not on a daily basis.    The reader will, however, assume all responsibility for any problem associated with its use.   

*  A quadrant was a Roman measure equivalent to about 24 quarts.

Part II, Native Americans and their Use of Brass Kettles, to follow in my next post.

Bib:  

1.  Oliver, Edmund Henry.  Roman Economic Conditions to the Close of the Republic.  1907.  Toronto.
2. Plater’s Guide.  Vol. V.  Jan-Dec. 1909.
3. Manwearing, Charles William.  Digest of Early Connecticut Probate Records from 1635 to 1700.  1904.  Hartford.
4. Ibid.
5. Isham, Norman.  Early Connecticut Houses.  1900.  Providence, RI. 
6. Proceedings of the State Historical Society Wisconsin.  1904.  Madison.
7. Quoted from Michaud’s Early Western Travels in Moore, N. Hudson, The Collector’s Manual, 1905.  NY.
8. American Agriculturist.  Vol. 24.  Sep. 1865. 
9. Beecher, Henry Ward, Mrs. All Around the House.  1881.  NY. 
10. Leslie, Eliza.  Miss Leslie’s Lady’s House-book; a Manual of Domestic Economy.   1850.  Philadelphia.
11. Good Housekeeping.  Jan. 9, 1886.  NY. 
12. Rogers, James Edwin Thorold.  History of Agriculture and Prices in England 1583 to 1702.  1887.  Oxford.

The only mistake I seem to have made in preparing this meal was in letting time slip away and getting the goose started a little later than I meant to.  Dinner ended up being served at 7 instead of 6, but Martin said it was more than worth the wait.

The old cookery books insisted that roast goose be served with applesauce, and for a historic foodie the jarred stuff wouldn’t cut it, not on Christmas.  I used Macintosh and Granny Smith apples – a two to one ratio of Macintosh to the Granny Smith – a half cup of sugar, and a half teaspoon of cinnamon.  I cannot tell you how Heavenly this house smelled while that was cooking.

The goose was seasoned with a home-made rub, and yes it is made of period correct ingredients and is based on a period blend.  The saltiness of the rub and the sweet-tart flavor of the applesauce was perfect together.  It was very easy to see why our 18th century counterparts felt so strongly that the two be served together.

My stuffing was made from cornbread, celery, sage, mushrooms, and fresh chestnuts with heavy cream and stock from the goose giblets.  Martin made gravy to serve with that and as usual did an unbelievable job.  Once I had his, I haven’t made gravy since.

The blancmange was perhaps the most delicate thing I’ve ever eaten and the subtle almond flavor was wonderful.  It was like eating a cloud it was so light, yet had just the perfect body for unmolding.  It was definitely something that will be on our table often.

The roasted root vegetables were made with some of the fat from the goose, and since goose is by nature fatty, there was thankfully quite a bit of it to save and use on other special occasions.  Goose fat is divine for seasoning and for cooking and the carrots, baby potatoes, and parsnips benefitted immensely from their dip in the goose fat pool.

Finally, how can you have an 18th century Christmas dinner without plum pudding?  It was absolutely delicious, especially with the orange sauce I made to go with it.  I used a dozen or so period receipts and chose the best parts from each one to make this pudding, and you can bet the farm I’ll be writing down exactly what went into it so that I can make it again as close to the original as possible. 

Christmas plum pudding & sauce

I would say Merry Christmas to all, but Christmas has come and gone and won’t be around again until next year, so instead, I’ll say, Blissful Meals, Yall, and hope I’ve encouraged you to try something special very soon.

As I said in an earlier post, I am planning a cozy 18^th century Christmas dinner, the crown jewel of which will be a golden brown roasted goose served along with the blancmange from an article posted last week.   The following poem is a great lead-in for a post on roasted goose. 

 Roast goose!  Roast goose

Is a thing of beauty as well as use;

As Cook well knows, who has the taste,

To baste—and baste—and baste—and baste,

While he the spit keeps turning,

Above the faggots* burning,

With juice

Profuse

That will soon will produce

The delicate brown

That wins renown,

As well in the country as in the town,

For goose—roast goose.  (1)

When researching a period food I like to document its use as early as I can.  In the case of roast goose, that may be a notation that Abrahams made in a footnote, “Roast goose is named as a dainty as early as the Targum Sheni to Esther”, [Biblical era] followed by Immanuel of Rome’s consideration that Jews were particularly fond of goose in 16^th century Germany.  (2)  

The ideal age of the goose so that the meat should be tender and flavorful was four months, when it was known as a green goose. 

Early receipts instruct the cook make a stuffing with onion and sage, and, “Applesauce is indispensable with roast goose”.  Sage and onion remained the popular flavor for stuffing well into the 20^th century.  (3)  

An 1822 receipt for Forcemeat for Goose instructed the cook to chop very fine about two ounces of onion and an ounce of green sage to which add four ounces of bread crumbs, the yolk and white of an egg, a little salt and pepper, and if approved, a minced apple.  (4)

I found a similar receipt from 1830.  (5)

Goose Roasted.  A stubble goose** should be stuffed with sage and onions, chopped small, and mixed with pepper and salt; boil the sage and onion in a little water before they are chopped, or mix a few bread crumbs with them when chopped; either will render them less strong.  Put it first at a distance from the fire, and by degrees draw it nearer.  A slip of paper should be skewered on the breast bone [to keep it from overcooking].  Baste it very well.  When the breast is rising, take off the paper, and be careful to serve it before the breast falls, it will be spoiled by coming to table flattened.  Serve it with good gravy and apple sauce, in boats.  It will take about an hour and a half to roast. 

That book contained a large number of ways of making goose including the following for Goose (Green) Roasted. 

After a green goose has been well trussed and singed, put into the inside a good bit of butter, mixed with pepper and salt; put it to roast, and baste it frequently with butter.  When done, shake over it some flour and salt, when ready, take out the skewers, lay it on the dish with good gravy under it, and green sauce in a boat; it will take three quarters of an hour to roast.

Sage and onion were standard seasonings but the body of the stuffing was sometimes mashed potato instead of bread crumbs.  Chestnuts were sometimes part of the stuffing as well. 

In 1902, Annie Gregory published a receipt for what she called dressing, that good old Southern word for yummy goodness, which she made with roast goose.  “The dressing should be made of three pints of bread-crumbs, six ounces of butter, a teaspoonful each of sage, black pepper and salt, and an onion chopped fine.”  The drippings were thickened with flour to make gravy.  (6)   

Roasted Goose.  A goose should be roasted in the same manner as a turkey.  It is better to make the stuffing of mashed potatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, and onions, to the taste.  Apple sauce is good to serve with it.  Allow fifteen minutes to a pound, for a goslin[g]***, and twenty or more for an older one.  Goose should be cooked rare.  – Beecher, Catherine Esther.  (7) 

An 1842 receipt begins with typical instructions for dressing the goose before it can be roasted, however, when your goose comes shrink wrapped from the grocery store these steps are worthy of mention only for their historical merit.  – Chambers, William.  Chambers’s Information for the People.  1842.  Edinburgh.

To Roast Goose.  Pick, draw****, and singe the goose.  Cut off its head and neck.  Take off the legs and wings at the first joint.  The portions of the legs and wings that are left are skewered to the sides.  Stuff with chopped sage and onion, and crumbs of bread, with pepper and salt.  The skin of the neck must be tied securely, to prevent the gravy from running out.  Paper the breast for a short time.  A goose does not require so much basting as fowl or turkey, for it is naturally greasy.  It will require from two hours to two hours and a half in roasting.  It ought to be thoroughly done.  Serve with gravy sauce and apple sauce.  The liver, gizzard, head, neck, feet, and the pinions of the goose, form what is termed the giblets, and compose a good stew or pie.

Mrs.  Giger instructed removing the roasted goose to a hot plate before stirring a little flour into the pan drippings and adding water to make gravy.  It was still served with applesauce.  (8) 

Roast goose wasn’t only eaten at Christmas.  It was the traditional food of Michaelmas, the Feast of St. Michael, the Archangel, on 29 September.   Legend says that those who eat roasted goose on Michaelmas will have money plenty the year round.  A goose killed at harvest time to be consumed for the feast of St. Michael was called a stubble goose because it was killed after the crops were harvested and only stubble was left in the ground.

An old legend says Queen Elizabeth I was eating roasted goose when she received the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada.  Whether true or not, I think we see that roast goose has been the focal point of holiday dinners for many centuries, and it’s hard to get more traditional than that.  Another slice of goose please!  (9)

*  A faggot was a bundle of sticks used as fuel.  **  A goose for Michaelmas – one eaten at harvest time.  ***  A gosling was a young goose.  ****  To pick a goose is to remove its feathers.  To draw it is to disembowel it.   To singe it means to pass a piece of flaming paper over its skin to remove the bit of feathers that remain lodged in the skin.   Pinions are the tips (first joint) of the wings.

Bib:

1.  Griset, Ernest, Hood, Thomas.  Griset’s Grotesques; or Jokes drawn on Wood, With Rhymes by T. Hood.  1867.  London.

2.  Abrahams, Israël.  Jewish Life in the Middle Ages.  1919.  Philadelphia.

3.  Practical Housekeeper.  Cooking as it Should Be; a New Manual for the Kitchen and Dining Room.  1856.  Philadelphia.

4.  Eaton, Mary.  The Cook and Housekeeper’s Complete and Universal Dictionary.  1822.  Bungay.

5.  Dolby, Richard.  The Cook’s Dictionary, and House-Keeper’s Directory:  A New Family Manual of Cookery and Confectionery.  1830.  London.

6.  Gregory, Annie.  Woman’s Favorite Cookbook.  1902. 

7.  Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book:  Designed as a Supplement to her Treatise on Domestic Economy.  1848.  NY.

8.  Giger, Emma Alder.  Colonial Receipt Book.  1907.  Philadelphia.

9.  The American Kitchen Magazine.  Vol. 3.  Sept. 1895.

Bass caught on the Coosa River, Alabama, image in public domain.

This article is for my son, Josh, whose main interest in life is fishing bass tournaments.  A while back I posted an article on cooking catfish in the 18^th century, so it is only fair I give this long-time favorite a worthy mention. 

Long before casting reels and “catch and release” Native Americans were catching bass and eating them.  The famous Naturalist, William Bartram, penned an account published in 1791 of the Natives in the South catching largemouth bass by bobbing hooks from a long pole. 

The experience of watching Native Americans bob fishing, or dapping, from a canoe for bass occurred in 1760, 31 years before Bartram’s book was published.  Most agree that the fish he erroneously called a trout was in fact a bass. 

Cook Book with recipe for Boiled Bass and Fried Bass

Two people are in a little canoe, one sitting in the stern to steer, and the other near the bow, having a rod ten or twelve feet in length, to one end of which is tied a string line, about twenty inches in length, to which is fastened three large hooks, back to back. These are fixed very securely, and tied with the white hair of a deer’s tail, shreds of a red garter, and some parti-colored feathers, all which form a tuft or tassel nearly as large as one’s fist, and entirely cover and conceal the hooks; that are called a “bob.” The steersman paddles softly, and proceeds slowly along shore; he now ingeniously swings the bob backwards and forwards, just above the surface and sometimes tips the water with it, when the unfortunate cheated trout [sic] instantly springs from under the reeds and seizes the exposed prey.

Natives were no doubt eating bass and other fish well before Bartram’s experience.  Soon after arriving in the New World Europeans followed their example and bass and other fish took their rightful place on their tables.  A book on the early settlers of Massachusetts has an account of explorers passing wigwams and a house where a man sat eating boiled bass with no bread.  The travelers partook of the bass and then resumed their travels [1630].  – Young, Alexander.  Chronicles of the First Planters, or, The Colony of Massachusetts Bay 1623 to 1636.  1846.  Boston.

Another 17^th century account of eating bass may be one of the earliest receipts for making it.

Their homony consisted of corn broken in a mortar and boiled.  Their samp was whole corn hulled by scalding water, a little impregnated with lie.  Their nokehike was corn parched and pounded.  Suckatash was composed of corn in the milk, [fresh corn, not dried] and green beans – a very palatable dish.  The broth of a boiled bass-head, thickened with homony, was called upaquontop.  – Williamson, William.  History of the State of Maine:  From its First Discovery, A.D. 1602 to the Separation, A.D. 1820, Inclusive.  1832.  Hallowel.

TheHistoricFoodie making hominy in the Creek village at Ft. Toulouse

In Providence, RI, in 1836, a recreation of an Indian banquet was staged to celebrate 200 years of settlement.  The following account is much the same as the previous one as to how the fish was eaten.

An Indian mat being spread out, a large wooden platter well filled with boiled bass graced the centre, supported on one side by a wooden dish of parched corn, and on the other by a similar one of succotash.  – Stone’s Life of Howland, p. 262, quoted in John Russell Bartlett’s A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States.  1859.  Boston. 

A cookbook published in 1840 told the cook to season the bass with salt and pepper, stuff it with bread, one egg, marjoram and parsley, minced fine, with salt pork and four ounces of butter, bake an hour, and when done pour over it melted butter; served with stewed oysters.

That book also contained a receipt for Pickled Bass, similar to today’s ceviche.  Boil sea-bass till done, lay in a dish, put some allspice and pepper into some vinegar, let it come to the boil, and pour over the fish.  To be eaten cold.  – Economical Cookery.  1840.  Newark, NJ.   

In 1842, a dinner prepared for Charles Dickens at the City Hotel in New York included Boiled Bass with caper sauce on the Bill of Fare. – Delmonico’s:  A Century of Splendor.  1858.  NY. 

In Marion Harland’s book, the cook was instructed to fry bass to a light golden brown in a mixture of half butter and half lard taking care not to over-cook it.  “The fashion affected by some cooks of drying fried fish to a crust is abominable.  Fried bass are a most acceptable breakfast dish”.  – Common Sense in the Household:  A Manual of Practical Housewifery.  1871.  NY.

Other writers agreed with the merits of fried bass for breakfast because it turns up quite often.

Charles Lanman’s Bill of Fare in hunting camp (1856) would make anyone’s mouth water:  Boiled salmon with oyster sauce, fried bass, lobster, fried trout, pork chips, cold ham, boiled shoulder of pork, new potatoes, string beans, Windsor beans, carrots, beets, snipe and plover, and blueberries and raspberries. These men never heard the admonishment to “pack light”.   – Adventures in the Wilds of the United States and British American Provinces.  1856.  Philadelphia.

Isaac Homans thought the “upper classes” may not have eaten fish as often as they should and considered fish to be lighter of digestion and healthier than meat.  “…they might enjoy, at least more often, real luxury in a dish of common broiled cod-fish and potatoes, a broiled mackerel, a fried bass, or a smoked herring.”  – Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine and Commercial Review.  1852.  NY. 

Olive Green outdid herself with the number of ways she offered for preparing bass – a whopping 45 receipts!  It was fried whole, fried in fillets, stuffed, stewed, broiled, baked, &c., and served with bacon and a number of sauces.  – Green, Olive.  How to Cook Fish.  1908.  NY & London.

The receipt that turns up most often in cookery books prior to the 1920’s is Fried Bass with Bacon.  About the only thing that varies from one book to another is the quantity of bacon served up with the fish.  Oscar of the Waldorf was among those who thought one slice of bacon per fish made a simple but nice presentation while others offered several rashers of crispy bacon. 

Wash, scale, and carefully clean the bass, season well with pepper and salt, roll them in flour and let them lie in it until ready to be cooked, then drop into a pan of very hot lard and fry until nicely browned.  Then fry in a separate pan four slices of streaky bacon; one piece for each piece of the fish and lay the slices of bacon one on each piece of fish.  Garnish with parsley and serve with mashed potatoes. 

Oscar included in his book a fairly simple receipt for stuffed bass would also make a stunning presentation.  A stuffing made from bread crumbs, spices, eggs, butter, lemon, salt, pepper, and a little water was stuffed into the fish, the fish was sewn closed, and then artfully baked.  – Tschirky, Oscar.  The Cook Book by “Oscar” of the Waldorf.  1896.  Chicago.

Blancmange mold

Blancmange is one of the easiest period dishes to make and is an excellent dish for someone who wants to add a touch of traditionalism to the holiday meal.  For those more creative, try making a layered dessert by refrigerating layers of colored gelatin and blancmange in the mold and perhaps garnishing with fresh fruit.

Middle Ages blancmange usually included pounded capon or chicken breast and sweetened almond milk, but by the 1700’s the chicken was forgotten. 

Receipts from the 18^th century have the cook to discard the almond solids after the “milk” has been strained.  Blancmange is basically a thickened gelatin made with milk.  The French term was blanc mangier.  It got its white color from the milk used in it unless it was colored with some substance such as spinach juice, cochineal, or saffron. 

A popular shape blancmange mold

Blank Maunger. XXXVI. Take Capouns and seeþ hem, þenne take hem up. take Almandes blaunched. grynd hem and alay hem up with the same broth. cast the mylk in a pot. waisshe rys and do þerto and lat it seeþ. þanne take brawn of Capouns teere it small and do þerto. take white grece sugur and salt and cast þerinne. lat it seeþ. þenne messe it forth and florissh it with aneys in confyt rede oþer whyt. and with Almaundes fryed in oyle. and serue it forth.  – The Forme of Cury, 1390. England.

[The cook was to boil a capon, grind the meat in a mortar and put it into a pot.  Rice was to be cooked with it along with white grease, sugar, and salt.] 

The following receipts for blancmange will show the various substances used over the course of several decades to thicken the mixture and then we’ll conclude with a strictly modern version anyone can make. 

In 1844, Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury’s receipt book offered the cook the choice of using hartshorn [initially ground horn of a male deer, or hart, later ammonium carbonate also called baker’s ammonia] or isinglass.  Ms. Parloa’s receipts for blanc-mange include a version thickened with Irish moss instead of gelatin which she said was the best sort.  Blancmange was still being thickened with Irish or Carragheen moss into the 1890’s.  – Bury, Charlotte, Lady.  The Lady’s Own Cookery Book.  London.

Into the last quarter of the 19^th century blancmange was still thickened with ground rice flour and with arrow-root or cornstarch as well as some of the thickeners already discussed.

I tried to purchase some Carragheen moss the last time I was in Scotland, but the store had none in stock.  I was there for an extended period of time, but time moves slowly there, and they still had not placed an order to replenish their stock when I left to return home. 

Richard Briggs’ book [1788] contains versions thickened with calves foot jelly and with isinglass, as does John Mollard’s in 1802.  

BLANCMANGE.  Mollard, John.  The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined.  1802.  London.  Put a pint of warm cleared calves foot jelly into a stewpan; mix with it the yolks of six eggs, set it over a fire, and whisk it till it begins to boil.  Then set the pan in cold water and stir the mixture till nearly cold, to prevent it from curdling, and when it begins to thicken fill the shapes.  When it is ready to be served up dip the shapes in warm water.

AMERICAN BLANCMANGE.  The Ladies’ New Book of Cookery.  Sarah J. Hale.  1852.  NY.  Mix 2 oz. of arrow-root in half a pint of cold water; let it settle for a quarter of an hour; pour off the water and add a table-spoonful of orange or rose water; sweeten 1 quart of new milk; boil it with a bit of cinnamon, half the peel of a lemon, and 4 laurel or bay leaves; pour the boiling milk upon the arrow-root, stirring it all the time:  put it into the mould and turn it out the following day.

BLANCMANGE.  Bishop, Frederick.  The Wife’s Own Book.  1856.  London.  Take one ounce of picked isinglass, boil it in a pint of water with a bit of cinnamon till it is melted, add three quarters of a pint of cream, two ounces of sweet almonds, six bitter ones blanched and beaten, a bit of lemon peel; sweeten it and stir it over the fire.  When it boils, strain it and let it cool, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and put into moulds.  It may be garnished according to fancy. 

Irish Moss or Carrigan BLANCMANGE.  Peterson, Hannah Mary Bouvier.  1870.  Philadelphia.  Soak half an ounce of the moss in cold water for a few minutes; then withdraw it, shaking the water from each sprig, and boil it in a quart of milk till it attains the consistency of jelly, and sweeten to the taste. 

BLANC-MANGE WITH GELATINE.  Parloa, Maria.  The Appledore Cook Book.  1880.  Boston.  Soak a box of gelatin in cold water enough to cover it one hour.  Put three pints of milk in a tin pail, and set in a kettle with hot water; when the milk comes to a boil, stir in the gelatin and two spoonfuls of sugar.  Flavor with vanilla or lemon, strain into blanc-mange moulds, and when cool, set on ice to harden.  Make this, if possible the day before it is to be used.  Serve with sugar and cream. 

Corn-starch Blancmange.  Allen, Horace.  1883.  Philadelphia.  One quart of milk, four tablespoonfuls corn-starch, wet in a little cold water; three eggs, well beaten, whites and yolks separately; one cup of sugar, vanilla or other essence, and one saltspoonful salt.

1^st.  Heat the milk to boiling.  2^nd.  Stir in the cornstarch and salt, and boil together five minutes.  3d  Add the yolks, beaten light, with the sugar, and boil two minutes longer, stirring all the while.  4^th.  Remove the mixture from the fire, and beat in the whipped whites while it is boiling hot.  5^th.  Pour into a mould wet with cold water, and set in a cold place.  6^th.  Eat with sugar and cream.

BLANC-MANGE, Gesine Lemcke.  Desserts and Salads.  1911.  NY.  Boil 1 quart milk with 6 Tablespoonfuls sugar; add 1 ounce gelatin which has been soaked in a little cold water for 15 minutes; stir this over the fire until gelatin is dissolved; rinse out a form with cold water, sprinkle with sugar, pour in the blanc-mange and set it on ice; swerve with vanilla sauce.

BLANCMANGE, modern version.  1 pint of milk, 1 pint of heavy cream, 4 oz. caster sugar, 1 ¼ oz. of unflavored gelatin, ½ oz. sweet almonds, blanched, and crushed into a paste, the zest of 1 lemon, ¼ tsp. almond extract.             Put the milk into a pan with the gelatin and lemon zest.  Add the almonds and almond extract.  Allow the mixture to come to a boil, stirring so it doesn’t scorch.  As soon as it boils, strain the mixture.  To the liquid milk mixture, stir in the cream and stir until it cools.  (Placing the pan into a sink with ice cubes speeds the process).  Let the mixture stand for a few minutes while you prepare a mold.  Very lightly coat the mold with vegetable oil or spray with cooking spray.  Pour the mixture into the mold, and refrigerate until firm. 

Vanilla Blancmange

SOURCES:  Isinglass:  Available from amazon.com in powder form.  Irish moss:  Amazon.com.  Unflavored gelatin:  Knox gelatin is available from grocery stores.  It can be purchased in bulk through Amazon.com.

Rat-tail radish

There is a very detailed account on the internet of the history of the rat-tailed radish, claiming it to have been introduced into England from Java in the year 1815.  The author of that blog also claimed the pods were “introduced” to the public with information about their history and culture during the International Horticultural Exhibition in London in 1866. 

I’m sure, Mr. Bull, did actually present the radish pods at the Exhibition, but the idea of eating radish-pods certainly was not new at that time.  Any radish, if left to bolt and go to seed, will produce an edible seed pod.  The length the pods can attain before becoming tough and stringy varies between species.  There are varieties which are grown strictly for their seed pods and produce no root other than a skinny little tap-root too small to harvest.    

John Evelyn said in his Acetaria, published in 1699, that, “seed pods of this root make a pretty sallet”, and in so doing, may be one of the earliest accounts of pickling edible radish pods.  – 1699.  London.

In his blog, Ivan Day says he was asked to identify the plant depicted on a silver tureen held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and his answer was that it was the rat-tailed radish.  The tureen was made for the Duke Albert Casimir of Sachsen-Teschen and his wife who died in 1822 and 1798 respectively.  At best, his identification places the rat-tailed radish in European gardens prior to 1798.  At worst, the plant depicted on the tureen is another very similar type of edible pod radish which the rat-tail may have been bred from.  Either way, the edible pod radish, one species or another, was being grown and eaten during the 18^th century. 

Batty Langley in his, New Principles of Gardening published in 1827, instructed his readers as to the culture of radish pods.  His account is for the ordinary kitchen radish which, if left to bolt and make seed, will produce edible pods, but they are smaller than the varieties of radish which are grown for the pods rather than the roots.   

The stalks are round, of a reddish and pale green colour, divided into many small branches, at whose Ends spring forth small light purpled colour’d Flowers, each consisting of four leaves only, which are succeded by sharp pointed pods, seemingly puft or blown up, and full of a spungious or pithy substance wherein is contained the seed…Their Parts for Use.  The Seed Leaves, and Roots when as large as the thick part of a common Tobacco Pipe, and the Seed-Pods make a very fine Pickle.  The Quantity of Seed-Leaves, in a Sallet of small Herbs, ought to be three times the quantity of any other; and for the Radish Roots, they may be eaten at Pleasure. 

In 1830, John Towers left us with instructions to leave some plants in the original beds; by which means seed could be procured for the next year’s plantings by harvesting the seed pods of the common radish.  Indeed, many of the receipts which instruct in the pickling of radish pods may be using the pods formed on the common kitchen garden radish, but there accounts which seem to indicate there were varieties grown purely for their pods much earlier.  – The Domestic Gardener’s Manual.  1830.  London.

The best known variety of radishes grown strictly for their pods is the rat-tailed radish.  In 1871, a gardener said it had been introduced, “a few years hence”, which seems to agree with the date of the Exhibition in London.  He described a radish which produced a, “large bush”, which although he gave no idea of the plant’s height, would seem to be at least two feet to be likened to a bush.  He thought it rather curious and suggested every gardener grow a few in pots or warm sheltered areas outdoors.  – Loudon, John.  The Horticulturist.   1871.  London.

Accounts of the size of the pods were hugely exaggerated, some claiming them to be up to 2 to 3 feet in length.  They will grow to 6 inches long and more, but should be harvested while young and tender.   A gardener dispelled the rumors as to size of the pods while helping establish that it was grown in England. 

I told them that more than fifteen years ago some of the seed of this plant had been sent me by a relative from India.  It grew like a weed in the gardens of friends in Cornwall and Hertfordshire, to home I sent some, was soon voted a nuisance, and Raphanus was eradicated.  – Hardwicke’s Science-gossip.  Vol. 3.  Dec. 1, 1867.

In 1858, a plant labeled, “Raphanus caudatus of Linnaeus”, was exhibited at the Edinburgh Botanical Garden and set off a wave of differing opinions as to its origins and history and whether or not the so-called rat-tailed radish was a completely different species from that classed by Linnaeus.  Of special note, is the fact that whether it was the true rat-tailed variety or not, a species with seed pods much longer than that of the common radish was available during the career of Linnaeus who died in 1787. 

The same writer who brought up Linnaeus claimed the Madras, or Edible Pod Radish was introduced into France by M. Courtois-Gerard.  – Barry, Downing, Smith, Mead, Woodward, and Williams.  The Horticulturist, and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.  1853-1874. 

One gardener wrote he was surprised to find, “an old Salad plant that I had not seen for years, namely, the rat-tailed Radish.  It used to be grown in most gardens thirty years ago.  Its long, rat-tail like pods when young taste much like Radish and are excellent for summer salad and a good substitute for Radish in hot weather when it is often difficult to have these latter in good condition”.  – The Gardener’s Chronicle.  Sat. March 30, 1907. 

Several mid-Victorian receipt books inform the reader that string beans and radish pods are good pickled together.  The longer pods of radish somewhat resemble green beans when picked young before they become tough and fibrous so they complement each other visually as well as in flavor.

A variety of vegetables, primarily peppers and cucumbers, were pickled after being stuffed with a mixture of various spices.  The process was known as mangoes or “mangoing” the vegetables.  Radish pods were sometimes included in the mixture packed into the vegetables.

The following receipts should show that edible seed pod radishes deserve a place on the 18^th century dinner table. 

TO PICKLE PEPPERS.  Make a filling for the peppers of grated horseradish, mustard seed, small radish pods, chopped cabbage, and salt; cut the stem and the seed out of the pepper.  Fill the peppers with this mixture and tie the stem part on tight; pack them closely in a stone jar, and cover them with cold vinegar.  – La Fayette, Eugene.  Professor La Fayette’s French Family Cook Book.  1885.  London, Chicago, NY.

TO PICKLE RADISH PODS.  Gather your Radish Pods when they are quite young, and put them in Salt and water all Night, then boil the Salt and Water they were laid in, and pour it upon your Pods, and cover your jars close to keep in the Steam, when it grows cold, make it boiling hot, and pour it on again, keep doing so till your Pods are quite Green, then put them on a Sieve to drain, and make a Pickle for them of White Wine Vinegar, with a little Mace, Ginger, Long Pepper, and Horse-radish, pour it boiling hot upon your Pods, when it is almost cold make your Vinegar twice as hot as before, and pour it upon them, and tie them down with a bladder [old way of sealing crocks or jars].    – Raffield, Elizabeth.  The Experienced English House-keeper, for the Use and Ease of Ladies, House-keepers, Cooks, &c.  1769.  Manchester.   & Farley, John.  The London Art of Cookery, and Housekeeper’s Assistant.  1787.  London.

The preceding receipt was published in The Lady’s Magazine Or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex, May 1775, London, which also contained a receipt for Piccalillo similar to John Farley’s. 

While John Farley’s receipt for pickled radish pods was taken from Elizabeth Raffield’s book, he did offer an additional receipt for using radish pods.

INDIAN PICKLE, OR PICCALILLO.  Take a cauliflower, a white cabbage, a few small cucumbers, radish pods, kidney-beans, and a little beet root, or any other thing commonly pickled.  Put them into a hair sieve, and throw a large handful of salt over them.  Set them in the sun, or before the fire for three days to dry.  When all the water be run out of them, put them into a large earthen pot in layers, and between every layer put a handful of brown mustard seed.  Then take as much ale allegar as you think will cover it, and to every four quarts of allegar, put an ounce of turmeric.  Boil them together, and pour it hot upon your pickle.  Let it stand twelve days upon the hearth, or till the pickles be all of a bright yellow colour, and most of the allegar sucked up.  Then take two quarts of strong ale allegar, an ounce of mace, the same of white pepper, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, and the same of long pepper and nutmeg.  Beat them all together and boil them ten minutes in the allegar.  Then pour it upon your pickles, with four ounces of peeled garlic.  Tie it close down. 

PICKLED RADISH PODS.  Make a pickle strong enough to bear an egg, with spring water and bay salt.  Put your pods into it, and lay a thin board on them to keep them under the pickle.  Let them stand ten days, then drain them in a sieve, and lay them on a cloth to dry.  Take as much white wine vinegar as you think will cover them, boil it, and put your pods in a jar with ginger, mace, cloves, and Jamaica pepper.  Pour your vinegar boiling-hot on them, cover them with a coarse cloth three or four times double, that the steam may come therough a little, and let them stand two days.  Repeat this two or three times.  When it is cold, put in a pint of mustard-seed, and some horse-radish, and cover them as directed.  – Carter, Charles, Gentlewoman.  The London and Country Cook; Or, Accomplished Housewife.  1749.  London.  & Glasse, Hannah.  The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy.  1784.  London.  & verbatim in Collingwood, Francis.  The Universal Cook and City and Country Housekeeper.  1792.  London.

An 1866 receipts for Indian Pickle and Universal Pickle are significant in that they say the cabbage and cauliflower will be ready for pickling at the same time, and that the other ingredients (radish-pods, French beans, gherkins, small onions, nasturtiums, capsicums, chilies &c.) are to be added as they are harvested.  Later additions were to be wiped down in vinegar and added to the jar as they were picked.  – Beeton, Isabella.  How to Dine – Dinners and Dining.  London. 

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Borella.  The Court and Country Confectioner; Or, The Housekeeper’s Guide.  1770.  London.

Graham, William.  The Art of Making Wine from Fruits, Flowers, and Herbs.  1775.  London.

Drake, Carl.  Studies in Hemiptera.  Dissertation.  1920.  University of Ohio.

Martin, Sarah.  The New Experienced English House-keeper.  1795.  London.

Peter Claesz, Still Life with Peacock Pie, 1627

Christmas dinners have been worthy of penning for history since the days of noble tables set for hundreds of persons and the dishes that consistently were placed upon those tables are worthy of note today.  While the dishes themselves changed over time the one thing that has remained constant is the appreciation of tradition.

Henry II’s [1133-1189] table was graced with dishes of cranes while Henry III [1207-1272] purchased 20 salmon, “to be put into pies”.  “The sammon, king of fish, fills with good cheer the Christmas dish”. 

In 1398, Richard II [1367-1400] supposedly had 2,000 oxen roasted for one Christmas feast.  For another, the following recipe was used to make a great pie to grace the Christmas table.

Take a pheasant, a hare, a capon, two partridges, two pigeons, two rabbits, bone them and put them into paste the shape of a bird, with the livers and hearts, two mutton kidneys, forcemeats, sage balls, seasoning, spice, catchup [could have been made with walnuts, mushrooms, peppers, etc. – tomatoes weren’t yet used], pickled mushrooms, filled up with gravy made from the various bones.

Edward III’s [1312-1377] table was set with blanc-manges, tarts, pies, and rich soups of brawn [boar’s flesh] and capon [an emasculated rooster].

The English nobility often employed French cooks whose specialties included “jellies [gelatin] of all colors [and flavors] in all figures – flowers, trees, beasts, fish, fowl, and fruit”.

Wine was spiced to taste, and cinnamon, grains of Paradise, and ginger also scented the various desserts.

By this time boar’s head emerged as a standard Christmas dish.  The boar’s head was pickled, boiled, or roasted and laid in a great charger covered with a garland of bay and served with a lemon in its mouth and with mustard. 

Boar's head, blanc-mange, &c.

It was not unusual to roast the heads of various animals or make them into soup and some countries continue this tradition today. 

 “Brawn is probably as old a Christmas tradition as boar’s head”. 

Peacock was the next Christmas dish – the skin was carefully scraped off with the plumage adhering.  The bird was roasted and when done it was sewed up again in its feathers, its beak gilt, and sent to table.  Sometimes the whole body was covered in gold leaf and a piece of cotton soaked in spirits and lighted before it was carved.

English writers noted that the turkey graced English Christmas tables from the time it was introduced into England from the Americas about 1524.  Throughout history swans, bustards [European game bird akin to the crane or plover], fat capons, goose, and roast beef have all delighted those partaking of the Christmas dinners. 

Roast Goose

Plum pudding evolved from rich plum porridges often served at breakfast.  As it became increasingly thicker with the passing of time it eventually was of a dense enough texture to stand alone as a dessert.  It has been included in cookery books since the 1600’s. For Christmas it was traditionally adorned with a sprig of holly and sometimes served with alcohol poured over it and set ablaze. 

Plum Pudding

Following the plum pudding, the next to join the exalted Christmas fare were minced or shred pies and frumenty.  Mince pies were sometimes called Christmas pie. 

“Every family against Christmas, makes a famous pie, which they call ‘Christmas pie’.  It is a great nostrum; the composition of this pasty is a most learned mixture of neats’ [beef] tongues, chicken, eggs, sugar, raisins, lemon, and orange-peel with various kinds of spicery.  – The Christmas Book:  Christmas in the Olden Time, It’s Customs and Their Origin.  1859.  London.

Frumenty was an important part of the Christmas dinner.  It was made of wheat boiled in broth with almonds, milk, yolks of eggs, and sweetened with sugar. – Cassel’s Household Guide.  1881.  London.

A poem written in Queen Elizabeth I’s time [1533-1603] informs us that following the boar’s head, which was sometimes soused and served on a silver platter, came great Christmas pies containing turkey, geese, various sorts of game and small birds with pork and mutton.  Such pies are still served “in the North [of England]”, though of much less size than olden times. 

…there is no notice of turkey and chine [pork containing the backbone]; none of the more famous roast beef which is now the chief dish at Christmas dinners.  In fact, they did not achieve their proud position until the fifteenth century, at which time, the poets and others begin to speak of them as commonly sent to the Christmas table.  Modern writers [Victorian era], however, frequently fall into the error of representing them as pertaining to the earliest feasts.  [A practice that continues, unfortunately.]

The Puritans [16^{th &} 17^th centuries] so spurned any semblance of finery that they banned Christmas customs and celebrations in New England.  The following generations, however, realized that there was no sin in wanting to provide the best one could for their family and loved ones on such a special and holy day as Christmas, and the Christmas dinner as we know it began to evolve as Puritanism faded away. 

In 1845, Thomas Hervey remembered the Christmas described in Samuel Pepys’ diary in 1668, and was thankful the days of Puritanism had long given way to openly celebrating the holiday in ways not so different from today.

Pepys wrote, “1668, Christmas-day.  To dinner alone with my wife; who, poor wretch! Sat undressed, all day till ten at night, altering and lacing of a noble petticoat; while I, by her, making the boy read to me the life of Julius Caesar and Des Cartes’ book of Music.” 

Everyone has their Christmas traditions, the little remembrances that tug at the heart strings and take us back to happy times with family and loved ones.  Wives have put a great deal of thought and preparation into making the Christmas dinner as beautiful and tasty as possible since the last days of Puritanism. 

Christmas dinner of old, as penned in the mid-Victorian era, still included some dishes foreign to today’s reader:  “Men may talk of country Christmasses, their thirty pound buttered eggs, their pies of carp’s tongue, their pheasants drenched with ambergris [a fat obtained from the whale], the carcases of three fat wethers [a castrated ram – like the rooster, emasculating the animal rendered the flesh more tender for the table] bruised for gravy, to make sauce for a single peacock; yet their feasts were fasts, compared with the city’s.”

Hervey went on to describe with joy the festivities of the “modern” [1845] holiday.

It is like that of all the other Christmas nights.  The blazing fire, the song, the dance, the riddle, the jest, and many another merry sport, are of its spirits.  Mischief will be committed under the mistletoe bough,–and all the good wishes of the season sent round under the sanction of the wassail-bowl.

The focal point of the Christmas dinner which Hervey so joyously wrote of was the turkey, born to grace Christmas tables decorated with candles and greenery gleefully gathered from the woods, the act of which was known as “bringing home Christmas”.

The custom of Victorians contributing to the Christmas dinner of those less fortunate was known as “Going a Gooding” and the basket used to transport the food was the Christmas basket.

We have an account of one such basket given to a widow with two small children which indicates the dishes which may have been considered the most traditional for Victorian Christmas dinners.  It contained a chicken, a plum pudding, four pies, bread, and some cakes.  – Thayer, William Makepeace.  Merry Christmas.  A Christmas Present for Children and Youth.  1854.  Boston.

Whatever your traditional Christmas fare, may it be a delight of fragrance and flavors, and a blessing to all who partake of it.  Blissful meals and Merry Christmas to all.