RECIPES FOR USING CANNED CHICKEN©

Tags

canned chicken, chicken pilau, self-reliance

I realize I’ll never be fully self-sufficient with my small yard but I’m determined to produce what I can with container gardening and whatever I grow I know how to preserve. With a properly prepared garden and knowledge of how to get the most per square foot, as much food can be grown in a small space as in a bigger sprawled out garden. My dad was very good at small plot gardening and from him I learned the importance of treating the soil and giving the plants all the nourishment they needed to grow and produce. When Martin made my raised beds he filled them with good compost from a local nursery to keep the soil loose and to be as rich as possible.

I’ve always put up food when I could to eliminate the nasty preservatives and additives in “store-boughten” foods and an extra plus is being able to make a meal without putting a great deal of thought and planning into it.

Wise cooks did likewise in earlier times and there is no better example than my late aunt Dora. She could go in the kitchen when it looked like there was nothing to work with and turn out a meal fit for a king. Women of that generation did not rely on pre-chopped and pre-cooked foods to feed their families. I’d like to share a few recipes for the type things that can be made from basic pantry staples.

FRICASEED CHICKEN
1 pint chicken stock or 1 cupful stock and 1 cupful thin cream; ¼ cupful flour; 1 pint canned chicken; Salt and pepper; Onion juice, celery salt, or celery leaves.
Reserve one-fourth cupful of stock. Add the seasoning to the remaining stock, and heat it to the boiling point. Blend the one-fourth cupful of stock smoothly with the flour, and with this thicken the hot stock. Boil the stock vigorously for five minutes. In this gravy warm the canned chicken. Do not boil the meat in the stock, for boiling toughens it. If desired, the chicken meat may be browned in butter before being added to the gravy. Serve the chicken on slices of toast, with baking powder or soda biscuits, or with boiled rice.

CREAMED CHICKEN
1 pint chicken, cut in dice; 2 cupfuls white sauce; 1/8 teaspoonful celery salt.
Warm the chicken in the sauce to which the celery salt has been added. Variations: The creamed chicken may be served with a border of hot boiled rice and canned sweet peppers or a border of mashed potatoes brushed with milk and browned in the oven, or one-fourth cupful of mushrooms cut in slices may be added.

WHITE SAUCE FOR CREAMED CHICKEN
1 cupful chicken stock; 1 cupful cream or milk; 1/3 cupful flour; ½ teaspoonful salt, few grains pepper
¼ cupful butter. Put the butter in a saucepan, and stir it until it is melted and bubbling. Add the flour, mixed with the seasoning, and stir the mixture until it is thoroughly blended. Add the stock and the milk, continue to stir the mixture, and bring it to the boiling point. Boil it for two minutes.

CHICKEN AND OYSTERS A LA METROPOLE. (You can use canned oysters).
1 pint white sauce, made with 2 cupfuls cream and ¼ cupful butter; 1 pint chicken, drained and diced; 1 pint oysters, cleaned and drained; 1/3 cupful finely chopped celery.
Add the chicken and the oysters to the sauce. Cook the mixture until the oysters are plump, and sprinkle it with celery before serving it.

CANNED CHICKEN WITH CREOLE SAUCE.
1 pint canned chicken; 6 tomatoes or 1 pint canned tomatoes; 3 sweet red peppers, fresh or canned, chopped; 3 sweet green peppers, chopped; ¼ pound ham or 2 or 3 slices bacon, chopped fine; 4 tablespoonfuls flour; ½ bay leaf; 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley; ½ teaspoonful salt; 1 small onion, chopped fine; 2 tablespoonfuls butter or bacon drippings.
Warm the contents of the can of chicken. Pour off the liquor, and dry the chicken meat. If desired, brown the meat delicately in a little butter or bacon fat. Cook the onion in butter or bacon drippings until it is light yellow, sprinkle into it four tablespoonfuls of flour, and brown the flour delicately. Pour into this mixture the tomatoes, which have been simmered with the bay leaf and salt for fifteen minutes. Allow the mixture to thicken, and strain it. Add the minced ham and parsley, and simmer the mixture for fifteen minutes. Add the chopped peppers and the chicken liquor, and bring the mixture to the boiling point. Simmer, do not boil, the browned chicken in this sauce for ten or fifteen minutes. Serve the chicken in a border of hot boiled rice on a hot platter.

Don’t forget chicken salad, chicken pot pie, chicken soup or stew, rice pilau, etc.

The article instructed canning chicken at home by deboning the meat and placing chunks of raw chicken into a jar with a half teaspoon of salt per jar. No water was added although the cook could add celery, onion, pepper, or other seasonings if desired. In the absence of a pressure canner, the chicken was processed for between 4 and 5 hours. The second method was to cook the chicken, pick off the meat and pack it into a jar, add the salt, fill the jar with the chicken stock, and process for three hours. [See my previous post] I’m thankful for my pressure canner because any time I have that much free time and money for gas I’d rather be on the motorcycle headed into the wind. With the pressure canner I can cut that 4 or 5 hours processing time down to 60 to 75 minutes and knock it out on a work night. Source: New York Dept. of Agriculture. Report. Vol. 1, Pt 2. Dec. 1, 1915.

Blissful Meals, yall.

BUTTER: Preservation Then and Now©

Tags

canned butter

For many years I lamented the fact that Americans were quickly losing any ability to provide for themselves, and the majority has, but there is a small but growing movement afoot to return to the ways of our past in order to provide for our families under the worst circumstances. For people such as myself who have always preserved food this is nothing new as the series of posts I’m working on will show.

One important ingredient in cooking is butter or other fat. If shortages become the order of the day as they did during the American Civil War and the two World Wars, having a supply of basics as well as what some would consider perishables will mean the difference between being slightly inconvenienced and doing without.

Salt helps to preserve butter and it will keep for extended periods without refrigeration. I keep it in the butter dish on the counter year round so when I want toast it’s not a hard little square impossible to spread. There are people who have “discovered” the ability to can butter for long term storage, but doing this is not a new concept. It was firmly documented by the late Victorian era and certainly healthier than some of the preservation methods used at that time.

Canning Butter. Rather than applying special antiseptics, as salicylic and boracic acid, etc., for preservation of butter, it may be preserved by being hermetically sealed—a method which has long been practiced, especially in case of butter intended for exportation to the tropics. Only butter of the very best quality can be used for this purpose, as only such will pay for the additional expense incurred by this method, and only such butter can stand the influence of the long transportation. Both sour-and sweet-cream butter are used for canning.

How often was this advice followed? More than four million pounds of canned butter was exported from Denmark alone during the year 1892-93. That’s a lot of butter my friend. – Grotenfelt, Gosta. The Principles of Modern Dairy Practice from a Bacteriological Point of View. 1902. NY.

Canning butter was done on a commercial and an individual basis. The U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry published requests for information useful to butter exporters in improving methods of canning butter for shipment to warmer climates in order to be competitive with other countries whose methods were quite successful. Such requests were published in 1892 and continued through 1900. – Science. Vol. 12. Dec. 14, 1900. Secretary of Agriculture. Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture. July 1899.

Mrs. J. J. McGraw of Yazoo, MS was noted for her success in canning butter which could, “be kept fresh for any length of time…[and] is reported to have made a success of it. On all the sandwiches served at a recent luncheon there was spread a good layer of this two-year-old butter and it was pronounced excellent”. I’m sure the reader noted this was successful in the hot and humid climate of Mississippi. – Pennsylvania Bureau of Foods. Monthly Bulletin. Jan. 1915.

There are differing opinions on the safety of home canned butter and the reader assumes all responsibility in trying the various methods discussed here and on the internet.

Method #1:
Slowly melt the butter in a large pan until it comes to a simmer (slow boil). Stir the bottom of the pot often so it doesn’t scorch. Reduce the heat and continue to simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Put the flat lids in a small quantity of water in a pan which should be kept hot but not boiling.

Fill your hot jars while the butter is at a simmering temperature. Leave 1 inch of head space. Wipe the top of the jar and make sure there is no butter to interfere with the seal. Put on a flat and screw the ring down tightly. You’ll hear gentle “pings” as the jars seal and as they cool enough to handle give them a gentle shake now and then to keep the solids from all settling in the bottom of the jar. When warm to the touch but not hot put the jars into the refrigerator and shake every 5 minutes until cold. Store your butter in a cool dry location.

Method 2: My method of preference is to slowly melt the butter on the stove or in the microwave, put the hot butter into jars (I prefer half pints), and then either pressure can at 5 to 10 min. at 5 lbs. pressure, or use a water bath long enough to completely heat the jars through and through. Give the jars a gentle shake now and again as they cool and store the butter in a cool dry place. It wouldn’t hurt to add a little extra salt to help preserve the butter over long periods of time.

For anyone who trusts the safety of commercially canned products more than what they make themselves there are multiple sources for buying canned butter. Expect to pay more and incur a shipping charge.

For those who neither want to can their own or purchase expensive canned butter for cooking, there are healthy ways to bake successfully without fat, just use the quantity (or slightly more) of canned pumpkin or canned applesauce instead of butter, lard, shortening, or oil. Canned pumpkin and applesauce keep practically indefinitely until they’re opened and are a healthy satisfying alternative. If you have it (which you probably wouldn’t in drastic times), mayonnaise works well in place of fats in baked goods. I’ve made quick rolls for years using Self-rising flour, mayonnaise, and milk or buttermilk.

See: Rogers, Lore Alford. Studies Upon the Keeping Quality of Butter. 1904. Washington.

Getting the Most for your Food Dollar©

Tags

food preservation, grocery ads, grocery sales

Are you so wealthy you don’t need to save a buck when you can? I didn’t think so. The biggest increase in prices in recent months has been groceries so let’s see what we can do to spend less and get more.

Grocery sales are the time to stock up on essentials and items your family uses a lot of, and your success depends on knowing when an item is at its rock-bottom price. That’s when you purchase enough of that item to last until it goes on sale again. If your store cooperates with you, use your coupons while an item is on sale and save even more. Fifty cents off BBQ sauce that’s on sale for a buck, is better than fifty cents off at two or three dollars per bottle.

Sale items are often timed to coincide with consumer demand, for example, if turkey is going on sale it’s generally going to be in November when Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up. BBQ sauce may be at its lowest just before July 4th for summer cookouts and …..well, you get my drift.

Some items are not only on sale, but widely available at such a time when they might not be at others. Enormous quantities of dried peas and smoked hog jowl will be at their cheapest a week or so before Christmas, and once they’re gone they may be gone till the next December. Summer green beans, collards, kale, cabbage, etc. just aren’t the same without some diced and browned smoked jowl.

In January don’t forget National Oatmeal Month and put back enough for your morning porridge and a few batches of oatmeal raisin cookies.

February is national canned food month – all together now, class, what should we be stockpiling in February? Following national canned food month comes frozen food month. How about some frozen corn, beans, soup mix or chicken tenders?

Ham is usually the big sale item before Easter. This year’s deal was Smithfield hams for 99 cents per lb. at Winn Dixie. Ham and Navy bean soup can’t be beat.
I had hoped to see eggs on sale for dying, but that didn’t happen this year. If it had, there would be quarts of pickled eggs in my pantry.
Prior to Memorial Day meats for the grill, condiments like that BBQ sauce, and maybe chips should be cheap enough to entice you into the store, and the nice air conditioning will make you comfortable enough to stay long enough to buy lots of other non-sale items. Charcoal will probably be priced lower than usual to go with the cheaper ground beef and wieners.
June is National Dairy Month – not sure what you may do with 10 gallons of milk unless you’re a cheese-maker, but it’s a good time to stock up on butter and either can it or freeze it. Until it’s opened and exposed to the dry air in the freezer ice cream keeps pretty well, and well, it IS dairy. Yogurt, cream cheese, whipping cream and the like also deserve your attention.
National Ice Cream Month takes place in July so if you didn’t already do so, load that buggy up. You might want to restock hotdogs, ground beef, buns, etc.
If you have little ones underfoot send them off to school with snacks, lunchables, and pudding cups you scored big with at the cash register and don’t forget the frozen waffles. It might be a good time to buy liquid soap, Kleenex, hand sanitizer, etc.

October’s big deal is often candy or maybe baking items, or hit one of those pick-your-own pumpkin patches and process your own pumpkin for pies, muffins, breads, and other baked goods. Roast your pumpkin in the oven instead of watering it down in a pot and those pies will be spectacular.
In November, sweet potatoes will probably be at their lowest price of the year. You may want to can some for candied sweet potatoes, or sweet potato casserole. Sweet potato bread wouldn’t be amiss either. Try to stockpile broths, nuts, evaporated or sweetened condensed milk, coconut, cake mix, butter, etc. while the price is dropped down low enough to pull you into the store. Pop a couple of turkeys in the freezer and smoke them as you get a craving for BBQ.
December may see an extension of the turkey sale season or you may see those hams marked down again. Baking items will be spilling out into the center aisle of the grocery store and that’s the time to stock up on dried candied fruit if you have a need for it. Personally, after the cherries you can have most of the rest of it, except maybe pineapple.
You may as well check out prices on instant potatoes, gravy mixes, cranberry sauce, poultry seasoning, etc. for long term storage. If you’re going to drag out the mylar bags and oxygen absorbers for storing oatmeal in January, you may as well do instant potatoes along with the oatmeal. You won’t find chicken broth for less than it will be in December – sometimes 3 for a $1.00 at the dollar store and it doesn’t matter what kind of store your sale items come from so long as they’re something you’ll use.
Let’s repeat all together: If possible, use coupons when an item is on sale to maximize savings. Buy in bulk when possible to last until the next seasonal sale. Get the freezer defrosted before frozen foods are the big interest item, and if you have a canner get those jars washed up to use for the summer pick-your-own veggies and fruits. Now, take a deep breath and go shop like you mean business.

A CHICKEN IN EVERY JAR©

Tags

canning chicken, canning ham, canning meat, canning soup

Because of so-called reality TV programs, most of us have seen families who believe life as we know it is soon coming to an end and because of that have squirreled away a lifetime supply of rice and dried beans. Whether you’re planning for such an eventuality or just want the convenience of canned meats without sacrificing the quality of a homemade meal, canning meats will add substantially to the versatility of the dishes you’re able to prepare from pantry staples.

Twice in my life I’ve lost power for two weeks at a time due to ice storms and falling trees breaking down power lines and three times I’ve lost huge quantities of food when a freezer stopped working. In fact, not long ago a power surge during a thunderstorm blew a thing-a-ma-jig in my refrigerator/freezer and I threw out an enormous amount of food that spoiled before I could get a repair man out to replace it. One thing I’ve learned from those experiences is that canned and dried food will last whereas frozen foods are only good so long as the freezer works.

Jars were patented in 1858 but not widely used for quite some time. Once the knowledge and materials for home canning became widespread, say early 20th century, canning became the method of choice in preservation for many housewives. One could purchase canned meats as well as vegetables and fruits so thrifty homemakers wanted the convenience of canned foods but at what they considered a more reasonable price and better quality so the art of home canning became all the rage.

In late summer and early fall, when back-yard poultry producers thinned their flocks for the coming winter, canning the chicken meant having ready-to-eat meat for winter whereas before they had suffered a loss. Making the chicken into soup and canning the prepared soup meant a hearty and delicious meal could be table ready in a matter of minutes and it was of better quality, meatier, and more economically feasible than “boughten” soup.

Poultry was canned using both the hot pack and raw pack methods in a water bath in the early 20th century. Homemakers were told to process jars of partially cooked chicken in a water bath for 3 to 3 ½ hours or raw packed chicken for 3 ½ to 4 hours. A homemaker can reduce that time to 75 to 90 minutes by using a pressure canner.

Success for those early canners meant having a full understanding of how the water-bath worked and lots of time to devote to the canning process.

“The cooking (sterilizing) is done in what is known as the waterbath canner—any kind of a metal vessel that can be placed over a stove, range or gas burner. A bucket, lard can, wash boiler or any similar vessel having a tight-fitting lid may be used. It must be deep enough so that the water will be at least an inch above the tops of the jars, and a false bottom should be provided to keep the jars from coming in contact with direct heat, also to provide a better circulation of the water, and a more even temperature.”

By the 1920’s, home economists were instructing homemakers in the use of pressure canners and evaluating the quality of the chicken after various cooking times using one.

“For example, in canning chicken (cut into pieces as usual, i.e. breast, leg, thighs, etc.) in a pint jar, at a pressure of 15 pounds (retort temperature 120 C.), it takes about 40 minutes for the temperature in the center of the jar to reach the boiling point, and about 60 minutes for it to reach the temperature of the steam in the cooker. Our experience is that the chicken is usually “done” at the end of 30 minutes at 15 pounds, or at least it is done by the time the pressure has fallen to the zero point and the jar is ready to be taken out.”

The authors added a footnote to protect themselves from angry homemakers who, for whatever reason, had their jars spoil after processing for that cooking time. “This does not mean that we recommend 30 minutes as a sufficient processing period in canning chicken at 15 pounds pressure. As a matter of fact, we consider that a process of 60 minutes is much safer…”.

I have always felt the suggested processing times were somewhat longer than absolutely necessary for most foods. Years ago, the first time I canned corn I processed it the full time as recommended for my pressure canner, and I considered it a dismal failure – the corn was hardened in the jars more like cold polenta than creamed corn.

Processing times can vary for several reasons, especially altitude. Turn of the century home economists pointed out variants included the size of the piece of meat being canned, the shape of the meat, the amount of bone in the meat, and whether the meat came from an older and tougher animal or one butchered in its prime. It is still impossible to find any one magic moment when everything is perfectly done for every home canner because there are just too many variables and “the powers” who write the instructions aren’t leaving anything to chance – better to overcook and be a little dry than undercook and deal with the possibility of spoilage and food poisoning.

On my first attempt at canning ham chunks I processed the pint jars the recommended 75 minutes at 15 lbs. pressure and found the finished product to be quite flavorful but somewhat dry. For subsequent batches I adjusted the processing to 10 lbs. of pressure for 60 minutes. Every jar sealed and if they remain sealed over time, I will continue to do so.

“Care should always be taken, not to cook longer than is really necessary, since flavor and juiciness are sacrificed as the cooking period advances, even when the meat is not allowed to become hard or dry.”

My raw-pack chicken breast is very tasty and remains moist when processed a full 75 minutes so I will probably continue doing them somewhere between 65 and 75 minutes for the pints. As with the home economists, however, I’m adding a disclaimer – experiment and use your own judgment when trying this yourself.

SEE: Successful Back-Yard Poultry Keeping. 1902. Journal of Home Economics. 1921.

18th Century Baskets, Plain & Fancy©

Tags

18th century baskets, baskets

Sometimes I set out to debunk a myth about an 18th century item, and at other times, I’m quite surprised by what I find when looking at a particular item. This is one of those times. When I started looking at paintings (18th c. or earlier) to examine baskets, I expected to find strong utilitarian vessels that would stand the test of time. I did find those, but I also found a great many fancier baskets of designs I didn’t expect.

I find when I post an article readers sometimes take the information quite literally, so let me explain, my focus here is on the somewhat less than utilitarian baskets intended to hold or carry light weight objects, but the strong sturdy baskets were also used for heavier loads. Our choice in baskets should match our purpose when purchasing one. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Quiring Gerritsz van Brekelenkam

Boy with Basket of Bread, Baschenus-Evaristo, 1665

The Water-cress Girl, 1780

Still Life with Fruit, about 1720, author unknown

Nebo, 1737, A Fishmonger’s Stall

An 18th Century Italian painting of an obviously utilitarian basket

This is an 18th century Italian painting sold in 2012 by Christie’s

Dreaming Shepherdess, Francois Boucher

Girl with a Basket of Pamphlets

18th Century, Annonymous French painter

WHITTLING: Useful Skill, or a Mere Way to Pass the Time?©

Tags

whittling

Image: Winslow Homer’s The Whittling Boy

Carving utilitarian items from wood is a well known and well respected skill, but was mere whittling to pass the time with no inclination to “make” something useful during the process known in earlier times? You bet. In fact, the very definition of whittle as found in Abel Boyer’s Dictionaire Royal, Francois-Anglois was, “to whittle a stick”, no mention of skill or craft or of producing anything useful. – 1719. Amsterdam.

“Boys making mud walls, Men whittling wood, and our patching up Pamphlets, are all from the same principle; a simple inclination to do something”. – Stevens, George Alexander. Tom Fool’s History. 1761. London.

“I had occasion frequently to notice this philosophic repose of character, which I can only account for by ascribing it to that universal practice of ‘whittling,’ which is so prevalent with the people of this Western World. If a man has only a knife and a stick, he bids defiance to time, and all the ordinary accidents of traveling. He sets himself down, and snips away till nothing is left; and then, after appearing uneasy about something or other, gets himself another stick, and commences again with renewed vivacity. I used to admire the captain of one of the boats in which I came down the Ohio, who would fasten his vessel to a stump or post, at some little town on the bank, and stand confabulating with some tall fellow in a chip hat for hours together, each with a knife and a stick, whittling away, and settling some mysterious business which nobody could fathom. Not a soul on board seemed in the least put out by this delay, and I could not forbear applauding this quiet resignation, so favorably contrasted with that desperate and inordinate passion for locomotion which animates our Northern people, more especially those who have least to do with their time in this whizzing, whirligig world”. – Graham’s American Monthly Magazine. April 1843. Philadelphia.

“Whittling consists in chipping up wood with a knife. This pastime is very much in vogue in the States. It is not unusual to meet on the high-road, and even indoors, with Yankees busy whittling, while engaged in business or in conversation. Even in Congress, senators have been seen keeping their energy by this whittling. When by any accident they run short of bits of wood, they apply, themselves to furniture or posts. We have seen, in St. Louis, the wood pillars of a public building almost entirely cut through by this American habit”. – Brenchley, Julius. A Journey to Great-Salt-Lake City. 1861. London.

Books and magazine articles through the 1820’s and 1830’s commonly describe whittlers slicing away at furniture, door and window frames, and support posts.

Indeed, the Americans were so devoted to mindless whittling, that, “So proverbial have we become, among foreigners, in this respect, that, if a Yankee is to be represented on the stage, you find him with a jackknife in one hand, and in the other a huge bit of pine timber, becoming every moment smaller, by his diligent handiwork. If he is talking, arguing, or more appropriately, if he is driving a bargain, you find him plying this, his wonted trade, with all the energy and desterity of a beaver; and, as it was once said of an English advocate, that he could never plead, without a piece of packthread in his hands, so the Yankee would lose half his thrift, unless the knife and wood were concomitants of his chaffering.” – The American Institute of Instruction. Lectures, Discussions, and Proceedings. Vol. 11. 1841. Boston.

At what point in time did whittling go out of fashion? I’m not sure it has. As a child, I had my own knife and an ever-ready supply of sticks to chip away at. I never attempted to redesign my mother’s furniture for fear of the old Southern tradition of being told to go pick a switch with which she could dole out a stinging punishment for my indiscretion, but on occasion, when I had misbehaved in some other manner, I had the knife with which to cut a switch big enough to satisfy mother while yet sufficiently small enough to do the least amount of damage to my back side. – thehistoricfoodie.wordpress.com©

Note: After this article posted, a reader pointed out that pegs were whittled for various purposes. That goes without saying. My goal was to show that many people did whittle just to pass the time, not to say that useful items weren’t carved or whittled also.

CRUISIES AND BETTIES: 18th Century Lights©

Tags

betty lamp, Crusie lamp

“All over the world we find that similar wants evoke similar ideas; and, as far off as Kashmir, there are to be found iron bowls used as lamps in cottages, whose long suspending stems of twisted iron exactly resemble those of the Scotch crusie. The crusie was to be found in many varieties. In its most perfect form it was hand-made, the pans for the oil being beaten out of thin sheets of metal in stone moulds, and comprised two pans, one for the oil and wick, the other beneath it to catch the overflow. The lower pan was affixed to the suspending stem of twisted iron, while the upper one was attached to a ratchet, which allowed its angle of inclination to be varied as the oil burned lower. Various forms of crusie were then shown, as well as other early lighting appliances, such as clips for holding the rushlights, and pine-slips which were used as primitive candles.

The lecturer, in referring to the persistence with which the rude appliances of primitive times survive long after the inventions of science ought to have banished them into museums, instanced the fire-stick still to be found in use among savages, and the clip and rushlight which he actually found in use last year in a Yorkshire stable”. – The Academy. May 12, 1894.

Sir George Watt said of a crusie, or cruisie, lamp that it followed the rush light which he held as the earliest form of illumination. In England it was to be seen down to the close of the eighteenth century, and was generally known as the cruisie. It was made of stone, metal, or pottery, in the shape of an oblong shallow basin with a tapering spout or nozzle at one end, in which the wick rested, and a rounded, somewhat deeper, portion behind in which the oil was mainly contained.

He agreed with earlier writers, that the design of the crusie had been influenced by the shape of bivalve shells, specifically in some cases, the whelk, which had been used for lighting in parts of Europe. – A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India. Vol. 5. 1891. London.

The Betty-lamp was described as a shallow receptacle, circular or oval in shape, with a projecting nose an inch or two long. Grease was put in the cup part and the wick of twisted rag had one end in the grease. The other, lighted, rested on the nose. They were made from clay, pewter, iron, copper, and bronze. – The Connecticut Magazine. Vol. 9. No. 1.

The Betty Lamp was hung on a nail or back of a chair by means of the attached hook. The lamp could also be hung from a rafter or a peg. The light could be raised or lowered by using a wooden ratchet. The ratchet was made of two strips of wood, one cut with saw-teeth edge, which could be raised or lowered to place the lamp at the desired height. Most had a metal pick attached to them which was used to retrieve the wick should it drop into the oil. – Morse, Frances Clary. Furniture of the Olden Time. 1920. NY.

The lamps burned lard, fish oil, whale oil, or even fat scraps. The brightness of the lamp depended on the type oil used. How much smoke the lamp produced also depended on the type of oil being used. Although they were brought from Europe until iron foundries were established in this country, the grease lights were common in America. ©
- Victoria Rumble, thehistoricfoodie.wordpress.com

The Tradition of Birthday Cakes & Celebrations©

Tags

Birthday cake, birthday customs

A special birthday cake for a special person

Today is my Special Someone’s birthday and as I make preparations to celebrate it, I took a quick look at birthday cakes from a historical standpoint. From the earliest days of birthday tradition, having friends and family join in the festivities and share the meal was as important as it is to us in the present.

Birthday customs originated with the Germans who brought the custom with them when they settled in Pennsylvania. This piece is especially pertinent in that Martin’s heritage through his mom is Pennsylvania Dutch.

The following was written about a child celebrating a birthday in Germany as seen through the eyes of an American.

“One morning we entered the Speise-saal (dining room), and there stood a table covered with a glistening white cloth, looped with vines, ferns laid about the edge, brightened here and there with roses. In the centre was the great feature—a Birthday Cake. And such a Birthday Cake!—an American child never even dreamed of such a Birthday Cake! It is an immense round, snowy cake, and about it, burning, thirteen little colored candles,–in the middle of it a larger taper, called the Lebens Licht—the light of life, the life-candle. Such a cake is generally present on birthdays, and each year another candle is added. The cake, as all the fine cake, is somewhat like our jelly cake, with a soft icing, decorated in various ways on top, usually with conserved fruit. The icing of this Torte, is of marzipan,–rubbed almonds and powdered sugar…Then the presents, and the beginning of a happy day for the child, and the whole house is steeped in smiles and happiness. It is so throughout Germany on the Birthday.”

The full account is well worth reading and guaranteed to bring a smile to your lips as, “relatives and friends send good-wishes. It is astonishing how everybody remembers everybody’s birthday, and how no one is forgotten or forgets. In fact, each individual has a birthday-book in which to keep account of these days, and the little book warns as a friend’s birthday draws near. Expensive presents are seldom given,–a card, a letter, a bunch of flowers, a plant, merely as a token of remembrance…” – Parry, Emma Louise. Life Among the Germans. 1887. Boston.

The first mention I found of birthday cake in cookery books was published in 1870 in Jennie June’s American Cookery Book. The recipe produces cakes or cookies and not a decorated birthday cake at all.

“Into a pound of dried flour, put four ounces of butter, four ounces of sugar, one egg, a tea-spoonful of baking powder, and sufficient milk to wet to a paste. Put in currants, and cut in cakes. Sprinkle colored caraway seeds on top, and bake them a light brown”.

In 1902 Lida Seely gave a recipe for Birthday cake with glaze which is worth sharing as I close this post.

“One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, five eggs, three cups of flour, one heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, one cup of milk, one teaspoonful of rose water. Sift the sugar, then measure it. Wash the butter once in ice water until it is white and creamy, dry it in a towel and add it to the sugar. Rub both to a creamy substance and stir in the yolks of the eggs, one by one. Beat all until light and foamy. Stir in one cup of sifted flour, then add the milk, then another cup of sifted flour. Mix well and stir in the last cup of flour which has the baking powder sifted with it. When well mixed, add the well-beaten whites and the rose water. Butter a large round cake tin and line the bottom with paper. Pour in your mixture and bake in moderate oven for one hour. When you remove it from the oven, be sure it is thoroughly cooked. Test it by putting a fine broom whisk through the centre of the cake. If the whisk comes out dry, the cake is done. Stand the pan on a wire sieve until the cake is partially cool. Make a glaze for the top of the cake as follows:

How to Make a Glaze for Birthday Cake. In a saucepan put one cup of granulated sugar with four tablespoonfuls of water. Boil ten minutes slowly, or until it reaches a large ball. Have the white of one egg whipped very stiff, and slowly pour the hot sugar into it, stirring constantly. While hot, pour it slowly and thinly over the cake. Do not use a knife, as it will make the surface rough. Let it dry, which will be almost immediately. Make the following icing for decorating:

To make Icing for Birthday Cake. Half a pound of powdered sugar, whites of two eggs, juice of one lemon. Beat the eggs for two minutes until stiff and by degrees add the sifted sugar, stirring all the time with a wire egg-beater. When all the sugar is used, beat well for five minutes with a Dover egg beater, so the icing will be thoroughly smooth. Put a fancy tube in a pastry bag and fill the bag with the icing. Make a paper funnel with a very small opening and fill also with icing. With the paper funnel trace any design you desire on the cake, commencing at the extreme edge. Leave space in the centre for the initials or date. Follow up the paper funnel with the pastry bag and with this fill out the design. You must work rapidly, so the tracing of icing will not harden before the decoration is filled in. Color the remainder of the icing pink and put on the initials or date. Have some pink and white candied rose leaves [probably refers to petals], dip them in sugar syrup to make them stick, and put them round the lower edge of your cake. Before you begin to decorate the cake, place it on a round board, a little larger than the cake and covered with a fancy edged paper.

How to Write the Initials on Birthday Cake. Reserve about one-quarter of your icing, stir in a drop of cochineal to color it pink. Make a three-cornered paper funnel, put in the icing, fasten tightly. Take it in your hand as you would a pen, and press with your thumb as you make the letters. The size of the mark depends upon the size of the opening in the paper funnel.”©

PERIOD SPECTACLES: The Better to See Those Cookery Books©

Tags

antique spectacles, period eyewear

Martin and I have been researching period spectacles, partly to debunk a myth we’ve both heard countless times, that colored lenses were used only as a treatment for venereal disease. We started with an old article in Early American Life and then I started looking for additional period sources which outline the correct style of frames for the period.

Here are a few bits we’ve come up with so far.

Eyeglasses are a prime example of not taking everything we see at face value when putting together a kit for living history. What may be the earliest work of art in which eyeglasses are depicted is a fresco painted by Tommaso da Modena (1325-1379) which shows Cardinal Hugh of Provence (1200-1263) wearing a pair of rivet spectacles. The Cardinal died before eyeglasses were even invented.

During the 17th century an Italian artist painted the Holy Family with Baby Jesus in Mary’s arms holding a pair of nose spectacles, an obvious anachronism, as any visual aids didn’t enter the scene until hundreds of years later.

The earliest frames were made of wood, leather, bone, brass, tortoiseshell, baleen, and later steel, silver and gold. Silver ones were available from silversmiths, and gold ones could be purchased from a jeweler.

TINTED LENSES were in use by the seventeenth century. It was believed that the color green was relaxing to the eye. My old “friend”, diarist Samuel Pepys, with whom I’ve consulted hundreds of times in researching one thing and another, wrote, in 1660 that he was bothered by irritated eyes and thought that wearing some green lenses would resolve the problem. He did purchase the tinted lenses in 1666 from John Turlington who was Master of the Spectacle Makers Co., but eventually had to stop writing in his diary due to failed vision. More’s the pity, too, because not only did Pepys live an exceedingly interesting life, but he was friends with several other men who were just as intriguing. One can only guess at the valuable information that was lost due to his inability to continue recording his experiences. Sometime prior to 1860 lenses were sold that were blue or smoke-colored.

Eyeglasses date from about 1286, made in Pisa, Italy. They were made using two convex crystal stones. Their use was documented in a sermon delivered by Giordano da Rivalto when he stated it was not twenty years since the founding of the art of making eyeglasses.

The first were known as rivet spectacles because the lenses were held together with one rivet in the center, they had no ear pieces. “Scissor” frames [ca. 1780] were two lenses attached to a handle of sorts by which the wearer could hold them up to the eyes.

The first illustration of spectacles in a printed work is thought to date from 1475.

Concave lenses used to correct nearsighted vision were created in the 15th century.

At varying times during the Medieval era, makers guilds formed in different parts of Europe to impose regulations and protect the glassmaker trade.

Side arms were developed, probably between 1714 and 1727 – at least London optician Edward Scarlett, Sr. is believed to be the first to advertise them during that period.

Round lenses were almost universally worn until the end of the 18th century when first oval and then octagonal lenses became fashionable in the early 19th century. Square lenses were also made in the 19th century.

Lenses were not custom made for the wearer’s vision difficulties, instead one simply tried on one pair after another from a peddler and the purchaser took the pair that best suited their needs. Susannah Wright, owner of the Wright Mansion in Pennsylvania, wrote that she owned three pairs of spectacles. We were intrigued with that statement as it seemed extravagant even given her above average social and financial status. We plan to do more research, but we feel she probably had a pair for up-close vision (reading, fine needle work), a pair for regular distances, and possibly a pair more for outdoor wear with colored lenses.

In 1756, Benjamin Martin created something called Visual Glasses which had a horn annulus on the inside of the frame to reduce the amount of light entering the eye. They were often referred to as Martin’s Margins.

Ben Franklin devised bifocals in 1760. John Issac Hawkins patented the trifocal in London in 1827.

Sir George Airy (1801-1892) was the first to design concave astigmatic lenses for his own use in 1825.

In 1828, the McAllisters started importing lenses for astigmatism. John McAllister, Sr. (1753-1830) came to the U.S. from Glasgow, Scotland in 1775 and after somewhat unsuccessfully trying to sell walking sticks and riding whips opened the first optical shop in America in Philadelphia. He imported his lenses from Europe, and started making his own gold and silver frames in 1815.

At first glasses came into the U.S. with immigrants already wearing them, having purchased them in Europe, McAllister opened trade for opticians to begin selling them in the U.S., but they still used lenses shipped from Europe. It wasn’t until 1883 that American Optical produced the first ophthalmic lenses in the U.S.

In 1833, William Beecher made coin silver spectacles in Southbridge, MA as a sideline of his jewelry business. His business passed through several owners, eventually evolving into the American Optical Co. in 1869. The finer quality frames were often stamped with a maker’s mark and when these come up for sale they fetch a handsome price, fortunately, those of us who seek historical knowledge without spending a fortune to view originals can benefit from images posted on collectors’ websites.

For more info:
http://www.antiquespectacles.com is amazing in the amount of information contained within that website. It includes a timeline, photos of spectacles from various time periods, photos of spectacles in collections that belonged to well-known individuals, and much more. I’ve spent hours reading this website. The author’s research was relied upon heavily for the article published in Early American Life, August 2005 issue.

Ocular Heritage Society – this website has numerous photos, advertisements, and information for collectors. Don’t miss their gallery page.

Pinterest and Larsdatter websites, search term “antique eyeglasses” or “antique spectacles”.©

LOST RECIPES: Hickory Nut Custard Cake©

Tags

chocolate custard cake, custard cake, hickory-nut custard cake

I enjoy making dishes from what I call Lost Recipes – dishes that were perfectly good and tasty but fell out of favor when newer, trendier foods came along. This one looks to be a treat although I will have to substitute walnuts or something else for the hickory nut meats. The squirrels and I race to see which of us can collect the hickory nuts first, and I usually lose.

I first found this receipt pasted in the front of a cookbook from just after the turn of the century, but when I searched a little I found several books in which it was published beginning in 1883.

“Cream one pound sugar and half pound butter; add five eggs, beaten separately, one cup sweet milk, one pound flour, three teaspoons baking powder, flavor with lemon, and bake in jelly-pans. For custard, place one pint milk in a tin pail and set in boiling water; add a tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in a little milk, two eggs, one-half cup sugar, two cups chopped hickory-nut meats, well mixed together to the boiling milk; stir, and put between the layers of cake, while both cake and custard are warm. This is excellent.”

There were many more receipts for Custard Cake, I really like this one from the Royal Baking Powder Co., 1898. I may have to make it for the nostalgia, my grandmother was born in January, 1898.

“Custard Cake. 2 cups sugar, 2 cups flour, 6 eggs, 1 ½ teaspoons Royal Baking Powder, 2 tablespoons hot water; beat the eggs well together; then add the sugar, and beat very light before adding flour, in which Royal Baking Powder is mixed; lastly, add hot water; bake in jelly-cake tins; when done, turn out, and when cool put following cream between. CREAM: 1 cup sugar, ½ cup flour, 1 pint boiled milk, 2 eggs; flavor to taste; when the milk boils, add eggs, sugar, and flour; after having well beaten them together, boil thoroughly; stir all the time, until it is quite thick.”

We wouldn’t want to wrap this up without a chocolate version, and this one came from 365 Cakes and Cookies: A Cake or Cookie for Every Day in the Year. I may have to make this one by the recipe for the Mister on Valentine’s Day and then slather the cake in chocolate frosting.

“Mix 8 tablespoonfuls of grated chocolate, 5 tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, ½ cupful of milk; boil until it thickens and let cool. Then take 1 ½ cupfuls of light brown sugar, ½ cupful of butter, 3 eggs, ½ cupful of flour, and 2 teaspoonfuls of baking powder; pour into the custard and add 1 ½ cupfuls of flour and ½ cupful of milk; flavor with vanilla. Bake in layers.
Filling: 2 cupfuls of sugar, 2/3 cupful of milk, and a piece of butter the size of an egg. Boil until thick and put between layers.”

Blissful Meals Yall.©