Dumplings: Southern Comfort Food©

During the first Great Depression, (as opposed to the one we’re enjoying now), dumplings were a Southern staple.  The dumplings were pretty much the same, but the meat in the pot varied from the standard chicken to squirrel, rabbit, bits of ham, and whatever else happened to be available.  They were basic but filling.

Our 18^th century ancestors enjoyed them for the same reasons our grandparents did – they were inexpensive, filling, and could be made quickly with whatever tidbits the cook had at her disposal.

John Day referenced eating a dish of dumplings in 1608 but gave no indication of how they were prepared, and diarist Samuel Pepys did not fail to mention dumplings with a boiled calves head in 1663.  (In the days when no part of the animal was wasted heads routinely went into the pot)

H. Pitman who referred to himself and his brother as white slaves were most likely indentured servants, the only difference being that the latter might attain freedom after a prescribed period of time.  One usually fared no better than the other in any other respect.  In June 1689, his diet was coarse and mean, rations consisted of 5 lbs. of salt Irish beef, or salt fish, a week, for each man; and Indian or Guinea Corn [maize] ground on a stone, and made into dumplings instead of bread. 

For more substantial information on making dumplings we will first consider T. Williams’ published receipt for Hard Dumplings in 1717. 

           Make a little salt, flour, and water, into a paste, and roll them in balls the size of  a turkey’s egg.  Roll them in a little flour, throw them into boiling water, and half an hour will boil them.  If you choose it, you may put into them a few currants.  They are best boiled with a good piece of beef. 

Williams’ Norfolk Dumplings contained eggs, and milk and were made up into a thin batter that was dropped into boiling water.  They were drained in a sieve, and dressed with butter before serving.  Norfolk dumpling receipts were common throughout the 18^th century.

In 1769, E. Taylor published the following receipt.

      Yeast Dumplings.  Make a light dough with flour, salt, yeast, and water as for bread, set  it before the fire covered with a cloth, half an hour to rise; make it into round balls the size of a goose egg, flatten them with your hand, put them into boiling water, and let them boil twelve minutes.  Send them to table with melted butter. 

That book contained another receipt for Butter Dumplings which contained fat the other one did not, but no leavening agent.  “Take a good piece of butter, rub it into your flour, and make it like crust for a pye.  Make it up into dumplings, and boil them half an hour”.

Charles Carter, Elizabeth Raffield, and Hannah Glasse published dumpling receipts (1749, 1769, & 1774 respectively).

Gentle reader, by now you have no doubt divested yourself of the knowledge of the commonality of dumplings served throughout the 18^th century.  As yet, no chicken, has flown across the pot, yet you have not failed also to note that each of the previous receipts was published in old London. 

J. M. Sanderson’s The Complete Cook, published in America in 1846, gave receipts for adding dumplings into a liquor [broth] made from chicken parts (the faint-hearted may prefer not to know which parts, suffice it to say the part that did the thinking and the parts that did the walking), and into mutton liquor.  The latter was enriched with turnips, carrots, and onions, a practice still common in the Appalachians.  He also suggested parsley and marigold blooms, the latter used to color the broth. 

Sarah Ellis used minced ham for dumplings in 1843.  In her version the ham was placed on the dough and sealed up before dropping them into the simmering liquid.  By the 1930’s, few bothered with that and chose to put the meat in the broth and drop in the dumplings. 

To limit the length of this epistle, we shall content ourselves with the early history now that we have placed the dumplings in the chicken broth and entertain the notion of making this classic comfort dish suitable for a weeknight supper or Sunday dinner.  For an account of thickening soup with dumplings see my soup history offered in the book shoppe on this site.

 

To speed up cutting the dumplings, use a pizza cutter

Simmer any quantity of chicken or other meat with salt, pepper, and vegetables if desired, until falling-off-the-bone tender then remove it to a plate to cool.  Pick off the meat, placing it back into the pot of broth, and discard the bones and gristle.  The onions, carrots, and celery can be tossed with the bones or left to further enrich the dumplings at your discretion.  Bring it back to a slow simmer.

 

Meanwhile, for the dumplings, place 3 to 4 cups of plain flour into a mixing bowl.  Add 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon kosher salt.  Add enough milk to bring this together into a soft dough – careful not to overwork the dough or the dumplings will be tough and indigestible.  Roll the dough out and cut into strips.  Pinch the strips into the simmering broth and allow to simmer some 15 to 20 minutes.  Do not stir the dumplings aggressively, although you may very gently move then around to prevent sticking and make room for more.  Stirring will result in an unappetizing amalgamation of loose dough.

 

To add to the richness of the dish, my secret weapon is a teaspoon of chicken base when I bring the broth back to a simmer to give the simmered-all-day body I grew up with but without spending all day to achieve it.  I also add a half cup or so of heavy cream at the end of the cooking time, with a modicum of chopped parsley if there happens to be any growing in my herb garden.  Ever so gently stir the cream in, turn off the heat, and allow to rest 15 minutes or so before serving. 

This is sure to bring a smile to your dear one’s lips, but do not despair if even this seems more effort than you are willing to expend.  If you debone a store-bought rotisserie chicken and place it into a quantity of water enriched with that afore-mentioned chicken base, or even canned broth, you can speed up the process to the point that start to finish your pot of delicious yumminess can be served within roughly a half hour. 

Blissful Meals, Yall, I’m about to enjoy left-overs from last night’s dinner. 

Bib:

Taylor, E.  The Lady’s, Housewife’s, and Cookmaid’s Assistant:  Or, The Art of Cookery.  1769.  London.

Day, John.  The Works of John Day.  1608.  London.

Williams, T.  The Accomplished Housekeeper, and Universal Cook:  Containing all the Various Branches of Cookery.  1717.  London.

Stuart Tracts, 1603-1693.  Ed. Firth, Charles Harding.  NY.

Pepys, Samue.  The Diary of Samuel Pepys.  1663.  NY.

Sanderson, J. M.  The Complete Cook.  1846.  Philadelphia.

Ellis, Sarah.  Mrs. Ellis’s Housekeeping Made Easy.  1843.  NY.

Rumble, Victoria.  Soup Through the Ages:  A Culinary History with Period Recipes.  2009.  McFarland Publishing Co., Jefferson, NC.

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Fireplace cookery, An Odd Incident

There are hundreds of incidents common sense tells us must have happened once we think about it, but there is not always documentation of a cooking mishap.  Such is the case I share with you today. 

I’d never thought of such a thing happening, but once I read it in a Rev. war soldier’s memoirs it hit me – cooking mishaps happened often, some, such as a lug-pole breaking and spilling a meal in the ashes, others, such as this one a little less contemplated.

“While I was in this house I went into the kitchen where I saw a simple incident which excited my risibility, maugre my fatigue. There was a large pot hanging over a considerable fire, but more smoke; the pot contained, to appearance, a large hock of fresh beef, the water in the pot had ebbed considerably and the meat made its appearance some way above it; upon the top of the meat, surrounded by fire and smoke, sat the old house-cat wreathing her head one way and the other, and twisting the beef into her face as fast as possible, winking and blinking in the steam and smoke like a toad in a shower. I left her at her occupation and went out.”

– Martin, Joseph Plumb.  Memoirs of a Revolutionary War Soldier.  1830. 

 

Fireless Cookers©

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fireless cooker

A better quality cooker in cabinetry that would have been a piece of furniture, lid closed.

 

The same cooker with the lid open, three kettle capacity.

Fireless cookery emerged in the U.S. around the turn of the 20^th century, and judging from the number of makers and the frequency of advertisements that followed, it seems to have caught on for a while.

It was a simple concept.  Food was put into a specially designed kettle with a minimum amount of liquid and brought to a boil, and the kettle was then put away in a well insulated container where the heat of the liquid finished cooking the food. 

When steaming or boiling it is essential to have your cooker kettle and its contents very hot.  Put it into the box as quickly as possible.  Close the box immediately and do not open it again until the food has had time to cook.  If for any reason you must open the box before the food is cooked, the kettle must be reheated or the cooking will not be done.  – Lovewell, Whittemore, & Lyon.  1908.

Except in some specially made purchased models in which heavy plates of iron or soapstone were heated and placed into the openings underneath and on top of the kettles, no additional heat was used in the cooking process.

Numerous early 20^th century accounts say crude home-made versions originated in Norway and spread to other parts of Europe before being introduced in the U.S.  The first documented account of a commercially made cooker was its exhibition at the Paris Exposition in 1867, but it wasn’t until the late 1890’s that advertisements began appearing in the U.S.  

At that Exposition, three medals were awarded to Sorrenson’s patent for the Norwegian self-acting cooker.  – The New York Medical Journal.  Vol. X, 1870.

The cookers were well known to Norwegian housewives, “but it is only recently [1913] that its wonders have become rather widely known and talked about in America”. – Mitchell, Margaret.  The Fireless Cook Book.  1913.  NY.

Ellen Alden Huntington wrote in 1908 that the Consular Report from Germany credited the use of the fireless cooker to Mrs. Bach, wife of the president of the Industrial School at Frankfurt, in 1892.   This account alone is hardly enough to say for sure Mrs. Bach was the first to use the method, but it does substantiate its use in Germany at the time of publication.  – Huntington, Ellen Alden.  The Fireless Cooker.  1908.  Madison, WI.

The previous source went on to elaborate that Mrs. Bach’s cookery method evolved from the early German practice of starting a kettle of soup to boil and then removing it from the heat and wrapping it in a featherbed overnight where it slowly continued to cook. 

The earliest cookers were wooden boxes or barrels insulated with hay and for that reason were known as hay boxes or hay box cookers.  They have also been called Norwegian cooking boxes.

Some models came with specially made cushions which were placed on top of the cooking kettle between the lid of the kettle and the lid of the cook box.  These cushions were for extra insulation to hold in the heat of the cooking liquid.

Model with cushion to place between the kettle and lid of the cooker.

The materials used as insulation inside the cooking boxes included, at various times, hay, straw, feathers, pillows, wood shavings, cut-up or crumpled up paper (usually newspaper), wool, excelsior, ground cork, saw dust, asbestos, and Southern moss.  The latter was found naturally only in the deep South, however, it could be purchased from upholsterers in the northern states.

Because the kettles were exposed to longer periods of moisture during cooking at lower temperatures certain metals tended to rust quickly, namely iron and tin.  Most foods were cooked with salt as a seasoning and longer exposure to the salt also hastened rust in kettles of iron and tin.  Earthenware kettles were a good choice for use in the cook box, but they were prone to breakage while initially bringing the foods to a boil on the stove before placing them in the box.

That left well-enameled pots and cast aluminum pots as the best suited for fireless cookery.  Ironically, that information also helps to date the fireless cooker method to the late Victorian era as those materials were not commonly used until late in the century.

Porcelain, granite-ware, aluminum, crockery and stone-ware are all excellent.  Tin rusts and should be avoided in steaming…Stone jars are quite perfectBecause they hold heat so well.  With care they may be used instead of Kettles over a flame.  – Lovewell, Whittemore, & Lyon, 1908.

The advantages of the cooking system were economy (less fuel was used for cooking food), in hot weather food could be cooked without heating the house and making it uncomfortable for the occupants, there were no foul cooking odors (such as cabbage) in the house because the food was sealed in an airtight container while it cooked, and the food tasted good after cooking long hours at low temperatures.

There is no reason why the housekeeper of today cannot meet the hot and sultry days of July and August with as perfect ease as she does December and January, if she but uses this method of cooking.  Bring cereal to a boil, put it in the box, and it is ready in the morning.  Home Science Magazine.  Vol. 22, No. 11, 1906. 

Cereals which required much longer cooking time than they do today could be started before bedtime, put into the fireless cooker, and left to cook overnight so that they were hot and ready to serve for breakfast the next morning. This allowed the cook a few more minutes of sleep before beginning her day.

The fireless cooker was an ideal place for yeast bread dough to rise because the temperature remained constant and the dough wasn’t exposed to blasts of cool air when a door was opened. 

In 1914, the fireless cooker was still looked upon as a modern invention by Americans, but Bertha Austin wrote that it operated along the same principal as the brick oven making it a modern interpretation of an old concept.  A brick oven was heated to a high temperature, but the fire and coals were removed before the food was put in, and it was the heat retained in the walls of the oven that cooked the food.

One cannot help but make the comparison between the fireless cooker and a crock-pot.  Both are used by placing ingredients into the pot hours before they are to be served and left to slowly stew for several hours before being served.  The methods differ in that the crock-pot has a constant source of heat whereas the fireless cooker cooks the food without providing any additional heat.

There were commercial models made of metal inside and out, and wooden models of varying quality cabinetry.  The better versions of the latter were considered a piece of furniture much like any other item of furniture in the home. 

The cookers were also marketed toward persons other than housewives. 

Again, fishermen, pilots, and others whose small vessels are not generally so constructed as to enable them to procure hot food while at sea, may easily do so by taking out with them in the morning an apparatus prepared before their departure. It is, in short, a thing for the million, for rich and poor; for the domestic kitchen, as well as for persons away from their homes. It cooks and keeps food hot, just as well when carried about on a pack saddle, on a cart, or in a fisherman’s boat, as in a coal-pit or in a housewife’s kitchen.  The New York Medical Journal.  Vol. X, 1870.

The fireless cookers were used extensively in Britain during the World Wars in an effort to reduce the amount of fuel needed to prepare food.  An account published in 1908 also claims the U.S. Army experimented with using the fireless cookers at government posts and in the field. 

Their principal value in the army is as a time saver.  Breakfast is prepared during the evening thus avoiding the necessity of the cook’s rising before daylight.  – Lovewell, Caroline Barnes, Whittemore, Frances Dean, and Lyon, Hannah Wright.  The Fireless Cooker:  How to Make It, How to Use It, What to Cook.  1908

I have read speculative comments that fireless cookers were used by settlers traveling west in wagon trains, some authors have even gone into detail about how food could have been put into the cooker before bed and been ready to eat upon rising next morning, or put into the cooker early in the morning and be ready to eat when the wagons stopped and made camp in the evenings.

There is a huge problem with such speculation – by the time the cookers were advertised and introduced to American markets, the railroads were complete and had become the primary mode of transportation for those traveling west.  The first transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869 [two years after the patents were granted at the Paris Exposition], and by 1883 the Northern Pacific Railroad had reached Portland, Oregon.  It would be several years yet before advertisements for the cooker appeared in American newspapers and magazines.  

Fireless Cooker was also a name attached to the earliest electric ranges after the turn of the century.  Campbell’s model had two burners on top, an oven in the middle, and a receptacle into which fit two round kettles, in much the same manner as the non-electric fireless cookers. 

Campbell's cooker, 1928 advertisement.

The fireless cooker may still be a viable cooking method for those who want to live a more self-reliant lifestyle, however, and the pros and cons as to its use remain the same as they were at its introduction.  With sweltering summer days upon us, keeping cool while cooking meals is a timely message.

Blissful Meals,

Cook in Training

 

Playing in her new apron, chef’s hat, and pot-holder Gram brought

We had a wonderful weekend putting a cedar playhouse together for my beautiful granddaughter.  I shouldn’t say “we” as Martin and Matt did all the work putting the playhouse together while I played with Madie Belle.  She has all the cookware, clothing, and utensils any cook needs and a beautiful cedar play house with two bay windows, a shuttered window that opens and shuts, a working door, a clock that can be set to any time, a sink and cooktop, even a cell phone.  There is also a bench outside the working window where she can take a break from her hard work.

Just starting construction, there’s a lot of pieces there.

 

The walls are framed, some of the windows are in, a lot left to do.

 

The gables are up, roof is next.

 

Madie Belle inspecting the interior of her new kitchen to make sure it meets her approval.

 

She seems genuinely pleased with Gram’s choice of cookware. It just happens to match Gram’s French cookware.

 

The house is complete. We’re home from church, in our play clothes, and daddy has been invited to dinner. Gram found it was easy enough fitting into the tiny house, getting out is interesting.

 

 

Like her Gram she can whip up a meal without all the conveniences - just improvise. Waiting for the house to be built she cooks up a surprise for us.

 We enjoyed our weekend very much as you can see.  Gram will be on the lookout for more cool gadgets and utensils for this wonferful new house and for her little cook in training.  I love you baby girl!

Getting ready to crank out something delish!

 

Casper this is MY house, it's not for dogs!

 

'C'mone Gram, let's play in my new house!!

Squash Pudding©

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pudding

Squash pudding was a common dish in the 18^th and 19^thcenturies and receipts are found in a number of early cookery books.  Most receipts seem to have used a winter squash.  The difference between winter and summer squash is that summer squash has a tender edible rind and will not keep any length of time whereas winter squash has a tough rind and will keep several months in a cool place such as a cellar. 

A Hubbard squash ready for harvesting.

 In 1899, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Bulletin pronounced the White Bush Scalloped the best summer squash and the Hubbard the best late squash.  The book claimed the Summer Crookneck was a prolific bearer but in the markets it often sat on shelves while the scalloped varieties sold quickly. 

There was also a winter squash called the Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck which should not be confused with the summer crookneck.  The Butternut evolved relatively late from squash similar to the winter Crookneck.

Crookneck winter squash

Amelia Simmons’ receipt was published in the U.S. in 1796.  She used a crookneck or winter squash.  The squash was cored, boiled, and then skinned.  The pulp was mashed, mixed with 6 large pared, cored, and stewed apples, 6 or 7 spoonfuls of dry bread or biscuit, “rendered fine as meal”, one pint of milk or cream, 2 spoonfuls of rose-water, 2 spoonfuls of wine (she did not specify red or white), 5 or 6 beaten eggs, a pinch of salt, sugar to your taste, and one spoon of flour.  The pudding was baked for one hour.

When boiled with the skin on, rubbing a winter squash through a sieve will separate the pulp from the skin which will remain too tough to push through the holes of the sieve. 

A variety of winter Hubbard

In 1911, Rufus Estes’ version was made from a pint of mashed, cooked squash, a cup of sugar, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, pinch of salt, the juice and grated rind [zest] of a lemon which was stirred together with a quart of boiling milk.  When the mixture was cool enough not to coddle the eggs, five eggs were stirred into the mixture.  The pudding was poured into a baking pan which was set into another pan of water and placed in a moderately hot oven.  The pudding was baked until firm in the center.  He suggested serving it with cream. 

Modern recipes tend to use liberal amounts of vanilla rather than lemon and sometimes they also list ground nutmeg as an ingredient.  Evaporated milk can be used if desired in place of fresh milk or cream. 

Scalloped squash come in a variety of colors and are an old variety.

These recipes are equally good with pumpkin or cushaw.  Since cushaws tend to be large portions of the cooked and mashed pulp can be frozen for making puddings later.  In a pinch, canned pumpkin can be used.

 

A variety of squash, winter crookneck in back, scalloped yellow in lower right.

Blissful Meals!

Heirloom Tomatoes, What Shall I Plant? ©

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19th century food, historic foods

We recently stopped and shopped till we dropped at a local field stand where I bought a number of beautifully colored heirloom tomatoes, and as I’ve eaten them I’ve made mental notes about which varieties I’d like to grow myself next year. 

Simply stated, an heirloom vegetable is an old variety which has not been hybridized.  Some consider anything prior to 1951 an heirloom.  That was the year the first hybrids became available.  For others, such as myself, a true heirloom is one at least closely approaching 100 years old, and some can be documented up to 150 years ago. 

Heirloom vegetables are as close as possible to what our ancestors ate at a certain time period – they neither look nor taste like modern hybrid varieties.  The flavor is so much better in an heirloom that it truly is worth paying more for seeds, but don’t expect a perfectly shaped vegetable.  Perfection in shape and color came with a price – loss of flavor.  An heirloom tomato may be knobby and gnarled but I guarantee you it won’t taste like red Styrofoam.

Today’s lunch was a Mr. Stripey sliced with some fresh cucumbers also purchased from the field stand.  Delicious! 

Last night’s dinner was grilled cheese sandwiches with cream of tomato soup made from some of the red heirlooms and flavored with a bit of fresh thyme from the pot growing right outside my kitchen door.  It was absolutely scrumptious, and made, start to finish, in about 30 minutes.  Who needs fast food?  [The recipe for the soup is in my book, Soup Through the Ages, see book shoppe at the top of the blog page] 

 

My family judiciously saved seed from a tomato variety my great aunts’ mother brought from Germany in the late 1800’s so that every summer we had a supply of seed for those luscious beauties.  The aunts called it the German Pink – I don’t know whether it was the same German Pink offered by heirloom seed companies today, but if not, it was pretty darn close. 

Whenever we cut one of the tomatoes the few seeds in it were taken out and placed onto a slightly damp paper towel and left to dry so they could be stored away for the next year’s planting.

I prefer a more acidic than sweet tomato so after careful contemplation, I think the seeds I will order for next year are: 

Cherokee Purple – deep red, full flavored, and rumored to come from Cherokee gardens.  These are what went into my soup.

Mr. Stripey –  it looked so beautiful in my salad with its yellow body and red streaks. 

Red Zebra – because it too, is absolutely beautiful sliced onto a plate or on a sandwich.

German Pink – I’ll relive childhood memories of warm summer afternoons at my Nanny’s with a glass of sweet tea and a tomato sandwich slathered in mayo.  For a Southern girl it doesn’t get much better.

Seed Sources:  Baker Creek, Burpee, Jung, Heirloomseeds.com, Seed Savers Exchange, and a quick internet search will yield others, but I’m not familiar with their quality. 

Blissful Meals yall, TheHistoricFoodie©

Colonial Fare: A Few Particulars on Catfish ©

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18th century food, 19th century food, Colonial era foods

Catfish soup, one of the many ways it was prepared in earlier times.

A gentleman in Philadelphia, born in 1756, claimed to have on many occasions caught 3000 catfish in a night by dipping them up with a net.  They were so plentiful he sold them for two shillings per hundred.  Much of his catch went to the Fishing Company of St. David where as many as 40 dozen fish were cooked at a time. 

The house belonging to that Company was described as, “neat and tasteful”, made of wood, 70 feet long by 20 feet wide, and set against the butt of a hill side on a stone foundation.  The sides of the house consisted solely of folding or moveable doors and windows which were carried off by the Hessians for use in building huts during the Revolution.  The man claimed that they so damaged the place that it was never again used for a fish camp afterward.  – Watson, John Fanning.  Annals of Philadelphia:  Being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents of the City and its Inhabitants.  1830.  Philadelphia.

In the early days, rations were never enough food for armies without the need of adding to the larders whatever foods could be found.  Washington’s army and explorers in the party of Lewis and Clark were no exceptions. 

A diary entry penned by a soldier in Washington’s army discussed throwing out lines and catching large catfish in 1770 while on a tour to the Ohio River.– Sparks, Jared.  The Life of George Washington.  1839.  London.

While the diarist left no hint as to how the catfish was cooked, another diary entry from roughly the same time period specified their party had fried catfish, freshly caught.   – Dillon, John Brown.  Oddities of Colonial Legislation in America.  1879.  Indianapolis.

A member of the Lewis and Clark expedition documented their fine catch of fish also.

Two of our men last night caught nine catfish that would together weigh three hundred pounds.  The large catfish are caught in the Missouri with hook and line…We are generally well supplied with Catfish, the best I have ever seen.  Some large ones were taken last night.  – Gass, Patrick.  Lewis and Clarke’s Journal to the Rocky Mountains:  In the Years 1804-5-6.  1847.  Dayton, Ohio.

The Lewis and Clark expedition again left no account of how the catfish were prepared, but given they were rarely well supplied with provisions, it is a good bet they were roasted over hot coals.  The size of the fish they described was rather commonplace for the time, accounts abound of catfish weighing 80 to 100 lbs. or more.

“An Alabama paper says that a gentleman by the name of Richardson, lately caught in the Tennessee River, a cat fish that weighed one hundred and eighteen pounds—and measured five feet two inches in length, four feet round the middle of its body, and 12 inches between the eyes”.  – Niles’ Weekly Register.  April 22, 1837.

Hunters often resorted to fishing with line, seine, net, or trap when efforts failed at bringing down game.  Since many such parties took little provisions with them, the fish were cooked very simply.  In this instance, the writer told us how they cooked their catch.

In a little while they caught twelve catfish, fat yellow fellows, which proved to be of excellent flavor.  They made a fire on the spot, and proceeded to roast one on the coals, and though they had no seasoning the meal was a very grateful one.  – Hazard’s United States Commercial and Statistical Register, Volume 1.  Dec. 4, 1839.  Philadelphia.

Those who did have more ingredients prepared the catfish more traditionally.  A party in Texas left accounts both from when provisions were low and when they had been replenished.  The methods used in preparing the fish were more traditional when they had ingredients to use in preparing the fish. 

The first account said there was no seasoning of any kind, not even salt, available yet the men ate, “pound after pound of the coarse fish”.  After two months they were able to obtain some basic supplies at which point they noted, “that even fried fish was a rare dainty”.  This is indicative of the preference of old Southern cooks of using a frying pan whenever possible.  – Kendall, George Wilkins.  Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition.  1844.  London.

Catfish soup or chowder was much appreciated though most printed recipes are from the early 19^th century.  In closing I will leave the reader with two receipts – one for catfish soup from 1821, and the other from 1840.

CATFISH SOUP:  Clean three or four catfish very carefully, washing them in cold water.  Cut them into small pieces, bones and all.  Take a knuckle of veal, and some bone or meat of gammon, break them, with a hammer, into fragments.  Add any bones or scraps of meat, that are sweet and good; put all these into a stew pan, with a dessert spoonful of flour rolled in butter.  Boil for four hours, adding hot water to make up your quantity.  Scum it carefully when required.  Then strain the whole through a hair sieve.

Boil for five minutes, three carrots, 1 turnip, a head of celery, 4 onions, and throw away this water; then cut your herbs and put them, with a bunch of sweet herbs and some chopped parsley into your soup, and boil them till they are tender; add half a pint of Tenerific [?] wine, four bruised cloves, a little mace, pepper and salt to your mind.  Serve it with the carrots, turnip, and onions taking out the sweet herbs.  A dozen oysters with their liquor strained will improve it. – Willich, Anthony Florian Madinger.  The Domestic Encyclopedia, or, A Dictionary of Facts and Useful Knowledge.  1821.  Philadelphia.

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Catfish Soup.  Cat-fish that have been caught near the middle of the river are much nicer than those that are taken near the shore where they have access to impure food.  The small white ones are the best.  Having cut off their heads, skin the fish, and clean them, and cut them in three.  To twelve small catfish allow a pound and a half of ham.  Cut the [salted, country] ham into small pieces, or slice it very thin, and scald it two or three times in boiling water, lest it be too salt.  Chop together a bunch of parsley and some sweet marjoram stripped from the stalks.  Put these ingredients into a soup kettle and season them with pepper:  the ham will make it salt enough.  Add a head of celery cut small, or a large bunch of celery seed tied up in a bit of clear muslin to prevent its dispersing.  Put in two quarts of water, cover the kettle, and let it boil slowly till every thing is sufficiently done, and the fish and ham quite tender.  Skim it frequently.  Boil in another vessel a quart of rich milk, in which you have melted a quarter of a pound of butter divided into small bits and rolled in flour.  Pour it hot to the soup, and stir in at the last the beaten yolks, of four eggs.  Give it another boil, just to take off the rawness of the eggs, and then put it into a tureen, taking out the bag of celery seed before you send the soup to table, and adding some toasted bread cut into small squares.  In making toast for soup, cut the bread thick, and pare of all the crust.  – Leslie, Eliza.  Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches.  1840.  Philadelphia.