Native American Foodways, An Overview ©

Tags

Native American foods

early drawing

To study Native American foodways is in essence to study native plant and animal life, or ethnobotany.  Earthen pots were usually filled with local game and wild or cultivated plants and vegetables, the types of which varied from one region to another.  Temperature, soil type, amount of rainfall, and other factors combined to determine what foodstuffs were found in any given area. 

(The contents of those pots and the methods of preparing the foods is a significant and lengthy chapter in Soup Through the Ages, A Culinary History with Recipes by Victoria Rumble, published by McFarland Publishing and released in 2009.  See Book Shoppe, above.)

            By their continuall ranging, and travel, they know all the advantages and          places most frequented with Deare, Beasts, Fish, Foule, Rootes, and Berries. –        John Smith,Virginia.

Ladies were charged with carrying provisions, gathering wood, and preparing food for hunting parties as the hunters themselves were concerned with no other activity than the affairs of the hunt.

Game and fowl were trapped, snared, hunted by fire-hunting (use of a light to mesmerize deers or other animals in the dark giving the hunter time to bring them down), use of dogs in hunting varied from tribe to tribe. 

Game and fowl included deer, turkeys, boar, ducks, bison, bear, elk, pigeons, alligators, rabbits, opossums, raccoons, squirrels, partridges, etc.  Depending on religious beliefs some tribes ate fish and turtle while others did not, and likewise while some ate dogs routinely, others did not.  Early accounts often mention eating snake, especially rattlesnake.  Some tribes were much more meticulous in the cleaning and processing of fish and game than others, the least appetizing examples of which are found in most of the early accounts.

Bison can be documented over most of the inhabited country well into the 18^th century through the writings of early explorers.  Swanton stated there were large herds in what is now Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, the western gulf region toward the plains, Florida except for the southern-most part of the state, and parts of the Atlantic coastal region.  In 1880 their disappearance east of the Mississippi was said to be due to draught.  (For more information see Outdoor Recreation & Leisure in 19^th Century America by Victoria Rumble, Thistle Dew Books)

drawing by John White

 

Large quantities of fish and shellfish were gathered annually by traps, weirs, spears or arrows, poisoning streams, netting, trot-lines, angling, by the bare hand, and by attracting fish to night fires.  They were often preserved for winter by drying and smoking.  Oysters were dried in quantities enough to last the winter and often transported surprising distances back to villages.

The types of fish harvested depended on indigenous species particular to any river or region, including herring, sturgeon, cod, rockfish (bass), bluefish, salmon, trout, jacks, perch, suckers, mullet, alewives, carp, tunny, ray, plaice, garfish, catfish, eels, etc. 

In addition to the preparation of soups and pottages, the methods of cooking fish included roasting over a framework of twigs and coating the entire fish in mud and baking it thus coated in hot coals.  When the hardened mud coating was broken away the scales and skin came away with it leaving only the tender flesh. 

Plants and grains played an important role in native diet – both wild and cultivated varieties.  The most commonly recorded varieties of cultivated vegetables included the three-sisters, corn, beans, and squash.  This method yielded the highest quantity of  produce from a limited amount of space.  Beans ran up the corn stalks while squashes grew at ground level underneath. 

Corn, or maize, was eaten many ways including roasted in its green state (mature ears fresh from the garden).  By growing multiple varieties and staggering planting times the green corn season was prolonged considerably.  Different types of corn lent themselves best to the preparation of particular foods, some being better for meal or flour or hominy than others, for example.

Dried corn was consumed in many ways.  It was boiled with meat and beans, made into bread, grits, porridge, mush, and hominy, sometimes referred to as sofki, sagamite, etc.  Beans were combined with cornmeal by the Cherokees and others in making bread.

Documentation can be found of burning corn cobs and adding the ashes to bread or broth, a practice which Southern women later resorted to during the Civil War when baking powder, yeast, and other leavenings were unavailable.

John White drawing

Corn was also used to make a popular drink by draining and straining the liquor from boiled dried corn. 

Peas, beans (pulse), pumpkin, sunflowers, some melons, nuts of many sorts, wild roots and fruits, cabbage palmetto, etc. played an important role in native diets.  With the arrival of Europeans came the introduction to foods such as Irish potatoes (to be differentiated from wild tubers), true sweet potatoes, leeks, onion, cabbage, garlic, additional varieties of melons, turnips, parsnips, etc. 

Any wild plant that could be rendered edible was consumed.  Gathered nuts included acorns, walnuts, hickory nuts, chestnuts, etc., and in addition to eating nuts in the usual manner they were valued for the oil obtained from them (used in soups and in boiling meats and vegetables), and bread that could be made from the roasted nuts (especially acorns and chestnuts).  

harvesting wild rice

Peaches were among the first cultivated fruits.  Valued wild fruits included crabapples, cherries, mulberries, persimmons, grapes (muscadine and scuppernong), strawberries, plums, bilberries (also called huckleberries, whortleberries, and blueberries), blackberries, cranberries, raspberries, etc.  Berries and fruits were used to make bread, peach bread for example, pottages, or boiled with any other available vegetables or wild plants.    

Commonly consumed foods which were found in only specific areas included the citrus gathered by the Seminoles of Florida, and pinion nuts and mesquite berries gathered by the Hualapai and others inArizona.  (Space will not allow listing every wild plant consumed, however, research into the writings of early explorers combined with studies of botany and native plants will yield information relative to any location)

Common cooking methods included boiling, roasting, smoking, and baking in a coating of mud very similar to the method of fish cooking.  Meat was often placed onto the end of a sharpened stick which was inserted in the ground leaning toward the fire where it roasted to perfection. 

Methods of boiling included boiling in hides, either suspended from a tripod over the fire or by placing heated stones into the hide with the food to be cooked.  Earthenware pots were replaced early by traders’ metal kettles, though some tribes were quicker to adopt them than others. 

The tongues of deer and bison (also buffalo humps), and the tails of beaver were delicacies with many tribes.  Bear fat and venison suet were preserved and used in the preparation of food as long as the quantities lasted.  Both Native Americans and whites cured bear meat into bacon and bear lard made excellent bread.

The most popular method of food preservation was by drying, and this applied to meats, fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables (cultivated and wild).  Large caches of dried corn, peas, beans, pumpkin, and squash were common with many Southeastern tribes.  Maple sugar and syrup were documented by many early writers.

The Native American diet varied greatly in flavor, quantity, and quality from region to region and from one time period to another.  Most ate heartily during times of plenty, and made do, resorting to much poorer quality ingredients and consuming less, during times of scarcity. 

Almost any statement could be made regarding native foodways in general, but what is correct for one situation is not necessarily correct for another.  Prepared foods made significant changes which can be traced to incidents such as the introduction of metal kettles, the introduction of new seeds and cultivation equipment, or even differences in native plants for those who were forced to leave their homes in the Southeast and settle in what many considered the barren wasteland ofIndian Territory. 

Because of these significant changes in foodstuffs and cooking techniques it is necessary to do lengthy study and research on any period, tribe, or food type in order to arrive at accurate conclusions. 

Further reading:  Swanton’s various books on Southeastern Indians.

Rumble, Victoria.  Soup Through the Ages, A Culinary History with Period Recipes.  Order from McFarland Publishing Co.

A Look at Various Breads©

Tags

fry bread, tortillas

In 1809, “A Dictonary , Spanish and English, and English and Spanish”, defined tortilla simply as “a little cake”.

“Tortillas, which are a sort of cake made of Indian corn, are a general article of sustenance in Mexico.  They were prepared in precisely the same way as at present before the conquest of that country.  The maize, of which the tortillas are composed, is first parboiled, to cleanse and soften the grain, and then, in a quantity sufficient for the day’s consumption, is left to cool.  For the purpose of crushing or mashing the maize, the women have a large square block of black lava, or basalt, about two feet in length and sixteen inches broad, which stands on two, three, or four legs, so arranged as to give it a gentle slope.  There is a very slightly-elevated rim on either side, and the great solidity and weight keep the stone steady, while the operator bruizes [sic] the maize with a long stone, not unlike a rolling pin, which is held at each end, and so moved that it crushes the grain to paste, and at the same time pushes it down to a bowl placed ready to receive it.  This process is gone through once, twice, or more, according to the fineness required; and, where great care is taken it is passed through a fine sieve.  A lump of this paste is then taken, and patted skillfully between the hands until it becomes as thin as a light pancake; and the great art consists in thus flattening it out without breaking the edges.  The cake is then laid on a smooth plate of iron or flat earthenware, which is placed over some charcoal or wood embers, and kept at a certain heat; here, first one, and then the other side of the tortilla, receives a toasting, and great care is taken that it should not be at all browned.  The grand object in the latter part of the process is to serve up the tortillas hot and hot, as fast as possible, in a clean napkin; and a slow eater who begins his first tortilla, will find twenty or thirty piled up in a smoking heap at his elbow, long before he has made any progress with  his dinner.  The making of tortillas is so important an art, that in the houses of respectable people a woman, called from her office “tortillera,” is kept for this express purpose; and it sounds very oddly to the ear of a stranger, during meal-times, to hear the rapid patting and slapping which goes forward in the cooking-place until all demands are satisfied.”  – “The Young Gentleman’s Book”.  1832. London.

Church noted the presence of someone to bake tortillas during a meal so that they were always hot and fresh.  “When stale, the tortilla not only loses its elasticity, but becomes hard, dry, and tasteless as a chip”.  He described the “chile Colorado” referred to earlier as a sauce of red pepper and tomatoes cooked with a little lard, and sometimes with jerked meat and described the manner of smearing this paste between two tortillas and rolling them into a thick round sandwich.  Church, William Conant.  “The Galaxy”.  June 1868.

Thomas Jefferson Green, likewise, referred to the tortilla as, “a cake of bread made of Indian corn, about the thickness of upper leather, and quite as pliant”.  He wrote that it served the Mexicans as bread and also as knife, fork and spoon, the eater using his thumb and first two fingers to form a spoon shape with which food was dipped up and placed in the mouth.  “At every dip the spoon shape disappears”, or was eaten and a new piece used for the next bite.  – “Journal of the Texian Expedition Against Mier”.  New York.  1845.

Edward Thomas Stevens described the difference in texture of tortillas made in Mexico and those made in Central America.  Taylor described the former as “soft and leathery” whereas Stevens found those made in Nicaragua “hot and crisp”.  Brantz Mayer described Mexican tortillas as, “tough buckskin-like victuals”.  Stevens noted that tortillas could be purchased on the street from an Indian woman and chile to go in it from another, but his use of the word “Indian” referred to native peoples of Central America and not native people of the U.S.  “ Flint Chips:  A Guide to Pre-historic Archaeology”.  London.  1870.

No references were found of natives in the U.S. making tortillas.  James Henry Salisbury noted they boiled the maize and ate it with fish or venison “instead of bread”.  – “History and Chemical Investigation of Maize, Or Indian Corn”.  Albny.  1849.

Carver penned an excellent description of Indian bread which is vastly different from Mexican tortillas.  “Among this people [Indians of North America] I ate of a very uncommon kind of bread.  The Indians, in general, use but little of this nutritious food:  whilst their corn is in the milk, as they term it, that is, just before it begins to ripen, they slice off the kernels from the cob to which they grow, and knead them into a paste.  This they are enabled to do without the addition of any liquid, by the milk that flows from them; and when it is effected, they parcel it out into cakes, and enclosing them in leaves of the basswood tree, place them in hot embers, where they are soon baked.  And better flavored bread I never ate in any country”.  – Carver, Jonathan, Capt. “Three Years Travels Throughout the Interior Parts of North America”.  Charlestowne.  1802.

Bailey spoke of savages from the Rocky Mountains who came down to St. Charles who had never eaten bread prior to their encounter with the whites.  Napier, James Bailey.  “Sketches of Indian Character”.  1841.

Joseph Taylor wrote that the bread of New England Indians and, “many other parts of America” was made of maize and called “weachin”.  It seems doubtful he saw them eat much bread as he went on to say they, “boiled it whole in water, till it swelled and became tender, and then they fed on it, either alone, or eat it with their fish and venison, instead of bread”.  – “The Wonder of Trees, Plants, and Shrubs Recorded in Anecdotes or A Description of Their Wonderful Properties…”  London.  1823.

In a treatise published in 1841, is found mention of North American Indians pounding maize to make a, “sort of cake”, which they bake by means of hot cinders.  This serves them, and, indeed occasionally the Anglo Americans, as a substitute for loaf or leavened bread…”  There was no mention of flattening it as one would with a tortilla.  – “The Guide to Trade:  The Baker Including Bread and Fancy Baking”.

Let’s touch on the modern day Native American fry bread before we go our separate ways.  This food is passed off as authentic at practically every re-enactment period, however, there is no indication that this was made prior to the reservation period.  It was produced from the limited supplies they received in an effort to produce as much food as possible from as little as possible.

“Fried bread” referred to more than one product.  Throughout the 19^th century there are numerous mentions of frying bread, for a process in which bread was diced, or cut it into fanciful shapes, and browned in butter to serve with soup.  Bread crumbs were prepared in a similar manner to serve on top of various dishes.  Recipes for French toast were also sometimes titled Fried Bread in 19^th century cookery books.

A recipe for Fried Bread similar to modern Navajo fried bread was published in Mrs. Chadwick’s “Home Cookery:  A Collection of Tried Receipts, Both Foreign and Domestic” in 1853, but the index contained nothing that might be construed as Native American food.  It is this author’s belief that the fried bread recipe was copied from other books published during that time on East Indian food, thus the word “foreign” in the title.

Fried bread is mentioned five times in “Indian Domestic Economy and Receipt Book”, 1860, however this book was certainly written about the country India and not North American Indians.

The following was penned by Mrs. Marcus Whitman who accompanied her missionary husband on his travels and to the Oregon territory.  “Our dinner consisted of dry buffalo meat, turnips, and fried bread which was a luxury.  Mountain bread is simply coarse flour and water mixed and roasted or fried in buffalo grease.”  Those lines were most likely written in 1843 when Whitman led the first large group of wagons west from Fort Hall in southeastern Idaho because his wife did say the meal in question was taken at Fort Hall.  She went on to elaborate on the fort’s builder, appearance, and history.  Whitman died in 1847.  – Humphreys, Mary Gay.  “Missionary Explorers Among the American Indians”.  1913.  NY.

Assumptions are not acceptable proof of an item’s history so one must ask if the inhabitants of Fort Hall who served the dinner were preparing foods they’d seen Indians in the area making or also just making what they could from supplies on hand.

Blissful Meals, I leave you with the following recipes to tempt you in your kitchen endeavors.  – Thehistoricfoodie, aka, Vickie Brady.  ©

TO FRY BREAD TO SERVE WITH SOUP.  – Acton, Eliza.  “Modern Cookery in all its Branches”.  1858.  Cut some slices a quarter-inch thick, from a stale loaf; pare off the crust, and divide the bread into dice, or cut it with a deep paste-cutter into any other form.  For half a pound of bread put two ounces of the best butter into a frying-pan, and when it is quite melted, add the bread; keep it turned, over a gentle fire, until it is equally coloured to a very pale brown, then drain it from the butter, and dry it on a soft cloth, or a sheet of paper placed before a clear fire, upon a dish, or on a sieve reversed.

FRIED BREAD, VERY NICE.  Mrs. Chadwick.  Make a sour-milk cake, put in just saleratus enough to foam the milk, then melt a piece of butter the size of an egg in a great spoonful of hot water.  Salt to taste.  It must only be made just stiff enough to roll out.  Fry in lard, as you do symballs.

MRS. HILL’S FRIED BREAD PUDDING.  Knight, S.  “Tit-Bits”.  1864.  One pint of milk, three eggs, a little salt, and flour enough to make a thin batter.  Cut a stale (baker’s) loaf in slices; half an hour before using, place the sliced bread in the batter.  It must be removed carefully when ready to cook, and fried as griddle cakes; to be eaten with sauce.

Buffalo Meat and Preparing It. ©

Tags

buffalo marrow bones, buffalo tongue, roasted buffalo

©The following recipes may be considered a continuation on the post on buffalo [bison] in Alabama. Cookbooks weren’t being published in America during the heyday of buffalo cookery so while there are few actual recipes in early sources, there are many recorded instances of eating buffalo. As for the cooking, the following accounts, with a little imagination, will serve us well.

For this article, a buffalo ”chip” is not a piece of crunchy meat, and buffalo does not refer to a chicken wing swimming in hot sauce, or to a species of fish.

The prime cuts from a buffalo were the hump and the tongue followed in preference by the liver, ribs, and marrow bones. A sinful amount of meat went to waste when herds were slaughtered for their hides and, “the carcasses were left to the wolves and buzzards.” There was a market for salted buffalo tongues [sometimes referred to as pickled], but the harvesting was still sinfully wasteful, the tongue often being the only cut harvested from an animal.

Salted tongue, required removing enough of the salt to make it palatable when served. It was often boiled in successive waters (pouring off the water and replacing it with fresh water during the cooking process) or soaking it prior to cooking, again often in successive waters. “The salter [sic]meat is, the longer it should be boiled. If very salt, it is well to put it in soak over night; change the water while cooking…”. “Buffalo’s tongue should soak a day and a night, and boil as much as six hours”.

Buffalo ribs from the humps were much appreciated and could be roasted by propping them up near a fire. Let’s look at words penned b y Josiah Gregg for an idea of the quality of the meat that was so vastly wasted. “The flesh of the buffalo is, I think, as fine as any meat I ever tasted: The old hunter will not admit that there is anything equal to it. Much of its apparent savoriness, however, results perhaps from our sharpened ‘prairie appetites’ and our being usually upon salt provisions awhile before obtaining it. The flesh is of coarser texture than beef, more juicy, and the fat and lean better distributed. This meat is also very easy of digestion, possessing even aperients qualities. The circumstance that bulls of all ages, if fat, make good beef is a further proof of the superiority of buffalo meat…Of these, the udder is held as hardly second to the tongue in delicacy. But what the tail of the beaver is to the trapper, the tongue of the buffalo is to the hunter. Next to this are the marrow-bones, the tender-loins, and the hump-ribs.” The author acknowledged that many animals were wantonly slaughtered by travelers and hunters, but said hardly less was, “the still greater havoc made among them by the Indians, not only for meat, but often for the skins and tongues alone (for which they find a ready market amount their traders)…”.

Charles Murray said of choice cuts in the 1830’s, “…the ribs, and the back, especially the hump, are, if properly dressed, as sweet, tender, and delicious beef as the most delicate epicure could desire; and both the fat and marrow are certainly finer than those of any domesticated cattle…”.

Not sure what to do with marrow-bones? After roasting the bones, the marrow was removed. “…oh, shade of Eude, the marrow-bones! No man can guess what marrow amounts to until he has been to the Far West and eaten it as Wallace, who cooked on the plains for me, dressed it. The bone was brought to table in its full length, and they had some way of hitting it with the back of an axe which opened one side of it only, like the lid of a box. The bone, then, when this lid was removed, exposed in its entire length a regular white roll of unbroken marrow, beautifully done. When hot, as the lid had kept it, and put on thin toast, it was perfection! On inquiry I found that the two extreme ends of the marrow-bone only were placed on the red embers, and the heat of the bone itself dressed the marrow. As far as the bison meat went, it was precisely lean beef; with no more flavor than lean beef in England would have…“.

One writer wrote that it took a while to consume a whole buffalo which would have required smoking, drying, or salting to preserve it. “…for a long time, on the general bill of fare at Sydenham’s ranch, was buffalo rump, buffalo tongue, buffalo ribs, buffalo steak, boiled buffalo, jerked buffalo, and dried buffalo…”.

When cooked outdoors, rarely are vegetables or other dishes mentioned as accompaniments, the meat being consumed by itself or with bread or crackers and steaming hot coffee. “Meanwhile, the cook of each mess…has been preparing hot coffee; and offers it with the unleavened cakes which were baked over night against a spade or board, and some boiled or fried buffalo meat for breakfast: as a rarity, he gives them a morsel of fried pork.”

We can thank Frederick Townshend for a look at Native American cooking of buffalo meat, but we must look beyond his words for an accurate picture. Rare beef, or in this case buffalo, is much the standard today and would hardly be worth mentioning, but for Townshend it seems to have made an impression. “The Indian manner of cooking buffalo meat is simple in the extreme. Lighting a large log fire, they bend across it sticks of green wood, on which they hang large pieces of flesh. Then, sitting round the fire, they cut strips of meat off with their knives, and devour it half raw…”.

“Indians often use wood-ashes as a substitute for salt and never use salt with buffalo-meat; but their liking or preference comes from their habit of invariably broiling buffalo-meat on wood cinders or buffalo-chips” [now you know what chips are].

Recipes:
BUFFALO STEAKS. Rorer, Sarah Tyson. “Mrs. Rorer’s Philadelphia Cook Book.” 1886. Philadelphia.
Buffalo steaks are broiled precisely the same as beefsteak, seasoning only with butter, salt, and pepper. Buffalo meat may also be roasted or stewed.

Juliet Corson in “A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery”, noted that her venison recipe worked quite well when cooking buffalo. The venison was browned in smoking hot butter on all sides and a Tablespoon of currant jelly added per pound of meat. “It will cook, if it is an inch thick, pretty well done in about twenty minutes. Season it with salt and pepper, and when it is done put it on the platter and pour the currant jelly and butter over it. The cooking of the jelly with the venison makes it a nice sauce or gravy. [1887]

Frances Owens tells us that, “Bear and buffalo meats are cooked substantially the same as beef or venison”.

PEMMICAN—TO PREPARE. Mrs. Owens.
Pemmican is made of the lean portions of venison, buffalo, etc. The Indian method is to remove the fat from the lean, dry the lean in the sun; then make a bag of the skin of the animal and put the lean pieces in loosely. To this must be added the fat of the animal, rendered into tallow, and poured in quite hot. This will cause all the spaces to be filled. When cold, put away for future use. In civilized life, a jar can be used in place of the bag. Pemmican may be cooked same as sausage, or eaten as dried beef. It is invaluable in long land explorations, and is of great use in sea voyages.

SOURCES:
Drury, Newton B., Director, National Par, Service. “The Comeback of the Bison”. Published in “The Rotarian” Dec. 1946.
Hooper, Edward James. “The Practical Farmer, Gardener and Housewife”. 1840. Cincinnati.
Gregg, Josiah. “Commerce of the Prairies”. 1851. Philadelphia.
Murray, Charles. “Travels in North America During the Years 1834, 1835 & 1836. 1839. London.
Berkeley, Grantley Fitzhugh. “The English Sportsman in the Western Prairies”. 1861. London.
Root, Frank A. “The Overland Stage to California.”
Cooke, Philip St. George. “Scenes and Adventures in the Army: Or, Romance of Military Life”. 1859. Philadelphia.
Townshend, Frederick. “Ten Thousand Miles of Travel, Sport, and Adventure.” 1869. London.
Blot, Pierre. “Hand-book of Practical Cookery.” 1884. NY
Rorer, Sarah Tyson. “Mrs. Rorer’s Philadelphia Cook Book.” 1886. Philadelphia.
Owens, Frances. “Mrs. Owens’ Cook Book. 1903. Chicago.

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Victoria Rumble

CHESTNUT FLOUR: It’s Many Uses

Tags

chestnut bread, chestnut cake, chestnut flour, chestnut pudding

I’m seeing a slow but growing interest in learning the foodways of the past, and I’m thankful for that because for years I’ve been disturbed by how many people have no concept of how food is prepared or preserved. Some day I’m going to do a post on just that, comments, as I’ve observed them, while doing cooking demos.

Today we’re going to take a brief look at a flour substitute that was once common, but which few have any knowledge of today. It can be used alone or combined with other types of flour and its claims to fame are that it is naturally slightly sweet, gluten-free, and has a low oil content.

Chestnuts were native to North America as well as Europe. I’ve seen numerous articles saying that Native Americans taught the Europeans to use chestnuts, however, I’m not buying the story. Chestnuts are one of those foods that seem to have evolved in various cultures simultaneously as people explored edible food sources around them.

Because there is no gluten, bread made entirely of chestnut flour does not rise like wheat flour and was referred to as “downbread” in earlier centuries. Thomas Harriot [1590] said of the Algonquians in North Carolina: “Chestnvts there are in diuers places great store: some they vse to eate rawe, some they stamp and boil to make spoonmeate, and with some being sodden they make such a manner of downbread as they vse their beanes.”

Among the early accounts of chestnuts and chestnut bread in America are De Vries’, “chestnuts, which they dry to eat”, [1600’s]; Rev. Johannes Megapolensis, Jr. [1664] who found, “an abundance of chestnuts, plums, hazelnuts, large walnuts”, etc.; and Kalm who saw meal made of chestnuts and walnuts [1740’s]. Gerarde [1633] noted, “Some affirme, that of raw chestnuts dried and afterwards turned into meale, there is made a kind of bread”. In later years, F. W. Waugh [1912-15] wrote of the Iroquois that they added crushed chestnuts to corn meal to make bread.

James Mooney documented Cherokee bean bread, chestnut bread, cornmeal dumplings, hominy, and corn gruel in a report published in 1891 and a Congressional report noted that chestnut bread was, “a great boon”, in supplementing rations on the Qualla boundary. “…the nuts being used very generally as food, both in the natural state and also in the prepared, “chestnut bread”, being a staple. This is nourishing and quite palatable, even to those not accustomed to its use. This, with corn prepared in various manners, with a little bacon and coffee, makes the ration of the ordinary Cherokee family”.

Chestnut bread remained a staple in Cherokee homes well into the 20th century. “…but in many homes food is always prepared in iron pots over a fireplace. Some delicacies, such as bean-bread, corn-bread, chestnut-bread, sweet hominy, or ‘cunahanna,’” were prepared. The latter was a dish made of whole corn, corn meal, beans, walnuts, hickory nuts, and wild honey. “This dish is very delicious, but three days are required to make it.”

A member of De Soto’s party wrote in his journal of the Indians in Florida using chestnuts and compared them to European chestnuts in 1539. He may have been the first European to pen a record of the use of chestnuts in North America. Other writers of consequence documented the Indians’ use of chestnuts including Capt. John Smith in 1612,“both broath and bread for their chiefe men or at least their greatest feasts”; and Romans in 1775 who spoke of the Creeks having, “dry peaches and persimmons… chestnuts…”.

In all of Europe, especially Italy, chestnuts were ground into flour for centuries and the demand often exceeded the supply. “The flour is made into a soup or a dough, which may be mixed with cacas, sugar, rice, or potato flour…It forms one of the principal articles of diet of the poor mountaineers”. – Forest Leaves. Vol. 10. Aug. 1906.

In later years, the Italians who could afford wheat flour made bread using one part chestnut flour to two parts wheat flour and the resulting product was said to be most excellent. Immigrants to North America may have done the same, or like Native Americans, they might well have combined it with cornmeal to make bread.

Immigrants familiar with them from their homeland knew the chestnut could be prepared as a vegetable or ground into flour and used to make bread and other products. They did so in early times, however, by 1905 one author said chestnuts were a luxury for Americans. While he felt it wasn’t used nearly as much as it should be in America, the writer did note that during October and November the flour could be purchased in the U.S.

Eighteenth and nineteenth century foods made from chestnut flour included polenta, breakfast porridge, puddings, cakes, pies, fritters, pancakes or griddle cakes, stuffing, and the water from boiled chestnuts was felt beneficial for chest complaints. Chestnut polenta was made of the flour with water and salt and it was eaten with cream, butter, ham, &c. The Italians made cakes out of chestnut flour and water which were baked over a fire between layers of chestnut leaves. Those cakes were usually eaten with buttermilk cheese, Bologna sausages, and meat.

The native chestnuts grew, “throughout the eastern United States, and is found from southern Maine through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and southward along the Alleghany Mountains to Alabama, and westward to Michigan and Indiana”. Their commonality tells us they were also known by Southeastern Indians and should be a part of Native American foodways presentations.

The chestnut tree blight eventually cast a dark shadow over the collection of native chestnuts, but the fate of the American chestnut is fodder for another post entirely.

The Native American chestnut tree attained immense proportions when growing in the open. A tree in Connecticut was documented about the turn of the 20th century at twenty-three feet circumference at a height of four feet above the ground, and eighty feet tall, and there were others even larger.

Early in the 20th century, John Parry complained that the U.S. used all it produced and each year turned to Southern Europe for a large quantity of nuts indicating they were once a presence larger than a few roasted nuts at Christmas time.

Shortages brought on by wars have necessitated substitutions for scarce ingredients throughout history, and chestnut flour was one of several the Europeans turned to during WWI. “The Italians are adding to scant war rations with chestnut bread. The chestnuts of Italy and Spain are much larger than those of America, and chestnut bread is a familiar article of diet in both lands.”

Meanwhile, in America, the Bureau of Chemistry was conducting experiments on various items which might be used here to replace or extend wheat flour including potato, rice, chestnut, dried banana, bran, soy beans, white beans, millet, Kafir, milo, dasheen, cottonseed flour, oatmeal, cassava, buckwheat, rye, corn gluten, Kaoliang, and peas. Any of these items might serve well today.

Anyone interested in replacing wheat flour, in whole or in part, might consider chestnut flour but if cost is a factor, making it at home might be preferable to purchasing it as it runs about $10. per pound. For many of us, the cost is increased due to having to add shipping charges. The following recipes use chestnuts in a variety of ways.

TO MAKE CHESTNUT FLOUR
Either cut a slit in the chestnuts or cut them in half. Place them on a pan and put into the oven to roast until the shells will peel away easily (about 40-45 minutes). Remove the shells and the papery covering (pellicle) and let them cool. Freeze the nuts for about 45 minutes. Grind the frozen chestnuts until you reach a meal-like consistency. Store the flour in an airtight container, preferably in the freezer. To make the flour in a historic setting, or in the absence of a power source, a mortar and pestle should work well.

CHESTNUT BREAD
Make a sponge as for white bread, using good white flour. When perfectly light, add a little salt and enough of chestnut flour to knead well. After kneading it thoroughly, form into loaves, put into well-oiled tins, and let it rise until twice its first size, and bake in a moderate oven for one hour.

CHESTNUT CAKE
Take 2 cups of chestnut flour, 5 eggs, 1 scant cup of sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls of water, and a pinch of salt. To make the chestnut flour, first dry the nuts before shelling, or toast them slightly with the shells on. By doing this the skins will be loosened and easily rubbed off without blanching; then grind them in a family grist-mill or a coffee-mill to a fine flour, or they may be ground through the nut-butter mill.
When all material and cake tin is ready and the oven hot, separate the eggs, and beat the yolks to a thick cream with the sugar. Then beat the whites until they are stiff and crumbly, adding the water and salt after it begins to get foamy but before it is stiff. Then pour in the yolk mixture, and fold it carefully in, and lastly fold in the 2 cups of chestnut flour. Bake like other cakes.

CHESTNUT SOUP
Shell and blanch a pint of Italian chestnuts…and cook in boiling milk until tender. Rub the nuts through a colander, add salt and sufficient milk and cream to make a soup of the proper consistency, reheat, and serve.

CHESTNUT MUFFINS
Beat three eggs, their whites and yolks separately, add three quarters of a pint of sweet milk and a tablespoon of melted butter, sift in one cup of chestnut flour with two teaspoons of baking powder. Beat the batter smooth, then add enough chestnut flour to bring the batter to a proper consistency, add also a pinch of salt and half fill warm buttered muffin pans. Bake about twenty minutes. (Note: These muffins aren’t going to rise as they would with wheat flour. Readers may want to use half chestnut and half wheat or other flour.)

The next two recipes are from “Mazdaznan Encyclopaedia of Dietetics and Home Cook Book: Cooked and Uncooked”. They are unusual by today’s standards but several scenarios come to mind in which the product might prove beneficial.

NUT BREAD
Grind coarse one-half cupful blanched almonds, one tablespoonful walnuts, two tablespoonfuls pine nuts. Add one half cupful flaked oats (or wheat, barley, rice, corn, peas, beans, or lentils). Mix it all thoroughly and moisten with milk, water or fruit juices. Spread in a thin layer. Sprinkle the top with St. John’s bread flour or chestnut flour and expose to the heat of the sunlight for at least one hour.

CHESTNUT BREAD
One pound finely-ground chestnuts, two tablespoonfuls ground peanuts, one pound flaked rice moistened with milk to make into loaves. Set out in the sun for an hour. Cut into slices and serve with fruit or vegetables.

CHESTNUT CAKE – Haskell (1861)
One pound and a half of boiled chestnuts mashed and sifted. One-fourth of a pound of loaf-sugar, the yolks of eight eggs beat light. Beat the ingredients well together, and spice to suit the taste. Line a shallow pudding-plate with puff paste; pour in the mixture. The Germans call this cake, but it is more like a pie or pudding.

STEAMED CHESTNUT PUDDING.
1 pound of chestnut pulp
½ pint of cream
¼ pound of fresh butter
¼ pound of sugar
8 yolks of eggs
6 whites of eggs
Pinch of salt
Vanilla or almond flavoring
Boil 1 ¼ pounds of chestnuts in water one hour. Peel them, scrape off the furry outside; mash the kernels through a sieve, moistening with hot cream. Mix all the other ingredients with puree except the whites of eggs; the yolks having been well beaten before stirring in.
Whip the whites firm, and lightly mix them in without beating. Steam in buttered moulds about one hour. Serve as soon as done, with diluted fruit jelly made hot for sauce…

CHESTNUT PUDDING [Note: This recipe was included in several 18th century cookbooks including Hannah Glasse, and Richard Briggs. Adjust the nutmeg to taste, and the pudding can probably be made just as successfully with half the number of large eggs].
Put a dozen and a half of chestnuts into a skillet or saucepan of water; boil them a quarter of an hour; then blanch and peel them and beat them in a marble mortar, with a little orange-flower or rose-water and white wine, till they are a fine thin paste; them beat up twelve eggs, with half the whites, and mix them well; grate half a nutmeg, and a little salt; mix them with three pints of cream and half a pound of melted butter; sweeten it to your palate, and mix altogether. Lay a puff paste all over the dish, and pour in the mixture and bake it. When cream cannot be got, take three pints of milk; beat up the yolks of four eggs, and stir into the milk; set it over the fire, stirring it all the time, till it be scalding hot; then mix it instead of the cream.

BOMB COQUELIN (Something Different in Chestnut Pudding) [Note: the chestnuts can be mashed or put through a ricer. Place the mixture in a loaf pan before freezing if desired.]
2 lbs. chestnuts, 4 squares chocolate, ½ lb. butter or margarine, ½ lb. castor sugar
Keep a little butter and sugar to mix with chocolate when the latter is being melted. Boil and skin chestnuts and pass carefully through a hair sieve. Cream butter and sugar, mix well with chestnut puree. Grease ice tray and put mixture in freezing for not more than 2 hours. Turn out on serving dish and pour over it the melted chocolate and serve. This can be cut in slices like a cake.

SOURCES FOR CHESTNUT FLOUR: Barry Farm, amazon.com,

Notes:
Bertini, Tullio Bruno. “Trapped in Tuscany and Liberated by the Buffalo Soldiers”. 1998. Boston.
“Commercial Relations of the United States with Foreign Countries”. Govt. Printing Office, Washington. 1879.
Parry, John. “Nuts for Profit”. New Jersey. 1897.
Jaffa, Myer. “Nuts and their Uses as Food”. Farmers’ Bulletin 332. U.S. Dept. Agriculture. 1908.
Lambert, Almeda. “Guide for Nut Cookery”. 1899.
Kellogg, Ella Ervilla. “Science in the Kitchen”. 1892.
Norton, Jeanette. “Mrs. Norton’s Cook-book. 1917.
Jameson, John Franklin, ed. “Narratives of New Netherland 1609-1664”. 1909 edition.
Waugh, F. W. “Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation”.
“Illustrated World”. Vol. 30. Sept. 1918.
“National Baker”. Vol. 20. April 1915.
Hanish, O. Z., Dr. “Mazdaznan Encyclopaedia of Dietetics and Home Cook Book: Cooked and Uncooked. 1905. Chicago.
Mooney, James. “The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees”. Vol. 7. 1891. Washington. Government Printing Office.
“Congressional Serial Set”. Report Concerning Indians in North Carolina. Cherokee, N. C., September 6, 1902.
Armstrong, Samuel Chapman. “The Southern Workman”. Vol. 49. 1920.
Power, J. W. “Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 1900. Washington. Government Printing Office.
Haskell, E. F., Mrs. “The Housekeeper’s Encyclopedia of Useful Information for the Housekeeper. 1861. NY.
Whitehead, Jessup. “The American Pastry Cook”. 1894. Chicago
Huish, Robert. “The Female’s Friend”. 1837. London.
Young, Lady. “Lady Young’s Cookery Book”. 1900.

List of Articles on TheHistoricFoodie’s Blog

This photo was taken during my live cooking segment on WGN Chicago.

Copyright.  All content on this blog is the property of the author and may not be reproduced without permission of the author.  Thank you.  – Victoria Brady, Thehistoricfoodie.  (thistledewbooks @ yahoo.com) (address separated to avoid SPAM, type all together to send email)

Recipes for Captains of Ships; Dutch Case-Knife Beans; Brady’s Faithful Reproductions; Work-Bags and Their Uses.

Good King Henry:  Perennial Green.

The Old Pot Herbs in the Flower Garden

Classic Herbs and Herb Blends

A Dinner of Herbs

Muscovy for the Table

Cheese Straws:  A Quick History

Lettuce Through Time

Celery:  More than Miropoix.

Spooners and Spoon Holders:  Gone the Way of the Dodo Bird.

MUSCOVIES:  South American Water Fowl

Scramble or Fry?  Oh My!

The Farmstead Kitchen Garden

Cardinals:  The South’s Colorful Songster

American Beauty Berry

Croquettes:  Tasty Pockets of Goodness

(Vintage) POULTRY WATERERS

Breed for Health as Well as Traits

The Celebrated Bremen Geese of Ten Hills Farm©

Nutrition Through the Years

Estranged Children:  New Epidemic or Old Problem?

DRAWING POULTRY

Dry Plucking vs. Scalding Poultry

Green Up Time is Here

Kitchen Styles that Reach Out to Me

The “Other” Meat Enjoyed Abroad

Merry Christmas and God Bless

Pigeons and the Dovecot, Parts I and II

Muscovy

A Very Brief Look at the History of Flowers

Is It a Flower Bed or a Flower Garden?

RADISHES:  Spring versus Winter Varieties

SUMAC:  Grow Your Own Spice

When Serving Pieces were all the Rage

Thistle Salad Days

A Quick Discourse on Elderberries

Elinore Stewart, Lady Homesteader

What is a Homestead?

Perennial Vegetables:  Plant Once, Harvest for Many Seasons

Growing and Using Your Own Bay Leaves

Thinking With Cows:  A Shared Post

Marrow Fat

Elderberries:  Multipurpose Fruit

Soap Fit for a Queen

Destruction Can Come in Small Packages (Fireants and Hatching Eggs)

Reclaiming Neglected Grape Vines

When is a Bean not a Bean?

Queen Victoria’s Poultry Yard

America’s Greatest Problem:  We’ve been off the Farm too Long.

What to do with Loads of Summer Squash

A Look at Various Breads

Got Tomatoes?  Make Preserves

Memorial Day Message

Living the Good Life:  Or, Small Farm Adventures

William Rankin:  Producer of Poultry and Prize Holsteins

James Rankin’s Maplewood Farm

Rouen Ducks:  Their Origins and Qualities

Poultry Parenting

A Little Look at my Garden

Canning for Trying Times

Canning Basics

Genealogy Titles From the Historic Foodie

Chestnut Flour

Where Are We As a Nation?

What Are Your Favorite Heirloom Seeds?

Tea Towel History

Christmas 2013

So Long 2013

Upstairs/Downstairs

Tom and Jerry

America No Longer a Top Ten

A Strange Dinner If Ever There Was One

Franklin and Food

Water Conveyance in the 19th Century
Times Past:  A Rather Nostalgic Look

Potatoes:  A Crop Anyone Can Grow

Say No to GMO’s

A Historic Foodie Designs a Modern Kitchen

Chicken Corn Soup with Pennsylvania Saffron

A Cloth Before

Wardian Cases

Moving On Up

An Abundance of Apples

A Quick Look at Pears

An Improved Rhubarb

Online Nurseries:  How Not to Get Ripped Off

Making a House a Home

Pomegranate:  A Beautiful Show of Color

Food During War Time

Remodeling the Homestead

Orange:  Which Came First – the Fruit or the Color?

Tomato Sauce:  Then and Now

Children and Discipline

Alabama’s First Fruit and Fruit Growers

Product Warning

More on the Indian Peach

Buffalo in Present Day Alabama

Abuse of Public Assistance

Native American Waste of the Buffalo

Buffalo Meat and Preparing It

American Chicken Breeds

Ginger Ale:  Homemade Goodness

More Soda Varieties

More on Ginger Ale

Food Adulterations

Summer Heat

First There Were Figs

Pears:  Preserved for Winter

Driving Hogs

A Little on Other Projects

Bourbon Red Turkeys

Orpingtons:  Dual Purpose Winners

Creators of the Orpingtons:  William Cook and Children

When is Honey Not Honey at All?

Ameracaunas:  Tracking the Path of the Chilean Chicken

Letters from Alabama

Lord Bacon’s Essay on Plantations in the New World

Roastit Bubbly Jock

Fruits and Vegetables:  Pretty Wasn’t Always Better

Gravy Boat or Chamber Pot?

Hannah Glasse:  Stolen Identity During the 18th Century

What Surprises are Lurking in the Milk in Your Fridge?

Witch Hazel:  A True North American Plant

Pemmican:  It Wasn’t Just for Native Americans

Growing My Own

Roselle:  An Almost Forgotten Plant

When it Isn’t a Potato

Pies Aren’t Always Sweet

A Quick Look at Pie Birds

A History of Tame Rabbits

2016 Gardening Plans

Sweet Corn Our Ancestors Would Recognize

American Dominiques As I Know Them

More on the Dominique

In Search of the Shakebag Fowl

More Varieties of Heirloom Corn

Saffron: A Pennsylvania Dutch Essential

Dumplings and Sauerkraut: Food for the Immortals
18th century Cherokee Attire
Early Kitchen Towels
18th Century Clothing
18th Century Aprons
Oysters and the Pennsylvania Dutch
Changes in Cherokee Attire in the 19th Century
The Early Pennsylvania German Home
Indentured or Redemptioner: White Slavery in the Colonies
Pennsylvania Dutch Food and its Family Connection
Mid-18th Century Cherokee Attire
How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Salad
Bread Sticks, Italy’s Gift
Pulled Chicken
Merry-Thought or Wish-bone?
Stew Stove: Forerunner of the Cook stove
Hot and Hot: A Culinary Phrase from Yesteryear
Corn and its Many Uses
Bounty From my Garden
Tea with the Washingtons
The Natural History of Tea: Debunking the Myth of the Tea Brick
Tea Bowls and Saucers
Thinning the Beets
Ladies at Tea: Ft. Toulouse
Eat Your Way to a Manicured Lawn
Edible Flowers
True American Tea
Pickled Beets and Eggs: A Bit of Pennsylvania in Alabama
Recipes for Using Canned Chicken
Butter: Preservation Then and Now
Getting the Most for your Food Dollar
A Chicken in Every Jar
18th Century Baskets: Plain and Fancy
Whittling: Useful Skill or Way to Pass the Time?
Cruisies and Betties: 18th Century Lights
The Tradition of Birthday Cakes & Celebrations
Period Spectacles: The Better to See Those Cookery Books
Lost Recipes: Hickory Nut Custard Cake
Liver and Bacon: Classic Fare for All Times
Obesity in the 19th Century
Weight Loss in 19th Century America
Acorn: The Other Flour
North Carolina Native Foods
Southern Indians: Foods of the Creek Confederacy
Native Harvests
Foods in Early Georgia
The Making of Succotash: New World Beans and Corn
An 18th Century Scottish Kitchen
The Laird’s Table: Scottish Fare for the Upper Class
Drinking Tobacco: Smoking in the 18th Century
Whale Oil Lamps
Emerging From Darkness: 18th Century Lighting
Whieldon Ware for the 18th Century Table
Brawn to Souse
Brawn for Winter Use
Traditional Christmas Fare
Roasted Sparrow Anyone?
Food and Charity
Popularization of the Christmas Tree
Roasted Capon, Start to Finish
The Life and Reign of Innocent XI
A Christmas Tree for a Historic Foodie
The Victualling Trades
The Work of Sewers in the Middle Centuries
Following in Sir John’s Footsteps: Royal Meals
Ft. Toulouse
Whatever Happened to Civility?
A Few Stray Facts About Drink in 18th Century France
Mid-18th Century Foods in France, As Seen by Smollett
James W. Ennis, Company Cook, 14th Alabama Infantry
In and Around Montgomery, Alabama in 1834
Maize and the French in Louisiana
Persimmons and their Uses
Grapes: As Seen by du Pratz
Colonial Pantries: Foods of North Carolina
Scuppernong or Muscadine? You Decide.
Their French and Their Acceptance of the Potato
Irish Potatoes in the 18th Century
Supplying Ft. Toulouse
Vegetables in 18th Century Louisiana
Shad: Then and Now
Dough Kneaders, Mixers, &c.
Oranges in 18th Century Cooking
Oranges: Flavoring Agent & Sweetmeat
Groundhog: It’s What’s for Dinner
Figs in Many Ways
Cabbages
More on Pretzels
Pretzels: From Europe to the New World
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES – The food, not the Movie by the Same Name
Native and Non-Native Foods of the Colonial Southeast
Pleasant Hill, Alabama
Tea History
A Bit on Tea in the 18th Century
Wafers: Not Quite a Waffle
Clean Eggs are Good Eggs
Waffles: A History. Pt. I & II
The Homes of Pleasant Hill, Mississippi Territory
Finding Phillip Henry Goss
Squashes and Native Culture
Winter Squash: A Staple Through the Cold Months
Beating Eggs
Good Water and How to Get It
Mind Your Manners
Fairy Butter
Tamales: “Fresh” from Your Grocer’s Shelves
Tamales: A Historic Look
Native Americans and Their Use of Brass Kettles
Brass Kettles and their Care
Our Delicious 18th Century Christmas Dinner
Roast Goose for Christmas Dinner
Beyond Catfish: Bass Prepared in a Myriad of Ways
Blancmange
Rat Tailed Radish
Christmas Dinner in Days Past
The Evolution of Gingerbread, Pt I & II
Frog Legs
The Roast Beef
Whitewashed Walls in Colonial America
Couere-feu: The Practice of Preserving Fire
Frozen Dinners, Historic Style
Native American Foodways: An Overview
Feeding Washington’s Army
The Chimney-Corner of Yesteryear
Flap-Dragons
Technology Reforms the Restaurant Scene
Drying Vegetables for Winter Use
Dumplings: Southern Comfort Food
Fireplace Cookery: An Odd Incident
Fireless Cookers
Cook in Training
Squash Pudding
Heirloom Tomatoes: What Shall I Plant?
Colonial Fare: A Few Particulars on Catfish
The Lug-Pole and Its Use
Kitchens of the Past
18th Century Kitchen Tools: Salamander
Potatoes: Early Roots & Receipts
Fourth of July in Grandma’s Day
Garden Vegetables: Southern Style
What Was in Grandma’s Pantry?
Blueberry Pie
Custards: A Southern Favorite
Prebaked Pie Crusts in a Period Kitchen
Gooseberry Fool
More on Mustard
Scottish Eggs: A Classic Scottish Dish
Queen Anne’s Pocket Melon: A Treasure Almost Lost
Mustard: Ancient Condiment, Dieter’s Friend
Six Months in a Colonial Kitchen
Potted Meat and Cheese: Early Convenience Foods
Victoria’s Edible Fruitcake: Tweaking a Classic
The Baker’s Art
Holiday Traditions
18th Century Fare
Organ Meats and Making Them Palatable
Road Food
BBQ Slaw
Bread, Real Bread
Chicken Fricassee
Rusks, Early Documentation
Sandwich History: The Original Portable Food
Lemons in 18th Century Cooking
Rice Culture in America
Fishing and Hunting for the Dinner Table
The Housewife’s Idea of Heaven
The Bane of American Homes
The Importance of Breakfast
Edinburgh Eggs
The Meals of Charles Dickens’ Day
GRITS: That Beloved Morsel of Grain
Prize Cake Recipes
Loose Receipts
Cooking Hominy
Economy in the Kitchen
Lost Recipes
Sawmill Gravy
Prohibition Era Frozen Desserts
Herbal Vinegars and their Uses
My Segment on WGN, Channel 9, Chicago
The Amount of Food Consumed by an Average Family
Importance of Corn in the Native Diet
The Strawberry in History
Period Foods Under Disguise
Soup Through the Ages is Released!
New England Colonial Foods
America in 1699: Native Foods

Book Shoppe

Victoria had the opportunity to demonstrate historic foodways on national television, WGN Chicago.

I currently have three titles still in print and others in the works.  The first two are available directly from me, and my book (Soup Through the Ages:  A Culinary History with Period Recipes) is available from McFarland Publishing (details below).   

I’m offering the first two books at half-price for blog readers – just mention thehistoricfoodie and claim your discount.  (Normally $30. – for blog readers $15. plus S&H $4.)  Wholesale prices are available at significant savings as well.  Email me at thistledewbooks [at] yahoo [dot] com for the address and any other information you may need. 

Victoria’s Home Companion; Or, The Whole Art of Cooking

This book is a general overview of foods, cooking techniques, cookware, preserving, fruits and vegetables, etc. through the 19th century.  It has been sold in prestigious book shops and museum shops throughout the country, Canada, and Scotland.  In recent years it has been as popular among those who want to live a more self-reliant lifestyle as it is among historians.  Regular price $30. – mention the blog and receive a 50% discount – your cost $15. + $3.50 S&H.  Email for address – thistledewbooks [at] yahoo [dot] com.

Outdoor Recreation & Leisure in 19th Century America

Outdoor Recreation & Leisure begins in the pre-antebellum period and traces the most common as well as some obscure outdoor activities with special emphasis on the participation of women, children, and families.  Even hard working planter classes made time for vacations and outdoor activities – the historian will find loads of ideas for interpretation while those seeking a more self-reliant lifestyle will find a great deal of information on shelters, fishing, hunting, cooking outdoors, etc.  Normally $30. – mention the blog and receive a 50% discount – you pay $15. + S&H $4.00.  Inquiries about wholesale orders are welcome – thistledewbooks [at] yahoo [dot] com.

Soup Through the Ages: A Culinary History with Period Recipes

This book was called, “A massive amount of research…a solid contribution to culinary history,” by Andrew Smith, food historian and author.  Elizabeth Williams, president of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans said of it, “belongs on the bookshelves of all historians.  The development of soup is the development of civilization”.  The book begins in the Biblical era and takes the reader through the second World War – with all the history of each period including a lengthy and well documented chapter on soups consumed by Native Americans.  You will not find modern recipes masquerading as historic or Native American receipts in this book – it is factual and thorough, and the information came directly from primary sources.  The reader will learn about cook fires and other important and related topics. This book is available from McFarland Publishing Co.  They will welcome your order, wholesale or retail.

Order Lines:
Orders only Tel: 800-253-2187
Orders only FAX: 336-246-4403

Mailing Address:
McFarland
Box 611
Jefferson NC 28640

COMING SOON:

SELF-SUFFICIENCY AS GRANDMA KNEW IT. The Old Ways are the Best Ways.©
This book was written by the author as her own quick but thorough source of information in order to thrive while being self-sufficient and ready for any situation. Because it was written to be her own “go-to” reference book, it covers a complete array of topics helpful to anyone who wants to share a self-sufficient lifestyle.

The book will be an extremely valuable resource for the historian or living history village because the information is taken from primary sources and the articles are fully documented.

Do you want to know what kinds of plants can be cooked for a nutritious pot of greens or what fruits or plants can be used to make syrup in the event it can’t be snatched off the grocery store shelf? How about how to make a meal or dessert and sauce from pantry staples and/or wild ingredients? If it has to do with foods or food preservation, harvesting from Nature, finding good water, building a proper fire to cook food, or a plethora of other related topics, it will be found in this book. Again, it was compiled by the author so that she has the information in one source that can be used at home or tossed into a backpack. Depending on the situation, one may want to know how to substitute items from Nature’s grocery store over the long haul, and this book is that source.

SELF-SUFFICIENCY AS GRANDMA KNEW IT© is almost completed and ready to share. Contact the author for information and availability. The author’s intent is to share useful information for those of like mind.

THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF SALADS IN AMERICA. An Encyclopedia of food with period recipes.©

Victoria has spent the last four years researching salads – as in the big picture of all ingredients combined to form a salad from the Middle Ages to present. This includes both wild and cultivated vegetables and herbs, and both fresh and cooked dishes such as a pot of greens (cultivated or wild) or roasted vegetables dressed with olive oil and vinegar. The tentative title is “The History and Evolution of Salads in America”. It is encyclopedic in format for fast reference. The reader will learn how popular and important these salads were through the centuries, the history of the many vegetables and herbs used in them, and so much more. The book is factual regarding various wild plants eaten by Native Americans and discusses whether they were eaten raw, cooked, or both. Again, you won’t find modern recipes passed off as Native American foods. If trying times befall us, the reader will appreciate knowing how to harvest wild foods and make them into nutritious meals. Any living history site or individual interested in historical interpretation will know what the vegetables and fruits from a particular area looked like so they can duplicate them as best they can for their presentations. They will also be confident that ingredients they want to use for their interpretive programs were available for the time period and place. Contact the author for information and availability.
GENEALOGY TITLES:

The first genealogy book published by Victoria was “Guardian Angels: A History of the Killen and Related Families“. She continues to get requests for it long after available copies were sold and used copies sometimes fetch handsome prices in antique stores. Families include Springer; Thornton; Gresham; Mitchell; McDougal; Phillips; Wright; Stutts; and many others as well as a great deal of information on the early settling of Lauderdale County and North Alabama.

Victoria is currently editing this book and the information being added will double the size of the first edition. She has also added additional photographs and welcomes submissions. Her plans are to offer this treasure in CD-ROM form in order to keep it at an affordable price. With the additional information that has been added printing costs would be prohibitive for some readers. Those who purchase it, can print it and bind it themselves if they so desire.

Please stay in touch with Victoria at:
thistledewbooks [at] yahoo [dot] com for updates.

“The Brady Bunch & It’s Many Family Connections” is almost ready for release. This book traces the Brady family and its numerous connected family names (Brady, Hershey, Shannabrook, Swartzbaugh, Weisensale, Zartman, Hess, Albright, Staub, Buck, Strausbaugh, Bewerts, Driscol, Riehm, March, Klein/Little, Teal, Becker, Klinepeter, Kohl, Kramer, Mattheis, Hoenegger, etc.) of Pennsylvania-Dutch country. Some of these families are traced from decades or centuries prior to their immigration from the Palatinate, Alsace, Switzerland, etc. to the colony of Pennsylvania to present.

This book was written primarily for the Brady family from McSherrystown, PA, but will be available to anyone who is interested in or descends from these many families. Victoria was honored to receive an invitation to join the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society while researching the area history,the culture, and the families documented in the book.

Victoria can be reached at thistledewbooks [at] yahoo [dot] com or 256-349-4310. Enquiries and discussion are welcome.

Grits, That Beloved Morsel of Grain

Tags

grits

Studying historic foods often means studying the English language, as the meanings of words and terms tended to change over time. 

It wasn’t until the discovery of the New World and of its native grain, maize, that the word corn came to routinely refer to that grain.  In Europe, corn meant the kernals of any grain – rye, barley, wheat, etc.  Likewise, the word grit once refered to the minute particles of any grain.  There were wheaten grits, millet grits, oat grits or groats, etc., but sometime during the late Victorian era the word grit took on the meaning of broken particles of corn, or maize.

To further complicate the study of grits, the gruel made from cracked corn was not always referred to as grits.  In the North it was often referred to as samp, and in the South it could be small hominy.  When the hulls are removed from dried corn by boiling it in a lye solution, and the resulting tender corn kernal is left whole the finished product was known as hominy or large hominy.  Colonists learned to make it by observing Indian food preparation.

It shouldn’t be assumed that the word grits always referred to the cracked corn, and not to the gruel made from it, however.  A survey of early cookery books, agricultural manuals, journal articles, and even novels will show the use of the word, granted perhaps not as often as samp or small hominy, but enough times to justify using it in a historic setting. 

Avoid the use of always or never.  The word grit could, but did not always, refer to corn.  The gruel made from grits was sometimes,  but not always called grits.  Sometimes in reading historic accounts it isn’t clear what is being discussed, but looking to see where the account was published will sometimes help with the determination.

Before grist mills were commonly available, most families had a hominy block with which to crack corn.  It was sometimes a hollowed out section of tree with a mortar that was raised and lowered by hand down into the hominy block repeatedly to pound the grains into small particles.  Another version was similar, but instead of a mortar that was man-handled as previously described, a piece of log was tied to the limb of a tree so that the person pounding the grain could swing it down, and the limb would spring back and pull it back up.

In 1865, a wounded soldier in a hospital in Charleston, South Carolina wrote that their rations consisted of, “corn bread, rice, grits, and occasionally a little beef”.  The footnote states, “Grits are cracked corn, or what some people call “samp”.  His use of “corn bread” rather than corn meal indicates a cooked product, and if we are to follow that train of thought he is most likely referring to gruel made from grits.  The fact that a soldier debilitated enough to be treated in a hospital would not likely be able to cook his own meals supports that logic. (1)

Another reference to cooked gruel being called grits was published in 1875 in an article titled, “Fifty Years Ago”.

Oh, no, I don’t like grits; the no-taste carries me away back to 1811 and ’12, when we had to eat them without salt…I never taste grits without seeing the old hominy mortar, or block, standing in the yard before Uncle Davis’s cabin.  (2)

A reference published in 1834, “They finished up the hominy grits in their kettle” is one of many references to hominy grits.  (3)

Mary Cornelius used the term Carolina hominy in 1846 in a cookery book published in Boston.

Wash a quart of the grits in several waters till perfectly clean, and put them into three pints of boiling water, with two teaspoonfuls of salt, and boil slowly half an hour; then take off the lid and let the water remaining evaporate.  They must be stirred repeatedly.  Eat with butter and molasses, or milk, or meat.  If any is left, slice it the next morning and brown it on the griddle; or add milk, eggs and flour and make it into griddle cakes.  (4)

The latter dish has been termed, at various periods in time and from various locations, fried mush or polenta. 

The dish Mary Cornelius called Carolina hominy, was dubbed Carolina Grits, or Small Hominy by Eliza Leslie in several editions of her cookbook.  She suggested adding butter to hominy, “white Indian corn, shelled from the cob, divested of the outer skin by scalding in hot lye, and then winnowed and dried”.  (5)

Leslie’s description of samp was Indian corn pounded or ground, “till it is smaller and finer than the Carolina grits”.

The terms came about due to the popularity of grits in that state.

…a large covered dish of small hominy (for this bolted corn grits is the standard breakfast of South Carolina), piling plates of rice waffles, and johnny cakes, and sweet potato fritters, and corn flannel cakes, and fried young drum fish, and whiting, and mullet, completed this family breakfast.  (6)

Elizabeth Collins, on the other hand, had this to say:

There is another dish worthy of observation, which is called hominy.  The corn having been ground, and the grits well sifted through a wire sieve, which then divides the flour from the coarse grits, the former is reserved for making bread, and the latter transferred to a pot of cold water and let boil until  the water is nearly gone; then the little water, which is only left to keep it from burning, is poured off, and the hominy is ready for the table.  It is generally eaten for breakfast, when, if people choose to be stingy enough, the overplus can be deposited in a vessel with the flour, and mixed with a quantity of water or clabber, put to ruse until the evening, when a couple of eggs or a sweet potato must be well stirred in, and, of course, a little salt.  Bake it…  (7)

A family living in the Ozark mountains in 1858 called the gruel made from grits homony.  Pounding corn produced “coarse grits, which are boiled soft, and it then bears the name of homony.  Of this nutritious dish our meals generally consist, with boiled or fried bear’s bacon, and a decoction of sassafras tea”.  (8)

The process of making grits and another name for them was discussed in Debow’s Review in 1845.  “Wash a pint of grist (particles of flint-corn reduced to the size of the coarsest sand by grinding, the fine parts and husk being sifted off), in two or three waters, giving in each instance settling time.  In pouring off the water, let the grits be well rubbed with the hand to separate flour.  Put into a pot with one pint of water, and boil slowly for half an hour, stirring and skimming the mixture as it boils.  It should come up on the table dry and gritty, and perfectly white”. 

The size of the grains of ground maize varied depending on how it was to be prepared.  The larger the grains the longer they took to become tender, thus cooking times in early cookery books  are much longer than would be necessary with today’s smaller ground grits, and so-called quick grits take even less time to prepare.  The larger the grits, the more likely references instructed soaking prior to cooking.

In general, the grits or larger parts of the meal, should vary from one-fourth the size of a grain of mustard to that of a grain of rice, according to the uses to which they are to be applied.  (9)

The New York Tribune published an account of what the product was called in New York in 1854.

Then there is the article known at the South and West, where it is extensively used, under the name of hominy.  Here it is called samp, and is sold at $2.50 a bushel, and one bushel is worth more than four bushels of potatoes.  It is a good, palatable, wholesome, economical food.  But a more generally acceptable article is called hominy here; at the West, grits.  The first is hulled corn, the grains left nearly whole; the latter is hulled corn, cracked into grains about the size of bird-seed shot, or coarse gunpowder.  It sells for three and three and a half cents a pound.  Both are cooked by soaking and slow boiling for hours, in clear water, and when eaten as a substitute for vegetables, with meat, are seasoned with salt and a very little butter.  Both are very good with meat gravy, or with sugar or molasses.  (10)

An interesting account of hominy was recorded in a letter home penned by William MacKean, a Scot, who was touring America in 1875. 

The box is filled cram-full, and the grindstone set in motion with considerable speed.  The friction of the stone on the grain rubs the skin off, and, splitting the lobes asunder, sets the acrospire free.  When the abrading action is continued long enough, which is not very long, the mixture is separated by sieves into human food and horse feed.  The lobes, like misshapen pease, and resembling horn in their hardness and semi-transparency, are set aside to make ‘samp’, ‘grits’, and ‘hominy’, of which several elegant preparations for the table can be made.  The bran and growths make valuable cattle feed, which is very fattening from the large proportion of oil, and is agreeably sweet to the taste, containing as it does so much sugar.  The lobes are further prepared, by grinding merely, into grits or flour; or are cooked whole, and eaten like boiled pease.  I have got all these dishes, which are excellent to my fancy, not only from their merits, but their novelty.  Besides these, there are other things presented at table which we know nothing of at home.  (11)

By the late 19th century grits were used in any number of recipes.  Hominy was sometimes mixed with beans to prepare a dish of succotash.  “When the hominy is half cooked, add one-fourth as many beans as there was dry hominy, and cook until both hominy and beens are tender.  Salt, and serve warm with the usual dinner dishes”.  (12)

Confused over what to call your morning grits?  If it is any consolation, great grandpa was probably confused too.  Perhaps the best way to close this discussion of the South’s favorite breakfast food is with a description penned in 1874.

Hominy, or Samp.  The ‘samp’ of the New York market is the hominy of the South and West.  It is made of the Southern white corn, and is hulled (for the market) by machinery.  In the South it is usually pounded by hand, the grain being moistened a few hours previously, so that the hulls loosen during the operation; or if it is ground, the hulls are washed out.  Some of the best that we have in the market is simply hulled, and not broken.  It would be very appropriate to call it ‘hulled corn’, if people would understand what is meant by it.  Unfortunately, the names of some of this class of goods are sadly confused.  The hominy of the South and West is samp in New York (‘small hominy’ in the South) is very much the same thing as the samp of New England.  This in the United States Commissary Department is designated ‘corn grits’.  ‘Hulled corn’ and ‘corn grits’, then, would designate the articles appropriately.  But, as a rule, we prefer to take words as we find them, and Webster’s definition favors the use of ‘hominy’ for the coarser, and samp for the finer article.  So, as we prefer to be cosmopolitan rather than metropolitan, we would fain accept his authority.  (13)

Bibliography:

1.  Abbott, A. O.  Prison Life in the South.  1865.  NY.

2.  Arthur’s Illustrated Home Magazine.  July 1875.  Vol. XLIII.  No. 7.

3.  Harmon, Neil Swanson.  The First Rebel.  1834.  Philadelphia.

4.  Cornelius, Mary.  The Young Housekeeper’s Friend.  1846.  Boston.  Charles Tappan.

5.  Leslie, Eliza.  New Receipts for Cooking.  1852.  T. B. Peterson.

6.  Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, Mrs.  The Black Gauntlet.  1860.  J. B. Lippincott. 

7.  Collins, Elizabeth.  Memories of the South.  1865.  Taunton.

8.  Schoolcraft, Henry.  Scenes and Adventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas.  1858.  Philadelphia.

9.  Fifth Annual Report of the American Institute.  1847.  Albany, NY.

10.  Friends Intelligencer.  July 14, 1854.  Philadelphia.

11.  MacKean, William.  Letters Home During a Trip to America.  1875.  Paisley [Scotland].

12.  Household and Agricultural.  1874.

13.  Household and Agricultural.  1874.