The Early Pennsylvania German Home

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Pennsylvania Dutch heritage

Welcome, Gentle Reader, today I’m sharing another look at the lives of the early Pennsylvania Dutch as part of my immersion into the lives and culture of Martin’s ancestors. I am enjoying learning about them and Martin says they’re my family too because I found them. That generosity is one of the reasons I love him.

Rev. F. J. F. Schantz, DD of Myerstown, PA wrote a book titled as above, published in 1900, in which he outlined the wants and needs of Pennsylvania’s earliest Germanic settlers. Naturally their first concern was shelter and those shelters were commonly made of logs with the cracks filled with a mixture of clay and grass or of stone. “Windows were of small dimensions. Doors were often of two parts, an upper and a lower, hung or fastened separately. The interior was frequently only one room, with hearth and chimney, with the floor of stone or hardened clay”. Stairs or a ladder led to the attic for sleeping quarters and storage.

“The pioneer’s house was not complete without the large fireplace, often in the center of the building and very often on one of the sides of the house, with hearth and chimney erected outside of the building, yet joining the same…

It was not difficult to make an inventory of the contents of the dwelling-house. The large hall had but little furniture besides a long, wooden chest, and a few benches or chairs. The best room of the house on one side of the hall contained a table, benches, and later chairs, a desk with drawers, and the utensils used on the special hearth in heating the room. In the rear of the best room was the kammer (bed-room) with its bed of plain make, also the trundle-bed for younger children and the cradle for the youngest, a bench or a few chairs and the chest of drawers. The room on the other side of the hall was often not divided, but when divided the front room was called the living-room (die Wohnstube), with table and benches or plain chairs, with closet for queensware and the storage of promiscuous parcels, with the spinning-wheel, with a clock as soon as the family could afford one, and with shelving for the books brought from the fatherland or secured in this country.

The kitchen contained the large hearth, often very large, with rods fastened to a beam [lug pole] and later an iron bar, from which hung chains to hold large kettles and pots used in the preparation of food; the tripod also on the hearth, to hold kettles and pans used daily by the faithful housewife; the large dining-table, with benches on two long sides and short benches or chairs at each end; another large table for the use of those who prepared meals for the family; extensive shelving for holding tin and other ware; benches for water-buckets and other vessels and the long and deep mantel-shelf above the hearth, on which many articles were placed. The second story of the house contained the bedrooms and often a storage-room. The bedrooms were furnished with beds, tables, large chests, and wooden pegs on the partitions. The attic was of great service for the storage of articles of the mechanism of man and the preservation of fruits of the field, the garden, the orchard and the forest.”

Once the home was finished, the family concentrated on building a barn, spring-house, wood-house and the large bake-oven and smoke-house. The latter two were often under the same roof.

“The early settler knew nothing of coal, coal-oil and burning gas. He had no matches, but used flint, steel and punk instead, or the sunglass on days when the sun shone brightly…” The fire produced light as well as heat, and at night was carefully covered over with ashes or a cover so that in the morning there would be enough coals to produce fire without resorting to such methods.

“Tablecloths were not always used. The first dishes were pewter and later of domestic earthen ware and pottery. Platters, plates, bowls and other vessels held the prepared food. Individual plates, cups and saucers, knives and forks were not wanting…”.

Unless they’ve visited an 18th century living history village, most Americans cannot envision a home like the one described in this post, but there may just come a time when we have to return to those ways. How will you fare if your electric appliances don’t work, store-shelves are bare, and fast food is but a distant memory?

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An 18th Century Scottish Kitchen©

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18th century kitchen, kitchen furniture, Scottish kitchen

The following is a list of household furniture which belonged to Sir Patrick Murray of Ochtertyre as inventoried on 9 July 1763.  Household belongings were inventoried when someone died so that their belongings could be distributed as outlined in a will, or if there was no will, then the court usually divided up the estate as enumerated on the inventory amongst the heirs. 

My Scottish ancestors were much less affluent than the family at Ochtertyre or they probably wouldn’t have left Scotland for America, however, the kitchens of my wealthier ancestors in London and other parts of England were probably very similarly outfitted.  I found the inventory to be a sneak peak into their kitchens, and am comfortable I could turn out delightful repasts from such a well-stocked one. 

The Brew House contained copper boilers, a trough with casters, pump ropes and handles, 3 long troughs for the wort; 2 smaller ditto; tongs, brass pans, tubs, coolers, a barrow and tree for carrying ale, broadheads, dishes, hogsheads, a copper “staill” for distilling spirits, and an axe.

The Slaughter House was equipped with:  1 midling copper kettle fixed with timber frame, 1 slaughter stool, 1 slaughter axe, 1 lead worm for a stall…

The Milk House was outfitted with 11 milk cogs; 5 smaller ditto; 2 stops; 3 cheesewalls (probably vats); 1 large butter kitt with cover, 5 smaller ditto; 1 large kirn with staff (churn with dasher), 1 timber bassoon (wooden basin or tub), 1 deall with iron handle, 1 malsie (sieve), 1 reaming dish (for skimming off the cream), 4 pound lead weights, 2 pound ditto.

The Bake House contained 1 bake table, 1 deall, 1 spade, 1 fork, and 1 scraper for cleaning the oven.

Kitchen Furniture (common 18^th century term) consisted of:

1 pewter supp dish; 23 dishes of different sizes; 2 pewter fish plates; 5 ½ dozen plain plates; 16 sup plates, 1 copper fish kettle with cover and drainer; 3 copper stew pans with copper covers; 1 goglate pane with cover; 1 xopper skillet; 1 old copper sauce pan; 1 large brass pan; 1 frying pan; 1 large iron pot; 2 smaller ditto; 1 copper ladle; 2 copper scummers (skimmers); 1 iron spoon; 1 batchlers oven (a Dutch or tin kitchen to place in front of the fire); 1 marble mortar and pestle; 2 white iron drainers; 2 graters; 2 white iron dripping pans with an iron stand; 1 iron candlestick; 1 flesh fork; 1 flaming spoon (possibly a salamander for browning the top of foods); 1 brander; 1 pair collop tongs; 1 pair wafer tongs (for making wafers – see previous post); 1 jack with 2 chains; 3 iron spits, 1 pair racks, 3 pair clipps; 1 pair hand clips; 1 grate tongs and shovel; 3 cranes, 9 iron skewers; 1 white druging (dredging) box (for sprinkling flour), 1 pepper box, 3 knives, 2 hair searches (sifters, strainers, and colanders); 1 pint stop without a lid; 1 chapin stop; 1 mutchkin stop; 1 timber rack for holding pewter; 1 cloge (a mallet)for breaking meat; 1 bake board; 1 rolling pin; 1 dress for the cook; 1 oil lamp; 1 months clock (an 8-day clock) .

Bottlers Pantry (butler’s):

1 copper boiler and winter (designating a vessel that could be hung from the fireplace to heat contents); 1 iron winter; 2 pair brass candlesticks; 4 oyster knives; 2 pair snuffers; 10 harts horn hafted knives; 12 forks; 1 dozen silver spoons; 7 gepanded (Japanned ?) jugs; 1 white iron jug; 1 dozen wine glasses; 1 crystal decanter for wine; 3 crystal cruits; 2 water glasses; 4 crystal salts; 1 copper bracket, 1 iron bracket; and 1 bread basket.

The Laird’s Table: Scottish Fare for the Upper Class©

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food in Scotland, Ochtertyre, Scottish food

Having recently discovered a quaint little book of accounts for a Scottish household from 1737 to 39, I will compile a partial report of the daily foods served on an upper class table from Jan., 1737 through 1739.  

Eggs in some form (in the shell, buttered, with spinach, omelets, etc.) were found almost daily for dinner or supper.

Haggis was rarely found except when it was for the servants of the household rather than for the family’s dinner.  It (sometimes spelled hags) was specified to be for the servants 68 times compared to 3 times when it was for the family. 

Spinach and eggs was served several times a week, seemingly most of the year, which means spinach was grown almost year round.

Cows were killed more often than oxen, cows were milked on the farm, cheese is mentioned for the family only twice for dinner and three times at supper, sometimes in the form of cheese cakes.  Like haggis, cheese was mentioned mostly for the servants.  Butchering at home, and meat bought in quarters and sides (half a cow) account for the meat served. 

Sheep was the standard meat throughout the year and hoge referred to a fat sheep, as in mutton of the hoge.  Kids and buckies (shellfish), pigs, calves, lambs, etc. were found, and eggs appear daily, bought by the dozen, some months amounting to 60 dozen or so.  Eggs and poultry may have been among the items used by tenants to pay rent to the lord.  Ducklings were served in June and July, muscovy in September indicating seasonality.  A dovecot was found on most if not all manor properties. 

Plovers and wood-pigeon, ptarmigans, blackbirds, snipe, and unnamed birds were found in the spring.  Game served most often as it was to be found, the most common being:

Hares:  Oct., Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., total:  30

Woodcock:  Oct., Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., total:  163

Partridges: Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., total 51

Wild duck:  Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., total:  24

Teal:  Oct., Dec., total 4

Snipe:  Oct., Nov., total 3

Moorfowl:  Nov., Dec., Jan., total  7

Blackbirds:  Nov., total 6

Fish and shellfish were common, including:  pike cooked a number of ways, perch (often fried), eels (8, collared and broiled), trout, salmon, herring, haddock, cod, codshead, whitings, flounders, dabs, sole, skate (11), turbit, mackerel, sparlings or smelts, oysters (13, most often scalloped, once pickled, also oyster sauce served with chicken), cockles, mussels (2), lobster (4), buckies, crabs (partons), and dulse and tangle (edible seaweed).  

Fruits and vegetables were served in season as well as some were put up for winter use as evidenced by such things as there were tarts in Feb. of apples and gooseberries.  Foreign grown lemons and oranges were found along with native grown apples and pears, as were dried fruits for puddings (currants, raisins, citron, orange peel, almonds).  Summer months brought peas, beans, artichokes, cucumbers, asparagus, mushrooms, lettuce, carrots, celery, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, nettles, cabbage, kale, various herbs, skirret, potatoes, and scorzonera (spelled scorch-anarrow, a carrot-shaped root similar to salsify).  Dads and blads are found on the menus and probably referred to some type of curly greens cooked with whatever meat scraps were available. 

Offal (organ meats, feet, etc.) were commonly found in Scotland and elsewhere, and in the menus including:  giblets, sweet breads, heads, ears, calves feet, hog cheeks, tongue, lure (udder), heart, liver,  (heart and lungs, chiefly used in haggis), cow’s draught (stomach and intestines), etc.  Heart , liver, and lungs were called pluck.

Spice purchases in the accounts included black pepper, nutmegs, cinnamon, black spice, mace, and cloves.  Mustard, vinegar, salad oil, loaf sugar, and pickles are to be found as well.   The barter system was firmly in place, and the kitchen garden contained several herbs for the kitchen. 

Daily menus were divided up by the main (mid-day) meal called dinner, and the lighter evening meal called supper.  Eggs figured daily in the suppers as do lighter items such as meat pies and puddings which were probably more apt to be savory than sweet.  Let’s examine the daily fare for the first month (Jan. 1737), variances in the next 5 months of 1737, and finally a tally for the three year period for some of the items to determine the frequency in which they were served. 

Jan 3, 1737:  Sheephead broth, fowls in broth, boiled beef, roast mutton, roast fowl, goose giblets, roast mutton, minced pie and herrings, eggs in the shell.

Jan. 4:  boyled mutton joints, roast ducks, roast tongue and udder, boiled fish, roast mutton, salad magundy (salad) and cold beefe, eggs buttered on toasts.

Jan. 5:  fish, boiled beef with cabbage, roast hare, broiled mutton, roast fowl, broiled fish, roast woodcock.

Jan. 6:  sheep head broth, rost mutton, roast capon, fish.

Jan. 7:  Fish and Gravy, roast duck, mince pie, fish, roast partridge, small birds, cold beef, Eggs in the shell.

Sat. Jan. 8:  fish with crab sauce, roast mutton and fowls, roast partridge, minced pie and crab, cold fowl and cold duck, cold partridge and apple tart, egg in the shell.

Sun. Jan. 9:  Hare soop, hares in it, boiled beef, roast goose, fish with egg sauce, scalloped oysters, mince pie, fowls boiled with oyster sauce, roast partridge, spinach and eggs, cold goose.

Jan. 10:  giblet broth, boiled mutton, hare and cold goose, mince pie and roast partridges, broiled mutton, roast woodcocks, roast partridges, cold goose and eggs, broiled haddock. 

Jan. 11:  sheep head broth, roast mutton, roast fowl, roast woodcock, roast partridges, potatoes, eggs in the shell, cold shoulder of mutton.

Jan. 12:  Barley broth, boiled ham, boiled fowl, roast fowl, broiled mutton, “oysters and spinage and eggs”.

Jan. 13:  hares in soup, mutton, roast fowl, “eggs potatoes and cold ham”.

Jan. 14:  sheep head broth, roast fowl, roast partridges, potatoes and eggs in the shell.

Sat. Jan. 15:  barley broth, roast hare, fish, roast fowl, puddings, eggs and sweetbreads.

Sun. Jan. 16:  Dinner skink and tripe, roast mutton, roast fowl, partridges with celery, fish and apple fritters, roast mutton, pork griskines, eggs buttered, and apples and cream.

Jan. 17:  pease soup, roast beef, roast pork, fish tarts and pudding, fowl with oyster sauce, roast mutton, fish tarts and spinach and eggs.

Jan. 18:  skink and tripe, boiled geese, roast mutton, tarts and boiled herrings, beef collops, broiled mutton, tripe fricasseed, scalloped oysters, eggs in the shell, tarts, sour cakes fried.

Jan. 19:  cockie leekie with fowl in it, roast fowl, minced fowl, hogs cheek cold, eggs in the shell, broiled haddock.

Jan. 20:  Barley broth, roast mutton, two fish broiled and a tart, fowl for broth, supper ham eggs a tart and neats [calf] feet”.

Sat. Jan. 21:  broth and fish, roast beef, sparlings (smelts) fried, roast mutton, puddings eggs and smoked beef.

Sun. Jan. 22:  sheephead broth, fish with eggs, roast beef, roast turkey, tongue and lure [udder], roast partridges, cold turkey, broiled mutton, hogs cheek and eggs buttered.

Jan. 24:  cockie leekie fowl in it, boiled beef, roast fowl, omelet of eggs and fish, roast pork, caperata of turkey, roast mutton, small birds and eggs in shell, fowls for broth…

Jan. 25:  “dads and blads fouls in it”, cold fowl and broiled fish, boiled fowl, broiled mutton, eggs in the shell, cold ham, sliced.

Jan. 26:  giblet broth with fowls in it, roast beef, roast woodcocks, roast partridges, omelet of oysters, wildfowl stewed, potatoes sour cakes and eggs.

Jan. 27:  “dads and blads”, fowls boiled in broth, boiled mutton, roast goose, mutton, roast fowl, stewed pears and eggs in shell.

Jan. 28:  sheep head broth, boiled beef, roast fowl, supper eggs sour cakes and cold goose.

Sat. Jan. 29:  cockie leekie fowl in it, boiled pork, hare collops and pease pudding, roast turkey, roast mutton, stewed partridge, tarts and omelet, broiled fish, cold turkey tarts, hogs cheek and eggs, smoked beef and butter.

Sun. Jan. 30:  hares in soup, boiled beef, roast fowl, roast partridge, sauceagis (sausages) and hogs cheek (jowl), fish boiled with egg sauce, caperata of turkey, small birds, eggs on toasts, cold sliced beef, sour cakes fried.

Jan. 31:  “dads and blads”, roast fowl, broiled fish, supper eggs in the shell, roast snipes, hogs cheek, cold fowl.

Feb. 1:  barley broth fowl in it, roast fowl with egg sauce, apple cake, eggs in the shell, hogs cheek, pickled oysters, smoked beef.

Beginning with February, I will exclude mentioning the basic items such as fried, boiled, roasted, and broiled mutton, beef, pork, lamb, etc. as well as the ever present spinach and eggs, etc., but at the end I will total the number of times foods appeared over the course of the three years the book records. 

Through February the meals were similar with moor fowl, “tarmikines” (ptarmigan) calves head hashed, “a custard and spinage and eggs”, roast plover, celery soup with duck in it, “a salad and collops” (sliced meat), bread pudding, eggs buttered and sausage, tripe and potatoes, potato pie and hard fish, mutton in pie, whitings stewed, salmon, roast capon, apple and gooseberry tarts, sago pudding, fried flounders, roast rabbits, almond pudding, apple fritters, hard fish and pease pudding, tansy baked, fried sparlings, baked apples, apple pudding, and stewed prawns.

March differed by the addition of:  veal toasts, broiled whitings, stewed flounder , broiled trout, fish boiled with mustard sauce, chine of salmon, sliced boars head, pickled salmon, custard, beef collops, cold salmon, herb soup with fowl in it, black and white puddings, boiled tongue, calves foot jelly, broccoli and collared pigeon, salad with herring, and pancakes. 

April:  “mutton broyld for brackfast”, “calves head and salmond”, brockla (broccoli), roast pigeon, fried fish (type not specified), skate with egg sauce, soup meager, skate and herring, potted pigeon, hogs feet, fricasseed chicken, lobster, pigeon pie, mutton hash, green kale, pike, veal’s pluck, buttered crabs, skate with mustard sauce, sweetbreads and kidneys, cold skate, “neats feet and asparagus”, haggis, mutton in hodge podge, and rice pudding.

May:  green broth, herb soup, asparagus, trout, “fish and hagg[i]s”, sausages fried, “asparagus and a salad” appeared several times per week, obviously asparagus and salad greens were in season, green kale,  “cold lamb and spinage”, “cold lamb and sallad”, lamb fricasseed, pancakes, rice pudding, lambs head stoved, and roast tongue with wine sauce.

June:  green kale, lobster, peas, duckling, roasted green goose, green pease, (peas, beans, salad greens, and artichokes are mentioned several times during June), fried sole, beans, gooseberry fool, syllabub, cheesecakes, artichokes, “haggs and pease”, fried soles and eggs, sago milk, pickled pork, minced collops, perches, and “pease a salad and perchis (perch)”.

July:  beans and peas, artichokes, mutton steaks, fried flounder, green kale, beans and bacon, (beans and bacon, French beans, peas, cauliflower, etc. are seen several times indicating they are in season), “mutton with colly flouer” [cauliflower], “eggs and peas”, “eggs and beans pork”, hard fish and eggs, “beans and eggs”, fried chickens (fried chicken is seen more than once along with broiled chicken, indicating the chickens could be spared from egg-laying for a meal), “eggs and cheese”, pan kale, “colly flower and pease”, French beans [fresh green beans] and a tart of eggs, mushrooms, kidney collops, stewed lettuce, broiled perch, salad, etc.

August:   peas, perch, steaks, French beans, pea soup, beans and bacon, plum pudding, salad, beans and bacon, pan kale, ducklings, roast chicken and pigeons, fried flounder, artichokes (several times during August), moorfowl (several times), tongue and lure, herrings, apple tart, venison soup, venison collops (several times), venison roast and in a pie, stewed venison,  partridges (several times), French beans (several times), boiled venison, stewed fish, tripe fricasseed, apples and cream, stewed skate, plovers, pigeon pie, cabbage broth, collared eels, quails, pudding with fruit, apple tart.

September:  fried flounder, cabbage kale, sausages and pudding, pike, partridges with oyster sauce, peas, artichokes, French beans, potatoes, turkeys, pickles, capon, jellies, stewed pears, pancakes, apples and cream, apple fritters, plum[b] pudding.

October:  stewed pears, apple fritters, hard fish, pancakes, fried apples, wild fowls, cauliflower, beans, dads and blads, haggis and pudding, potato pie, baked apples, apple tart, rice soup with chicken in it, broiled eels, celery, potatoes, kidney collops, pike, pike, fish broiled, spare-rib, apples and cream, beef steak, capons multiple times, barley broth, celery soup, ducks in the soup, fish eggs and giblet pie, cabbage broth, tongues and lure, young peas, etc.

The number of times various dishes appear in the menus:

Soup:    Sorts:  veal, celery, rice, fowl, hare, duck, herb, rice and chicken, pigeon, herb and fowl, celery with duck in it, soup megur (without meat), green, venison, pea, unspecified soop, and herb soup with goat in it.  Most often served were herb and hare.  

Broth (soup):   Sorts:  sheeps head, mutton, rice with fowl, green, fowl, barley, barley and fowl, veal, chicken, giblet, beef, cabbage, nettle, and lamb.  Most often served were sheeps head, mutton, fowl, and barley.

Eggs:   Sorts:  fish and eggs, spinach and eggs, eggs and peas, eggs in the shell, buttered, eggs and artichokes, peas and eggs, bacon and eggs, eggs and beans, eggs and sausage, hog cheeks and eggs, etc.  Most often served:  eggs in the shell and spinach and eggs. 

Pancakes:  served 54 times.  No information on accompaniments such as syrup given.  Sour cakes were found, those being made from oatmeal dough that was allowed to ferment before being cooked. 

Pye (pies):  Mentioned 79 times.  Sorts:  pigeon, geese, fowl, ducks (Muscovy), woodcock, hare, veal, potato (doubtful it was sweet potato), potato and hard fish, minced, skirret, beef, mutton steak, giblet, parton (crab), apple, goose, chicken, venison, partridge, goat, and hens.  The only sweet or fruit pie mentioned was apple and it was served twice during the three year period.

Pudding:   bread, apple, marrow, almond, rice, neats foot, sago, carrot, peas, plumb, black, and white, each appears multiple times. 

Salad spelled sallad:  58 times.  Of those, 6 were specified sallad magundy (salmagundi, a salad which contained meat and cheese with the vegetables, similar to a chef’s salad). 

Fried food:  chicken, skirret, sausages, trout, flounder, sole, fish, mutton, sparlings (smelts), apples, and liver.  Liver sauce is also found a couple of times served with chickens.

Pears:  Stewed pears are listed 15 times, and there are mentions of pears with no further information on how they were served. 

Tarts:  fish, unspecified, gooseberry, apple, potato, and peas, the total served, 69.  Those listed most often were unspecified as to sort and apple. 

Cake:  Apple cake was listed twice. 

Fritters:  Mentioned 27 times, unspecified type, cold beef (once), and the most often served were apple. 

Roast:  100.  Sorts:  Mutton, goose, beef, partridges, wild ducks, snipes, fowl, duck, turkey, tongue, chicken, pork, veal, capon, plover, pigeon, woodcocks, moorfowl, pigs (since it was listed differently than pork, this may have been suckling pigs), hare, pike, unnamed fish.

Beverages:  were not listed in the menus, however, some mention is found in the accounts of milk, buttermilk, sago milk (perhaps a custard), milk is the main ingredient in syllabub which was listed.  Tea was drunk as evidenced by the purchase and repair of a tea kettle, but coffee does not appear at all. 

Breakfast:  was not included in the menus, but can be found in dictionaries from the 1500’s.  Porridge was probably served most often. 

Source:  Murray, William, Sir.  Ochtertyre House Booke of Accomps, 1737-1739.  Published 1907. 

 

DOUGH KNEADERS, MIXERS, &c. ©

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kneading dough

By the 1880’s, dough kneaders varied considerably in size and design from gargantuan machines in commercial bakeries, to hand-cranked dish-pan size models for home use, however, until the early 20^th century people sometimes felt bread made using a barrel or less of flour was just as well kneaded by hand. 

The biggest stumbling blocks to their earlier use were the space they took up and the cost of the machines. 

 

Perhaps the oldest record of a dough kneader is a tablet discovered on the tombstone of Senatore Eurysace, who was a prominent baker in ancient Rome.  Plenius tells us the old Romans employed slaves for kneading their dough.  In the better families these slaves were compelled to wear gloves and protect their mouths with a cloth, as a safeguard against any contact of their breath or perspiration with the dough.  After the downfall of the Roman Empire we do not find any more traces of historical records of improvements in devices or implements for bread making until toward the end of the eighteenth century, when some timid, clumsy efforts were made to introduce labor-saving apparatus in the baker’s shop…The brake is also a very old implement of the bakeshop.  It is used to this day for honey cakes, pretzels and noodle dough.  The first mixers of any account for bread dough were made in France, by Salignac, 1760.  Braun, Emil.  The Baker’s Book.  1903.  NY.

Dough was put to rise in this covered container

Salignac’s machine was described as a trough, inside which the dough was agitated by arms shaped somewhat like harrows.  It was demonstrated before the Academy of Sciences and the dough was prepared in 14 to 15 minutes.  “But for some reason the machine never came into general use”.  Another Frenchman named Cousin produced a kneading machine the following year [1761] which was no more successful than Salignac’s. 

Dough after kneading, ready to put aside to rise

Next, in 1796 a Paris baker named Lembert was experimenting with a machine called the Lembertine, however, he did not introduce it until 1810 when a prize of 1500 francs was offered by the Société d’ Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale.  Lembert claimed the reward for his machine which then did see, “a certain amount of use in France”.  – Chisholm, Hugh.  The Encyclopaedia Britannica.  1910.  NY.

Messrs. Cavallier and Co. of Paris were granted a patent for a Petrisseur, or mechanical bread maker, by 1830, and Mr. Poole, of Lincoln’s Inn, agent to the French inventors, had received an English patent for their machine by that year as well.  Those machines were still for commercial use.  – The Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette.  Vol. 13.  May 8, 1830.  2.  – Timbs, John.  Arcana of Science and Art, or an Annual Register of Popular Inventions. 

The following month a gentleman from the General Hospital in Guernsey had a letter published saying his facility had been using a machine for this purpose for a, “long time”, though he gave no year of its initial use.  He likened it to a brick-making machine in its operation. 

It was said of the machine it was a, “substitute for the uncleanly and disgusting practice of bread-making by the naked hands and feet of men.  We understand it is coming rapidly into general use among our French neighbours, and trust that we shall not be slow in following their example.  The continuance of the present practice is a real disgrace to civilization”.  – The Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette.  Vol. 13.  May 8, 1830. 

Let’s thank those early inventors that our bread has never seen dirty hands and feet used to knead it, and take a closer look at the use of kneaders in the home. 

How early were mechanical kneaders in use in the home kitchen?  In the Aug. 1847 issue of The Cultivator a subscriber offered a premium to anyone who could come up with a dough-kneading apparatus to aid in bread baking which would, “be simple in its construction, easily cleaned, to occupy a small space, durable, and not to exceed $5. in cost, for one to work 5 lbs. of flour at a time”.  In response, another reader sent in a drawing and description of an apparatus he had made in a half day at a cost of $2. which had been in use in his family for more than two years without any break-down. 

It consists, first, in an upright shaft or post, four inches square to reach from the floor to the ceiling, or joist at one end, or side of the cook room, the bottom and top ends of which are to be rounded, for the purpose of fitting into sockets of wood at bottom and top; a piece of good board of hard wood, with a 1 ½ inch auger hole through it, makes a good socket, one at bottom and one at top of shaft, and secured.  The shaft must be loose to allow of being turned about.

The bench may be about 2 ½ feet long, 15 to 16 inches wide, and three inches thick.  The legs of the bench may be of a sufficient height to suit the operator say about three feet from the floor to the top of the bench.  On the top of the bench rests the biscuit board, secured temporarily to its place by strips of board nailed across the bench at the ends of the biscuit board, to prevent it from slipping while kneading the dough. 

The lever is to pass through the upright post at a level with the top of the bench, by a mortise, 1 ¼ inches wide by 5 or 6 inches long, and secured in its place by a small iron pin; the size of the lever may be 2 ½ inches square, and rounded on the lower edge, for the purpose of cutting or pressing the dough; the end of the lever should be made to pass through the upright post loosely, so as to allow of an upward and downward motion.  The post being loose in the sockets, allows for a forward and backward motion, the dough forming the fulcrum upon which the lever is made to operate, by taking hold of the outer end of the lever (which should be reduced to a proper size for the hand, say 1 ¼ inches in diameter), raising it up and bringing it up towards you, then pressing it down upon the dough and pushing it from you in the same motion, which cuts the dough down to the biscuit board, and by taking small parcels at a time will soon thoroughly knead a large batch.  The flour at the first mixing would be better stirred up somewhat in a tray or wooden bowl, or tin pan, for the purpose, (which every family have in their possession) and after having been so mixed in part with a large spoon or ladle, it may be turned out upon the biscuit board.  The lever should be of hard smooth wood, to admit of being easier cleaned, which is easily done by taking out the iron pin that secures it in the post.  The biscuit board should also be taken out and put away when not in use.

With the foregoing directions, &c., I am persuaded almost any person could rig up a good machine, which will save the female portion of the family a great deal of hard labor.  The bread will be better and cleaner, as the hands need not be put into the dough, except for the purpose of forming the biscuits or loaf, as the case may be.  I therefore respectfully present it to all the ‘good house-wives’ whether ‘working women’ or not.  I would remark one thing further—that we have had no sodden bread since the above machine has been in use.  J.A.C. Baly’s Neck, Talbot County, Md., Oct. 9, 1847.  The Cultivator.  Dec. 1847.

To understand J. A. Demuth’s claim that his machine produced beaten biscuits with a fraction of the labor, we must evaluate what a beaten biscuit was.  It was not like the light fluffy pillows of dough we Southern cooks pride ourselves in today, but more a hard cracker.  In the days before baking powder was a kitchen standard, beating the dough with paddles or wooden mallets incorporated air into it for a product that was somewhere between a hard sea biscuit (hardtack) and today’s biscuit. 

Beaten Biscuit such as “Aunt Chloe” used to make in the old Southern plantation kitchen are easily and quickly made by using Demuth’s Dough kneader and beaten biscuit machine made for family use.  Agents wanted.  J. A. Demuth, St. Joseph, Mo.  – Progress.  Aug. 1908.

Dough-makers were defined as a kneading-machine or dough-brake.  A dough-brake was a machine that rolled out dough for cutting in making crackers.  A doughing-machine cut the dough into prescribed weights, also called a dough-divider.  A dougher was a baker.  – The Century Dictionary.  1889.

While this has been a fast cruise through mechanical baking history, hopefully the reader has seen that such machines have been in use since the 18^th century and that they were improved upon through patent after patent into the present century. 

 

Tags

collard greens

Cabbages aren’t fond of broiling heat and so does better in spring and fall in the South, whereas collard greens are well suited to the heat of a Southern summer.  They’ve never been as well received in the North, but in the South they knew no cultural boundaries. 

“The collard, to the rank and file of Georgia Crackers, is what the potato is to the Irishman, and a dish of collard greens is a sine qua non of the dinner of the farm laborer, black or white.”

Collards grow in a unique pattern with the top leaves gathering to form a center rosette.  By cropping, or cutting the under leaves and leaving the rosette intact in the top, the greens will produce an abundant crop of leaves throughout the year.  That made them especially dear during hard times. 

The more the collard is cropped, the taller grows its stem, and it is nothing unusual to see straggling rows of stems some four feet high, crowned at the top with a rosette of dark-green leaves, and with brave little sprouts putting out up its entire length where the leaves have been taken off for cooking.  They live all through the summer, grow delightfully tender and juicy under Jack Frost’s attentions, and then in February go to seed along with those which have been sewn in the fall for the special purpose of making seed for sale to the dealers. 

The European collard descended from the wild cabbages and is the oldest form of brassica.  They were also called a rosette colewort, green rosette colewort, or simply collard, and was capable of forming a small head although it was generally cut for greens.  It grew to a height of 8 to 10 inches.  Both the ancient Greeks and Romans left records of loose leaf coleworts that were grown as well as harvested in their wild form. 

These plants were grown in the U.S. by 1699, and over time evolved into the Georgia collard which grew taller and was especially appreciated in the South.  “It is not likely that collards will become popular in the North, as kale is common and cheap and better adapted to a cold climate.”  It is not known exactly when the Georgia collard made its debut, or who is responsible for its altered characteristics, but in 1905 one writer claimed the first Georgia-grown collard seed had been sent North some 35 years prior.

In 1896, a comment was made that, “Everyone knows how good a dish of collard greens are with a “chunk of bacon”. 

In 1880, John Green described the importance of collards in the Southern diet by saying:

To the inhabitants of the country districts of the South, where there are no markets, and the daily allowance consists of salt meat, rice, potatoes and the like, and where fresh beef is scarcely ever tasted by the poor people, the collard is a very great blessing; because when boiled in a pot with a piece of fat meat and balls of corn meal dough, having the size and appearance of ordinary white turnips, called dumplings, it makes palatable a diet which would otherwise be all but intolerable.  And they are very dearly liked by nearly everyone who has been raised on Southern soil, including even some of her most dignified statesmen. 

Seasoning is of prime importance in turning the ubiquitous collard into the perfect harmony of greens, fat, salt, and pepper that we appreciate so well.  That characteristic flavor comes primarily from smoked meat – originally bacon, ham, ham hock, or fatback, and in recent, more health conscious times, smoked turkey pieces. 

In the late 1880’s, Parthenia Hague wrote of her experiences in Alabama during the Civil War and said she knew Southern men who claimed they had not had a good dish of collard greens or cabbage since the war years.  The reason Mrs. Hague gave for that was that in pre-war times there had always been a plentiful supply of bacon supplied for the slave cabin and for the tables of the whites, the fat from which was generously added to the pots of greens that slowly simmered for hours before being served.  During the war years and Reconstruction bacon and other meat was very scarce and thus the flavor of the greens paled in comparison to those of former times. 

William Cullen Bryant wrote of the inhabitants of South Carolina hunting alligators for the tail meat in 1850, and quoted a South Carolina woman as saying, “Coon and collards is pretty good fixins, but ‘gator and turnips I can’t go, no how”. 

Collard greens figured prominently on the list of vegetables grown for market in the South.  Just after the turn of the century, several hundred acres were bound for the Atlanta market alone.  “While it has been a leading vegetable in the Southern home garden for a century or more, yet up to ten years ago was not offered to the trade”. 

We’ve seen that collards are simply coleworts which continue to grow in a loose leaf pattern, are pretty basic, and were known in many cultures.  Let’s conclude our discussion with a look at how they were prepared.  In the spirit of Hannah Glasse’s “First Catch Your Hare”, with collard greens, “First get yourself a good cast iron pot” for that traditional flavor. 

During the war years callalou was a mixture of collards, poke salad, and turnip greens, boiled for dinner and fried over for supper.  “This was the invention of Jimsy, an old negro brought over from the West Indies…”  Poke is native to North America, South America, possibly East Asia and New Zealand so if Jimsy found it in the East Indies it was introduced there, but collards grew in numerous areas other than the southeastern U.S.

Mr. Harris’s comment meant that Jimsy knew how to cook flavorful greens, including collards, and probably adapted the technique to whatever greens grew nearby.  – Harris, Joel Chandler.  A Plantation Printer.  1892.  London. 

In very early Kentucky times, the universal dinner, winter and spring at every farm house in the state, was a piece of middling bacon, boiled with cabbage, turnips, greens, collards or cabbage sprouts, according to the season.  The pot, if the family had a large one, contained about ten gallons, and was nearly filled with clean pure water, the middlings and the greens were put in at the proper time, to give them a sufficient cooking.  Almost always the cook would make with water and corn meal and a little salt, dough balls, throw them into the pot, and boil them thoroughly with the rest.  These were called ‘dodgers’ from the motion given them by the boiling water in the pot.  They eat very well, and give a considerable variety to a dinner of bacon and collards.  – Halls Journal of Health.  January 1859. 

Collards are cabbage in which the fleshy leaves are not formed into a head but are long like cos lettuce.  This variety is grown principally in the southern part of the United States where they do not have sufficient cold weather to head or harden cabbage.  Collards are usually boiled in salted water and served according to any of the rules for cooking kale, spinach, or chopped cabbage.  – Rorer, Sarah Tyson Hester.  1909.  Philadelphia.

SOURCES:  The Garden Magazine.  Feb. 1905. Poultry, Garden, & Home.  March 1896.  Hague, Parthenia.  A Blockaded Family:  Life in Southern Alabama During the Civil War.  1888.  Davis, James R.  Up-to-Date Truck Growing in the South.  1910.  Atlanta.  Southern Cultivator.  1889.  Green, John Patterson.  Recollections of the Inhabitants, Localities, and Superstitions of the Carolinas.  Bryant, William Cullen.  Letters of a Traveller.  1850.  London.

 

Native and Non-Native Foods of the Colonial Southeast

These photos are from my display on the above topic for the French and Indian event at Ft. Toulouse in April 2012.  I displayed various foods and discussed their origins and uses, of those were several non-native foods such as purslane, plantain, and dandelion, which were brought here by European settlers as garden crops.  Native foods displayed included hickory nuts, dewberries, squash, wild rice, chestnuts, etc.  Several non-native foods had been introduced so long ago that some of the early writers mistakenly assumed them to be native. 

Kitchen utensils displayed included an 18th century waffle iron, wafer iron, toaster, sugar nippers, redware pipkin, bottle jack, mustard pot, horn spoon, sorbetier, beverage warmer, butter mold, etc.

 

 

Waffles: A History © [Part Two]

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chicken and waffles, waffle iron

“Peasants by the Hearth”, ca. 1560’s.  Aertsen, Pieter, (b. 1508, d. 1575).  The bowl sitting on the stool to the right is filled with freshly baked waffles.

Chicken and waffles is a trendy meal now, but the concept is not a new one.  “In the evening both convention parties again met at the Pines, a resort outside of Pittsburgh, where a chicken and waffle dinner was served” [1919].  – The Heating and Ventilating Magazine.  Vol. 16.  July 1919.

Another writer left an account of being served chicken and waffles as hotel fare earlier in 1904.  – Furniture World and Furniture Buyer and Decorator.  Vol. 71.  Jan. 21, 1905. 

For those who possessed a waffle-iron, waffles were sometimes party fare.  To invite friends or family to a waffle frolic or waffle party, was to invite them to a gathering with entertainment at which the food served would be waffles, usually with each person baking his or her own. 

There were usually other foods served at waffle frolics, probably because baking the waffles was somewhat of a slow process and having other food insured everyone was well fed without waiting in line for a turn at the waffle iron.  As we will see from William Livingston’s account, written in 1744, some hostesses served such a lavish array of other foods the waffles were only a portion of what guests were served.

We had the wafel-frolic at Miss Walton’s talked of before your departure.  The feast as usual was preceded by cards, the company so numerous that they filled two tables; after a few games, a magnificent supper appeared in grand order and decorum, but for my own part I was not a little grieved that so luxurious a feast should come under the name of a wafel-frolic, because if this be the case I expect but a few wafel-frolics for the future; the frolic was closed up with ten sunburnt virgins lately come from Columbus’s Newfoundland, besides a play of my own invention which I have not room enough to describe at present.  However, kissing constitutes a great part of its entertainment.  – Earle, Alice Morse.  Colonial Days in Old New York.  1896.  NY.

The previous passage was penned in a letter by William Livingston, a young man of privilege and great social standing in New Jersey in 1744 while attending college at Yale.  See:  Appleton’s Journal.  July 4, 1874.

Waffle parties were still the rage in the mid-19^th century as first one hostess and then another invited a circle of friends to her home.  In the North where goods were more easily obtained, even the Civil War didn’t discourage women from hosting such gatherings.  – Gould, Edward Sherman.  John Doe and Richard Roe.  1862.  NY.

By the turn of the 19^th century, books were being published instructing the hostess in the art of entertaining, and the waffle party was included in the types of gatherings people enjoyed attending. 

Invitations made to resemble waffles were suggested reading, “Come and eat me” with the time, date, and address.  To make the invitations, cream white satin was fashioned in the size and shape of a waffle, padded with white cotton wadding, and tacked so as to simulate the marks from the waffle-iron.  They were “scorched to the right color” with a hot iron. 

A card with the recipe for the waffles was placed at each table and groups went into the kitchen and made their batter according to the recipe card.  As a Master of Ceremonies called out names or numbers, each guest would have a turn at baking his or her own waffle.  – Pierce, Paul.  Suppers:  Novel Suggestions for Social Occasions.  1907.  [No location of publishing]

Before the days of structured bakeries, a woman sometimes set about making waffles, muffins, great loaves of bread, cakes, etc. in her home to sell within the community in which she lived.    – Foster, Emily.  Teddy and his Friends.  1876.  NY.

Waffle-women sold their wares from market stalls along with egg-women, poultry-women, and others.  Any number of factors could have influenced the location of their venture, not the least of which was the distance from the home to the main thoroughfares of the nearest village.  – Atlantic Educational Journal.  Vol. 8.  Oct. 1912. 

It wasn’t uncommon for men or women to carry a waffle-laden basket or a large tray which hung from the shoulders and sell waffles in the street, much the same as street vendors do today.  – Ballou’s Dollar Monthly Magazine.  Vol. 2.  Dec. 1860.  

Waffles were still common street fare in New Orleans in the 1940’s, sold from a horse-drawn wagon on high wheels, and usually painted white and yellow.  “Children eagerly thrust their nickels forward to purchase one of his delicious hot waffles sprinkled liberally with powdered sugar”. 

One can’t help but wonder if the light and airy square puffs of perfectly cooked dough liberally sprinkled with powdered sugar and sold under the name beignets evolved from the traditional waffles sold by vendors in earlier days.

The New Orleans waffle-sellers announced their presence with a shrill blast on a bugle and sometimes by reciting a verse reminiscent of street criers from earlier centuries. Close your eyes, gentle reader, and imagine a vendor strolling down a cobblestone street calling out to hungry patrons enticing them to purchase his tender golden brown waffles. 

The Waffle Man is a fine old man.  He washes his face in a frying-pan, He makes his waffles with his hand, Everybody loves the waffle man.       – Gumbo Yaya.  Houghton-Mifflin.  1945.

Waffles: A History© [Part One]

Tags

waffles

Peasants Eating Waffles in a Tavern on a Fast Day, 1693.  Jan Brueqhel the Elder, b. 1568, d. 1625.  Brueghel, referred to as, “the elder because his son carried on his style of painting after his death, had an eye for detail and a painting style that takes us back into the 16^th century.  Because of his desire for accuracy, historians can zero in on a single topic, waffles, in this case, and know how they looked at the time he painted them.   Each person in the setting has a rectangle-shaped waffle. 

Discovering how waffles were made and eaten and what they looked like in the 18^th century requires enough patience to compare accounts, paintings, and receipts published before, during, and after a target date.  Fortunately, there are enough accounts surviving to enable us to form a good opinion of this article.

Some accounts from the early 19^th century claim waffles date back to ancient Greece, and they well may have, however, the first account I can quote dates from 14^th century France. 

Waffles are made in four ways. In the first, beat eggs in a bowl, then salt and wine, and add flour, and moisten the one with the other, and then put in two irons little by little, each time using as much batter as a slice of cheese is wide, and clap between two irons, and cook one side and then the other; and if the iron does not easily release the batter, anoint with a little cloth soaked in oil or fat. – The second way is like the first, but add cheese, that is, spread the batter as though making a tart or pie, then put slices of cheese in the middle, and cover the edges (with batter: JH); thus the cheese stays within the batter and thus you put it between two irons. – The third method, is for dropped waffles, called dropped only because the batter is thinner like clear soup, made as above; and throw in with it fine cheese grated; and mix it all together. – The fourth method is with flour mixed with water, salt and wine, without eggs or cheese.

Item, waffles can be used when one speaks of the “large sticks” which are made of flour mixed with eggs and powdered ginger beaten together, and made as big as and shaped like sausages; cook between two irons. – Le Menagier de Paris.  1393.  Paris.  Trans. Janet Hinson. 

Waffles and wafers are similar, and made using similar irons; however, a wafer was generally flatter, thinner, and crispier.  The two words were used somewhat interchangeably.  For example, similar receipts are used to make flat wafers and what are obviously waffles in William Jarrin’s 1826 book.  The latter, which he called Flemish Wafers, were made in, “square irons engraved half an inch in depth, with the two halves to correspond”, and due to the depth of the “engraving” is obviously a waffle.  – Jarrin, William Alexis.  The Italian Confectioner.  1827.  London.

A wafer iron opens and closes like a waffle iron, but its two circular plates close almost together to produce a flat wafer.  The plates have a decorative design which transfers to the wafer during baking.  [It is possible the translator erred and the Menagier’s account should read wafers instead of waffles.]

The French ate Gaufrettes which were, “a kind of waffle”, sometimes dispatched by boys in white caps and aprons.  They were sometimes waffled, but not always.  The term was not uncommon through the 19^th century.  – Peixotto, Ernest C.  Through the French Provinces.  1909.  NY.

 The next comparison is a Dutch receipt from ca. 1683.

For each pound [one English pound] of Wheat-flour take a pint of sweet milk, a little tin bow[l], of melted butter with 3 or 4 eggs, a spoonful of Yeast well stirred together.  De Verstandige Kock.  Translated and edited by Peter G. Rose.  1989.  Syracuse. 

The thickness of the batter varied from a thin pourable batter to one stiff enough that a piece of dough could be cut off and put into the hot irons.  There was no consistency with regard to the thickness of the batter even in comparing multiple receipts published within the same book. 

The receipt below tells us the batter from which some waffles were made was perhaps best called dough since the writer tells us to lay a small piece of it on the hot iron rather than pouring, or dropping it on as one would do with pancake batter.

DUTCH WAFFLES.  These form a delicious article in the shape of puff cakes, which are instantly prepared and exhibited for sale in stalls or tents, in the fairs of Holland, where they are eaten hot as they come from the plate or baking pan, with fine sugar strewed over them.  Mix together three pounds of fine flour, a dozen eggs, a pound of melted butter, half a pint of ale, some milk, and a little yeast.  Beat it well, till it forms a thick paste, and let it stand three or four hours before the fire to rise.  Lay it in small pieces on a hot iron or frying pan, with a pair of buttered tongs, till it is lightly browned.  Eat the waffles with fine sugar sifted over, or a little sack and melted butter.  – Eaton, Mary.  The Cook and Housekeeper’s Complete and Universal Dictionary.  1822.  Bungay.

A writer [1818] described waffles as, “a soft hot cake, of German extraction, covered with butter”.  No mention was made of syrup in the earliest located receipts.  They were eaten with butter and sugar instead.  – Birkbeck, Morris.  Notes on a Journey in America:  From the Coast of Virginia to the Territory.  1818.  London.

Robert Smith did not specify the thickness of his batter when his receipt was published in 1725.  The dough still contains wine, as did Le Menagier’s. 

Take flower, cream, sack, nutmeg, sugar, eggs, yest, of what quantity you will, mix these to a batter and let them stand to rise; then add a little melted butter, and bake one to try.  If they burn, add more butter:  Melt Butter, with sack, refin’d sugar, and orange-flower water, for the sauce.  – Smith, Robert. Court Cookery.  1725.  London.

Cooks who added sugar to their batter could be in no hurry to have the waffles bake as the sugar caused them to burn unless baked at lower temperatures.  When waffles did not brown as well as wanted adding syrup or sugar to the batter remedied the situation.  – Whitehead, Jessup.  The Chicago Herald Cooking School:  A Professional Cook’s Book For Household Use.  1883.  Chicago.

This receipt published in 1821, is a little more specific as to the amount of ingredients.

Take four eggs beat well with half a pound of flour; melt a quarter of a pound of butter in a pint of milk; let the milk and butter stand till they are almost cold, then mix them with the flour and eggs with one spoonful of yeast and a little salt; be sure to beat them well; let it stand three or four hours to rise before you put it in the waffle iron, and bake them on a quick fire. – Hudson & Donat, Mrs.  The New Practice of Cookery, Pastry, Baking, and Preserving.  1804.  Edinburgh.

Mary Randolph’s receipt published in 1838 contained cooked rice to bolster the batter.  The addition of cooked rice may sound odd but it was not terribly unique.  Two gills of rice, boiled until quite soft, were mixed with three gills of flour, a little salt, and a couple of ounces of melted butter.  Two well beaten eggs were added with enough milk to make a “thick” batter.  It was then beaten until very light and baked in the hot irons.  – Randolph, Mary.  The Virginia Housewife.  1838.  Baltimore.

Englishman, Philip H. Gosse left an excellent description of the early waffle iron.  Woffles he was served in Alabama in the 1850’s were, “square thin cakes, like pancakes, divided on both sides into square cells by intersecting ridges…at the end of a pair of handles, moving on a pivot like a pair of scissors, or still more like the net forceps of an entomologist, are fixed two square plates of iron like shallow dishes, with cross furrows, corresponding to the ridges in the cakes; this apparatus called a woffle-iron, is made hot in the fire; then being opened, a flat piece of dough is laid on one, and they are closed and pressed together; the heat of the iron does the rest, and in a minute the woffle is cooked, and the iron is ready for another.  They are very good, eaten with butter; sometimes they are made of the meal of Indian corn (as so little wheat is grown here as to make wheat-flour be considered almost a luxury), but these are not nearly so nice, at least to an English palate”.   – Gosse, Philip Henry.  Letters from Alabama.  1859.  London.

Again, the writer instructs putting a piece of dough in the iron instead of pouring batter into the iron.  Gosse’s account, penned in 1838, still makes no mention of topping the waffles with syrup, only butter.

Eliza Leslie instructed us in the use of a thick, but pourable batter made from six eggs, a pint of milk, a quarter of a pound of butter, a quarter of a pound of white sugar, a pound and a half of sifted flour, and a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon.  The milk was warmed and the butter cut up into it.  The eggs were beaten and poured into the milk and butter mixture.  Half the flour was gradually stirred in with the powdered cinnamon and sugar.  The other half of the flour was added in increments, as needed, until it became a, “thick batter”. 

Heat your waffle-iron; then grease it well, and pour in some of the batter.  Shut the iron tight, and bake the waffle on both sides, by turning the iron.  – Leslie, Eliza.  Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats.  1830.  Boston.

As early as the French version from 1393 writers instructed in greasing the irons well with lard, or butter tied in a piece of cloth, and heating the irons “very” hot before putting in the batter to prevent the waffles from sticking to the irons. 

The only remedy for waffles sticking to the irons is to keep the irons in constant use with scraping and rubbing out with lard while hot, and avoid letting them burn with nothing in them.  To bake waffles, pour in one side a spoonful of melted lard, shut up and turn over the iron two or three times then place a spoonful of batter in each compartment.  Shut and turn over to the fire frequently till both sides are brown.  – Whitehead, Jessup.  The Chicago Herald Cooking School:  A Professional Cook’s Book for Household Use.  1883.  Chicago.

Sarah Hale left us with an idea of how long it should take a waffle to bake.  “Bake on a bed of coals.  When they have been on the fire between 2 and 3 minutes, turn the waffle-irons over-when brown on both sides they are sufficiently baked”.  – Hale, Sarah Josepha.  The Ladies New Book of Cookery.  1852.  NY. 

The heavy irons described by Gosse, and others even earlier, remained in use into the 20^th century. 

Waffle irons, with long handles, that bake one big, square waffle, at a time; waffle irons of Colonial times were they, and still in use in many parts of the South and old states.  – Halleck, Charles.  Forest and Stream.  Jan., 1915.  

Dozens of accounts from various locations in the U.S. specified serving waffles with butter and sugar through the mid-19^th century, and almost as many advised spreading the waffles with butter and powdered cinnamon.  A receipt in Peterson’s 1858, suggested serving them with butter and honey. 

Mrs. Haskell’s cookbook instructed putting maple syrup on the waffles in 1861, but cookbooks continued to suggest the accompaniments of butter and sugar.  – Haskell, E.F.  The Housekeeper’s Encyclopedia of Useful Information.  1861.  NY.

Sarah Annie Frost still gave her readers a choice between eating the waffles with maple syrup or cream and sugar in 1870.  – The Godey’s Ladies Book of Receipts and Household Hints.  1870, Philadelphia. 

American ladies were eating waffles with molasses at least by the 1890’s. That is about the time when syrup seems to have become the expected accompaniment.  – Cobbe, Francis Power.  The Life of Frances Power Cobbe.  1894.  London.

Continued………………

Native Americans and the use of Brass Kettles©

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nesting kettles

illustration, 1880's, Sugar Making

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bib: 

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

Brass kettles and their Care©

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brass kettles

Emil Carlsen painting

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

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

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

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

Carlsen, Brass and Copper, 1926

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bib:  

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