An Abundance of Apples

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apple recipes

On the way to the new place last night Martin’s keen eye discerned a beaver by the side of the road and we went back for a closer look. He did not seem at all afraid of people as we were able to stand maybe 5 feet away while he grazed away on red clover. I had never been that close to one in the wild or had an opportunity to watch it eat, and it was quite pleasurable to see it reach for bunches of clover with its front paws, bite it off, and reach for another handful, all very raccoon-like. When he’d finished his dinner, he walked around and down an embankment to a little creek where he no doubt has a home. We wondered if recent heavy rain flushed him out of that home, but decided by the size of the patch of clover that had been bitten off he’d been coming there since before the creek flooded, or else he has loads of hungry friends. (I will post a photo later).

After 15 minutes of watching our new friend eat his dinner we drove on and after a moment I thought of my new fruit trees and how quickly the bunnies or deer could dispatch them. I think I will put better wire around them and discourage nibblers. I am looking forward to my first harvest, but in the meantime let’s take a look at how our grandmothers would have served those apples.

BAKED APPLES. Pare some large greening or pippin apples and remove the cores without breaking the fruit; set the apples in a shallow tin pan, fill them with sugar and pour a little water in bottom of pan; set them in a hot oven to bake till done; care should be taken not to have them broken; when done remove them from oven, pile up high in a glass dish and dust with fine sugar.

APPLE SAUCE. Pare, core and cut into small pieces 12 good sized tart apples, put them into a saucepan with ½ pint water [cider or juice is better] and cover and stew till tender; add 1 cup sugar, press it through a sieve or colander, pour into a glass dish and serve either warm or cold.

COMPOTE OF APPLES. Choose medium sized tart apples, pare and cut them into halves, take out the cores, round the edges and lay them in cold water with lemon juice; boil 1 pound sugar with 1 pint water and the rind and juice of 1 lemon in a wide, low saucepan; put in the apples and let them boil 3 minutes; then turn the apples around, cover the pan and set it on side of stove, where they will stop boiling; let them stand 10 minutes; then thrust a straw through them; if it goes through easily they are done; if not, boil them for a minute longer; remove them from fire and set aside; when cold take the apples out of the syrup and lay them on a sieve; boil the syrup down until it thickens; pile the apples up in a glass dish and pour the syrup over when cold.

APPLES WITH WHIPPED CREAM. [Prepare the apples as above, put a thin layer of currant jelly over them, and top that with whipped cream flavored with vanilla. I think there is room for experimentation with the flavor of jelly one uses.]

APPLE SOUFLE. Strain 1 quart apple sauce through a sieve, sweeten to taste and add the juice and grated rind of 1 lemon, the yolks of 5 eggs and lastly the whites of the eggs, beaten to a stiff froth; put this into a buttered pudding dish and bake till it cracks on top; sprinkle with sugar and serve without sauce.

PLAIN DUMPLINGS WITH STEWED APPLES. Pare, core, and cut into quarters 6 tart apples; boil 1 cup sugar with 2 cups water to a syrup, put in the apples and boil till tender, but do not allow them to break; when done take the apples out with a skimmer and lay them on a dish; mix 1 cup prepared flour with 1 egg, 1 teaspoonful butter and a little water into a thick batter, drop a small portion of the mixture with a teaspoon into the boiling apple syrup and boil 5 minutes; remove them, lay in a circle around the apples and pour the syrup over them. A few slices of lemon may be boiled with the syrup. This dish can also be made of pears, dried apples or apricots.

APPLE MERINGUE PIE. [I plan to make this one, and the one below, very soon. Martin loves pie and especially loves meringue pie. I think this one will fit in nicely with his childhood memories from Pennsylvania Dutch country.]
Press 1 pint stewed apples through a sieve, sweeten to taste and add the juice of ½ lemon, a little grated nutmeg and the yolks of 4 eggs; line a pie plate with crust, cover with buttered paper, fill the plate with dried peas and bake till crust is a light brown; remove paper and peas, fill in the mixture, return pie to oven and bake till done; in the meantime beat the 4 whites to a stiff froth and add 1 tablespoon powdered sugar and a little essence of lemon; when pie is done draw it to front of oven, spread over the meringue and let it remain for a few minutes longer in oven; then take it out and serve when cold.

APPLE PUDDING (German art). Pare, core and cut into quarters 6 good sized tart apples, put them into a stewpan with a little water and boil till half done; then carefully remove the apples to a pudding dish, pour 3 tablespoonfuls raspberry syrup or jelly over them and set aside to cool; place a saucepan over the fire with 1 pint milk and ½ tablespoonful butter; as soon as it boils put in 1 cup sifted flour and stir until the mixture forms into a smooth paste and loosens itself from the bottom of saucepan; transfer it to a dish; stir 1 tablespoonful butter to a cream and add alternately the yolks of 5 eggs, 5 tablespoonfuls sugar and the paste, a spoonful at a time; when this is well blended together add the grated rind of 1 lemon, ½ cup finely chopped almonds and lastly the beaten whites of 5 eggs; pour this mixture over the apples and bake in a medium hot oven for ¾ hour; it may be served with wine, fruit or hard sauce or may be dusted with sugar and served without a sauce. NOTE. When peaches, cherries, plums or berries are used they need not be cooked before baking.

Source: Lemcke. 1918.

Water Conveyance in the 19th Century

Tags

pumps, water pipe, water without electricity

I was recently asked by a reader what type water access her ancestors might have had in 19th century London, and I thought the question was something we might explore further as a supply to water is essential in running a home.

The earliest pipes that conveyed water included stone blocks with cylindrical holes cut through and earthen pipes, often encased in masonry. The Romans used lead pipes for distributing water and later during the Middle Ages logs with holes drilled through them and connected end to end and later lead pipes came into use again.

By the early 20th century, water pipes were made of steel, cast iron, wrought iron, lead, wood, vitrified clay (think terra cotta), or even cement or concrete. We recently saw a section of wooden water pipe in an antique store and were thrilled to have discovered it. Wooden pipes were made from spruce, yellow pine, oak, etc., and were usually about 12 feet long. The bark was usually removed but not always. The earliest models were bored by hand, but machinery was soon invented that was more efficient at hollowing the logs.

Edward Wegmann wrote that in the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Detroit pipes were dug up that were perfectly sound having been laid a hundred years before. When buried in the ground and kept from atmospheric changes they lasted a very long time without rotting. The Journal of New England Water Works Assoc., 1916, XXX, p. 318, claimed that such log pipes had been discovered in Boston and Portsmouth, N.H. that were sound and over two hundred years old.

Wegmann dated the earliest log pipes in America to 1652 located in Boston. About 1796 they were replaced with new log pipes where many were used until 1848 when the city replaced all pipes with those made of cast-iron. He dated those first used in New York and Philadelphia to 1774 and 1799. Interestingly enough, London seems to have regressed in its use of piping materials, as he states the lead pipes which melted in the great fire of 1807, were replaced with log pipes. He stated further that there were over 400 miles of wooden log pipes in London during subsequent years.

In 1855, A. Wyckoff, of Elmira, NY, received a patent for an improved water pipe which was spirally bound by a band of iron, steel, or bronze and the whole then coated with an asphalt coating. In Bay City, Mich., the Michigan Pipe Co. acquired the rights to manufacture the Wyckoff pipes in 1880. Companies in Williamsport, PA, Seattle Wash., San Francisco, Tacoma, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, BC were also engaged in making the Wyckoff pipes during the first decade of the 20th century.

Cast-iron pipes are thought to date to the 1660’s when Louis XIV of France ordered their use, and possibly earlier. Chelsea Water Co. of London laid a 12 inch cast iron pipe in 1746 which was re-laid in 1791 because the joints were faulty. The engineer, Thomas Simpson, designed the first bell-and-spigot pipe with lead joints about 1785, and the system was soon adopted throughout London.

Cast-iron pipes were imported from England about 1817 and used in Philadelphia where they remained in use a century later. – Wegmann, Edward. Conveyance and Distribution of Water for Water Supply. 1918. NY.

Pumps have been used since 200 BC, with regular boosts in technology. I once lived where water came from a natural spring and was fed into the house by gravity flow (requiring no pump) but had the house been uphill from the spring we would have required a pump of some sort to get the water from the collection tank to a higher level .

Time doesn’t allow for researching early pumps at present, but they have operated off steam power, wind power, turbine power, etc. and for those who want a back-up system for power outages, options still include wind power, hand pumps, ram pumps, and buckets, including those for drilled wells operated by a windlass (a rope and crank which can lower and raise a long narrow vessel designed to fit into the piping for drilled wells).
Photo: From Lehman’s Hardware catalog.

Tom and Jerry

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Tom and Jerry

We enjoy shopping in antique stores and enjoy the search for special pieces. Periodically we will take notice of an item that we may not have paid any particular attention to before, but once we do then we seem to see the item everywhere we shop. Tom and Jerry punch bowls and cups are one of those items.

The drink has nothing to do with the cartoon characters some of us grew up watching. It is doubtful the drink was created by bartender Jerry Thomas who wrote “How to Mix Drinks” in 1862 despite several articles and online accounts crediting him with the drink’s origins. Although he made them often and the drink became associated with him, references to Tom and Jerry predate Jerry Thomas’s book by four decades.

The phrase dates from 1821 when “Life in London; Or, The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn Esq. and his Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom” was released, written by Pierce Egan and dedicated to George IV. It seems to have been made and served since the release of the book. In fact, some claim Egan introduced the drink, which is a form of eggnog, and called it a Tom and Jerry to draw attention to his book and subsequent play with characters by the same name. The play was titled “Tom and Jerry, Or Life in London” and it also premiered in 1821.

Damon Runyon (1880-1946) mentioned the drink in “Dancing Dan’s Christmas” published in 1932. “This hot Tom and Jerry is an old time drink that was once used by one and all in this country to celebrate Christmas…But anybody will tell you that there is nothing that brings out the true holiday spirit like hot Tom and Jerry, and I hear that since Tom and Jerry goes out of style in the United States, the holiday spirit is never quite the same.”

Various slang dictionaries define “Tom-and-Jerry Days” as the period of the Regency (1810-20) when George IV was king, and a Tom and Jerry shop was a low drinking establishment. – Henley, William Ernest. Slang and its Analogues Past and Present. 1904.

One hasn’t far to look to find references indicating that the term was not something well-bred people aspired to. The great increase of crime was attributed to a large degree to the beer-shops which were, “significantly termed by the lower classes ‘Tom and Jerry shops’”. Nineteenth century books reference Tom and Jerry Clubs, Tom and Jerry amusements, Tom and Jerry sprees, and there’s the ultimate phrase, “spend their evenings in riotous debauchery, drinking, gambling, and raising Tom and Jerry”. – Bather, Edward. “Thoughts on the Demand for Separation of Church and State”. 1834. London. & Dow, Jr. “Short Patent Sermons”. 1841. NY.

In later decades a Tom and Jerry became associated with Christmas and cold weather, defined by some as the period extending from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Jerry Thomas’s version of Tom and Jerry instructed the maker to put into a punchbowl
“5 lbs. sugar; 12 eggs; ½ small glass of Jamaica rum; 1 ½ teaspoonful of ground cinnamon; ½ same of cloves; ½ same of allspice.
Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and the yolks until they are as thin as water, then mix together and add the spice and rum, thicken with sugar until the mixture attains the consistence of a light batter.
To deal out Tom and Jerry to customers:
Take a small bar glass, and to one table-spoonful of the above mixture, add one wine-glass of brandy, and fill the glass with boiling water, grate a little nutmeg on top.
Adepts at the bar, in serving Tom and Jerry, sometimes adopt a mixture of ½ brandy, ¼ Jamaica rum, and ¼ Santa Cruz rum, instead of brandy plain. This compound is usually mixed and kept in a bottle, and a wine-glassful is used to each tumbler of Tom and Jerry. N.B.—A teaspoonful of cream of tartar, or about as much carbonate of soda as you can get on a dime, will prevent the sugar from settling to the bottom of the mixture. This drink is sometimes called Copenhagen, and sometimes ‘Jerry Thomas’”. [- from Jerry Thomas's book on mixed drinks, 1862]

TOM AND JERRY MIXTURE. Take the whites of any quantity of eggs and beat to a stiff froth. Add one heaping tablespoonful of fine sugar for each egg. Beat the yolks of the eggs separately; mix together, adding a pinch of bicarbonate of soda, and beat to a stiff batter. Stir frequently so as to prevent the sugar from settling in the bottom of Tom and Jerry bowl.

HOW TO SERVE TOM AND JERRY. Put two tablespoonfuls of the above mixture into a Tom and Jerry mug; add half a jigger brandy and half a jigger rum, fill with boiling hot water or hot milk; mix well with a spoon, grate nutmeg on top and serve.

TOM AND JERRY COLD. Serve same as above, using cold water or milk in place of hot. – Kappeler, George J. Modern American Drinks. 1900. Akron, Ohio.

A frozen Tom & Jerry was promoted by the Boston Cooking School Cookbook in 1920:

2 c. milk, 3/4 c. sugar, yolks 6 eggs, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 2 1/2 c. cream, 2 Tablespoons rum, 1 Tablespoon brandy
Make a custard of the first 4 ingredients; strain, cook, add cream, and freeze to a mush. Add rum and brandy and finish the freezing. [Note this recipe did not make use of the egg whites.]

Option: Some recipes said to add a stick of butter and/or mix with hot milk instead of hot water.

Upstairs/Downstairs

Tags

Downton Abbey, royal household staff

I received a book about Queen Victoria’s staff, “Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household”, by Kate Hubbard, for Christmas and as a huge Downton Abbey fan I am enjoying it very much.

I can relate with Ms. Pattmore, the Downton cook, as she struggles with new technology in a world that is changing from the old order she’s familiar with to one of new-fangled electric lights, telephones, and even an electric mixer! I find changes in technology (like learning Windows 8) just as stressful and off-putting.

I’m quite experienced in food preparation when the open hearth or wood stove were standard and I can sympathize with her plight of desperately holding on to the job that is absolutely essential to her well-being while decades-old methods she’s expert in are being replaced at a frightening pace. I am more at home in my kitchen – in any century – than in trying to figure out new software and keep up with much younger co-workers. Daisy, Ms. Pattmore’s underling, readily accepts the new gadgets and seems born with an understanding of how to use them, while Ms. Pattmore is charming but clueless.

The program does a remarkable job at providing insight into the daily lives of a large staff and the struggles of one kind or another that face them all. Daisy, for instance can immediately grasp the use of the electric mixer, but is just as clueless when it comes to romance and understanding the young men on staff and how they interact with her and a prettier and more-worldly fellow staff member.

In closing, I’d like to share this paragraph from my book as some of my readers may also enjoy the program and find comparing the fictional staff to the real world staff of Queen Victoria intriguing.

“She marveled at the below-stairs world, glimpsed whilst accompanying Her Serene Highness of Oldenburg on an inspection of the ‘plate’, including the kitchen with 24 cooks and 17 pieces of meat roasting and the confectionary, a very world of jellies and jams. Besides the kitchen with its two great open fires, and a huge steel table with hollow brass legs, steam-heated to keep food warm, there was a green room (for preparing vegetables), a confectionary and a pastry kitchen. The twenty-four cooks included a head chef, three master cooks, two yeomen of the kitchen, two roasting cooks, four apprentices, two larderers and storers, a storekeeper, two green office men, three kitchen maids and two men to supervise the steam apparatus, while the confectionary boasted first and second yeomen confectioners and three female assistants”.

So Long, 2013

It’s apparent the end of the year is upon us when WordPress sends out the annual stats concerning blogs. Mine arrived this morning and I’d like to say thank you to everyone who commented they’d enjoyed a post this year and thank everyone for comments made. I do not write to compete with other bloggers in stats or popularity, but it is interesting to see how far flung the readership is. I’m glad you, the readers, found the blog informative and entertaining. Now, a word from WordPress.

“To kick off the new year, we’d like to share with you data on Thehistoricfoodie’s Blog’s activity in 2013. You may start scrolling!
Crunchy numbers
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 38,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 14 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

In 2013, there were 61 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 207 posts. There were 135 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 47 MB. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was March 6th with 413 views. The most popular post that day was Native Americans and the use of Brass Kettles©”

The blog was viewed from 145 different countries, most often from the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

Posts viewed most often: “Queen Anne’s Pocket Melon, a Treasure Almost Lost”, “18th C. Kitchen Tools: Salamander”, “Colonial Pantries, Foods of North Carolina”, “Native Americans and Their Use of Brass Kettles”, and “Chestnut Flour: Its Many Uses”.

What Are Your Favorite Heirloom Seeds?

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heirloom seeds

Today’s post is not so much a post as a query directed at any readers who are also gardeners.

I do not want genetically modified seed nor do I want to support a company responsible for them. I don’t want hybrids either. That means some of the companies in the list owned by or affiliated with Monsanto are no longer seeds I will buy – primarily Ferry Morse.

Almost all the seeds I used this year were Ferry Morse seeds and I had a terrible germination rate. In fact the only seeds I had a really good germination on were the collards. By then, due to poor germination with other seeds, I sowed the collards so thickly I have been thinning them weekly for three weeks now. American Seeds brand had an even worse germination rate than the Ferry Morse and produced nothing.
Unfortunately, short of mail order those two are about the only brand available here. I can get Martha Stewart seeds, but really, who knows what those are and where they came from? There are vague theories that Ferry Morse packages them under the Martha Stewart name which would mean they’re the same seeds, but the price is jacked up on the Martha Stewart seeds.

For the coming year I ordered from Sustainable Seed Co., and I’ll be ordering from Baker Creek Seeds, Southern Exposure, Victory, and Seed Savers Exchange. No more rack seeds for me.

Feel free to comment on your success or lack of it with any of these sources, comment on your preferred source for seeds, or correct this list. I did not check out every company individually, but instead compared several online lists. The list may or may not be completely accurate. I did find some companies, for example, Burpee and Johnny’s, that were given a clean bill of health on some lists after originally being listed as Monsanto owned on others.

Note how the Treasured Garden [Heflin, AL] answered a query about whether they sold GMO’s. Any comments?

There is a lot of misinformation currently about GMO seeds. There are no GMO tomatoes, peppers and
most other vegetables. They just don’t exist at Monsanto or anywhere else. There are commercial seeds of corn and soybeans but that are only grown by commercial farms. Backyard garden seeds are not altered at all and are safe to grow.

The primary concern with GMO’s is that our foods in the grocery stores are almost exclusively being grown using GMO corn and soybean seeds on commercial farms. Even buying organic doesn’t guarantee GMO free.

OWNED BY MONSANTO OR SEMINIS OR SELL SMALL PERCENTAGES OF SEEDS FROM THEM:
Audubon Workshop
Breck’s Bulbs
Cook’s Garden
Dege Garden Center
Earl May Seed
E & R Seed Co
Ferry Morse
Flower of the Month Club
Gardens Alive
Germania Seed Co
Garden Trends
HPS
Jungs
Lindenberg Seeds
McClure and Zimmerman Quality Bulb Brokers
Mountain Valley Seed
Nichol’s
Osborne
Park Bulbs
Park’s Countryside Garden
R.H. Shumway
Roots and Rhizomes
Rupp
Seeds for the World
Seymour’s Selected Seeds
Snow
Spring Hill Nurseries
Stokes
T&T Seeds
Tomato Growers Supply
Totally Tomato
Vermont Bean Seed Co.
Wayside Gardens
Willhite Seed Co.
American Seeds
Asgrow
Campbell
DeKalb
De Ruiter
Diener Seeds
Fielder’s Choice
Fontanelle
Gold Country Seed
Hawkeye
Heartland
Heritage Seeds
Holdens
Hubner Seed
icorn
Jung Seed
Kruger Seeds
Lewis Hybrids
Peotec
Poloni
Rea Hybrids
Seminis
Specialty
Stewart
Stone Seed
Trelay
Western Seeds

Listed here are some safe seeds to purchase to ensure Non GMO Seeds.

Not owned by Monsanto:
Abundant Life Seeds
Amishland Seeds
Annapolis Valley
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Burpee – See below
Heritage Seed Company (Nova Scotia, Canada)
Diane’s Flower Seeds
Ed Hume Seeds
Fedco
Garden City Seeds
Heirlooms Evermore Seeds
Heirloom Seeds
Heirloom Organics
Horizon Herbs
Johnny’s Seeds
Irish-Eyes
Landreth Seeds
Lake Valley Seeds
Livingston Seeds
Local Harvest
Mountain Rose Herbs
Organica Seed
Park Seeds
Pinetree
Sand Hill Preservation Center
Seeds of Change (Owned by Mars Inc.)
Southern Exposure
Sustainable Seed Co (added on request of the company)
Territorial Seeds
Tiny Seeds
Uprising Seeds
Virtual Farm Seed Co
Wildseed Farms

http://www.burpee.com/gygg/content.jsp?contentId=about-burpee-seeds

The owner of Burpee Seed stated they are not owned by Monsanto, do not sell GMO seeds, but do purchase some seeds from Seminis.

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.

Canning Basics©

Those trying to become self-sufficient or prepare for trying times are taking a serious look at pressure canning foods just as our grandmothers did. I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t involved in canning food whether it was picking in the garden, breaking beans, shelling peas or washing jars. Mother seemed acutely aware that as a child my hands fit nicely inside the jars to scrub them.

Meats are often the most daunting for the novice canner, however, as advised during the early 20th century, “…the meat can be safely canned by any one whether new at the canning game or a veteran in it if directions are carefully followed.”. The author went on to say that the fear of getting botulinus bacteria from eating canned meat was just a, “bug-a-boo”, as long as one followed a strict cleanliness regimen, used fresh products, and adhered to the instructions. Making sure there aren’t any chips to prevent a proper seal on the jars is also important. Such jars are still good for storing anything that doesn’t have to be sealed such as salt or sugar.

My mother never had the best of luck canning products with meat and I was too young then to be able to evaluate the reasons why. She kept a clean kitchen so that wasn’t the problem and the products were fresh enough. My best guess is she didn’t process the jars long enough, or didn’t leave enough head space when she filled them. She tried to can chicken and dumplings and lost every jar. I’m pretty sure the dumplings plumped too much during processing resulting in the jars being too full to seal properly and absorbed too much of the liquid in the jar for the contents to reach a boil. The jars probably didn’t get hot enough to seal properly if that happened.

I’ve canned chicken, ham, and beef as well as various soups (such as bean with ham) and haven’t had a problem.

Both a cold pack and hot pack method was found in various books and magazines from the early 1900’s. The advantage to partially cooking the meat or browning it prior to canning is that it may look more appealing. I use the cold pack method most often. The home canner was instructed that any cuts not suitable for canning in solid chunks could be ground, made into sausage, and the fried sausage could then be canned.

Grace Gray (1920) included organ meats (sweetbreads, brains, kidneys, liver), liver sausage, head cheese, corned beef, etc. in her canning instructions along with solid meats (chicken, pigeon, pork, rabbit, beef, tongue, fish, oysters, clams, shrimp, crab, crawfish, etc.) Freezers weren’t yet used and farm families often canned pork and chicken to use throughout the year. She didn’t mention canning venison, but that works well.

Let’s look at a book from the WWII era, for more information. The author recommended canning meat separately from vegetables because it provided greater versatility than when made into soup before canning it. She advised adding seasonings (onion and garlic included) when the jars were opened for use for a fresher flavor and I tend to agree. Pressure canning sometimes concentrates those flavors to the point the flavor is somewhat off-putting. I do add a half teaspoon of kosher salt per pint of meat before processing it.

The home canner was counseled to use quarts or pints for canning meat and avoid using anything larger. I prefer pints because that is enough meat for whatever dish I want to prepare for two people and sometimes I still have left-overs for lunch the next day.

Cutting the meat into uniform sized pieces insures it cooks evenly. The 1942 book states cuts with more connective tissue than the rump, round, loin, and chuck could be canned as stew meat or hamburger. Those jars are ideal for casseroles, tacos, hash, etc. It still contained instructions for canning tongue, heart, etc. Meat from poultry was canned and the bony parts like rib meat, backs, necks, etc. were boiled to make broth to fill the jars of meat.

North Dakota State University told homemakers to can any extra stock and use it for making soup. Starting with stock instead of water makes a world of difference in flavor.

Chicken breast can be canned without adding liquid because enough liquid cooks out of the chicken as it is being processed, but I add water to everything else. When canning ham I fill the jars with water seasoned with a bit of salt and brown sugar. A Bulletin from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute noted that when using the cold pack method, all the juices and flavor stayed in the jar producing a more flavorful product.

When I cook with the jars of chicken, ham, or beef, I add a teaspoon of soup base to boost the flavor and pasta, dumplings, or vegetables. With canned beef I can whip up a fast spaghetti sauce, chili, taco salad, meat pie, stew, pot-roast in gravy, or casserole in no time, and without making a run to the market. Blissful Meals yall, enjoy this lovely day.©

Gray, Grace Viall. “Every Step in Canning”. 1920. Iowa State College Professor of Home Economics.
Stanley, Louise; Stienbarger, Mabel; and Shank, Dorothy. “Home Canning of Fruits, Vegetables and Meats”. Farmer’s Bulletin #1762. 1942.
Hughes, Mary B. “Every Woman’s Canning Book”. 1918
Virginia Polytechnic Institute. “Bulletin No. 66”, June 1921.

CANNING FOR TRYING TIMES©

Tags

canning, preserving, self-sufficiency

There have been periods of “boom and bust” in this country since its earliest days, but previously during the hard times citizens knew that better times were coming eventually. A growing percentage of the population no longer feels the U.S. will ever fully recover from this latest downturn, and more and more people think the economy will continue to spiral out of control. Unless manufacturing is brought home from overseas we must content ourselves with being a service-based economy while working for less money, less benefits, less retirement income, less social security, less, always less.

In short, congress has lost the trust and respect of previous decades. Having hundreds of government employees sent home without pay because the government has shut down, but yet the President and congress continue to receive regular paychecks is terribly wrong. Teddy Roosevelt, Sir, how do you feel about having national parks closed after you went to such heroic efforts to create them?

“All the great natural resources which are vital to the welfare of the whole people should be kept either in the hands or under the control of the whole people.” – Theodore Roosevelt, published in “The Outlook”, April 20, 1912.

Forget trying to get into one of those national parks now, and an attempt to access the website for a national park today (Oct. 2, 2013) meets with a blank screen other than this message:
“Because of the federal government shutdown, all national parks are closed and National Park Service webpages are not operating. For more information, go to http://www.doi.gov.”

Programs and basic infrastructure we take for granted are being restricted, suspended, or abolished everyday while we go about our daily lives, many of us seemingly oblivious to the changes around us. On a micro-level, nursing home inspections, restaurant inspections, and sewer/septic inspections for new construction have been severely cut back in my state. Are you, gentle reader, old enough to remember the contagious diseases of the past, such as cholera outbreaks that killed indiscriminately caused by drinking water contaminated by human feces? There is a reason those programs were created.

This post is not going to tell you all the things you should consider doing in preparation for trying times – there are enough websites and books out there for that. What it is going to do is look at the history of food preservation through canning to see what we might want to learn in order not to be dependent on fast food or going to the grocery store today for tomorrow’s supper.

There are multiple reasons for putting up one’s own food: there are no preservatives; long term storage without being dependent on electricity; it can be less expensive to grow your own or buy in quantity during sales and can it for future use; or having enough food on hand to not only survive but thrive in any situation in which supplies are scarce. Not of less importance is the fact that canned meat and vegetables are a huge convenience when making dinner after a day’s work.

Before food was put up in jars, some of it was fermented in crocks and stored for the winter (pickles, sauerkraut, etc.). Nicholas Appert successfully sealed food under heat in glass bottles as early as 1790’s. His method took the prize offered by Napoleon for the most innovative method of preserving food for his troops. Because glass containers were difficult to transport without breaking, metal canisters followed.

Glass canning jars for home preserving hit market shelves during the mid-19th century, but few people had the money or desire to rush out and buy them, thus canning in jars really became a standard method of food preservation around 1900.

The jars were sealed by placing a separate rubber ring on the jar and screwing on a zinc lid. The home canner was advised to use a new rubber ring on each jar although some people did reuse them. Two factors make it possible to keep food preserved in jars – first the contents must get hot enough to kill microorganisms (above the boiling point) and the jar has to remain completely sealed and airtight.

Oven canning is a hotly contested practice, manufacturers say it is not safe to put up food without processing it in a steam canner, while individuals claim to have done it for decades without the food spoiling. I haven’t tried this method, however, I may do a few jars just to see how well the jars seal and the food keeps. I think if the lids are heated in hot water before being screwed onto the jars and the contents in the jars is hot enough, it should work just fine. Oven canning is nothing new, Marion Harris Neal gave instructions for canning fruit in the oven at the turn of the century (1900).

I suspect the controversy over oven canning is akin to the theory some espouse that canned food can be, “safely kept for up to two years”. Hog wash. Once my mother canned her garden bounty, it wasn’t going anywhere except the dinner table regardless of how long the jars sat in the pantry and I’ve kept jars 10 years and the contents tasted just fine. It might be “best” if used quickly, especially if you profit from selling canning supplies, but as long as the seal isn’t broken on the jar it is not spoiled. Unless stored in a dark place, away from direct light, long term storage in glass jars could result in some slight loss of color but that doesn’t render the food inedible either.

Jars are an important tool even when their contents don’t have to be sealed. Salt, sugar, matches, water, and a host of other items can be safely stored for indeterminate lengths of time in an unsealed jar. Save those spaghetti sauce or jelly jars and see how many uses you can find for them. As always, Blissful Meals, may your pantry always be full and your heart be joyous. ©

Because in our lawsuit-happy world people look for ways to make a buck, notice this disclaimer: No guarantee is made as to the safety of any food, canned or otherwise. Eat at your own discretion.

Oysters and the Pennsylvania Dutch©

Tags

fried oysters, oyster pie, oysters

Oysters were relished by the masses and prepared in a myriad of ways during the 18th century. How did the early Pennsylvania Dutch feel about them and how did they prepare them? By examining multiple types of records, we get an idea of their presence throughout Pennsylvania and perhaps the key piece of evidence is the multitude of ways in which oysters were transported inland from the waterways and the length of time they were kept after harvest.

Once gathered, live oysters could be packed into small barrels and stored from a week to ten days. A footnote in an 18th century English cookbook claimed that once taken out of the shell, they could be put into bottles and kept in their juice “for a little time”, by pouring olive-oil over them and corking the bottle. That conjures up images of putrid oysters slipping from the oily bottle, but perhaps it isn’t so very outlandish when one considers oysters weren’t harvested in the heat of summer and that some epicures were said to relish the flavor of stale oysters better than those freshly taken from the beds.

We have live oysters being transported, stored, and sold up to a week and a half after being taken from the oyster beds and also being kept in salted water and fed on cereal grains for perhaps longer, yet there was no indication that shucked oysters were being kept in bottles in Pennsylvania. (Comprehensive Treatise on Domestic Brewing, 1847).

The Pennsylvania summers aren’t as long as those in the South, but the temperatures can reach into the 90’s during August, so it is doubtful shucked oysters would have lasted in Pennsylvania except in winter and then in an unheated location. Luckily, the trip upriver wasn’t more than a few hours time and live oysters would have reached their destination in good order. By the mid-1800’s railroads further shortened the delivery time of fish and shellfish inland.

Philadelphia was among the cities that supported oyster houses where one could have their oysters freshly opened for a quick snack or meal. Oysters could be purchased for the home from a woman called an oyster wench or from a peddler that traveled from farm to farm. So many oysters were consumed in Pennsylvania, that by the end of the century acts were being passed to regulate the harvesting of them so as not to harvest them to extinction.

We’ve proven oysters were available throughout Pennsylvania, so now let’s consider how the Pennsylvania Dutch housewives might have prepared them. A 1935 book on Pennsylvania Dutch food contains four recipes for oysters. One instructed in how to fry them, and another was a recipe for Oyster Pie. Is oyster pie a 20th century dish, or, despite the absence of an 18th century recipe actually penned in Pennsylvania, was it prepared considerably earlier?

For the answer, we turn to our old friend, Hannah Glasse and see that she was making pies, soup, stew and sauces, etc. with them in England and given the success of her cookbooks we can be fairly certain that similar dishes would have been known throughout most of Europe. It stands to reason that upon finding a plentiful supply of oysters in America the Europeans would have made similar dishes. Blissful Meals, all.

“To Make a Muscle-Pie [Oyster].
Make a good crust, lay it all over the dish, wash your muscles clean in several waters, then put them in a deep stew-pan, cover them, and let them stew till they are open, pick them out, and see there be no crabs under the tongue; put them in a sauce-pan, with two or three blades of mace, strain liquor just enough to cover them, a good piece of butter, and a few crumbs of bread; stew them a few minutes, so fill your pie, put on the lid, and bake it half an hour. So you may make an oyster pie. Always let your fish be cold before you put on the lid, or it will spoil the crust.” – Hannah Glasse.

“Dutch Chicken Oyster Pie. Stew chicken until tender, season with quarter pound butter, salt, and pepper. Line deep pie dish with pastry crust. Pour in the stewed chicken and cover loosely with a crust, cutting in the center of this crust a hole the size of a small teacup. Prepare separately one pint of oysters, heating the liquor, thickening with a little flour and water. Season with salt, pepper, and two tablespoons of butter. When it comes to a boil, pour over the oysters. Twenty minutes before the pie is done, lift the top crust and put the oyster mixture in.” – Frederick, Justus. Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook. 1935.

“Oyster Pot Pie, Allentown. [This pie was like the Penn. Dutch chicken pot pie with dumplings/noodles instead of being baked in a crust] 1 quart oysters, 2 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon flour, or more, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon minced parsley, biscuit. Scald the oysters in their own liquor; when the water boils skim out the oysters and keep warm. Add to the oyster liquor a pint of water, a teaspoon of salt, and half a teaspoon of pepper and the parsley. Also the butter. Thicken with the flour, mixed with a little cold water. Have ready some light biscuit dough, which cut into squares and drop into the hot oyster liquor. Cover tight and cook for 20 minutes. Then stir the oysters in and serve in one dish sprinkled with paprika.” – Frederick.