GROWING and Using YOUR OWN BAY LEAVES©

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bay leaf

One of the first things I planted when we purchased our little farm was a bay tree.  It was a tiny little thing, but given time and love I don’t see having to purchase bay leaves again and fresh ones are always more flavorful than the dried ones.  Either way, always discard the bay leaf before serving the dish.

An added bonus with growing your own is having enough to use in potpourri or sachets.  Since I am more involved in cooking than in scenting and my tree isn’t large enough to pluck enough leaves for making sachets yet, let’s take a quick look at the use culinary uses of bay leaves in times past.

Clermont gave a list of sweet herbs for cooking in 1812 which will serve today’s cook equally as well. “What go under the denomination of sweet herbs in cookery, are parsley, chibbol [chives], garlick, rocambole [an allium similar to hardneck garlic], shallots, winter savory, fennel, thyme, laurel, or bay-leaf, and sweet basil. Under the name Ravigotte, or relishing herbs are, tarragon, chervil, burnet, garden cresses, civet, and green mustard; there are other sweet herbs, which are not called ravigotte, although they are often used together, as mint, borage, water-cress, rosemary, marigold, marjoram, &c.”

The ways in which the leaves were used was consistent through 18^th and early 19^th century cookbooks.  John Perkins instructed in 1808 using bay leaves in pickling and making mushroom ketchup, and cooking a pig, pigeons, fish, beef, eels, poultry, and mutton.

In 1837, Beauvilliers’ “A Complete System of French Domestic Cookery” used the term “bay leaf” 52 times, using it for cooking mushrooms, pickled veal, put into bouquet garni (little bundles of parsley, green onions or scallions, thyme, basil, and bay leaf used for seasoning), soup, sauces including bechemel, brines for marinating and pickling, fish, meat, and various other made dishes.

One of the less common uses was in custard found in Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury’s cookery book (1844).  “One quart of cream, twelve eggs, the whites of four, the rind of one lemon, boiled in the cream, with a small quantity of nutmeg and a bay-leaf, bitter and sweet almonds one ounce each, a little ratafia and orange-flower water; sweeten to your taste.  The cream must be quite cold before the eggs are added.  When mixed, it must just be made to boil, and then fill your cups.”  Ratafia in this instance most likely refers to a liqueur flavored with almonds or kernels from peaches, apricots, or cherries.  It also can mean an almond flavored cookie or macaroon.

John Nott.  “The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary”.  1737.  Hare Pye.  Break the bones of the Hare, lard it well, and season it with salt, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and a bay leaf; lay slices of bacon at the bottom of your pye, put in the hare and lay slices of bacon over it, and lid it up; when it is bak’d pour in melted Butter, and stop the hole of the pye, and set it to cool.

Note:  Today most people prefer to cook the meat and debone it before baking it in the pie.  Larding refers to inserting small slivers of fat into the meat to keep it from drying out as it cooks.

Clermont utilized fish in making soup and sauces. 1844. “Take what kind of fish you think proper…cut in slices, and put them into your stew-pan, with a little butter, sliced onions…parsley, thyme, bay-leaf, basil, a clove of garlick [sic], carrots, and parsneps [sic]; soak it until it forms a slight glaze on the bottom; add to it the former broth and boil on a slow fire for about an hour; sift [strain] it clear.  It will serve for soups and sauces”.

I especially love cooking instructions when they come from sources other than cookbooks.  This is just such a one.  Pickling the fish in spices and vinegar preserved it without refrigeration.   “When more fish is caught than can be made use of, or kept without being ‘spiled’ [spoiled], cut it into slices about an inch thick.  (Every mess should lay in supplies of whole pepper, dried bay’s leaf, and all-spice, or pimento…)!  Wipe the fish dry, and lay it in a large jar [or crock], as follows:  after having pounded all-spice, black pepper, and salt, and mixed it well together, and rubbed the fish well with the mixture, lay the slices in regular tiers; and between every tier a bay-leaf, and so on, ‘chock up’ to the top, pressing the whole pretty well, or ‘handsomely,’ and then pour the vinegar down by the side, not the middle of the jar, until the jar is quite full.  Cover it over with brown paper, if to be had, if not, a bit of old canvass; tie it close, hand it over to the cook for a quiet corner in the oven, and when done, lay it by to cool;–and there’s a supply that will keep till all’s blue again.”  – “Jack Tench:  or, The Midshipman Turned Idler”.  1841.

Beuf [beef] a la Vinegrette.  Charlotte Mason.  “The Lady’s Assistant”.  1777.

Cut a slice of beef from the round three inches thick, with very little fat; stew it in water and a glass of white wine, seasoned with salt, pepper, cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a bay-leaf; let it boil till the liquor is almost consumed, and when it is cold serve it up; what liquor remains, strain it off and mix it with a little vinegar.

Those who may want to add bay to their herb garden should be able to find seedlings at a nursery or they can be started from cuttings.  They are also called sweet bay and bay laurel.  They are evergreen and flower in the spring.  They may be grown in full sun or partial shade and one might let the weather govern the location for planting.  Partial shade might be better where the norm is extremely hot summers.  The size of the mature tree can be controlled by planting it in a container or through pruning.  It is hardy to 23 degrees, but can withstand a little colder if planted in a sheltered location.

As always, I wish you Blissful Meals, especially as we approach Christmas with all its splendor.  God Bless and merry Christmas one and all.  ©The Historic Foodie

[Spelling is unchanged from the original sources.]

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Marrow Fat

Marrow from bones has been consumed since antiquity and has enjoyed somewhat of a resurgence in recent years, the difference from olden times being that the butcher now usually slices the bones in half ridding us of the task of cracking them open.

Eating marrow rose to such heights in the 17^th and 18^th centuries that silver marrow spoons or scoops were sold with which to eat it.

In addition to eating the cooked marrow on toast, the bones and marrow were utilized in soup stock to add consistence though they really add little to nothing to the flavor.  Numerous 19^th century cookery books point out that the bones can be prepared and after the marrow has been removed and consumed at the table, the bones are still fit to put into the soup pot afterward.

“The[buffalo] marrow-bones are also highly esteemed, especially when roasted, and are often used as a substitute for butter, as the marrow-bones of all animals are filled with a short, buttery fat.”  – De Voe.

An article from the 1990’s claimed frontiersmen referred to prepared marrow as prairie butter.  That author gave no source or documentation for the name prairie butter used in that context, yet other modern writers picked up the name and subsequently used the term in their own writing, still without any documentation.   A more accurate term is marrow-fat.

This writer made a diligent search and could find no period source with which to document the name prairie butter although numerous sources do mention eating the marrow and instructing how to prepare it.  There is no doubt it was commonly eaten but the name prairie butter is questionable.  This author does encourage anyone who can document the term to do so.

In 1880, William Shepherd’s method of making “prairie butter” was to add flour and water to grease remaining in the pan after meat was fried and basically making gravy.   There was no marrow in his dish.  Other accounts of prairie butter had nothing at all to do with marrow and were simply butter from milk that had been churned on the prairie.

Marrow was commonly taken from beef, sheep, and oxen, but Lewis and Clark noted supping and breakfasting on elk marrow bones at least twice and outdoorsmen wrote that they ate marrow bones from buffalo.  Richard Dodge claimed, however, that the marrow in the forelegs of buffalo was so pithy that when greenhorns roasted the bones they cracked them open to find nothing inside.

Indians knew how to roast the bones from the buffalo’s hind legs to get at the tasty marrow inside.  “The bones of the hind legs are thrown upon the glowing coals, or hidden under the hot embers, then cracked between two stones, and the rich, delicious marrow sucked in quantities sufficient to ruin a white stomach forever.”

“Marrow-fat is collected by the Indians from the buffalo bones which they break to pieces, yielding a prodigious quantity of marrow, which is boiled out and put into buffalo bladders which have been distended; and after it cools, becomes quite hard like tallow, and has the appearance and very nearly the flavor, of the richest yellow butter.  At a feast, chunks of this marrow-fat are cut off and placed in a tray or bowl, with the pemmican, and eaten together; which we civilized folks in these regions consider a very good substitute for (and indeed we generally so denominate it) ‘bread and butter’.  In this dish laid a spoon made of the buffalo’s horn, which was black as jet, and beautifully polished…”.  – Catlin.

Marrow could be heated, clarified, and stored away in small jars or crocks for future use in cooking.  It was used as a substitute for butter during the months when fresh butter was difficult to obtain.  Toasts were fried in marrow until golden brown or dipped in the marrow and baked in a quick oven.

MARROW BONES.  Mrs. Rundell’s Practical Cookery Book.  1898.  London.  If the Marrow Bones are very long they must be sawn in half.  Cover the end of each bone with a stiff paste of flour and water, using plenty of flour.  This paste is to prevent the Marrow from escaping from the bone whilst being cooked.  Tie a cloth over each bone, and put the bones in a roomy saucepan filled with boiling salted water.  Let the Marrow Bones boil for three hours.  Take them out of the saucepan, remove the cloth, and all the paste, and pin a clean napkin round each bone or half bone.  Send the Marrow Bones up on a hot dish, and send up dry toast in a toast rack.  See that a proper Marrow Spoon is provided to help the Marrow.  The Marrow Bones should be served upright.

MARROW-BONES.  Mrs. Beeton’s Dictionary of Every-day Cookery.  A note at the end of instructions for boiling the bones reads, “Marrow-bones may be baked after preparing them as in the preceding recipe; they should be laid in a deep dish, and baked for 2 hours.”

MARROW DUMPLINGS TO SERVE WITH ROAST MEAT, IN SOUP, WITH SALAD, &C.  Same.

1 oz. of beef marrow, 1 oz. of butter, 2 eggs, 2 penny rolls, 1 teaspoonful of minced onion, 1 teaspoonful of minced parsley, salt and grated nutmeg to taste.  Beat the marrow and butter together to a cream; well whisk the eggs, and add these to the other ingredients.  When they are well stirred, put in the rolls, which should previously be well soaked in boiling milk, strained, and beaten up with a fork.  Add the remaining ingredients, omitting the minced onion where the flavor is very much disliked, and form the mixture into small round dumplings.  Drop these into boiling broth, and let them simmer for about 20 minutes or ½ hour.  They may be served in soup, with roast meat, or with salad, as in Germany, where they are more frequently sent to table than in this country.  They are very good.

DEVILLED MARROW-BONES.  “The International Cook B ook”.  Filippini, Alexander.  1914. Procure six fresh beef marrow-bones of about three and a half inches long, arrange upright on a block and split in two with a cleaver (or have your butcher split them for you), leaving all the marrow on half of each bone only.  Lay the six with marrow in a tin, marrow side up, divide a teaspoon salt evenly and carefully spread a devilled butter…over marrow, dredge two tablespoons of fresh bread crumbs evenly over the six bones and set in oven for twenty-two minutes.  Remove, dress on a dish with a napkin and serve with twelve very thin slices freshly prepared toast separately.

DEVILLED BUTTER. (For the previous receipt).  Same source.  Half an ounce good butter, two saltspoons ground English mustard, one teaspoon good white wine vinegar, one teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, one saltspoon salt, half a saltspoon cayenne pepper and one egg yolk.  Place all these articles in a bowl, thoroughly mix well together with a spoon and use as required.

CLARIFIED MARROW FOR KEEPING.  “Modern Cookery, for Private Families”.  Acton, Eliza.  1868.  Take the marrow from the bones while it is as fresh as possible; cut it small, put it into a very clean jar, and melt it with a gentle heat, either in a pan of water placed over the fire, or at the mouth of a cool oven; strain it through a muslin, let it settle for a minute or two, and pour it, clear of sediment, into small jars.  Tie skins, or double folds of thick paper, over them as soon as the marrow is cold and store it in a cool place.  It will remain good for months.”

MARROW PASTIES [pies].  “The Household Encyclopedia”.  1859.  Shred some apples with some marrow, add a little sugar to them, make them up in puff paste, and fry the pasties in clarified butter.  When fried strew some sugar over them and serve.”

SAVOURY BALLS [to serve with soup].  Smith, Eliza.  “The Complete Housewife”.  Take the flesh of fowl, beef suet and marrow, the same quantity; six or eight oysters, lean bacon, sweet-herbs and savoury spices; pound it, and make it into little balls.

WHITE POT.  “Domestic Economy”.  1827.  Slice some nice bread, lay it in the bottom of a dish, and cover it over with marrow; season a quart of cream or new milk with nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, and sugar; boil and strain it; beat six yolks, and put them to the cream, and pour it over the bread.  Bake in a moderate oven, and sift sugar over it, or rasped almonds, citron, orange-peel and sugar.

“Journals of Lewis and Clark”.

“Colburn’s New Monthly Magazine”.  March 1843.

Dodge, Richard.  “Our Wild Indians”.  1882.

De Voe, Thomas Farrington.  “The Market Assistant”.  1867.

Catlin, George.  “Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians”.  1841 and 1857.

In Search of the Shakebag Fowl

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Shakebag

Malays Fowls by Jean Bungartz for ‘Geflügel-Album’, 1885

In studying chickens one cannot merely search for the modern name of the chicken to know what early sorts were like as names sometimes came about after a group of fowl were improved upon enough to merit some distinction.  I invite you to join me as I travel down the path in search of an intriguing bird known as the Shakebag fowl.

Numerous sources from 1800-1810 state that the fowl got its name from being held in a bag while the owner cried that he would take any comers who wished to pit their cocks against his in a cock-fight.  The chicken was kept in a bag, out of sight, so the competitors could not judge the size and disposition of the bird they’d be pitted against.  At the start of the match the bag would be turned upside down and the bird “shaken” out thus they came to be called Shakebag fowl.  As one would imagine, Moubray classed the Shakebag as a game chicken and their breeder was described in 1853 as being an enthusiastic cock-fighter.  – Dixon, Edmund Saul & Kerr, J. J.  “A Treatise on the History and Management of Ornamental and Domestic Poultry”.  Philadelphia.  1853.

They are often discussed when observing the Dorking which most agreed descended from crosses with the Shakebags.  Dickson said, “It is very probable that this large breed is a cross between the Malay, or shack-back [shake-bag,] and the game variety.”  Another writer put forth the same hypothesis in the “Scottish Quarterly Journal of Agriculture”, vol. VI, p. 381.  Dickson’s wording seems to indicate that the Malay and the Shakebag were one and the same.  – “The Cultivator”.  Vol. 6.  Feb. 1849.

Bennett tells us he has no doubt.  The Shakebag fowl possessed too many points of affinity with the Malay for him to doubt the association.  The plumage of the cock was described as extremely brilliant and gaudy.  In 1850 he claimed the first presence of these fowls he had knowledge of in the U.S. were imported by Mr. John L. Tucker of Tremont House in Boston.  He did not give a date for the importation.  At the time of that writing Mr. James S. Parker of Samoset House, Plymouth supposedly had Shakebags among his fowl but pronounced them exceedingly rare in this country, this being the only importation Bennett was aware of.

English writers disputed Bennett’s claim regarding Misters Tucker and Parker saying instead that Moubray had declared the breed already extinct “for some years” in 1816 – some 34 years before Bennett’s statement of seeing them in the U.S in 1850.  They thought the fowl that Tucker and Parker possessed were average dunghill fowl.  – “The New England Farmer”.  Vol. 2.  June 8, 1850.

“The average weight [of the Shakebag] is from eight to fourteen pounds.  The hens are good layers, and the eggs have every mark of the East Indian origin of the race, being dark-colored and large yolked.  The cocks are remarkable for their prowess”.  – Bennett, John C.  “The Poultry Book”.

Richardson said, “A good many years ago, there used to be a variety of fowl much in request in England, called the ‘Shakebag’, or the ‘Duke of Leeds’ fowl’, his grace, of that name, about sixty or seventy years ago having been a great amateur breeder of them.  These fowl were as large as the Malays, but differed from them in the superior whiteness and tenderness of their flesh, as also in their very superior fighting abilities”.  Calculating back from 1847 he was saying the duke was breeding the Shackbags between 1772 and 1787.  Note the use of the words “used to be” strengthening the claim they were already extinct by 1847.  – Richardson, H. D.  “Domestic Fowl:  Their Natural History…”.  Dublin.  1847.

The “New England Farmer”, June 8, 1850, noted that the Shakebag had been extinct for a good many years, but if speculation on its crosses is accurate, some of its traits live on in fowl by other names.  Not all breeders agreed with the Malay being used in the cross.  Some authors felt the Shakebags were crossed with the Java rather than Malay.  – Tucker, I.  “The Pictorial Cultivator”.  Aug. 1850.

Moubray wrote in 1816, “The only one I ever possessed was a red one, in 1784, weighing about ten pounds, which was provided for me, at the price of one guinea, by Goff, the dealer, who then lived upon Holborn Hill, in London, and who, at the end of two years, received him back at half a guinea, having allowed me, in the interim, three shillings and sixpence each for such thoroughbred cock chickens as I chose to send him”.  The Duke of Leeds, or Shakebag, fowl was already said to be rare prompting its cross with the Malays and other breeds.  The Malay cross retained the size of the bird, but the flesh deteriorated in color and delicacy of flavor.  – “Moubray’s Treatise on Domestic and Ornamental Poultry”.  London.  1854.

To understand the crossing, it may be helpful to know the same source included under the name Malay fowl known as the Jersey Blue, the Bucks County, and “Boobies”.

Since the only illustration found of the Shakebag was questioned as to its accuracy when published in the mid-19^th century, this writer proposes no physical description of the shape or coloring of the birds other than to imagine the color to have been similar to some sort of modern game bird and based upon period descriptions to note they were bigger than an average game chicken.  Perhaps someone else has found a better description and will comment on it.  Blissful Meals yall – Victoria Brady (The Historic Foodie).  Please do not circulate articles from the Historic Foodie blog, in all or in part, without permission and without quoting the source. ©

 

A History of Tame Rabbits

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rabbit recipes, raising rabbits, tame rabbits

Early writers claimed the Romans found rabbits in Spain about 200 BC and may have been the first to keep rabbits, putting them in large walled pens and letting them breed freely. They supposedly introduced rabbits to Britain when they invaded in AD 43. By the 5th century, Catholic monks in France were raising rabbits for meat. On days when Catholics were not allowed to eat meat they could eat fish, but it wasn’t always available so, in the absence of fish, Pope Gregory I officially proclaimed laurice (unborn and newborn rabbit) to be classed as fish so it could be eaten on those days. Oddly enough, the oldest sources on cookery and rearing livestock often include rabbits in the category of poultry.

Tame rabbits in Britain date from roughly the 12th century and through the Middle Ages the practice spread into other parts of Europe. The Ghent Giant (later called the Flemish Giant) was a distinct breed by the 16th century.

Should one consider rabbits in their historical context, it would be natural to wonder what a tame rabbit looked like in the early to mid-1700’s. “Those tame rabbits vary in colour, as all other domestic animals; black, white, and grey are, however, the only which this sport of nature seems limited to. I call grey that mixture of sallow, black, and ash-colour, which forms the usual colour of rabbits and hares. Black rabbits are the most rare; but there are many quite white, many quite grey, and many of a mixed colour. All wild rabbits are grey, and, among the tame, it is also the prevailing colour; for in most litters there are frequently grey rabbits, and even in greatest number, though the sire and dam are both white, or both black, or one black and the other white.”

Such is the case with mine. They are a cross of a New Zealand Black and a New Zealand White and all are a lovely shade of “grey”, though the parents have produced all white, all black, or black and white mixed.

Various books indicate tame rabbits should be ready to butcher at 12 weeks old provided they’ve received adequate and regular food up to that point, feeding them longer resulted in the cost of the meat per pound exceeding the value of the animal.

Disease was avoided “in great measure” by keeping the cages clean and not allowing the bedding, usually hay, to become soiled and sodden in urine. Mesh on the bottom of the hutch allowed the waste to drop through into trays that could be removed and cleaned. Doing so prevented the ammonia from the urine irritating the rabbits’ eyes, and droppings soiling their fur.

In-breeding generation after generation often resulted in poor quality offspring and was to be avoided; by replacing breeding does every three to four years. The breeding season lasted from February through October or into November. Giving birth was called kindling. Just before a doe was ready to kindle she prepared a nest and lined it with fur she pulled out of her own coat.

The same writer claimed that once the young were two or three weeks old the doe should be allowed access with the buck again on two consecutive days so that no time was lost in bringing on a second litter. When the young were one month of age they were taken away from the mother and housed in their own compartment. If timed right, that gave the doe time to prepare for the birth of the next litter. Ames told his readers a rabbit could breed eleven times per year producing six to eight rabbits in each litter. “Thus at the end of four years a pair of Rabbits would produce nearly a million and a half”.

Writers noted does were capable of rearing young by the time they reached five to six months of age and that the gestation period for rabbits was thirty to thirty one days. Does were to be put with bucks only for mating to prevent fighting and injury.

Feeding costs were controlled by growing produce on a small scale to feed them and the rabbit manure so nourished the soil that a small space yielded a maximum amount of vegetables. A writer in the late Victorian era advised that a pound of hay per week was sufficient for a doe with a couple of tablespoons of oats or barley and a little green food or a root such as a parsnip, carrot, Jerusalem artichoke, potato, or turnip. This was increased somewhat after having a litter and he advised adding a little skim milk with the dry food.

He thought food like cabbage leaves that contained a great deal of moisture caused diarrhea in rabbits and advised air-drying it somewhat before offering it. Recommended dry food included hay, clover-hay, oats, barley, bran, peas and beans. He also approved of chicory in the rabbits’ diet. Ames told his readers feed could include fresh clover, corn leaves, apples, beets, and lettuce.

Methods of cooking rabbit varied, some authors indicating any recipe for chicken worked equally well with rabbit. The earliest recipes refer to rabbit as coney so don’t limit yourself to too narrow a search. The meat was simmered and served with onion sauce, made into pies, curried, or roasted. Tame rabbits were larger than wild ones and their flesh considered delicate and nutritive, “very little inferior to chicken…”.

The illustrious Hannah Glasse included in her The Art of Cookery how to roast them, how to sauce them, fricassee them, how to make Rabbit Surprise, and how to dress rabbits in casserole. Her FRICASSEE of RABBIT recipe instructed the cook to simmer the rabbits with sweet herbs and an onion until tender then remove the rabbit to a platter. To the pan juices was to be added a little butter rolled in flour to thicken the sauce and a half pint of cream and the yolk of an egg beaten well, some fresh or pickled mushrooms, and lastly the juice of half a lemon. It was necessary to stir well after adding the lemon juice so that the mixture didn’t curdle and remove it from the heat. When served, the fricassee was garnished with sliced lemon. Another version contained mace, nutmeg, and a glass of white wine.

Mrs. Frazer and Susanna MacIver’s SMOTHERED RABBIT:
Truss them as you do a roasted hare; put them into as much boiling water as will cover them; peel a good many onions, and boil them in water whole; take some of the liquor the rabbits are boiled in, and put in a good piece of butter knead in flour; then put in the onions amongst it, keeping them breaking until the sauce be pretty thick; dish the rabbits, and pour the sauce over them all, except the heads. The same sauce serves for boiled geese or ducks.

RABBITS EN CASSEROLE. (1823)
Cut your rabbits into quarters…then shake some flour over them, and fry them in lard or butter. Then put them into an earthen pipkin, with a quart of good broth, a glass of white wine, a little pepper and salt, a bunch of sweet-herbs, and a small piece of butter rolled in flour. Cover them close, and let them stew half an hour; then dish them up and pour the sauce over them. Garnish with Seville oranges cut into thin slices and notched.

John Perkins’ RABBITS PULLED. (Pulled referred to taking meat off the bone)
Half boil your rabbits, with an onion, a little whole pepper, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a piece of lemon-peel; pull the flesh into flakes, put to it a little of the liquor, a piece of butter mixed with flour, pepper, salt, nutmeg, chopped parsley, and the liver boiled and bruised; boil this up, shaking it round.

Good luck to anyone with an interest in raising rabbits and as for eating them, I wish for you Blissful Meals. – The Historic Foodie

Bib:
“Bees, Rabbits, & Pigeons”. Ward, Lock & Co. London. 1882.
Ames, D. F. “Cottage Comforts”. New York. 1838.
Perkins, John. “Every Woman Her Own Housekeeper”. 1796. London.
“The Universal Magazine”. Vol. 46. April 1770.
“Cassell’s Household Guide”. 1869.
“An Encyclopaedia of Domestic Economy”. 1845.
Farley, John. “The London Art of Cookery and Housekeeper’s Complete Assistant”. 1785.
Henderson, William Augustus, Schnebbelie, Jacob Christopher. “The Housekeeper’s Instructor”. 1823. London.
Radcliffe, M. “A Modern System of Domestic Cookery”. 1823.
“The Complete Farmer, Or a General Dictionary of Husbandry. 1793.
“The Complete Farmer”. 1767, 1777, and 1810.
Hale, Thomas. “A Compleat Body of Husbandry”. 1758.
Huish, Robert. “The Female’s Friend”. 1837.
McIver, Susanna. “Cookery and Pastry”. 1789. London.
Frazer, Mrs. “The Practice of Cookery, Pastry, Pickling, Preserving, etc.” 1795.
Glasse, Hannah. “The Art of Cookery”. 1788 and 1791. London.

Pemmican: It Wasn’t Just for Native Americans

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Pemmican

I love the idea of any food that is billed as coming from the wilds of North America.  Pemmican was just such a survival food.  “The word is from Cree pĭmĭkân, manufactured grease”, or one who makes grease.  “The word is cognate with Abnaki pĕmĭkân.   It was made from whatever meat was the most abundant in a particular region.  In the northernmost areas reindeer was used, in milder climates buffalo was usually specified as being prevalent although deer and other animals were used.

The process was pretty much the same regardless of the type of meat used. After removing fat and gristle the meat was sliced, hung to dry, perhaps smoked as it dried, and then pounded to a powder.  The meat powder was mixed with fat, many accounts specify the fat came from marrow in the bones of the animal, and dried fruit was sometimes incorporated.  Once well mixed the mass was packed into skin bags and the bags sewn shut.  It kept several years as long as it was stored away from excess moisture.  Natives also stored it away in woven baskets.

An account published in 1860 stated that the pemmican was packed tightly into tin canisters leaving a little space at the top, and allowed to cool after which the tin was filled to the brim with hot melted lard.  A lid was then soldered onto the canister sealing in the pemmican.  – The Household Monthly.  March 1860.

Any berries that were available were probably added to sweeten the pemmican, but a few of the fruits I was able to document as an ingredient included June Berry (also called pemmican berry because it was frequently used in that manner), choke cherry, Saskatoon, Service berries, cranberries, Manzanita, blueberries, Juniper berries, currants, etc.

“Sweet pemmican is a superior kind of pemmican in which the fat used is obtained from marrow by boiling broken bones in water.  Fish pemmican is a pemmican made by the Indians of the remote regions of the N. W. by pounding dried fish and mixing the product with sturgeon oil.  The Eskimo of Alaska make a pemmican by mixing chewed deer meat with deer suet and seal-oil.”

Pemmican was made into soup by hunters, trappers, arctic explorers, etc. called Robbiboe, or by the Canadian French rababou.  To make it the pemmican was mixed with a little flour and water and boiled.

Sir Alexander Mackenzie can be consulted for an idea of the weight of the packs of pemmican.  For a journey from Montreal south on the St. Lawrence River he noted the party carried four bags and a half of pemmican, weighing from eighty-five to ninety pounds each in addition to other supplies.  – Mackenzie, Alexander, Sir.  Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Laurence Through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the Years 1789 and 1793.  1814.  New York.

Robert Huish wrote of a party that carried along an amazing sixty bags each weighing ninety pounds.  Gould tells us that, “one bison cow in good condition furnished dried meat and fat enough to make a bag of pemmican weighing ninety pounds”.  Given that, it becomes clear how much less the meat weighed after processing having removed the bones, skin, etc. and through evaporation in the drying process.

– A Narrative of the Voyages and Travels of Captain Beechey:  To the Pacific and Behring’s Straits and The Travels of Capt. Back, R. N. to the Great Fish River and Arctic Seas.  1836.  London.  Gould, Augustus Addison.  The Naturalist’s Library:  Containing Scientific and Popular Descriptions of Natural History.  1833.  Massachusetts.

Hamilton reckoned one pound of pemmican was equal to five pounds of meat.  – Hamilton, William.  My Sixty Years on the Plains.  1905.  NY.

The following recipe came from Frances Owens’s book, Mrs. Owens’ Cook Book, 1903.  “Pemmican is made of the lean portions of venison, buffalo, etc.  The Indian method is to remove the fat from the lean, dry the lean in the sun; then make a bag of the skin of the animal, and put the lean pieces in loosely.  To this must be added the fat of the animal, rendered into tallow, and poured in quite hot.  This will cause the spaces to be filled.  When cold, put away for future use.  In civilized life, a jar can be used in place of the bag.  Pemmican may be cooked same as sausage, or eaten as dried beef.  It is invaluable in long land explorations, and is of great use in sea voyages.”

For those who prefer more of an actual recipe than a method summary, Mrs. Saray Tyson Rorer offered one, although it varied in method.  ¼ pound of lean beef put twice through a meat chopper, ¼ pound of marrow from the leg or shin bone of an ox.

Chop the marrow with a silver knife and remove the fibre.  Mix the beef and marrow thoroughly, a half saltspoonful of salt and stand at once in a cold place.  – Mrs. Rorer’s Diet for the Sick.  1914.

Blissful meals, yall.  – thehistoricfoodie.wordpress.com©

See:  Hodge, Frederick Webb.  Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico.  Washington Government Printing Office.  1912.

MORE ON GINGER ALE©

Tags

ginger ale, ginger beer, gingerade

This post may be considered a prequel to the previous post on making ginger ale as it will explore the earliest origins of what became one of the most popular drinks of the 20th century.

In the 18th century Ginger Beer was, “among the most popular drinks in the United Kingdom of Great Britain. This Ginger Beer was put up in stone bottles, and in order to mature it, several weeks’ storage was required before it could be sold for consumption”.

About 1850 a beverage was introduced which by reducing the aging process produced a clear beverage [ginger beer was cloudy] that still offered, “the pungent…taste and warmth-giving to the stomach”. Many found the clear product more pleasing in appearance but the flavor was less stable, a condition that would be remedied with perfecting the carbonation process. It was during this early period that bottlers began boosting the spicy flavor of their products for storage by adding, “chillipods”.

Supposedly the first Ginger Ale was exhibited at an exhibition in London in 1851. It was alcoholic and not particularly well received until through the addition of chili peppers to boost the flavor and ridding it of albuminous matter which fermented in storage and sometimes caused a gelatinous consistency , a clear and flavorful beverage emerged. The alcohol content was then, “trace”, and ginger ale, now billed as highly temperate, began a journey toward unbelievable popularity in 1852.

It wasn’t imported into the U.S. until 1866, but within the year it was being manufactured in New York by Henry Downs. – “American Bottler”. Vol. 30. April 15, 1910.

In 1845, that gelatinous consistency was further described as, “a thick, slimy consistence”, in drinks that were given an effervescent quality by injecting carbonic acid, the common process for the time. The thickening of contents was common regardless of which bottler produced them and occurred when flavored with lemon instead of ginger. – “The Annals and Magazine of Natural History”. Vol. 17. Jan. 1846.

A hundred years ago ginger ale was described as having a hold on the American people which far surpassed any other, “of the so-called soft drinks”, one which had been established as a, “stand-by”, and was bottled by every maker of such beverages. The addition of chili peppers had become a hotly contested issue by the turn of the 20th century prompting hearings to determine whether their use was required in labeling.

“But ginger ale, to be worthy of the name, must have certain qualities which are indispensable. First, it must be absolutely pure. By that, we mean that it must be exactly what its name implies. It must be made of ginger, not a mixture of capsicum or any other harmful substances as a substitute. Made in this way it is the ‘Prince of Beverages,’ always assuming that it is bottled with pure water.”

In other words, the classic warmth of ginger was being replaced with much cheaper but just as warm peppers. Lack of honesty in labeling is nothing new. Pepper soda doesn’t sound as appetizing as ginger ale and bottlers who chose to use only genuine ginger wanted their products distinguished from those with adulterants. Makers of pure ginger ale billed it as drinkable in any quantity, by those of any age, and at any time of day with no injurious effects.

Definitions of various terms regarding ginger ale were published in “Brewers Journal” in July 1922 under the title, “The Ginger Ale Controversy Settled”.

“Ginger Ale Flavor, Ginger Ale Concentrate, is the flavoring product in which ginger is the essential constituent, with or without other aromatic and pungent ingredients, citrus oils, and fruit juices.

Ginger Ale is the carbonated beverage prepared from Ginger Ale Flavor, sugar (sucrose) syrup, harmless organic acid, potable water and caramel color….

Ginger Ale with Capsicum Flavor is the water-soluble product obtained from ginger and capsicum, with or without other flavoring substances. The predominating flavor of the product is that of ginger.”

Manufacturers who used capsicum and color to make ginger ale were instructed to post those ingredients on the labels, “with as large type as ‘Ginger Ale’”.

Let’s conclude with some of the ways Ginger Ale and Ginger Syrup were used throughout the 20th century.

GINGER ALE RECIPES were published throughout the 20th century. The following were taken from “The Northwestern Druggist”. Aug. 1922.

Ginger Drake
1 oz. pineapple syrup, 1 oz. lime syrup, 5 oz. carbonated water, 3 oz. domestic ginger ale. Mix the syrups, add the carbonated water, and then float the ginger ale on top of this.

Ginger Soda
2 oz. ginger ale, 1 oz. lemon syrup, 1 oz. orange syrup, slice of orange, slice of lemon, 8 oz. carbonated water. Mix the syrups, then add the carbonated water and ginger ale and mix again. Decorate with slices of orange and lemon.

Orange-Ginger
1 oz. orange syrup, 4 oz. ginger ale, 3 oz. carbon ated water, sprig of mint. Mix the syrup with the carbonated water and ginger ale, add the sprig of mint, and serve.
Canada Dry Ginger Ale advertised three different ways to use ginger ale in “Life” magazine in April 1958, the first of which was mixing ginger ale and cold milk in a 1 to 1 ratio. The next was to heat 2 cups of ginger ale to boiling and stir in fruit flavored gelatin, mix, and refrigerate to produce, “Bright ginger flavor and livelier carbonation” in gelatin. Lastly, ginger ale was poured into a tall glass and topped with ice cream to make a float.

Using ginger ale in gelatin wasn’t new though as recipes had been published for some 30 years or more by the time Canada Dry’s advertisement appeared in print.

In 1919, Helen Moore included a whole chapter on drinks made with ginger ale and the remainder of the book was also liberally filled with drinks and punches in which ginger ale or ginger syrup was, if not the star, a major player in their production. Among them were what I described in a previous post as one of our favorites – white grape juice and ginger ale over ice. “Put one pint of white grape juice, and one quart of ginger ale on ice until very cold. Mix together when ready to serve”.

Interesting mixtures included ginger and cider, pineapple, eggnog, lemon and sarsaparilla, grape and pineapple, etc. – “Uncle Sam’s Water Wagon”.

For a bracing winter beverage the “Confectioners’ and Baker’s Gazette” recommended combining 1 oz. of ginger syrup with ¼ of a large lemon, and filling the mug with hot water. – Jan. 10, 1915.

BUFFALO IN PRESENT DAY ALABAMA ©

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bison, buffalo

The following brief summary documents the presence of buffalo in the Southeast, particularly in present day Alabama.

© “On the high plains of North America, the buffalo was the economic basis of Native American life well into the nineteenth century. When European-American settlement began to encroach on the area early in that century, an estimated 30 million buffalo lived in a large area from present-day Texas in the South to northern Alberta. East and west, buffalo ranged from present-day New York state to Alabama and Mississippi, to Idaho and eastern Oregon.” – Johansen, Bruce. “The Encyclopedia of Native American Economic History”. 1999. Greenwood Press.

Southern states in which buffalo were documented include Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. One writer documented buffalo in Georgia to the middle of the state and in Mississippi to the coast, but stated he had found no primary source from the earliest settlement for buffalo in Alabama. He explained, however, that due to them being common in the neighboring states they were obviously present in Alabama but not documented by the early writers he had studied. Perhaps this was because in the mid-18th century Alabama was not yet a state and buffalo present in the area were lumped in with neighboring states or territories. [AL became a state in 1819, GA in 1788]. – “The Extermination of the American Bison”. 1889. U.S. Govt. Printing Office. Project Gutenberg.

Compare the first map below which dates from shortly after the French and Indian war (mid-18th century) with the second one from 1800 and note how the boundaries of Georgia have changed. In 1800, Georgia’s boundary has receded eastward and the area where Alabama will eventually be is labeled Mississippi Territory.

A little known account written in 1708 and published in 1988 documents buffalo in Alabama. The 18th century journal of Thomas Nairne was published by the University of Mississippi Press in 1988, and in it is found the following letter, penned by Nairne: “…the usuall divertion of the hunters was either to look for Bare [bear], fire a ring for Dear or go to the Clay pitts and shoot Buffaloes, for you must observe that in the spring and all sumer these cattle eat abundance of Clay. They find out such places as are saltish, which they like [lick] up in such quantities as if some hundreds of thousands of Bricks had been made out of them, and the paths leading to these holes are as many and well Trod, as those to the greatest Cowpens in Carolina…”.

The area Nairne was describing was on the Chattahoochee and crossing the Coosa, near present day Mongomery. – Nairne, Thomas, ed. By Alexander Moore. “Nairne’s Muskhogean Journals: The 1708 Expedition to the Mississippi River. U. of Miss. Press. 1988.

Thomas Foster says that buffalo were probably utilized by the Lower Creeks from the 1720’s or earlier. “In August 1739, at a Creek town on the Chattahoochee River (Russell County, Alabama), Oglethorpe’s men observed Creek men hunting turkeys, deer, geese, and buffalo. At another Creek town in Alabama, the white hunters observed that the Indians ‘spend much time in hunting deer, turkeys, and bison’.” He noted that by the 1770’s buffalo were probably becoming scarce in Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. – “Archaeology of the Lower Muskogee Creek Indians 1715-1836”. 1970.

Sir Robert Montgomery described neighboring Georgia as the land between the Altamaha and the Savannah Rivers, “and abounding with large herds of deer, will buffalo’s, and most kinds of beasts, birds, …”. James Oglethorpe on his way to meet with the Creeks in Alabama encamped at Oconee River and the next day, “crossed the river and killed two buffaloes of which there are an abundance.”

Buffalo were prevalent in the area of Anniston, Alabama in the 1500’s according to author Ernest Callenbach who also noted the Army had a small herd of bison at the Depot there during present times. – “Bring Back the Buffalo!”. 1996.

An archaeological excavation at Moundville turned up bones which are thought to be bison. They weren’t positively identified as bison bones, but they did come from, “a very large mammal”, and there were distinct skinning marks on the bone further strengthening the belief that they were bison. – Knight, Vernon J. “Mound Excavations at Moundville”. 2010. Tuscaloosa.

“Before the days of white settlement in Alabama, herds of bison and elk grazed the prairies of the Black Belt and Wire-grass sections, and black bear and deer ranged the upland forests and river bottom canebrakes.” The author who penned those words went on to say that early explorers into Alabama found the Indians using hoes made from bison shoulder blades. – Writers Program (Ala.). “Alabama a Guide to the Deep South”. May 1941.

It is obviously safe to say that buffalo did once roam freely through Alabama, more’s the pity that “civilization” pushed them to the brink of extinction. Good day, – THF.© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Pomegranate: A Beautiful Show of Color

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pomegranate

The place we’ve bought has two pomegranate trees, or more appropriately, bushes, which are beginning to bloom with the most beautiful blooms one can imagine. There were those in the early part of the 18th century who agreed with me that they are worth growing for their showy blooms even if one has no interest in the fruit, although I do actually. “…the beauty of the flower that is most to be considered…”.

That writer instructed methods of propagating them, including layering of pomegranates. “Take such a branch, prune it as much as you think convenient, and so, that what is to be laid in the ground may be quite clean; lay that Branch in a little trench or furrow made for it: fasten it down with a wooden hook, cover it with earth, and water it: After that stay six months before you examine it, then see whether it has taken sufficient root to be cut off from the trunk from whence it grows, and to be transplanted to the place you have design’d for it”.

There are numerous accounts regarding the healthful benefits of pomegranate flowers, bark, and juice throughout the 17th century and it is also found in Biblical writing, the works of Shakespeare, etc. The brilliant color of the blooms is so distinctive that “pomegranate” was used to describe the color as found in other aspects of nature.

In 1804, John Barrow recommended using pomegranate for a hedge, and as the limbs are thorny, it would likely be efficient at keeping out anyone or anything one desired to keep at a distance. It only took one attempt at pruning the bushes for me to develop a healthy respect for the thorns.

When grown in the U.S. it was first grown in the Gulf States and California although it can be found in many states today. The fruit was used to decorate banquet or home dinner tables, and mentioned in that regard in various magazines and Bulletins. The seeds and juice were used in salads, cocktails, punches, and “fancy dishes”.

The fruit kept well over long periods of time and home storage was thought to improve the flavor. Food writers warned against using iron utensils while making juice from the seed. The brilliant purplish-red juice was used to color a variety of foods. Apples and pears colored with pomegranate juice made them more visually appealing for salads.

The bark and flowers have been used to dye fabric, and the rind was used to make a dark black ink.

Let’s look at how the fruit was served in the early 19th century.

POMEGRANATE APPETIZER. Pomegranate seeds mixed with chopped filberts, with a bit of honey added, served in tiny blue-lined Chinese bowls make a stunning and delightful first course for a little dinner…

POMEGRANATE SHERBET. 3 ripe pomegranates; 1 quart water; 1 pound of sugar; the juice of 1 lemon; ½ teaspoonful of essence of vanilla; 3 drops of Cochineal [for color]. The pips of six or eight ripe pomegranates, pressed with a wooden spoon through a strainer, will produce a pint of juice. Make a syrup by boiling one quart of water and one pint of sugar. Add, when cooling, the pomegranate juice, a half teaspoonful of essence of vanilla, the juice of a lemon, and a few drops of Cochineal. [Make by the same method as ice cream.]

COMPOTE OF POMEGRANATE. 1 dozen pomegranates; ¾ pound of sugar; ½ cup of water; 1 Tablespoonful of orange juice. …carefully remove all the bright ruby pips, without bruising them. Throw these into a dish. Make a syrup, flavored with orange juice, pour it over them and serve.

POMEGRANATE JELLY. One pint pomegranate juice, 1 pint sugar, 5 tablespoons of commercial pectin. Remove pulp from fruit and put in kettle. Crush pulp with silver fork. Simmer slowly until the juice is extracted. If cooked too long the juice may evaporate. Strain and let stand a number of hours. Then add sugar and pectin and boil until it gives the usual jellying tests. This will be in about 15 minutes. Pectin may now be bought at most grocery stores…

Pomegranates are often found in salads or vegetable dishes today such as the roasted Brussels sprouts with pomegranate seeds and toasted walnuts served in Bobby Flay’s Vegas restaurant. For a salad combine spinach leaves, walnuts, feta cheese, seeds from 1 pomegranate, and dressing of choice, preferably a vinaigrette. To mix it up, use any type greens or nuts, bean sprouts, pears, etc.

The fruit always reminds me of my uncle who adored it and always bought them in the fall when they could be found in the markets.

For centuries, pomegranate juice, alone, or mixed with other fruit juice has been appreciated by those suffering from fevers or who lived in hot climates. The juice has been made into wine since antiquity, often mixed with other fruit juice. Grenadine syrup was originally made from pomegranate juice, sugar, and lemon juice and was, “much used in Europe”. By the 1920’s grenadine syrup no longer contained pomegranate in the U.S.

While I look forward to the fruit, the blooms have put on an awesome spectacle we have watched quite intently. As pretty as they are, they are just one of many plants I am enjoying on the property. Every time I see a new array of colorful blooms open up I think about the previous owner choosing them, planting and caring for them, and enjoying their annual burst of color just as I am now. As I walk around the yard admiring first one and then another, and transplanting some of my favorites from my previous garden, I can almost sense her doing the same. I’m blessed and honored to enjoy the fruits of her labor and to care for them during the coming years. The flowers are a delightful reminder that the home has known love and joy from the first day the Raines family moved into it which somehow carries over adding to the immense joy we get from it now.

Chicken Corn Soup with Pennsylvania Dutch Saffron

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chicken and corn soup, Ft. Toulouse, Pennsylvania Dutch, saffron

The photos below were taken at Ft Toulouse, Wetumpka, AL on 3-15-14 as TheHistoricFoodie prepared a classic Pennsylvania Dutch soup with saffron grown and harvested in Lancaster County, PA, home of Martin’s ancestors who left Alsace, Upper Rhineland, and the Palatinate and settled there prior to 1730. The reader will notice the difference in color between the two photos of the soup – before and after the saffron was added. There are photos of the saffron threads and of the saffron steeping prior to putting it in the soup. Thank you for visiting and sharing in our adventures.

CHESTNUT FLOUR: It’s Many Uses

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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.
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