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Post by Hippolyta on Nov 26, 2009 17:30:04 GMT -5
General Overview
Housewives and professional cooks began their day early, sometimes around four o’clock. They built the fire, hauled water, gathered ingredients from the kitchen garden, smokehouse and dairy, and slaughtered and cleaned fowl. When the fire was ready they prepared a heavy breakfast, which was served after the rest were at work for about two hours. The main meal of the day was dinner, served about two o’clock, with a light supper, often of cold leftovers, in the evening. Baking day often had lighter meals to allow full attention to the week’s baking. Fridays were still mandatory fish days, not because of religion, but to promote the English fisheries. In Maryland, religion kept this practice going. Elsewhere in the colonies, it may have been continued locally.
The opening of the New World brought a terrific influx of foodstuffs into Europe, and the development of a commercially based economy meant these foods were increasingly available to the public. The colonies benefited from this in several ways. They were local producers; they received new products from other areas, such as those under Spanish dominion, which they could then produce locally; and they were slowly acclimated to a larger dietary base. Diet contributed to most native colonists being substantially taller than new immigrants (despite what many say, average heights in the colonial period were very close to those of 1970), stronger, and with better complexions and great longevity, something Europeans frequently commented on. The fact that the colonists had travelled to new areas and personally experienced many new foods meant that after a while they were more open to new foods than were the Europeans.
One aspect of the early colonists that is hard for us to understand is the difficulty with which they accepted new and nutritious foods, even when at the point of starvation. Tomatoes, potatoes, oysters and others were all rejected in various parts of the world as either inappropriate for their class or poisonous. It was late in the seventeenth century before England began to accept oysters, and the nineteenth century before France accepted potatoes. Tomatoes were widely held to be poisonous into the nineteenth century, even though they formed a major basis of the diet of Central Americans.
This phenomenon grew in part from several sources. During the period a change occurred in eating habits. Whereas Europeans diets were previously similar within a social class, the rise of nationalism and the effects of writers commenting with disgust on other nations’ and peoples’ foods led to the establishment of national styles, which left little tolerance for those of other areas. As a result, most sedentary people became suspicious of anything outside their own country. When the foreigners were savages, there was even less reason to give them credit for taste.
Garbage and trash were thrown outside for livestock, scattered on the lawn, used to fill ravines or thrown into a trash pit, often dug for clay for building.
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Post by Hippolyta on Nov 26, 2009 17:30:23 GMT -5
Availability of Foods
The Americas contributed a long list of foods to the world: potatoes and tomatoes (which were not accepted until after the period, although Thomas Jefferson grew potatoes), turkey, maize, avocado pears, “French” beans, pumpkins, pineapples, lima beans, scarlet runner beans, chocolate, peanuts, vanilla, green and red peppers, cranberries, Jerusalem artichokes, and sweet potatoes, to name just a few. In addition, it brought into common use foods that were more restricted in England, such as oysters and venison. New cooking techniques were introduced, including the clambake and the barbeque.
Venison had been available only to the upper class in England, and this created problems early on. Few settlers had experience hunting deer, and those who did had often been passive participants in organized hunts which took little skill. For the lower classes it took some time to acclimate to the freedom to hunt deer. With time, venison became a staple in areas that had not been cleared.
Conversely, oysters were lower-class food in England, and it was hard for early settlers to break social barriers even when they were starving. Later, they would eat oysters with gusto when they were not feeding them to their hogs.
Game birds, including turkey, passenger pigeon, goose, quail, Eskimo curlew (called dough bird in New England), woodcock, canvasback duck and other ducks, were so common throughout the period that they literally darkened the sky as they passed.
Game animals included deer, bear (a good source of fat), raccoon, rabbit, boar (escaped domesticated pigs), muskrat, opossum, beaver (the tail was fried or broiled), turtle and squirrel (traditionally part of Brunswick stew). Bison were not hunted, as larger animals created problems with preservation. It was easier to preserve local pork than to bring home a five-hundred-pound bear or a ton of bison.
Fish were common in the deep, clear rivers. Sturgeon in excess of two hundred pounds were common; scales excavated from the Jamestown fort measure up to three inches across. Eels could be caught with bare hands and stingray speared with a sword. In New England after a storm, six-foot lobsters piled up on the beach. Crabs and clams were plentiful throughout, oysters up to fourteen inches fed two people, salmon spawned in rivers, and many others like the lowly shad were so common they provided reliable food supplies.
Settlers also brought food to the New World. Peaches and apples were popular with the Indians; apricots remained more of a colonist’s food. Wheat and rye failed to produce as well as the corn and were not important until late. Turnips, beets, purslane, lettuce, cabbage, lentils, cauliflower and asparagus were the staple vegetables for the colonists. Honeybees were called English flies by the Indians. Pigs, chicken, beef cattle, sheep and goats were all imported. Africans brought black-eyed peas. Rice was introduced about 1720. Carrots were imported, then escaped to their wild form, Queen Anne’s lace.
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Post by Hippolyta on Nov 26, 2009 17:30:39 GMT -5
Foreign Influences
The low countries (today’s Belgium, Holland, Denmark and the surrounding area) provided several influences on the colonies. The Pilgrims had spent time in Holland. Many English were involved in trade with the low countries. The Dutch and Swedes first settled the Middle Atlantic states. The other Germanic immigrants passed through this gateway and went on to people much of Pennsylvania, western Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. Holland was one of the first states in northern Europe to establish a mercantile bourgeoisie. Rhenish taste in foods, beers and wines influenced the colonies greatly. Like the Germans, the Dutch liked sausage, cabbage, coleslaw, lentils, rye bread and soups. Unlike the Germans, they imported and grew much exotic fruit, a fashion that spread in the colonies until it became symbolic of both hospitality and a successful trading voyage. The Dutch also gave us cookies and waffles.
French colonists, particularly the Huguenots after 1685, brought a new and more refined cuisine that included such foods as chowder. Canada had a certain continuity of French culture, but it came mostly from the lower classes, fur traders and soldiers who subsisted on dried peas, black tea and not much else.
A few colonists came from Italy, but their numbers were so small that any influence was local. A large number of Minorcans settled in British Florida after 1763 and ensured continuity of Mediterranean cooking in St. Augustine and its environs. This cooking relied on olive oil, vinegar, herbs, seafood, goat products, wine, vegetables and fruits. Pasta had probably not been introduced yet.
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Post by Hippolyta on Nov 26, 2009 17:45:08 GMT -5
Typical Diet
Traditionally the English viewed first mutton and then beef as their principal meat. Chop houses or steak houses were popular places to congregate. Beef became a symbol that unified the English, and this was probably known in the colonies through prints and magazines. Thus it appears surprising that pork became the colonials’ staple, but there were good reasons.
Pigs (pork, brawn) were allowed to run wild, particularly if an island could be secured from predators. They survived well on the mast (acorns) available from the forest.
Most English cooking in the seventeenth century was done in one pot. This meant a lot of stews, or pot roasts with vegetables. Puddings, bread or plum, could be steamed in a fabric bag in or over the pot. Meat was either boiled or broiled. Frying was uncommon.
The main dish in English cooking was roasted or boiled meat, with puddings of many varieties common. These puddings are difficult to define, because they could be steamed, boiled or baked, using a variety of ingredients. Pies and pasties were also common, being essentially stews set in pastry crusts and baked. Many regional variations existed, but most emphasized meat and tubers, the principal components of the diet. Bread was important to the lower classes, who could not afford meat. Vegetables were boiled, cooking much of the nutrition out, and served salted and peppered and swimming in butter. Beer remained the principal drink until late.
At the court level a wider variety existed, but whereas France continued to use as the basis for its cookery the old medieval dishes once common in upper-class England, these dishes were no longer known in England, and French cooking was viewed with contempt. Along with the new cooking came a new myth: The traditional strength of the English came from the simple, hearty fare they ate.
The English had a passion for sweets which they gratified with cakes, candies such as rock candy, candied fruits, marzipan and, late in the period, ice cream. Cakes were common on the recipe books of the day. They ranged from Sally Lunn, an egg bread like challa, to heavy recipes like Queen’s cake or Twelfth cake, similar to a holiday fruitcake. These cakes required pounds of flour and butter and numerous eggs. But they were large and served many.
A diet based on corn lacked certain essential vitamins. As vegetables were relatively uncommon during the period, colonists made up this deficiency with fats, as the Indians did. A diet heavy in fat was not unhealthy as long as the eater worked hard, burning off the harmful parts before they built up. Under sedentary conditions, though, the effects of eating too much meat were thought to contribute to the gout.
Nuts were important to the diet than at first assumed, especially during wartime. The vast stands of nutwoods have all but disappeared; today, on Jamestown Island, the deer herd numbers about 150 and needs supplemental food in a bad winter. In early colonial times, deer hers numbering over 250 were reported, and the area was reported to be fairly denuded by tribute hunting for Powhatan; the deer lived on the mast (acorns) alone. Acorns can be used to make a flour, but were not eaten much by the colonists. Black walnuts, chestnuts, hickory, breech and pecans, however, grew wild and were eaten.
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Post by Hippolyta on Dec 1, 2009 17:54:58 GMT -5
Cooking Techniques and Equipment
Most cooking was done in a large fireplace, with a fire kept blazing for boiling and a source of coals for broiling. Later, as trivets (three-legged stands) became common, coals were raked out under individual pots, gaining more control of heat and a neater working environment. At first fireplaces had a simple lug pole across the throat of the flue to suspend pots by pothooks or trammels. Later, a crane allowed the cook to remove the pot from the fire by lifting it, a great improvement in safety. Still, about 25 percent of all women were killed by cooking accidents, notably burns from long dresses and active fires. Many women hitched up their skirts, petticoats and aprons, tucking them into their waistbands when cooking. Many also worked in a state of undress. The kitchen was not a “decent” place to visit, leading in part of the low opinion of scullery maids and kitchen maids.
Later a very few coal grates came into use, for both heating and, less commonly, cooking. Kettles were rounded pots of cast iron (occasionally brass, especially among the Dutch settlers) with three short legs. They weighed up to forty pounds when full. They were used for boiling, rendering, simmering, thickening and curing. Frying was done on spiders (frying pans set on three legs) often with a long handle, or griddles (large, flat, cast-iron pieces) usually suspended like a pot.
Baking was done in ovens, which were first nothing but helmet- or beehive shaped pottery items outdoors. Later, ovens were incorporated into the fireplace mass but were usually separate from the firebox. A fire of finely split wood was built inside the oven to heat the oven mass. When it was hot enough, the fire was scraped and the ash swept out. Good bakers could discern the temperature within a few degrees, even if they did not know such a standard, by how long they could hold an arm inside. Professional bakers could be identified by the lack of hair on their arms; it was singed off in work. Items requiring the hottest oven were put in first, then the next slower, and so on, following the natural cooling of the oven. The time was judged sometimes with a sandglass or by passage of the sun. Baking was done once a week, and the day started early to get the oven hot enough to allow a full day of baking. When finished, items were removed with a wooden peel, such as those used today in pizza making. Dutch ovens were lidded pots with flat tops and bottoms. Coals were placed above and below the pot to bake a pie or the like.
Broiling or roasting was done on a spit, which ran across the top or front of the fire, supported by handirons or firedogs, or a special tripod or stand. Those across the front allowed greater control, including the ability to recover drippings for basting, gravy being relatively uncommon except in pies. Small skewers or an iron basket secured the meat to the spit so it would turn. The spit had to be turned manually, often a job for the children.
Pottery first saw its use in the kitchen and dairy, where it was early specified for milk products. Germs were unknown, but people knew cleanliness was important, especially around dairy products, and the glazed surface of pottery allowed easier cleaning. Colanders, milk pans, bowls and churns were the most common. Rhenish wine came in stoneware jugs sometimes called bellarmines.
Wood was used for dough troughs, churns, dashers, butter paddles and molds, piggins (small buckets with an integral handle), buckets, barrels, bowls, trenchers (early, plates used under dried bread), mugs, mortars and pestles, spoons, dough boxes, dry sinks, rolling pins, cheese forms, paddles (for stirring), scoops and biscuit (cookie) molds. These items were called treenware or treen.
Leather was used for blackjacks or jacks (mugs), pitched urns, bombards (large pitcher jacks) and bottles, all lined with pitch to make them water-resistant. These items could not hold anything hot or highly alcoholic.
Glass was used for bottles (some with wide mouths for syrups and brandied fruits), case bottles (straight-sided to fit in a liqueur case), mortars and pestles, drinking glasses, jelly (gelatin) glasses, decanters and epergne. Glass became common later on – it was at this time very expensive.
Iron and brass were used to make the numerous small cooking implements. These included long forks or meat forks, skimmers, ladles, spoons, spatulas or peels, butchering axes, meat saws, rendering tubs, sugar nippers, mortars and pestles, grinders and bean roasters.
Eating utensils were made of iron, pewter or silver, early often having bone, ivory or wooden handles or grips, Spoons were common, early being about two and a half inches across, with a seal top (like a sealing-wax seal), or an image of an Apostle, or a rattail with no finial. Early knives had sharp points to spear food and usually a flat edge to the blade, which was often used like a spoon to pick up food. Forks became known in the early period only at the very top of society, and they moved slowly down.
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Post by Hippolyta on Dec 1, 2009 18:13:39 GMT -5
Seasoning and Preparing
Preserving food for the winter or for use during travel was a major concern before canning. The types of preservation described here kept for years, not months.
Food was preserved by drying or parching in several ways. Meats were cut thin and usually salted, then placed over a slow fire for jerky or in the sun or wind. Large chunks of meat were usually impregnated in dry salt or a brine solution and then slowly smoked and dried. Smoking and drying meat required outdoor temperatures below forty degrees to preserve the meat during the extensive early stages, so it was only done late in the year. Berries, fruits and beans were dried in large, flat drying baskets laid in the sun. Sometimes they were mashed into a paste first, like modern fruit leathers. Fish was either dried on racks in the sun or smoked. Herbs for cooking and medicinals were dried by hanging them in bunches from the ceiling in kitchens or special garden houses.
Root crops such as onions, turnips and beets were braided by the stems and hung in relatively dry area safe from frost, or stored in baskets under similar conditions, often in a root cellar. Apples were packed in straw and stored in a cellar, or made into fermented cider.
Fruits were brandied, producing two products: the flavored brandy and the brandied fruit. Alcohol was also used as a preservative.
Cheese making was the way to preserve dairy products. Hard wheel cheeses kept better on the shelf, providing less surface to gather mold.
Fat was rendered, separating the unusable tissue from the grease that would keep indefinitely, if prone to get moldy and strong with age. Pocket soup was like our bouillon cubes, made from meat trimmings and fat, which set to a hard gluelike consistency and would last for years.
Sailors relied on hardtack, a simple flour-and-water bread baked and then dried to incredible hardness so it would last up to fifty years. Weevils made it easier to eat by channeling through it; the weevils also provided some variety from the rest of the fare, dried peas and salt pork or salt beef. Lack of vitamin C caused scurvy, but this was not recognized until later. This problem was accentuated because voyagers started just after the deprivations of winter to miss hurricane season; thus it had already been months since the sailors had any source of vitamin C.
English cooking emphasized two major flavorings, sugar and salt. Honey was used but had largely fallen out of production, and sugar quickly took its place, growing in importance until it and its byproduct, molasses, were the Caribbean’s most lucrative products. About 1600 it was discovered that fruit and other foods could be preserved or cured in sugar. Sugar was shipped in five-, ten- and fifty-pound cones, loaves or hats. Maple sugar and maple syrup, though much used in New England, were not popular elsewhere, especially England.
Salt was also used for seasoning and preserving. It was used as a brine to pickle various items, including meats and vegetables, and to cure meats for drying, such as salt pork, salt fish (usually cod, shad or halibut) and salt beef. These meats could also be cured in a dry pack of salt. Salt meats were eaten thinly sliced or were simmered to cook out the salt.
Other seasonings were not used in English colonial cooking to any great degrees. This is more true of the earlier time, changing later on. Pepper and butter were the next two to show up frequently. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, were among the most popular after them. In the seventeenth century an aversion to vegetables and herbs arose as a matter of style (they were thought fit only for the poor), but this was not universally accepted. The tastes of the court during Tudor times are easily confused with later tastes because many herbalists and cooks today refer back to them for their greater variety.
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Post by Hippolyta on Dec 1, 2009 18:32:31 GMT -5
Beverages
Nonalcoholic beverages
Tea was introduced as a medicinal in the early period but did not become common until Catherine of Braganza married Charles II and brought the “Indian” trade as her dowry. Tradition has it that when tea was first served at a country party, the cooks threw away the brew and served the boiled leaves, to obvious disapprobation. But it caught on.
Coffee was introduced to England about 1650, where it caught on first but did not gain acceptance quickly. It was widely held to cause sterility and insanity, and an edict was issued by a German prince saying essentially, “The king’s subjects were born and bred on beer, they have won many battles on beer, and I’ll be damned if I ‘m going to allow them to be turned into a bunch of women by coffee.” By 1720, however, the Dutch and English were growing coffee in the West Indies.
Chocolate was a drink in the period, generally not a candy until the nineteenth century. Many American-made chocolate pots attest to its popularity among those who could afford it. It was imported from South America via Spain and England.
The high fat and carbohydrate content of the diet required substantial quantities of drink. Aside from hot drinks like tea, coffee and chocolate, most colonists avoided water, which could be fatal, what with cholera, typhoid, amebic dysentery and other waterborne diseases. As a result, most drinks were alcoholic, because no bacteria known to be harmful to man can survive in them.
Alcoholic beverages
Beer was the staple beverage for the Anglo-Saxon world below the aristocracy. When used in the colonial period, the term usually meant small beer, or a brew watered down to about ½ - 1 percent alcoholic content. This was enough to kill the bacteria that might infest the water, but was readily potable to all, including children and infants. Beer was so important that a major reason the Pilgrims put in at Massachusetts instead of continuing to the latitude of their charter was a shortage of beer. Pennsylvania proved good barley and hop country, and the Germanic who settled there became good brewers. Before that, many others discovered it was possible to ferment pumpkins, maple sugar and persimmons. Ale was also well known.
Wine was more important at upper-class tables and to immigrants from France, Italy and the Rhineland. Like beer, most wines were low in alcoholic content. People favored those more like our dessert wines of today, sweet and heavy. Madeira, malmsey, Port, Sherry and malvasia were all popular. Mead passed out of fashion with the decline in use of honey.
Most wines were shipped in wooden casks and bottled upon arrival. Later, many wealthy houses and taverns had bottles made with their own seal on them. Those who could not afford a custom die settled for their initials. The rest used plain bottles.
Brandy was a popular drink with high potency made by distilling wine. Locally, it was made from apples and other fruits. Apples were further distilled to make applejack.
Liquors included whiskey (which was later distilled in Pennsylvania), gin (common among the lower class and Dutch), and cognac. The most common was rum, made with molasses from the sugar islands and relatively cheap. Rum figured heavily in the triangle trade and was a major product of New England. It was used to make bumbo, a punch made of rum, sugar and water, and syllabub, considered best when the cream was added by milking the cow into the combined rum and sugar.
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