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From: "Nancy" <>
Subject: [ARKANSAS] Re: Dinner in the 1700s
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 09:36:02 -0600
References: <5B805D5C-3717-11D8-8FD1-000393CCBB70@southwind.net>


Thanks so much Lanita, this is a wonderful resource!
Nancy
I found this online, and found it very informative. My thanks to this
group for posting this in an effort to learn about our forefathers and
foremothers.

This information was collected as a part of the research done by the
25th Continental Regiment, a living history group. The regiment
re-creates an American unit from 1776 that fought in the American
Revolution.

HOW THE SOLDIERS COOKED:

We drew a day's ration of beef and flour, what was called a pound of
each.
The flour, perhaps, was not far from its nominal weight, but the beef
was,
as it always was in such cases, and indeed in all others in the army,
not
more than three fourths of a pound, and that, at the best, half bone.
And
how was it cooked? Why as it usually was when we had no cooking utensils
with us, - that is, the flour was laid upon a flat stone and scorched
on one
side, while the beef was broiling on a stick in the fire. This was the
common way of cookery when on the marches, and we could get anything to
cook, and this was the mode at the time mentioned. After I had
satisfied my
hunger, I lay down upon the ground and slept...

Private Joseph Plumb Martin, 1777



We arrived at Valley Forge in the evening ... I lay here two nights and
one
day and had not a morsel of anything to eat all the time, save half of a
small pumpkin, which I cooked by placing it upon a rock, the skin side
uppermost, and making a fire upon it.

Private Joseph Plumb Martin, 1777



F[riday] 16 to T[hursday] 29. very Cold indeed / we git sum wheat that
is
[in] bags below ware we go after wood and burn it wich makith very good
Coffe and selling sum of our thing we git sum money & so we have once
in a
while Sum Caffe.

Private Jeremiah Greenman, February, 1776



[At the siege of Yorktown, Sarah Osborne] took her stand just back of
the
American tents, say about a mile from the town, and busied herself
washing,
mending, and cooking for the soldiers, in which she was assisted by the
other females ... cooked and carried in beef, and bread, and coffee (in
a
gallon pot) to the soldiers in the entrenchment.

Sarah Osborne, 1781


*************


RECIPES OF THE 18th CENTURY AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR PERIOD:

At home, families in America cooked following the recipes handed down to
them, or from English recipe books. The first American cookbook was not
published until 1796, but English cookbooks had been re-printed in
America
before then.


Breakfast Recipes:

Indian Slapjacks

One quart of milk, 1 pint of indian [corn] meal, 4 eggs, 4 spoons of
flour,
little salt, beat together, baked on griddles, or fry in a dry pan, or
baked
in a pan which has been rub'd with suet, lard or butter.

Amelia Simmons, 1796



To make fried Toasts

Chip a manchet [ a round loaf of fine bread] very well, and cut it
roundways
into toasts; then take cream and eight eggs, season'd with sack, sugar,
and
nutmeg; and let these toasts steep in it about an hour; then fry them in
sweet butter, serve them up with plain melted butter, or with butter,
sack
and sugar, as you please.

Eliza Smith, 1758



Meat Recipes:

To broil Stakes

When you have a very clear brisk fire, make your gridiron very clean,
put
some hot coals from the fire into a chafing dish, and place a dish over
them, in order to receive your stakes when ready; take rump-stakes,
which
should be about half an inch thick; after you have thrown over them a
little
pepper and salt, place them on the gridiron, and do not turn them till
that
side be done; when you have turned them you will soon perceive a fine
gravy
laying on the upper part of the stake, which you must carefully
preserve by
taking the when ready warily from your gridiron, and placing them on the
dish: Then covering the dish, send them hot to the table with the cover
on.
Some before they take the stake from the gridiron, cut into the dish a
shalot or two, or a fine onion, and a little vinegar.

Eliza Smith, 1758


To mumble Rabbits and Chickens

Put into the bellies of your rabbits, or chickens, some parsley, an
onion,
and the liver; set it over the fire in the stew-pan with as much water
mixed
with a little salt as will cover them; when they are half boiled take
them
out, and shred the parsley, liver, and onion; tear the flesh from the
bones
of the rabbit in small flakes, and put it into the stew-pot again with a
very little of the liquor it was boiled in, a pint of white-wine, some
gravy, half a pound or more of butter, some grated nutmeg; when tis
enough,
shake in a little flour, and thicken it with butter. Serve it on
snippets
[pieces of toasted bread].

Eliza Smith, 1758



To stew a Rump of Beef

Season your rump of beef with two nutmegs, some pepper and salt, and
lay the
fat side downward in your stew-pan; put to it a quarter of a pint of
vinegar, a pint of claret, three pints of water, three whole onions
stuck
with a few cloves, and a bunch of sweet-herbs; cover it close, and let
it
stew over a gentle fire four or five hours; scum off the fat from the
liquor. Lay your meat on sippets, and pour your liquor over it. Garnish
your
dish with scalded greens.

Eliza Smith, 1758



Vegtable Recipes:

To stew Cucumbers

Pare twelve cucumbers, slice them as for eating, put them to drain, and
lay
them in a coarse cloth until they are dry; flour them, and fry them
brown in
butter; then put in some gravy, a little claret, some pepper, cloves,
mace,
and let them stew a little; them roll a bit of butter in flour, and toss
them up; put them under mutton or lamb roasted.

Eliza Smith, 1758


To dress Carrots.

Scrape them very clean, and when the water boils, put them into your
pot or
sauce-pan; if they are young spring carrots, they will be boiled in a
half
an hour, but if large they will require an hour. Take them out, slice
them
into a plate, and pour over them melted butter.

Eliza Smith, 1758



To dress Potatoes

Put your potatoes into the sauce-pan with a proper quantity of water;
and
when they are enough, which may be known by their skins beginning to
crack,
drain al the water from them, and let them stand close covered up for
two or
three minutes; then peel them, plate them in a plate, and pour over
them a
proper quantity of melted butter: Or after you have peeled them, lay
them on
a gridiron, and, when they are of a fine brown, send them to table. Or
you
may cut them into slices, fry them in butter,and season them with
pepper and
salt.

Eliza Smith, 1758



Dessert Recipes:

Plain Cake.

Three quarters of a pound of sugar, 1 pound of butter, and 6 eggs work'd
into 1 pound of flour. [Bake in a loaf pan at 325 degrees F. for 75-80
minutes.]

Amelia Simmons, 1796



A Nice Indian Pudding.

No. 1. 3 pints scalded milk, 7 spoons fine Indian meal, stir well
together
while hot, let stand till cooled; add 7 eggs, half a pound of raisins, 4
ounces butter, spice and sugar, bake one and half hour. No. 2. 3 pints
scalded milk to one pint meal salted; cool, add 2 eggs, 4 ounces butter,
sugar or molasses and spice q.s. [quantum sufficit - as much as
suffices] it
will require two and half hours baking.

Amelia Simmons, 1796

Apple Pastries to fry.

Pare and quarter apples, and boil them in sugar and water, and a stick
of
cinnamon, and when tender, put in a little white wine, the juice of a
lemon,
a piece of fresh butter, and a little ambergrease or orange-flower
water;
stir all together, and when it is cold put it in a puff-paste and fry
them.

Eliza Smith, 1758

Puff Paste for Tarts.

No. 5. One pound flour, three fourths of a pound of butter, beat well.

Amelia Simmons, 1796

http://members.aol.com/Srlohnes/recipe.html

Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Lanita

Shake your family tree and watch the nuts fall!


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