Honey

Honey is a food, used as a medicine and is an expression used to describe someone you love and care about.  Most people would imagine honey as a food rather than some of the other proposed uses.  However, honey for a brief period, lost its popularity and was simply used in medicine or only among the poor.  It is interesting how honey now is seen as the new super sweetener, health food and also good for the environment.  Honey is super at all its uses.

Honey itself begins with the bees.  Worker bees go out and suck nectar from different flowers and bring it back to the hive.  Once back at the hive, other worker bees will suck the nectar out of these gathering worker bees and chew it breaking down the complex sugar in the nectar into two simple sugars.  These two simple sugars are fructose and glucose.  The bees then expel the honey they have just chewed into wax combs that more worker bees have built.  Then more worker bees come and fan the honey that is now in the wax comb and this, along with the heat from the hive, evaporates most of the moisture from the honey.  The bees then cap this off with more wax and now it is ready for the beekeeper.

Here is a link to 18th century manuals on beekeeping. 

http://larsdatter.com/18c/beekeeping.html

The history of honey gathering goes back millennia.  The first honey gathering would have been done by locating a beehive.  The next step would be to simply reach in and pull out the honey comb.  People then began developing other ways of keeping bees so they could get honey in a way that didn’t involve getting stung so many times.  The first breakthrough with bee keeping was the realization that smoke relaxes the bees and keeps them from stinging the person trying to get the honey. From this discovery forward, it is only the design of the manmade beehive that distinguishes them through the centuries.  The first manmade beehives known were made in Egypt.  They were clay cylinders open on both ends.  When the bee keeper wanted honey, he would smoke the bees at one end.   They would then fly to the other end of the cylinder, leaving their honey unguarded and easily removed.  The next method was to use baskets to keep the bees.  These baskets were called bee skeps.  Initially these baskets were made of wicker, were covered with mud, open at one end and tapered upward.  Then the baskets started to be made only with grass in the same design as the wicker ones.  One of the final methods of gathering honey is similar to the earliest method.  Hives would have been located in a tree.  A piece of wood surrounding the hive would have been cut out and some of the honey comb would have been removed.  You would then cover the hive back up with that same piece of wood and come back whenever you wanted for more honey. 

German print showing gathering honey from the trees.

If you look close enough you can see one of the men is smoking a pipe to relax the bees.

 

Bee Skep Basket at Colonial Williamsburg

 

                In medieval Europe, honey was the primary sweetener because sugar was so expensive.  It was used to sweeten baked goods, to candy fruits like orange and lemon peel and used to brew a beverage called mead.  (Mead is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting a mixture of honey and water with yeast.)  Using honey in this way continued for centuries.  With the discovery of the Caribbean and with the drastic drop in price of sugar, honey became obsolete among most in the 18^th century.   It was then that honey was used more for medicinal purposes than for food like treatments for hooping cough and for tooth aches.  Today honey is still a good option for medicinal uses.  Honey is naturally antiseptic and can kill bacteria if applied to a wound.  It has also been learned that if you eat locally produced honey, it can help improve your allergies.

In the New World, the Aztecs were keeping a species of bee that is different from the bee of today’s North America.  They kept a stingless bee that was native to South and Central America.  The first honey bees that were brought over from Europe and released in the Americas were at City Point, Virginia in 1622.  By 1820, they had populated all the way from the Atlantic to the Mississippi.

 The dates we can record honey bees in these different states.

 

In the end, honey is a very universally versatile product.  The bees are so proficient that there is no need for people to change anything for it to be used.  It is an original farm-to-table (in this case, the hive-to-table) product.  So support your local farmer and enjoy the honey!       

Yeast

                Please go and see these sites for more information:

http://www.sourdough.co.uk/the-complete-baker/ 

http://savoringthepast.net/2012/06/27/making-yeast-as-practised-at-edinburgh/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vTa6M8QyrU&feature=youtu.be

 

                Bread can be an ingredient in other foods, a vessel to hold foods or eaten on its own.  With its diversity, it has remained a culinary staple for thousands of years.  Being such a staple, we don’t often think about the living component that is in most bread.  Yeast is this amazing unicellular, microorganism that is capable of making dough rise and turning sugar from grain into alcohol.  This is the story of yeast and our pursuit of keeping it. 

A look at yeast from under a microscope.

This is Saccharomyces cerevisiae the most common yeast available.

 

               The circumstances surrounding the discovery of yeast are unclear, but there is a consensus by most that it was an accident.  There are some theories; however, that might explain the discovery of yeast.  The most probable is that a type of dough was left out for enough time that natural yeast from the air and in the grain combined with the nutrients from the grain to create noticeably lighter dough than before.  It was then cooked and the result was eaten and enjoyed.  So the process was replicated.  From this process they learned that yeast could be collected from around us and kept by providing the needed nutrients and moisture.  The knowledge of how to keep yeast was the one thing our predecessors understood.  Other than this, they really didn’t know much about it.  People began very early trying to figure out what it was.  Some believed it to be a third earth, third water and a third fire.  Others simply considered it God’s gift to humanity.  So there became a cycle of using yeast and trying to preserve it.

                There were several methods used to preserve yeast.  One was when people took leftover dough made with yeast and mixed it with water and with flour to create a batter.  This batter was then painted on the inside of a pail or tub and allowed to dry.  Once dry, another layer would be painted on until 4 to 5 layers had accumulated.  This would have been stored in a dry place.  When you wanted some yeast you simply took a small piece and ground it using some warm water and possibly sugar.  Another process for preserving yeast was to make yeast cakes.  To make these, they would have taken barm, which is leftover yeast that has settled to the bottom of a batch of beer, mixed this with water and flour to create a thick dough.  This would have been allowed to dry and reconstituted for use the same way as the previous method.  Finally, if a baker didn’t have yeast, they could have always gone to the local beer brewer and get fresh barm to use in their baked good. 

 

"The Virginia Housewife"

Mary Randolph

1838

 

 

"The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy"

Hannah Glasse

1758

 

                For thousands of years there has been a relationship between the brewers and the bakers.  These professions were essential to life well into the early 19^th century.  This relationship is comically portrayed in “The Complete Baker; or a Method of Effectually raising a Bushel of Flour, with a Tea-Spoonful of Barm” which shows how one trade could always depend on the other for the crucial ingredient of their livelihood.

 

An Egyptian Model

A model of a Bakery and Brewery side by side

showing their importance as a group.

2009-1998 B.C.

 

 

"The Complete Baker; or, a Method of Effectually Raising a Bushel of Flour with a Tea-Spoonful of Barm"

By: James Stone

1770

 



                Through the ages yeast and the items made with it have been treated with a certain mystique.  Even with today’s modern science and all we know about yeast you can’t help but look at a bowl of rising dough with a certain level of awe.  So next time you have your PB&J sandwich, remember the little magic called yeast that helped make it enjoyable.    

The New Worlds influence on Old World Cooking

I was recently in the Colonial Williamsburg Governor’s Palace kitchen and while there a small school group came in and had some questions they needed answered to help them with their school projects.  One of the students kept asking about the Native People’s influence on the Governor’s diet and/or on the diet of some of the lower classes in Virginia.  This got me thinking of all the possible influences that there might be from back in the 18^th century and all the way up to modern day cuisine. With my research, the following are just a few of the ingredient influences that I found interesting.

 

When Columbus set sail in 1492, he was looking for a quick and easy route to the Orient and all the riches that it offered.  He actually landed on what we now know is the Caribbean and even though it was not his intended target, the two huge land masses he discovered were completely new and  just as lucrative as the Orient in a different way.  However, the Spanish failed to realize that what Columbus thought were non-connected villages on scattered islands were actually large organized, social groups that were in control of both North and South America.  These cultures had diverse foods and customs that the Spanish found odd at first but eventually grew to love. 

One example of food influence and change because of this exploration is pineapple.  It was one of several foods that Columbus found in the Caribbean that he and his crew really enjoyed.  Columbus encountered the pineapple on the island of Guadeloupe in 1493 and called it “pina de Indes” or “pine of the Indians”.  The pineapple was consumed by the natives raw and in its pure state with nothing added.  It became a new food in Europe when Europeans took this pineapple and added sugar or fried it in a batter. 

Columbus saw several other foods that were new to him but these foods were most of the time trade foods that were not native to the Caribbean but from Central and South America.  One of these foods was the tomato.  The tomato at that time was sweet and primarily yellow.  The native people ate the tomato crushed up in stew.  The first European recipe for tomato is found in an herbal medicine book written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea.  (It may seem a bit odd to us but all food was considered medicinal at that time.)  It calls for the tomato to be cooked like eggplant, fried in oil (most likely olive oil) with salt and pepper.   

Cortes was the first to truly venture past the Islands and into the mainland.  When Cortes and his men landed in what is now Mexico, he was confronted with what we now consider chocolate.  The Aztecs drank a chocolate drink which contained Chile pepper, vanilla and honey and with corn added to thicken it.  This was served cold in goblets.  It is said that Montezuma and his court drank fifty cups of chocolate a day.  The Spanish took chocolate back to Spain and Europeans adapted it by adding milk, cream or wine along with sugar to make something similar to what we would call hot chocolate today. 

 

As the Spanish moved further into South America and towards the Andes Mountains, they encountered the Incas and more interesting foods.  The most interesting and possibly influential of all would be potatoes.  Today potatoes are eaten everyday by billions of people in many forms and that shows the influence of the Incas.  One of the most popular Incan methods of preparing potatoes was to let potatoes sit out for days allowing them to rot.  They were then stepped on to remove the skin and consumed raw or added to stews.  Food historians believe it was the constant stream of soldiers going into the region during this time and bringing the potatoes back to Spain and planting them that caused the spread of their use.  The most popular recipe for Europeans was to roast them along with their meat. 

In both North and South America, corn was the principle part of the diet of the Native peoples.  Nutritional Anthropologists believe that corn was an accident.  They believe that some two types of grains were grown close together and eventually became what we now consider corn.  Corn never took a real foothold in Europe.  It was considered to be fit only for the poor and animals.  Also in America, it is not until the early to late 19^th century that corn is considered more refined.  It wasn’t until the invention of baking powder and baking soda that cornbread could truly be enjoyed.  Until then, cornbread was incredibly dense and heavy. 

We seem to be especially reflective at this time of year, Thanksgiving.  It causes us to look back at what the first Thanksgiving dinner table may have looked like.  We may think of all the things we eat and their origins.  Maybe this year, give a little thought and some thanks to exploration, discovery and the contribution of the New World and its people.

 

Mary Randolph

                Four million people visit Arlington National Cemetery each year.  They visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Kennedy Memorial and the Curtis Mansion on the hill.  Few, however, venture past these famous sites and on to some of the other graves that are throughout the cemetery.  One of these graves is that of Mary Randolph, an amazing woman of her time.  Mrs. Randolph was one of the most innovative, revolutionary and influential women of 18^th and 19^th century America.  With her social position and region of influence, she gained a reputation for the best hostess in Virginia.  She used this experience to author a cookbook that was known for nearly a half century to contain the only way to entertain and dine.  Today, you can still find her cookbook in several places but few know the story behind the name of the woman on the cover.



                Mary Randolph was born at Ampthill Plantation (the current site of the Spruance DuPont complex in Chester, Virginia) on the 9th of August 1762, to one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Virginia.  Growing up in Goochland County as the eldest daughter of Thomas Mann Randolph and Anne Cary Randolph meant a comfortable life and education for the young Randolph and her 12 other siblings.  She was tutored by Peter Jefferson (father of the 3^th president Thomas Jefferson) of whom she was related by blood and marriage.  She was also a cousin of the mother of George Washington.  She received a rich home education which extended to how to run a household and cook elaborate meals for parties at a plantation.  

                In December of 1780, she married her cousin, David Meade Randolph, and moved to a 750 acre family plantation near Bermuda Hundred known as Presquile.  Bermuda Hundred was the port of entry for Virginia, meaning everything going to Richmond, Petersburg or elsewhere went there first and was then transferred to smaller vessels to make their way to their final destination.  So Mary Randolph was placed in the center of Virginia’s colonial economy.  This gave her an incredible position over other plantation wives.  It was here that she gained a reputation for being a “lively hostess” and having an ability of setting an “exquisite table”.  During this time, she gave birth to four children.  The plantation was plagued by horrible smells that came from the huge swamp near the plantation.  So the family moved to Richmond in 1798 to their new home christened Moldavia which is a combination of both her husband and her names.  Once in Richmond, her reputation grew even further.  Her home even became the center for the Federalist Party of Virginia.

                The couple fell on economic hardship but Mary Randolph was determined to see her family through it.  She decided to open a boarding house, which was a form of social suicide for an upper class woman in the 19^th century.  So in March 1808, the following advertisement appeared in the Richmond Virginia Gazette, “Mrs. RANDOLPH Has established a Boarding House in Cary Street, for the accommodation of Ladies and Gentlemen. She has comfortable chambers, and a stable well supplied for a few Horses."  By 1819, the couple’s boarding house failed to bring in a profit so they, along with one of their sons, moved to Washington D.C.  It is here that she compiles all of her culinary knowledge into the cookbook known as “The Virginia Housewife” and it is published in 1824.

                Her story, I’m afraid, ends tragically.  Her youngest son was a sailor in the U.S. navy and fell off a mast one night causing extensive injuries.  It is said that her devoted care of her crippled son hastened her death which occurred on the 23 of January, 1828, a mere 4 years after her cookbook was published.  She was buried at her cousin’s estate in D.C. at the time known as Arlington House.  The site is now known as Arlington National Cemetery.  She is the first person to be recorded as buried there.

                It is her epitaph, which I think best describes her…  “A victim to a maternal love and duty”.  She was born into the social elite and was called upon to fight for a better life for her children.  A firm understanding and education of food and its importance guided her on her way.  Mary Randolph is a role model to all with her determination and courage.  

A Modern Look at Colonial Brewing

Imagine that you are one of the 103 men and boys that came to colonize the New World.  You are surrounded by plants, animals, and people that are foreign to you.  One thing looks familiar to you though, and that is the water.  As a European, the water scares you, rightfully so, as millions in Europe have died of water related diseases.  So what do you drink if you don’t drink the water?  The answer, some will be glad to know, was beer. 

            Beer history goes back to Mesopotamia where the first beer is believed to have been brewed.  The first brews consisted of only grain, water, and yeast.  These beers gained popularity, since not only did they quench thirst, but also provided some nutrition.   This beverage traveled to every country surrounding Mesopotamia.  With the rise of the Roman Empire, the beverage traveled even farther through Northern Europe (Germany, Bolivia, and Belgium).  It was here in Northern Europe that the final ingredient, hops, was added to the original three ingredient beverage. This is a popular ingredient know because it is what counterbalances the sweetness of the beer.   The 17^th Century brings about an appetite for hopped beer in Europe that has continued to this day.  It is this appetite for beer that travels with settlers to America.

            In America, alcohol became the common everyday drink. It was consumed by all people including children, from the time they got up to when they went to bed at night.  This led to a whopping total consumption of 35 gallons of beer per capita in 1790.  Today we consider all alcohol to be the same.   Back then, however, they made a huge distinction between fermented beverages and distilled spirits.  It was taught, for instance that fermented beverages were health giving and increased wisdom.  Distilled beverages, however, were thought to lead to swearing, obscenity and anarchy.

 

http://rosemelnickmuseum.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/alcohol.jpg

The following table shows the methods of both 18^th century brewers and modern brewers. 

 



 

What has to be done	18th Century	Modern
The first step in brewing is to heat your water to above 150°F.  150°F is the optimal temperature for extracting sugar from the grains but with heat loss from the transfer and also from adding the water to cool grains.  The temperature of the water before adding to the grains is known as strike temperature.	In the 18th Century Home: They would have used the large copper pot that was also used for laundry.  In the 18th century strike temperatures are higher because of the wood tubs used to hold the mash.  These tubs do not hold heat in very well. So in an attempt to keep the temperature as close as possible to 150°, the water in that time period was heated to 180°F.  Along with a method called capping which meant a thin layer of malt was sprinkled along the top of the mash, kept the temperature at 150°F pretty efficiently.      At the 18th Century Commercial Brewery: They would have used huge copper pots mounted into a brick fixture.	Modern Home Brewers: If you are brewing at home, you can simply use a stainless steel pot on your home cooktop.   Modern Commercial Brewers: Today commercial brewers use tankless water heaters.    Todays strike temperatures are a little bit lower due to better insulation.  Todays strike temperatures are around 168 and 173.
The hot water is then mixed with the malted grain to create what is known as mash.  The mash has to sit at 150°F, or as close to it as possible, for an hour.	Both the 18th century commercial and home brewers had no real way of controlling the temperature.  However, the wood tubs they used, kept the mash close to the optimal temperature for the hour it needs to steep.	The Modern Home Brewer: Today you mix the water and grains in a cooler. This insulates the mash at 150°F or close to it.   The Modern Commercial Brewer: Modern brewers have steam jacketed mash tuns to store the mash at an exact 150°F for an hour.
The next step is to strain the wort from the grains.	In the 18th Century Home: They would have used a metal or horsehair sieve to strain the grains from the wort.         The 18th Century Commercial Brewer:  The commercial brewer would have used a screen or mesh like device over the spout that transferred the wort to the boiler.	The Modern Home Brewer: The home brewer today has numerous screens and sieves from which to choose.  Also, some home brewers steep the grains in muslin bags.     The Modern Commercial Brewer: The commercial brewer uses a screen over the pipe that drains the wort to the second boiler.
The wort is now boiled again to concentrate the sugar content of the wort.  The hops are also added at this point.
The wort is now strained for the final time.
At this point in the brewing, you want to cool down the wort.  The goal, at least today, is to cool it down as quickly as possible so no bacteria get into it.	The 18th century housewife would not have an elaborate system for cooling her wort so she would have to make due with letting it cool naturally, while stirring it occasionally.     The Commercial Brewer had big lead lined pools called cool ships.  The wort would be poured into these pools and cooled within 20 to 30 minutes.	The Home Brewer and Commercial Brewers both have multiple options for cooling the wort down.  One form is what is known as an immersion chiller.  This is a copper pipe in a spiral.  This is lowered into the warm wort.  Cold water is run through these pipes which cools the wort off quickly.  There are two other possible cooling systems, the plate chiller or the counter flow chiller.
The final step is turning the wort into beer.  This is achieved by adding yeast to the wort.	In the 18th century this would have been done in some form of wooden tub or barrel.  A way for the gas to escape is crucial or the barrel could explode.	Today home brewers have glass, metal or plastic fermenters.    Commercial brewers have huge stainless steel fermenters that can hold thousands of gallons at a time.

 

It is important to know that in the 18th century this process is done 3 times using the same grain, producing a weaker beer each time.  Today the grains are used once along with a quick wash to get all of the sugars off.  

  The pictures for the chart where taken during the Colonial Williamsburg program "The Art and Mysteries of Brewing".  For more information about this program please visit www.history.org. The other two pictures of a commercial brewery operation at Lacock Abbey in England came from http://dpnow.com/forum2/showthread.php?t=15079

 

 

   

 

Boiled Puddings

Pumpkin Pie and Sausage are about as far apart in a culinary sense as the earth from the sun.  However, there is one unifying fact historically that draws them closer together.  That fact is that both Sausage and Pumpkin Pie were once considered puddings.  Today if I were to say pudding, what would you think of?  You might think of your grandmother’s banana pudding or the thick, rich pudding in a cup in your lunchbox.  However in the 18^th century, pudding could have been one of four possible dishes.  It could have been a baked pudding, much like the previously mentioned pumpkin pie.  You also had a sausage like pudding called ‘pudding in skin’ made from grain, meat, sugar and spices.  Then there was a dripping pudding which was a batter like mixture put under roasting meat to cook along with the lovely juices dripping from that meat.  Finally a boiled pudding which is a mixture of ingredients tied in a cloth and boiled.  I will devote future blogs for both dripping and baked puddings, but today I will be shedding a little light on the very traditional English boiled pudding.   

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

Hannah Glasse

1774

 

Boiled puddings and ‘puddings in skin’ have a close history.  Being the oldest form, puddings in skin have their origin in sausage.  People in Medieval England created meat-like sausages with grain in them to ‘stretch’ the meat amount so it would feed more people.  The French word for these puddings or sausages is Boudin, and Boudin is the word most etymologists believe is the word pudding comes from. (The Boudin sausage can still be found today in France.  It is also found in the area around and including the state of Louisiana).  These puddings were very popular.  However the intestines or skins they were cooked in were difficult to work with.  That combined with the amount of cleaning involved with these intestines and how hard it was to fill them made the cloth a much easier version of pudding for everyone to enjoy.  By the 17^th century, boiling in a cloth was the more popular way of cooking a pudding.

Hannah Glasse

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy 

Almond Pudding

Hannah Glasse

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

Pear Pudding  

                Though the change in method from intestines to cloth was due to ease of use, boiling in a cloth has its problems as well.  When you boil in a cloth, there is a strong possibility of watering down your pudding. However if you follow some simple steps, you can avoid this problem and have a very enjoyable pudding to boast about.  First you want a thick, tightly woven cloth.  This prevents a great majority of the water from getting through.  The rest of the water is kept out by applying a thick layer of butter to the cloth and another layer of flour.  This melts together and the gluten in the flour creates a waterproof barrier.  These barriers are no good unless you seal them up properly.  So to seal it, you want to pull everything up together and twist it.  (Leaving a little room is good, but not so much that it floats in the water.)  Once you have twisted it, tie it as tight as you possibly can, leaving a little extra twine or fabric to attach to a spoon to keep the pudding from touching the bottom of the pot.  In the 18^th century, most recipes told you how long to boil it, but you can know that it is done when you tap the pudding and it thumps.

The Steps of Pudding Making

This particular pudding is a pear pudding.  If it is a lose pudding you can put the cloth in a bowl to create the bulb shape.

You can get excellent pudding cloths at Dobyns and Martin

http://www.dobynsandmartin.com/everythingelse.htm 

                Everyone in the 18^th century could have afforded a pudding, but what made your pudding a rich man or a poor man version was the ingredients that were in them.  For a poor man’s pudding, you could simply use flour, water and some salt.  The more ingredients you add, the more refined and upper class your pudding would become.  The rich could afford heavily spiced puddings with candied and dried fruits.  In the 19^th century, it became popular to make these in October and November.  They were soaked in Brandy and lit on fire at the Christmas Table.  This is practice is still used in England today. 

 

 

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

Hannah Glasse

1774

These are the recipes for the shown puddings above.

                It’s a shame that boiled puddings are no longer popular in America.  Wouldn’t it be fun to surprise your holiday guests by serving ‘figgy pudding’ at the dinner table after caroling about it next to the fire?   Next time you are struggling for a new culinary twist at the table with your Christmas ham, why not try a boiled pudding?  With its rich, sweet flavor, it is sure to be the next big thing.  At the very least, it will be a great conversation piece and what a great nod to the traditions of holidays past!!