The Bakers of Williamsburg

Recently, Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Foodways began baking in the Raleigh Tavern Bake Shop again after several years of inactivity.  I began to develop an interest in the bakers of Williamsburg a few years ago.  18^th century Williamsburg had six bakers throughout the century which provided baked goods to all of its citizens:  Peter Moyer, Cornelius Deforrest, William Sharman, Jean or John Marot, Thomas Alley and a man known only as the “French Baker”.  In compiling all the research for this blog, I realized that there is very little information about these bakers.  The information I was able to locate is compiled from research that I found at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation library, ancestry websites and facts about 18^th century bakers from the other thirteen colonies and England. 

 

TA represents Thomas Alley

WS stands for William Sherman 

 

A baker from this time period would have had a very early start to their workday.  With a typical preheat time of two hours, ovens had to be lit sometime around six ‘o’clock a.m.  Depending on how much had to be baked for that day, 50 to 100 pounds of dough would have had to be kneaded by hand in this preheat time frame.  Then all of this dough would have to be formed into rolls and set to rise.  The oven coals would then have been raked out of the heated oven to allow for cooling so that the oven could cool to the right temperature for bread-making.  There was no idle time for the baker and this was a very physically demanding job.  He would need a lot of experience and expertise to bake all of the bread needed for the entire town with an oven that never stays at a constant temperature. 

An Illustration from Diderot's Encyclopedia

It is thought that the first baker in Williamsburg was William Sherman.  The first mention (and only record) of William Sherman is in 1706 court records of the procurement of the Coke-Garret property in Williamsburg. He is recorded as “Sherman, William Baker in Williamsburg”.  William Sherman died sometime between 1708/09.

 

The Coke-Garret Property Shown on the Frenchman's Map

Records show that Jean, or John, Marot was baking in Williamsburg and owned a tavern where the Shields Tavern is today from 1708 until his death in 1717.  An interesting fact about John Marot is that he was sued and found guilty for baking a cake that weighed less than the required weight.  I’m sure this sounds a little strange now but Great Britain had established strict laws concerning the weights and ingredients that were required in everyday staples such as beer and bread around the time of King Henry III.  Bakers who broke these laws were subject to strict and very public punishment.  Another interesting fact about John Marot is that he baked a cake for the funeral of His Excellency Edward Holt. 

The property where Marot's tavern was shown on the Frenchman's Map of Williamsburg

 

Another baker that I found referenced was Thomas Alley.  It seems that he was a slave or indentured baker at the Raleigh Tavern.  There is only one mention of Thomas Alley before an article in the Virginia Gazette in 1751 for a runaway servant of the same name.  The article mentioned, “Thomas Alley, about 5 foot 7 inches high, by trade a baker, full faced and fresh colored, with dark brown hair.”  Because of the limited references, it is not known how long he was baking in Williamsburg prior to running away. 

The Raleigh Tavern shown on the Frenchman's Map of Williamsburg

 

Barbara Scherer baking at the Raleigh Tavern Bake Shop

Photo By: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation  

http://makinghistorynow.com/2015/05/after-a-30-year-hiatus-fresh-baked-gingerbread-returns-to-the-raleigh-tavern-bakery/

 

http://recipes.history.org/2015/05/its-time-for-cookies-at-raleigh-tavern/

 

Cornelius Deforrest was born in 1735.  The ancestry websites that I referenced claim that he moved to Virginia from New York, but I cannot find any supporting evidence of this.  I believe he was born in Virginia and got married to his first wife there.  The name of his first wife is unknown but records show that in 1760, he married a widower named Sarah Hill and they had three children together: Cornelius (b. 1761), Louisa (b. 1767) and Elizabeth (b. 1770).  I found a reference in the Virginia State Records that he baked 2,000 pounds of bread for the navy schooner Revenge.  The base of operation for Cornelius Deforrest was somewhere on York Street in Williamsburg.  He died sometime in 1781/82. 

A look at York Street on the Frenchman's Map of Williamsburg

 

Virginia Gazette November 15, 1776

The next baker is my favorite because I drive by his house every week.  His name was Peter Moyer and his operation was located at the intersection of Francis and Botetourt Streets, near the Public Armory in Williamsburg.  The first mention of Moyer is in public records of 1762 where he is listed as the father of George Mires (Moyer).  He is mentioned again in records of 1763 when his daughter, Mary Elizabeth, was baptized at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg.  Peter Moyer’s wife was named Rebecca and based on tax records, he died sometime between 1792/93.

Peter Moyers house shown on the Frenchman's Map of Williamsburg

 

  Virginia Gazette October 5, 1769

 

I have found only two records for the “French Baker”.  The first mention is a record is of “French Baker” renting the Norton-Cole House which is near the Williamsburg Courthouse.  The second mention is located in the Humphrey Hardwood ledger where an oven repair is listed at the Norton-Cole site.  I think the Norton-Cole location, which is close to the Market Square site, would have been a great selling location for the “French Baker”.   

Norton -Cole house shown on the Frenchman's Map of Williamsburg

In the 18^th century, bakers were more than just tradesmen.  Bakers were the center of the community and provided basic nourishment to all manner of people.  This type of blog represents one of my favorite subjects because it deals with real people and how they impact the community with their food-related lifework.      

 

 

Puff Pastry



            With its complexity and amazing flavor, puff pastry has captivated the pallets of all who have tried it.  From its creation, puff pastry has graced the tables of kings and rulers.  It was on the shelves of high end bakeries.  Today, we take for granted the accessibility of this one time luxury.  In this blog, I would like to look at three things: the origin of puff pastry, the techniques to make it, and what it was used for in the 18^th century.  

 



 

            The origin of puff pastry isn’t clearly recorded, as is the case with many different foods.  There is one myth that the famous painter, Claude Gelee, was making bread one day in the 17^th century for his sick father and came across the method of folding butter into bread.  But actually there are several references to puff pastry before his time.  Puff pastry most likely evolved from the Middle Eastern phyllo dough.  Phyllo moved through the Middle East, around the Mediterranean and into Muslim Spain.  From here, either the Germans or the French added butter and the intricate folding process.  The first accepted reference to puff pastry comes from France in the 14^th century.  The reference given is called “gâteau feuilleté” which means, “Cake Laminated”.  The record does not, however, mention how it was made.  The first reference to it that I can find actually named puff pastry is in 1549.  It comes from a menu in honor of Catherine de Medici’s coronation and lists “Quarante plats de petits feuilletage” or “forty little plates of puff pastries”. 

 

            The process of making puff pastry varies to this day.  The overall process starts with a simple dough mixture of water, butter and flour.  Much like a simple pie crust, you take your flour and cut in cold butter.  You then add cold water until it becomes a stiff paste.  In the modern kitchen, you would put this in the refrigerator and let it chill for 12 hours.  In the 18^th century, they would have immediately rolled out the paste into a rectangle.  Then you put a layer of butter in the middle of the puff pastry rectangle.  You then fold it like a business letter and then in half.  Today, you put this back in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm up and continue rolling it out the same way that you had done the first time. Back then they would have simply kept rolling it.

 

The Ball of Dough

The Layer of Butter

The Dough Folded

 

In the 18^th century, it is likely the upper classes who were making puff pastry could afford marble pastry boards. This would have been ideal for puff pastry because the marble stays 20 degrees below the outside temperature.  The differences in puff pastry come from additives and ingredient measures.  For example, Hannah Glasse calls for no egg to be added to her puff pastry dough but Amelia Simmons calls for the whites of eggs to be used.  It is the same way with measurements. Hannah Glasse calls for a peck of flour and half a pound of butter to be used whereas Amelia Simmons calls for 1 pound of butter and 2 pounds of flour. You can play around with the recipe to some degree as long as you keep the layers of butter and flour.  The science behind what makes puff pastry work is the many layers you create by folding the pastry several times.  You create layers of dough and butter which when heated, causes the butter to steam and make the pastry rise.

Puff Pastry Recipe

Hannah Glasse

"The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy"

1774

Amelia Simmons

"American Cookery"

1796

 



 

              Since its creation, puff pastry has been used for multiple dishes.  Louis XI, who ruled France from 1461 to 1483, was said to have a favorite puff pastry recipe of marzipan baked in puff pastry which would be a very decadent treat.  In the 18^th century, we have recipes for fish baked in puff pastry, pears or raspberry jam wrapped in pastry and boiled or baked like a pie pastry.  With its complexity and time consuming preparation, it is unlikely that the lower classes were enjoying puff pastry in the 18^th century.  Instead, the well-equipped upper class kitchens, with their full time staff or slave cooks, were likely the only ones enjoying this treat.

 

 

Croaker En Croûte

Fish Wrapped in Puff Pastry

To Fry or Bake Mushrooms in Paste

 

 

http://recipes.history.org/2015/03/des-beignets-de-gelee-de-grosseilles-fritters-of-currant-jam/

 

http://recipes.history.org/2014/08/to-bake-or-fry-mushrooms-in-paste/

 

http://recipes.history.org/2013/08/to-make-raspberry-dumplings/

 

For some 18th century puff pastry recipes take a look at these from Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Foodways.

 

 

 

            To prepare for this blog, this was my first attempt to make puff pastry.  While my family told me how good it tasted and the photos definitely show the ‘puff’ and layers of dough, I can honestly say that I am very thankful for packaged puff pastry.  With the convenience of packaged, prepared puff pastry so readily available in the grocery store, most people do not understand the work that it takes to make it on your own.  And this is one of the great examples of what I love about the historical cooking…we’ve come a long way.  Whether you enjoy homemade or packaged, sweet or savory, I think we can all agree that puff pastry is a treat that we all love.

 

           

Ramen, Reshte and Rigatoni

Whether it’s Ramen from Japan, Reshte from Afghanistan or Rigatoni from Italy, pasta is universally loved by all cultures today.  Whether eaten alone as a noodle dish or combined with other ingredients to make a pasta dish, this simple item can satisfy by itself or with many flavor combinations.  In the 18^th century, the popularity of noodles is debatable.  We have several recipes for it in period cookbooks but no real reference to its regular consumption outside of Italy or China.   

 

The story that you may have heard about Marco Polo bringing pasta from China to Italy is a complete myth.  Because many people did not have access to an oven, noodles are one of many dishes created by necessity since using an oven wasn’t necessary in their preparation.  Some of the other examples of culinary dishes that did not require oven use are dumplings, boiled puddings and sausage.  The earliest record of noodles comes from China.  Then, records show movement westward from China to Arab Lands.  From there, merchants most likely helped them spread through Europe.  The first reference to pasta in Italy is around the 1^st century B.C. and is a reference to a fried, thin dough called “lagana”.  Later in the 5^th century, another recipe for “lagana” calls for you to layer noodles and meat, a possible forerunner to modern day lasagna. 

 Making and Drying Pasta

Mid 15th Century

from Tacuinum Sanitatis

In the 14^th and 15^th centuries, dried pastas grew in popularity due to ease of storage.  In the 18^th century, we have recipes for dried thin pasta.  These thin, egg noodles were called “vermicelli” and recipes for them can be found in Hannah Glasse’s “The Art of Cookery” and Mary Randolph’s “The Virginia Housewife”.  Hannah Glasse calls for a mixture of eggs and water to be rolled out as thinly as possible.  This is then to be dried in the sun or by the fire and when drying is complete, it is to be cut with a very sharp knife into pieces.  There are two recipes I have found that call for a noodle like this.  The first is a vermicelli soup that is made by putting vermicelli in a broth and boiling it.  It is then served with a piece of toast on top.  The second is a vermicelli pudding where you bake the vermicelli in custard.  It is very unlikely that the poor class of the American Colonies made their own noodles, if they were consuming noodles at all.  The main consumers of noodles in the 18^th century were the upper middle class and the gentry.

 

Hannah Glasse's Vermicelli Recipe

 

 

Vermicelli Soup

Hannah Glasse

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

 

The other pasta commonly recorded in 18^th century cookbooks was macaroni.  Piped macaroni to the 18^th century what truffles and caviar are to most of us today…out of reach due to the high cost.  Italy managed to keep how they made macaroni a secret.  For anyone else to enjoy macaroni or other extruded pasta, it had to be exported from Italy which made the price extremely high.  Only the very rich could afford macaroni or any dish made out of it.  Lord Dunmore, the last Royal Governor of Virginia, is recorded to have bought 20 pounds of macaroni when he was in office.  Macaroni pudding and Macaroni soup are the only recipes I have found in cookbooks using this expensive commodity.  Sometimes just called macaroni, it was made by layering macaroni noodles, butter and cheese.  It was then baked in the oven. This dish, that we now enjoy and call macaroni and cheese, was quite literally the very definition of high fashion and extravagance.  Macaroni was a term, in the 18^th century, that was also used to describe the proper fashion of the day. And when the British wrote a variation of the song “Yankee Doodle” and said “stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni”, they were actually insulting Colonial American fashion.  Thomas Jefferson himself had a particular taste for macaroni, bringing cases of macaroni back with him from France to enjoy at his home in Virginia.  We know that he was interested in the process of making extruded pasta and have the benefit of his drawings that lay out the mechanics for a macaroni press. 

 

Thomas Jefferson's Drawing of a Macaroni Press

Library of Congress

 

"The best maccaroni in Italy is made with a particular sort of flour called Semola, in Naples: but in almost every shop a different sort of flour is commonly used; for, provided the flour be of a good quality, & not ground extremely fine, it will always do very well. a paste is made with flour, water & less yeast than is used for making bread. this paste is then put, by little at a time, vir. about 5. or 6. tb each time into a round iron box ABC. the under part of which is perforated with holes, through which the paste, when pressed by the screw DEF, comes out, and forms the Maccaroni g.g.g. which, when sufficiently long, are cut & spread to dry. the screw is turned by a lever inserted into the hole K, of which there are 4. or 6. it is evident that on turning the screw one way, the cylindrical part F. which fits the iron box or mortar perfectly well, must press upon the paste and must force it out of the holes. LIM is a strong wooden frame, properly fastened to the wall, floor, and ceiling of the room."

Thomas Jefferson

A Modern Plastic Macaroni Mould

          Macaroni Soup

          Hannah Glasse

               The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

 

Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

Mary Randolph

The Virginia Housewife

 

To me, it is interesting to study the food staples that have been around for centuries, and pasta has claimed its place as a culinary staple.  Its neutral flavor and versatility has elevated it from low class Chinese comfort food to high class culinary fair.  Whether you’re a starving college student eating ramen or a patron at a Michelin star restaurant, pasta is and will always be one of the many food loved by all.

Diet of the Lower Classes

          One aspect of life that remains constant throughout time is the necessity of food.  Since 96% of the colonial American population was poor, you can't truly study food history of the 18th century without looking into lower class cooking.  To study the cuisine of the poor, you must first look into their day to day lives outside of the kitchen. 

         

         
          Today we hear about the 1% of people who live significantly better than everyone else.  In the 18th century, you had the 4%.  These 4% controlled almost every aspect of life, from government to the arts.  Their hand could be seen in all of day to day life.  While the other 96% of the population lived quietly in the background making up the workforce for the upper classes.  The lower class were primarily made up of slaves and farmers,  with servants, sailors, and apprentice also falling in that same category.

         

          With our romantic view of the past, we sometimes fail to see the grittier, realistic side of history.  When we think of the 18th century, we probably think life was like a scene from Duke of Gloucester St. in the City of Williamsburg.  However, this represents the lifestyle of the upper 4% or as we would put it today the "rich and famous".  Reality paints a much more gruesome picture.  The majority of people had a one room home, with a possible second story or loft.  For the people who lived in this house, lives were centered around the hearth.  This is where the family came after working all day, to talk and share stories, but most importantly they came together to eat a meal.



                                                                                 





       Photo Courtesy of:

http://pursuingindependence1776.blogspot.com/2011/09/great-hopes-plantation.html





           This family meal was completely cooked by the woman of the house.  It most likely consisted of a stew, bread and beer.  The stew would have been made with the cheapest cuts of meat,  vegetables from the garden, and whatever else could have been put together.  It would have been made in one of the few, if not the only cooking device the family owned.  The iron pot was arguably the best thing to happen to American cuisine.  If you think about it, a lot of popular American cuisine is a one pot meal.  The iron pot was the main cooking device for all poor or lower class people in the 18th century.  Another important cooking device would have been the frying pan.  This would have the next purchase after an iron pot.

Inventory of Peter Drewry

August 17, 1767:

"2 iron pots, 1 pair pot hooks, 1 frying pan"

Inventory of Anne Dumford

August 21, 1780:

"1 Trivet Skillet, Pothooks, 2 pots"

( For more information on stew see my first blog entitled Hodge-Podge)

          

          Homemade bread would have been served with the stew.  If you could afford it,  you would have had an oven built at your home.  You would use this oven to bake bread with whole wheat flour or corn meal.  If you could not afford an oven at home, you would have boiled a dumpling in your iron pot, or made a cake in your frying pan or on a hoe. 

         

          Finally the beer would have been very easily available for the poor as their meal time beverage.  If you could not afford barley to make your beer, you would have used molasses or corn stalks to brew a beer like beverage.  This would have been the standard meal for the poor people of the 18th century for their entire lifetime. 

         

          No matter how hard the life of the poor in the colonies were, it was nothing compared to that of the poor in England.  In England the poor were relegated to "poor houses" or to the streets and gutters of major cities.  So in the colonies, the poor were somewhat better off.  In the colonies, they had the ability to own land, have a home, and a meal to have every night. 

         

          That I believe, is the lesson in this blog.  No matter how hard times were for the 18th century poor class,  having a meal with family somehow lifted their spirits.  And I believe that is still true  that, food and fellowship can heal the soul in a way, that not many other things can.     



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.