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!!

Barbecue

            Barbecue is an American culinary giant.  With its rugged appearance, and amazing complex flavor, barbecue stands out as a genuine American flavor.   Enjoyed at political, social and church events, since the time of George Washington it has been a part of our national fabric.  With such a popular dish there are many variations of it making barbecue one of the hardest foods to define.  But possibly with a look at its history, the true meaning of the word can be ascertained. 

           

 

             Barbecue is believed by most food anthropologists, to have been first consumed by the Taino people of the Caribbean.  The native peoples of the Caribbean would cook and preserve their meats, primarily fish, over a fire.  They would build cooking devices using four tall green saplings, to which a grill like surface would be attached.  A smoldering fire would be built under it and the resulting cooked food would be tender and have a smoky flavor.  This action was first observed in 1492 by Christopher Columbus.  The Taino word for the action of cooking meat that way was recorded as barbecoa. Barbecoa was first printed in the Old World by the Spanish historian, Oviedo, in a book on his travels in the Caribbean and Spanish Florida in the 16^th century.  The people of England and Spain latched onto this phrase, barbecoa, because it sounded so much like barbaric, which is what they considered these natives and their ways.  The French interpretation of barbecoa becomes buccan.  Fast forward a few hundred years and the Caribbean islands were crawling with the pigs left by Columbus, and the seas were overcome with pirates and scallywags.  The pirates would land on these islands and hunt for the wild pigs and are known to have cooked their catch on buccans.  They enjoyed this method and used it so much they became known as buccaneers. 

            Even now, there is debate about whether barbecue is a food or a food event.    In the northern part of America you go to a barbecue and eat hot dogs and hamburgers.  In the South you go to a barbecue and actually eat barbecue.  From what I can tell, in the 18^th and 19^th century, the term barbecue was used to explain both a food event and food.  I have found two quotes from George Washington on the matter.   One from 1769 states, “Went in to Alexandria to a Barbecue stayed all night.”  This was a reference suggesting barbecue as a public gathering.  Then Washington states in a letter dated 1758 to Henry Bouquet, “That we have not an ounce of Salt provisions of any kind here, and that it is impossible to preserve the fresh (meat) by any other means than barbecuing it in the Indian manner.”  These two statements lead me to believe that Washington considered barbecue both a food and an event. 

Photo By:Jacob W. Dillow

Photo By: Jacob W. Dillow

A Colonial Barbecue recreated by Michael Twitty.  For more pictures and information please go to his blog Afroculinaria.

His Blog:

http://afroculinaria.com/

The Blog for the Pictures:

http://afroculinaria.com/2012/07/14/the-colonial-roots-of-southern-barbecue-re-creating-the-birth-of-an-american-culinary-staple/ 

            The barbecoa lost its popularity in the 18^th century and was replaced with the pit.  Plantation owners would have their slaves dig deep pits over which sticks, or even metal rods, would be placed through whole hogs and roasted for hours.  One of the only recipes for this is found in Mary Randolph’s 1824 edition of, “The Virginia Housewife”.  The recipe is for “barbecue shote”.  Shote was the southern nickname for a young or suckling pig.  This would have been done for birthdays, weddings or anniversaries.  The party surrounding the event would be an all-day affair much like a scene from Gone with the Wind.  The party was a time for socializing and finding respectable husbands for woman.  Men would be busy smoking, drinking and exchanging political and philosophical opinions of the day.

            Ever more popular today, barbecue is an art form with a huge following.  It is enjoyed by many at family owned restaurants that have been around for generations.  And it is popular with a whole new generation enjoying it at food trucks and pop up restaurants.  The beauty of barbecue is that everyone can make it their own whether experimenting with sauces in their kitchen or methods in the back yard.   It is the exact example of America, in that its ruggedness and complexity provide opportunity for individual expression while being enjoyed by the masses.  Whether you think of barbecue as a dish or an event, barbecue is part of the American heritage and in the end, needs no definition to be appreciated.   

 

Pancakes

            Millions of Americans eat them for breakfast every day.  They have been made available at quick stops, as fine dining, and at famous fast food restaurants throughout the world.  Why not?  Who can resist the warm, buttery, fluffy and especially sugary, taste of pancakes?  Doesn’t the smell of pancakes bring back memories of the iconic golden, thick syrup, and loved ones for every one of us?  That hasn’t always been the case.  Served in the past as finger food to be eaten alongside meats and vegetables, pancakes have a diverse history which can be found in every culture on earth. 

The Pancake Bakery by Pieter Aertsen 1560



 The Pancake Woman by Rembrandt 1635

The history of pancakes goes back to the beginning of time.  Before ovens and pans, early civilizations would make crude pancakes on thin rocks over a fire.  When the pan became a more common sight in the kitchen, pancakes where one of the first things to be cooked in them.  The Greeks made pancakes which they simply called “Frying Pans”.  The actual word pancake is a little hard to trace etymologically.  The dictionary will usually want to give the definition of pan or cake.  However, the word pancake as a whole can be found in English print as far back as the 13^th century.  Pancakes seem to have become popular in Europe as a way for the poor to cook their grain.  They developed a simple batter of ground barley, water and salt and by using this method of cooking that batter on thin rocks or in a pan over a fire, they didn’t need access to the master’s oven.  The rich, who also loved pancakes, used more refined and expensive ingredients to make their own version as a perfect showcase for their wealth.  They would make pancakes with sugar, milk, and the finest flour to impress everyone at their table.  In the 18^th century, recipes were given for rich and poor versions of pancakes in William Ellis’ book,” The Country Housewife’s Family Companion” published in 1750.  The pancake remained popular and comes over to America with the British to Jamestown. They might have been shocked that the Native Americans already had their own version of pancakes called “nocaheche”.  These Native American cakes would later become part of America’s culinary history.

 

Universal Cook and City and Country Housekeeper

1792

 

 

            In the 18^th century, cookbook authors mentioned several different categories of pancakes.  They mentioned savory pancakes like a recipe for Clary Pancakes found in the “Universal Cook: and City and Country Housekeeper”.  This savory recipe calls for you to take pancakes and layer them with clary leafs. (My research leads me to think that the clary leaves are like big sage leaves.) And then you have sweet pancake recipes which called for milk, sugar and eggs to be used.  There are also recipes for plain pancakes, which were not sweet or savory.  Instead, you just used flour and water with some salt to make a form of light dinner bread of sorts.  Any of these pancake types could be served at one or more dinner courses.

 

Pancakes from the

Universal Cook and City and Country Housekeeper

1792  

            The Hoe or Johnny Cake is arguably the most American of all pancakes.  The Hoe or Johnny Cake has its origins in that previously mentioned Native American nocaheche.  The Native Americans would grind corn, mix it with water and cook it on thin stones.  The colonists saw this and imitated it by cooking their batter in pans.  Their slaves, not having access to pans, came up with another method.  They would mix their ration of cornmeal with water, build a fire and cook it on the hoes they were had been using in the field.  That is how the Hoe Cake gets its name.  It is said that towards the end of his life, George Washington, not being able to eat much else, ate Johnny Cakes often.  He would soak them in milk and eat them with molasses or maple syrup drizzled over them.  In fact, Hoe Cakes are such an American invention that the first American cookbook, Amelia Simmons’ “American Cookery” published in 1796, has a version in it.

 

Hannah Glasse The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy

1774

            From being enjoyed by rich and poor alike, pancakes have become a universal comfort food for the masses.  Adapting to every culture it finds itself in; pancakes are truly a universal food in that way.  Enjoyed by our colonial ancestors and their ancestors alike, we have a link through pancakes to those early civilizations that long ago only had barley and water to use for pancake making.  So the next time you are eating pancakes, whether at your breakfast table at home or the local pancake house, take a minute to think of the extraordinary, culinary connection you have with long ago…time travel not required!

Sausage

When you think of a true American dish or meal you would almost certainly think of hot dogs.  You would be right to do so.  Hot dogs, or the more generalized sausage, have been on kettle grills in the back yards of American for the past fifty years.  The sausages we eat today are steeped in history, from being mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey to being enjoyed at every baseball game since Babe Ruth.  Sausage is an unique example of how ingenuity and a want for preserving food for future consumption, motivates many of mankind’s greatest accomplishments.

Sausage comes from the Latin salsica meaning too heavily salt.  The origin of its name implies what sausage was intended to do.  Sausage was a means of preserving meat for later.  By heavily salting pieces of chopped meat and putting them in tightly packed animal intestines with no air, bacteria would go nowhere near it.  Though the Greeks lay claim to the oldest mention of sausage in Homer’s Odyssey, the first recipe for it can be found in the oldest known cookbook.  “Apicus”, written sometime around 35 B.C. by Marcus Gavius Apicus mentions 16 recipes for sausage, the most popular of all of them being Lucanian sausage.  His recipe for Lucanian sausage called for ground meat, pepper, cumin, savory, parsley, nuts, and laurel berries to be put into intestines and put up to smoke.  Ending up in hard times, Apicus, believing that life was not worth living without fine food, killed himself by poisoning.  It is rumored that the fatal dose of poison was administered in a sausage.  The sausage technique migrated through all of the territories occupied by Rome.  This is why several of the most famous sausage lovers are from these regions.  

Sausage, in the form we know today, came to the Americas with the Europeans who settled here.  To this day the types of sausages popular with the people who settled the New World are still popular in the areas in which they settled.  For instance Cuba, Brazil, and Mexico all use the Spanish sausage Tereso in there cuisine.  New York and the areas around it, settled primarily by Northern Europeans, eat a lot of Kielbasa, Bratwurst, and Frankfurters.  Finally Canada and Louisiana settled by the French eat primarily Boudin and Andouille.  



From Hannah Glasse "The Art of Cookery" 1774

I believe in the 18^th century, sausage was very much based on family recipes and social rank.  Depending on the cut of meat used, the seasoning, or if you smoked, dried, boiled, or fried it.  Recipes from period cookbooks give a generalized look at what the sausage of the period looked and tasted like.  The primary flavorings of the late 18^th century for sausages were salt, pepper, and sage.  In the early 18^th century sage was still the most popular flavoring, but it was paired with parsley, and nutmeg.  The meat throughout the 18^th century remained constant.  The primary, or lean, cut seems to be the belly or bacon.  This was mixed with fat from pork or beef suet in a three part lean to one part fat mixture. 

All of the sausage mixture was then stuffed into casings.  The casings where called guts in all of the cookbook recipes and the gut they were referring to were most likely the inner fat lining of the large intestine.  The sausage was stuffed with a sausage stuffer - a long hollow tube with a spout, and a wooden plunger to push the ingredients into the intestines.  Another method was simply using a funnel.

 

 

Cooking methods varied, but the most popular forms of cooking came from the traditional use of sausage.  With the goal of preservation, you could smoke or dry the sausage. A combination of both was most popular. You could also boil or fry them.  Mary Randolph suggests taking the filling, to form them into patties, and fry them.

Sausage is a dish found in almost every culture in the world, but has the unique ability of adapting to the society in which it finds itself.  In America, our national dish seems to be one of diversity.  Think about every time that you have eaten a hot dog at a baseball game or at a fair.  Realize that every time you do, you are eating something that has been eaten by Roman Emperors and peasants alike.  In every country, every society, and in every social class, sausage has been enjoyed for centuries.  So whenever you eat your hot dog or bratwurst enjoy your unique taste of history.