Luis Melendez - Still Life: fruits, vegetables & cooking utensils

Luis Melendez: Master of the Spanish Still Life




After leaving the National Museum of Art in DC, the show will be in LA from Sept 23-January 3, and Boston in January 31-May 9, 2010.

For those unable to see the exhibition, the National Museum of Art website has some gorgeous photos of the paintings and objects.

The still life paintings of Luis Melendez [1715-1780] depict tomatoes, melons, cauliflower, fish, bread, pomegranates, artichokes and more fruits & vegetables with cooking utensils. In addition to the paintings, the exhibition includes "period objects—including an 18th-century cork wine cooler, Alcorcón pottery, a lusterware honey pot, and a copper chocolate pot—like those represented in Meléndez's mesmerizing still lifes.

"Further details at the website: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/melendezinfo.shtm If you click the 'exhibition feature' on the right of the main page you see a slide show of over 30 of his paintings and photos of objects on display.

Slide show direct link: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2009/melendez/index.shtm

Library of Congress

As the largest library in the world with 530 miles of bookshelves, LC’s collection of books, manuscripts, prints… anything and everything, is phenomenal. Cooking and related materials include eleven editions of Hannah Glasse’s Art of Cookery and two of her extremely rare Complete Confectioner, La Varenne, children’s cookbooks, handwritten receipt manuscripts, herbals, Diderot, other early encyclopedias, and much more.

The Italianate Arts Jefferson building, with its stunning main reading room, was built to replace the library in the Capitol. The awesome domed ceiling rises high above the circulation desk where users drop off their request slips and pick up the books. On the floor above is the Rare Book Room. In addition to the books from the famed library of Thomas Jefferson, there are several large cookbook collections which were donated to the library.

Most of the cookbooks are housed on closed stacks in the Adams building, with its own reading room and reference shelves. The manuscript and prints rooms are in the newest building, the Madison, where first time researchers must apply for a library card. To view the other specialized rooms, hours and the catalog, go to: Library of Congress Catalog

The conveyor system to move the books from the closed shelves within and between the buildings is fascinating. The request slip is time stamped at the center desk by a machine which careens throughout the vast room. Each time, which is often, the sound reminds me of the loud noise the librarian made while stamping the due date in books in the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". The slip is then placed in one of the pneumatic tubes and sent from the reading room desk to the appropriate building. The book arrives on the conveyor in the central desk area.

The Handbook of the New Library of Congress, (1897) states the “about a quarter of a mile” to the Capitol is covered by a tunnel containing a pneumatic tube, wires of private telephones, and the book-carrying apparatus going 600 feet a minute. The author proclaimed “...it is said that a Congressman can get the volumes he desires in less time than it would have taken him when the Library occupied its old quarters in the Capitol itself.”

While users view LC as a delightful source of endless information, it is the Congress’s library. In addition to collecting and making available materials for Congressional members and their staff, it is the classroom for the youngest Federal employees— the House and Senate Pages (High School Juniors). The summer Pages, like my son Drew, could use the computer room or books on their free time.

American Memory. The ever increasing on-line collection of materials from prints to books is searchable by word, phrase, or browse by topics such as ‘Women's History’ and ‘Culture/Folklife’. Various presidents’ papers, slave narratives, ‘Traveling in America’ documents [1750-1920], ‘Nineteenth Century Periodicals’ and books are online.

The pictures on this page are from the LC Prints and Photographs Online

©2009 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Food for Thought Symposium - NH

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: A STUDY OF THE PAST THROUGH FOOD was held at Enfield Shaker Museum. Enfield NH thro www.newhampshirefarms.net or 603-727-9251

Landis Valley Cookbook

The Landis Valley Cookbook: Pennsylvania German Foods & Traditions, Second Edition by Landis Valley Associates. Stackpole Books: 2009.

The Landis Valley Cookbook is back in print! The first edition in 1999 was terrific, and this is even better. The 2d edition contains over fifteen additional recipes, more of the pictures are in color (88), and the spiral inside the hard binding allows the book to lay flat when in use.

Tom Martin is eminently suited to spearhead this second edition, after co-writing the first, and contributing the recipes. He was born and raised in the Lancaster county where his Great Grandfather was a Mennonite Bishop, his Mother and Grandmother excelled at cooking the traditional foods, and he learned to speak Pennsylvania Dutch.

For over twenty years, Tom has been in charge of the foodways department at the museum. His advanced hearth cooking and baking classes, whatever the topic, are extremely popular - with many repeat students, including hearth cooks who have themselves been teaching classes for years. This February’s advanced class involved processing a whole pig, and making ham, scrapple, etc.

Landis Valley Museum reflects a German farming community from 1740-1940. The Landis brothers, Henry and George, started sharing their immense collection with the public in 1925. After their deaths in the mid 1950s, the state took over the museum.

The book is divided into subject areas containing historical information and recipes. A section on barn raising includes a reminiscence by Tom. The funeral foods and practices chapter is subtitled “Don’t He Fit His Coffin Nice?” The quote came from Backman’s Funeral Home, the oldest family owned funeral home since 1764. Other chapters are Moving Day; St. Gertrude’s Day; Easter; Baking Day; Quilting Bees; Giving Thanks; Butchering Day; Christmas; New Year’s Day; Groundhog Day; Vendues/Sales; and Medicines, Misfits, & Miscellaneous. The book also contains a selected bibliography and index.

The recipes are delicious. The hot bacon dressing tastes as good as what my Grandmother made for the spring dandelion leaves. The traditional recipes include chicken corn soup, pig stomach, shoofly pie, Buwe Schenkel (filled noodles), Gumbis, Gingerbread, Rye Bread, and instructions for clear toy candy. There are many historical recipes, labeled "Authentic Recipe," some from Landis family and local manuscripts, such as Cider Cake [1862] To Pickle French Beans [Sarah Yeates d.1829] and Yeast from Potatoes [Baer's Almanac, 1848]

Everyone who has taken Tom’s classes will recognize some favorites - the delicate and delicious faschnachts, as well as mush muffins. Tom’s baking is so renowned that during the Fall Festival people wait in line for a sample of his pies and other treats from his bake oven. Wait in line!

The photographs in the book include long time museum volunteers and HFSDV members. Tom was the second President of HFSDV. Peggy Gelnett and Linda Zeigler, members of HFSDV, are also pictured.

Tom Martin’s marvelous modern interpretations of old favorites make this a must have cookbook.

©2009 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Iced Tea history using online primary resources

Iced Tea/Ice Tea

Not everything on the internet is true. Do a basic Google search for iced tea history, and you may read that the first recipe appeared in Marion Cabell Tyree's Housekeeping in Old Virginia in 1879. Some web sites contend that it was introduced by Richard Blechynden at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. As early as the 1840s, references appeared in books for iced tea.

"Throughout the summer, ices are sold in the streets of every Russian town; and not only iced water, iced wine, and iced beer, but even iced tea, is drunk in immense quantities." [GB Kohl] There was a recipe in Timbs in 1869.

A northern cookbook, Buckeye Cookery, first published in 1876, gave what may be a ‘sweet tea’ - the sugar and tea are heated, a method not appearing in other 19th century recipes I’ve read.

Iced Tea
Prepare tea in the morning, making it stronger and sweeter than usual; strain and pour into a clean stone jug or glass bottle, and set aside in the ice-chest until ready to use. Drink from goblets without cream. Serve ice broken in small pieces on a platter nicely garnished with well-washed grape-leaves. Iced tea may be prepared from either green or black alone, but it is considered an improvement to mix the two.
Wilcox

A literary reference from 1860: "Last summer we got in the habit of taking the tea iced, and really thought it better than when hot." [GB Robinson] Several accounts by travelers in Russia in the 1840s described how tea was cooled by ice and served with sugar and lemon in every town during the summer. [GB New] ‘Russian Iced Tea’ or ‘Iced Tea a la russe’ recipes appeared later in Fannie Farmer, Aunt Babette, Boston Cook Book and other cookbooks.

Some early references were medicinal. Several times Dr. Dewees, in his 1854 book, recommended cold tea, and in Chambers, under 'Thirst’ - "Cold tea, without milk or sugar, is the most satisfying drink under these circumstances." However, an article in the Inter Ocean detailed the perils of iced tea. [GB; MOA; NN]

“Iced tea is the latest beverage” proclaimed a Maine newspaper. [NN Bangor 1872] “Iced tea is constantly growing in favor, and is now considered a standard beverage in many homes.” [NN Boston 1888] Iced tea was “liberally provided during the warm weather” in the Senate cloak-rooms, and yet that year, 1884, “the use of iced tea as a summer drink has not yet attracted the attention it deserves…”[GB American; Frank Leslie]

In 1897, “Ice-cream and ice-tea are terms now commonly used for what are properly iced-cream and iced-tea.” [GB Raub] The no ‘d’ ice tea had actually been used earlier. [GB New 1842]

An early non-brewed recipe stated “...the best iced tea is not steeped in hot water. Just try “steeping” it for a few hours in cold water, using a little more tea than for the hot beverage and having it strong enough to be weakened with ice-water when it is to be served.” [NN Bangor 1880] It was also the method found in Aunt Babette’s. [FA 1889]

The term was also a euphemism for brandy as in a 1775 London dictionary: "Cold’tea. Brandy." [ECAsh] A century later an article recounted a Senator’s stay at the Ocean House, Newport which was ‘strictly prohibition.’ He was told to go to the Casino and ask for iced tea. “But I don’t drink cold iced tea,” interrupted the senator. “Of course not, you only call for it. Don’t you understand? They’ll bring you brandy and soda.” [NN Sentinel 1886]

Newspaper articles in the later part of the 19th century discussed the virtues of either green or black teas and the best method to prepare iced tea. One even contained a poem to Iced Tea. [NN Daily Picayune, 1897]

Advertisements offered free iced tea samples in the tea shops. “As usual, delicious ice tea served free at the Tea Store today.” [NN Macon 1896] Remember that the next you order an ice tea and pay several dollars.

Web Sites Searched
EC Eighteenth Century [Gale, in libraries]
FA Feeding America - http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/index.html
GB Google Books - http://books.google.com
MOA Making of America - http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa
NN Nineteenth Century Newspapers [Gale– in libraries]

Works Cited
American Druggist. July 1884 p130
Ash, John. New and Complete Dictionary. London: 1775
Aunt Babette’s Cook Book. Cincinnati: Block Pub., 1889 p465
Chambers's Encyclopaedia. Phila: Lippincott & Co 1872-73.
Dewees, Wm. Treatise on the diseases of females. Phila: Blanchard, 1854. 10th
Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly. June1884 p645
Kohl, JG. Panorama of St. Petersburg. London: 1852
New Monthly Magazine. 1842 review of Kohl’s Russia...in 1842. p144
Raub, Albert. Helps in the Use of Good English. Phila: 1897 p 248
Robinson, Solon. How to Live. NY: Fowler & Wells, 1860. p 157
Timbs, John. The Year-book of Facts in Science and Art. London: 1869 p159
Tyree, Marion. Housekeeping in Old Virginia. 1878 p64
Wilcox, Estelle. Buckeye Cookery. Minn: 1877 p119

Atchison Daily Globe (Ks) July 16, 1897 p4
Bangor Daily Whig & Courier (Me) Aug 24, 1872; Aug 9, 1880
Boston Daily Advertiser (Ma) June 28, 1888 p4
Daily Picayune (New Orleans) Aug 7, 1897 p7
Inter Ocean (Chicago) July 25, 1878 p2
Macon Telegraph (Ga.) Aug 1, 1896 p5
Milwaukee Sentinel (Wi) Aug 22, 1886 – from: Albany Evening Journal

©2009 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com
Cooking and Dining through History Blog

Foodways in the 18th Century Symposium

Nov 8-10 Foodways in the 18th Century: Bringing Virginia's Bounty to the Royal Governor's Table a symposium held at Colonial Williamsburg. http://www.history.org/

Raffald's Chocolate Puffs

To begin this blog, I give my version of one of my favorite receipts [recipe]. It is easy to make, and is always among the samples for my Chocolate talk.

CHOCOLATE PUFFS
Beat and sift half a pound of double-refined sugar, scrape into it one ounce of chocolate very fine; mix them together. Beat the white of an egg to a very high froth, then strew in your sugar and chocolate, keep beating it till it is as stiff as a paste. Sugar your papers, and drop them on about the size of a sixpence, and bake them in a very slow oven.
Raffald, Elizabeth. The Experienced English Housekeeper. London: 1786

Making the recipe

1 egg white
1 C superfine sugar
1 oz unsweetened chocolate - grated

Beat the egg white stiff. Add the superfine sugar and 1oz. grated chocolate, stirring until well mixed. Drop on baking paper. Bake in a slow [300] oven for 25-30 min. The puffs will double in size.

©2009 Patricia Bixler Reber

hearthcook.com