Beaten Corn Bread

While writing my research on Beaten Biscuits, I came across a recipe for Beaten Corn Bread, from WW1.  I have made beaten biscuits, but have not tried it using cornmeal.  It seems hard to believe cornmeal would work as the gluten in wheat does when beaten. 

BEATEN CORN BREAD
Work one heaping tablespoon of butter into a cup of corn meal, a cup of flour, two teaspoons of sugar, and a teaspoon of salt. Add enough water to moisten but not to wet it enough to make it crumble. Spread on a floured board and beat with a masher for twenty minutes, folding it over often. Roll out a half-inch thick, cut in rounds, prick with a fork and bake in greased shallow pan.
American Indian Corn: (maize) a cheap, wholesome, and nutritious food, 150 Ways to Prepare and Cook It. by Charles J. Murphy. Formerly Commissioner for the State of Nebraska. NY: 1917
"Millions of people in America are earnestly seeking a way to "do their bit" toward winning the war. Here is a simple solution of the problem: Eat Corn Bread! This is an initial step toward efficient food conservation.
In 1917, Congress sent out another corn message, this time to the American people. This message urged the use of corn meal— converted into some of the palatable oldfashioned dishes—on our tables at least once a day, to release most of our wheat crop for the sustenance of the Allied armies."

Another book published during the war to save wheat by using corn: 

The Corn Cook Book [WAR EDITION] Elizabeth O. Hiller. New York: 1918  "Save the wheat" is the call that has been sent out from Washington to the housekeepers of America.  In response to this urgent plea, this new War Edition of the Corn Cook Book containing 200 recipes has been compiled, showing the various ways that this valuable cereal can be utilized so as to save wheat for ourselves and our Allies.

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Food History Symposiums 2011

There are three food symposiums in the next couple months in Chicago and near Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pa.

April 9 “…Drink…friendly to Nature…and accommodated to General use.”  Pennsbury Manor, Morrisville, PA. Deborah's Pantry. Four speakers on Porter and the Industrialization of Brewing; Wines; Colonial Cider; and Historical Brewing: Practical Considerations for the Brewer. MORE INFO

Apr 29-My 1 "Foodways of the Great Depression." Chicago, Ill. Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance. MORE INFO

May 21 "Spices, Sugar and Isinglass." William Vicary Mansion. Freedom PA. Four speakers on Sugar; Puddings; Spices; and Cakes. MORE INFO

MORE FOOD SYMPOSIUMS 2011 HERE

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
hearthcook.com

Ramps

Now is the time of year that Ramps begin to appear, and ramp festivals abound in West Virginia and surrounding mountain areas.  For a list of festivals and dinners go HERE , which also has links to information, recipes, etc.  An article on digging ramps is HERE .

There is even a ramp farm with mail order service HERE or order from  Earthy Delights  which also sells fiddleheads, mushrooms, and many other items.

Allium Tricoccum (three-seeded garlick). A native of North America; six inches in height, with white flowers, which are produced in July. Increased by offsets. Introduced in 1770, by Mr. W. Young.
Miller, Phillip.  The Gardeners Dictionary. London: 1835 9th ed.

Allium tricoccum - Wild Leek.   Bulbs ovoid, clustered, high, seated on a short rootstock, their coats fibrous-reticulated. Leaves oblong-lanceolate or elliptic, appearing early in the spring, but withering and disappearing before flowering time, 6'-12' long, 1'-2' wide, narrowed at both ends, tapering into a long petiole...

In rich woods, New Brunswick to Minnesota, south to North Carolina and Tennessee. Often grows in large beds. Ascends to 4500 ft. in North Carolina. June-July.
Britton, Nathaniel Lord.  An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada....  New York: 1896
The image is from the Britton book.

Maple sugar - Tapping the trees

While at a great day-long workshop on Maple Sugaring at Genesee Country Village & Museum in New York, we learned the various ways trees were tapped through history, and made some tools such as a sumach spout, wooden spile, wooden trough, and wooden buckets.

Gash - 17th cen.

Baron La Hontan, in his book New Voyages to North America... 1683-1694, observed that the "...liquor is drawn by cutting the tree two inches deep in the wood, the cut being made sloping to the length of ten or twelve inches, at the lower end of this gash a knife is thrust into rhe tree slopingly, so that the water runs along the cut or gash, as through a gutter, and falls upon the knife which has some vessels placed underneath to receive it. [He incorrectly stated that the] gash does no harm to the tree. Of this sap they make sugar and syrup...but few of the inhabitants that have the patience to make them, for as common things are slighted so there are scarce any body but children that give themselves the trouble of gashing these trees."

Spout and Troughs - 1792

"The perforation in the tree is made with an ax or an auger; the latter is preferred from experience of its advantages: the auger is introduced about three-fourths of an inch, and in an ascending direction, that the sap may not be frozen in a slow current in the mornings or evenings, and is afterwards deepened gradually to the extent of two inches.

A spout is introduced about half an inch into the hole made by this auger, and projects from three to twelve inches from the tree. The spout is generally made of the sumach, or elder, which generally grow in the neighbourhood of the sugar trees... 

 [Remove the center pith by burning  or picking out.]

Troughs large enough to contain three or four gallons made of white pine, or white ash, or of dried water ash, aspen, linden, poplar or common maple, are placed under the spout to receive the sap...To preserve the sap from rain and impurities of all kinds, it is a good practice to cover the troughs with a concave board, with a hole in the middle of it."  An Account of the Sugar Maple-tree, of the United States, and of the methods of obtaining Sugar from it...by Benjamin Rush, M.D. Phila: 1792

Spiles - 19th cen.

Spiles or spouts were carved out of wood, or made of cast iron or tin. 


For other postings on my blog on Maple Sugar HERE and Sugar HERE.

©2011 Patricia Bixler Reber
http://www.hearthcook.com/

Spun Sugar

Put half a pound of water with one pound of Marshall's cane sugar in a perfectly clean copper sugar-boiler or thick stewpan; cover the pan over, bring to the boil, remove any scum as it rises from time to time, and continue boiling until the liquid forms a thick bubbled appearance (commonly called the crack) ; then take a small portion on a clean knife or spoon (or the finger may be used, but must be well wetted with cold water and used very quickly), aud plunge it immediately into cold water, and if it is then quite brittle and leaves the knife or spoon or finger quite clear it is ready for spinning. If it clings or is at all soft or pliable, continue the boiling until as above. When ready take a small portion on a fork or spoon, and rapidly throw it to and fro over a slightly oiled rolling-pin; continue until sufficient threads of sugar are obtained. [Marshall, Agnes B.  Mrs. A. B. Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes.  London: 1902]

Careme had many recipes making use of spun sugar in his section "Of Pieces Montrees" for elaborate centerpieces involving globes, buildings, fountains etc. The roof of the image is spun sugar.  [Careme, M.A. The Royal Parisian Pastrycook and Confectioner. London: 1834]

Three recipes from 1769 by Raffald are "To spin a Silver Web for covering Sweetmeats, To spin a Gold Web for covering Sweetmeats, [and] To make a Desert [sic] of Spun Sugar." To make a web or bowl, butter the bottom of an inverted bowl and taking the prepared syrup with a knife tip "...draw as quick as possible backwards and forwards, and also around the Mould, as long as it will spin from the Knife; be very careful you do not not drop the Syrup on the Web..."  [Raffald, Elizabeth. The Experienced English House-keeper. Manchester: 1769]

"Temples and pavilions of four to five feet in height can be made; and when the sugar is properly boiled, and in dry weather, this work will keep several days: the author has kept some pieces quite perfect for a month, by excluding them carefully from the air.  [Jarrin, William. The Italian Confectioner. London: 1829]

Lincoln's inauguration meals

After Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration on March 4, 1861, he is supposed to have dined on Mock Turtle Soup, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Parsley Potatoes and Blackberry Pie.  Mock Turlte Soup is actually made from a calf's head, as seen below.

The menu for the 1865 Inauguration ball dinner is from the Library of Congress online collection HERE. Click on the image for an enlarged view.

Mrs. Lincoln owned a copy of Eliza Leslie's Directions for Cookery. Leslie's recipe for Calf's Head Soup... also called Mock Turtle Soup:

MOCK TURTLE OR CALF'S HEAD SOUP

This soup will require eight hours to prepare. Take a large calf's head, and having cleaned, washed, and soaked it, put it into a pot with a knuckle of veal, and the hock of a ham, or a few slices of bacon; but previously cut off and reserve enough of the veal to make two dozen small forcemeat balls. Put the head and the other meat into as much water as will cover it very well, so that it may not be necessary to replenish it: this soup being always made very rich. Let it boil slowly four hours, skimming it carefully. As soon as no more scum rises, put in six potatoes, and three turnips, all sliced thin; with equal proportions of parsley, sweet marjoram, and sweet basil, chopped fine; and pepper and salt to your taste.

An hour before you send the meat to table, make about two dozen small force-meat balls of minced veal and beef-suet in equal quantities, seasoned with pepper and salt; sweet herbs, grated lemon-peel, and powdered nutmeg and mace. Add some beaten yolk of egg to make all these ingredients stick together. Flour the balls very well, and fry them in butter. Before you put them into the soup, take out the head, and the other meat. Cut the meat from the head in small pieces, and return it to the soup. When the soup is nearly done, stir in half a pint of Madeira. Have ready at least a dozen eggballs made of the yolks of hard boiled eggs, grated or pounded in a mortar, and mixed with a little flour and sufficient raw yolk of egg to bind them. Make them up into the form and size of boy's marbles. Throw them into the soup at the last, and also squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Let it get another slow boil, and then put it into the tureen.

We omit a receipt for real turtle soup, as when that very expensive, complicated, and difficult dish is prepared in a private family, it is advisable to hire a first-rate cook for the express purpose.

An easy way is to get it ready made, in any quantity you please, from a turtle-soup house.

Directions for Cookery. Eliza Leslie. Phila: 1840 11th ed.


Should brown gravy or mock turtle soup be spoiling, fresh-made charcoal, roughly pounded, tied in a little bag and boiled with either, will absorb the bad flavor and leave it sweet and good. The charcoal may be made by simply putting a bit of wood into the fire, and pounding the burnt part in a mortar.

The Cook's Own Book. Mrs. N.K.M. Lee and Eliza Leslie. Boston: 1840