The Hans Herr House Newsletter came yesterday, and it had a short note on preserving food in the eighteenth century. By and large, I am going to copy the note without modification.
One of the most important tasks of the eighteenth-century housewives was to preserve food from the garden, orchard, and field, to feed their families over the winter. This, before the days of refrigeration, was no easy job. The canning process had not been invented yet. Pickling, drying, and "salting down" were some of the most common preservation methods. Even then, it was a matter of luck if the food stayed fresh for more than a few months before growing a fine crop of mold.
Fruit was frequently dried. Apples, for example, were cut into pieces and either spread on boards or threaded together and hung in a dry place in the house. Fruit could also be preserved in this way:
"To preserve Peaches. Put your peaches in boiling water, just give them a scald, but don't let them boil, take them out, and put them in cold water, then dry them in a sieve, and put them in long wide mouthed bottles. To a half dozen peaches, take a quarter of a pound of sugar, clarify it, pour it over your peaches, and fill the bottle with brandy, stop them close and keep them in a close place."
"To preserve Cherries. Take two pounds of cherries, one pound and a half of sugar, half a pint of fair water, melt some sugar in it; when it is melted, put in your other sugar and your cherries; then boil them softly, till all of the sugar be melted; then boil them fast, and skim them; take them off two or three times and shake them, and put them on again, and let them boil fast; and when they are of a good colour, and the sirrup will stand, they are boiled enough."
At least that was how Amelia Simmons put it in 1796, in " American Cookery ."
Fresh garden peas were as popular then as now, and resourceful cooks tried to find ways to keep them throughout the year.
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy"To keep Green Peas till Christmas. Take fine young peas, shell them, throw them into boiling water with some salt in it, let them boil five or six minutes, throw them into a cullender to drain, then put a cloth four or five times double on a table, and spread them on; dry them very well, and have your bottles ready, fill them and cover them with mutton-fat dried; when it is a little cool, fill the necks almost to the top, cork them, tie a bladder and a lath over them, and set them in a cool dry place."
The bladder was exactly that: an animal bladder, washed and dried. The "lath" is probably a circle of leather tied on the top of the bladder to double seal the peas.
[I had forgotten how good the brandied peaches could be. I like peaches.]
(08 Aug 01)
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