Comment: No, don’t start mixing a batch of curry powder. The word “Indian” in this case means Indian meal, or as it is known today, cornmeal. Why the exceedingly useful word “maize” for the premier grain of the New World did not become universal in the land of its birth is unknown. The word “corn” to a European could refer to any grain, be it wheat, barley or whatever, so was useless in describing the meal made from the grains of any particular plant. What we now call corn in America was created over millenia by crossbreeding Mexican grass plants, in what has been described as the most impressive feat of genetic engineering ever accomplished. Perhaps Native Americans deserve to have their name attached to their plant after all. Oh, and “sweet” milk is simply milk that is fresh and not soured. It does not imply the addition of sugar or other sweetener.

1 qt. (4 cups) cornmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbs butter OR 4 tbs. finely chopped suet
2 eggs, beaten
Milk
Molasses (optional topping)

Sift a quart of fine Indian meal, mix with it a salt-spoonful of salt, a spoonful of butter, or two of finely chopped suet, two well beaten eggs and enough sweet milk to make it into good bread dough. Work it well with your hands, make it into dumplings the size of a large biscuit, flour them well, drop them into a pot of boiling water, and boil them briskly until done. Be very careful in serving them, lest you break them. Eat them warm with molasses. Indian dumplings are sometimes eaten with corned pork or bacon. In such cases they should be boiled with the meat with which they are served.

From The Kentucky Housewife by Mrs. Lettice Bryan Cincinnati OH 1839

          

Let us compare two recipes for baked beans, one of the modern day and the other the oldest we can find. First the modern:

BOSTON BAKED BEANS (copied at semi-random from allrecipes.com, author “ajrhodes3″)

• 2 cups navy beans
• 1/2 pound bacon
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 tablespoons molasses
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

1. Soak beans overnight in cold water. Simmer the beans in the same water until tender, approximately 1 to 2 hours. Drain and reserve the liquid.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
3. Arrange the beans in a 2 quart bean pot or casserole dish by placing a portion of the beans in the bottom of dish, and layering them with bacon and onion.
4. In a saucepan, combine molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour over beans. Pour in just enough of the reserved bean water to cover the beans. Cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil.
5. Bake for 3 to 4 hours in the preheated oven, until beans are tender. Remove the lid about halfway through cooking, and add more liquid if necessary to prevent the beans from getting too dry.
   

This appears to be exactly what you or I would think of as good old-fashioned homemade baked beans. Starts with dried beans, check. Long slow cooking, check. Onions, other ingredients, check. Good thing we are working or we would go off and make a batch right now.

Now let’s look at the historical sample. There were several cookbook authors working in or near Boston in the 1840s, including Mrs. N. K. M. Lee and  Sarah Josepha Hale. Mrs. Lee’s baked beans are boring beyond words: beans and salt pork comprise the entire ingredient list. Mrs. Hale’s receipt  isn’t appreciably different. It is the undeservedly obscure Mrs. M. H. Cornelius who gives us the best we can find from the era. From the 1859 revised edition of her The Young Housekeeper’s Friend (ingredient list added):

1 quart dried white or Navy beans
the rind (skin) from 1 lb salt pork, pork removed, rind cut in strips
1-2 spoonfuls molasses (size of spoon unspecified other than “large”)

For a family of six or seven, take a quart of white beans, wash them  in several waters, and put them into two or three quarts [of water] over night. In the morning (when it will be easier to cull out the bad ones, than before they were soaked), pick them over, and boil them until they begin to crack open; then put them into a brown pan, such as are made for the purpose. Pour upon them enough of the water they were boiled in almost to cover them. Cut the rind of about a pound of salt pork into narrow strips; lay it on the top of the beans, and press it down so that it will lie more than half its thickness in the water. Bake several hours; four or five is not too much. Where a brick oven is used, it is well to let beans remain in it over night. If they are baked in a stove, or range, more water may be necessary, before they are done.

Many persons think it a decided improvement to put in a large spoonful or two of molasses. It is a very good way.

Whee! We are all the way up to molasses! That’s the good news.

The bad news is we actually made this recipe once, exactly as specified. “A large spoonful or two” of molasses, and trust me we used the largest spoon we could find in the house, resisting the temptation to employ the gravy ladle,  is entirely insufficient for a quart of beans. We might as well have used an eyedropper for all the sweetening power that was conveyed.  Salty boiled beans which had done some time in the oven. Blegh.

No onion. No ketchup–and yes, they did have ketchup in the 19th century, albeit not quite in the form we use today.  No Worcestershire (understandable since the product was only invented in the 1840s, although tangy sauces of other sorts were in common use.) No dry mustard. Not even any brown sugar, perfectly well known and available almost anywhere in America at the time.

Of course you probably have dishes you make which started out as recipes in a cookbook or magazine, which you have modified over the years to suit your personal preferences to the point where the original author would not recognize it. It is entirely possible that cooks in 19th century  Boston and elsewhere were doing the same– tarting up Mrs. Lee, or Mrs. Hales, or even Mrs. Cornelius’ baked beans with additives to make those salty boiled beans a little more persuasive to the palate. If you are contemplating making baked beans for a reenactment or other historical setting, we hope this discussion has given enough background to embolden you to make your own modifications. Keep historical accuracy in mind of course, but beyond that, make something people will enjoy eating.

          

Hops, 1 “large handful”
2 qts water, boiling
3 pints flour, sifted
1/2 pint brewer’s yeast, straight from brewery
4-5 teaspoons brown sugar OR 4-5 tablespoons molasses (optional)

Put a large handful of hops into two quarts of boiling water, which must then be set on the fire again, and boiled twenty minutes with the hops. Have ready in a pan three pints of sifted flour; strain the liquid, and pour half of it on the flour. Let the other half stand till it becomes cool, and then mix it gradually into the pan with the flour &c. Then stir into it half a pint of good strong yeast, fresh from the brewery if possible; if not, use some that was left of the last making [of yeast]. You may increase the strength by stirring into your yeast before you bottle it, four or five large tea-spoonfuls of brown sugar, or as many table-spoonfuls of molasses.

Put it into clean bottles, and cork them loosely till the fermentation is over. Next morning put in the corks tightly, and set the bottles in a cold place. When you are going to bottle the yeast it will be an improvement to place two or three raisins at the bottom of each bottle. It is best to make yeast very frequently; as, with every precaution, it will scarcely keep good a week, even in cold weather. If you are apprehensive ot its becoming sour, put into each bottle a lump of pearl-ash the size of a hazle-nut.

From Miss Leslie’s Directions for Cookery, Eliza Leslie, Philadelphia, 1851

Comment: Yeast is a living organism. You cannot “create” yeast if you have none to start with, you can only provide the food a little yeast needs to reproduce and become a lot of yeast. If lack of nearby breweries, shortage of neighbors or utter destitution keeps you from obtaining a sample of existing yeast your only hope is to combine the listed ingredients and put them in an open bowl in the windowsill in hopes of attracting a wild yeast to settle in and take up housekeeping. This is how sourdough starter is obtained, and its name should give you a hint as to the usual results.

Following Miss Leslie’s instructions, even if you must start with a packet of dehydrated yeast as commonly sold in stores, will set you on the path to having your own fresh yeast in the form it was used from the start of recorded history up to very recent times. This explains the instructions common in period recipes for baked goods to use yeast in quantities ranging from a teacup to multiple pints. What you are really starting with is what is today known as a “sponge” so if you are attempting to duplicate modern recipes in the historic style, start at that point of the recipe and carry on from there.

All the suggested additions–sugar or molasses, and raisins–are essentially boosters. Yeast will feed directly on the sugars in each, and raisins (of that time) would probably have added a bit of additonal yeast of the wild sort to the mixture, which adhered to the grapes while they were in the process of being dried.

          

Fresh, non-homogenized milk (preferably straight from cow, see below)
Salt

Scald your milk pans every day after washing them; and let them set till the water gets cold. Then wipe them with a clean cloth. Fill them all with cold water half an hour before milking time, and do not pour it out till the moment before you are ready to use the pans. Unless all the utensils are kept perfectly sweet and nice, the cream and butter will never be good. Empty milk-pans should stand all day in the sun.

When you have strained the milk into the pans, (which should be broad and shallow), place them in the spring-house setting them down in the water. After the milk has stood twenty-four hours, skim off the cream, and deposit it in a large deep earthen jar, commonly called a crock, which must be kept closely covered, and stirred up with a stick at least twice a day, and whenever you add fresh cream to it. This stirring is to prevent the butter from being injured by the skin that will gather over the top of the cream.

You should churn at least twice a week, for if the cream is allowed to stand too long, the butter will inevitably have a bad taste. Add to the cream the strippings of the milk.

Butter of only two or three days gatherings is the best. With four or five good cows, you may easily manage to have a churning every three days. If your dairy is on a large scale, churn every two days.

Have your churn very clean, and rinse and cool it with cold water. A barrel churn is best; though a small upright one, worked by a staff or dash, will do very well when there are but one or two cows.

Strain the cream from the crock into the churn, and put on the lid. Move the handle slowly in warm weather, as churning too fast will make the butter soft. When you find that the handle moves heavily and with great difficulty, the butter has come; that is, it has separated from the thin fluid and gathered into a lump, and it then is not necessary to churn any longer.

Take it out with a wooden ladle, and put it into a small tub or pail. Squeeze and press it hard with the ladle, to get out all that remains of the milk. Add a little salt, and then squeeze and work it for a long time. If any of the milk is allowed to remain in, it will speedily turn sour and spoil the butter. Set it away in a cool place for three hours, and then work it over again. A marble slab or table will be found of great advantage in working and making up butter.

Wash it in cold water; weigh it; make it up into separate pounds, smoothing and shaping it; and clap each pound on your wooden butter print, dipping the print every time in cold water. Spread a clean linen cloth on a bench in the spring-house; place the butter on it, and let it set till it becomes perfectly hard. Then wrap each pound in a separate piece of linen that has been dipped in cold water.

Pour the buttermilk into a clean crock, and place it in the spring-house, with a saucer to dip it out with. Keep the pot covered. The buttermilk will be excellent the first day; but afterwards it will become too thick and sour. Winter buttermilk is never very palatable.

Before you put away the churn, wash and scald it well; and the day that you use it again, keept it for an hour or more filled with cold water.

In cold weather, churning is a much more tedious process than in summer, as the butter will be longer coming. It is best then to have the churn in a warm room, or near the fire.

From Miss Leslie’s Directions for Cookery, Eliza Leslie, Philadelphia, 1851

Comments: We realize that any recipe that starts out with “First milk the cow” is going to be a wee bit intimidating to most modern readers. As few suburban back yards, much less urban ones, allow for pasturing of such beasts, those who wish to make their own butter must seek alternatives.  The most straightforward is to cultivate friendship with someone who does own a cow of a dairy variety.

Next best is to find a source of milk which has not been homogenized. This process breaks the larger cream molecules into itty bitty bits to blend in with the milk fluid. This milk will have been pasteurized in order to be legally sold in most places, but this heating process removes the danger of milk-transmitted diseases without changing its texture. “Raw” milk, which can legally be sold in a few states, is the closest you will get to straight-from-the-cow in textural qualities, but this milk will not have been pasteurized. If you want to go this route we recommend you investigate the supplier thoroughly before buying.  Unpasteurized milk killed many people in Miss Leslie’s day, and there are nastier bugs roaming the world than even she knew.

Beyond that we think Miss Leslie has the procedure pretty well covered and we see no need to try to improve upon her words. If you get through this stage, check out our recipe called “Preserving Butter” which is a continuation of this entry.

          

Fresh butter
Heavily salted water

If you wish to prepare the butter for keeping a long time, take it after it has been thoroughly well made, and pack it down tightly into a large jar. You need not in working it, add more salt than if the butter was to be eaten immediately. But preserve it by making a brine of fine salt, dissolved in water. The brine must be strong enough to bear up an egg on the surface without sinking. Strain the brine into the jar, so as to be about two inches above the butter. Keep the jar closely covered, and set it in a cool place.

When you want any of the butter for use, take it off evenly from the top; so that the brine may continue to cover it at a regular depth.

This receipt for making butter is according to the method in use at the best farm-houses in Pennsylvania, and if exactly followed will be found very good. The badness of butter is generally owing to carelessness or mismanagement; to keeping the cream too long without churning; to want of cleanliness in the utensils; to not taking the trouble to work it sufficiently; or to the practice of salting it so profusely as to render it unpleasant to the taste, and unfit for cakes or pastry. All these causes of bad butter are inexcusable, and can easily be avoided.

Unless the cows have been allowed to feed where there are bitter weeds or garlic, the milk cannot naturally have any disagreeable taste, and therefore the fault of the butter must be the fault of the maker. Of course, the cream is much richer where the pasture is fine and luxuriant; and in winter, when the cows have only dry food, the butter must be consequently whiter and more insipid than in the grazing season. Still, if properly made, even winter butter cannot taste badly.

Many economical housekeepers always buy for cooking, butter of inferior quality. This is a foolish practice; as when it is bad, the taste will predominate through all attempts to disguise it, and render every thing unpalatable with which it is combined. As the use of butter is designed to improve and not to spoil the flavour of cookery, it is better to omit it altogether, and to substitute something else, unless you can procure that which is good. Lard, suet, beef-drippings, and sweet oil, may be used in the preparation of various dishes; and to eat with bread or warm cakes, honey, molasses or stewed fruit, &c. are far superior to bad butter.

From Miss Leslie’s Directions for Cookery, Eliza Leslie, Philadelphia, 1851

Comment: This is the second part of Miss Leslie’s article on butter-making, the first of which can be found under the title “Making Butter.” All we can find to add to this excellent summary is to note that the “sweet oil” she mentions is olive oil. The mechanical procedures required to extract oil from corn and other seeds would not come along until a later day.