Seasoning Cast Iron Cookware

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Jennifer Stanley

Cast Iron (Time 0_00_15;15)Before you can cook with ironware, it has to be seasoned, and the seasoning does several different things. First of all, it keeps your ironware from rusting. It also creates a nonstick surface, so it makes it much easier to clean after you’re done cooking, and it also separates your food from the metal so you don’t get a metallic taste in your food when it’s done.

  • Cast Ironware unseasoned, washed and rinsed completely
  • Oil of your choice
  • Oven or Open Flame

So the idea of seasoning is to get multiple layers of carbonized oil on the metal. Cast Iron (Time 0_01_26;25)
Most oils work just fine, some better than others. It used to be that most people used animal fats like lard or beef tallow. Most people today use vegetable oil. We are using flax seed oil because it seems to give the hardest nonstick surface of any of the vegetable oils but it does go rancid rather rapidly so be sure that it is fresh however once it has been carbonized on the surface, you don’t have to worry about it going rancid anymore.

Make sure that your ironware is completely clean and that you have removed any wax coating or old seasoning and that all soap residue has been washed off completely, then as soon as it’s out of the water you want to warm it up and dry it off to make sure it doesn’t rust.

Cast Iron (Time 0_04_47;16)
Once your ironware is dry and warm wipe a thin coating all over the inside and outside. You want to make sure to have your work surface protected, because this is a messy job. Once we’ve got the oil completely covering this pot on every surface, then we can take a rag and we can wipe it off, making sure that we don’t have any excess oil. We don’t want it to pool up and get thick any place. We want to have just one thin layer.

There are two ways to fire your ironware. You can use an oven if your piece is small enough to fit inside or you can use an open flame. Either way, this is a smoky, smelly operation. If you choose to do it inside your home, you will need to open all the doors and windows to let the smoke out of the house.

If you choose to put it in the oven, preheat your oven to the highest temperature, 450 degrees or more, place the pot inside and keep an eye on it. When it starts to smoke and turn black you will want to take it out and put another coat of oil on it placing it back into the oven until you have at least a half dozen coats of seasoning or so.

Cast Iron (Time 0_05_10;27)
If you choose to do this on an open flame, you want to heat it up evenly until you start to see some smoke and the pan starts to turn black. Be aware that you can actually burn the seasoning off the pan if you let it set on the fire for too long. As soon as it starts to turn black, remove the pan from the fire and rub with another thin coat of oil making sure to get the bottom and sides as well as the inside.  Cast Iron (Time 0_05_30;07)
Place it back over the fire for a few minutes and repeat until you have at least a half dozen coats of seasoning.

Seasoning your ironware is a simple but necessary task for your ironware. When you’re taking care of this seasoning, you want to make sure that when you wash out these pots, you don’t leave them soaking a long time, you don’t use harsh detergents or it will go into the coating and make your food taste like soap the next time you use it, and you want to make sure to store them so that they stay nice and dry.Cast Iron (Time 0_06_13;20)

 


Transcript of Video:

If you seek the advice of 50 different people about seasoning cast ironware, you’ll likely get 52 answers. Today we’re going to look at how to season your cast ironware.

Before you can cook with ironware, it has to be seasoned, and the seasoning does several different things. First of all, it keeps your ironware from rusting. It also creates a nonstick surface so it makes it much easier to clean after you’re done cooking, and it also separates your food from the metal so you don’t get a metallic taste in your food when it’s done.

So the idea of seasoning is to get multiple layers of carbonized oil on the metal. The real questions are what oil do we use and how do we get it carbonized?

So, the first question, what oil? You’re going to get a whole lot of different answers about what kind of oil to use and most oils are going to work just fine, some better than others. In the time period, most people probably used animal fats like lard or beef tallow. Most people today, they use vegetable oil. Today we’re going to be using flax seed oil. Flax seed oil seems to give the hardest nonstick surface of any of the vegetable oils, it does go rancid rather rapidly so you want to make sure to use fresh flax seed oil. Once it’s been carbonized on the surface we don’t have to worry about it going rancid.

As for the how, we’re going to do two different methods of seasoning today and which one you choose really depends on the tools you have available to you and how big the piece is that you need to do. Today we’re going to season a small cast iron pot. Now this guy’s small enough that he’ll fit in our oven so we can simply bake the finish on. The pot we’re using today is a brand new one so it doesn’t have any coatings on it at all. If you have a pot that has any kind of wax coating or old seasoning on it you want to make sure to wash these off, even new ones like this, wash it off to get any coatings at all.

Make sure you get any soap residues washed off completely and then as soon as it’s out of the water you want to warm it up and dry off the pot to make sure it doesn’t rust.

Our pot is now dry and it’s warm. It being warmed up’s really going to help the oil soak into the pores. Let’s get some oil onto this.

We’re going to put oil on the inside and the outside of the pot. You want to get a nice thin coating all over the inside and all over the outside. You want to make sure to have your work surface protected because this is a messy job. Once we’ve got the oil completely covering this pot on every surface, then we can take a rag and we can wipe it off, making sure that we don’t have any excess oil. We don’t want it to pool up and get thick any place. We want to have just one thin layer.

Okay, so I’ve got the oven fired up. It’s 500 or 600 degrees in there. You may not have an oven like this, you can do this in a regular home oven, just set it for 450 or 500, whatever the maximum temperature is for your home oven, but be aware that this is a smoky and smelly operation. If you do it in your home, you’re going to need the windows open, the doors open.

While that’s baking, we’re going to season another method. If you’re object is too large to bake or if you want to do it outside on an open fire where the smoke wont harm your house, you can do the seasoning on an open fire. What we’re going to do is we’re going to take one of these little folding frying pans and we’re going to season this on an open flame. Our folding frying pans come preseasoned but if you want them to work better, it’s best to get another couple coatings of seasoning on the pan.

I’ve got this pan heated up just like I heated up the other piece, and we’re going to put oil on it.

We want to get a coating on this pan exactly like the other pot. We want to get a nice thin layer on all the surfaces on the outside and the inside. Let’s put it on the fire.

Now let’s heat the pan up until we start to see some smoke. So as this heats up it’s going to start smoking and it’s going to start turning black and what we want to do is make sure that we don’t get it too hot. It’s a bit of a fine line. If you get it too hot, you’ll actually burn the seasoning off. You don’t want to do that, but as soon as that turns black and starts smoking up, we’re going to put another thin layer on it. You also want to hit the bottom so that it gets a good layer on it and then we just put it back on again for a minute or so. We want to have a lot of layers on this. At least a half a dozen.

As you can see, for a job like this a good pair of leather gloves, it’s a must.

Looks like the pan is done. I’ve got a good half a dozen coats of seasoning on this. It’s a nice even black color on the inside. It hasn’t gotten too hot, hasn’t burned the seasoning off, so this pan is done. Now it’s time to look to see how our pot is doing in the oven.

This pot as just a single layer of seasoning on it, so we’re going to need to do the same thing. We’re going to need to use our cloth and put on more oil, nice thin coat, put it back in the oven.

Seasoning, it’s a simple but necessary task for your cookware. When you’re taking care of this seasoning you want to make sure that when you wash out these pots, you don’t leave them soaking a long time, don’t use harsh detergents or those will go into the coating and make your food taste like soap the next time you use it and you want to make sure to store them so that they stay nice and dry.

All the items you’ve seen in this episode today, they’re in our print catalog, they’re on our website and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.

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Simple Biscuits

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Jennifer Stanley

Today’s recipe is based on a recipe out of Eliza Smith’s cookbook and let me read you the recipe. It says, “To make biscuits, to a quart of flour take a quarter of a pound of butter and a quarter of a pound of sugar, one egg and what caraway seeds you please, wet it with milk as stiff as you can and then roll them out very thin. Cut them with a small glass and bake them on tin plates. Your oven must be slack. Prick them well just before you set them in and keep them dry when baked.”bisketSimple Biscuits (Time 0_00_21;02)

  • 4 cups Flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • Caraway seeds
  • 1 Egg
  • 4 oz. Butter
  • Milk

While preheating your oven to 250-300 degrees, allow your butter to melt, but don’t let it get hot enough to cook your egg.

Simple Biscuits (Time 0_01_56;22)
Now start off with 4 cups of flour and mix in about a half cup of sugar. Now’s a good time to add you caraway seeds to our mixture, and you just add as many as you think is fit for your taste. Once that is good and mixed, whisk up your egg and add it to the flour. Next, the butter can be added to the mixture.

Simple Biscuits (Time 0_02_32;16)
The recipe says to mix these in and we will get too stiff of a paste and we add the milk in to get to the right consistency. Just add the milk a little bit at a time until you have the right stiffness, then turn out onto a floured surface and work into a flat sheet, probably about an eighth of an inch thick.

Simple Biscuits (Time 0_03_26;17)
Cut out your biscuits and place on a well-greased baking tin. You don’t have to worry about these growing on the sheet so you can put these right up against each other. There’s not leavening in this. They’re almost a bit more like a cracker than they are a biscuit. All we need to do is place them on the tin and then right before we put them in the oven we’re going to follow the directions in the book and poke little holes in them.Simple Biscuits (Time 0_04_48;20)

Depending on the temperature of your oven these will take about 7 to 15 minutes. When they are done they will be a very light golden brown and crispy. These should be kept in a cool dry place for storage.Simple Biscuits (Time 0_05_58;18)

 


Transcript of Video:

18th century cookbooks abound with recipes for simple biscuits. Something we might call a cross between a cookie and a cracker. Today we’re going to bake some simple biscuits.

Today’s recipe is based on a recipe out of Eliza Smith’s cookbook and let me read you the recipe. It says, “To make biscuits, to a quart of flour take a quarter of a pound of butter and a quarter of a pound of sugar, one egg and what caraway seeds you please, wet it with milk as stiff as you can and then roll them out very thin. Cut them with a small glass and bake them on tin plates. Your oven must be slack. Prick them well just before you set them in and keep them dry when baked.”

Today’s simple biscuit recipe has flour, butter, some eggs, a little bit of sugar, milk and caraway seeds for flavoring. Caraway seeds are a favorite flavoring for biscuits and cookies in the 18th century.

I’ve got my oven preheating and while that’s preheating I’m going to set four ounces of butter here in a skillet right at the edge of the oven to melt it.

We’re going to start with four cups of flour and into that I’m going to mix up a half a cup of sugar.

Now’s a good time to add our caraway seeds to our mixture, and you just add as many as you think is fit for your taste. Now it’s time to take one egg, whisk it up and add it to our flour. Let’s get this whisked here.

It doesn’t need to be done extremely well. This is just to get it mixed up. Let’s put that into our flour.

And now our premelted butter, we can add that right in too. We want to make sure it’s not too hot. We don’t want to cook our egg with that. Let’s get this mixed up.

The recipe says to mix these in and we will get too stiff of a paste and we add the milk in to get to the right consistency.

We’re just going to go a little bit at a time and I think just a little bit more should bring us to our right stiffness.

Okay, let’s turn this out onto a floured surface and we can start to work it into a flat sheet.

We’ve got some flour here. Just get a nice surface, turn out our dough here. Let’s roll this out.

Recipe calls for it to be very thin. There, I’ve got that rolled out nice and thin. Probably about an eighth of an inch thick, and we are going to now cut these out and put them on our baking tin.

I’ve got the oven cleaned out and I’m going to make sure to put a trivet in the oven so that the biscuits don’t burn on the bottom.

I’ve got a well-greased baking tin here. Let’s put our biscuits on there and we don’t have to worry about these growing on the sheet so we can put these right up against each other. There’s not leavening in this. They’re almost a bit more like a cracker than they are a biscuit. All we need to do is place them on the tin and then right before we put them in the oven we’re going to follow the directions in the book and poke little holes in them.

The recipe calls for a slack oven so under 300 degrees. 250-300.

There we go. And this is going to take, depending on the temperature of your oven, 7 to 15 minutes.

18th century cookbooks are chalked full of really interesting recipes. They’re a great way to kind of dig back into history and find out what it was really like through taste. Now I can smell those biscuits cooking so they’re probably just about right. They’re one of those kinds things you really have to watch them to make sure they don’t burn. You don’t want to get these all black on the bottom. Let’s go check these out.

It looks like they’ve turned out just perfectly. Very light golden brown. Nice and crispy, they should be something that’s kept dry. They’re meant to be a crispy dry snappy kind of a cookie, almost a cross between a cracker and a cookie. Very good.

All of the things you’ve seen here today, all of the cooking equipment and the clothing, these things are available on our website, in our print catalog and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Baking, Historic Cooking, Ingredients, Recipe, Video | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

How to Build an Earthen Oven

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Jennifer Stanley

Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_00_41;14)
The existence of ovens like this is easily documented for the 18th century. In fact, just about every ancient culture had a very similar oven. There’s one particular wood cut illustration from medieval times depicting an earthen oven built on a wagon.
There are references in 18th century literature and also archaeological evidence that you would find ovens like these in private homes and in fort settings. There are also references to communal ovens where the baker would bake bread for an entire village.Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_01_10;13)

  • Sand
  • Clay
  • Straw, Dried Grass or Hay
  • paper
  • Bricks
  • Canvas Tarp
  • Water

Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_00_17;16)Before you build your oven, you have to consider what you’re going to build your oven on. There are historical examples of ovens built on tables, brick or stone plinths, and hearths. You will also need to make sure that your oven is protected from the weather. This is water soluble and it will just wash away with the rain, so if we need this to last a while you’re going to want a little roof over it.

Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_01_32;28)
Once you have decided where you are going to put it, lay out a layer of brick for the floor of the oven and chalk out a design. Ours is about 22 inches across for the inside measurement. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_01_58;15)
The walls are going to be about 6 inches think. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_02_01;07)
Our door is about 12 inches across so we can get something as big as a pie in without too much trouble. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_02_11;16)There aren’t very many critical things about the shape and the size of your particular oven, but there is one critical thing, and that is the height of the opening tunnel compared to the height of your dome. This has to be a particular ratio or else the air won’t draw through when you’re burning the wood inside. The tunnel needs to be between 60-65%, or about 63%, of the height of the dome.Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_02_42;04)

Once you have decided on the design of your oven, you should start working on your cob. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_04_28;29)
You probably want to make a whole bunch of this cob beforehand. It ages well, so it won’t go bad waiting overnight, and that way, as soon as you’re done with your sand castle core, you can start putting it on right away and you don’t have to worry about the sand drying out and blowing away while you’re making your cob. Make sure to wrap your wet cob in plastic so that it does not dry out before you are ready to use it.

The inner most layer of mud or cob that we’re going to put on our oven is just sand and clay. About 2 parts sand to 1 part clay. You mix those two together so that they’re very well mixed. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_04_53;15)
We want to make sure it’s got about the right consistency that we can still work it but it isn’t so wet that it’s sloppy, and you want to make sure to err on the side of a little more sand than too much clay. The more clay you’ve got the more it’s going to shrink and crack. Learning just the right consistency can be tricky. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_04_57;25)
You want it to form into a ball, like a snowball and does not deform easily.

Now you want to go ahead and build the core. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_02_28;16)
This is going to be like a sand castle, just very wet sand that we’re going to build the oven over the top of. You need to make sure that the sand stays wet until we get the first layer on. Sometimes you’ll see other people doing it with sticks and things like that, but this is going to be much easier and quicker. At the door, you should place a brick wall, to get a nice flat surface to build up against.

Once your inner core is built, you need to put paper on it. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_03_26;13)
Wet the paper down and layer it over the sand to give us a layer to separate the sand from the inner surface and make later removal of the sand easier. Once the paper is on you can start putting on the first layer of cob.

Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_05_27;15)
This first layer does not have any straw or hay because that would just burn up anyway. It needs to be about 3 inches thick. Start from the very bottom and work your way up so you can watch as you go to make sure the thickness stays about the same. When you are done with this layer, allow it to set overnight so it will be slightly firmer but don’t allow it to get too dry or else the next layer won’t adhere properly. Scratch up the layer a little bit so the next layer of cob adheres nicely.Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_09_39;06)

The next layer of cob that we put on is going to have grass or hay or straw in it to give it a lot more strength than the inner layer. We’re going to mix our clay and our sand first. As soon as that’s getting close to the right consistency, that’s when we’ll add our other binding material in.Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_06_48;16)

We need to mix this up just slightly wetter, since we’re going to add in dry straw, it’s going to dry it up a bit. This will add some amazing strength to it. When it dries up it really binds it together.Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_06_58;14)

It’s helpful to make this cob up beforehand. It really makes it work better if its couple days old, but you don’t want to let it get too old because as it’s wet for a long time, the grass will start to rot in there, so you don’t want that to happen. If it’s a day or two old, keep it wrapped in plastic so it’s wet and pliable. It’ll really work even better after a day or two.

Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_06_15;11)
So, to make this go faster, I suggest you invite a bunch of friends over. Have a cob party. They can be stomping on this stuff while you’re putting it on your stove. Everyone will have fun.

About five or six big loaves of cob ready to go is a good start. I’m not sure exactly how many it’s going to take to cover this oven, so we’re going to put this on and then see how much more is needed.
Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_08_01;11)
The outside layer should also be about 3 inches thick. Make sure your loaves butt up well with the inner core so there isn’t a big air space between them and just start adding on your cob all the way around. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_08_07;00)
You might want to start a little thinner at the bottom than the finish because some of it will sag down into position a little bit as you go.

Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_08_42;25)When you are done with the main body, remove the brick wall at the opening and add a nice rounded opening to it because it will have more strength than a sharp one.Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_09_03;14) Keep in mind that whenever you add two pieces together you really have to work it so that the two pieces adhere to each other and it doesn’t just fall off. Add some sand to the opening to support the new lip around the opening.Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_09_32;00)

Depending on where you’re at, your environment, the time of year, and what the humidity is, this could take anywhere from 2 to 4 week or longer for it to get dry enough for you to even start thinking about warming it up from the inside. While it’s drying, you don’t want it to get rained on so you’re going to need to protect it from the weather, but don’t cover it with plastic so that it can’t dry. You want to protect it from the rain, but still let it breath.

Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_10_25;07)
After it has started drying out enough to support itself you can start slowly digging the sand out and even pulling off some of the paper. Don’t worry too much about the paper because it will burn out anyway. Every few days dig out a little bit more of the sand so that you can start getting some are into the center of it to dry the inside.

Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_11_24;17)
Once the sand core has been removed and your oven is adequately dry you will be ready to fire it. If your oven is not adequately dry before you fire it, it will cause cracking, or at least more cracking than normal, in the body. Even if you wait like we did, it’s inevitable that some cracking will occur. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_11_10;07)Don’t be alarmed if the cracks are especially big, you can repair them with a little extra sand and clay and let that dry in place. When the oven is close to dry, you can employ a few warming fires to help it along. The walls of this oven are extremely durable. Build Earthen Oven (Time 0_11_39;09)It takes a lot to break this material up so if you need to do modifications you really have to chop at it to break it.

 


Transcript of Video:

In this video, we’re going to show you how to build and earthen oven.

The existence of ovens like this is easily documented for the 18th century. In fact, just about every ancient culture had a very similar oven. There’s one particular wood cut illustration from medieval times depicting an earthen oven built on a wagon. There are references in 18th century literature and also archaeological evidence that you would find ovens like this in private homes and in fort settings. There are also references to communal ovens where the baker would bake bread for an entire village. We’re going to need several things to make our mud oven out of. We’re going to need sand. That’s the major component of our oven. We’re going to need a good bit of clay. This is dried clay you can get at a masonry store or you can get damp clay out of ditch bank. You’re going to need straw or dried grass or maybe hay. You may need some bricks, so some fire bricks, even regular bricks will work, and you’re going to need a canvas tarp to mix your cob together with and you’re definitely going to need a good bit of water.

Before you build your oven, you have to consider what you’re going to build your oven on. There are historical examples of ovens built on tables or on brick or stone plinths, on hearths. On the top of our very sturdy table, we’ve laid out a layer of fire brick. That’s doing to be the floor of our oven. We’ve also chalked out here the design. About 22 inches across to the bottom on the inside. That’s the inside measurement. The walls are going to be about 6 inches thick so we’ve got markings here so we can see about how big it’s going to look on the surface. The door width right here is about 12 inches across that we can get something as big as a pie in without too much trouble.

First thing we’re going to do is we’re going to build the core. It’s going to be like a sand castle, just wet sand that we’re going to build the oven over the top of. Sometimes you’ll see other people doing it with sticks and things like this, but this is going to be much easier and quicker. This is where our door is going to be. I just went ahead and put a couple of bricks in here to be the inner core of the door. They’ll be removed. And right here I placed a brick wall to give us a nice flat surface to build up against.

So we’ve taken about an hour to put this together. We’ve used very wet sand so that it stays into shape. Now we’ve got to make sure that this stays wet until we get our first layer on. There aren’t very many critical things about the shape and the size of your particular oven but there is one critical thing, and that is the height of the opening tunnel here compared to the height of your dome. These need to be a particular ratio or else the air won’t draw through this when you’re burning the wood inside of the thing. So, this is between 65 and 60% or about 63% height here compared to the height there.

The next thing we’re going to do is put paper on this. We’re going to put paper, we’re going to wet it down so that it’ll give us a layer to separate so when we take the sand out it doesn’t stick to the inner surface.

We’ve got the paper covering done on our sand inner core. This will make it much easier to take the core out from underneath it. Now it’s time to make the first layer of cob or mud to put on our oven.

This inner most layer of mud or cob that we’re going to put on our oven is just sand and clay. About 2 parts sand to 1 part clay. You mix those two together so that they’re very well mixed and then we just put it on there. We want to make sure it’s got about the right consistency that we can still work it but it isn’t so wet that it’s sloppy, and you want to make sure to have err on the side of a little more sand than too much clay. The more clay you’ve got the more it’s going to shrink and crack.

So you probably want to make a whole bunch of this cob beforehand. It ages well. It won’t go bad waiting overnight, and that way, as soon as you’re done with your sand castle core, you can start putting it on right away and you don’t have to worry about that drying out and blowing away while you’re making your cob.

So, learning just the right consistency can be a trick. As you see here, I’ve been stomping on this pile for a little while and this is starting to feel really good. It forms up into a ball, like a snowball. It doesn’t deform easily. It’s not sloppy and you can still form it into any shape you want and it’s not too drippy either. That’s what you’re looking for, something that holds together well but still moldable.

So we’re working on putting this first layer on. This is a layer without any straw in it because that would just burn up anyway. It’s about 3 inches thick and we’re starting at the very bottom and we’re going to work our way up, that way we can watch as we go to make sure our thickness stays about the same.

Well, we finished the inner mud layer yesterday afternoon and we let this set overnight and it’s just slightly firmer than it was. We don’t want to let it get too dry or else the next layer won’t adhere to this layer properly. We’ve scratched this layer a little bit so that the next layer of cob we put on here will adhere nicely. This next layer of cob that we put on, it’s going to have grass or hay or straw in it to give it a lot more strength than this inner layer.

We’re going to mix our clay and our sand first. As soon as that’s getting close to the right consistency, that’s when we’ll add our other binding material here.

So, we’ve got this mixed up. I’m going to mix this up just slightly wetter. It’s feeling like a pretty good consistency now under my feet and since we’re going to add in this dry straw here, it’s going to dry it up a bit so I’m going to start with slightly wetter mixture, but we wanted to get this mixed first and then add in the binder.

This will add some amazing strength to it. When it dries up it really binds it together. So it’s helpful to make this cob up beforehand. It really makes it work better if its couple days old, but you don’t want to let it get too old because as it’s wet for a long time, the grass will start to rot in there, so you don’t want that to happen. If it’s a day or two old, keep it wrapped in plastic so it’s wet and pliable. It’ll really work even better after a day or two.

So, to make this go faster, I suggest you invite a bunch of friends over. Have a cob party. They can be stomping on this stuff while you’re putting it on your stove. Everyone will have fun.

Well, I’ve got about five or six big loaves of cob here ready to go. I think that’s a good start. I’m not sure exactly how many it’s going to take to cover this oven, so we’re going to put this on and then I’ll see how much more I need to make.

I’ve got marks here on the table to get about 2.5 to 3 inches for the outside layer. I’m going to start putting on our loaves. We’re going to make sure they butt up well with the inner core here so there isn’t a big air space between them, and I’ll just start adding these on all the way around.

Okay, there it is. We’ve got the second layer of a cob type material on here. This is the stuff with the straw that’s built into it. It does, as you work it, it kind of sags down some so you might want to start a little thinner at the bottom than the finish, expecting some of it to sag down into position a little bit.

This gives us a good opportunity to look at the cross section of what’s going on here. You can see the cobs a little thicker down at the bottom than it is at the top because it’s kind of sagged a little bit. You can see our outer cob core, our inner core that doesn’t have the straw in it and here’s the sand core on the inside. We’re going to add a little bit to the outside here. We’re going to give it a nice rounded opening because a rounded opening is going to have more strength than this sharp one.

Well, we’ve finished putting our rounded opening on the oven so it will be a little bit stronger. We made sure to make the cob that we added back into this outer stuff. Whenever you add two pieces together you really have to work it so that the two pieces adhere to each other and it just doesn’t fall off. We added a little bit of sand on the front to help support that lip. Depending on where you’re at, your environment, the time of year, what the humidity is, this will take 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, maybe even a little bit longer for it to get dry enough for you start to even think about warming it up from the inside.

While this is drying, you don’t want it to get rained on so you’re going to protect this from the weather but don’t cover it with plastic so that it can’t dry. So you want to protect it from the rain but let it breath

So, it’s only been about 24 hours since we’ve been here last, but it’s firmed up enough with how the weather is here that we were able to go ahead and pull out some of the sand. I haven’t gone and dug the whole thing out but I wanted to let it start to dry out on the inside and even pull off some of the paper if you want to. That will all burn out anyway, but we just dug it out about halfway. We’ll come back in a couple of days and take out more.

We’ve removed the sand core from this oven and we’ve given it a couple weeks to dry so it’s almost ready to fire. You may not have to wait this long if you build an oven but if it’s not adequately dry before you fire it, it will cause cracking or at least more cracking than normal in the body. Even if you wait like we did, it’s inevitable that some cracking will occur. Don’t be alarmed if the cracks are especially big, you can repair them with a little extra sand and clay and let that dry in place.

We’ve employed a few warming fires in this oven and it’s dried out well. We’ve gotten a few cracks but overall we’re really pleased. The walls of this oven are extremely durable. Here’s a brick of the material and it takes a lot to break this material up, so if you need to do modifications, you’ll really have to chop at it. However, as sturdy as this is, it still needs to be protected from the weather. This is water soluble and it will just wash away with the rain, so if we need this to last a while we’re going to have to build a little roof over it.

Make sure to watch part 2 of this video where we learn how to bake bread in one of these earthen ovens. You know, this looks pretty good. I think I’m going to fire it up.

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Baking, Bread, Historic Cooking, Video | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Mushroom Ketchup

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Jennifer Stanley

Mushroom Ketchup(Time 0_05_50;07)
The first recipe for tomato ketchup was in 1801, but tomato ketchup did not become popular until the mid-19th century. The tomato plant is a member of the deadly nightshade family and many people considered it a deadly poison in the 18th century. Today we’re going to make an 18th century ketchup recipe with mushrooms. This would be a seasoning or a flavor that 18th century soldiers would be very familiar with.

  • 2 Pounds Fresh Common Brown Mushrooms
  • Couple spoonfuls of Salt
  • Couple of Bay leaves
  • 1 Chopped Onion
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 Tablespoon finely grated Horse Radish
  • ¼ teaspoon Cloves
  • Pinch of Cayenne
  • ½ teaspoon Allspice
  • ¼-½ cup Cider Vinegar

 

Mushroom Ketchup (Time 0_00_57;27)
We’re starting off with 2 pounds of fresh mushrooms, but first a word of warning. We’re using common brown mushrooms in our recipe today. Mushroom Ketchup(Time 0_01_18;26)
These mushrooms are native throughout Europe and North America, but even common mushrooms can easily be mistaken for poisonous or even deadly varieties, so make sure to use something you know is completely safe.

Mushroom KetchupTime 0_01_46;16)
We need to gently wipe these mushrooms off. We don’t want to rinse them off or wash them, because that added liquid would dilute our final flavors. Chop them into small pieces.

Mushroom Ketchup(Time 0_01_51;20)
Put the mushrooms in a container that can sit overnight and add a couple spoonfuls of salt to draw the juices out. In addition to that salt, we’re going to add a couple of bay leaves. We’re going to mash it up and smoosh these mushrooms down, then we’re going to cover it and then let it set for about 10 minutes.

Mushroom Ketchup(Time 0_02_39;25)
After 10 minutes check on your mushrooms to make sure they’ve already started reducing. Cover and set aside overnight in a safe place.

Mushroom Ketchup(Time 0_03_07;21)
Once the mushrooms have completely soaked, add in 1 chopped up onion, the zest of 1 lemon and 1 tablespoon of finely grated horse radish. Mushroom Ketchup (Time 0_03_18;27)We’re going to use a ¼ teaspoon of cloves, a pinch of cayenne and about ½ teaspoon allspice.Mushroom Ketchup(Time 0_03_28;00)

The last ingredient we need is a ¼ – ½ cup of cider vinegar. We’re going to stir up all these things together and then put it over the fire and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Mushroom Ketchup (Time 0_04_20;27)
Once it is done simmering allow it to cool a bit. Mushroom Ketchup (Time 0_04_40;22)
Once cool enough pour it through a squeeze cloth into another container and squeeze all the liquid out.Mushroom Ketchup (Time 0_05_01;20)

Mushroom Ketchup (Time 0_05_26;12)
You can save both the liquid, but also the leftover dried mushrooms. You can use the dried mushrooms as is or grind it up to flavor other recipes.Mushroom Ketchup (Time 0_05_36;07)

There are some amazing complex flavors in this. You get the salt first, then some of the other spices, and the earthiness of the mushrooms. Some very complex and wonderful flavors.

 


Transcript of Video:

Many different 18th century recipes and a lot of writings refer to something called ketchup. Now ketchup in the 18th century wasn’t so much like this as it is more like this.

The word ketchup finds its roots in 17th century China. The Chinese had a similar sounding name for a concoction that consisted of pickled fish and spices. The British traders found this seasoning to be delightful. They brought it home and it quickly became the staple of the English and American diet.

Today we’re going to make an 18th century ketchup recipe with mushrooms. This would be a seasoning or a flavor that 18th century soldiers would be very familiar with.

James Townsend and Son carries all the equipment we’ll be using today and you can find each one of these things in our catalog or on our website. We’re starting off with 2 pounds of fresh mushrooms, but first a word of warning. We’re using common brown mushrooms in our recipe today. These mushrooms are native throughout Europe and North America but even common mushrooms can easily be mistaken for poisonous or even deadly varieties, so make sure to use something you know is completely safe.

With our mushrooms, we need to gently wipe these mushrooms off. We don’t want to rinse them off or wash them because that added liquid would dilute our final flavors.

And we’re going to add these to our tin cooking pot. We need to draw the juices out of our chopped up mushrooms. The best way to do that is to add a couple spoonfuls of salt. In addition to that salt, we’re going to add a couple of bay leaves. We’re going to mash it up, smoosh these mushrooms down in and then we’re going to cover it and then let it set for about 10 minutes.

We’ve let these set 10 minutes and they’ve already started reducing. The liquids being drawn out of the mushrooms and it’s already reduced in size a little bit. I’m going to transfer these into a milk pan here and then we can let this sit overnight.

I’m going to put this pie pan on top just to keep the critters out.

The first recipe for tomato ketchup was in 1801, but tomato ketchup did not become popular until the mid-19th century. The tomato plant is a member of the deadly nightshade family and many people considered it a deadly poison in the 18th century.

Well, let’s take a look.

There we have it. The mushrooms have completely soaked and now it’s time for the next step.

So now it’s time to add in 1 chopped up onion, the zest of 1 lemon and 1 tablespoon of finely grated horse radish. James Townsend and Son offers a pocket spice kit. It comes with salt and pepper, cinnamon, cayenne and thyme. It also comes with an empty vial and in that vial I’ve added cloves. In the recipe here, we’re going to use a quarter teaspoon of cloves. We’re going to use a pinch of cayenne and some allspice also, about a half a teaspoon.

And the last ingredient we need is a quarter to a half a cup of cider vinegar. We’re going to stir up all these things together and then we’re going to put this over the fire and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Joseph Plumb Martin’s book, sometimes called Private Yankee Doodle, many times it mentions when he’s eating, that they’re lacking sauce for their meat. More than likely this is what he was craving.

This is done simmering now. I’ve let it cool a little bit but now it’s time to pour it off and I’ve got our milk pan and I’ve got a squeeze cloth here. I’m going to pour this in here to let it cool.

Once this is cooled off, we’re going to take that cloth and bundle it up and squeeze all the liquid out.

There’re some amazing complex flavors in this. You get the salt first, then some of the other spices, the earthiness of the mushrooms, very complex, very wonderful flavor. We’re going to cork this up. We’re going to bottle it, cork it, and save it for our future recipes. So when you’re done with squeezing out the mushrooms, you don’t want to get rid of that. You don’t want to throw that out. That is especially good stuff. You dry that and you can either leave it like it is or you can grind it up. Some of this stuff you can sprinkle it almost like salt. It is really, really good stuff.

And there we have it, our ketchup. Our 2 pounds of mushrooms worked out to be a little over a pint of liquid ketchup. We also have our leftover dried mushrooms. Those are going to be great for future recipes. All the equipment that you saw here, all the utensils, it’s available on our website, in our print catalog, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.

 

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Historic Cooking, Ingredients, Recipe, Spices, Video | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Stinging Nettle Soup

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Jennifer Stanley

nettle1Stinging nettles hold a very special place in 18th century food and medicine. Medical books from the time period mention these stinging nettles as good for stopping hemorrhages and promoting urine flow.

  • Large amount of fresh Stinging Nettles
  • 1 ½ quarts Water
  • 4 oz Butter
  • 3 Medium Onions
  • ¼ cup Flour
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Stale Bread Crust
  • Mushroom Ketchup (optional)

Stinging Nettle Soup (Time 0_00_30;29)Gather together a good bunch of early springtime nettles. The best ones are right after they come out of the ground. You want to get the first half of the plant or the first 3 or 4 inches. You don’t want any of the hard stalks or roots. You might want to wear gloves when you pick these because they sting a little. Wash these off like you would lettuce for a salad and then chop them up finely.
Start the water boiling in a kettle and heat the butter in a skillet.
Add your chopped onions to your skillet when the butter has stopped making noise.Stinging Nettle Soup (Time 0_02_14;02) Once the onions are nice and brown, put the nettles in the skillet and stir for about 5-10 minutes.Stinging Nettle Soup (Time 0_02_41;23)

Next, shake on the flour and add salt and pepper mixing well. Stinging Nettle Soup (Time 0_03_03;22)
Pour all of the contents of the pan into the boiling water.
Add your chopped up stale bread to the soup and simmer for another 10 minutes. Stinging Nettle Soup (Time 0_03_51;11)
Add your mushroom ketchup just before serving as an optional finishing touch and enjoy.Stinging Nettle Soup (Time 0_04_13;16)

 


Transcript of Video:

It’s springtime. It’s time to pick stinging nettles so you can make nettle soup.

Stinging nettles hold a very special place in 18th century food and medicine. Medical books from the time period mention these stinging nettles as good for stopping hemorrhages and promoting urine flow.

John Heckewelder was a missionary in remote Pennsylvania in 1756 and in his journal he writes this, “We live mostly upon nettles which grew abundantly in the bottoms and of which we frequently made two meals a day.” That’s amazing. You know, I think we’ve got enough nettles, let’s head to the kitchen.

I’ve got a good bunch of nettles gathered here. These are early springtime nettles, the best ones, right after they come out of the ground. You want to get the first half of the plant or first 3 or 4 inches. You don’t want any of the hard stalk or any of the roots. You might want to wear gloves when you pick these because they sting a little bit but in the early spring it’s usually not too bad. Wash these off like you would lettuce for a salad. Now let’s work on the base of our soup.

We need to get some water boiling here in our kettle. I’ve got about a quart and a half or so here.

And while that’s heating up, we’re going to sauté some onions in a little bit of butter.

This is about 4 ounces of butter. Hannah Glasse’s recipe for meager soup calls for the butter to be cooked until it’s done making noise and then you add the onions. We’re going to use about 3 medium onions.

While our onions are browning, let’s chop up our nettles nice and fine.

We can take our chopped nettles now and put it right into our browning onions.

Well, we stirred these for about five or ten minutes and now it’s time to shake on about a quarter of a cup of flour into this.

And a little bit of salt and pepper. So now it’s time to add the contents of our pan to our boiling water.

Many 18th century soup recipes call for a chopped up stale bread crust to be added to the soup.

We’re going to let this simmer for another ten minutes and then as an optional finishing touch, we’re going to add a little bit of this mushroom ketchup that we’ve made in an earlier episode.

This soup is excellent. If you’ve never had nettles before, nettles soup or any other kind of nettles, it’s the perfect time of year, right now, to go out and pick them. All the things you’ve seen here today, all the cooking equipment, all the clothing, all these things are available in our print catalog or on our website and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Bread, Historic Cooking, Ingredients, Recipe, Video | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tasty Fish Cakes

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Jennifer Stanley

Fish Cakes (Time 0_03_31;06)Soldiers in the 18th century were given rations of meat, either pork or beef, salt or fresh. Something else that they were given sometimes was fish, salted fish. So here we’ve got some salted cod we’re going to cook up into a very simple yet delicious meal.

  • 6 oz Salted Fish
  • 6 oz Boiled Potatoes
  • 1 egg
  • Butter
  • Spices to taste

Fish Cakes (Time 0_00_56;01)Salted fish doesn’t need to be refrigerated or cooled making it something you can easily take to events. It is something that you can purchase locally that makes a delicious 18th century dish.

Fish Cakes (Time 0_01_02;04)
The salted fish right out of the box is much too salty to cook with. To draw the salt out, start soaking your fish the day before you want to use it. You want to change the water 3 or 4 times and, after it’s soaked overnight, it should be ready to use. Be aware that you can soak your fish too long causing it to lose all of the flavor and saltiness. Make sure to taste your fish before you use it so you know if you need to add spices to bring that flavor back.

Fish Cakes (Time 0_01_21;17)Shred about 6 ounces of fish into little pieces making sure to remove any bones or skin you may find. Mash up about the same amount of boiled potatoes and add your fish. If potatoes weren’t available, it’s likely they would have tried to use bread crumbs or possibly flour as a good substitute for the potatoes.

Fish Cakes (Time 0_02_27;18)
Add your egg to the mixture and create small patties. Fish Cakes (Time 0_02_34;18)Make sure the butter in your pan is nice and hot. Fish Cakes (Time 0_02_54;16)
Place your fish patties into your butter and fry until golden brown on both sides.Fish Cakes (Time 0_02_59;23)These were very popular and could be made for breakfast and eaten all day long.

Transcript of Video:

Soldiers in the 18th century were given rations of meat, either pork or beef, salt or fresh. Something else that they were given sometimes was fish, salted fish. So here we’ve got some salted cod we’re going to cook up into a very simple yet delicious meal.

We’ve chosen salted fish today, because it’s something you can take to an event that doesn’t need to be refrigerated or cooled. You can make an 18th century dish with it and it’s something you can also purchase locally. If you go to a good grocery store you’re probably going to find these little wooden boxes in the fish section, very similar to what they had in the 18th century. The salted fish right out of the box is much too salty to cook with. It needs to be soaked to draw the salt out so the day before you want to use it, you want to start soaking this. You want to change the water 3 or 4 times and then after it’s soaked overnight it should be ready to use.

So we’ve gone ahead and done some preparation here. I’ve taken about 6 ounces of the cod and we’ve shredded it up into little pieces and I also have some potatoes that I’ve already boiled up so that they’re just soft enough to mash.

I’ve got about the same amount of potatoes here in the bowl as I do fish in a bowl over there. We want about equal amounts and we want this mashed up nicely so it will mix in with your fish and the fish, something you have to remember about the fish is, number one, it may have bones or skin and if as you’re tearing it up you find that there are any bones and skin, you want to discard that. Also, you can soak it too long. If you soak it too long it’ll remove all the flavor and all the saltiness from the fish so you want to taste it and make sure that it’s not tasteless before you use it or else you’re going to have to add some spices to bring that flavor back.

Now let’s take out 1 egg and put that into our potatoes and then we’ll mix it in with our fish.

If potatoes weren’t available, it’s likely they would have tried to use bread crumbs or possibly flour as a good substitute for the potatoes. You want to make sure that your butter is nice and hot. Let’s see how we’re doing here.

Well, these of course were popular. They look like a great breakfast thing. Of course they’d be eaten all day long. Let’s see how these turned out.

I’m going to cook up the rest of these. Mmm. All the utensils and all the clothing you’ve seen here in the video today, it can all be seen on our website or in our print catalog and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Historic Cooking, Ingredients, Recipe, Video | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Salt Pork Soup

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Jennifer Stanley

jon-townsend-salt-pork-soupSo today we’re going to take a common soldiers ration and we’re going to turn it into a soup. As the foundation of our soup we’re going to use salt pork.which we have prepared in an 18th century manner.

  • 6 Pints Boiling Water
  • Salt Pork
  • Carrots
  • Parsnips
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Bay Leaf
  • Cider Vinegar
  • Cabbage
  • Rosemary
  • Thyme
  • Cubed Bread

Soup Stew, and Hash (Time 0_00_26;13)When using salt pork you have to soak it. It takes several hours to soak it in water, change the water out and soak it again, until it’s ready to use. If you don’t soak it several times and get all the salt out, it’s inedible.

Soup Stew and Hash (Time 0_01_19;10)Brown the salt pork in a little bit of fat to release a lot of the flavor. Let it set and sear a little bit at a time. Too much at once will release too many juices and it will not caramelize properly.

Soup stew and hash(Time 0_01_44;17)
Once your salt pork is browned, it’s time to dump it in your boiling water. If any scum develops on the surface, scrape that off. You’re going to let this boil about 15 minutes.

Soup stew and hash (Time 0_02_02;00)
Now that our soup has boiled about 15 minutes with the meat in it, it’s time to add some carrots and parsnips. From our pocket spice kit, we need to use a little bit of salt and pepper.Soup stew and hash (Time 0_02_19;16)

It’s also a good time to add a bay leaf if you’ve got it and a little bit of cider vinegar. Just a splash or two of cider vinegar will really set this off.Soup stew and hash (Time 0_02_28;06)

Now that we’ve added these things to our soup, we’re going to moderate the fire a little bit and let it simmer for about an hour.

Soup stew and hash (Time 0_03_01;15)
After an hour, it’s time to throw in some cabbage a little bit of bundled rosemary and thyme. You don’t want to put this stuff in too soon or it’ll destroy the flavors.

Soup stew and hash (Time 0_03_22;01)Many period recipes for soup like this will call for bread to be cubed up and tossed in at the end, kind of like dumplings.

Let this simmer for another 15 minutes.

jon-townsend-salt-pork-soup2

Transcription of Video:

So today we’re going to take a common soldiers ration and we’re going to turn it into three different meals, a soup, a stew and a hash. The foundation of our stew and our hash, we’re going to use salt pork, and the foundation for the stew, we’re going to use fresh beef. So the salt pork we’re using today is a salt pork that we prepared in an 18th century manner. When it’s time to use the salt pork, you have to soak it. You have to take several hours, soak it in water, change the water out, soak it again, until it’s ready to use. If you don’t soak it several times and get all the salt out, it’s inedible. So, the big difference between a soup and a stew is how much water we use when we prepare it, and the first thing we have to do is to get this water going, get it boiling. I’ve got 6 pints of water starting to boil here for the soup, and I’ve got 3 pints for the stew. Let’s start out with our soup.

While our 6 pints of water is getting ready to boil here, I’m going to brown our salt pork in a little bit of fat.

I’m going to let this set and sear a little bit. Browning this meat first will release a lot of the flavor. So we’re doing this in small batches. If we do too much at once, we can’t get it to caramelize properly. It releases too many juices.

Once your salt pork is browned, it’s time to dump it in your boiling water. If any scum develops on the surface, scrape that off. You’re going to let this boil about 15 minutes.

Now that our soup has boiled about 15 minutes with the meat in it, it’s time to add some other things. I’ve got some carrots here and some parsnips. We’re going to add those. So there’s the carrots, part of our parsnips. From our pocket spice kit, we need to use a little bit of salt and pepper.

Oh yeah, it’s looking good.

It’s also now a good time to add a bay leaf if you’ve got it and we’ve got a little bit of cider vinegar, just a splash or two of cider vinegar will really set this off.

Now that we’ve added these things to our soup, we’re going to moderate the fire a little bit and let it simmer for about an hour.

Now that our soup has simmered about an hour, it’s time to throw in some cabbage if we’ve got it and I’ve also got a little bit of rosemary and thyme. I’ve got a little bundle here that I’m going to throw in. You don’t want to put this stuff in too soon or it’ll destroy the flavors.

Many period recipes for soup like this will call for bread to be cubed up and tossed in at the end, kind of like dumplings.

We’re going to let this simmer for another 15 minutes

For this recipe I’ve got about a half a pound of dried peas here. We soak these overnight, so they’re going to be ready to cook.

So I’m starting out with about a half a pound of beef here. This should go really nicely with our peas. Coating this meat with flour and then browning it will help thicken up the stew.

So now that our beef is well browned, we’re going to add that to our 3 pints of boiling stew water and then we’re going to add our peas. Let’s get this beef in there without losing any of it. There we go. And now we’re going to add the peas.

So now that our stew has boiled for about 15 minutes, we’re going to add some potato, some onion and some parsnips, along with some salt and pepper. We’re going to let that simmer for about an hour.

You’ll know this stew is ready when the peas break down and the stew thickens up and that really is a matter of how long you’ve soaked your peas. If you haven’t soaked them at all, this might take 2 or 3 hours, but if you soaked them it won’t take as long. While our soups and stews are simmering here, let’s start the hash.

Our hash is a fairly simple dish. I’ve got some finely diced salt pork here. I’ve already browned this up with some onion and I’m going to take a couple of parboiled or already boiled potatoes. I’m going to dice these up and mash them. Put them in with that.

We also need to add a little bit of milk to give it some liquid to work with. If you happen to have some allspice, it makes a wonderful addition to the hash. I’m going to form this up into patties and fry it in our frying pan.

Well, there we have all three dishes finished. We’ve got a salt pork soup and the salt pork really has a wonderful flavor. The saltiness balanced out with the other flavors actually extremely good. Here’s our salt pork hash. It may not look great but let me tell you, it is my favorite on the table here, the salt pork, very tender, just the right amount of saltiness, along with the potatoes and the onions, definitely a favorite. So the last dish here was the stew, this is the beef and peas stew and it thickened up rather nicely. The peas add their own kind of sweetness to it. The beef is excellent in here. Any one of these things you will definitely enjoy.

All the utensils here, all the equipment we used, you can see on our website or in our print catalog and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Historic Cooking, Ingredients, Recipe, Video | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Salt Pork Hash

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Jennifer Stanley

Soup stew and hash (Time 0_06_18;07)

  • Salt Pork
  • Onion
  • Parboiled Potatoes
  • Milk
  • Allspice

Our hash is a fairly simple dish. Soup stew and hash (Time 0_05_11;03)
Take some finely diced salt pork browned up with some onion and a couple of parboiled or already boiled potatoes. Soup stew and hash (Time 0_05_26;00)
Dice and mash the potatoes. Mix the pork and potatoes together. Soup stew and hash (Time 0_05_33;19)
Add a little bit of milk to make the mixture moist. If you happen to have some allspice, it makes a wonderful addition to the hash. Soup stew and hash (Time 0_05_49;12)
Form into patties and fry it in a frying pan until golden brown.

Transcription of Video:

So today we’re going to take a common soldiers ration and we’re going to turn it into three different meals, a soup, a stew and a hash. The foundation of our stew and our hash, we’re going to use salt pork, and the foundation for the stew, we’re going to use fresh beef. So the salt pork we’re using today is a salt pork that we prepared in an 18th century manner. When it’s time to use the salt pork, you have to soak it. You have to take several hours, soak it in water, change the water out, soak it again, until it’s ready to use. If you don’t soak it several times and get all the salt out, it’s inedible. So, the big difference between a soup and a stew is how much water we use when we prepare it, and the first thing we have to do is to get this water going, get it boiling. I’ve got 6 pints of water starting to boil here for the soup, and I’ve got 3 pints for the stew. Let’s start out with our soup.

While our 6 pints of water is getting ready to boil here, I’m going to brown our salt pork in a little bit of fat.

I’m going to let this set and sear a little bit. Browning this meat first will release a lot of the flavor. So we’re doing this in small batches. If we do too much at once, we can’t get it to caramelize properly. It releases too many juices.

Once your salt pork is browned, it’s time to dump it in your boiling water. If any scum develops on the surface, scrape that off. You’re going to let this boil about 15 minutes.

Now that our soup has boiled about 15 minutes with the meat in it, it’s time to add some other things. I’ve got some carrots here and some parsnips. We’re going to add those. So there’s the carrots, part of our parsnips. From our pocket spice kit, we need to use a little bit of salt and pepper.

Oh yeah, it’s looking good.

It’s also now a good time to add a bay leaf if you’ve got it and we’ve got a little bit of cider vinegar, just a splash or two of cider vinegar will really set this off.

Now that we’ve added these things to our soup, we’re going to moderate the fire a little bit and let it simmer for about an hour.

Now that our soup has simmered about an hour, it’s time to throw in some cabbage if we’ve got it and I’ve also got a little bit of rosemary and thyme. I’ve got a little bundle here that I’m going to throw in. You don’t want to put this stuff in too soon or it’ll destroy the flavors.

Many period recipes for soup like this will call for bread to be cubed up and tossed in at the end, kind of like dumplings.

We’re going to let this simmer for another 15 minutes

For this recipe I’ve got about a half a pound of dried peas here. We soak these overnight, so they’re going to be ready to cook.

So I’m starting out with about a half a pound of beef here. This should go really nicely with our peas. Coating this meat with flour and then browning it will help thicken up the stew.

So now that our beef is well browned, we’re going to add that to our 3 pints of boiling stew water and then we’re going to add our peas. Let’s get this beef in there without losing any of it. There we go. And now we’re going to add the peas.

So now that our stew has boiled for about 15 minutes, we’re going to add some potato, some onion and some parsnips, along with some salt and pepper. We’re going to let that simmer for about an hour.

You’ll know this stew is ready when the peas break down and the stew thickens up and that really is a matter of how long you’ve soaked your peas. If you haven’t soaked them at all, this might take 2 or 3 hours, but if you soaked them it won’t take as long. While our soups and stews are simmering here, let’s start the hash.

Our hash is a fairly simple dish. I’ve got some finely diced salt pork here. I’ve already browned this up with some onion and I’m going to take a couple of parboiled or already boiled potatoes. I’m going to dice these up and mash them. Put them in with that.

We also need to add a little bit of milk to give it some liquid to work with. If you happen to have some allspice, it makes a wonderful addition to the hash. I’m going to form this up into patties and fry it in our frying pan.

Well, there we have all three dishes finished. We’ve got a salt pork soup and the salt pork really has a wonderful flavor. The saltiness balanced out with the other flavors actually extremely good. Here’s our salt pork hash. It may not look great but let me tell you, it is my favorite on the table here, the salt pork, very tender, just the right amount of saltiness, along with the potatoes and the onions, definitely a favorite. So the last dish here was the stew, this is the beef and peas stew and it thickened up rather nicely. The peas add their own kind of sweetness to it. The beef is excellent in here. Any one of these things you will definitely enjoy.

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Preparing Salt Pork

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Jennifer Stanley

Salt Pork (Time 0_00_30;10)
Pork was one of the most common and popular meats in the 18th century. It was one of the meats that would be supplied in rations for soldiers. It was common for sailors and the entire population. Pork was salted so that it would last any number of months and could be transported. Today we’re going to show you a method for salting and preserving your pork in an 18th century manner.

 

  • Pork (We used a shoulder or Picnic cut)
  • Salt

Salt Pork (Time 0_01_42;01)Today we’re going to prepare our salt pork in a 2 gallon oak keg. This one is a well bucket keg that we sell at Jas Townsend & Son’s. This doesn’t have the holes drilled in it. You can ask for a keg like that if you want to do a similar project. This one has been touched up on the inside. We took a torch and melted out the excess wax here at the top, and we also prepared a little wooden lid that will press down on the pork and keep it inside the brine solution.

Salt Pork (Time 0_01_55;09)Before we get started packing our meat, we need a hot brine solution prepared. Boil some water and dissolve as much salt in the water as it takes to make a fresh raw egg float in the solution. You will need enough brine water to cover the pork completely.Salt Pork (Time 0_04_01;03)

Salt Pork (Time 0_02_25;25)
Cut up the pork into 1 pound size pieces so we can layer it so the salt can get into all the pieces. Put about a cup of salt into the barrel so there is a layer of salt in the very bottom.Salt Pork (Time 0_02_43;18) Spread it out and make sure it’s nice and even, then start putting the pork into the barrel.Salt Pork (Time 0_03_06;07)
If there are rind pieces on your pork, you want to make sure they are toward the bottom or toward the outside edges with the meat parts on the inside. You want to pack this tight so that there is as small a quantity of air pockets as possible. Each time you put in another layer of meat, you want to put in another layer of salt.Salt Pork (Time 0_03_25;15) Make sure everything is spread out evenly.

You can’t add too much salt, so don’t worry about getting too much salt in this. Better to have too much than too little.

Salt Pork (Time 0_03_31;22)
Fill the container until there is a small space near the top then pour in the brine solution until full. The brine will fill in all the air pockets that were missed while filling in the meat and salt. Place the lid on top and weight it down to make sure that the meat remains covered in the brine solution.Salt Pork (Time 0_04_33;18) Place the container in a cool area. The cooler it remains, the longer the meat will remain edible.

If at any time you see some frothing on top that means there is something going on. This needs to be taken care immediately. Pour the brine solution off, scald the brine solution and pour it back on again.

When it comes time to use your salt pork and you pull it out of the barrel, you need to soak it, sometimes overnight, but at least 2 hours. You want to soak it in fresh water, changing the water often so that you get as much salt out of the pork as possible. You’re never going to get it all. It’s going to be salty, but other than that, you use it like you would any fresh cut. You can use it in any recipe.

Transcription of Video:

As we talked about in earlier videos, pork was one of the most common and popular meats in the 18th century. It was one of the meats that would be supplied in rations for soldiers. It was a common thing for sailors and the entire population. Pork was salted so that it would last any number of months and could be transported, used in ships, the sailors could eat it later on. Today we’re going to show you a method for salting and preserving your pork in an 18th century manner.

Salting is an ancient technique, even previous to the Romans, very easily documented. There are a couple of different variations of salting. Sometimes they would just pack their meat in salt water or brine, sometimes they would hard pack it with lots of salt and then there’s even adding salt peter to it for a deeper preservation technique that might last a little bit longer, but didn’t taste as well.  Today we’re going to prepare our salt pork in this 2 gallon oak keg. This one is a well bucket keg that we sell at Jas Townsend & Son’s. This doesn’t have the holes drilled in it. You can ask for a keg like that if you want to do a similar project. This one has been touched up on the inside. We took a torch and melted out the excess wax here at the top, and we also prepared a little wooden lid that will press down on the pork and keep it inside the brine solution.

Before we get started packing our meat, we need a hot brine solution prepared.

There’s a common misconception that salt pork is easy to come by these days. You’ll find something in a modern grocery store that’s called salt pork, but in reality it’s nothing like what was known as salt pork in the 18th century. This is just a cured but unsmoked pork belly product, but it isn’t actually prepared in a manner that 18th century salt pork was. So rather than use a pork belly, we’re going to use a pork shoulder or this is a picnic. I’ve got our pork already cut up into about 1 pound size pieces. We’ve got to have it so we can put it in in layers so the salt can get into it, so we’ve got 1 pound pieces here. We’re going to put about a cup of salt into our barrel here so that we’ve got a layer of salt in the very bottom. We’re going to spread that out and make sure it’s nice and even and now we’re going to start putting our pork into the barrel. We’ve got rind pieces on this. These rinds, you want to make sure, are toward the bottom or toward the outside edges with the meat parts on the inside. You want to pack this tight. You want to have as small a quantity of air pockets as possible. Each time we put in another layer of meat, we put in another layer of salt. Make sure that’s all spread out evenly.

Get this tightly packed, and we add more salt.

You can’t add too much salt, so don’t worry about getting too much salt in this. Better to have too much than too little.

That’s our final piece of meat. The keg is pretty much full. There’s still some space there at the top. The final step here is going to be pouring the hot brine solution in. That will fill in all the gaps and seal it up, and then I’m going to put our lid on.

So a method in the 18th century to see whether our brine solution was briny enough was to float an egg. This is just a regular raw egg, still in the shell, and we can see that this egg is floating in the solution, so we know its thick enough. There’s enough salt in here.

Here’s our hot brine solution. We know that it’s thick enough. We’re going to start pouring it in on top until it completely covers our meat, and then it’s time for your wooden lid. We’re going to float that up on top and then finally to make sure that this lid presses down on top of the meat we’re going to place a weight on top. If we see some frothing that means something is going on. We need to take care of that. We need to pour the brine solution off, you need to scald the brine solution and then you can put it back on again.

Well, our keg is ready to store now. In the 18th century it was traditional to process pork and beef products, when they salt it, they would do that in the fall when the temperatures were cool. It would make this last a lot longer. That’s the same thing we’re going to do. We’re going to take this keg and we’re going to put it in the refrigerator to keep it nice and cool so that it doesn’t go bad. It will probably last and be good for several weeks, put in a cool place like that. In the 18th century they would use it all through the winter into the next spring.

When it comes time to use your salt pork and you pull it out of the barrel, you need to soak it. You need to soak it sometimes overnight, but at least 2 hours. You want to soak it in fresh water, changing the water often so that you get as much salt out of that pork as possible. You’re never going to get it all. It’s going to be a salty thing, but other than that, you use it like you would any fresh cut. You can use it in any recipe.

Well, there you have it, salt pork. All the things you’ve seen in this video today, you can see on our website or in our print catalog and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.

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18th Century Soldiers Rations

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Jennifer Stanley

Soldier Rations (Time 0_00_39;06)American soldiers in the 18th century had several different types of rations.

There were per man per day food rations. This would include a meat component, usually consisting of a pound of beef, three-quarters of a pound of pork, or a pound of salt fish. Soldier Rations (Time 0_01_03;03)There would also be a bread component where they were supposed to get a pound loaf, but if that were not available they might get just flour or cornmeal instead.Soldier Rations (Time 0_00_56;15)

To round out the daily ration they were given a pint of milk and a quart of beer.Soldier Rations (Time 0_01_30;03)

There were per man per week rations. This would include things like peas, beans, rice, vinegar and other items that were not very popular with the soldiers.Soldier Rations (Time 0_01_56;05)

There were per company per week rations. This would include candles, soap, and other items that the men would need that were not food.Soldier Rations

Finally, whenever possible, the soldiers would supplement their diet with whatever items could be procured locally from villages, farmers or even the wilderness around them.Soldier Rations (Time 0_02_04;07)

Transcript of Video:

Soldiers in the 18th Century, whether they be American, British or French, all had very similar rations. Congress in 1775 established rations for the American soldiers and that ration stayed very similar for 150 years. Let’s take a look at what was included in that ration.

There were several different types of rations. There were per man per day food rations, that each man hoped he would get, there were rations per man per week, and then there were per company per week rations. So the daily ration would include a meat component, usually a pound of beef, or three quarters of a pound of pork, or possibly a pound of salt fish. So another part of the daily ration would be the bread part. Each man was supposed to get a pound loaf of bread per day and if bread wasn’t available then they would possibly be issued just flour, and if flour wasn’t available then they might even get a substitution of corn meal. And to round out this daily ration, they were given a pint of milk and a quart of beer. The per company per week ration included candles, soap, items that the men would need that weren’t food items. The per man per week rations were items that weren’t as popular or common; peas, it might also include beans, rice, or vinegar. Whenever possible, the soldiers would also supplement their diet with whatever items they could procure locally from a local village or from farmers or even from the wilderness around them. So in the following video series we’re going to take all these ration items and we’re going to prepare them in an 18th century fashion.

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