Here's a little history about period foods - A starting place before you start cooking ..
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Here's a little history about period foods - A starting place before you start cooking ..
by Buck Conner 10/2/2022, 3:18 pm
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READ: A starting place before you start cooking would be to know what your going to prepare. You need a shopping list of what your going to make and the measured amounts needed before you do anything folks. Without this information your recipe is not edible ...
Here's a little history about period foods
WE USE TO HEAR THIS FROM THOSE THAT HAD NOT BEEN EDUCATED TO THIS LIFE STYLE.
Here's a little history about period foods. Placing this here as unable to put in with RECIPES.
These have been seen in several of our old business ventures; "Buckhorn Rendezvous" 1978-1987, "Buckhorn Limited" (wholesale supplier) 1986-1990. Then I wanted to try Internet sales in 1992-2000 called "Clark & Sons Mercantile, Inc." we provided period correct edibles foraged and cultivated along with camp wares.
Like anything we do Research is the key to success and foods are no different.
As you do your research on edible foods, wild and planted, you will find that a large number of the available varieties came from Pennsylvania Germans, who brought them from their home lands in Europe from as early as the 1500’s. A few centuries later our own Thomas Jefferson swapped, traded and purchased some of the items we use today (not found in North America).
A brief sampling:
Field Seeds
Flax: Has been grown in the colonies as early as 1560’s, used for linen cloth and a number of other cloth by products. Ariane Flax seed is available today......................
Spelt: A form of wheat with a little difference in texture, was originally from Europe but found its way to the colonies when settled. Spelt Mills were popular during the 1800's in ..............
Gourds: In colonial America, old Mexico and parts of Europe, gourds have been used for a number of storage vessels. They have been cooked, fried, boiled or any other way you can ...........
Vegetables
Beans: Were often planted with corn and squash, called "Three Sisters" plantings, the colonists used this Indian method as early as the 1650's. Fisher, Smith, Hutterite and Jacob's .........
Beets: Native to Europe and N. Africa, their first appearance in N. America is not clear, but reference has been made of them in journals dating to the early 1600's. .................
Carrots: Member of the parsley family, came to South and North America from Europe and Asia, in the form of animal fodder, with the colonies employment in the early settlements ....
Herbs
These herbs are used as medicine, seasonings or just for decoration, all have been dated earlier than 1800.
Caraway: Has some medical uses, licorice taste used on rye bread by early colonists.............
Horehound: Used in teas, candy for sore throat problems .............
Sweet Cicely: Licorice flavor used in cooking for seasoning.
Apples
Baldwin Woodpecker: Found in history around the mid 1700's in southern part of Massachusetts.
Fameuse-Snow Apple: From Canada originally brought there by seed from France around 1600.
Jonathan: A New York farm apple grown as early as 1800.
If your interested I could provide additional items with dates found when first started here. That would help with your time frames. :hmm:
Note
The reason I got involved with these lines was what I'm sure you have found. A group (group in general) has spent many many dollars on their equipage and weapons, but when you go into their camps they are eating whatever is the easiest usually not correct. They just missed the whole experience of living history, now that's really sad folks.
Here's a few examples of supplies available:
INFORMATION OF INTEREST
The few items described below is to give you a small taste of what was being sent from the East to the new frontier, by our citizens and citizens from other lands. Edibles were big business as were all the other needed supplies.
This information is from many issues of the Museum of the Fur Trade, micro-film at St. Louis museums and several other Fur Trade sources, and are found many references from 1803, 1822, 1825,1826, 1832, 1834, 1835, 1837 and 1839 as to a number of the items available.
Listings of supplies are just a small sampling found on "Supply Invoices" such as these from 1825, 1835.
Looking over this information, and considering the amount of trade that was going on out of St.Louis, it is a pretty slim inventory for a variety of edibles when you consider what was actually available during those years.
1825
Inventory of Goods available at the 1825 Rendezvous on Henry's Fork of the Green River, from Wm. Ashley's diary:
2 bags coffee 1 hams goods
2 Tobacco 2 packs sugar
2.5 kegs tea
Tobacco 150lbs.
3 Bags coffee 200 lbs.
130 lbs Bale & Bag Sugar
1835
Invoice of merchandise shipped on the Steam Boat Diana, C.A. Halstead Master, bound for the Upper Missouri River and Consigned to Messr Laidlaw and Lamont for the account and risk of the Upper Missouri Outfit, 1835.
U.M.O. Pierre
4 boxes Y.H. tea
5 loaves ( ? ) sugar
2 boxes shaving soap
4 boxes com soap
1 barrel rice
4 bales oakum
2 barrels water crackers
2 barrels each navy pilot bread
1/2 barrels molasses
Keg 50 15 gls 1 hlf barrel mackreal
? bottle pepper sauce 2 boxes raisins
2 boxes cod fish 1 Lexington mustard
2 lb refined borax 1/2 dz. lime juice
2 oz nut megs 2 oz cloves
1/2 dz. ground ginger
1 gal blue grass seed (for a Factor)
7 kegs 6 twist to pound tobacco
2 kegs 2 twist to pound tobacco
1 keg 1 twist to pound tobacco 5
kegs 8 twist to pound tobacco
7 boxes brown Havana sugar
5 sacks Grod Al Salt
1 box cavandish tobacco
10 barrel pork
6 bags coffee
1 barrel bacon hams
40 barrels flour
_______________________________
Pasta was a common trade item on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in the late 1700’s, but as researchers agree, it was available for ones that could afford the price, not an item a traveler or hunter would likely have. More of an item found in the settlements or at a fort trading post.
Herbs & Spices
Basil, Bay leaves, Cayenne pepper, Pepper corn, Cinnamon sticks, Cloves-whole, Garlic-granules, Ginger root-dried, Mustard seed-whole, Nutmeg-whole, Pepper-crushed red, Rose hips-seedless, these are the more common and the list would change with the area one is living in.
Coffee
French:
La Compagnie: Vanilla bean was a favorite of the officers on New France . A blend of coffee and vanilla for a correct drink fitting 1670-1800.
French Officer: choice of government and fur trade officials in New France , a special blend. 1650-1780.
Spanish:
Santa Fe Trail: Used through out the S/W of N. America , a blend of coffee and chocolate. 1760-1830.
El Capitan : Spanish Governors to Army Officers of the S/W along with fur trade Factors involved with the Santa Fe trade, favored this coffee. 1600-1850. (this is my favorite coffee)
English:
From the Colonies (manuf in N. Amer.): A collection of beans and nuts blended to the common man’s taste. Used through out the colonies. 1610-1810.
Coffee Beans (Green /not roasted ): Coffee beans have been imported from the coffee capitals of the world, for centuries by the English, French, Spanish and American ships, taken to their home ports. Brazil , Columbia , Guatemala , Mexico and Salvador where the most popular ports.
Tea
Brick single-tile; Pressed cured blocks of tea, from Yunnan province, used as a currency for hundreds of years, traded in Europe and N. America in the earliest markets known.
Gun powder; Course granulation tea that resembles cannon powder, a quarter teaspoon in a 1/2 pt of boiling water produces a pleasant cup of tea.
Hyson; Small leaf green tea, name means "bright spring", a good period tea for any camp.
Bohea; Black orange pekoe, many recipes for this tea can be found through out history, was a very popular trade item, found on most supply lists.
China Black; The tea that started the "Tea Trade" in Europe and is still a leader today, in markets around the world.
Sweets
Maple sugar (bag), Maple sugar (cake), brown cane sugar "Havana Brown", Muscavado-cone, Cone sugar-piloncillo, "Hat" * of sugar (paper wrp), Round block sugar, Spiced chocolate, Chocolate (ibarra), Muscavado (in corn husk)
* is though that this is where the term "I’ll eat my hat" originated, wrapped in blue paper that can be used in dying cloth goods. (piloncillo and ibarra are still molded in the same design form as the originals in a museum in Santa Fe , NM )
Salt
Sea salt (sun dried), Orsa salt (sun dried)
Nuts
English walnuts (meats), Pignolia (pine nuts), Sun flower seed (raw), Spanish peanuts (raw), Pumpkin seeds (raw).
Dried Fruit
Apples, Peaches, Pears
Dried Meat (jerky): Buffalo , Elk, Antelope, Bear and any other available that could be jerked.
____________________________
In resent years more and more folks have been educated with the help of the trekking and reenactment magazines and their writers. Movies made of period events and travels have helped people change their minds also, there's more than you think. Then there's the ideas of where would these items have been used, on the trail, in the settlements, the forts and so on.
When still providing this service of period foods we would supply several of the writers and those that made the videos with supplies. I wanted them to report back if it was easy to use, something they would recommend to others, taste and any concerns they had about whatever they used. Most was agreeable with their systems (didn't get sick) and a few items got bad reviews (those would be removed from the catalog).
You older guys probably remember some of the articles and reviews we got in those days. This is not bragging, those days are long gone and so is the business. Today with the information just provided you one can go to the health store in your area and find most of these items.
____________________________
____________________________
We received these remarks for one simple reason we provided documented products. We thanks the Baker's, Houser's and all those that showed us in their credits and reviews. It was fun to help. You young guys will find this out as you grow in the sport. Welcome the new guy, remember you use to me where he is now.
.
READ: A starting place before you start cooking would be to know what your going to prepare. You need a shopping list of what your going to make and the measured amounts needed before you do anything folks. Without this information your recipe is not edible ...
Here's a little history about period foods
WE USE TO HEAR THIS FROM THOSE THAT HAD NOT BEEN EDUCATED TO THIS LIFE STYLE.
- I wonder how many people who worry about period correct food actually know what period is correct. I have been often questioned about my ice cream and apple cobblers. Yet Dolly Madison was so well known for her ice cream dinners that there was a brand of ice cream freezers named after her. Tomas Jefferson was known to favor spritzer apples for "cooking with batter "While popcorn was used by both the native Americans and settlers I admit popping it in peanut oil is not period correct since George Washington Carver did not extract peanut oil until well after the civil war, yet it tastes better than corn poped in lard.So for myself I'll continue to eat as I always have. As I tell my wife " Just put on my tombstone he ate bacon and eggs for breakfast. "
Here's a little history about period foods. Placing this here as unable to put in with RECIPES.
These have been seen in several of our old business ventures; "Buckhorn Rendezvous" 1978-1987, "Buckhorn Limited" (wholesale supplier) 1986-1990. Then I wanted to try Internet sales in 1992-2000 called "Clark & Sons Mercantile, Inc." we provided period correct edibles foraged and cultivated along with camp wares.
Like anything we do Research is the key to success and foods are no different.
As you do your research on edible foods, wild and planted, you will find that a large number of the available varieties came from Pennsylvania Germans, who brought them from their home lands in Europe from as early as the 1500’s. A few centuries later our own Thomas Jefferson swapped, traded and purchased some of the items we use today (not found in North America).
A brief sampling:
Field Seeds
Flax: Has been grown in the colonies as early as 1560’s, used for linen cloth and a number of other cloth by products. Ariane Flax seed is available today......................
Spelt: A form of wheat with a little difference in texture, was originally from Europe but found its way to the colonies when settled. Spelt Mills were popular during the 1800's in ..............
Gourds: In colonial America, old Mexico and parts of Europe, gourds have been used for a number of storage vessels. They have been cooked, fried, boiled or any other way you can ...........
Vegetables
Beans: Were often planted with corn and squash, called "Three Sisters" plantings, the colonists used this Indian method as early as the 1650's. Fisher, Smith, Hutterite and Jacob's .........
Beets: Native to Europe and N. Africa, their first appearance in N. America is not clear, but reference has been made of them in journals dating to the early 1600's. .................
Carrots: Member of the parsley family, came to South and North America from Europe and Asia, in the form of animal fodder, with the colonies employment in the early settlements ....
Herbs
These herbs are used as medicine, seasonings or just for decoration, all have been dated earlier than 1800.
Caraway: Has some medical uses, licorice taste used on rye bread by early colonists.............
Horehound: Used in teas, candy for sore throat problems .............
Sweet Cicely: Licorice flavor used in cooking for seasoning.
Apples
Baldwin Woodpecker: Found in history around the mid 1700's in southern part of Massachusetts.
Fameuse-Snow Apple: From Canada originally brought there by seed from France around 1600.
Jonathan: A New York farm apple grown as early as 1800.
If your interested I could provide additional items with dates found when first started here. That would help with your time frames. :hmm:
Note
The reason I got involved with these lines was what I'm sure you have found. A group (group in general) has spent many many dollars on their equipage and weapons, but when you go into their camps they are eating whatever is the easiest usually not correct. They just missed the whole experience of living history, now that's really sad folks.
Here's a few examples of supplies available:
INFORMATION OF INTEREST
The few items described below is to give you a small taste of what was being sent from the East to the new frontier, by our citizens and citizens from other lands. Edibles were big business as were all the other needed supplies.
This information is from many issues of the Museum of the Fur Trade, micro-film at St. Louis museums and several other Fur Trade sources, and are found many references from 1803, 1822, 1825,1826, 1832, 1834, 1835, 1837 and 1839 as to a number of the items available.
Listings of supplies are just a small sampling found on "Supply Invoices" such as these from 1825, 1835.
Looking over this information, and considering the amount of trade that was going on out of St.Louis, it is a pretty slim inventory for a variety of edibles when you consider what was actually available during those years.
1825
Inventory of Goods available at the 1825 Rendezvous on Henry's Fork of the Green River, from Wm. Ashley's diary:
2 bags coffee 1 hams goods
2 Tobacco 2 packs sugar
2.5 kegs tea
Tobacco 150lbs.
3 Bags coffee 200 lbs.
130 lbs Bale & Bag Sugar
1835
Invoice of merchandise shipped on the Steam Boat Diana, C.A. Halstead Master, bound for the Upper Missouri River and Consigned to Messr Laidlaw and Lamont for the account and risk of the Upper Missouri Outfit, 1835.
U.M.O. Pierre
4 boxes Y.H. tea
5 loaves ( ? ) sugar
2 boxes shaving soap
4 boxes com soap
1 barrel rice
4 bales oakum
2 barrels water crackers
2 barrels each navy pilot bread
1/2 barrels molasses
Keg 50 15 gls 1 hlf barrel mackreal
? bottle pepper sauce 2 boxes raisins
2 boxes cod fish 1 Lexington mustard
2 lb refined borax 1/2 dz. lime juice
2 oz nut megs 2 oz cloves
1/2 dz. ground ginger
1 gal blue grass seed (for a Factor)
7 kegs 6 twist to pound tobacco
2 kegs 2 twist to pound tobacco
1 keg 1 twist to pound tobacco 5
kegs 8 twist to pound tobacco
7 boxes brown Havana sugar
5 sacks Grod Al Salt
1 box cavandish tobacco
10 barrel pork
6 bags coffee
1 barrel bacon hams
40 barrels flour
_______________________________
Pasta was a common trade item on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in the late 1700’s, but as researchers agree, it was available for ones that could afford the price, not an item a traveler or hunter would likely have. More of an item found in the settlements or at a fort trading post.
Herbs & Spices
Basil, Bay leaves, Cayenne pepper, Pepper corn, Cinnamon sticks, Cloves-whole, Garlic-granules, Ginger root-dried, Mustard seed-whole, Nutmeg-whole, Pepper-crushed red, Rose hips-seedless, these are the more common and the list would change with the area one is living in.
Coffee
French:
La Compagnie: Vanilla bean was a favorite of the officers on New France . A blend of coffee and vanilla for a correct drink fitting 1670-1800.
French Officer: choice of government and fur trade officials in New France , a special blend. 1650-1780.
Spanish:
Santa Fe Trail: Used through out the S/W of N. America , a blend of coffee and chocolate. 1760-1830.
El Capitan : Spanish Governors to Army Officers of the S/W along with fur trade Factors involved with the Santa Fe trade, favored this coffee. 1600-1850. (this is my favorite coffee)
English:
From the Colonies (manuf in N. Amer.): A collection of beans and nuts blended to the common man’s taste. Used through out the colonies. 1610-1810.
Coffee Beans (Green /not roasted ): Coffee beans have been imported from the coffee capitals of the world, for centuries by the English, French, Spanish and American ships, taken to their home ports. Brazil , Columbia , Guatemala , Mexico and Salvador where the most popular ports.
Tea
Brick single-tile; Pressed cured blocks of tea, from Yunnan province, used as a currency for hundreds of years, traded in Europe and N. America in the earliest markets known.
Gun powder; Course granulation tea that resembles cannon powder, a quarter teaspoon in a 1/2 pt of boiling water produces a pleasant cup of tea.
Hyson; Small leaf green tea, name means "bright spring", a good period tea for any camp.
Bohea; Black orange pekoe, many recipes for this tea can be found through out history, was a very popular trade item, found on most supply lists.
China Black; The tea that started the "Tea Trade" in Europe and is still a leader today, in markets around the world.
Sweets
Maple sugar (bag), Maple sugar (cake), brown cane sugar "Havana Brown", Muscavado-cone, Cone sugar-piloncillo, "Hat" * of sugar (paper wrp), Round block sugar, Spiced chocolate, Chocolate (ibarra), Muscavado (in corn husk)
* is though that this is where the term "I’ll eat my hat" originated, wrapped in blue paper that can be used in dying cloth goods. (piloncillo and ibarra are still molded in the same design form as the originals in a museum in Santa Fe , NM )
Salt
Sea salt (sun dried), Orsa salt (sun dried)
Nuts
English walnuts (meats), Pignolia (pine nuts), Sun flower seed (raw), Spanish peanuts (raw), Pumpkin seeds (raw).
Dried Fruit
Apples, Peaches, Pears
Dried Meat (jerky): Buffalo , Elk, Antelope, Bear and any other available that could be jerked.
____________________________
In resent years more and more folks have been educated with the help of the trekking and reenactment magazines and their writers. Movies made of period events and travels have helped people change their minds also, there's more than you think. Then there's the ideas of where would these items have been used, on the trail, in the settlements, the forts and so on.
When still providing this service of period foods we would supply several of the writers and those that made the videos with supplies. I wanted them to report back if it was easy to use, something they would recommend to others, taste and any concerns they had about whatever they used. Most was agreeable with their systems (didn't get sick) and a few items got bad reviews (those would be removed from the catalog).
You older guys probably remember some of the articles and reviews we got in those days. This is not bragging, those days are long gone and so is the business. Today with the information just provided you one can go to the health store in your area and find most of these items.
____________________________
- To read their list of goods offered, one feels as though they are standing at the counter of a pre- 1840 St. Louis trading post or they are preparing to place an order to the stores of George Morgan during the 18th century. It seems that you can find any thing you might need in the way of foods and grains for your trek on the trail as well as period correct cookware, copper, tin, and iron. Buckhorn Rendezvous has given us a much needed source for authentic early American food-stuff and I encourage you to write for their list. Their prices are as fair as one could hope for.
Thanks Buck.
Rick Edwards, Editor "On The Trail" magazine
____________________________
Have dealt with Buckhorn Rendezvous several times, ordering a variety of period-correct foodstuffs. There catalog is a treat, for he spices up the lists of grains, teas, coffee, sugars and cookware with quotes from original documents that put the food he offers into a particular time and place. When I review his catalog, I can imagine what the shelves and barrels of George Morgan's Kaskaskia store might have displayed during a typical day in 1768.
Mark Baker, A Pilgrim's Journey "Muzzleloader" magazine
____________________________
Authenticity is what Clark & Sons is all about. The Camp Blanket is a little hard to explain because they aren't only in the business of selling, it is also a how-to of what was eaten in yesteryear, how to prepare it ,and little known facts about what foods were popular in those days. One thing is certain, if you want period food, tin and copperware, toiletries, blankets, grains, teas, sweets and fire building, smoking, sewing , books and writing supplies, then it behooves you to get their list and catalog, say "HI" to Buck.
Charlie Richie, Editor "Backwoodsman" magazine
____________________________
Looking at what is offered by Buck's new business Clark & Sons Mercantile, will really opens the reenactors eyes to what a variety of items were available for different time periods. What we liked, is they deal as stated, "camp life equipage", foods, mill items and camp supplies of early North America. What a great find for the serious historical interpreter.
William Eaton, Field Editor" The Colonial Society" magazine
____________________________
We received these remarks for one simple reason we provided documented products. We thanks the Baker's, Houser's and all those that showed us in their credits and reviews. It was fun to help. You young guys will find this out as you grow in the sport. Welcome the new guy, remember you use to me where he is now.
.
Last edited by Buck Conner on 20/9/2022, 12:19 pm; edited 1 time in total
Buck Conner- Moderator
- Posts : 1014
Join date : 2021-07-02
Age : 84
Location : Utah, Colorado, Wyoming -
uffda and Mustang65 like this post
Re: Here's a little history about period foods - A starting place before you start cooking ..
by Mustang65 16/5/2022, 6:06 pm
here is another great place that has old recipes and cook books galore on 18th & 19th century cooking.
George Washington's Mount Vernon
George Washington's Mount Vernon-Recipes
George Washington's Mount Vernon
George Washington's Mount Vernon-Recipes
Mustang65- Posts : 490
Join date : 2021-12-18
Location : Colorado -
uffda likes this post
Re: Here's a little history about period foods - A starting place before you start cooking ..
by uffda 20/5/2022, 3:16 pm
Great stuff. May want to pay attention folks, time is nigh.
uffda- Posts : 147
Join date : 2021-07-15
Mustang65 likes this post
Re: Here's a little history about period foods - A starting place before you start cooking ..
by Buck Conner 14/8/2022, 9:12 am
You will find in most cases only a few will try and use correct items, its easier to just do something simple whether its correct or not.
I have worked with a few of our members here making suggestions on what would be a simple meal using correct edibles, where to find those items and how to prepare them. Once they try the suggestion a few times some will ask for other meal ideas (then they are hooked on period foods). My job is done for another day.
Like said many times guys, it's research.
.
I have worked with a few of our members here making suggestions on what would be a simple meal using correct edibles, where to find those items and how to prepare them. Once they try the suggestion a few times some will ask for other meal ideas (then they are hooked on period foods). My job is done for another day.
Like said many times guys, it's research.
Buck Conner- Moderator
- Posts : 1014
Join date : 2021-07-02
Age : 84
Location : Utah, Colorado, Wyoming -
Mustang65 likes this post
Re: Here's a little history about period foods - A starting place before you start cooking ..
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