Michael Twitty at Bacon's Castle

Saturday we traveled to Bacon's Castle in Surry, VA for an outdoor cooking demonstration. I was surpised to see Michael in 21st century clothing, but he explained that the foods he would be using are out of season, so the presentation was more informational than living history. Michael is a wealth of information and a very engaging presenter so we thoroughly enjoyed chatting around the fire with him, plus I came away with new information for my period food display.

If you are not familiar with Michael here is his bio:
Michael W. Twitty is a recognized culinary historian, community scholar, and living history interpreter focusing on historic African American food and folk culture. He is webmaster of http://www.afroculinaria.com, the first website/blog devoted to the preservation of historic African American foods and foodways. He has conducted classes and workshops, written curricula and educational programs, giving lectures and performed cooking demonstrations for over 100 groups including the Smithsonian Institution, Colonial Williamsburg, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, Library of Congress, and Oxford University's Symposium on Food and Cookery. He has been profiled in the Washington Post and interviewed multiple times on NPR including, acclaimed food program The Spendid Table. He is well known for his expertise in the history and heritage of enslaved African Americans and their foodways and his knowledge of growing African American heirloom crops, open hearth cooking, heritage breed livestock, and wild flora and fauna utilized by enslaved Africans and their descendants.

Tavern Pipes Revisited

Since my last post on the topic of clay pipes Tobacco Drinking (see July 13, 2010), the germ theory has been disproven. The "story" was more of a matter of applying our 21st century life styles and beliefs to an 18th century practice.

Mary Miley Theobold in her blog History Myths Debunked (http://historymyths.wordpress.com/?s=pipes) gives this explanation:
While attending a conference for museum professionals in Annapolis, MD, recently, I learned something new about broken pipe stems from Tony Lindauer, Anne Arundel County archaeologist. Men did sometimes break off the tip of the pipe stem, although certainly not for sanitary reasons. Tony explained that as the hot, tar-filled tobacco smoke is sucked up the stem, it cools a little, and when it gets to the moist mouth, it cools significantly and solidifies. Soon a deposit of tar builds up inside the pipe stem near the mouth, blocking the bore. So a smoker might, indeed, need to break off an inch or so of the clogged tip to continue smoking.”. . . and that’s why archaeologists find so many bits of broken pipe stems in so many excavations.”

Hopefully now that old myth can be put to rest!


You can find more stories in her book DEATH BY PETTICOAT, published in June 2012 by Andrews-McMeel Press and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Open Fire Cooking

The Moody Crewe, our pirate living history group, planned an open fire cooking, but of course our crazy spring weather foiled our plan. If anyone is curious about the size of the fire pit our host can tell you it holds 43 gallons of water because that's how much he bailed out after the rainstorm. Sunday's weather was just right, and even though everyone was making different dishes with different cooking times everything was ready in perfect time.

The menu consisted of: liver pudding cooked inside a sheep stomach, Brunswick stew, "A fine hash of Beef at Little Expense", a French loaf of bread cooked in a cast iron Dutch oven in the coals, home churned butter, two "passenger pigeons" stuffed with tangerine and hung to roast over the fire, and boiled beef with potatoes and sauerkraut.

As the only vegetarian in the group I choose to make "A Ragout of French Beans with a Farce" from The Art of English Cookery by Richard Briggs, 1788. A little out of our time period, but at least it used vegetables (green beans and carrots).And for my favorite part of the meal, dessert, I made syllabub. The consensus was it was delicious - but too much cream and not enough booze...

We all produced quite the spread for a Sunday dinner and had a great time, too.

The Chesapeake Bay Oyster

Oyster shell found in a exposed breakwater on Chic's Beach, Virginia after a hurricane

     While this may seem like a departure from the food history format of this blog, it is a backwards look at the history of one of our signature Tidewater foods – the oyster. After all, every good pirate and tavern owner should know their local waters. And I recently learned lot about oysters.
     Those of us who live in the Tidewater area tend to think of oysters as one of our signature seafoods, so it surprised me to learn that oysters were cultivated in Italy during the first century B.C. Sergius Orata, a Roman engineer, grew his oysters on a rock piles surrounded by twigs in the lakes of Southern Italy. Somehow he knew what we now know - that oysters preferred to live in colonies, like a solid surface to grow on, and once the larval oysters roost they do not move but expend their energy growing larger. With his manmade oyster reef Orata could easily monitor his crops, and when his oysters reached a marketable size he could remove them and sell them.
So where do oysters live and how do they grow?
     Oysters tend to congregate in colonies and form oyster reefs which create habitats similar to coral reefs. Oysters are only mobile for the first two weeks of their life. Then they prefer to have a hard surface upon which to attach, and will happily just continue to grow larger and larger while piled on top of each other in the same location. Since the average depth here in the Chesapeake Bay is only 21 feet these intertidal animals may be exposed for 5-6 hours per day between the high and low tides marks and still survive. Oyster reefs are the largest source of hard surface on the Bay’s bottom and provide food and shelter for other species like mussels, barnacles, red beard sponge, rockfish, eels, pig fish, sheep’s head, drum, spadefish, pipefish, croaker, spot, pinfish, blue crabs, and several invertebrates.
     Oysters are filter feeders meaning they pump large volumes of water through their gills. As they filter the water to obtain food, they also filter out plankton and sediment which helps to clear the water and preserve the quality of the Bay’s habitat. A single adult oyster can filter about 50 gallons of water a day. The oyster population a few decades ago was able to filter the entire Bay every week. With the decline is the number of oysters and the modern day pressure on the Chesapeake Bay it would take the current oyster population a year to accomplish the same job.
     Captain John Smith was introduced to oysters by the Native Americans in the 1600's and wrote that the oyster beds were so prolific they created an impediment to navigation. I’ve been told by interpreters at Jamestown Colony in Jamestown, Virginia that the oysters at that time measure 13” across. We're not sure of the age of the oyster shell in the photo above, but it was discovered wedged down deep in a previously unseen rock breakwater uncovered by a hurricane. Locally harvested oysters from a nerby area recently reopened for shellfishing only measure 4.5".
What happened to our local oysters?
     The American east coast native oyster, Crassostrea virginica, formed the backbone of a thriving Chesapeake Bay oyster industry from the Civil War time period until the mid 1980’s. At present the population of Chesapeake Bay oysters is just 2% of what it was prior to 1850. How did that happen? A combination of loving oysters and a booming population loving bayfront living contributed to overharvesting, a decline in oyster habitat, and a decline in the water quality of the Bay. At present the Chesapeake Bay watershed encompasses 64,000, square miles in six contiguous states. Of that total mileage 11,600 is tidal shoreline, and at present approximately 17,000 million people live in the watershed with about 10 million living along its shores or near them. The combination of working, living, recreating and all the inherent pollutants that come along with profiting from and just enjoying the Bay (we won't even talk about dog and goose poop pollution here!) have compromised the water quality of our beautiful National Treasure the Chesapeake Bay.
     Interestingly the name “Chesapeake” comes from the Native American word
"Tschiswapeki," meaning "great shellfish bay." So please do what you can to protect our beautiful Chesapeake Bay and keep the oysters growing for our generation and those to come.
For more information visit:
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation http://www.cbf.org/
Lynnhaven River Now http://www.LRNow.org/

Foods and Feasts of Colonial Virginia

Today we made our annual research trip to jamestown Settlement for their Foods and Feasts living history program. Everytime we learn something new about the old foodways (English and Powhatan)of the 17th century. Here are some of the highlights: the groaning board, corn cakes, rockfish wrapped in clay to bake in hot coals, the fort bread oven, envious of the clothes, a VERY large barrel and a handsome man, neat little storage chest.

Tobacco Drinking

The Indian habit of pipe smoking was very fashionable in England by the 1570's, and it was not just a men's habit. Women, and even children, enjoyed the pleasures of the imported "Indian Weed" and women even smoked in public. English women were not the only ones enjoying the pleasures of pipe smoking, Dutch and French women also took up "tobacco drinking" - as in drinking in the smoke.

William Harrison's "Great Chronologie" from 1588 describes the early clay pipe as a "little ladell" or spoon shape. Late sixteenth century pipes were short stemmed, no longer than 1 3/4 inches and made of very delicate white clay. It may have been more appropriately named tobacco sipping since tobacco was very much a luxury item and the pipe bowl was only 1/4 inch in diameter. The Dutch were able to create a stronger clay body and by the seventeenth-century Holland was the major manufacturer of clay pipes and pipe stems had lengthened to 4 -6 inches long. Towards the end of the seventeenth century the pipe bowl was enlarged and the pipe stem lengthened to 11-12 inces. In the second half of the eighteenth-century the stems increased to two feet or more in length and earned the nineteenth-century nickname "churchwardens."

The discovery of so many pipe fragments at historic sites led people to believe that tavern pipe smokers shared a pipe in the Indian fashion by breaking off the end of the stem before passing it to the next person. Mr. Ivor Noel Hume, Colonial Williamsburg archeologist and social historian, believes there is no evidence to support this idea; the real reason is simply clay pipes were fragile and easily broken - making them the first disposable commodity. The end of the stem was tapered to fit the mouth, so if the end were broken off it would not be as comfortable to smoke. However, there is evidence that the pipes were placed in iron cradles and heated in bake ovens to cleanse them for the next round of smokers and also clear out the tar and resins. Fortunately clay pipes were inexpensive to replace. In 1709 a gross of pipes (that is 144 pipes) could be purchased for 2 shillings or $16 in today's currency.

The top tavern pipe in the photo was purchased from Colonial Williamsburg. It was made by the Williamsburg Pottery in Lightfoot, Virginia and is typical of a mid eighteenth-century tavern pipe. The stem is 16 inches long (with a broken tip already) and the bowl is 1 3/4 inches high and 3/4 inches in diameter. The heel on the bottom of the bowl assists the pipe maker in fashioning the bowl. The bottom pipe was found a couple of years ago along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The Virginia State archeologist suspects a long forgotten barrel broke open somewhere because he had numerous calls about finding the same pipe on bay beaches around the same time. The bowl is the same size as the Colonial Williamsburg pipe, but the stem in only 4 inches long, either by design or from rolling around in the waves.

When temperately used, there is not in all the world a medicine comparable to tobacco. All of tobacco is wholesome. William Barclay: Nepenthes; or, The Virtues of Tobacco, 1614.

The Spring Tansy

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), also known as golden buttons or bitter buttons, is a tall perennial native to Europe with a strong scent and a bitter taste. The name comes from the Greek athanatos meaning immortal, and either refers to tansy's long bloom time or its use as a preservative in coffins. Historically tansy was used as an insect repellant for ants and flies, as a strewing herb on floors, as a disinfectant, and as a medicinal herb. Today we know tansy is potentially toxic and should not be taken internally. Tansy oil is highly toxic both internally and externally.
"The Herb fried with Eggs (as is accustomed in the Spring time) which is called a Tansy, helpeth to digest, and carry downward the bad Humours that trouble the Stomach: The Seed is very profitably given to Children for Worms, and the Juice in Drink is effectual. Being boiled in Oil it is good for the sinews shrunk by Cramps, or pained with cold, if thereto applied. Also it consumes the Phlegmatic Humours, the cold and moist condition of Winter most usually infects the Body of Man with, and that was the first reason of eating Tansies in the Spring. At last the world being overrun with Popery, a Monster called Superstition perks up his head...and now forsooth Tansies must be eaten only on Palm and Easter Sundays, and their neighbor days; [the] Superstition of the time was found out, but the Virtue of the herb hidden, and now 'tis almost, if not altogether, left off."
Nicholas Culpepper (1616-1654) The English Physician, 1652

During the sixteenth century, the English served custardy Easter puddings and sweet cakes made with tansy and served with fried eggs to cleanse the blood and undo the ills of the salted fish Lenten diet. Tansy juice was added to egg dishes called "tanseys" making them green, and the cream and sugar helped to offset the bitter taste. Since tansy was considered a "stomachic", this practice may have improved a digestive system gone sluggish from winter. So the name refers not only to the plant, but also to the spring dishes made with it. It is possible that tansy was eaten as a Christian tradition in honor of the bitter herbs of Passover, not solely as a spring tonic.
A Virginia cookbook from "Anonymous", circa 1700, lists this recipe for a Tansey (the writer wasn't much on punctuation, but could read and write which was no small feat for a woman at that time):
"Take 20 Eggs beat them well and a Double handful of Spinage (spinach) Stamp it and Strain it beat a little Tansey with ye Spinage & put it a mong ye Eggs with a pint of Cream & Rowles (rolls) Greated with Salt and Sugar then put it in a Skillet well Buttered with a Lump of Butter in it & keep Sturing till it is as Thick as pudding then Butter a Dish put in & Lay it over Coles (coals) for above an hour & then turn it out & Serve it with Rose watter Butter & Sugar and Eat it."
This recipe is for historic informational purposes only.