Eleanor Kuhns's Blog, page 19
May 11, 2014
Shelby and Munch
I can just hear a lot of people saying, "Wha. . . .?" Especially if you don't know me personally or haven't read "Death of a Dyer".
Shelby is my dog.
We've had her over five years. Previously, before my marriage, I owned another dog. When she died (at 17+ which amazed the vet) I was so heartbroken I didn't get another pet for many years. After I recovered, I asked my husband for a dog for my birthday. When we went to the shelter to look at dogs, Shelby chose my husband and has really been his dog ever since. So I got my husband a dog for my birthday.
Anyway, I included Shelby in "Death of a Dyer". I changed her sex and made her black ( Like she is going to sue me right?). I called her Munch because, after chasing groundhogs, eating is her most favorite thing to do. In the five years since we've had her, she has gained 22 pounds. (Granted, she was emaciated when we got her but still.) The vet told us to start watching her weight. Not easy to do with three little boys who want to share their food with her.
Shelby is my dog.
We've had her over five years. Previously, before my marriage, I owned another dog. When she died (at 17+ which amazed the vet) I was so heartbroken I didn't get another pet for many years. After I recovered, I asked my husband for a dog for my birthday. When we went to the shelter to look at dogs, Shelby chose my husband and has really been his dog ever since. So I got my husband a dog for my birthday.
Anyway, I included Shelby in "Death of a Dyer". I changed her sex and made her black ( Like she is going to sue me right?). I called her Munch because, after chasing groundhogs, eating is her most favorite thing to do. In the five years since we've had her, she has gained 22 pounds. (Granted, she was emaciated when we got her but still.) The vet told us to start watching her weight. Not easy to do with three little boys who want to share their food with her.
May 5, 2014
Colonial cooking
One of the comments I received on my baking thread concerned other kinds of cooking. I think you can see from my books that bacon (and pork in general) was an important staple. Every one except the poorest owned at least one pig. Descriptions of the times talk about the feral pigs that ran through the city streets (of big cities like Philadelphia and Boston) living on the garbage in the streets. Besides the yuck factor (it must have been a lot of garbage and does anyone else think of the awful smell?) the thought of all those pigs is pretty unsettling. In the countryside too, especially on the frontier, pigs were allowed to roam. I guess there were feral pigs back then just as there are now in the Carolinas.
But I digress.
Besides pork, people ate a wide variety of protein. Chickens were eaten when they no longer lay eggs and a chicken Sunday dinner was a tradition. Game was very important. OK, so one thinks of deer, turkeys and other wild birds, the feral pigs, but turtles? It's true. One of the recipes from that period begins: Catch a turtle.
It continues: Hang him by the hind fins until all the blood drains. I will spare the sensibilities of my readers and not continue with the rest of the instruction. I pride myself on eating pretty much anything but I confess I draw the line at turtles.
But I digress.
Besides pork, people ate a wide variety of protein. Chickens were eaten when they no longer lay eggs and a chicken Sunday dinner was a tradition. Game was very important. OK, so one thinks of deer, turkeys and other wild birds, the feral pigs, but turtles? It's true. One of the recipes from that period begins: Catch a turtle.
It continues: Hang him by the hind fins until all the blood drains. I will spare the sensibilities of my readers and not continue with the rest of the instruction. I pride myself on eating pretty much anything but I confess I draw the line at turtles.
April 28, 2014
Trip to LA
On a trip to LA, I had occasion to stop by Murder, Ink, a mystery book store in Huntington Beach, California. I enjoyed meeting the proprietor and, coincidentally, the President of the local chapter of SINC.
Thanks for hosting me!
Thanks for hosting me!
April 25, 2014
More about early baking
The replacement for the pearl ash (or pot ash) I discussed in my last post was something called salterus.
Salterus is bicarbonate of soda - yes, the stuff used for stomach acid or whitening teeth. We know it as baking soda and it is the leavening agent in soda bread.
This substance has been known for millenia. The Ancient Egyptians used it as a component of natron, the salt they employed to mummify bodies.
Umm, yummy. Using it for cooking seems more recent. (I read that the Native Americans used it but haven't found additional documentation for this.) Anyway, baking soda works with something like buttermilk, which has a lot of lactic acid. In chemistry 101, we learn that the combination of an acid and a base yields carbon dioxide and that is what raises the bread.
Baking soda itself is pretty bitter. When I make soda bread I usually use baking powder as well. Pop quiz: what is baking powder? Well, it is baking soda combined with the powdered form of a weak acid but it also leaves less of a bitter aftertaste.
Salterus is bicarbonate of soda - yes, the stuff used for stomach acid or whitening teeth. We know it as baking soda and it is the leavening agent in soda bread.
This substance has been known for millenia. The Ancient Egyptians used it as a component of natron, the salt they employed to mummify bodies.
Umm, yummy. Using it for cooking seems more recent. (I read that the Native Americans used it but haven't found additional documentation for this.) Anyway, baking soda works with something like buttermilk, which has a lot of lactic acid. In chemistry 101, we learn that the combination of an acid and a base yields carbon dioxide and that is what raises the bread.
Baking soda itself is pretty bitter. When I make soda bread I usually use baking powder as well. Pop quiz: what is baking powder? Well, it is baking soda combined with the powdered form of a weak acid but it also leaves less of a bitter aftertaste.
April 23, 2014
What about paint?
My husband and I moved into a new house over a year ago. But it took us until now to begin painting. Of course we used Latex paint. It comes in about a million colors and cleans up with water. As I was washing brushes, I began reflecting upon paint. We take it so completely for granted. But its history is a lot more layered (pardon the pun) than one might think.
One of my earliest memories as a child was cleaning my father’s brushes. First, all the paint had to be removed with liberal applications of turpentine. Then the brush had to be soaked in linseed oil to keep the bristles soft. (Fun fact: Linseed oil is made from the flax seeds. The seeds are edible and was fed to livestock. Now, those of us into healthy living eat the flax seed.)
My father was a painter but not a picture painter or a house painter. He was what would be called now a Graphics Artist. He painted signs (and called himself a sign painter). When I was very little I remember him painting cartoons on the signs: little drawings of smoking horses and smiling pigs and so on. Even when I was in high school and learning what was then called computer science, he had a steady clientele who wanted painted paper signs to advertise sales and Christmas specials. But fashions change; even for signs. He went to school to learn to make neon signs and form plastic letters for plastic signs. If he couldn’t find help, all of us kids manned the block and tackle to help him raise the heavy signs to their places on the buildings. I was lucky in that I never had to go up the ladder and help my father. I was terrified of heights.
But I digress.
Oil paint was discovered during the middle ages, as anyone who knows anything about painting is aware of. But oil paint takes a long time to dry. And it is expensive so it was used in the houses only of the rich. Since white lead was a primary ingredient, lead poisoning was epidemic among painters. (Fun Fact #2: The first company to make paint that could be used directly from a tin can without preparation – previously powered paint ground with a mortar and pestle was mixed with water to make the paint – was Sherwin Williams in 1866.)
Poorer folk, and people in early America, had to use an alternative and that alternative, which is seeing something of a resurgence, was milk paint.
One of my earliest memories as a child was cleaning my father’s brushes. First, all the paint had to be removed with liberal applications of turpentine. Then the brush had to be soaked in linseed oil to keep the bristles soft. (Fun fact: Linseed oil is made from the flax seeds. The seeds are edible and was fed to livestock. Now, those of us into healthy living eat the flax seed.)
My father was a painter but not a picture painter or a house painter. He was what would be called now a Graphics Artist. He painted signs (and called himself a sign painter). When I was very little I remember him painting cartoons on the signs: little drawings of smoking horses and smiling pigs and so on. Even when I was in high school and learning what was then called computer science, he had a steady clientele who wanted painted paper signs to advertise sales and Christmas specials. But fashions change; even for signs. He went to school to learn to make neon signs and form plastic letters for plastic signs. If he couldn’t find help, all of us kids manned the block and tackle to help him raise the heavy signs to their places on the buildings. I was lucky in that I never had to go up the ladder and help my father. I was terrified of heights.
But I digress.
Oil paint was discovered during the middle ages, as anyone who knows anything about painting is aware of. But oil paint takes a long time to dry. And it is expensive so it was used in the houses only of the rich. Since white lead was a primary ingredient, lead poisoning was epidemic among painters. (Fun Fact #2: The first company to make paint that could be used directly from a tin can without preparation – previously powered paint ground with a mortar and pestle was mixed with water to make the paint – was Sherwin Williams in 1866.)
Poorer folk, and people in early America, had to use an alternative and that alternative, which is seeing something of a resurgence, was milk paint.
April 9, 2014
Early baking
Since I haven’t seen a workman for my kitchen for ten days (and counting) and I still am missing doors, knobs, and my new refrigerator, I am moving on in my blog.
I began to think about how cooks baked in the past. They had yeast but what leavener did they use for what we term quick breads.
There was no baking powder. They had yeast but that requires rising. Beer dregs can also be used – I;ve made beer bread but you would not want cookies made from beer.
So what did the cooks use? Pearlash. Wood ashes when soaked in water yield lye. Lye is used to make soap. Lye was also used to soak hominey and for other cooking purposes. Some where in 1780 some enterprising cook used it to make cookies and bread.
I’ve read, however, that it left a bitter alkaline taste in the mouth. The use of pearlash was short-lived. After 1840 a precursor of baking powder was produced.
I began to think about how cooks baked in the past. They had yeast but what leavener did they use for what we term quick breads.
There was no baking powder. They had yeast but that requires rising. Beer dregs can also be used – I;ve made beer bread but you would not want cookies made from beer.
So what did the cooks use? Pearlash. Wood ashes when soaked in water yield lye. Lye is used to make soap. Lye was also used to soak hominey and for other cooking purposes. Some where in 1780 some enterprising cook used it to make cookies and bread.
I’ve read, however, that it left a bitter alkaline taste in the mouth. The use of pearlash was short-lived. After 1840 a precursor of baking powder was produced.
June 12, 2013
More about weaving history
As I continue to research the varieties of looms, I came across a book titled "Women's Work, the first 20,000 years" by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. In it, she traces the history of weaving, from the first beginnings when primitive fiber was twisted into string and used to make clothing.
The modern loom is actually a very sophisticated construct, with many variations that came before. I am thinking of the ground loom that the Ancient Egyptians used to weave linen.
The backstrap loom is another efficient loom that is still used in some places today, such as Peru.
For millenia, the weaving of cloth was women's work, easily fit in around child care. I am proud to weave (I feel I am not skilled enough to call myself a weaver) and work at other fiber arts; I am at the end of a long line of tradition.
I, however, did not find anything on the triangle looms. Still looking.
The modern loom is actually a very sophisticated construct, with many variations that came before. I am thinking of the ground loom that the Ancient Egyptians used to weave linen.
The backstrap loom is another efficient loom that is still used in some places today, such as Peru.
For millenia, the weaving of cloth was women's work, easily fit in around child care. I am proud to weave (I feel I am not skilled enough to call myself a weaver) and work at other fiber arts; I am at the end of a long line of tradition.
I, however, did not find anything on the triangle looms. Still looking.
December 3, 2012
The Simple LIfe?
As I struggle to negotiate the programs for blogging and all the other digital equipment we deal with, I thought how appealing the 'good old days' were.
But were they?
The Shakers strove for a simple life but the culture then was essentially agrarian. The women cooked, sewed, canned and performed all those thrify housewifely virtues. Since talking was frowned upon they were essentially alone even in the midst of a crowd. And although they were equal in influence to the Brethern, everyone had to give up sex. I think most of us would agree that that is a tough sacrifice.
Outside the Shaker communities, women were not important at all. Documents of the period show that they were referred to almost exclusively by their married name, if that. Some are listed simply as wife. Talk about loss of identity. Women, as helpmeet to husbands, was a concept taken very seriously. Although most boys were taught to read and 'figure', many girls were not. It wasn't seen as necessary and besides, they were all very busy. No wonder so many of them died young.
The women who had jobs outside the home were usually women who helped husbands, fathers or sons in a business. Sometimes they continued after they were widowed but not always. Many of the wills from that time put women firmly under the control and care of the eldest son.
Weaving was one of the very few non-gender professions. The male weavers, like my character Will Rees, took their looms from house to house. Those who traveled the roads were called factors (I wonder if there is a connection to the word factory? I'll have to research it). Weaving was an honored middle class profession. William Findlay, one of the first legislators from the Pittsburg, Pa area and a moderate voice during the Whiskey Rebellion, was a weaver.
But were they?
The Shakers strove for a simple life but the culture then was essentially agrarian. The women cooked, sewed, canned and performed all those thrify housewifely virtues. Since talking was frowned upon they were essentially alone even in the midst of a crowd. And although they were equal in influence to the Brethern, everyone had to give up sex. I think most of us would agree that that is a tough sacrifice.
Outside the Shaker communities, women were not important at all. Documents of the period show that they were referred to almost exclusively by their married name, if that. Some are listed simply as wife. Talk about loss of identity. Women, as helpmeet to husbands, was a concept taken very seriously. Although most boys were taught to read and 'figure', many girls were not. It wasn't seen as necessary and besides, they were all very busy. No wonder so many of them died young.
The women who had jobs outside the home were usually women who helped husbands, fathers or sons in a business. Sometimes they continued after they were widowed but not always. Many of the wills from that time put women firmly under the control and care of the eldest son.
Weaving was one of the very few non-gender professions. The male weavers, like my character Will Rees, took their looms from house to house. Those who traveled the roads were called factors (I wonder if there is a connection to the word factory? I'll have to research it). Weaving was an honored middle class profession. William Findlay, one of the first legislators from the Pittsburg, Pa area and a moderate voice during the Whiskey Rebellion, was a weaver.
November 11, 2012
A heavy drinking age
Spirits, or distilled liquor, were consumed so enthusiastically during the 1790's (and before and after) that tourists and important men alike began to decry the habit. The U. S. was a nation of drunkards. Even George Washington, a whiskey distiller himself, referred to the heavy drinking as the ruin of half the workman.
Where did we get into such a pickle? Well, part of it was cultural. Cotton Mather (he of Puritan fame) declared "Drink itself to be a creature of God."
Water tended to be dangerous. It could be contaminated or just plain unappetizing. In Natchez water from the Mississippi River had to be set aside so the sediment could settle. (Yum!) Milk was unpasturized and if the cow ate jimson weed it was poisoness. Alcoholic beverages, and I include hard cider, were safe. Also, corn and rye could be transported from the western frontier (like Pittsbugh in 1793) to the east in the form of whiskey and sold for four or more times the price for the grain itself. And without much more cost in transportation.
In times where the food supply could be erratic. alcoholic beverages accounted for a significant proportion of the day's calories. In the early days of the eighteenth centure, the favorite tipple was rum; sweet and alcoholic. But after the Revolution, it was declared unpatriotic and people switched to whiskey. Rum was made from molasses and while distilled in Maine and Massachusetts at first, began to be distilled in the West Indies. Whiskey, on the other hand, was All-American; the grain grown in the US and distilled here as well.
Everyone drank. Ben Franklin is quoted as saying If God wanted men to drink water He would not have given him an elbow to bend the wine glass. Toddlers were put to sleep with whiskey or given the sugary residue in the bottom of the glass. (This makes my hair stand on end!) But of course there was a double standard. Women were not to been seen intoxicated.
Some primary sources quote men like John Adams complaining about the length it took to get something built. One day's work earned a man enough to stay drunk all week. So they worked one day out of seven.
As might be expected, early opposition to drink came from the Quakers, most particulary from Anthony Benezet who attacked slavery and rum at the same time. Quakers had already begun to practice restraint before him and by 1777 they were ordered to no longer sell distilled spirits nor to distill them. The Methodists saw drinking as a barrier to purifying the church and society so they joined the Quakers. The Shakers, as a splinter group, also practised retraint and drank mainly water (that they trusted). The Shakers were famous for their cider which went from 'kind' to hard' very rapidly in an age before refrigeration.
The chorus against such heavy drinking began to grown, spurred by Dr. Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia doctor who concentrated upon the health benefits of abstinence. Another doctor, a Dr. Thomas Calawalder, had identified rum as the cause of an illness called the Dry Gripes. The rum that was aged in lead casks caused lead poisoning. Interestingly enough, the doctors recommended drinking cider (which is still alcoholic) and beer (which is more complicated to make than you might think.
For more information, both depressing and fascinating, read "Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition" by W. J. Rorabaugh.
Where did we get into such a pickle? Well, part of it was cultural. Cotton Mather (he of Puritan fame) declared "Drink itself to be a creature of God."
Water tended to be dangerous. It could be contaminated or just plain unappetizing. In Natchez water from the Mississippi River had to be set aside so the sediment could settle. (Yum!) Milk was unpasturized and if the cow ate jimson weed it was poisoness. Alcoholic beverages, and I include hard cider, were safe. Also, corn and rye could be transported from the western frontier (like Pittsbugh in 1793) to the east in the form of whiskey and sold for four or more times the price for the grain itself. And without much more cost in transportation.
In times where the food supply could be erratic. alcoholic beverages accounted for a significant proportion of the day's calories. In the early days of the eighteenth centure, the favorite tipple was rum; sweet and alcoholic. But after the Revolution, it was declared unpatriotic and people switched to whiskey. Rum was made from molasses and while distilled in Maine and Massachusetts at first, began to be distilled in the West Indies. Whiskey, on the other hand, was All-American; the grain grown in the US and distilled here as well.
Everyone drank. Ben Franklin is quoted as saying If God wanted men to drink water He would not have given him an elbow to bend the wine glass. Toddlers were put to sleep with whiskey or given the sugary residue in the bottom of the glass. (This makes my hair stand on end!) But of course there was a double standard. Women were not to been seen intoxicated.
Some primary sources quote men like John Adams complaining about the length it took to get something built. One day's work earned a man enough to stay drunk all week. So they worked one day out of seven.
As might be expected, early opposition to drink came from the Quakers, most particulary from Anthony Benezet who attacked slavery and rum at the same time. Quakers had already begun to practice restraint before him and by 1777 they were ordered to no longer sell distilled spirits nor to distill them. The Methodists saw drinking as a barrier to purifying the church and society so they joined the Quakers. The Shakers, as a splinter group, also practised retraint and drank mainly water (that they trusted). The Shakers were famous for their cider which went from 'kind' to hard' very rapidly in an age before refrigeration.
The chorus against such heavy drinking began to grown, spurred by Dr. Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia doctor who concentrated upon the health benefits of abstinence. Another doctor, a Dr. Thomas Calawalder, had identified rum as the cause of an illness called the Dry Gripes. The rum that was aged in lead casks caused lead poisoning. Interestingly enough, the doctors recommended drinking cider (which is still alcoholic) and beer (which is more complicated to make than you might think.
For more information, both depressing and fascinating, read "Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition" by W. J. Rorabaugh.
