jendobyns

Oh yes, oysters used to be cheap and common along the coast, and huge in the late 17/early 18C by comparison to today's standards. Not these little palm-sized things you get nowadays. Oyster shell middens are a not uncommon feature at archaeological sites around the Chesapeake (and elsewhere, iirc). Although crushing the shells and using them for other purposes may make them less common than they could be. Iirc, there are illustrations of oyster sellers in the various versions of Cries of London. I had relatives that ran a shrimp boat and caught oysters on the Gulf as part of their retirement living. Dad would come home with half gallon milk cartons full of the things, he ate them raw and fried mostly. My husband's family had been watermen since the late 17C in the Northern Neck. They ate them just about any which way you could, including in the stuffing at Thanksgiving.

Chocolate was mixed with a number of things, including chili in the new world. Not sure when the vanilla gets mixed in, I don't think it was a New World spice (books are still in storage, long saga, needless to say much alcohol is being consumed) A native plant that was adopted by Europeans fairly early, is Jimson Weed/datura. Besides it's medicinal uses, it is quite hallucinogenic, causing delirium, has been (and probably still is) used ceremonially to induce visions and can be toxic way to easily to be used casually. During Bacon's Rebellion it was mixed with some food the occupying forces were consuming, the results weren't pretty. It's impossible to eradicate with herbicides as the seeds are so genetically diverse there is no way to target them all. Besides the use as a weapon of sorts during Bacon's Rebellion, I don't know if there are references to it in the GAoP, but it might be worth checking.

May I recommend some fennel comfits for that wind problem?

Oysters were very popular food, and iirc, common tavern fare in season. I have a copy of May from this source: https://prospectbooks.co.uk/books/978-1-903018-71-2 It is completely appropriate for the period and has lots of great recepts!

Are they making these for women as well as men?

Yep, I can practically skewer mine to my head and on a breezy day it wants to blow away. I suggest that anyone who really wants to justify having a straw cocked hat, take it for a test drive on a windy day and see what happens. Sure, it's a great look, but does it work? The only success I have had with keeping all in place has been when it was anchored to my wig, which has a lot of heft. And not likely a look a common sailor would sport. ;-) And for what it's worth, a somewhat later 18C community went through a discussion about these when "Longitude" was first aired some years ago. I don't recall the results of that discussion beyond the difficulty they had in documenting them, too. It's apparently a tough nut to crack

It may. Straw is fairly light, so it would also take less to make it airborne than Mission's hat.

Just a practical note from a long time straw hat wearer. On the water and along the coast there tends to be a fair amount of wind nearly all the time. Straw hats are difficult to keep on your head when there is a good breeze, even when tied and skewered to the hair with a big ole' hat pin. It's just a tiny sail sitting on your head. Probably one reason these are hard to document on sailors is that they aren't practical in your average seafaring environment and given up as a waste of money by anyone who couldn't spare the free hand to hold it on all the time.

Townsend carries the same mushroom ketchup pretty much everyone does. I need to track down a recipe for garum to compare it, but I have suspected there might be some roots there, finding a copy of Epicius (?) has been low on the priority list, though. What is it with humans and liquified fish? *L*

This link should take you to a bill of fare for the Bush Tavern, Christmas 1700. Pretty impressive http://tinyurl.com/lr5yhpz

Actually, standardization goes back pretty far. The Worshipful Company of Grocers dates from the Medieval period, and it had the responsibility for maintaining the official set of weights and measures. You can see how far back they go by looking at their website and history. They are still in existence today. The Crown liked things to be measured, organized, etc. so that things were properly taxed. Granted, throughout history there are those who avoid the official channels whenever they can, but the desire and tools are there. I ran across this image this evening while researching period coffee houses. It's a pretty standard list of what would be available in an establishment, although no prices are listed. No date provided with the museum info: http://tinyurl.com/mofb5kh

It was good to meet and chat with you, too!

Could have been. No idea when/where it went, so started this one here. Mushroom ketchup is a salty-mushroomy brown sauce. Not sure how to use it in vegetarian meals, it's great on game and beef. Typical of most period foods, it's not exactly good for people watching their salt intake *G*

Someone suggested I start a thread talking about English Katchup and as I was digging through my period cookery books trying to find the earliest possible receipt (that's a recipe to modern cooks) I realized we could play with this a bit more. There are a number of options a Pirate might have. So this should be the first in a series on period condiments & sauces. However, none of them would be the tomato based ketchup we know today. Tomatoes are pretty much absent from period cookery books. But you might be surprised what does show up. Early ketchup was a fish & vinegar based sauce imported from somewhere around Indonesia (exact place of origin seems to be a bit fuzzy). It was an import showing up in newspaper ads well into the 18C. It is often found alongside soy sauce (see the trend here?). At some point we start seeing English Ketchup in these ads. And it shows up in recipe books. It's still a vinegar and fish based sauce, throw in some spices, shallots and wine, and after a week or two it's ready for consumption. Anyone who has searched online for a home made version of a Starbucks coffee can relate to the desire to make your own. Period cooks were no different in this respect. Then there is walnut ketchup and mushroom ketchup. One thing that tends to tie the original ketchup, English ketchup, and mushroom ketchup (as well as soy sauce) together is that they all have that umami taste to them. Mushroom ketchup is a great way to add mushroom flavor to things when you may not have them around, and it would last through the season when they weren't available. I will try to find my notes so I can provide better details on things like dates. We're in the middle of selling our house so some things are hiding at the moment. I can tell you from personal experience that both the English Ketchup and Mushroom Ketchup are quite tasty. They are also quite different from one another.

Hi! There doesn't seem to be a 2014 version of this thread, so I'm posting here. I am so impressed with how this community pulls together to make this event happen! And how they honor their own. Rob and I are so glad we were able to be part of the show and are talking about plans for next year

You can still use period cookbooks at least a decade OOP. Possibly as much as 20 years OOP, depending on the age of the author. Period cookery books tend to be published at the end of the author's career, so there is an accumulated collection of receipts over the course of that person's career spanning back decades. It is also worth checking ECCO for period cookery books. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/

Interesting. Most of the receipts I have seen for this make it a composed salad (layers, and rather decorative). This just mixes it all together.

Did someone on this list go to Monmouth last summer and meet up with The Wig Dresser? Did you send her some hair to work with? If so, could you please send me a pm? She needs to contact the owner and cannot find their info. Thanks!

Interesting. Could you elaborate on why you find the mindset and, more importantly, the priorities, so different between the groups as you define them? Perhaps the mindset/priorities thing may depend on a person's definition of entertainer and entertainment. I know many a reenactor who would take issue with anyone thinking that they are not entertaining the public *L* The reenactor entertainers still have schedules to meet, roles to play, technical and staging issues to overcome, scripts to follow, etc. They bring their own props and costumes, pay for their own gas, food and lodging. The main difference I see is that they do not usually expect to be paid at the end of their gig. At least not as individuals. There are also people who are entertainers within the framework of historic interpretation. I know a fair number of them and have been one myself. These are very different from festival entertainers in the use of their art, and they overlap more with the reenactors in terms of priorities and mindset than festival entertainers. Jen

The best events I have attended take care of at least the minimum needs of convenient water, sanitation that is cleaned frequently enough to not be disgusting (privies big enough to wear petticoats safely a big plus!), good fire wood and organization. One of the best sites I attend also provides scrip for basic food and drink which are prepared on site (chicken roasted over a wood fire, etc.) There is a broad variety of things to do during the day for both volunteers and visitors. Puppet shows, swordplay demonstrations, music, dancing, acrobats, and so on. We are busy but we can take breaks to visit and shop and at the end of the day, we can hang out and relax at the tavern with our friends (and usually get more free food). It is a rustic location, rather like a village come to life, with fairly minimal modern intrusion. Camping on site is optional. Volunteers do not pay to get in and are offered training and loaner clothing to start with. The site admin appreciates the hard work we do and we feel we are treated well. This has grown the volunteer base over 30 years so that it now includes multiple generations of some families.

I think he is painting with a very broad, general brush. Much of it sounds dated, too. An enterprising person might find a period etiquette book or two online, and this would help clarify a few things. (Did you know George Washington's Rules of Civility had it's roots in the Renaissance?) But then again those books were designed to assist people who wished to improve themselves, so would be aimed at at least those with pretensions to high status. We probably won't ever know what the average person actually did, unless we can find some commentary by someone who was actually there (that happened often enough with other things, so who knows?) The tools are another matter. The newest, coolest stuff tends to belong to those who could afford it (back then that meant royalty for the most part) then trickle down. So rather than big museums where the prettiest stuff frequently ends up I would check with archaeological collections which house items from the more common sort and see how they compare. There were, I think, examples of at least 3-tine forks from Jamaica in a common metal like pewter. I think someone posted that elsewhere. It's late, I need to go to sleep, and my books are, for the most part, 14 hours away. So take the above with perhaps a grain of salt. I'm working on memory and a couple of decades of being a material culture girl here. Things can get fuzzy without the library.

Elena, if you have access to period receipt books, there may be laundry instructions in them. I think Gervase Markham (????) or someone published a book designed to train people to be servants, with instructions on laundering various items. It might have been the Servant's Directory or Housekeeper's Apprentice. I am in Florida and nearly all of my library is in Maryland 14 hours away, so I can't check the books for more specific information. But the first step, I am pretty sure, is the brushing. Iirc, that was the main method. What defined clean then was a bit different from what defines clean now.

I don't remember if links work here, but the Met Museum has a fork and spoon set from around 1680, the fork has _four_ tines. And that is just the top of the page. http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/200240

So the next question would be, what is Marley's source for this information? And does the material culture of the time (eating utensils) back this up? Look at the art work of the period, museum collections, etc.

South-carolina Gazette, 1733-1771.