The Mercury, 1720 Careening Camp

[CrazyCholeBlack]

I'm seriously considering doing at least some, if not all of my own cooking Mr. Hand. I'm not a big resturant eater. Plus, well, I'm cheap & hate paying tourist location prices when I can hit the grocery for something for less. Though most of what I make is either stew or porrage. Easy enough to extend should others want to join me.

Don't worry, I'll still go to town to socialize, just not for the food.

[Silkie McDonough]

Cook your own food ...it's less expensive. Socializing, order a coke carry a flask!

[Patrick Hand]

COOL...... WE GOTTA COOK..................

Yay... happy dance... we don't gotta starve...........

Anyway..... (the above kinda sorta sillyness asside...)

Most of us get there Wensday night (kinda late)... so it's not worth cooking then,,,,,(course IF someone was there with a cuppa hot cocco........ arrgh fantacys.......)

Thursday... Friday... and Saturday nights are still open.....(Sunday is the pig roast......Well they did it last year...and the year before... we gotta ask bout that for next PiP.)) but you can't fill tham all up... because some wanna go eat in town,,,,, and some just go into town ter drink... don't worry bout th' food at that point.....

Kinda seriously.....

I think a pot of boiled corned beef with a buncha taters fer Thursday night sounds great..... How we work in the proper bread part O' th' ration..... well we can figure that out later ...

(It might be interesting for maybe on Thursday night, to do an authentic meal..... what would have been served, and what did sailors/Pyrates realy eat....... (ok... mayby not too many weavels......)

OK Once again... the cool thing about typin' bout this stuff... is that we got plenty of time to figure out wot we wanna do..........

How can we make next year's PiP even grander ?..........(and without too many weavles.....)

[Ol Man From the Sea]

Funny but I was also just starting to wonder how period, for seamen/pyrates, a "corn boiler" would really be? This is a time were a colonial household may have little more than a kettle for cookware. A seaman, I would think, would mostly eat aboard or in a pub so not need his own cookware? However, individual cookware may be like tents, not period for seaman, but too useful to get away from.

Group cooking might be a cool way to go. We would not need to worry so much about what seaman ate aboard as what people ate ashore. Silike, your prophecy of a menu thread may yet come true. Much to think on here :)

Kinda on the same topic, If tin cookware is not so period is tin tableware also out?

[Jack Roberts]

Besides wouldn't we pirates want something other than what we've been eating on the ship? Fresh killed pig or deer? Ohhh.. how 'bout some key deer? I hear they're tasty that time of year. (I'm just kidding. )

[William Brand]

Meat.

Sailors two months at sea would want fresh meat. We should have roasting spits to be certain, and I may roast a few chickens or other fowl over the fire at least one night. I plan to do some late night cooking so that we have things to nibble on and sample while we talk away the long night watches.

We might also need a pot of continuosly bad coffee for those who are patrolling the camps.

I'm also cooking some bacon in whatever form I can get it from a butcher while I'm there. I don't camp lest there is bacon. I'm too used to getting up and starting the morning fires not to be rewarded with a little bacon.

[Silkie McDonough]

William's the quartermaster. Who's the cook?

[Mary Diamond]

I'm also cooking some bacon in whatever form I can get it from a butcher while I'm there. I don't camp lest there is bacon. I'm too used to getting up and starting the morning fires not to be rewarded with a little bacon.

Bacon? Did I Hear BACON???

Ah, the Gods smile upon you, William! Bacon, eggs, tomatoes, and a frosty cold Pepsi - a morning without it, and I can get right cranky. But just the bac-ey and properly chilled carbonated beverage, and that is quite close enough.

Hmm, just finishing my (late) break fast now ~ YUMMY!

[CrazyCholeBlack]

I believe that was me, opening my big mouth again Silkie. I'm more than willing to help around the fire.

When I'm back on my own machine, I've got some examples of peiod cookwear & recipes. Onions, boiled & then broiled & Red hot fire toast anyone.?

[Silkie McDonough]

Psssssssst, William ...Baconfest South?

[callenish gunner]

i had planned to cook and cooking for a group isn't much more difficult than cooking for 2-3 ...i too was thinkng a stew or soup one night and chicken and greens for another eve could also do a couple of large meat pies woulld just need to know numbers to adjust the gear i bring

[William Brand]

Psssssssst, William ...Baconfest South?

If we have a host and a company to participate...

Are you suggesting I organize a Baconfest South to coincide with Baconfest and Baconfest East? I would gladly except another a branch of baconeaters to join us.

[Ol Man From the Sea]

Baconfest? What is baconfest? Starting to sound like even I may not be eating town the whole time.

[William Brand]

Baconfest is a celebration that was begun by Ty Coleman some years back. We gather every year to celebrate bacon. Everyone brings a dish with bacon in it. It does not have to be primarily made of bacon, but it must be an ingredient. It is generally celebrated in Renn Faire style clothing, with no particular period in time being represented. It is held in my Tavern behind the house, which can seat some 50 people at best.

This year marks the 15th Annual Baconfest, and in light of the anniversary, Silkie has offered to start our first independent Baconfest offshoot, which we have dubbed Baconfest East.

Both events are being held simultaneously on Saturday, October 13th. We will have some fifty people at Baconfest, and while Baconfest East promises to be a lot smaller, we are very excited to have an offshoot.

Are there any other questions...?

[Ol Man From the Sea]

No more questions for now. I think that Silkie was squeaking about a baconfest that would not coincide with the original but would take place oh say a month and a half later, and was way way south, say within walking distance of as far south as you can go without a passport. Would squeaking about such a time and place make Silkie a "PIPsqueak"

If I am right you already have your "host and a company to participate."

[William Brand]

Oh, I know what Silkie is suggesting. She's caught the bacon bug that is Baconfest. Now, the logistics of having a true Baconfest in a place with no kitchen presents its share of problems, but with half a year until PIP and more than a handful of us arriving early, it isn't impossible.

A name would have to be chosen, and Baconfest South doesn't sound right to me, especially if held in a place called Key WEST. However Baconfest West doesn't work either, being so far South and East of Baconfest itself. However, Baconfest Ahoy has a certain ring to it...

Regardless...we're beginning to hijack this thread a bit, and so to stay on track, we should discuss the matter privately some time and then began a new thread once we've decide if a Baconfest will work into the PIP program.

[CaptainSatan]

I fly in garb.... 

You should come along next time I go to SE Asia.

I plan on doing self portraits in garb at ruined wats (temples), jungles, and beaches.

-CS

[Ol Man From the Sea]

First I need to apologize to Silkie, it wasn’t meant personal or anything, I just can’t resist being punny.

Now with that out of the way, per Williams request, I will return this thread to being campy.

The question was do we needed to worry about cookware and if so what would be authentic? The answer is

HELL YES WE NEED COOK!

So that leaves what would pyrates have had to cook in? “At the beginning of the eighteenth century....a brick-built hearth with a single riveted copper boiler on top and a chimney” answers Janet Macdonald in “Feeding Nelson’s Navy.” With substitution of cast iron for riveted copper, this is what would have been found in the average colonial home of the time. So ideally, we should have “a single riveted copper boiler” or at least a cast iron “boiler.” This would limit us to things like soups and stews, but with the exception of bacon , that seamed to be what people were talking about anyway.

BTW Thanks Callenish for offering to cook for us dogs, but as a sutler your shop may not be that close to our camp and (I hope) the shop needs your attention more than we do. This doesn’t mean your not invited to join our mess.

Anybody else volunteering to be Cook? Cooks mates? Scullion?

[CrazyCholeBlack]

Certainly you don't mean Lord Horatio Nelson right? That's post GAOP & the Careening camp's date.

For inspiration on period cooking equipment I keep looking at this image from the ordinary at St. Mary's City. Cast iron, three legged pots, removable bale, frequently pot bellied (ie bean pot) style.

then there is always The Accomplished Cook for food ideas. This is an interesting time period because common ideas of gastronomy was changing. There was a great article in a recent issue of Scientific American Reports about it!

and one of my favorite sutlers, Deborah's Pantry if for no other reason, she carries such fun stuff as isinglass & aniseed comfits.

Those are just off the top of my head. I know there is a bunch more if I go looking through my favorites. Judging by the state of them right now though, finding anything could take a while

[Silkie McDonough]

First I need to apologize to Silkie, it wasn’t meant personal or anything, I just can’t resist being punny.

No offense taken. Kind of you to apologize though.

[Ol Man From the Sea]

Certainly you don't mean Lord Horatio Nelson right? That's post GAOP & the Careening camp's date.

Yes that Nelson, and yes he is past our date. However as the passage begins "At the beginning of the eighteenth century" and the next sentence talks about the change from brick to iron fire hearths in 1728, I think the info is spot on for our camp. Why the British Navy went with riveted copper when it seems everyone else was using cast iron I can't say. As Mercury is not a Navy ship I don't think we need to worry about the copper, though it would be cool. The part that is more interesting to me is that even ships of the line only had one pot for the crew. A large pot no doubt but only one. It also looks, from evidence in wills and such, that many colonial homes had but one pot at this time. Thus, I feel it a bit of a stretch for our pirate fire to be decorated with even half the cookware shown in your photo, but any one of them would be great. I am wondering if it should have a bail or legs?

[William Brand]

I'm going to make some hardtack soon and then put it away for six months prior to PIP, so we should have plenty of hardtack.

[CaptainSatan]

so we should have plenty of hardtack.

[CrazyCholeBlack]

Yes that Nelson, and yes he is past our date. However as the passage begins "At the beginning of the eighteenth century" and the next sentence talks about the change from brick to iron fire hearths in 1728, I think the info is spot on for our camp.

OK, I'm not trying to be a b*tch or a nit picker but sometimes I can't help it.

1728 is *after* the camp date by 8 years & that is the very last dregs of the GAOP. I know I'm anal about stuff like this sometimes (OK most times) but I'd rather look earlier than later for obvious reasons.

Either way though that doesn't matter really. You boys won't be cooking on a hearth, so hearth style in homes at the time is insignificant. Plus hearth material didn't change the way that hearth style cooking was/is done. Now the change in the placement of the bake oven, that's another story

Given a choice, I would choose a 3 legged pot for 2 reasons...1. you can push coals below it or next to it depending 2. from what I've read bale's were removable (hooking into the rim of the pot rather than attached to holes in the side) & I haven't had a lot of luck finding that feature on a modern pot.

[Captain Jim]

As for cooks, I think that we have a few. I have 20 years in the restaurant biz and a lifetime of outdoor cooking. I will be practicing in my backyard over the next few months and posting the results. Mostly stews, but roast fowl, fish and steaks as well.