Tag: canning

Spiced / Pickled Oysters

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“Mr. W. B. Burke of this city has the reputation of preparing the very best spiced oysters which leave our market, and if all are like the can which he left with us on Tuesday, his reputation is well deserved. They are truly a delightful article… He will forward them according to order to any part of the city or the U. States.” – The Baltimore Sun, 1839

In 4th or 5th grade, my class took a field trip to the Museum of Industry. It was one of the more memorable school field trips – especially the part where we lived out a day in the life of an oyster cannery. Innocent tomfoolery reflected real-life situations – kids smugly docked each-others pay for “contamination,” the “big boss” sat in an office and did very little for the most ‘pay’, everyone irritated the hell out of each other. At the end of it all, we took home an ‘oyster can’ of the clay blobs we’d steamed and packaged. I kept that can for a really long time, occasionally handling it to admire its old-timey label.

Love or hate them, its impossible to envision a Baltimore without oysters. The booming and often violent trade touched everyone in the region from the families who labored in the plants to the aristocratic epicures who couldn’t have a feast without them- on down to the dogs and rats picking over the shells in the city’s garbage-filled alleys.

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Baltimore Oysters advertised in a Cleveland, Ohio newspaper, 1858

With advances in harvesting and canning, Chesapeake Bay oysters could be had far and wide. An 1879 newspaper ad from Deadwood, South Dakota advertised a surprising range of foodstuffs for a town that was considered “lawless”: Spanish olives, capers, curry powder, coconut, gelatin, chocolate, French mushrooms, New Orleans shrimp, and spiced oysters.

“Spiced oysters” being the same thing as “pickled oysters,” I’d assumed that these must be some vinegary, fermented concoction approaching fish sauce. This sounded like just the perfect somewhat repulsive thing to make when I recently interviewed for Atlas Obscura.

When I took closer look at the recipes, I was surprised to find very little vinegar included in most of them. The vinegar might give the oysters a little leeway in travel time, but pickled oysters turned out to be just another way to enjoy them – and a way for some of the many oyster packing companies in Baltimore to distinguish their product.

W. B. Burke operated one such business, and his spiced oysters were beloved by the Baltimore Sun. This could be because he more or less bribed the staff with free product. In December of 1840 they reported receiving two cans as a “Christmas Presents” (quotes used in the original.) “We have not tried them yet,” wrote the Sun, but “we do not hesitate to recommend persons in want of good spiced oysters give him a call.”

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“Man with a derby hat stands atop a mound of oyster shells outside the C.H. Pearson & Company oyster cannery,” Baltimore, c. 1890

Despite being a common item offered by oyster canneries, no 19th-century Maryland cookbook was complete without a few recipes for “Spiced” or “Pickled” Oysters. Recipes appear in published books as well as manuscripts. The quantity of oysters is typically in the gallon range, with anywhere from a few tablespoons to a pint of vinegar.

Rather than serving as a condiment, spiced oysters were typically sent to the table along with other dishes like roast ham, chicken croquettes, olives, bananas, and champagne. The 1883 Chicago Cooking School cookbook mentions that spiced oysters can substitute for fresh ones in a salad with cabbage, celery, and mayonnaise dressing. It is possible that they could be used in recipes where oysters were used to stuff meats. (This is how I’m using them.)

Even if they’re not fermented and shelf-stable, the idea of pickled oysters elicited cringes from several friends of mine. As a non-convert myself, I have to assume that part of the appeal of voracious oyster appreciation comes from their very grossness. Pickled oysters may be due for a comeback. What better way to one-up everyone in your adventurousness?

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Recipe:

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From “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen,” by Mrs. B.C. Howard

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Chilli Sauce

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There’s a lot of tempting 19th century options for tomato preservation. In addition to catsup, tomatoes were preserved spiced, in piccalilli, chow-chow, or stewed and strained into “soyer.” Tomatoes have one of the highest concentrations of naturally-occurring MSG, and these sauces and pickles all provided ways to add some umami to meals throughout the winter.

I settled on “Chili Sauce” or “Chilli Sauce” which, despite its name, is not really a hot-sauce fore-bearer. Bell peppers generally comprised the “peppers” component. Even swapping them out for jalapenos, the end result doesn’t carry much heat.

According to a 1994 article in the Hartford Courant (CT), “chili sauce seems to have surfaced in New England in the last half of the 19th century… How it got the name remains a mystery… especially because the original product had no chili peppers in it.” Writer Bill Daley wrote that the sauce was would have featured into the diet of seafarers during long voyages, and was used by generations of “Yankee cooks” to “jazz up winter menus,” finding its way into and onto “roast beef, lamb chops, cod cakes, baked beans, eggs – nearly everything – with this blend of tomatoes, peppers, onions, vinegar and spices.”

An 1880 Minnesota cookbook “Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping” lists Chili Sauce among the many sauces worthy of a Christmas dinner:

“Christmas Dinners. Clam soup; baked fish, Hollandaise sauce; roast turkey with oyster dressing and celery or oyster sauce, roast duck with onion sauce, broiled quail, chicken pie; plum and crab-apple jelly; baked potatoes in jackets, sweet potatoes, baked squash, turnips, southern cabbage, stewed carrots, canned corn, canned pease, tomatoes; Graham bread, rolls; salmon salad or herring salad, Chili sauce, gooseberry catsup, mangoes, pickled cabbage; bottled, French or Spanish pickles; spiced nutmeg-melon and sweet- pickled grapes, and beets; Christmas plum-pudding with sauce, charlotte-russe; cocoa-nut, mince, and peach pies; citron, pound, French loaf, white Mountain and Neapolitan cakes; lady’s fingers, peppernuts; centennial drops, almond or hickory-nut macaroons; cocoa-nut caramels, chocolate drops; orange or pine apple ice cream; coffee, tea, and Vienna chocolate.” —Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping [Buckeye Publishing Company:Minneapolis MN] 1880 via foodtimeline.org

Apparently it was a heyday for sauces,  “Commercial relishes and condiments were introduced around this time, and the public developed quite a taste for them. By the 1880s, [James] Farrell said, there was a proliferation of chopping gadgets on the market for do-it-yourselfers,” wrote Bill Daley.

A biography of H.J. Heinz describes Heinz’ systematic “studying” of sauces at the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition. He encountered Tabasco but sensed that the market wasn’t ready for it.

“At the same time, Eugene Durkee or New York and William Railton or Chicago introduced pepper sauces known as ‘Chilli’ sauce. These very mild and thick sauces in hexagonally shaped bottles and cathedral square shaped bottles fascinated Heinz. The thicker, mild, ketchup-like product found a larger market in the north. Heinz introduced his as ‘Chili’ and found a large market that remains to this day.”- H.J.Heinz, A Biography, Quentin R. Skrabec, Jr. 2009

My mom uses Heinz’ Chili sauce to make cocktail sauce. Beyond that, I don’t know many uses for it. I was a little stumped at what to use my own Chilli Sauce for, with its 19th century cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice. So far, some has made its way into some barbecue sauce. I guess I have all winter long to see what else I can “jazz up” with it.

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Recipe:

“Twenty-four ripe tomatoes, eight onions, six peppers, eight coffee cups of vinegar, eight tablespoons of sugar, the same of salt, one tablespoonful of cinnamon, one of allspice, one of nutmeg, and one of cloves. Boil all well together and seal while hot. This is superior to tomato catsup.”

Source: Mrs. Charles H. Gibson’s Maryland And Virginia Cookbook

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Brandied Peaches

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“Now is the dyspeptic’s time to live well. If a great sufferer let him eat only fruit for breakfast, and peaches with their jackets on. The peach-skin has some quality that is highly useful, in acrid dyspepsia especially… We underrate the nutriment conveyed in fruit… This country is the Paradise for all such sufferers. Nothing strikes a returning traveler from Europe more forcibly than the bounty of our September tables; the affluence of vegetables, the heaped variety of our fruits, the cheapness of both.” – Baltimore Sun, 1883

At the risk of this blog being a little peach-centric (with more to come!), I picked up a big basket of peaches at the Waverly farmer’s market last weekend.

Even with many of us sighing gratefully as the summer heat wanes, it’s hard to resist the temptation to bottle up some souvenirs.  Peaches have been a cherished summer fruit since the earliest days of European settlement on North America. Although the fruit originally hails from Asia, peaches had been introduced to the continent by the Spanish and took to the wild so well that later Europeans assumed they were native.

By the 1700’s, most large homes had peach and apple orchards. Farm hogs often grazed the orchards, consuming excess fruit and insects. The wood provided useful fuel.

According to “Gardens and Gardening in the Chesapeake“ by Barbara Wells Sarudy: “Colonial secretary William Eddis, writing home to England on September 7, 1772, related that throughout the whole province of Maryland fruit was not only bountiful but excellent in taste… Eddis reported that Maryland peach trees produced fruit of an exquisite flavor.”

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The Cultivation of the Peach and the Pear, on the Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula

Every one of my old Maryland cookbooks contains at least one formula for brandying peaches; most 19th century sources have two. There is not much variation in the recipes. Many require the use of lye to peel the peaches. I opted for the old-fashioned (new-fangled?) blanching method. Typically, no spices are added, with the exception of Elizabeth Bond of Charles County who throws in “a few cloves, mace and allspice”.

An 1886 book on peach and pear cultivation named 52 varieties suited to the Delmarva peninsula. “Queen of the Kitchen” Miss M.L. Tyson and Mrs. B.C. Howard both strongly recommend Heath peaches.

In 1872, J.W. Fitz described Heath peaches in “The Southern Apple and Peach Culturist” as “the most superb and delicious of all late Cling-stones… produced in Maryland from a stone brought by Mr. Daniel Heath from the Mediterranean.“

I do not know what kind of peaches I got at the market. They are obviously not Heath as they are free-stone. A 1961 survey by the Maryland State Board of Agriculture gives a view into the type of peaches we are likely to see on the market today, ‘Elberta’ by far the most popular in all regions of the state, with ‘Sunhigh’ tailing behind. Our famous Heath peaches are nowhere to be found on the list.

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Brandied Peaches for sale in an early 1900′s newspaper ad

I chose trusty old Calvados (apple brandy) for my peaches. Brandy that was itself made from peaches had been very popular in colonial times, but regional production of peach brandy was on the decline by the late 19th century, when most of my recipes are from.

Peach brandy does figure into some old eggnog and toddy recipes found in “Forgotten Maryland Cocktails.”  The liquid from these canned peaches might make a good substitute in some drinks – omitting some of the sugar that would otherwise be added. But beware, and proceed with caution:

”A good article of brandy which has its own peculiar properties is made from the peach. Now while any brandy in large quantities is bad for a person peach brandy is said on account of the prussic acid it contains to be a very dangerous tipple if indulged in freely. Formerly a considerable quantity was manufactured on the [Delmarva] peninsula but the stringent excise laws of recent years have caused most persons to abandon its manufacture… I advise mortal man to be chary of this beverage. One indulgence is said to make one feel good. The second makes one feel better and the third makes him feel as though he owned the whole Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula. But the next day -the awaking- ah, the awaking, surely instead of owning the whole Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula he finds his possessions… (except his head) shrunken to a size Liliput might spurn.” The Cultivation of the Peach and the Pear, on the Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula, John J. Black 1886

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Tomato Catsup

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What does one do if they have too many tomatoes and no plans for an afternoon? Must be time to make a condiment.

Catsup, Ketchup… most people think tomatoes when they think of ketchup. In truth, the Tomato is a newcomer to the ketchup game, with previous recipes involving anything from walnuts to mushrooms to cucumbers.

I had hoped to make one of those sooner or later but the tomatoes became a pressing need before I got the chance.

With the assistance of a preserving-experienced friend, we worked from various recipes – primarily Mrs. B.C. Howard’s. Since I’ve already written all about her, we’ll have to focus on the ketchup for a bit.

The original aforementioned catsups derive from Chinese fish sauce variants dating to the early 1700s. Mushroom catsup in particular is called for in many of my old recipes as part of meat flavoring or as a component in sauces. Apparently tomato catsup hit the scene about a century after those sauces.

By the time of the 1881 publication of this recipe, tomato catsup had even been available in bottled form for over forty years. However, it seemed to experience a surge in popularity in the early 1900s – so much so that public health concerns were raised.

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Books about ketchup report a number of companies bottling the condiment in Maryland. One brand, Fort Cumberland Catsup bottled in Cumberland, Maryland raised the ire of the FDA in 1914 for peddling “a filthy, putrid, and decomposed vegetable substance to wit decomposed catsup.” The catsup was destroyed by the US Marshall.

Over time the ketchup market has come to be dominated by consistency, ushered along by fears of benzoate and the new era of food purity.

A 2004 article for the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell explores the aftermath of this consistency. Even today as “artisinal” versions of foods from Triscuits to mustard have become ubiquitous in our kitchens, ketchup remains on the fringe of the zeitgeist.

Our ketchup-making neither affirmed nor refuted the supremacy of the thick, sweet ketchup made by Heinz and their imitators. What we made was a 19th century seasoned, somewhat thinner product with a LOT of vinegar-y zip.  I think I would have preferred cider vinegar instead of white, but the vinegar bite is not a weakness. This ketchup will combine nicely with some fruit for a bar-b-que sauce, and makes a good alternative for hot dog lovers who are not too fond of ketchup. After letting it mellow for a week or two we tested it on hot dogs and it was described as a “mustard-like ketchup.”

Mrs. Howard calls for tomato ‘catsup’ in “Bouilli,” “Beef-Steak with Tomato Catsup,” “Brown Sauce” and “Liver” so this may not be the last you see of this ketchup.

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Recipe:

  • 1 peck tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 2 tablespoons salt
  • 1 pint vinegar
  • ½ tablespoon cloves
  • ½ tablespoon allspice
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 bunch thyme & parsley
  • 2 garlic cloves

Take
a peck of tomatoes and squeeze through a thin piece of muslin so that no
seeds get through. Add a dessert spoonful of cayenne pepper, two
table spoonfuls of salt, one pint of vinegar, half a tablespoonful of
cloves and allspice mixed, two sticks of cinnamon about three inches in
length a bundle of thyme and parsley tied together and two cloves of
garlic chopped as fine as possible. Simmer for four hours, steadily and slowly.
After filling the bottles with catsup, put two inches deep of sweet oil
in each bottle. Rosin the bottles the more effectually to exclude the
air. [Modern cooks follow canning procedures]

Recipe from Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen By Mrs. B. C. Howard

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Blanching tomatoes for easy peeling

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I love canning outside and enjoying the weather

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Currant Jelly

When I saw all the bountiful berry offerings from Reid’s Orchard at the Waverly Farmers Market, I had to take action.

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Nearly all of my Maryland cookbooks contain recipes for currant jelly. It was popular with meats, especially game such as venison. It is also a frequent ingredient in more complicated sauces containing onions and such.
Being a fan of a little sweet-tartness on sandwiches, I figured I will have a use for this.
Mrs. B.C. Howard includes three different recipes for currant jelly in “50 Year in a Maryland Kitchen.” One recipe promises to yield a result that is beautifully clear and “will keep perfectly.” I have no-one to impress so I was a little more haphazard.
I sense that the clearest of clear currant jellies was a bit of a status symbol to impress guests.

Another currant jelly recipe was contributed to EDBMiM by “Mrs. Clarence J. Roberts née Miss Frances Fairfax.”
My research suggests that this is a typo and the husband is Clarence M. Roberts, a politician from Prince Georges County. Frances’ father was either the 11th or 12th “Lord Fairfax of Cameron,” whatever the heck that actually means.
The Fairfax family’s Bowie plantation, Northhampton, is now an archeological site in the middle of suburban development.
I also referenced a recipe from Elizabeth Ellicott Lea (more on her at a later date.)
These books promise many further uses for the jelly, from a jelly-roll cake, meat-sauces or inclusion in an sweet boozy punch.

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Recipe:

  • currants
  • sugar
  • water

The currants should be picked from the bushes during dry weather. Place the currants in a pot and crush lightly. Place over heat with a small quantity of water to keep from burning. As soon as they are cooked soft, strain through fine cheesecloth or a sieve until all the juice is extracted, then strain it slowly through a finer cloth to remove all impurities and pulp. Measure the juice and put it in a clean pot with an equal weight of sugar.  Let boil for five minutes, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Can immediately in sterilized jar(s).

Recipe adapted from “Eat, Drink & Be Merry in Maryland” and “A Quaker Woman’s Cookbook”

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