Curious Colonial Remedies and Cosmetics

During colonial times disease was the leading cause of death. Many people survived diseases but were severely physically scarred so it is not surprising that there was a lot of experimentation with remedies and cosmetics.  I am actually not sure if some of these are better or worse than the chemicals many of us put on our skin everyday.

Birch sap is used fir making birch beer and strawberry water sounds like it would work just as lemon does for the skin but orpiment (a toxic mineral that contains arsenic) and (::gulp::) frog-spawn water just sound crazy to me.

This receipt is not referring to real worms, but  clogged pores. Before the common access to microscopes, many people believed that the oil blockage of a pore was a worm. This believe was still present as late as the American Civil War when magazines were quick to point out that "ignorant persons" still believed it.

Even today some people swear by the whites of eggs to remove blackheads and using the plant Soloman's Seal (Polygonatum) to cure acne.

The vermin most likely meant in this recipes are fleas, lice and mosquitoes which were responsible for spreading many diseases and were also very annoying.  Ships often carried lice and every sailor and passenger on a ship with an outburst would eventually become infected. Stavesacre (line-bane) is very toxic and I don't think that honey would help keep the mosquitoes away.

In some places, especially at the beginning of the 1700s, it was common for people to share bowls and cups at the table. Dishes were not washed with soap, even in taverns where many people could have used the same cup all day.


*Note: The baby in the picture at the top is wearing a "pudding cap" which protected the heads of children while they were learning to walk.

The Fairy Waltz: A dance for that nameless time between the Regency Era and the Victorian Era.

"If there be room enough, the gentleman only holds his partner  the tips of the fingers.  Certainly the dance in question is danced in a far different way among the inferior orders of society, as they hold each other tight by the middle, and thus in each other's embrace go round like whirligigs. But this is no argument to condemn a dance, which I think is decent, harmless, and elegant.—The only objection I could ever see in the Waltz was, that the dancers were liable to get exceedingly dizzy, by repeated turning; but the dance is by no means indecent, as danced by the better sort of people, and it has the most brilliant effect.   
'No Puritan.' " -Sporting Magazine 1812

  When the Waltz first became popular in England and the U.S., it met with mixed reviews. Many people disliked dances in general, thinking that they were places rife with sin. There were many discourses on the evils of dancing but the Waltz was by far the most scandalous, popular dance of the time. Most dances were danced with many partners and therefore "social." Waltzes were really the first almost exclusive dances. The intimate nature of the dance had chaperons and parents watching like hawks.

The Fairy Waltz was published in 1825 as part of treatise on the dances of London. The accompanying dance is pretty easy and I hope to chart it sometime in the future.  The song that goes with the dance is very cheery. This would make a very good piece for a young lady to play while her friend's danced. I put the song into a MIDI file. The MIDI is very fast and I think it would best be played almost at half the speed of the MIDI file. 

Pasta and Rose Sauce Recipe

 I love this recipe Pasta with Rose Sauce is extremely delicious unfortunately (or fortunately) the only way to make it economically is to make it in bulk. Another unfortunate aspect of it is that it is probably not so healthy (doesn't it always work that way?) However it is an extremely tasty recipe and takes under 20 minutes to prepare and is great if you are trying to feed a lot of people on a small budget.

**Sauce is enough for about 3 Lbs of pasta.**

Pasta with Rose Sauce

Ingredients:
- 4 teaspoons Minced Garlic
- 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 2 Cups Crushed Tomatoes (1
- 5 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
- 2 Cups Heavy Cream
- 1/4 Cup Parsley, Chopped finely (more if you want some as a garnish.)
-  Shredded Parmesan (hardened Parmesan tastes better in this than fresh.) 

Pour the Olive Oil in a medium-sized saucepan and heat on medium heat. Saute the Minced Garlic in the Olive Oil until golden brown. Add the Crushed Tomatoes and Tomato Paste. Heat for 10 minutes, add Parsley and Heavy Cream and heat for an additional 5 minutes on low heat. Serve over Farfalle (Bow tie) Pasta, add a sprinkle of Parmesan Cheese and Parsley. 


Andy and I had this for our Valentine's Day Dinner which we had on Sunday and we both enjoyed it very much. My family has been using the sauce up for meals since and there's still some left over. The sauce is cream based, so I do not believe it will freeze well-- it rarely gets to that point anyway, my family attacks it. The fact that my family eats it is something in itself as most of them refuse to touch my cooking due to their very limited palates. :D 

Valentine's Day Cards

Giving valentines has been popular since the 1700s. They started out as slips of paper with messages on them but soon they began to be commercially produced in the mid 1800s.  By 1862, according to the New York Times in an article after the Civil War, 21,260 valentines were delivered to post offices in New York City even with the paper shortages caused by the war.











This number jumped to 86,213 in 1866. These numbers did not even include valentines mailed in envelopes. The 1867, article in the New York Times noted that the manufactured valentines had been using the same few poems had been using the same few poems and sentimental notes for at least 30 years prior.

Victorian Valentines were sentimental, comical and normally contained beautiful imagery. Mass produced cards often had spectacular artwork and were inserted in family photo albums.

 Some fun Valentine's Day Superstitions:

•  In the late 1500s, it was thought that birds chose their mates on Valentine's Day.
• In the 1770s it was thought that if a girl pinned five bay leaves to her pillow the night before Valentine's Day and she dreamed of her crush, that they would be married within the year. 
• Another 1770s superstition was that if a girl put all of the names of her suitors on slips of paper and put them in water, the name on the slip of paper that rose to the top first would be her Valentine.
• From the 1700s- 1870s it was believed that the first person you saw on Valentine's Day would be your Valentine.  
• In Scotland in 1866, the young girls and boys would put their names into two separate boxes, if one person drew the name of another person three times, it was thought that the two would be married.
• In the 1900s people believed that if a lady entertained gentlemen the night before Valentines Day, that she would soon lose her social standing.
• Another superstition from the 1900s was if a girl looked through the keyhole of the hen house and saw a rooster and a hen together that she would be married during the year.
• It was believed in the 1900s that if a lady went walking on Valentine's Day that she could predict who she was going to marry by the first bird that she saw: Blackbird: Clergyman, Robin or Sparrow: Sailor, Goldfinch: Millionaire, Yellow Warbler: a Wealthy man, Bluebird: a Poor man, Woodpecker: She would be an old maid.

 

A Valentine to Send to Your Valentines:

Read About the Language of Flowers.

Colonial Games: How to Play Leap Frog

Leap-frog is a game we used to play as very little kids. I don't think we ever really knew the rules but it was still fun. This is a game I probably could not play anymore.

This is played in a line of players, all players except the last one in the line, squat down with their hands on their thighs. The last player in line runs up behind the player directly in front. The end player then places his hands on the back of the player in front of him while simultaneously jumping over the back of the player. The player then continues to jump over the backs of all of the players until he reaches the front of the line.

The new end player then restarts the game. This game seems very simple but the difficulty comes when players fail to make the jumps.

An Alternate Way to Play from 1833:

A Funny College Reminiscence about Leap Frog:

http://americangardenhistory.blogspot.com