Summer Colonial Cooking: Gingerbread Cake Recipe

It's been so hot recently! The sun has shone bright without a cloud in the sky. What a great day to spend in a Colonial farmhouse, cooking?


I love animals, but the door of the farmhouse has been altered to let smoke out. Unfortunately, it also lets small (and not so small) critters in! Cooking with critters is nearly impossible.

I once heard that cats can contort and fit anywhere their head can fit. I wasn't sure how cats did this until I saw this barn kitty slide in the kitchen under the door.

The rooster has been testing the waters in the kitchen for a while but today he decided to come all the way in and see what crumbs he could scrape from the cracks in the floor.

I was waiting for cat and chicken brawl, but it never came. After the cat was done sticking his nose in all of the whipped cream, the cat and chicken sat down together.

I spent a good while chasing both the cat and the chicken around the kitchen but it was impossible to keep them out.  I tried my best to keep them off the cooking utensils. The chicken was fond of standing on the dutch ovens. There was also a cooked chicken on the table which he didn't seem to mind. 

Here's a period recipe for Gingerbread Cakes if anyone is brave enough to try it. I don't think our modern palates are used to real ginger used in sweets.

The recipe makes a lot of dough! Remember they baked a lot at once and stored it up.  I wrote the recipe up in modern terms and also in modern "sizing."

Ingredients: (Makes a lot.)
-12 Cups Flour
-2 Cups Sugar
-1 pound Butter (4 sticks)
-2 ounces Ginger
-2 teaspoons ground nutmeg or 1 freshly ground nutmeg
-1/2 cup Heavy Cream
-16 ounces of Golden Syrup (Treacle)

 Annotated Ingredients: (Makes 4 small cakes or one 9 inch one.)
- 3 Cups Flour
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 1/4 pound Butter (1 stick)
- 1 1/4 teaspoons Ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground Nutmeg
- 1/8 cup Heavy Cream 
- 4 ounces of Golden Syrup (Treacle)

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix Flour, Sugar, and Nutmeg in a large bowl. Cream Butter with the grated Ginger. Mix the Butter and Ginger in with the Flour mixture. Add Golden Syrup and Heavy Cream. Mix until a stiff dough. Roll out to 1/2 inch on a floured surface. Cut out small circles. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 40-45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.
   

Civil War Era Knit-Along Instructions

 

For those of us knitting the sontag, there is a pattern in PieceWork Magazine's March/April 2009 edition. For those of us that do not have that issue, there is a free pattern at Ragged Soldier. The last time I tried the pattern, I used the period sizing, which was way too small for me. I suggest using the medium sizing that's written in.











 Materials needed: 

• 500 yards of 100% wool in a sport weight or a true DK, but not worsted for MAIN COLOR.
• 200 yards of  100% wool in a sport weight or a true DK, but not worsted for BORDER COLOR. KnitPicks is a great place to find cheaper, high quality yarn, just make sure that it is sport weight or DK and %100 wool.
• Size 7 or 8 needles  (7 for DK wool, 8 for sport weight.)
• This Pattern. I highly suggest printing it. 
• This Pattern for the border. This is the border suggested in the period directions but few people use this border and opt for a double crocheted border instead.  
• Stitch markers. You can buy these or make them by cutting a straw into thin rings. 
• Safety pin. This is used to mark the Right side of the knitting.  

Good luck! It doesn't officially start until August 1st but I wanted to give a little time for everyone to gather their materials. If you don't have a local yarn boutique or don't want to buy online, Joann's Fabrics might have usable yarn, but probably not in a wide range of colors. 

If you want to practice the basket weave stitch that we will be using on some scrap yarn, knit 5 stitches, purl 5 stitches and repeat until the end. On the next row make sure that you purl 5 stitches first and knit the next 5. Keep rotating for five rows and on the 6th row knit 5 first and purl and so on.

Nantucket Whaling: The Fate of the Essex

Nantucket, Massachusetts was the heart of the American Whaling industry during the 1820s. Whales were used to produce a multitude of everyday items including oil, candles, meat, corset and crinoline boning and even expensive perfumes.

Whaling was a huge industry. Sailors on whaling vessels not only had to track and find whales but also harpoon them, bring them aboard their ship and process the whales. It was a very dangerous job as many sailors could not swim and there were plenty of chances of falling into the water.

When a whale was spotted, chosen sailors would depart the ship and man small whaling boats. All the small boats would be rowed up to the whale and the harpooner would take a shot at the whale. Ropes attached the harpoons to the small boats so that the boats would not lose the whales. The whales would frequently try to swim away, dragging the boats quickly behind them, sailors referred to this as a "Nantucket sleigh ride." When the whale was too hurt to swim, the whale was hobbled, by cutting the tail (this is similar to cutting an Achilles tendon in an ankle.) The whale was then struck again with a lance to kill the whale. The whale's lungs would fill with blood until blood would shoot out of the whale's blowhole, sailors would call "chimney's afire," when it happened to prepare everyone for a shower of blood.  It was a gruesome job but the only way to get oil in a time before petroleum.

The Essex, a whale ship in the 1820s, was attacked by an abnormally large sperm whale in the South Pacific. The ship was rammed twice and sank and 21 men escaped on their small whaling boats but could not manage to get the necessary supplies. The men eventually landed on a small island with a freshwater spring but soon drained the island of its resources. All but three men decided to leave the island in search of food.

The three men who stayed behind were eventually rescued but the other men, delirious from malnutrition and a lack of fresh water" soon resorted to eating their dead companions. Similarly to many 'last resort' accounts of the time, African Americans "died" first, a true testament to the societal norms of the time. After exhausting those who died of natural causes, the stranded men started to draw lots to decide who would be sacrificed for the group. The Captain's nephew, who was entrusted to his care by his sister, was elected and his good friend was elected to kill him.

When they were rescued, there was only three men left. The First mate soon wrote an account of the incident entitled The Loss of the Ship "Essex" Sunk by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats. The account was not published until the 1980s; however, the son of the First mate lent a copy of his father's manuscript to a young Herman Melville while they worked on a ship together. Melville was so inspired by the violence of whales, which was a rare occurrence, that he went on to write Moby Dick. 

The whole whaling industry sends shivers down my back. Can you imagine the time when whale oil would be lighting your homes and your corset would be stiffened with baleen? Those sailors must have been a tough group!

You can see modern whaling on Animal Planet's Whale Wars. It is an interesting show. I am not sure I believe in their methods but they do have a great devotion to saving whales.

Sontag it is! Were Sontags Crocheted during the Civil War?

It seems like the Sontag is the winner for the knit-along. I am trying to find a yarn that is affordable and available to most of the knitters. While most of us will be knitting the sontag, others have expressed interest in knitting other Civil War Era items. I am ecstatic and will link to all of the knitted items regardless of what they are.

The sontag pictured is post war--1866, but it is absolutely gorgeous! Many people are interested in crocheting sontags as they don't know how to knit. I have only seen one period reference to crocheted sontags.

The reference is late war--1864 and from Peterson's Magazine:

This pattern produces a sontag that is more like a shawl. It is something period and warm, so if you must crochet, I'm sure it could look very beautiful. If you aren't looking to make something period and just want a sontag to wear around the house indulge yourself with the 1866 sontag at the top.

I will keep you all posted when a suitable yarn for the knit-along is found. The needles will most likely be a common 7US. You will also need a few stitch markers. Stich markers can be bought cheaply or made at home, as a friend taught me, by cutting a drinking straw into 3 mm thick rings. 

Civil War Era Knit-Along

These storms keep rolling in! As I write this I could hear a roaring in the distance which soon became large crashes and flashes that shake the house. What crazy weather we've been having, we just had a storm this morning. It is very hot now but forecasters are predicting a very cold winter. All the better to make sure that we have plenty of knitted things to keep ourselves and loved ones toasty.

On August 1, I will be hosting a knit-along for beginners if anyone is interested. Everyone will have a chance to vote on what you'd most like to knit. We will knit a certain amount each week and everyone is invited to post photos of their progress every Saturday, and I will link to them.



 The options are:

* Sontag from Godey's Lady's Book, 1860

 *Opera Hood From Godey's Lady's Book, 1856

* Necktie from Peterson's Magazine 1861

* Lace Collar from The Ladies' Complete Guide, 1859 









Let me know what you would like to knit and if you plan to participate. Once we pick a project, we can figure out the yarn and needles we'll need. I think it will be fun and I feel like I'm more likely to finish it and not discard it for another project if I am knitting along with a group.