Blackberry Jam, 1846

More summer preserves, this time Blackberry Jam from Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book (1846; 3rd ed, 1856.) 

Blackberry Jam. Allow three quarters of a pound of brown sugar to a pound of fruit. Boil the fruit half an hour, then add the sugar and boil all together ten minutes. 

 

I ended up with 68 oz of blackberries (4 1/4 lbs, or just short of one ice-cream tub full), and thus used 51 oz brown sugar. Anticipating about 4 pints of jam, as previous batches seem to produce just under 1 pint jam per pound berries, I was pleasantly surprised to get 5 pints (1 pint, 6 half-pints, 4 quarter-pints to be precise), which I must put down to the extra sugar, and no material being lost to skimming. Processed 10 minutes, based on my current elevation.

Obviously, this receipt was very similar to the jams in Eliza Acton's book, but with a higher proportion of sugar, and the specification to use brown sugar with the blackberries. I had planned to follow Acton's advice about skimming, but found it unnecessary, as no scum of any sort rose to the top of the mixture (perhaps why Beecher makes no mention of it). As usual, I consulted modern recipes for safe water-bath processing times, and to check that the sugar to fruit ratio is high enough. These historic receipts generally resemble the modern ones quite closely, except that they rely on boiling the fruit alone to thicken the preserves, instead of adding pectin.

 

Foods in Season: August 1861

Back to Beeton's Book of Household Management to see what's in season (in/around London) in August:

Fish- Brill, carp, chub, crayfish, crabs, dory, eels, flounders, grigs, herring, lobsters, mullet, pike, prawns, salmon, shrimps, skate, soles, sturgeon, thornbeck, trout, turbot.

Meat- Beef, lamb, mutton, veal, buck venison.

Poultry- Chickens, ducklings, fowls, green geese, pigeons, plovers, pullets, rabbits, turkey poults, wheatears, wild ducks. 

Game- Leverets, grouse, blackcock.

Vegetables- Artichokes, asparagus, beans, cabbages, carrots, cauliflowers, celery, cresses, endive, lettuces, mushrooms, onions, pease, potatoes, radishes, small salading, sea-kale, sprouts, turnips, vegetable marrow, various kitchen herbs.

Fruit- Currants, figs, filberts, gooseberries, grapes, melons, mulberries, nectarines, peaches, pears, pineapples, plums, raspberries, walnuts.

Fish again is the category with the most changes, with nine new additions and three removals. The meat category remains the same as in July (and June).  Pigeons have been added to the poultry category, while leverets have moved into the revived category of game. Potatoes are back in the vegetable category. Fruit has seen the most changes after fish: apricots, cherries, and strawberries have passed out of season, replaced by filberts (hazelnuts) and mulberries.  

Cotton Stockings

Finally tried something other than wool on the Autoknitter. For the hot August weather, I made a pair of cotton stockings using Knit Picks' Simply Cotton fingering-weight yarn. The thickness of the stockings is comparable to wool ones that I've knit, but I didn't find them uncomfortable to wear in the 90+ degree heat (though I certainly wouldn't have minded even lighter stockings).

 

Finished (and washed) stockings, of un-dyed cotton.

I was worried about how the yarn would handle in the machine, specifically whether it would have enough stretch to knit without breaking or jamming. It was a pleasant surprise to find that this cotton handled just like most of the wool yarns I've tried. The hardest part was actually winding the large skeins into cones for use--before the next pair, I really should get my swift repaired. One skein made for one complete stocking, plus the hem and first 57 rows of a second.

I read that 10% shrinkage is to be expected with this yarn, and adjusted my usual 'recipe' (based on Knit Picks' wool palette yarn) by adding 20 rows to the first section past the hem. I figured that as this was the widest part of the calf, it was the safest place for any extra length, if my calculations were wrong; I also added 5 rows to the foot length. Since I didn't finish grafting the toe closed until the morning I needed to wear the stockings, I didn't have the chance to wash them before use. The stockings were definitely a bit long in the foot on that first wear, resulting in some wrinkling around the heel, but were still use-able. After the first wash, the fit was much better through the foot and the texture of the stockings also improved--it generally fluffed up a bit and made for a softer hand. The foot itself is still just a little bit longer than I'd like, so I might try only adding 4 rows instead of 5 next time.

I'll probably knit myself a second set of these, so I'll have two pair cotton and three pair wool stockings, which should do me for most events throughout the year. For really hot weather, I should also probably make a new pair of sewn hose, as the cotton knit fabric is thinner and lighter than these stockings. However, between the annoyance of fitting sewn hose and the frequency of broken seams, I am very eager to add more knit stockings into my wardrobe. I also prefer how the knit ones fit. These cotton knit stockings will fill a nice niche for warm and 'in-between' weather, allowing me to save the more fragile stockings for the most extreme heat. 

 

Assorted Jams, 1845

And now for June/July's berry jam haul. I used Eliza Acton's  Modern Cookery, in all its Branches (1845) for each of these. And despite the different receipts, they basically all boil down to 'boil the fruit, skim, add half the fruit's weight in sugar, and boil it again.'

Strawberry jam: Approximately 4 dry pints fruit yielded 3.5 lbs (after removing stalks and picking out bad pieces), which combined with 42 oz sugar made 3 1/4 pints jam. 

Strawberry Jam

Red raspberry jam, from the same source. 3lb 5oz fruit, plus 1lb 11oz sugar made for 3 1/4 pints raspberry jam. I made a second batch the following week, for a total haul of 7 1/4 pints. We used one of the quarter-pint jars at Tenino Oregon Trail Days the other weekend, and it went beautifully on the hot Soda Scones (with or without butter).

Raspberry Jam!

Another good common preserve (mixed berry jam): This jam receipt is basically the summarized form of all the others, but giving permission to freely mix any soft summer fruits in any proportion, and then add half-as-much sugar. For this, I tried a mixed berry assortment, using all the fruit in season at my sibling's house the first week of July. I got 3/4 pint of jam from 12 oz mixed fruit, 6 oz sugar. Raspberries were the majority fruit, with some strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and black currants. The jars look like more raspberry jam, but we'll see if any of the other flavors come through.  

 

Pickled Cucumbers, etc.

The garden has bern going wild this year, and I've been canning something at least every week through June-July as a result. This is not unrelated to the dearth of blog posts

My first bunch of pickling cucumbers came ripe at the same time as well a decent crop of radish seed pods (with plenty more of each to come). In the spirit of efficiency, I decided to make both up with Beeton's Universal Pickle.

As before, I found it convenient to up make at 1/6 scale, using 1 qt vinegar, 3 oz salt, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp mace, 1.5 tsp tumeric, 2 tsp mustard seed, scant 1 oz ginger and scant 2 oz shallots (technically 2/3 oz ginger and 1 1/3 oz shallots, but my scale isn't that precise). This quantity filled the four pint jars exactly. Each contained 1 1/4 cucumbers, and a generous handful of radish seed pods (about ~1/3 cup). 

 Processed 10 minutes, per modern safety recommendations. 

Cucmbers and radish pods.

My second batch of cucumbers got a modern dill pickle recipe. The main problem with this year's plentiful cucumber harvest is getting the cucumbers picked while they're still small enough to fit in jars nicely. I'll clear them all on a Monday, and by Wednesday there are somehow more cucumbers, all two tall or wide for my pint jars. So, instead of whole, these dills got quartered lengthwise. At least the next receipt I found calls for them to be sliced.

Modern "fresh-pack dill pickles"

 

Pickled Asparagus, 1847

It's been a summer of pickling and making preserves. Back in June I put up three pints of pickled asparagus, based on the 1847 recipe in The Whole Art of Curing, Pickling, and Salting Meat and Fish. I also consulted a modern recipe to ensure that I was meeting safe levels of acidity and determine appropriate processing times.

The two jars of pickles not already eaten.

The big surprise was how little asparagus actually fits into each jars. Even after breaking off the tough portions, I ended up trimming most of the edible stem off each asparagus piece to get a spear short enough to fit in the pint jars. I am now less surprised at 10 lbs being needed to get 6 pints worth of pickled asparagus tips. The 2 pounds of asparagus I had nicely filled one jar with asparagus tips; a second was mostly filled with tips but needed to be supplemented with some of the extra stems to pack fully. 

I used the remaining stems in a third jar, which I opened and used over July 4. Despite being all-vinegar, I actually found these more mellow than most other period pickles I've tried. The mace/nutmeg/cloves flavor combination worked very nicely; I had been slightly concerned about those spices' association with sweetness conflicting with the asparagus. I'd like to try the modern receipt in full next year (garlic and dill is a classic for a reason), but I think this historic flavor profile is also a winner.

Original: Dressing Case, c. 1850

 And now for something clothing-adjacent: a dressing case from the early 1850s.

Dressing Case, c.1850, in the VAM.

I can across this example while researching period nail brushes for my July program at Nisqually. It was fun finding a surviving example of a dressing case to compare with the illustrated advertisements (such as this 1860 catalog, note the similarities to B49 in the upper left corner). I also appreciated that, while it does not have photographs of the different component pieces, the VAM's description of this case includes dimensions of each piece. While period writings mention the use of a nail brush, finding an illustration or description of one had proved more elusive. I'm still trying to figure out if two-sided brushes were used in the 1850s, but the dimensions at least point to this example having a handle, and a small brush-head similar in size to most modern nail brushes. 

The VAM link has more information, but I wanted to mention than this set includes both personal hygiene items and clothing maintenance accessories (clothes brushes and a button hook), as well as a strop for sharpening razors. And then there's a corkscrew.