January Mending

Not much to look at, but I am trying to be more timely in my mending this year and there's nothing like a scheduled blog post to hold me accountable. January flew by, so I only got a few small tasks done.

My quilted petticoat ties gave out when I last wore it, and needed to be replaced. A few stitches also secured a bit of the waistband which came loose, and an inch of the placket which worked free.

My pink half-apron has also seen some tough times. I ended up securing both pockets where the edges were coming loose, and reattaching the skirt to the waistband at two points where they detached. I also moved both buttons into better positions, so that I can actually fasten the apron with them, instead of knotting the waistband.

HFF 5.14: Topsy-Turvy

The Challenge: Topsy-Turvy

The Recipe: "Turn-under Pie" or Apple Pie No. 4 from Mrs. Bliss's The Practical Cook Book

The Date/Year and Region: 1860, Philadelphia

How Did You Make It:  I made a half-batch of the No. 6 paste ("half-puff paste"), by cutting 4oz of butter into 2 cups flour with 1/2 tsp salt. I added one beaten egg and a little water to make a paste, then rolled it out twice, folding in another 2 oz of butter each time. The instructions said to make it like the previous puff paste after giving the starting amounts, which left me confused about whether this included layering in the extra butter--in the end, I used half as much butter as the previous recipe called to be layered in, since it otherwise would have duplicated No. 5 but with an egg.

Once the paste was rolled out, I put a crust on the pie tin, then peeled and sliced three medium-sized Granny Smith apples, which neatly filled the pan. I added a top crust, taking care to set it on top without pinching the two crusts together. I baked the pie for a bit over 45 min, though the crust was just starting to brown. I lifted off the top crust, added 1/4 cup white sugar, a small pinch of salt and a generous sprinkling of powdered nutmeg to the apple mush, removed about half of the apple, then replaced the crust upside down and spread the remaining apple over it.

Total Time: Just over an hour, including cooking time.

Total Cost: About $4 for butter and apples

How Successful Was It?: It tastes great. I'm not entirely sold on the 'flipping the crust' step actually contributing anything worthwhile, but it was something to do. I think the reduced butter amount was necessary--I've had some mixed experiences using period puff paste recipes, and this avoided the worst of those problems. The crust was rich, but it wasn't leaking butter. The sugar amount was a guess, but it suits the tartness and quantity of apples; next time I would use a hair less nutmeg. 

The half batch of pastry was a good idea for this pan, and I had sufficient leftover paste to make third crust. The apple cooked down a lot, so next time I use this pan I'll aim for 4-5 instead of three and really mound them up. I'd also be tempted to find an apple that holds up better to cooking.

Additional note: it says to serve hot. This is absolutely imperative. I couldn't eat the whole pie in one evening, but by the next morning it was distinctly un-appetizing. If I make this in the future, it'll be for an event with enough people that left-overs aren't a concern.

How Accurate Is It?: I used the modern oven and a modern apple variety, but prepared the ingredients with hand tools. I did use my new repro tin pie pan, and especially liked how easy it was to shape the paste along the scallops.

Upside-down apple pie.

The apples before cooking.

Food Pairing Advice

Happy Twelfth Night! I didn't make a cake in this, the second year of the plague, but thought to share some culinary advice I found during a recent research project.

VEGETABLES AND SAUCES APPROPRIATE TO DIFFERENT MEATS 

Potatoes are good with all meats. With fowls, they are nicest mashed. Sweet potatoes are most appropriate with roast meat, as also are onions, winter squash, cucumbers, and asparagus.

Carrots, parsnips, turnips, greens, and cabbage are eaten with boiled meat; and corn, beets, peas, and beans are appropriate to either boiled or roasted meat. Mashed turnip is good with roasted pork, and with boiled meats 

Tomatoes are good with every kind of meat, but specially so with roasts. Apple sauce with roast pork; cranberry sauce with beef, fowls, veal, and ham. Currant jelly is most appropriate with roast mutton. Pickles are good with all roast meats, and capers or nasturtiums with boiled lamb or mutton. Horseradish and lemons are excellent with veal.

--The Young Housekeeper's Friend (1859)

Aunt Sophie's Visits

 

While researching Christmas trees a few years ago, I encountered a series of stories in Godey's. "Aunt Sophie's Visits" were published in fourteen installments between 1857 and 1864. In each story, the eponymous heroine visits a relative, and gives them life advice. They are the sort of didactic story which I find enlightening about household details, so I started tracking them down.

While most of the stories are less useful for material culture than I had hoped, I think they offer some interesting insights into ideals about how families and marriages should function c.1860.

I. (November 1857) Aunt Sophie visits a newly married niece, and advises her on self-care.

II. (December 1857) Aunt Sophie instructs a different niece on preparing a Christmas tree [with strings of parched corn, dyed egg shells, riddles, lace bags of sweetmeats, paper ornaments, and wax lemons.]

III (July 1858) Aunt Sophie helps her nephew and his wife lay foundations for a good marriage and dealing with the loss of a child

IV (November 1858) Aunt Sophie teaches her husband's nephew to save and not to be extravagant with money.

V. (March 1859) Aunt Sophie advises her sister-in-law on being a stepmother, and the family comes together after the death of a child.

VI. (July 1859) Aunt Sophie visits her niece, and helps her niece's new husband realize that a person can be good without being dour. Includes references to picnics (with outdoor dancing), summer amusements, and Fourth of July celebrations.

VII.(March 1860) Aunt Sophie advises her brother and sister-in-law about assessing the character of their daughter's suitor.

VIII. (October 1861)  Aunt Sophie cautions her niece about pride and shows kindness to a worthy friend fallen on hard times.

IX. (April 1861) Aunt Sophie visits her sister, models moderation in diet, and advises her niece on the salutary benefits of anticipating pleasant events.

X. (November 1861) Aunt Sophie helps her niece and her niece's husband to find contentment in their marriage, which started inauspiciously.

XI (February 1862) Aunt Sophie advises her friend(?) to help raise her motherless nephew, to the great improvement of his character.

XII (August 1862) Aunt Sophie visits her nephew's widow, and encourages her to have her children help with the household work--easing their mother's cares while providing structure for the children and helping them develop industrious habits.

XIII:(November 1862) Aunt Sophie advises her niece-by-marriage on balancing household and social duties (with bonus Wholesome Menus for Entertaining).

XIV (June 1863): Aunt Sophie advises her sister-in-law and nieces about choosing good reading material, including a cautionary tale about the dangers of bad novels and positive observations on the sublimity of nature.

*XV: (October 1863) Aunt Sophie, with her husband and two of their children, visit some old friends who have moved away. They discuss finding contentment in old age as in youth, and on the importance of avoiding addictive substances (tobacco and alcohol).

*XVI: (June 1864) Aunt Sophie visits her brother, and helps her new sister-in-law adjust to her new home. Much of the story is told from Mary's perspective, as a poor, but cheerful and hard-working orphan, wife and widow.

 

In the September 1863 issue of Godey's, a short notice announced the death of Lucy N. Godfrey in her home at Bethlehem, Vermont on May 21, 1863. The June 1863 issue, with installment XIV of the Aunt Sophie stories, would have been delivered the week she died. The announcement mentioned that the editors had one or two more of Mrs. Godfrey's stories on hand; these appeared in the October 1863 and June 1864 issues.

I was curious about the author's life, and how it may have related to her writing, which is focused on ideas for domestic harmony. Lucy Newman Godfrey  (1829-1863) was the eldest of eight children. She appears to have spent her whole life in the vicinity of Brattleboro, Vermont, among a closely-knit family. At age twenty, she married Hartwell Godfrey, a mason five years her senior. Their only child was born in 1857, when Lucy was twenty-six and Hartwell thirty-one. In the only census taken during their marriage, Lucy and her son were living with her parents and siblings, while her husband boarded in New Jersey

Lucy's brother, George Newman Jr., may have had a wife named Lydia who died in 1857, the same year that he married a Sarah Caldwell. The fifth "Aunt Sophie" story, published in early 1859, features the heroine meeting her younger brother's second wife and advising her on relating to her stepchildren.

Lydia K. Newman, Lucy's possible sister-in-law, was predeceased by her daughter, Mary (1850-1853) and infant son, Orrin (1856). Stories three and five (published 1858/1859) include a family coping with the death of a child. The extended Newman family, unfortunately, experienced this grief multiple times in the years to follow.

In January 1863, Lucy's husband died of consumption, leaving her a widow with a 6-year-old son. In the final "Aunt Sophie" story (written by May 1863, published 1864), the character Mary's husband dies suddenly of consumption, leaving her a widow with several young children; her greatest help and comfort is her oldest son, aged 8.  This story differs from the others, in that much of the narration is Mary telling her history to Sophie; most characters' backstories are given by the omniscient narrator, or by Sophie talking with a third party. The story also focuses on a second marriage for two parties: a melancholy widower who is financially secure, and a persevering widow who has always been poor. With a minimum of Sophie's advice (that Mary needed to resume some of her former occupations), the marriage provides them both with stability and companionship. I have to wonder if that's how Lucy hoped her own life might proceed after widowhood.

Winter Squash, Revisited

Winter squash is a recurring feature of mid-19th century American menus. It shows up on Christmas and New Year bills of fare, as well as on winter menus for company dinners, large family dinners, and plain family dinners alike. 

Few (none) of these menu sources go into greater detail for how the vegetable* is to be cooked. Looking through the cookery books, it's easy to see why: there's basically one method. 

Far and away, the "squash" or "winter squash" receipt in cookbooks is 'remove both the hard shell and stringy seed-matrix, then boil the squash pieces and mash them with butter, salt and pepper'. This method shows up in sources ranging from Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery (1846) to The Practical Cook Book (1850, 1860) to Mrs. Putnam's Receipt Book (1860) to Godey's January 1862 issue to The American System of Cookery (1864). All are titled "winter squash", with no other receipts listed for the vegetable. The exceptions are Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book (1846/71), which allows that boiled squash may be served in slices (un-mashed), with the left-overs fried for breakfast; The Ohio Valley Farmer which claims that New England farmers usually boil squash plain; and What to Eat and How to Cook It (1866) which has instructions for both mashed squash/pumpkin and for stewing the boiled vegetable in butter. Squash can also be made into pies or pudding (both like a pumpkin pie) or fried as 'cakes', though these recipes are less frequent, and actually have names beyond 'winter squash'.

[*Other vegetables in these menus are likewise named: turnips, parsnips, beets, salsify. However, some of them get more specific about the dish: 'potato snow', 'mashed potato', 'boiled cauliflower', 'fried celery', 'stewed red cabbage', etc.]

I first prepared mashed winter squash two year ago, using a purchased spaghetti squash--a variety I do not recommend for this purpose. I've also tried both the stewed and the fried squash recipes using butternut squash, which turned out much better. 

 Looking into the horticultural literature of c. 1840-1865, specific winter squash varieties include the cocoa-nut or Porter's winter squash; crookneck and/or bell-shaped squash; Hubbard; Valpariso; turban or acorn squash; Mexcian cushaw or cushaw pumpkin; sweet potato squash and pineapple squash; and autumnal or Boston marrow. Winter squashes have a thicker rind than summer varieties, allowing them to be stored into the winter months. Pumpkins are a notable part of this category, though they tend to have their own recipes (with some overlap). 

My 1.5 successful acorn squashes.

 

I ended up with four usable winter squashes from my garden: one huge Connecticut field pumpkin, two table queen acorn squashes, and a butternut squash (unknown cultivar). As they were stored on my porch, and then an unusual cold snap hit, it seemed prudent to use them soon.

I first boiled and mashed up the butternut squash. It mashed easily, tasted delightful (hard to go wrong with butter/salt/pepper), and had a very pleasant texture. The acorn squash, when afforded the same treatment, proved marginally harder to peel, as the peel kept breaking. It tasted basically the same as the butternut. Occasionally, there was a slightly bitter bite, which I'm blaming on the one squash being only marginally ripe when I had to harvest it.

With the leftover (mashed) acorn squash, I tried that 1858 Squash Cake receipt. It calls for 1 quart of squash, 1 coffee cup (8-10oz) of milk/buttermilk/sourmilk and of flour, also salt and saleratus if the sour milks are used. The batter is to be fried in butter or lard. 

 

Squash cakes, 1858

 

I ended up using plain milk, and frying the cakes in butter. The flavor was fine: it mostly tasted of squash, but with the flour giving a slight pancake-like note. I fried the cakes until brown and crispy on the outside, though the interior texture was unchanged. I can't figure out whether I like the texture or not, but ended up eating the whole batch anyway. They'll be a nice addition to my recipe book, just to have an option for using left-over mashed squash.

HFF 5.13: Party Food

The Challenge: Party Food

The Recipe: Lemon Cream from Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management

Fancy mould = party food.

 

This dish appears in the menu suggestions for dinners of 6 or 12 people in December, but not in the "plain family dinner" list, which makes it a party food in my opinion. [The December dinner party suggestions include orange jelly, lemon jelly, orange cream, and vanilla cream, so this fits the theme. Also, I have lemons to use up.]

The Date/Year and Region: 1861, London

How Did You Make It:  Per the instructions, I simmered together 1 pint of cream, 4 oz of white sugar, the peel of 1 large lemon, and 1/2 oz gelatin (substituting for 1 oz of isinglass) for ~10 min. I strained the cream into a ceramic jug, then added the two beaten egg yokes, and stirred it in a water bath ~10 min. I then added the juice of the lemon, stirred it well, and poured it into an oiled mould to set. After it cooled a bit, I put the mould in the refrigerator overnight; the cream had solidified nicely by the next evening.

Total Time: Half an hour to make, then let it set overnight

Total Cost: About $3.50

How Successful Was It?: Fairly. It solidified, and it came out of the mould neatly. The texture is smooth and consistent. The taste is a bit tart (you can tell it's flavored with lemon juice and not extract), but I didn't find it overwhelmingly sour. It fits my expectation of 'Victorian sweet'--sweet, but not as sweet as I'd expect a similar modern dessert to be. I didn't want to eat a lot of it at once, but it's pretty good in small servings. 

I probably won't make this for my own use, but I could see it working very nicely as part of a larger spread--maybe a third course remove where it's accompanying both sweet and savory dishes. The receipt was also straightforward and easy to remember, so I will add this to my cream repertoire alongside the chocolate and raspberry creams (which I like better, but which are trickier to make).

How Accurate Is It?: I used the modern conveniences (stove, gelatin powder), but I weighed out the sugar properly. And peeling/juicing a lemon is the sort of satisfying hands-on work that makes it feel like an authentic cooking experience...

 

Lemon cream.

My sophisticated cooking set-up.

2022 Costuming Resolutions

New Resolutions for 2022.

Continuing from last year, I think this would be a good year to really focus on getting my undergarments in order, and culling the non-useful garments from my historic wardrobe. I'd also like to try focusing less on completing specific projects and more on putting aside designated time for mending and tackling the UFOs (unfinished fabric objects) in my work basket.

Main Wardrobe Goals (all c.1855-65)

Four chemises (not just wearable, but comfortable and either new or else nicely mended)

Four pairs of drawers, ditto

Four pairs of everyday stockings

Silk and wool stockings maintained

Quilted and corded petticoats maintained

Three nice white petticoats

Four useable collars (most 1855, one 1860s)

Four useable sets of undersleeves or cuffs, suited to the dresses (most 1855, some later)

Make or re-make one work dress (1855)

One fashionable ensemble (1855)

Two aprons

One nice bonnet (1855)

One sunbonnet

Winter Mantle (c.1855)

UFOs

Embroidered coif

That red-print Empire gown

Repair sewing kit 

Puffed Undersleeves

Straw soft-crown bonnet

Stretch Goals (I have materials but no pressing needs)

New 16th century kirtle and gown

New 16th century smock

Rustic straw hat

Linen sheets

Tablet or pick-up woven bands

18th century peignor

18th century short gown and petticoat

18th century skirt supports for fancier gowns

18th century pocket

18th century hair pads

18th century cape

Empire pelisse

Coarse straw bonnet

Net lappet cap, 1850s

1870s spoon-busk corset

1900s corset  

1912 Wrap Cloak

Undergarments for early 1900s traveling suit

1940s/1950s skirts and dresses

Dancing slippers

Knit Stockings

Refresh 1860s bonnets

New 1800s/1810s bonnet

Bathrobe (actually sort of need a new one)

Blog-wise, I'd like to have my draft folder below 60 by the end of the year, hopefully a more realistic goal than 50 was. I'm also aiming to add two more recurring monthly posts: one research post (or sharing an interesting primary source), and one on the remaking/repairing projects. Hopefully that will help me stick with the less exciting projects.

Original: Black Gown With Beadwork (1922)

 Happy New Year!

Woman's Dress (1922) by Lucille, Lady Duff Gordon. At LACMA.