Here's a little history about period foods.

Here's a little history about period foods. Placing this here as unable to put in with RECIPES.

I talked to Claude and he has given permission to start down loading some period recipes in that section. These may have been seen in several of our old business ventures; "Buckhorn Rendezvous" 1978-1987, "Buckhorn Limited" (wholesale supplier) 1986-1990. Then I wanted to try Internet sales in 1992-2000 called "Clark & Sons Mercantile, Inc." we provided period correct edibles forgaed and cultivated along with camp wares.

Like anything we do research is the key to success and foods are no different.

As you do your research on edible foods, wild and planted, you will find that a large number of the available varieties came from Pennsylvania Germans, who brought them from their home lands in Europe from as early as the 1500’s. A few centuries later our own Thomas Jefferson swapped, traded and purchased some of the items we use today (not found in North America).

A brief sampling:

Field Seeds
Flax: Has been grown in the colonies as early as 1560’s, used for linen cloth and a number of other cloth by products. Ariane Flax seed is available today......................

Spelt: A form of wheat with a little difference in texture, was originally from Europe but found its way to the colonies when settled. Spelt Mills were popular during the 1800's in ..............

Gourds: In colonial America, old Mexico and parts of Europe, gourds have been used for a number of storage vessels. They have been cooked, fried, boiled or any other way you can ...........

Vegetables
Beans: Were often planted with corn and squash, called "Three Sisters" plantings, the colonists used this Indian method as early as the 1650's. Fisher, Smith, Hutterite and Jacob's .........

Beets: Native to Europe and N. Africa, their first appearance in N. America is not clear, but reference has been made of them in journals dating to the early 1600's. .................

Carrots: Member of the parsley family, came to South and North America from Europe and Asia, in the form of animal fodder, with the colonies employment in the early settlements ....

Herbs
These herbs are used as medicine, seasonings or just for decoration, all have been dated earlier than 1800.

Caraway: Has some medical uses, licorice taste used on rye bread by early colonists.............

Horehound: Used in teas, candy for sore throat problems .............

Sweet Cicely: Licorice flavor used in cooking for seasoning.

Apples
Baldwin Woodpecker: Found in history around the mid 1700's in southern part of Massachusetts.

Fameuse-Snow Apple: From Canada originally brought there by seed from France around 1600.

Jonathan: A New York farm apple grown as early as 1800.

If your interested I could provide additional items with dates found when first started here. That would help with your time frames. :hmm:

Note
The reason I got involved with these lines was what I'm sure you have found. A group (group in general) has spent many many dollars on their equipage and weapons, but when you go into their camps they are eating whatever is the easiest usually not correct. They just missed the whole experience of living history, now that's really sad folks.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I wonder how many people who worry about period correct food actually know what is period correct. I have been often questioned about my ice cream and apple cobblers. Yet Dolly Madison was so well known for her ice cream dinners that there was a brand of ice cream freezers named after her. Tomas Jefferson was known to favor spritzen (spelling ? ) apples for "cooking with batter ".While popcorn was used by both the native Americans and settlers I admitt poping it in peanut oil is not period correct since George Washinton Carver did not extract peanut oil until well after the civil war, yet it tastes better than corn poped in lard.So for myself I'll continue to eat as I always have. As I tell my wife " Just put on my tombstone he ate bacon and eggs for breakfast. "

 

Another comment about this subject, always get second and third sources for your supplies. Have seen some real questionable items offered with little or no documentation. Using this theory is good for about anything in life you will encounter. :hmm:

 

[Samuel]

This is a great idea for research I do get a little tired of Parched Corn and Jerky :hmm:
Thanks for the reminder
Samuel

 

Here's a few examples of supplies available:

INFORMATION OF INTEREST

The few items described below is to give you a small taste of what was being sent from the East to the new frontier, by our citizens and citizens from other lands. Edibles were big business as were all the other needed supplies.

This information is from many issues of the Museum of the Fur Trade, micro-film at St. Louis museums and several other Fur Trade sources, and are found many references from 1803, 1822, 1825,1826, 1832, 1834, 1835, 1837 and 1839 as to a number of the items available.

Listings of supplies are just a small sampling found on "Supply Invoices" such as these from 1825, 1835.

Looking over this information, and considering the amount of trade that was going on out of St.Louis, it is a pretty slim inventory for a variety of edibles when you consider what was actually available during those years.

1825

Inventory of Goods available at the 1825 Rendezvous on Henry's Fork of the Green River, from Wm. Ashley's diary:

2 bags coffee 1 hams goods
2 Tobacco 2 packs sugar
2.5 kegs tea
Tobacco 150lbs.
3 Bags coffee 200 lbs.
130 lbs Bale & Bag Sugar

1835

Invoice of merchandise shipped on the Steam Boat Diana, C.A. Halstead Master, bound for the Upper Missouri River and Consigned to Messr Laidlaw and Lamont for the account and risk of the Upper Missouri Outfit, 1835.

U.M.O. Pierre
4 boxes Y.H. tea
5 loaves ( ? ) sugar
2 boxes shaving soap
4 boxes com soap
1 barrel rice
4 bales oakum
2 barrels water crackers
2 barrels each navy pilot bread
1/2 barrels molasses
Keg 50 15 gls 1 hlf barrel mackreal
? bottle pepper sauce 2 boxes raisins
2 boxes cod fish 1 Lexington mustard
2 lb refined borax 1/2 dz. lime juice
2 oz nut megs 2 oz cloves
1/2 dz. ground ginger
1 gal blue grass seed (for a Factor)
7 kegs 6 twist to pound tobacco
2 kegs 2 twist to pound tobacco
1 keg 1 twist to pound tobacco 5
kegs 8 twist to pound tobacco
7 boxes brown Havana sugar
5 sacks Grod Al Salt
1 box cavandish tobacco
10 barrel pork
6 bags coffee
1 barrel bacon hams
40 barrels flour

_______________________________​

Pasta was a common trade item on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in the late 1700’s, but as researchers agree, it was available for ones that could afford the price, not an item a traveler or hunter would likely have. More of an item found in the settlements or at a fort trading post.

Herbs & Spices

Basil, Bay leaves, Cayenne pepper, Pepper corn, Cinnamon sticks, Cloves-whole, Garlic-granules, Ginger root-dried, Mustard seed-whole, Nutmeg-whole, Pepper-crushed red, Rose hips-seedless, these are the more common and the list would change with the area one is living in.

Coffee

French:

La Compagnie: Vanilla bean was a favorite of the officers on New France . A blend of coffee and vanilla for a correct drink fitting 1670-1800.

French Officer: choice of government and fur trade officials in New France , a special blend. 1650-1780.

Spanish:

Santa Fe Trail: Used through out the S/W of N. America , a blend of coffee and chocolate. 1760-1830.

El Capitan : Spanish Governors to Army Officers of the S/W along with fur trade Factors involved with the Santa Fe trade, favored this coffee. 1600-1850.

English:

From the Colonies (manuf in N. Amer.): A collection of beans and nuts blended to the common man’s taste. Used through out the colonies. 1610-1810.

Coffee Beans (Green /not roasted ): Coffee beans have been imported from the coffee capitals of the world, for centuries by the English, French, Spanish and American ships, taken to their home ports. Brazil , Columbia , Guatemala , Mexico and Salvador where the most popular ports.

Tea

Brick single-tile; Pressed cured blocks of tea, from Yunnan province, used as a currency for hundreds of years, traded in Europe and N. America in the earliest markets known.

Gun powder; Course granulation tea that resembles cannon powder, a quarter teaspoon in a 1/2 pt of boiling water produces a pleasant cup of tea.

Hyson; Small leaf green tea, name means "bright spring", a good period tea for any camp.

Bohea; Black orange pekoe, many recipes for this tea can be found through out history, was a very popular trade item, found on most supply lists.

China Black; The tea that started the "Tea Trade" in Europe and is still a leader today, in markets around the world.

Sweets

Maple sugar (bag), Maple sugar (cake), brown cane sugar "Havana Brown", Muscavado-cone, Cone sugar-piloncillo, "Hat" * of sugar (paper wrp), Round block sugar, Spiced chocolate, Chocolate (ibarra), Muscavado (in corn husk)

* is though that this is where the term "I’ll eat my hat" originated, wrapped in blue paper that can be used in dying cloth goods. (piloncillo and ibarra are still molded in the same design form as the originals in a museum in Santa Fe , NM )

Salt
Sea salt (sun dried), Orsa salt (sun dried)

Nuts
English walnuts (meats), Pignolia (pine nuts), Sun flower seed (raw), Spanish peanuts (raw), Pumpkin seeds (raw).

Dried Fruit
Apples, Peaches, Pears

Dried Meat (jerky): Buffalo , Elk, Antelope, Bear and any other available that could be jerked.

Them boys ate pretty good. :applause:

 

I wonder how many people who worry about period correct food actually know what is period correct. I have been often questioned about my ice cream and apple cobblers. Yet Dolly Madison was so well known for her ice cream dinners that there was a brand of ice cream freezers named after her.

Too often, guys try to justify their gear just becuase someone had it on the continent at one time. It's all a matter of context. It would be rather hard for a Longhunter persona, on the frontier, to justify having ice cream just becuase Dolly Madison made some "back east".

 

I wonder how many people who worry about period correct food actually know what is period correct."

In resent years more and more folks have been educated with the help of the trekking and reenactment magazines and their writers. Movies made of period events and travels have helped people change their minds also, there's more than you think. Then theres the ideas of where would these items have been used, on the trail, in the settlements, the forts and so on.

When still providing this service of period foods we would supply several of the writers and those that made the videos with supplies. I wanted them to report back if it was easy to use, something they would recommend to others, taste and any concerns they had about whatever they used. Most was agreeable with their systems (didn't get sick) and a few items got bad reviews (those would be removed from the catalog).

You older guys probably remember some of the articles and reviews we got in those days. This is not bragging, those days are long gone and so is the business. Today with the information just provided you one can go to the health store in your area and find most of these items.

____________________________​

To read their list of goods offered, one feels as though they are standing at the counter of a pre- 1840 St. Louis trading post or they are preparing to place an order to the stores of George Morgan during the 18th century. It seems that you can find any thing you might need in the way of foods and grains for your trek on the trail as well as period correct cookware, copper, tin, and iron. Buckhorn Rendezvous has given us a much needed source for authentic early American food-stuff and I encourage you to write for their list. Their prices are as fair as one could hope for.

Thanks Buck.

Rick Edwards, Editor "On The Trail" magazine

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Have dealt with Buckhorn Rendezvous several times, ordering a variety of period-correct foodstuffs. There catalog is a treat, for he spices up the lists of grains, teas, coffee, sugars and cookware with quotes from original documents that put the food he offers into a particular time and place. When I review his catalog, I can imagine what the shelves and barrels of George Morgan's Kaskaskia store might have displayed during a typical day in 1768.

Mark Baker, A Pilgrim's Journey "Muzzleloader" magazine

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Authenticity is what Clark & Sons is all about. The Camp Blanket is a little hard to explain because they aren't only in the business of selling, it is also a how-to of what was eaten in yesteryear, how to prepare it ,and little known facts about what foods were popular in those days. One thing is certain, if you want period food, tin and copperware, toiletries, blankets, grains, teas, sweets and fire building, smoking, sewing , books and writing supplies, then it behooves you to get their list and catalog, say "HI" to Buck.

Charlie Richie, Editor "Backwoodsman" magazine

____________________________​

Looking at what is offered by Buck's new business Clark & Sons Mercantile, will really opens the reenactors eyes to what a variety of items were available for different time periods. What we liked, is they deal as stated, "camp life equipage", foods, mill items and camp supplies of early North America. What a great find for the serious historical interpreter.

William Eaton, Field Editor" The Colonial Society" magazine

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We received these remarks for one simple reason we provided documented products. We thanks the Bakers, Housers and all those that showed us in their credits and reviews. It was fun to help. You young guys will find this out as you grow in the sport. Welcome the new guy, remember you use to me where he is now. :thumbsup:

 

Buck, I notice in your avatar you seem to be holding your arm. Is that from patting yourself on the back? :rotf:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

good write-up Buck.

sweet potatos were well-received by frontiersmen. they don't keep as well in warm weather as irish but cold weather they keep well.
I've read D Boone relished them. evidently that's what killed him too. he and an NDN was bear hunting in what is now Arkansas and rendered bear fat down to fry meat and sweet taters after nothing but parched corn and corn meal for days.
Boone gorged on the fried meat and sweet taters and his appendix gave out it was later determined.
I take 'em myself nearly every camp-out. they do go well with hog meat.

 

[tg]

I love to pack dried apples/pears and peaches, I don't do bananas or other fruit that I have not seen any reference of its being available. I just finished drying my pears with my PC (plastic covered) American Harvest food dryer.

Was there any type of corn and process that would create something similar(real close) to Corn Nuts? I like them puppies but don't carry them out of respect to the PC/HC concept.I am looking at the mid 18th century time period.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

dried fruit is pc. so is 'corn meal' or ground corn 'grits'.
salt/smoked pork & beef also is, and pemmican.

 

[dyemaker]

botanical.com has a list of herbs, fruit, plants...etc that has historial info. I plum forgot about that. Was reading up on elderberries and hops a while back. Hops should be about ripe just now. I used to forage alot for herbal medicines.

 

[DrLaw]

My $ .02.

I will shoot B-P guns using the methods done way back when, but when it comes to eating, I dearly prefer the 21st Century to the 18th and 19th.

That said, I really do find threads like these informative and interesting. Please keep them coming. :thumbsup:

The Doc is out now.

 

No Carl (but that is a good one though :haha: ) I was trying to standup straight when talking a group at Bent's Fort about period foods. Had just had my second back operation afew months before. :cursing:

For everyone's information I don't need to brag (pat myself on the back), just trying to provide you with what I have found and share with the old as well as the new folks starting out. Research changes daily with new discoveries on most every thing. Hell I have had some really good "period equipage" sales on items thought correct and then finding a year or so down the road it was not as correct as first thought.

 

Guys you haven't lived until you get involved with your local "Health Department". I'm fat, dumb and happy packaging my wares with the food business, then comes the "knock on the door". A twenty year old for the local "H.D." "wants to see the operations" he says. "Plastic heat sealed bags were required (I was using zip top baggies), these items in the plastic container bags could only be sold in that manner, period" per him. So what do you due, buy one of those sealing machings and a bunch of bags? Now this looks like heck plus having to tell you guys at an outing here's your product in a non-period correct container. !@#$%^

My wife says call the ladies down the road that make the quilts. They save my tail feathers with nice cotton bags to hold the pc bags, I got a stamp made with company name and back in business. :youcrazy:

 

[ohio ramrod]

True the longhunter or mountain man would not have had an icecream freezer with him. Neither would he have white children or a white wife with him. Yet if we don't encourage wives and children to attend our rendezvous how many more years will we have rendezvous? I take my ice cream freezer to summer events to keep the children (of all ages ) happy so they will come again.I believe we must do more to encourage the youth to attend our events and showing them that the events can be fun is a good way to help stop the decline in attendance at our events.Years back I would attend only "pure" rendezvous, now I have started to attend events that are held in conjunction with craft shows to help get the word out to the flatlanders that we not only exist but have fun doing it! Besides seling period correct wooden toys to flatlanders pays my way as well as showing the kids you don't need computers and blinking lights ( Like we are using right now) to have fun. And showing their parents that what we do is educational.

 

We need another good period movie to get new and old coming back to the different events. Years ago when "Centennial" was shown on TV it helped, then "The Mountainmen" and so on. Everytime Hollywood brings out a movie on the old west we sell the heck out of single action armies and lever guns. Look at "Last of the Mohicans" every encampment had a dozen guys running around with gunstock war clubs. :applause:

 

[zimmerstutzen]

In virginia at some of the historical sites, reprints of early cook books are available. When I last toured Gunston Hall, Mrs. Mason's personal recipe book was open on the kitchen table to one of her favorite recipes. (George Mason was a local hero, signed the Declaration etc. ) Of course they were right on the Potomac River South of Washington, with access to all manner of imported and domestic goods. I understand that copies of Mrs. Mason's recipes are available.

If anyone gets the chance, Gunston Hall is considered by many to be a better place to visit than Mt. Vernon, and they are only about 10 or 15 miles apart.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

there was also 'fruit leather' which is cooked, mashed fruit (usually apples but there were other) that is spread out on a warm metal plate to dry then rolled up and cut into chunks.
I'm unsure if it was out west - it was here in the east frontier.