Image from The Frugal Housewife, 1796
Every November, scores of American families sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, a tradition followed for almost 400 years in the New World. The main dish of this celebratory feast is a turkey, stuffed and roasted to perfection.
In the 18th century, The Frugal Housewife, or Complete Woman Cook, a cookery book written by Susannah Carter and published first in England and then in Philadelphia in 1796, must have influenced large numbers of colonial cooks, since Mrs. Carter’s books were hugely popular. Recipes back then were not given the precise directions modern cooks are accustomed to, but one can imagine that Mrs. Carter’s contemporaries would have no trouble following her specifications.
American colonialists most likely used the following Carter recipe, when chestnut trees were abundant in the east and before a fungal blight decimated them. Chestnuts were used in the stuffing, as well as the gravy.
Dishes accompanying the turkey included fruits and vegetables plentiful in the new world – sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turnips, cabbage, tomatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, current jelly, pumpkin and peach pies, stewed apples, and more, such as fowl or fish, or anything seasonal that was at hand.
Pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream. Image © Vic Sanborn.
My memory of a hot slice of pumpkin pie and a dollop of cold vanilla ice cream will always be tied to Thanksgiving. Ices have had a long history in Europe and the New World Thomas Jefferson recorded his recipe for vanilla ice cream by hand. It is well known that he traveled to France, where ice cream recipes appeared in cookery books since the 17th century. While Jefferson did not introduce ice cream to the U.S. (it was consumed in England throughout the Georgian period), he helped to popularize the dessert by serving it during his presidency. (Ice Cream, an article courtesy of the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia, downloaded 11/28/2019 at https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/ice-cream)
Thomas Jefferson’s Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe
(Recipe translation from the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia)
2. bottles of good cream.
6. yolks of eggs.
1/2 lb. sugar
mix the yolks & sugar
put the cream on a fire in a casserole, first putting in a stick of Vanilla.
when near boiling take it off & pour it gently into the mixture of eggs & sugar.
stir it well.
put it on the fire again stirring it thoroughly with a spoon to prevent it’s sticking to the casserole.
Sabottiere
when near boiling take it off and strain it thro’ a towel.
put it in the Sabottiere14
then set it in ice an hour before it is to be served. put into the ice a handful of salt.
put salt on the coverlid of the Sabotiere & cover the whole with ice.
leave it still half a quarter of an hour.
then turn the Sabottiere in the ice 10 minutes
open it to loosen with a spatula the ice from the inner sides of the Sabotiere.
shut it & replace it in the ice
open it from time to time to detach the ice from the sides
when well taken (prise) stir it well with the Spatula.
put it in moulds, justling it well down on the knee.
then put the mould into the same bucket of ice.
leave it there to the moment of serving it.
to withdraw it, immerse the mould in warm water, turning it well till it will come out & turn it into a plate.15
While at Godmersham (Edward Austen Knight’s estate), Jane Austen wrote:
But in the meantime for Elegance & Ease & Luxury . . . I shall eat Ice & drink French wine, & be above Vulgar Economy.
I can’t help but think that the elegance and ease she experienced must have been similar to the scene below, where a side table is set to serve ices and wine to an assembled group. Our family had a lovely time together. We wish the same good time for all.
Georgian ices as served in early 19th c. America. Image © Vic Sanborn: Hampton Mansion, MD.
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This blog’s posts tagged Georgian Ices and ice cream
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Vic, Jefferson and Dolly Madison made ice cream popular. The origins are probably far older from China in the 7th century, with it traveling west on the silk road. In America the first to serve was here – “Ice cream began to appear in the American colonies during the first half of the eighteenth century. The first known instance of ice cream being served occurred in Maryland in 1744, when Governor Thomas Bladen put it on his dessert table.” – from the Colonial Williamsburg site.
Vic, here’s the rest of the quote – from one of Bladen’s guests. “William Black of Virginia, wrote of it in a letter, which survives. Black mentions “a Dessert no less curious: Among the Rarities of which it was Compos’d, was some fine Ice Cream which, with the Strawberries and Milk, eat most Deliciously.”
Sounds wonderful. Isn’t it hysterical that today we have everything so easy (including getting our turkeys ready to bake or even ready to serve), and we move so little that we hardly dare have a piece of pie and ice cream.