Petticoats & Pistols » Cooking/Kitchens http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 02:38:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Jell-O: What’s not to love? http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 05:41:52 +0000 Cheryl St.John http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32266 Family dinners, pot lucks, buffets--they always feature at least one Jell-O salad. Something red with marshmallows and fruit -- or green with pineapple and whipped cream -- or at holidays -- a cranberry mold. Each of us remembers Jell-O from our earliest years.It’s just always been there. Open the little box, pour the granules into boiling water, and refrigerate. What could be easier?

Years ago I actually bought a fish bowl and created a seascape with blue gelatin and Gummy fish and Gummy worms.It was a laborious task, took a mountain of Jell-O, and the kids all thought it was pretty weird. Yeah, well, that’s me. Every once in a while I still poke holes in a cake and pour Jell-O over it. Chocolate cake with raspberry gelatin is my favorite. How about that time-consuming seven-layer Jell-O? One of my favorites is strawberry pretzel dessert.

My easy strawberry shortcake recipe goes like this:  Bake an angel food cake from a mix. Slice strawberries, mix up a box of  strawberry Jell-o, pour both over the cake and refrigerate. Smear with Cool Whip. You'd think I'd done something brilliant, because this is always a hit.

Am I making you hungry? Bringing back fond food memories?We take gelatin for granted, but our forefathers--or foremothers--went through a much more complicated process to do what we do in minutes.

Before the turn of the century gelatin was a functional food item rather than a treat. Since the days of ancient Greece, jellies and aspics had been used to bind, glaze, and also to preserve foods—like the canned hams we buy today.

To us gelatin is a dessert, but past cooks flavored their gelatins with vinegar, wine, almond extract, and other items to produce a tart product. The foods they glazed were more often meats than sweets.

As long ago as the Renaissance, chefs took pride in constructing elaborate gelatin molds, and no dinner party was complete without at least one jelly construction worthy of the best modern-day wedding cake baker. In the nineteenth century, the most popular mold designs were castles and fortresses complete with doors, windows, and crenellated turrets.

Before this century, the glue needed for gelatin, called collagen, had to be laboriously extracted from meat bones. In the Middle Ages, deer antlers were a popular source of the glue; and later, calves' feet and knuckles. Housewives in the nineteenth century used isinglass, made from the membranes of fish bladders.

Gelatin-making was a daylong affair, requiring the tedious scraping of hair from the feet, hours of boiling and simmering with egg whites to degrease and clarify the broth, and careful filtering through jelly bags or "filtering stools." The transparent finished product was then dried into sheets, leaves, or rounds.

In 1890, Charles B. Knox of Jamestown, New York was watching his wife make calves' foot jelly when he decided that a prepackaged, easy-to-use gelatin mix was just what the housewife needed. Knox set out to develop, manufacture, and distribute the granulated gelatin, while his wife invented recipes for the new kitchen staple.

In 1897, Pearl B. Wait, a NY carpenter and cough medicine manufacturer, developed a fruit-flavored gelatin. His wife, May Davis Wait, named his product Jell-O.Because of the development of the icebox at the end of the century, America was ready for gelatin desserts.

Wait's product found its way to few American tables before it was bought by the food tycoon Frank Woodward, who was already marketing a coffee and tea substitute named Grain-O.Within a few years the genius in packaging, mass marketing, and advertising turned Jell-O into a household word. The 10 cent carton advertised a delicious dessert that was delicate, delightful, and dainty, and the Jell-O trademark of a young girl with carton and kettle in hand soon appeared on store displays, dishes, spoons, and other promotional articles.

To show the housewife how versatile the product was, Woodward's company distributed free booklets with Jell-O recipes. One booklet alone ran to a printing of 15 million copies!

By 1925, Jell-O was a big-money industry. In that year Jell-O joined Postum to form General Foods, today one of the largest corporations in America.By the 1930's, Jell-O had become a way of life. No Sunday dinner was complete without a concoction known as Golden Glow salad, Jell-O laced with grated carrot and canned pineapple and served with gobs of mayonnaise.

Knox Gelatine tried to discourage the rush toward Jell-O with ads warning shoppers to spurn sissy-sweet salads that were 85 percent sugar. While Knox stressed the purity of their odorless, tasteless, sugarless gelatin, Jell-O highlighted their product's versatility.

As for the belief that gelatin is good for the hair and nails, the only claim made by either Jell-O or Knox is that their product may do some good for some people's hair and nails. Sugarfree gelatin is popular among dieters.

In the field of photography, gelatin was introduced in the late 1870s as a substitute for wet collodion. It was used to coat dry photographic plates, marking the beginning of modern photographic methods. Gelatin's use in the manufacture of medicinal capsules occurred in the twentieth century.

Golden Glow Salad

1 package (3 ounces) orange gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple

1 tablespoon lemon juice Cold water

1/4 teaspoon salt, optional

3/4 cup finely shredded carrots

In a bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add lemon juice and enough cold water to pineapple juice to make 1 cup; add salt if desired. Stir into gelatin. Chill until slightly set. Stir in pineapple and carrots. Pour into an oiled 4-cup mold; cover and chill until firm. Unmold.

Yield: 6 servings.

<---- Hold everything: You can buy Jell-O on amazon .com.

In my search I discovered Jell-O shots, Jell-O wrestling, Jell-O spokesperson Bill Cosby, Jell-O Jiggler eggs (the kids stepped on one of these on my carpet one Easter – not good) and of course Jell-O molds.

What is your favorite gelatin memory?

Do you have a standby recipe?

If you want to share, post your favorite Jell-O recipe for us.

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/feed/ 10 S’mores and Moon Pies … http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 07:12:07 +0000 Phyliss http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32223

 

What in the world would we have done if Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham hadn’t invented the Graham cracker?  How sad would it be if our kids hadn’t grown up with Teddy Grahams?  And, sitting around a campfire singing Kumbaya without s’mores wouldn’t be the same! Don’t know about you all, but in the south if you haven’t eaten a Moon Pie, you haven’t lived. And, a cheesecake without a Graham cracker crust is unthinkable.

The Graham cracker also known as a Graham wafer was developed in 1829 by Reverend Graham as a health food. It was part of his diet regimen to suppress what he considered unhealthy carnal urges, source of many maladies according to the good pastor. The New Jersey Reverend often lectured on "self-abuse" as it was commonly called at the time. One of his many theories was that one could curb one's sexual appetite by eating bland foods. Shut my mouth and lock the door! Of interest, another man who held this belief was Dr. John Kellogg, the inventor of cornflakes.

It’s somewhat ironic that both men developed their product as healthy alternatives; and today, both the Graham cracker and many of the Kellogg cereals are at the top of our list of healthy foods. The true Graham cracker is made with Graham flour, a combination of finely-ground unbleached-wheat flour with the wheat bran and germ coarsely-ground and added back in providing nutrition and flavor.  From 1851, it was known by the British as a digestive biscuit. Today, many modern "Graham crackers" are made of the refined, bleached white flour to which the Rev. Graham was implacably opposed. Some commercial Graham crackers are no longer considered health food, but have remained popular as a snack food and breakfast cereal with greater amounts of sugars and other sweeteners than in the original recipe (which may have been unsweetened), and far less Graham flour, often with no whole wheat flour whatsoever. In fact some of these commercial "Graham crackers" are topped with a thick coating of cinnamon and sugar or have chocolate flavoring or coatings added. I just purchased reduced-fat Grahams and they are yummy. So, let’s take a look at some of the food items we wouldn’t have if Reverend Graham hadn’t invented his healthy cracker. There’s the larruping good Graham cracker pie crust for the American cheesecakes. It has become increasingly popular for use as a cream pie crust and is imitated by the Oreo-style crusts made from the crushed chocolate and cream cookies, we all love. S'more appears to be a contraction of the phrase, "some more." While the origin of the dessert is unclear, the first recorded version of the recipe can be found in the publication Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts of 1927. The recipe is credited to Loretta Scott Crew, who reportedly made them by the campfire for the Scouts. It is unknown whether the Girl Scouts were the first to make s'mores, but there appears to be no earlier claim to this snack. Although it is unknown when the name was shortened, recipes for "Some Mores" are in various Girl Scout publications until at least 1971. And, let’s not forget the Moon Pie made from marshmallow crème and Graham crackers. Marshmallow cream (fluff) was first sold in glass jars in 1925. The sealed jars provided a longer shelf life allowing shipments outside of New England. By 1929, fluff had made its way to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Miners wanted a snack that was cheap and filling for their lunch. One of the miners held up his hands towards the sky, making a shape of the moon with his hands, and said that he wanted the cake that big. A salesman for the Chattanooga Bakery, Earl Mitchell, Sr., noticed this practice when he stopped by on his bakery goods route. Pretty soon, the only sales that were made by the bakery salesman were for Graham crackers. He asked one of the miners about the snack and ended up discussing a product with them. Later when Mitchell was explaining his low sales to M.P. Shauf, the general foreman and chef for the Chattanooga Bakery, the salesman relayed the miners ideas to Shauf, who decided to make something for them to buy. One day in late 1929, after several different recipes, he made a full size pie with Graham crackers and marshmallow fluff. That same day, he had his 3-year-old grandson with him at the bakery and offered him a pie to taste. Because the pie had small indentions where the marshmallow cream was cooked and bubbles had popped, Stanley said it looked like the moon.  Shauf yelled “Moon Pie" so loud that it scared his grandson to tears. The invention of the Moon Pie ensured the Chattanooga Bakery's survival just as the Great Depression began. Okay for the real southerners, we all know about the custom of eating Moon Pies and RC Cola which is a century old. (Let’s not confuse its full name Royal Crown Cola  with Royal Crown Canadian whiskey and Coca-Cola or as we know it plain ol’ Coke.) Precisely how and when people began the custom of drinking RC Cola with Moon Pies is unknown, although it is likely that their inexpensive prices, combined with their larger serving sizes, contributed to establishing this combination as the "working man's lunch". The popularity of this combination was celebrated in a popular song of the 1950's, by Big Bill Lister, "Gimmee an RC Cola and a Moon Pie." This was also shown to be the janitor's lunch in “The Green Mile”. There is a Moon Pie and RC Festival in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and a Moon Pie Eating Contest in Bessemer, Alabama.  And,if you’ve ever been to Pulpwood Queens’ Girlfriend Weekend in Jefferson, Texas, they serve Moon Pies and RC colas. Or they did when I was there in 2005. I was raised on Graham crackers, and in turn my daughters ate them and now they are a favorite of my grandchildren. So, tell me about your favorite Graham cracker treat?

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/feed/ 28 Pass the Ketchup, Please http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:05:05 +0000 Tracy Garrett http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32203 With a need to eat more wisely as I age, I spend a lot of time in the grocery store reading labels. While I have eliminated some foods from my shopping list that used to be standards, one staple I still insist on having is ketchup. However, when I realized how much sugar and salt go into my favorite condiment, I wondered if I could make it at home. And because I love history—and the history of the American west in particular--the next thought was ‘where was ketchup created’ and did they have it in the old west? The origins of ketchup are thought to be in a Chinese pickled fish sauce or brine made in the late 1600s. The British brought the table sauce back from their explorations of Malay states—present day Malaysia and Singapore—and by 1740 it was a staple in their cuisine. The Malay word for the sauce was k?chap, which evolved into “ketchup” and became “catchup” and “catsup” in America. Original versions of “ketchup” were made from lots of different savory items. One very popular one in America was mushrooms. The 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defines catchup as “a table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc.” Tomatoes weren’t used in making the sauce until the early 1800s. A recipe published in 1801 seems to be the first making what you and I would recognize as ketchup—although I doubt it would taste the same. Cooks didn’t begin adding sugar to the mixture until later in the century. Most families made their own ketchup. In 1837, a man named Jonas Yerks is credited with making tomato ketchup a national food by producing and distributing his product across the U.S. It wasn’t long before other companies joined the rush, including H.J. Heinz, who launched their brand of ketchup in 1869. Early versions were thin and watery, more like the fish sauce than the thick tomato product we’re accustomed to, but had less vinegar than the modern recipe. In fact, I doubt we’d recognize the jar of ketchup served by a Harvey Girl in a Harvey House Restaurant in the 1880s as the same product Americans have come to love--but it’s fun to know it was there.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/feed/ 16 Switchel – Early American Sports Drink http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:22:43 +0000 Winnie Griggs http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31040 Hi.  Winnie Griggs here.  I came across a reference to something called switchel the other day, with a note that it was a vinegar based drink that early American farmer’s used as a thirst quencher. Vinegar based drink? My nose immediately wrinkled at the thought. Was it a medicinal tonic of some sort? But no, it seemed it was imbibed as a refreshment. I found myself intrigued by such an odd sounding beverage, so I did in some follow-up research. It turns out this unusual drink mixture was actually quite popular in the early days of our country. One can loosely compare it to lemonade. Think about the sour/sweet taste of those citric drinks. Before refrigeration, citrus fruits such as lemons and limes weren’t readily available, and even when they were, it was only a narrow window of time. An inexpensive and more abundant source of that acidic bite was vinegar.

Even with today’s modern equipment, today’s farmers and ranchers work up powerful thirsts while harvesting hay and doing other field work (my rancher husband will attest to that!!). One can only imagine how much more dehydrating it was to work the fields by hand with scythes. Although the recipes varied by region, most versions contain water, a sweetening agent (such as honey, molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup), cider vinegar and ginger. With the exception of the water, each of these ingredients are sources of potassium, which is an electrolyte. In fact, one of the articles I read called it an early-day Gatorade because of the very high concentration of electrolytes. Though I've personally never heard of it until this, I understand switchel - also called Haymaker’s Punch or Harvest Beer - is still popular in some areas of the country today. While I was researching this, I came across a few vintage recipes and I thought I’d share some of them with you 1855 From Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy Harvest Drink. Mix with five gallons of good water, half a gallon of molasses, one quart of vinegar, and two ounces of powdered ginger. This will make not only a very pleasant beverage, but one highly invigorating and healthful. 1869 From Domestic Cookery Harvest Beer To make fifteen gallons of beer, put into a keg three pints of yeast, three pints of molasses, and two gallons of cold water;, mix it well and let it stand a few minutes; then take three quarts of molasses and three gallons of boiling water, with one ounce of ginger; mix them well and pour into the keg, and fill it up with cold water. A decoction of root of sassafras is good to put in beer. 1877 From Buckeye Cookery Grandmother’s Harvest Drink (mix together) One quart of water, tablespoon sifted ginger, three heaping tablespoons sugar, half pint vinegar. So, have you ever tasted this odd sounding (to me at least) beverage?  Do you have a family recipe for it?  Or are you like me, totally unfamiliar with the drink?]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/feed/ 22 Christmas Cookies and Changed Lives http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 02:38:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Petticoats & Pistols » Cooking/Kitchens http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 02:38:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Jell-O: What’s not to love? http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 05:41:52 +0000 Cheryl St.John http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32266 Family dinners, pot lucks, buffets--they always feature at least one Jell-O salad. Something red with marshmallows and fruit -- or green with pineapple and whipped cream -- or at holidays -- a cranberry mold. Each of us remembers Jell-O from our earliest years.It’s just always been there. Open the little box, pour the granules into boiling water, and refrigerate. What could be easier?

Years ago I actually bought a fish bowl and created a seascape with blue gelatin and Gummy fish and Gummy worms.It was a laborious task, took a mountain of Jell-O, and the kids all thought it was pretty weird. Yeah, well, that’s me. Every once in a while I still poke holes in a cake and pour Jell-O over it. Chocolate cake with raspberry gelatin is my favorite. How about that time-consuming seven-layer Jell-O? One of my favorites is strawberry pretzel dessert.

My easy strawberry shortcake recipe goes like this:  Bake an angel food cake from a mix. Slice strawberries, mix up a box of  strawberry Jell-o, pour both over the cake and refrigerate. Smear with Cool Whip. You'd think I'd done something brilliant, because this is always a hit.

Am I making you hungry? Bringing back fond food memories?We take gelatin for granted, but our forefathers--or foremothers--went through a much more complicated process to do what we do in minutes.

Before the turn of the century gelatin was a functional food item rather than a treat. Since the days of ancient Greece, jellies and aspics had been used to bind, glaze, and also to preserve foods—like the canned hams we buy today.

To us gelatin is a dessert, but past cooks flavored their gelatins with vinegar, wine, almond extract, and other items to produce a tart product. The foods they glazed were more often meats than sweets.

As long ago as the Renaissance, chefs took pride in constructing elaborate gelatin molds, and no dinner party was complete without at least one jelly construction worthy of the best modern-day wedding cake baker. In the nineteenth century, the most popular mold designs were castles and fortresses complete with doors, windows, and crenellated turrets.

Before this century, the glue needed for gelatin, called collagen, had to be laboriously extracted from meat bones. In the Middle Ages, deer antlers were a popular source of the glue; and later, calves' feet and knuckles. Housewives in the nineteenth century used isinglass, made from the membranes of fish bladders.

Gelatin-making was a daylong affair, requiring the tedious scraping of hair from the feet, hours of boiling and simmering with egg whites to degrease and clarify the broth, and careful filtering through jelly bags or "filtering stools." The transparent finished product was then dried into sheets, leaves, or rounds.

In 1890, Charles B. Knox of Jamestown, New York was watching his wife make calves' foot jelly when he decided that a prepackaged, easy-to-use gelatin mix was just what the housewife needed. Knox set out to develop, manufacture, and distribute the granulated gelatin, while his wife invented recipes for the new kitchen staple.

In 1897, Pearl B. Wait, a NY carpenter and cough medicine manufacturer, developed a fruit-flavored gelatin. His wife, May Davis Wait, named his product Jell-O.Because of the development of the icebox at the end of the century, America was ready for gelatin desserts.

Wait's product found its way to few American tables before it was bought by the food tycoon Frank Woodward, who was already marketing a coffee and tea substitute named Grain-O.Within a few years the genius in packaging, mass marketing, and advertising turned Jell-O into a household word. The 10 cent carton advertised a delicious dessert that was delicate, delightful, and dainty, and the Jell-O trademark of a young girl with carton and kettle in hand soon appeared on store displays, dishes, spoons, and other promotional articles.

To show the housewife how versatile the product was, Woodward's company distributed free booklets with Jell-O recipes. One booklet alone ran to a printing of 15 million copies!

By 1925, Jell-O was a big-money industry. In that year Jell-O joined Postum to form General Foods, today one of the largest corporations in America.By the 1930's, Jell-O had become a way of life. No Sunday dinner was complete without a concoction known as Golden Glow salad, Jell-O laced with grated carrot and canned pineapple and served with gobs of mayonnaise.

Knox Gelatine tried to discourage the rush toward Jell-O with ads warning shoppers to spurn sissy-sweet salads that were 85 percent sugar. While Knox stressed the purity of their odorless, tasteless, sugarless gelatin, Jell-O highlighted their product's versatility.

As for the belief that gelatin is good for the hair and nails, the only claim made by either Jell-O or Knox is that their product may do some good for some people's hair and nails. Sugarfree gelatin is popular among dieters.

In the field of photography, gelatin was introduced in the late 1870s as a substitute for wet collodion. It was used to coat dry photographic plates, marking the beginning of modern photographic methods. Gelatin's use in the manufacture of medicinal capsules occurred in the twentieth century.

Golden Glow Salad

1 package (3 ounces) orange gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple

1 tablespoon lemon juice Cold water

1/4 teaspoon salt, optional

3/4 cup finely shredded carrots

In a bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add lemon juice and enough cold water to pineapple juice to make 1 cup; add salt if desired. Stir into gelatin. Chill until slightly set. Stir in pineapple and carrots. Pour into an oiled 4-cup mold; cover and chill until firm. Unmold.

Yield: 6 servings.

<---- Hold everything: You can buy Jell-O on amazon .com.

In my search I discovered Jell-O shots, Jell-O wrestling, Jell-O spokesperson Bill Cosby, Jell-O Jiggler eggs (the kids stepped on one of these on my carpet one Easter – not good) and of course Jell-O molds.

What is your favorite gelatin memory?

Do you have a standby recipe?

If you want to share, post your favorite Jell-O recipe for us.

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/feed/ 10 S’mores and Moon Pies … http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 07:12:07 +0000 Phyliss http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32223

 

What in the world would we have done if Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham hadn’t invented the Graham cracker?  How sad would it be if our kids hadn’t grown up with Teddy Grahams?  And, sitting around a campfire singing Kumbaya without s’mores wouldn’t be the same! Don’t know about you all, but in the south if you haven’t eaten a Moon Pie, you haven’t lived. And, a cheesecake without a Graham cracker crust is unthinkable.

The Graham cracker also known as a Graham wafer was developed in 1829 by Reverend Graham as a health food. It was part of his diet regimen to suppress what he considered unhealthy carnal urges, source of many maladies according to the good pastor. The New Jersey Reverend often lectured on "self-abuse" as it was commonly called at the time. One of his many theories was that one could curb one's sexual appetite by eating bland foods. Shut my mouth and lock the door! Of interest, another man who held this belief was Dr. John Kellogg, the inventor of cornflakes.

It’s somewhat ironic that both men developed their product as healthy alternatives; and today, both the Graham cracker and many of the Kellogg cereals are at the top of our list of healthy foods. The true Graham cracker is made with Graham flour, a combination of finely-ground unbleached-wheat flour with the wheat bran and germ coarsely-ground and added back in providing nutrition and flavor.  From 1851, it was known by the British as a digestive biscuit. Today, many modern "Graham crackers" are made of the refined, bleached white flour to which the Rev. Graham was implacably opposed. Some commercial Graham crackers are no longer considered health food, but have remained popular as a snack food and breakfast cereal with greater amounts of sugars and other sweeteners than in the original recipe (which may have been unsweetened), and far less Graham flour, often with no whole wheat flour whatsoever. In fact some of these commercial "Graham crackers" are topped with a thick coating of cinnamon and sugar or have chocolate flavoring or coatings added. I just purchased reduced-fat Grahams and they are yummy. So, let’s take a look at some of the food items we wouldn’t have if Reverend Graham hadn’t invented his healthy cracker. There’s the larruping good Graham cracker pie crust for the American cheesecakes. It has become increasingly popular for use as a cream pie crust and is imitated by the Oreo-style crusts made from the crushed chocolate and cream cookies, we all love. S'more appears to be a contraction of the phrase, "some more." While the origin of the dessert is unclear, the first recorded version of the recipe can be found in the publication Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts of 1927. The recipe is credited to Loretta Scott Crew, who reportedly made them by the campfire for the Scouts. It is unknown whether the Girl Scouts were the first to make s'mores, but there appears to be no earlier claim to this snack. Although it is unknown when the name was shortened, recipes for "Some Mores" are in various Girl Scout publications until at least 1971. And, let’s not forget the Moon Pie made from marshmallow crème and Graham crackers. Marshmallow cream (fluff) was first sold in glass jars in 1925. The sealed jars provided a longer shelf life allowing shipments outside of New England. By 1929, fluff had made its way to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Miners wanted a snack that was cheap and filling for their lunch. One of the miners held up his hands towards the sky, making a shape of the moon with his hands, and said that he wanted the cake that big. A salesman for the Chattanooga Bakery, Earl Mitchell, Sr., noticed this practice when he stopped by on his bakery goods route. Pretty soon, the only sales that were made by the bakery salesman were for Graham crackers. He asked one of the miners about the snack and ended up discussing a product with them. Later when Mitchell was explaining his low sales to M.P. Shauf, the general foreman and chef for the Chattanooga Bakery, the salesman relayed the miners ideas to Shauf, who decided to make something for them to buy. One day in late 1929, after several different recipes, he made a full size pie with Graham crackers and marshmallow fluff. That same day, he had his 3-year-old grandson with him at the bakery and offered him a pie to taste. Because the pie had small indentions where the marshmallow cream was cooked and bubbles had popped, Stanley said it looked like the moon.  Shauf yelled “Moon Pie" so loud that it scared his grandson to tears. The invention of the Moon Pie ensured the Chattanooga Bakery's survival just as the Great Depression began. Okay for the real southerners, we all know about the custom of eating Moon Pies and RC Cola which is a century old. (Let’s not confuse its full name Royal Crown Cola  with Royal Crown Canadian whiskey and Coca-Cola or as we know it plain ol’ Coke.) Precisely how and when people began the custom of drinking RC Cola with Moon Pies is unknown, although it is likely that their inexpensive prices, combined with their larger serving sizes, contributed to establishing this combination as the "working man's lunch". The popularity of this combination was celebrated in a popular song of the 1950's, by Big Bill Lister, "Gimmee an RC Cola and a Moon Pie." This was also shown to be the janitor's lunch in “The Green Mile”. There is a Moon Pie and RC Festival in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and a Moon Pie Eating Contest in Bessemer, Alabama.  And,if you’ve ever been to Pulpwood Queens’ Girlfriend Weekend in Jefferson, Texas, they serve Moon Pies and RC colas. Or they did when I was there in 2005. I was raised on Graham crackers, and in turn my daughters ate them and now they are a favorite of my grandchildren. So, tell me about your favorite Graham cracker treat?

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/feed/ 28 Pass the Ketchup, Please http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:05:05 +0000 Tracy Garrett http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32203 With a need to eat more wisely as I age, I spend a lot of time in the grocery store reading labels. While I have eliminated some foods from my shopping list that used to be standards, one staple I still insist on having is ketchup. However, when I realized how much sugar and salt go into my favorite condiment, I wondered if I could make it at home. And because I love history—and the history of the American west in particular--the next thought was ‘where was ketchup created’ and did they have it in the old west? The origins of ketchup are thought to be in a Chinese pickled fish sauce or brine made in the late 1600s. The British brought the table sauce back from their explorations of Malay states—present day Malaysia and Singapore—and by 1740 it was a staple in their cuisine. The Malay word for the sauce was k?chap, which evolved into “ketchup” and became “catchup” and “catsup” in America. Original versions of “ketchup” were made from lots of different savory items. One very popular one in America was mushrooms. The 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defines catchup as “a table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc.” Tomatoes weren’t used in making the sauce until the early 1800s. A recipe published in 1801 seems to be the first making what you and I would recognize as ketchup—although I doubt it would taste the same. Cooks didn’t begin adding sugar to the mixture until later in the century. Most families made their own ketchup. In 1837, a man named Jonas Yerks is credited with making tomato ketchup a national food by producing and distributing his product across the U.S. It wasn’t long before other companies joined the rush, including H.J. Heinz, who launched their brand of ketchup in 1869. Early versions were thin and watery, more like the fish sauce than the thick tomato product we’re accustomed to, but had less vinegar than the modern recipe. In fact, I doubt we’d recognize the jar of ketchup served by a Harvey Girl in a Harvey House Restaurant in the 1880s as the same product Americans have come to love--but it’s fun to know it was there.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/feed/ 16 Switchel – Early American Sports Drink http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:22:43 +0000 Winnie Griggs http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31040 Hi.  Winnie Griggs here.  I came across a reference to something called switchel the other day, with a note that it was a vinegar based drink that early American farmer’s used as a thirst quencher. Vinegar based drink? My nose immediately wrinkled at the thought. Was it a medicinal tonic of some sort? But no, it seemed it was imbibed as a refreshment. I found myself intrigued by such an odd sounding beverage, so I did in some follow-up research. It turns out this unusual drink mixture was actually quite popular in the early days of our country. One can loosely compare it to lemonade. Think about the sour/sweet taste of those citric drinks. Before refrigeration, citrus fruits such as lemons and limes weren’t readily available, and even when they were, it was only a narrow window of time. An inexpensive and more abundant source of that acidic bite was vinegar.

Even with today’s modern equipment, today’s farmers and ranchers work up powerful thirsts while harvesting hay and doing other field work (my rancher husband will attest to that!!). One can only imagine how much more dehydrating it was to work the fields by hand with scythes. Although the recipes varied by region, most versions contain water, a sweetening agent (such as honey, molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup), cider vinegar and ginger. With the exception of the water, each of these ingredients are sources of potassium, which is an electrolyte. In fact, one of the articles I read called it an early-day Gatorade because of the very high concentration of electrolytes. Though I've personally never heard of it until this, I understand switchel - also called Haymaker’s Punch or Harvest Beer - is still popular in some areas of the country today. While I was researching this, I came across a few vintage recipes and I thought I’d share some of them with you 1855 From Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy Harvest Drink. Mix with five gallons of good water, half a gallon of molasses, one quart of vinegar, and two ounces of powdered ginger. This will make not only a very pleasant beverage, but one highly invigorating and healthful. 1869 From Domestic Cookery Harvest Beer To make fifteen gallons of beer, put into a keg three pints of yeast, three pints of molasses, and two gallons of cold water;, mix it well and let it stand a few minutes; then take three quarts of molasses and three gallons of boiling water, with one ounce of ginger; mix them well and pour into the keg, and fill it up with cold water. A decoction of root of sassafras is good to put in beer. 1877 From Buckeye Cookery Grandmother’s Harvest Drink (mix together) One quart of water, tablespoon sifted ginger, three heaping tablespoons sugar, half pint vinegar. So, have you ever tasted this odd sounding (to me at least) beverage?  Do you have a family recipe for it?  Or are you like me, totally unfamiliar with the drink?]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/feed/ 22 Christmas Cookies and Changed Lives http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 05:41:52 +0000 Cheryl St.John http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32266 Family dinners, pot lucks, buffets--they always feature at least one Jell-O salad. Something red with marshmallows and fruit -- or green with pineapple and whipped cream -- or at holidays -- a cranberry mold. Each of us remembers Jell-O from our earliest years.It’s just always been there. Open the little box, pour the granules into boiling water, and refrigerate. What could be easier?

Years ago I actually bought a fish bowl and created a seascape with blue gelatin and Gummy fish and Gummy worms.It was a laborious task, took a mountain of Jell-O, and the kids all thought it was pretty weird. Yeah, well, that’s me. Every once in a while I still poke holes in a cake and pour Jell-O over it. Chocolate cake with raspberry gelatin is my favorite. How about that time-consuming seven-layer Jell-O? One of my favorites is strawberry pretzel dessert.

My easy strawberry shortcake recipe goes like this:  Bake an angel food cake from a mix. Slice strawberries, mix up a box of  strawberry Jell-o, pour both over the cake and refrigerate. Smear with Cool Whip. You'd think I'd done something brilliant, because this is always a hit.

Am I making you hungry? Bringing back fond food memories?We take gelatin for granted, but our forefathers--or foremothers--went through a much more complicated process to do what we do in minutes.

Before the turn of the century gelatin was a functional food item rather than a treat. Since the days of ancient Greece, jellies and aspics had been used to bind, glaze, and also to preserve foods—like the canned hams we buy today.

To us gelatin is a dessert, but past cooks flavored their gelatins with vinegar, wine, almond extract, and other items to produce a tart product. The foods they glazed were more often meats than sweets.

As long ago as the Renaissance, chefs took pride in constructing elaborate gelatin molds, and no dinner party was complete without at least one jelly construction worthy of the best modern-day wedding cake baker. In the nineteenth century, the most popular mold designs were castles and fortresses complete with doors, windows, and crenellated turrets.

Before this century, the glue needed for gelatin, called collagen, had to be laboriously extracted from meat bones. In the Middle Ages, deer antlers were a popular source of the glue; and later, calves' feet and knuckles. Housewives in the nineteenth century used isinglass, made from the membranes of fish bladders.

Gelatin-making was a daylong affair, requiring the tedious scraping of hair from the feet, hours of boiling and simmering with egg whites to degrease and clarify the broth, and careful filtering through jelly bags or "filtering stools." The transparent finished product was then dried into sheets, leaves, or rounds.

In 1890, Charles B. Knox of Jamestown, New York was watching his wife make calves' foot jelly when he decided that a prepackaged, easy-to-use gelatin mix was just what the housewife needed. Knox set out to develop, manufacture, and distribute the granulated gelatin, while his wife invented recipes for the new kitchen staple.

In 1897, Pearl B. Wait, a NY carpenter and cough medicine manufacturer, developed a fruit-flavored gelatin. His wife, May Davis Wait, named his product Jell-O.Because of the development of the icebox at the end of the century, America was ready for gelatin desserts.

Wait's product found its way to few American tables before it was bought by the food tycoon Frank Woodward, who was already marketing a coffee and tea substitute named Grain-O.Within a few years the genius in packaging, mass marketing, and advertising turned Jell-O into a household word. The 10 cent carton advertised a delicious dessert that was delicate, delightful, and dainty, and the Jell-O trademark of a young girl with carton and kettle in hand soon appeared on store displays, dishes, spoons, and other promotional articles.

To show the housewife how versatile the product was, Woodward's company distributed free booklets with Jell-O recipes. One booklet alone ran to a printing of 15 million copies!

By 1925, Jell-O was a big-money industry. In that year Jell-O joined Postum to form General Foods, today one of the largest corporations in America.By the 1930's, Jell-O had become a way of life. No Sunday dinner was complete without a concoction known as Golden Glow salad, Jell-O laced with grated carrot and canned pineapple and served with gobs of mayonnaise.

Knox Gelatine tried to discourage the rush toward Jell-O with ads warning shoppers to spurn sissy-sweet salads that were 85 percent sugar. While Knox stressed the purity of their odorless, tasteless, sugarless gelatin, Jell-O highlighted their product's versatility.

As for the belief that gelatin is good for the hair and nails, the only claim made by either Jell-O or Knox is that their product may do some good for some people's hair and nails. Sugarfree gelatin is popular among dieters.

In the field of photography, gelatin was introduced in the late 1870s as a substitute for wet collodion. It was used to coat dry photographic plates, marking the beginning of modern photographic methods. Gelatin's use in the manufacture of medicinal capsules occurred in the twentieth century.

Golden Glow Salad

1 package (3 ounces) orange gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple

1 tablespoon lemon juice Cold water

1/4 teaspoon salt, optional

3/4 cup finely shredded carrots

In a bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add lemon juice and enough cold water to pineapple juice to make 1 cup; add salt if desired. Stir into gelatin. Chill until slightly set. Stir in pineapple and carrots. Pour into an oiled 4-cup mold; cover and chill until firm. Unmold.

Yield: 6 servings.

<---- Hold everything: You can buy Jell-O on amazon .com.

In my search I discovered Jell-O shots, Jell-O wrestling, Jell-O spokesperson Bill Cosby, Jell-O Jiggler eggs (the kids stepped on one of these on my carpet one Easter – not good) and of course Jell-O molds.

What is your favorite gelatin memory?

Do you have a standby recipe?

If you want to share, post your favorite Jell-O recipe for us.

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/feed/ 10 Petticoats & Pistols » Cooking/Kitchens http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 02:38:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Jell-O: What’s not to love? http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 05:41:52 +0000 Cheryl St.John http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32266 Family dinners, pot lucks, buffets--they always feature at least one Jell-O salad. Something red with marshmallows and fruit -- or green with pineapple and whipped cream -- or at holidays -- a cranberry mold. Each of us remembers Jell-O from our earliest years.It’s just always been there. Open the little box, pour the granules into boiling water, and refrigerate. What could be easier?

Years ago I actually bought a fish bowl and created a seascape with blue gelatin and Gummy fish and Gummy worms.It was a laborious task, took a mountain of Jell-O, and the kids all thought it was pretty weird. Yeah, well, that’s me. Every once in a while I still poke holes in a cake and pour Jell-O over it. Chocolate cake with raspberry gelatin is my favorite. How about that time-consuming seven-layer Jell-O? One of my favorites is strawberry pretzel dessert.

My easy strawberry shortcake recipe goes like this:  Bake an angel food cake from a mix. Slice strawberries, mix up a box of  strawberry Jell-o, pour both over the cake and refrigerate. Smear with Cool Whip. You'd think I'd done something brilliant, because this is always a hit.

Am I making you hungry? Bringing back fond food memories?We take gelatin for granted, but our forefathers--or foremothers--went through a much more complicated process to do what we do in minutes.

Before the turn of the century gelatin was a functional food item rather than a treat. Since the days of ancient Greece, jellies and aspics had been used to bind, glaze, and also to preserve foods—like the canned hams we buy today.

To us gelatin is a dessert, but past cooks flavored their gelatins with vinegar, wine, almond extract, and other items to produce a tart product. The foods they glazed were more often meats than sweets.

As long ago as the Renaissance, chefs took pride in constructing elaborate gelatin molds, and no dinner party was complete without at least one jelly construction worthy of the best modern-day wedding cake baker. In the nineteenth century, the most popular mold designs were castles and fortresses complete with doors, windows, and crenellated turrets.

Before this century, the glue needed for gelatin, called collagen, had to be laboriously extracted from meat bones. In the Middle Ages, deer antlers were a popular source of the glue; and later, calves' feet and knuckles. Housewives in the nineteenth century used isinglass, made from the membranes of fish bladders.

Gelatin-making was a daylong affair, requiring the tedious scraping of hair from the feet, hours of boiling and simmering with egg whites to degrease and clarify the broth, and careful filtering through jelly bags or "filtering stools." The transparent finished product was then dried into sheets, leaves, or rounds.

In 1890, Charles B. Knox of Jamestown, New York was watching his wife make calves' foot jelly when he decided that a prepackaged, easy-to-use gelatin mix was just what the housewife needed. Knox set out to develop, manufacture, and distribute the granulated gelatin, while his wife invented recipes for the new kitchen staple.

In 1897, Pearl B. Wait, a NY carpenter and cough medicine manufacturer, developed a fruit-flavored gelatin. His wife, May Davis Wait, named his product Jell-O.Because of the development of the icebox at the end of the century, America was ready for gelatin desserts.

Wait's product found its way to few American tables before it was bought by the food tycoon Frank Woodward, who was already marketing a coffee and tea substitute named Grain-O.Within a few years the genius in packaging, mass marketing, and advertising turned Jell-O into a household word. The 10 cent carton advertised a delicious dessert that was delicate, delightful, and dainty, and the Jell-O trademark of a young girl with carton and kettle in hand soon appeared on store displays, dishes, spoons, and other promotional articles.

To show the housewife how versatile the product was, Woodward's company distributed free booklets with Jell-O recipes. One booklet alone ran to a printing of 15 million copies!

By 1925, Jell-O was a big-money industry. In that year Jell-O joined Postum to form General Foods, today one of the largest corporations in America.By the 1930's, Jell-O had become a way of life. No Sunday dinner was complete without a concoction known as Golden Glow salad, Jell-O laced with grated carrot and canned pineapple and served with gobs of mayonnaise.

Knox Gelatine tried to discourage the rush toward Jell-O with ads warning shoppers to spurn sissy-sweet salads that were 85 percent sugar. While Knox stressed the purity of their odorless, tasteless, sugarless gelatin, Jell-O highlighted their product's versatility.

As for the belief that gelatin is good for the hair and nails, the only claim made by either Jell-O or Knox is that their product may do some good for some people's hair and nails. Sugarfree gelatin is popular among dieters.

In the field of photography, gelatin was introduced in the late 1870s as a substitute for wet collodion. It was used to coat dry photographic plates, marking the beginning of modern photographic methods. Gelatin's use in the manufacture of medicinal capsules occurred in the twentieth century.

Golden Glow Salad

1 package (3 ounces) orange gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple

1 tablespoon lemon juice Cold water

1/4 teaspoon salt, optional

3/4 cup finely shredded carrots

In a bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add lemon juice and enough cold water to pineapple juice to make 1 cup; add salt if desired. Stir into gelatin. Chill until slightly set. Stir in pineapple and carrots. Pour into an oiled 4-cup mold; cover and chill until firm. Unmold.

Yield: 6 servings.

<---- Hold everything: You can buy Jell-O on amazon .com.

In my search I discovered Jell-O shots, Jell-O wrestling, Jell-O spokesperson Bill Cosby, Jell-O Jiggler eggs (the kids stepped on one of these on my carpet one Easter – not good) and of course Jell-O molds.

What is your favorite gelatin memory?

Do you have a standby recipe?

If you want to share, post your favorite Jell-O recipe for us.

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/feed/ 10 S’mores and Moon Pies … http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 07:12:07 +0000 Phyliss http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32223

 

What in the world would we have done if Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham hadn’t invented the Graham cracker?  How sad would it be if our kids hadn’t grown up with Teddy Grahams?  And, sitting around a campfire singing Kumbaya without s’mores wouldn’t be the same! Don’t know about you all, but in the south if you haven’t eaten a Moon Pie, you haven’t lived. And, a cheesecake without a Graham cracker crust is unthinkable.

The Graham cracker also known as a Graham wafer was developed in 1829 by Reverend Graham as a health food. It was part of his diet regimen to suppress what he considered unhealthy carnal urges, source of many maladies according to the good pastor. The New Jersey Reverend often lectured on "self-abuse" as it was commonly called at the time. One of his many theories was that one could curb one's sexual appetite by eating bland foods. Shut my mouth and lock the door! Of interest, another man who held this belief was Dr. John Kellogg, the inventor of cornflakes.

It’s somewhat ironic that both men developed their product as healthy alternatives; and today, both the Graham cracker and many of the Kellogg cereals are at the top of our list of healthy foods. The true Graham cracker is made with Graham flour, a combination of finely-ground unbleached-wheat flour with the wheat bran and germ coarsely-ground and added back in providing nutrition and flavor.  From 1851, it was known by the British as a digestive biscuit. Today, many modern "Graham crackers" are made of the refined, bleached white flour to which the Rev. Graham was implacably opposed. Some commercial Graham crackers are no longer considered health food, but have remained popular as a snack food and breakfast cereal with greater amounts of sugars and other sweeteners than in the original recipe (which may have been unsweetened), and far less Graham flour, often with no whole wheat flour whatsoever. In fact some of these commercial "Graham crackers" are topped with a thick coating of cinnamon and sugar or have chocolate flavoring or coatings added. I just purchased reduced-fat Grahams and they are yummy. So, let’s take a look at some of the food items we wouldn’t have if Reverend Graham hadn’t invented his healthy cracker. There’s the larruping good Graham cracker pie crust for the American cheesecakes. It has become increasingly popular for use as a cream pie crust and is imitated by the Oreo-style crusts made from the crushed chocolate and cream cookies, we all love. S'more appears to be a contraction of the phrase, "some more." While the origin of the dessert is unclear, the first recorded version of the recipe can be found in the publication Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts of 1927. The recipe is credited to Loretta Scott Crew, who reportedly made them by the campfire for the Scouts. It is unknown whether the Girl Scouts were the first to make s'mores, but there appears to be no earlier claim to this snack. Although it is unknown when the name was shortened, recipes for "Some Mores" are in various Girl Scout publications until at least 1971. And, let’s not forget the Moon Pie made from marshmallow crème and Graham crackers. Marshmallow cream (fluff) was first sold in glass jars in 1925. The sealed jars provided a longer shelf life allowing shipments outside of New England. By 1929, fluff had made its way to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Miners wanted a snack that was cheap and filling for their lunch. One of the miners held up his hands towards the sky, making a shape of the moon with his hands, and said that he wanted the cake that big. A salesman for the Chattanooga Bakery, Earl Mitchell, Sr., noticed this practice when he stopped by on his bakery goods route. Pretty soon, the only sales that were made by the bakery salesman were for Graham crackers. He asked one of the miners about the snack and ended up discussing a product with them. Later when Mitchell was explaining his low sales to M.P. Shauf, the general foreman and chef for the Chattanooga Bakery, the salesman relayed the miners ideas to Shauf, who decided to make something for them to buy. One day in late 1929, after several different recipes, he made a full size pie with Graham crackers and marshmallow fluff. That same day, he had his 3-year-old grandson with him at the bakery and offered him a pie to taste. Because the pie had small indentions where the marshmallow cream was cooked and bubbles had popped, Stanley said it looked like the moon.  Shauf yelled “Moon Pie" so loud that it scared his grandson to tears. The invention of the Moon Pie ensured the Chattanooga Bakery's survival just as the Great Depression began. Okay for the real southerners, we all know about the custom of eating Moon Pies and RC Cola which is a century old. (Let’s not confuse its full name Royal Crown Cola  with Royal Crown Canadian whiskey and Coca-Cola or as we know it plain ol’ Coke.) Precisely how and when people began the custom of drinking RC Cola with Moon Pies is unknown, although it is likely that their inexpensive prices, combined with their larger serving sizes, contributed to establishing this combination as the "working man's lunch". The popularity of this combination was celebrated in a popular song of the 1950's, by Big Bill Lister, "Gimmee an RC Cola and a Moon Pie." This was also shown to be the janitor's lunch in “The Green Mile”. There is a Moon Pie and RC Festival in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and a Moon Pie Eating Contest in Bessemer, Alabama.  And,if you’ve ever been to Pulpwood Queens’ Girlfriend Weekend in Jefferson, Texas, they serve Moon Pies and RC colas. Or they did when I was there in 2005. I was raised on Graham crackers, and in turn my daughters ate them and now they are a favorite of my grandchildren. So, tell me about your favorite Graham cracker treat?

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/feed/ 28 Pass the Ketchup, Please http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:05:05 +0000 Tracy Garrett http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32203 With a need to eat more wisely as I age, I spend a lot of time in the grocery store reading labels. While I have eliminated some foods from my shopping list that used to be standards, one staple I still insist on having is ketchup. However, when I realized how much sugar and salt go into my favorite condiment, I wondered if I could make it at home. And because I love history—and the history of the American west in particular--the next thought was ‘where was ketchup created’ and did they have it in the old west? The origins of ketchup are thought to be in a Chinese pickled fish sauce or brine made in the late 1600s. The British brought the table sauce back from their explorations of Malay states—present day Malaysia and Singapore—and by 1740 it was a staple in their cuisine. The Malay word for the sauce was k?chap, which evolved into “ketchup” and became “catchup” and “catsup” in America. Original versions of “ketchup” were made from lots of different savory items. One very popular one in America was mushrooms. The 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defines catchup as “a table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc.” Tomatoes weren’t used in making the sauce until the early 1800s. A recipe published in 1801 seems to be the first making what you and I would recognize as ketchup—although I doubt it would taste the same. Cooks didn’t begin adding sugar to the mixture until later in the century. Most families made their own ketchup. In 1837, a man named Jonas Yerks is credited with making tomato ketchup a national food by producing and distributing his product across the U.S. It wasn’t long before other companies joined the rush, including H.J. Heinz, who launched their brand of ketchup in 1869. Early versions were thin and watery, more like the fish sauce than the thick tomato product we’re accustomed to, but had less vinegar than the modern recipe. In fact, I doubt we’d recognize the jar of ketchup served by a Harvey Girl in a Harvey House Restaurant in the 1880s as the same product Americans have come to love--but it’s fun to know it was there.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/feed/ 16 Switchel – Early American Sports Drink http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:22:43 +0000 Winnie Griggs http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31040 Hi.  Winnie Griggs here.  I came across a reference to something called switchel the other day, with a note that it was a vinegar based drink that early American farmer’s used as a thirst quencher. Vinegar based drink? My nose immediately wrinkled at the thought. Was it a medicinal tonic of some sort? But no, it seemed it was imbibed as a refreshment. I found myself intrigued by such an odd sounding beverage, so I did in some follow-up research. It turns out this unusual drink mixture was actually quite popular in the early days of our country. One can loosely compare it to lemonade. Think about the sour/sweet taste of those citric drinks. Before refrigeration, citrus fruits such as lemons and limes weren’t readily available, and even when they were, it was only a narrow window of time. An inexpensive and more abundant source of that acidic bite was vinegar.

Even with today’s modern equipment, today’s farmers and ranchers work up powerful thirsts while harvesting hay and doing other field work (my rancher husband will attest to that!!). One can only imagine how much more dehydrating it was to work the fields by hand with scythes. Although the recipes varied by region, most versions contain water, a sweetening agent (such as honey, molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup), cider vinegar and ginger. With the exception of the water, each of these ingredients are sources of potassium, which is an electrolyte. In fact, one of the articles I read called it an early-day Gatorade because of the very high concentration of electrolytes. Though I've personally never heard of it until this, I understand switchel - also called Haymaker’s Punch or Harvest Beer - is still popular in some areas of the country today. While I was researching this, I came across a few vintage recipes and I thought I’d share some of them with you 1855 From Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy Harvest Drink. Mix with five gallons of good water, half a gallon of molasses, one quart of vinegar, and two ounces of powdered ginger. This will make not only a very pleasant beverage, but one highly invigorating and healthful. 1869 From Domestic Cookery Harvest Beer To make fifteen gallons of beer, put into a keg three pints of yeast, three pints of molasses, and two gallons of cold water;, mix it well and let it stand a few minutes; then take three quarts of molasses and three gallons of boiling water, with one ounce of ginger; mix them well and pour into the keg, and fill it up with cold water. A decoction of root of sassafras is good to put in beer. 1877 From Buckeye Cookery Grandmother’s Harvest Drink (mix together) One quart of water, tablespoon sifted ginger, three heaping tablespoons sugar, half pint vinegar. So, have you ever tasted this odd sounding (to me at least) beverage?  Do you have a family recipe for it?  Or are you like me, totally unfamiliar with the drink?]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/feed/ 22 Christmas Cookies and Changed Lives http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 07:12:07 +0000 Phyliss http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32223

 

What in the world would we have done if Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham hadn’t invented the Graham cracker?  How sad would it be if our kids hadn’t grown up with Teddy Grahams?  And, sitting around a campfire singing Kumbaya without s’mores wouldn’t be the same! Don’t know about you all, but in the south if you haven’t eaten a Moon Pie, you haven’t lived. And, a cheesecake without a Graham cracker crust is unthinkable.

The Graham cracker also known as a Graham wafer was developed in 1829 by Reverend Graham as a health food. It was part of his diet regimen to suppress what he considered unhealthy carnal urges, source of many maladies according to the good pastor. The New Jersey Reverend often lectured on "self-abuse" as it was commonly called at the time. One of his many theories was that one could curb one's sexual appetite by eating bland foods. Shut my mouth and lock the door! Of interest, another man who held this belief was Dr. John Kellogg, the inventor of cornflakes.

It’s somewhat ironic that both men developed their product as healthy alternatives; and today, both the Graham cracker and many of the Kellogg cereals are at the top of our list of healthy foods. The true Graham cracker is made with Graham flour, a combination of finely-ground unbleached-wheat flour with the wheat bran and germ coarsely-ground and added back in providing nutrition and flavor.  From 1851, it was known by the British as a digestive biscuit. Today, many modern "Graham crackers" are made of the refined, bleached white flour to which the Rev. Graham was implacably opposed. Some commercial Graham crackers are no longer considered health food, but have remained popular as a snack food and breakfast cereal with greater amounts of sugars and other sweeteners than in the original recipe (which may have been unsweetened), and far less Graham flour, often with no whole wheat flour whatsoever. In fact some of these commercial "Graham crackers" are topped with a thick coating of cinnamon and sugar or have chocolate flavoring or coatings added. I just purchased reduced-fat Grahams and they are yummy. So, let’s take a look at some of the food items we wouldn’t have if Reverend Graham hadn’t invented his healthy cracker. There’s the larruping good Graham cracker pie crust for the American cheesecakes. It has become increasingly popular for use as a cream pie crust and is imitated by the Oreo-style crusts made from the crushed chocolate and cream cookies, we all love. S'more appears to be a contraction of the phrase, "some more." While the origin of the dessert is unclear, the first recorded version of the recipe can be found in the publication Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts of 1927. The recipe is credited to Loretta Scott Crew, who reportedly made them by the campfire for the Scouts. It is unknown whether the Girl Scouts were the first to make s'mores, but there appears to be no earlier claim to this snack. Although it is unknown when the name was shortened, recipes for "Some Mores" are in various Girl Scout publications until at least 1971. And, let’s not forget the Moon Pie made from marshmallow crème and Graham crackers. Marshmallow cream (fluff) was first sold in glass jars in 1925. The sealed jars provided a longer shelf life allowing shipments outside of New England. By 1929, fluff had made its way to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Miners wanted a snack that was cheap and filling for their lunch. One of the miners held up his hands towards the sky, making a shape of the moon with his hands, and said that he wanted the cake that big. A salesman for the Chattanooga Bakery, Earl Mitchell, Sr., noticed this practice when he stopped by on his bakery goods route. Pretty soon, the only sales that were made by the bakery salesman were for Graham crackers. He asked one of the miners about the snack and ended up discussing a product with them. Later when Mitchell was explaining his low sales to M.P. Shauf, the general foreman and chef for the Chattanooga Bakery, the salesman relayed the miners ideas to Shauf, who decided to make something for them to buy. One day in late 1929, after several different recipes, he made a full size pie with Graham crackers and marshmallow fluff. That same day, he had his 3-year-old grandson with him at the bakery and offered him a pie to taste. Because the pie had small indentions where the marshmallow cream was cooked and bubbles had popped, Stanley said it looked like the moon.  Shauf yelled “Moon Pie" so loud that it scared his grandson to tears. The invention of the Moon Pie ensured the Chattanooga Bakery's survival just as the Great Depression began. Okay for the real southerners, we all know about the custom of eating Moon Pies and RC Cola which is a century old. (Let’s not confuse its full name Royal Crown Cola  with Royal Crown Canadian whiskey and Coca-Cola or as we know it plain ol’ Coke.) Precisely how and when people began the custom of drinking RC Cola with Moon Pies is unknown, although it is likely that their inexpensive prices, combined with their larger serving sizes, contributed to establishing this combination as the "working man's lunch". The popularity of this combination was celebrated in a popular song of the 1950's, by Big Bill Lister, "Gimmee an RC Cola and a Moon Pie." This was also shown to be the janitor's lunch in “The Green Mile”. There is a Moon Pie and RC Festival in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and a Moon Pie Eating Contest in Bessemer, Alabama.  And,if you’ve ever been to Pulpwood Queens’ Girlfriend Weekend in Jefferson, Texas, they serve Moon Pies and RC colas. Or they did when I was there in 2005. I was raised on Graham crackers, and in turn my daughters ate them and now they are a favorite of my grandchildren. So, tell me about your favorite Graham cracker treat?

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/feed/ 28 Petticoats & Pistols » Cooking/Kitchens http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 02:38:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Jell-O: What’s not to love? http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 05:41:52 +0000 Cheryl St.John http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32266 Family dinners, pot lucks, buffets--they always feature at least one Jell-O salad. Something red with marshmallows and fruit -- or green with pineapple and whipped cream -- or at holidays -- a cranberry mold. Each of us remembers Jell-O from our earliest years.It’s just always been there. Open the little box, pour the granules into boiling water, and refrigerate. What could be easier?

Years ago I actually bought a fish bowl and created a seascape with blue gelatin and Gummy fish and Gummy worms.It was a laborious task, took a mountain of Jell-O, and the kids all thought it was pretty weird. Yeah, well, that’s me. Every once in a while I still poke holes in a cake and pour Jell-O over it. Chocolate cake with raspberry gelatin is my favorite. How about that time-consuming seven-layer Jell-O? One of my favorites is strawberry pretzel dessert.

My easy strawberry shortcake recipe goes like this:  Bake an angel food cake from a mix. Slice strawberries, mix up a box of  strawberry Jell-o, pour both over the cake and refrigerate. Smear with Cool Whip. You'd think I'd done something brilliant, because this is always a hit.

Am I making you hungry? Bringing back fond food memories?We take gelatin for granted, but our forefathers--or foremothers--went through a much more complicated process to do what we do in minutes.

Before the turn of the century gelatin was a functional food item rather than a treat. Since the days of ancient Greece, jellies and aspics had been used to bind, glaze, and also to preserve foods—like the canned hams we buy today.

To us gelatin is a dessert, but past cooks flavored their gelatins with vinegar, wine, almond extract, and other items to produce a tart product. The foods they glazed were more often meats than sweets.

As long ago as the Renaissance, chefs took pride in constructing elaborate gelatin molds, and no dinner party was complete without at least one jelly construction worthy of the best modern-day wedding cake baker. In the nineteenth century, the most popular mold designs were castles and fortresses complete with doors, windows, and crenellated turrets.

Before this century, the glue needed for gelatin, called collagen, had to be laboriously extracted from meat bones. In the Middle Ages, deer antlers were a popular source of the glue; and later, calves' feet and knuckles. Housewives in the nineteenth century used isinglass, made from the membranes of fish bladders.

Gelatin-making was a daylong affair, requiring the tedious scraping of hair from the feet, hours of boiling and simmering with egg whites to degrease and clarify the broth, and careful filtering through jelly bags or "filtering stools." The transparent finished product was then dried into sheets, leaves, or rounds.

In 1890, Charles B. Knox of Jamestown, New York was watching his wife make calves' foot jelly when he decided that a prepackaged, easy-to-use gelatin mix was just what the housewife needed. Knox set out to develop, manufacture, and distribute the granulated gelatin, while his wife invented recipes for the new kitchen staple.

In 1897, Pearl B. Wait, a NY carpenter and cough medicine manufacturer, developed a fruit-flavored gelatin. His wife, May Davis Wait, named his product Jell-O.Because of the development of the icebox at the end of the century, America was ready for gelatin desserts.

Wait's product found its way to few American tables before it was bought by the food tycoon Frank Woodward, who was already marketing a coffee and tea substitute named Grain-O.Within a few years the genius in packaging, mass marketing, and advertising turned Jell-O into a household word. The 10 cent carton advertised a delicious dessert that was delicate, delightful, and dainty, and the Jell-O trademark of a young girl with carton and kettle in hand soon appeared on store displays, dishes, spoons, and other promotional articles.

To show the housewife how versatile the product was, Woodward's company distributed free booklets with Jell-O recipes. One booklet alone ran to a printing of 15 million copies!

By 1925, Jell-O was a big-money industry. In that year Jell-O joined Postum to form General Foods, today one of the largest corporations in America.By the 1930's, Jell-O had become a way of life. No Sunday dinner was complete without a concoction known as Golden Glow salad, Jell-O laced with grated carrot and canned pineapple and served with gobs of mayonnaise.

Knox Gelatine tried to discourage the rush toward Jell-O with ads warning shoppers to spurn sissy-sweet salads that were 85 percent sugar. While Knox stressed the purity of their odorless, tasteless, sugarless gelatin, Jell-O highlighted their product's versatility.

As for the belief that gelatin is good for the hair and nails, the only claim made by either Jell-O or Knox is that their product may do some good for some people's hair and nails. Sugarfree gelatin is popular among dieters.

In the field of photography, gelatin was introduced in the late 1870s as a substitute for wet collodion. It was used to coat dry photographic plates, marking the beginning of modern photographic methods. Gelatin's use in the manufacture of medicinal capsules occurred in the twentieth century.

Golden Glow Salad

1 package (3 ounces) orange gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple

1 tablespoon lemon juice Cold water

1/4 teaspoon salt, optional

3/4 cup finely shredded carrots

In a bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add lemon juice and enough cold water to pineapple juice to make 1 cup; add salt if desired. Stir into gelatin. Chill until slightly set. Stir in pineapple and carrots. Pour into an oiled 4-cup mold; cover and chill until firm. Unmold.

Yield: 6 servings.

<---- Hold everything: You can buy Jell-O on amazon .com.

In my search I discovered Jell-O shots, Jell-O wrestling, Jell-O spokesperson Bill Cosby, Jell-O Jiggler eggs (the kids stepped on one of these on my carpet one Easter – not good) and of course Jell-O molds.

What is your favorite gelatin memory?

Do you have a standby recipe?

If you want to share, post your favorite Jell-O recipe for us.

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/feed/ 10 S’mores and Moon Pies … http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 07:12:07 +0000 Phyliss http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32223

 

What in the world would we have done if Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham hadn’t invented the Graham cracker?  How sad would it be if our kids hadn’t grown up with Teddy Grahams?  And, sitting around a campfire singing Kumbaya without s’mores wouldn’t be the same! Don’t know about you all, but in the south if you haven’t eaten a Moon Pie, you haven’t lived. And, a cheesecake without a Graham cracker crust is unthinkable.

The Graham cracker also known as a Graham wafer was developed in 1829 by Reverend Graham as a health food. It was part of his diet regimen to suppress what he considered unhealthy carnal urges, source of many maladies according to the good pastor. The New Jersey Reverend often lectured on "self-abuse" as it was commonly called at the time. One of his many theories was that one could curb one's sexual appetite by eating bland foods. Shut my mouth and lock the door! Of interest, another man who held this belief was Dr. John Kellogg, the inventor of cornflakes.

It’s somewhat ironic that both men developed their product as healthy alternatives; and today, both the Graham cracker and many of the Kellogg cereals are at the top of our list of healthy foods. The true Graham cracker is made with Graham flour, a combination of finely-ground unbleached-wheat flour with the wheat bran and germ coarsely-ground and added back in providing nutrition and flavor.  From 1851, it was known by the British as a digestive biscuit. Today, many modern "Graham crackers" are made of the refined, bleached white flour to which the Rev. Graham was implacably opposed. Some commercial Graham crackers are no longer considered health food, but have remained popular as a snack food and breakfast cereal with greater amounts of sugars and other sweeteners than in the original recipe (which may have been unsweetened), and far less Graham flour, often with no whole wheat flour whatsoever. In fact some of these commercial "Graham crackers" are topped with a thick coating of cinnamon and sugar or have chocolate flavoring or coatings added. I just purchased reduced-fat Grahams and they are yummy. So, let’s take a look at some of the food items we wouldn’t have if Reverend Graham hadn’t invented his healthy cracker. There’s the larruping good Graham cracker pie crust for the American cheesecakes. It has become increasingly popular for use as a cream pie crust and is imitated by the Oreo-style crusts made from the crushed chocolate and cream cookies, we all love. S'more appears to be a contraction of the phrase, "some more." While the origin of the dessert is unclear, the first recorded version of the recipe can be found in the publication Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts of 1927. The recipe is credited to Loretta Scott Crew, who reportedly made them by the campfire for the Scouts. It is unknown whether the Girl Scouts were the first to make s'mores, but there appears to be no earlier claim to this snack. Although it is unknown when the name was shortened, recipes for "Some Mores" are in various Girl Scout publications until at least 1971. And, let’s not forget the Moon Pie made from marshmallow crème and Graham crackers. Marshmallow cream (fluff) was first sold in glass jars in 1925. The sealed jars provided a longer shelf life allowing shipments outside of New England. By 1929, fluff had made its way to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Miners wanted a snack that was cheap and filling for their lunch. One of the miners held up his hands towards the sky, making a shape of the moon with his hands, and said that he wanted the cake that big. A salesman for the Chattanooga Bakery, Earl Mitchell, Sr., noticed this practice when he stopped by on his bakery goods route. Pretty soon, the only sales that were made by the bakery salesman were for Graham crackers. He asked one of the miners about the snack and ended up discussing a product with them. Later when Mitchell was explaining his low sales to M.P. Shauf, the general foreman and chef for the Chattanooga Bakery, the salesman relayed the miners ideas to Shauf, who decided to make something for them to buy. One day in late 1929, after several different recipes, he made a full size pie with Graham crackers and marshmallow fluff. That same day, he had his 3-year-old grandson with him at the bakery and offered him a pie to taste. Because the pie had small indentions where the marshmallow cream was cooked and bubbles had popped, Stanley said it looked like the moon.  Shauf yelled “Moon Pie" so loud that it scared his grandson to tears. The invention of the Moon Pie ensured the Chattanooga Bakery's survival just as the Great Depression began. Okay for the real southerners, we all know about the custom of eating Moon Pies and RC Cola which is a century old. (Let’s not confuse its full name Royal Crown Cola  with Royal Crown Canadian whiskey and Coca-Cola or as we know it plain ol’ Coke.) Precisely how and when people began the custom of drinking RC Cola with Moon Pies is unknown, although it is likely that their inexpensive prices, combined with their larger serving sizes, contributed to establishing this combination as the "working man's lunch". The popularity of this combination was celebrated in a popular song of the 1950's, by Big Bill Lister, "Gimmee an RC Cola and a Moon Pie." This was also shown to be the janitor's lunch in “The Green Mile”. There is a Moon Pie and RC Festival in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and a Moon Pie Eating Contest in Bessemer, Alabama.  And,if you’ve ever been to Pulpwood Queens’ Girlfriend Weekend in Jefferson, Texas, they serve Moon Pies and RC colas. Or they did when I was there in 2005. I was raised on Graham crackers, and in turn my daughters ate them and now they are a favorite of my grandchildren. So, tell me about your favorite Graham cracker treat?

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/feed/ 28 Pass the Ketchup, Please http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:05:05 +0000 Tracy Garrett http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32203 With a need to eat more wisely as I age, I spend a lot of time in the grocery store reading labels. While I have eliminated some foods from my shopping list that used to be standards, one staple I still insist on having is ketchup. However, when I realized how much sugar and salt go into my favorite condiment, I wondered if I could make it at home. And because I love history—and the history of the American west in particular--the next thought was ‘where was ketchup created’ and did they have it in the old west? The origins of ketchup are thought to be in a Chinese pickled fish sauce or brine made in the late 1600s. The British brought the table sauce back from their explorations of Malay states—present day Malaysia and Singapore—and by 1740 it was a staple in their cuisine. The Malay word for the sauce was k?chap, which evolved into “ketchup” and became “catchup” and “catsup” in America. Original versions of “ketchup” were made from lots of different savory items. One very popular one in America was mushrooms. The 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defines catchup as “a table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc.” Tomatoes weren’t used in making the sauce until the early 1800s. A recipe published in 1801 seems to be the first making what you and I would recognize as ketchup—although I doubt it would taste the same. Cooks didn’t begin adding sugar to the mixture until later in the century. Most families made their own ketchup. In 1837, a man named Jonas Yerks is credited with making tomato ketchup a national food by producing and distributing his product across the U.S. It wasn’t long before other companies joined the rush, including H.J. Heinz, who launched their brand of ketchup in 1869. Early versions were thin and watery, more like the fish sauce than the thick tomato product we’re accustomed to, but had less vinegar than the modern recipe. In fact, I doubt we’d recognize the jar of ketchup served by a Harvey Girl in a Harvey House Restaurant in the 1880s as the same product Americans have come to love--but it’s fun to know it was there.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/feed/ 16 Switchel – Early American Sports Drink http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:22:43 +0000 Winnie Griggs http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31040 Hi.  Winnie Griggs here.  I came across a reference to something called switchel the other day, with a note that it was a vinegar based drink that early American farmer’s used as a thirst quencher. Vinegar based drink? My nose immediately wrinkled at the thought. Was it a medicinal tonic of some sort? But no, it seemed it was imbibed as a refreshment. I found myself intrigued by such an odd sounding beverage, so I did in some follow-up research. It turns out this unusual drink mixture was actually quite popular in the early days of our country. One can loosely compare it to lemonade. Think about the sour/sweet taste of those citric drinks. Before refrigeration, citrus fruits such as lemons and limes weren’t readily available, and even when they were, it was only a narrow window of time. An inexpensive and more abundant source of that acidic bite was vinegar.

Even with today’s modern equipment, today’s farmers and ranchers work up powerful thirsts while harvesting hay and doing other field work (my rancher husband will attest to that!!). One can only imagine how much more dehydrating it was to work the fields by hand with scythes. Although the recipes varied by region, most versions contain water, a sweetening agent (such as honey, molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup), cider vinegar and ginger. With the exception of the water, each of these ingredients are sources of potassium, which is an electrolyte. In fact, one of the articles I read called it an early-day Gatorade because of the very high concentration of electrolytes. Though I've personally never heard of it until this, I understand switchel - also called Haymaker’s Punch or Harvest Beer - is still popular in some areas of the country today. While I was researching this, I came across a few vintage recipes and I thought I’d share some of them with you 1855 From Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy Harvest Drink. Mix with five gallons of good water, half a gallon of molasses, one quart of vinegar, and two ounces of powdered ginger. This will make not only a very pleasant beverage, but one highly invigorating and healthful. 1869 From Domestic Cookery Harvest Beer To make fifteen gallons of beer, put into a keg three pints of yeast, three pints of molasses, and two gallons of cold water;, mix it well and let it stand a few minutes; then take three quarts of molasses and three gallons of boiling water, with one ounce of ginger; mix them well and pour into the keg, and fill it up with cold water. A decoction of root of sassafras is good to put in beer. 1877 From Buckeye Cookery Grandmother’s Harvest Drink (mix together) One quart of water, tablespoon sifted ginger, three heaping tablespoons sugar, half pint vinegar. So, have you ever tasted this odd sounding (to me at least) beverage?  Do you have a family recipe for it?  Or are you like me, totally unfamiliar with the drink?]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/feed/ 22 Christmas Cookies and Changed Lives http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:05:05 +0000 Tracy Garrett http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32203 With a need to eat more wisely as I age, I spend a lot of time in the grocery store reading labels. While I have eliminated some foods from my shopping list that used to be standards, one staple I still insist on having is ketchup. However, when I realized how much sugar and salt go into my favorite condiment, I wondered if I could make it at home. And because I love history—and the history of the American west in particular--the next thought was ‘where was ketchup created’ and did they have it in the old west? The origins of ketchup are thought to be in a Chinese pickled fish sauce or brine made in the late 1600s. The British brought the table sauce back from their explorations of Malay states—present day Malaysia and Singapore—and by 1740 it was a staple in their cuisine. The Malay word for the sauce was k?chap, which evolved into “ketchup” and became “catchup” and “catsup” in America. Original versions of “ketchup” were made from lots of different savory items. One very popular one in America was mushrooms. The 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defines catchup as “a table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc.” Tomatoes weren’t used in making the sauce until the early 1800s. A recipe published in 1801 seems to be the first making what you and I would recognize as ketchup—although I doubt it would taste the same. Cooks didn’t begin adding sugar to the mixture until later in the century. Most families made their own ketchup. In 1837, a man named Jonas Yerks is credited with making tomato ketchup a national food by producing and distributing his product across the U.S. It wasn’t long before other companies joined the rush, including H.J. Heinz, who launched their brand of ketchup in 1869. Early versions were thin and watery, more like the fish sauce than the thick tomato product we’re accustomed to, but had less vinegar than the modern recipe. In fact, I doubt we’d recognize the jar of ketchup served by a Harvey Girl in a Harvey House Restaurant in the 1880s as the same product Americans have come to love--but it’s fun to know it was there.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/feed/ 16 Petticoats & Pistols » Cooking/Kitchens http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 02:38:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Jell-O: What’s not to love? http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 05:41:52 +0000 Cheryl St.John http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32266 Family dinners, pot lucks, buffets--they always feature at least one Jell-O salad. Something red with marshmallows and fruit -- or green with pineapple and whipped cream -- or at holidays -- a cranberry mold. Each of us remembers Jell-O from our earliest years.It’s just always been there. Open the little box, pour the granules into boiling water, and refrigerate. What could be easier?

Years ago I actually bought a fish bowl and created a seascape with blue gelatin and Gummy fish and Gummy worms.It was a laborious task, took a mountain of Jell-O, and the kids all thought it was pretty weird. Yeah, well, that’s me. Every once in a while I still poke holes in a cake and pour Jell-O over it. Chocolate cake with raspberry gelatin is my favorite. How about that time-consuming seven-layer Jell-O? One of my favorites is strawberry pretzel dessert.

My easy strawberry shortcake recipe goes like this:  Bake an angel food cake from a mix. Slice strawberries, mix up a box of  strawberry Jell-o, pour both over the cake and refrigerate. Smear with Cool Whip. You'd think I'd done something brilliant, because this is always a hit.

Am I making you hungry? Bringing back fond food memories?We take gelatin for granted, but our forefathers--or foremothers--went through a much more complicated process to do what we do in minutes.

Before the turn of the century gelatin was a functional food item rather than a treat. Since the days of ancient Greece, jellies and aspics had been used to bind, glaze, and also to preserve foods—like the canned hams we buy today.

To us gelatin is a dessert, but past cooks flavored their gelatins with vinegar, wine, almond extract, and other items to produce a tart product. The foods they glazed were more often meats than sweets.

As long ago as the Renaissance, chefs took pride in constructing elaborate gelatin molds, and no dinner party was complete without at least one jelly construction worthy of the best modern-day wedding cake baker. In the nineteenth century, the most popular mold designs were castles and fortresses complete with doors, windows, and crenellated turrets.

Before this century, the glue needed for gelatin, called collagen, had to be laboriously extracted from meat bones. In the Middle Ages, deer antlers were a popular source of the glue; and later, calves' feet and knuckles. Housewives in the nineteenth century used isinglass, made from the membranes of fish bladders.

Gelatin-making was a daylong affair, requiring the tedious scraping of hair from the feet, hours of boiling and simmering with egg whites to degrease and clarify the broth, and careful filtering through jelly bags or "filtering stools." The transparent finished product was then dried into sheets, leaves, or rounds.

In 1890, Charles B. Knox of Jamestown, New York was watching his wife make calves' foot jelly when he decided that a prepackaged, easy-to-use gelatin mix was just what the housewife needed. Knox set out to develop, manufacture, and distribute the granulated gelatin, while his wife invented recipes for the new kitchen staple.

In 1897, Pearl B. Wait, a NY carpenter and cough medicine manufacturer, developed a fruit-flavored gelatin. His wife, May Davis Wait, named his product Jell-O.Because of the development of the icebox at the end of the century, America was ready for gelatin desserts.

Wait's product found its way to few American tables before it was bought by the food tycoon Frank Woodward, who was already marketing a coffee and tea substitute named Grain-O.Within a few years the genius in packaging, mass marketing, and advertising turned Jell-O into a household word. The 10 cent carton advertised a delicious dessert that was delicate, delightful, and dainty, and the Jell-O trademark of a young girl with carton and kettle in hand soon appeared on store displays, dishes, spoons, and other promotional articles.

To show the housewife how versatile the product was, Woodward's company distributed free booklets with Jell-O recipes. One booklet alone ran to a printing of 15 million copies!

By 1925, Jell-O was a big-money industry. In that year Jell-O joined Postum to form General Foods, today one of the largest corporations in America.By the 1930's, Jell-O had become a way of life. No Sunday dinner was complete without a concoction known as Golden Glow salad, Jell-O laced with grated carrot and canned pineapple and served with gobs of mayonnaise.

Knox Gelatine tried to discourage the rush toward Jell-O with ads warning shoppers to spurn sissy-sweet salads that were 85 percent sugar. While Knox stressed the purity of their odorless, tasteless, sugarless gelatin, Jell-O highlighted their product's versatility.

As for the belief that gelatin is good for the hair and nails, the only claim made by either Jell-O or Knox is that their product may do some good for some people's hair and nails. Sugarfree gelatin is popular among dieters.

In the field of photography, gelatin was introduced in the late 1870s as a substitute for wet collodion. It was used to coat dry photographic plates, marking the beginning of modern photographic methods. Gelatin's use in the manufacture of medicinal capsules occurred in the twentieth century.

Golden Glow Salad

1 package (3 ounces) orange gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple

1 tablespoon lemon juice Cold water

1/4 teaspoon salt, optional

3/4 cup finely shredded carrots

In a bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add lemon juice and enough cold water to pineapple juice to make 1 cup; add salt if desired. Stir into gelatin. Chill until slightly set. Stir in pineapple and carrots. Pour into an oiled 4-cup mold; cover and chill until firm. Unmold.

Yield: 6 servings.

<---- Hold everything: You can buy Jell-O on amazon .com.

In my search I discovered Jell-O shots, Jell-O wrestling, Jell-O spokesperson Bill Cosby, Jell-O Jiggler eggs (the kids stepped on one of these on my carpet one Easter – not good) and of course Jell-O molds.

What is your favorite gelatin memory?

Do you have a standby recipe?

If you want to share, post your favorite Jell-O recipe for us.

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/feed/ 10 S’mores and Moon Pies … http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 07:12:07 +0000 Phyliss http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32223

 

What in the world would we have done if Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham hadn’t invented the Graham cracker?  How sad would it be if our kids hadn’t grown up with Teddy Grahams?  And, sitting around a campfire singing Kumbaya without s’mores wouldn’t be the same! Don’t know about you all, but in the south if you haven’t eaten a Moon Pie, you haven’t lived. And, a cheesecake without a Graham cracker crust is unthinkable.

The Graham cracker also known as a Graham wafer was developed in 1829 by Reverend Graham as a health food. It was part of his diet regimen to suppress what he considered unhealthy carnal urges, source of many maladies according to the good pastor. The New Jersey Reverend often lectured on "self-abuse" as it was commonly called at the time. One of his many theories was that one could curb one's sexual appetite by eating bland foods. Shut my mouth and lock the door! Of interest, another man who held this belief was Dr. John Kellogg, the inventor of cornflakes.

It’s somewhat ironic that both men developed their product as healthy alternatives; and today, both the Graham cracker and many of the Kellogg cereals are at the top of our list of healthy foods. The true Graham cracker is made with Graham flour, a combination of finely-ground unbleached-wheat flour with the wheat bran and germ coarsely-ground and added back in providing nutrition and flavor.  From 1851, it was known by the British as a digestive biscuit. Today, many modern "Graham crackers" are made of the refined, bleached white flour to which the Rev. Graham was implacably opposed. Some commercial Graham crackers are no longer considered health food, but have remained popular as a snack food and breakfast cereal with greater amounts of sugars and other sweeteners than in the original recipe (which may have been unsweetened), and far less Graham flour, often with no whole wheat flour whatsoever. In fact some of these commercial "Graham crackers" are topped with a thick coating of cinnamon and sugar or have chocolate flavoring or coatings added. I just purchased reduced-fat Grahams and they are yummy. So, let’s take a look at some of the food items we wouldn’t have if Reverend Graham hadn’t invented his healthy cracker. There’s the larruping good Graham cracker pie crust for the American cheesecakes. It has become increasingly popular for use as a cream pie crust and is imitated by the Oreo-style crusts made from the crushed chocolate and cream cookies, we all love. S'more appears to be a contraction of the phrase, "some more." While the origin of the dessert is unclear, the first recorded version of the recipe can be found in the publication Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts of 1927. The recipe is credited to Loretta Scott Crew, who reportedly made them by the campfire for the Scouts. It is unknown whether the Girl Scouts were the first to make s'mores, but there appears to be no earlier claim to this snack. Although it is unknown when the name was shortened, recipes for "Some Mores" are in various Girl Scout publications until at least 1971. And, let’s not forget the Moon Pie made from marshmallow crème and Graham crackers. Marshmallow cream (fluff) was first sold in glass jars in 1925. The sealed jars provided a longer shelf life allowing shipments outside of New England. By 1929, fluff had made its way to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Miners wanted a snack that was cheap and filling for their lunch. One of the miners held up his hands towards the sky, making a shape of the moon with his hands, and said that he wanted the cake that big. A salesman for the Chattanooga Bakery, Earl Mitchell, Sr., noticed this practice when he stopped by on his bakery goods route. Pretty soon, the only sales that were made by the bakery salesman were for Graham crackers. He asked one of the miners about the snack and ended up discussing a product with them. Later when Mitchell was explaining his low sales to M.P. Shauf, the general foreman and chef for the Chattanooga Bakery, the salesman relayed the miners ideas to Shauf, who decided to make something for them to buy. One day in late 1929, after several different recipes, he made a full size pie with Graham crackers and marshmallow fluff. That same day, he had his 3-year-old grandson with him at the bakery and offered him a pie to taste. Because the pie had small indentions where the marshmallow cream was cooked and bubbles had popped, Stanley said it looked like the moon.  Shauf yelled “Moon Pie" so loud that it scared his grandson to tears. The invention of the Moon Pie ensured the Chattanooga Bakery's survival just as the Great Depression began. Okay for the real southerners, we all know about the custom of eating Moon Pies and RC Cola which is a century old. (Let’s not confuse its full name Royal Crown Cola  with Royal Crown Canadian whiskey and Coca-Cola or as we know it plain ol’ Coke.) Precisely how and when people began the custom of drinking RC Cola with Moon Pies is unknown, although it is likely that their inexpensive prices, combined with their larger serving sizes, contributed to establishing this combination as the "working man's lunch". The popularity of this combination was celebrated in a popular song of the 1950's, by Big Bill Lister, "Gimmee an RC Cola and a Moon Pie." This was also shown to be the janitor's lunch in “The Green Mile”. There is a Moon Pie and RC Festival in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and a Moon Pie Eating Contest in Bessemer, Alabama.  And,if you’ve ever been to Pulpwood Queens’ Girlfriend Weekend in Jefferson, Texas, they serve Moon Pies and RC colas. Or they did when I was there in 2005. I was raised on Graham crackers, and in turn my daughters ate them and now they are a favorite of my grandchildren. So, tell me about your favorite Graham cracker treat?

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/feed/ 28 Pass the Ketchup, Please http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:05:05 +0000 Tracy Garrett http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32203 With a need to eat more wisely as I age, I spend a lot of time in the grocery store reading labels. While I have eliminated some foods from my shopping list that used to be standards, one staple I still insist on having is ketchup. However, when I realized how much sugar and salt go into my favorite condiment, I wondered if I could make it at home. And because I love history—and the history of the American west in particular--the next thought was ‘where was ketchup created’ and did they have it in the old west? The origins of ketchup are thought to be in a Chinese pickled fish sauce or brine made in the late 1600s. The British brought the table sauce back from their explorations of Malay states—present day Malaysia and Singapore—and by 1740 it was a staple in their cuisine. The Malay word for the sauce was k?chap, which evolved into “ketchup” and became “catchup” and “catsup” in America. Original versions of “ketchup” were made from lots of different savory items. One very popular one in America was mushrooms. The 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defines catchup as “a table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc.” Tomatoes weren’t used in making the sauce until the early 1800s. A recipe published in 1801 seems to be the first making what you and I would recognize as ketchup—although I doubt it would taste the same. Cooks didn’t begin adding sugar to the mixture until later in the century. Most families made their own ketchup. In 1837, a man named Jonas Yerks is credited with making tomato ketchup a national food by producing and distributing his product across the U.S. It wasn’t long before other companies joined the rush, including H.J. Heinz, who launched their brand of ketchup in 1869. Early versions were thin and watery, more like the fish sauce than the thick tomato product we’re accustomed to, but had less vinegar than the modern recipe. In fact, I doubt we’d recognize the jar of ketchup served by a Harvey Girl in a Harvey House Restaurant in the 1880s as the same product Americans have come to love--but it’s fun to know it was there.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/feed/ 16 Switchel – Early American Sports Drink http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:22:43 +0000 Winnie Griggs http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31040 Hi.  Winnie Griggs here.  I came across a reference to something called switchel the other day, with a note that it was a vinegar based drink that early American farmer’s used as a thirst quencher. Vinegar based drink? My nose immediately wrinkled at the thought. Was it a medicinal tonic of some sort? But no, it seemed it was imbibed as a refreshment. I found myself intrigued by such an odd sounding beverage, so I did in some follow-up research. It turns out this unusual drink mixture was actually quite popular in the early days of our country. One can loosely compare it to lemonade. Think about the sour/sweet taste of those citric drinks. Before refrigeration, citrus fruits such as lemons and limes weren’t readily available, and even when they were, it was only a narrow window of time. An inexpensive and more abundant source of that acidic bite was vinegar.

Even with today’s modern equipment, today’s farmers and ranchers work up powerful thirsts while harvesting hay and doing other field work (my rancher husband will attest to that!!). One can only imagine how much more dehydrating it was to work the fields by hand with scythes. Although the recipes varied by region, most versions contain water, a sweetening agent (such as honey, molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup), cider vinegar and ginger. With the exception of the water, each of these ingredients are sources of potassium, which is an electrolyte. In fact, one of the articles I read called it an early-day Gatorade because of the very high concentration of electrolytes. Though I've personally never heard of it until this, I understand switchel - also called Haymaker’s Punch or Harvest Beer - is still popular in some areas of the country today. While I was researching this, I came across a few vintage recipes and I thought I’d share some of them with you 1855 From Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy Harvest Drink. Mix with five gallons of good water, half a gallon of molasses, one quart of vinegar, and two ounces of powdered ginger. This will make not only a very pleasant beverage, but one highly invigorating and healthful. 1869 From Domestic Cookery Harvest Beer To make fifteen gallons of beer, put into a keg three pints of yeast, three pints of molasses, and two gallons of cold water;, mix it well and let it stand a few minutes; then take three quarts of molasses and three gallons of boiling water, with one ounce of ginger; mix them well and pour into the keg, and fill it up with cold water. A decoction of root of sassafras is good to put in beer. 1877 From Buckeye Cookery Grandmother’s Harvest Drink (mix together) One quart of water, tablespoon sifted ginger, three heaping tablespoons sugar, half pint vinegar. So, have you ever tasted this odd sounding (to me at least) beverage?  Do you have a family recipe for it?  Or are you like me, totally unfamiliar with the drink?]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/feed/ 22 Christmas Cookies and Changed Lives http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:22:43 +0000 Winnie Griggs http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31040 Hi.  Winnie Griggs here.  I came across a reference to something called switchel the other day, with a note that it was a vinegar based drink that early American farmer’s used as a thirst quencher. Vinegar based drink? My nose immediately wrinkled at the thought. Was it a medicinal tonic of some sort? But no, it seemed it was imbibed as a refreshment. I found myself intrigued by such an odd sounding beverage, so I did in some follow-up research. It turns out this unusual drink mixture was actually quite popular in the early days of our country. One can loosely compare it to lemonade. Think about the sour/sweet taste of those citric drinks. Before refrigeration, citrus fruits such as lemons and limes weren’t readily available, and even when they were, it was only a narrow window of time. An inexpensive and more abundant source of that acidic bite was vinegar.

Even with today’s modern equipment, today’s farmers and ranchers work up powerful thirsts while harvesting hay and doing other field work (my rancher husband will attest to that!!). One can only imagine how much more dehydrating it was to work the fields by hand with scythes. Although the recipes varied by region, most versions contain water, a sweetening agent (such as honey, molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup), cider vinegar and ginger. With the exception of the water, each of these ingredients are sources of potassium, which is an electrolyte. In fact, one of the articles I read called it an early-day Gatorade because of the very high concentration of electrolytes. Though I've personally never heard of it until this, I understand switchel - also called Haymaker’s Punch or Harvest Beer - is still popular in some areas of the country today. While I was researching this, I came across a few vintage recipes and I thought I’d share some of them with you 1855 From Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy Harvest Drink. Mix with five gallons of good water, half a gallon of molasses, one quart of vinegar, and two ounces of powdered ginger. This will make not only a very pleasant beverage, but one highly invigorating and healthful. 1869 From Domestic Cookery Harvest Beer To make fifteen gallons of beer, put into a keg three pints of yeast, three pints of molasses, and two gallons of cold water;, mix it well and let it stand a few minutes; then take three quarts of molasses and three gallons of boiling water, with one ounce of ginger; mix them well and pour into the keg, and fill it up with cold water. A decoction of root of sassafras is good to put in beer. 1877 From Buckeye Cookery Grandmother’s Harvest Drink (mix together) One quart of water, tablespoon sifted ginger, three heaping tablespoons sugar, half pint vinegar. So, have you ever tasted this odd sounding (to me at least) beverage?  Do you have a family recipe for it?  Or are you like me, totally unfamiliar with the drink?]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/feed/ 22 Petticoats & Pistols » Cooking/Kitchens http://petticoatsandpistols.com Romancing The West Thu, 24 May 2012 02:38:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Jell-O: What’s not to love? http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 05:41:52 +0000 Cheryl St.John http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32266 Family dinners, pot lucks, buffets--they always feature at least one Jell-O salad. Something red with marshmallows and fruit -- or green with pineapple and whipped cream -- or at holidays -- a cranberry mold. Each of us remembers Jell-O from our earliest years.It’s just always been there. Open the little box, pour the granules into boiling water, and refrigerate. What could be easier?

Years ago I actually bought a fish bowl and created a seascape with blue gelatin and Gummy fish and Gummy worms.It was a laborious task, took a mountain of Jell-O, and the kids all thought it was pretty weird. Yeah, well, that’s me. Every once in a while I still poke holes in a cake and pour Jell-O over it. Chocolate cake with raspberry gelatin is my favorite. How about that time-consuming seven-layer Jell-O? One of my favorites is strawberry pretzel dessert.

My easy strawberry shortcake recipe goes like this:  Bake an angel food cake from a mix. Slice strawberries, mix up a box of  strawberry Jell-o, pour both over the cake and refrigerate. Smear with Cool Whip. You'd think I'd done something brilliant, because this is always a hit.

Am I making you hungry? Bringing back fond food memories?We take gelatin for granted, but our forefathers--or foremothers--went through a much more complicated process to do what we do in minutes.

Before the turn of the century gelatin was a functional food item rather than a treat. Since the days of ancient Greece, jellies and aspics had been used to bind, glaze, and also to preserve foods—like the canned hams we buy today.

To us gelatin is a dessert, but past cooks flavored their gelatins with vinegar, wine, almond extract, and other items to produce a tart product. The foods they glazed were more often meats than sweets.

As long ago as the Renaissance, chefs took pride in constructing elaborate gelatin molds, and no dinner party was complete without at least one jelly construction worthy of the best modern-day wedding cake baker. In the nineteenth century, the most popular mold designs were castles and fortresses complete with doors, windows, and crenellated turrets.

Before this century, the glue needed for gelatin, called collagen, had to be laboriously extracted from meat bones. In the Middle Ages, deer antlers were a popular source of the glue; and later, calves' feet and knuckles. Housewives in the nineteenth century used isinglass, made from the membranes of fish bladders.

Gelatin-making was a daylong affair, requiring the tedious scraping of hair from the feet, hours of boiling and simmering with egg whites to degrease and clarify the broth, and careful filtering through jelly bags or "filtering stools." The transparent finished product was then dried into sheets, leaves, or rounds.

In 1890, Charles B. Knox of Jamestown, New York was watching his wife make calves' foot jelly when he decided that a prepackaged, easy-to-use gelatin mix was just what the housewife needed. Knox set out to develop, manufacture, and distribute the granulated gelatin, while his wife invented recipes for the new kitchen staple.

In 1897, Pearl B. Wait, a NY carpenter and cough medicine manufacturer, developed a fruit-flavored gelatin. His wife, May Davis Wait, named his product Jell-O.Because of the development of the icebox at the end of the century, America was ready for gelatin desserts.

Wait's product found its way to few American tables before it was bought by the food tycoon Frank Woodward, who was already marketing a coffee and tea substitute named Grain-O.Within a few years the genius in packaging, mass marketing, and advertising turned Jell-O into a household word. The 10 cent carton advertised a delicious dessert that was delicate, delightful, and dainty, and the Jell-O trademark of a young girl with carton and kettle in hand soon appeared on store displays, dishes, spoons, and other promotional articles.

To show the housewife how versatile the product was, Woodward's company distributed free booklets with Jell-O recipes. One booklet alone ran to a printing of 15 million copies!

By 1925, Jell-O was a big-money industry. In that year Jell-O joined Postum to form General Foods, today one of the largest corporations in America.By the 1930's, Jell-O had become a way of life. No Sunday dinner was complete without a concoction known as Golden Glow salad, Jell-O laced with grated carrot and canned pineapple and served with gobs of mayonnaise.

Knox Gelatine tried to discourage the rush toward Jell-O with ads warning shoppers to spurn sissy-sweet salads that were 85 percent sugar. While Knox stressed the purity of their odorless, tasteless, sugarless gelatin, Jell-O highlighted their product's versatility.

As for the belief that gelatin is good for the hair and nails, the only claim made by either Jell-O or Knox is that their product may do some good for some people's hair and nails. Sugarfree gelatin is popular among dieters.

In the field of photography, gelatin was introduced in the late 1870s as a substitute for wet collodion. It was used to coat dry photographic plates, marking the beginning of modern photographic methods. Gelatin's use in the manufacture of medicinal capsules occurred in the twentieth century.

Golden Glow Salad

1 package (3 ounces) orange gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple

1 tablespoon lemon juice Cold water

1/4 teaspoon salt, optional

3/4 cup finely shredded carrots

In a bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Add lemon juice and enough cold water to pineapple juice to make 1 cup; add salt if desired. Stir into gelatin. Chill until slightly set. Stir in pineapple and carrots. Pour into an oiled 4-cup mold; cover and chill until firm. Unmold.

Yield: 6 servings.

<---- Hold everything: You can buy Jell-O on amazon .com.

In my search I discovered Jell-O shots, Jell-O wrestling, Jell-O spokesperson Bill Cosby, Jell-O Jiggler eggs (the kids stepped on one of these on my carpet one Easter – not good) and of course Jell-O molds.

What is your favorite gelatin memory?

Do you have a standby recipe?

If you want to share, post your favorite Jell-O recipe for us.

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/03/jell-o-whats-not-to-love/feed/ 10 S’mores and Moon Pies … http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 07:12:07 +0000 Phyliss http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32223

 

What in the world would we have done if Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham hadn’t invented the Graham cracker?  How sad would it be if our kids hadn’t grown up with Teddy Grahams?  And, sitting around a campfire singing Kumbaya without s’mores wouldn’t be the same! Don’t know about you all, but in the south if you haven’t eaten a Moon Pie, you haven’t lived. And, a cheesecake without a Graham cracker crust is unthinkable.

The Graham cracker also known as a Graham wafer was developed in 1829 by Reverend Graham as a health food. It was part of his diet regimen to suppress what he considered unhealthy carnal urges, source of many maladies according to the good pastor. The New Jersey Reverend often lectured on "self-abuse" as it was commonly called at the time. One of his many theories was that one could curb one's sexual appetite by eating bland foods. Shut my mouth and lock the door! Of interest, another man who held this belief was Dr. John Kellogg, the inventor of cornflakes.

It’s somewhat ironic that both men developed their product as healthy alternatives; and today, both the Graham cracker and many of the Kellogg cereals are at the top of our list of healthy foods. The true Graham cracker is made with Graham flour, a combination of finely-ground unbleached-wheat flour with the wheat bran and germ coarsely-ground and added back in providing nutrition and flavor.  From 1851, it was known by the British as a digestive biscuit. Today, many modern "Graham crackers" are made of the refined, bleached white flour to which the Rev. Graham was implacably opposed. Some commercial Graham crackers are no longer considered health food, but have remained popular as a snack food and breakfast cereal with greater amounts of sugars and other sweeteners than in the original recipe (which may have been unsweetened), and far less Graham flour, often with no whole wheat flour whatsoever. In fact some of these commercial "Graham crackers" are topped with a thick coating of cinnamon and sugar or have chocolate flavoring or coatings added. I just purchased reduced-fat Grahams and they are yummy. So, let’s take a look at some of the food items we wouldn’t have if Reverend Graham hadn’t invented his healthy cracker. There’s the larruping good Graham cracker pie crust for the American cheesecakes. It has become increasingly popular for use as a cream pie crust and is imitated by the Oreo-style crusts made from the crushed chocolate and cream cookies, we all love. S'more appears to be a contraction of the phrase, "some more." While the origin of the dessert is unclear, the first recorded version of the recipe can be found in the publication Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts of 1927. The recipe is credited to Loretta Scott Crew, who reportedly made them by the campfire for the Scouts. It is unknown whether the Girl Scouts were the first to make s'mores, but there appears to be no earlier claim to this snack. Although it is unknown when the name was shortened, recipes for "Some Mores" are in various Girl Scout publications until at least 1971. And, let’s not forget the Moon Pie made from marshmallow crème and Graham crackers. Marshmallow cream (fluff) was first sold in glass jars in 1925. The sealed jars provided a longer shelf life allowing shipments outside of New England. By 1929, fluff had made its way to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Miners wanted a snack that was cheap and filling for their lunch. One of the miners held up his hands towards the sky, making a shape of the moon with his hands, and said that he wanted the cake that big. A salesman for the Chattanooga Bakery, Earl Mitchell, Sr., noticed this practice when he stopped by on his bakery goods route. Pretty soon, the only sales that were made by the bakery salesman were for Graham crackers. He asked one of the miners about the snack and ended up discussing a product with them. Later when Mitchell was explaining his low sales to M.P. Shauf, the general foreman and chef for the Chattanooga Bakery, the salesman relayed the miners ideas to Shauf, who decided to make something for them to buy. One day in late 1929, after several different recipes, he made a full size pie with Graham crackers and marshmallow fluff. That same day, he had his 3-year-old grandson with him at the bakery and offered him a pie to taste. Because the pie had small indentions where the marshmallow cream was cooked and bubbles had popped, Stanley said it looked like the moon.  Shauf yelled “Moon Pie" so loud that it scared his grandson to tears. The invention of the Moon Pie ensured the Chattanooga Bakery's survival just as the Great Depression began. Okay for the real southerners, we all know about the custom of eating Moon Pies and RC Cola which is a century old. (Let’s not confuse its full name Royal Crown Cola  with Royal Crown Canadian whiskey and Coca-Cola or as we know it plain ol’ Coke.) Precisely how and when people began the custom of drinking RC Cola with Moon Pies is unknown, although it is likely that their inexpensive prices, combined with their larger serving sizes, contributed to establishing this combination as the "working man's lunch". The popularity of this combination was celebrated in a popular song of the 1950's, by Big Bill Lister, "Gimmee an RC Cola and a Moon Pie." This was also shown to be the janitor's lunch in “The Green Mile”. There is a Moon Pie and RC Festival in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, and a Moon Pie Eating Contest in Bessemer, Alabama.  And,if you’ve ever been to Pulpwood Queens’ Girlfriend Weekend in Jefferson, Texas, they serve Moon Pies and RC colas. Or they did when I was there in 2005. I was raised on Graham crackers, and in turn my daughters ate them and now they are a favorite of my grandchildren. So, tell me about your favorite Graham cracker treat?

]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/05/01/s%e2%80%99mores-and-moon-pies-%e2%80%a6/feed/ 28 Pass the Ketchup, Please http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:05:05 +0000 Tracy Garrett http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=32203 With a need to eat more wisely as I age, I spend a lot of time in the grocery store reading labels. While I have eliminated some foods from my shopping list that used to be standards, one staple I still insist on having is ketchup. However, when I realized how much sugar and salt go into my favorite condiment, I wondered if I could make it at home. And because I love history—and the history of the American west in particular--the next thought was ‘where was ketchup created’ and did they have it in the old west? The origins of ketchup are thought to be in a Chinese pickled fish sauce or brine made in the late 1600s. The British brought the table sauce back from their explorations of Malay states—present day Malaysia and Singapore—and by 1740 it was a staple in their cuisine. The Malay word for the sauce was k?chap, which evolved into “ketchup” and became “catchup” and “catsup” in America. Original versions of “ketchup” were made from lots of different savory items. One very popular one in America was mushrooms. The 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary defines catchup as “a table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc.” Tomatoes weren’t used in making the sauce until the early 1800s. A recipe published in 1801 seems to be the first making what you and I would recognize as ketchup—although I doubt it would taste the same. Cooks didn’t begin adding sugar to the mixture until later in the century. Most families made their own ketchup. In 1837, a man named Jonas Yerks is credited with making tomato ketchup a national food by producing and distributing his product across the U.S. It wasn’t long before other companies joined the rush, including H.J. Heinz, who launched their brand of ketchup in 1869. Early versions were thin and watery, more like the fish sauce than the thick tomato product we’re accustomed to, but had less vinegar than the modern recipe. In fact, I doubt we’d recognize the jar of ketchup served by a Harvey Girl in a Harvey House Restaurant in the 1880s as the same product Americans have come to love--but it’s fun to know it was there.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/04/30/pass-the-ketchup-please/feed/ 16 Switchel – Early American Sports Drink http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:22:43 +0000 Winnie Griggs http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=31040 Hi.  Winnie Griggs here.  I came across a reference to something called switchel the other day, with a note that it was a vinegar based drink that early American farmer’s used as a thirst quencher. Vinegar based drink? My nose immediately wrinkled at the thought. Was it a medicinal tonic of some sort? But no, it seemed it was imbibed as a refreshment. I found myself intrigued by such an odd sounding beverage, so I did in some follow-up research. It turns out this unusual drink mixture was actually quite popular in the early days of our country. One can loosely compare it to lemonade. Think about the sour/sweet taste of those citric drinks. Before refrigeration, citrus fruits such as lemons and limes weren’t readily available, and even when they were, it was only a narrow window of time. An inexpensive and more abundant source of that acidic bite was vinegar.

Even with today’s modern equipment, today’s farmers and ranchers work up powerful thirsts while harvesting hay and doing other field work (my rancher husband will attest to that!!). One can only imagine how much more dehydrating it was to work the fields by hand with scythes. Although the recipes varied by region, most versions contain water, a sweetening agent (such as honey, molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup), cider vinegar and ginger. With the exception of the water, each of these ingredients are sources of potassium, which is an electrolyte. In fact, one of the articles I read called it an early-day Gatorade because of the very high concentration of electrolytes. Though I've personally never heard of it until this, I understand switchel - also called Haymaker’s Punch or Harvest Beer - is still popular in some areas of the country today. While I was researching this, I came across a few vintage recipes and I thought I’d share some of them with you 1855 From Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy Harvest Drink. Mix with five gallons of good water, half a gallon of molasses, one quart of vinegar, and two ounces of powdered ginger. This will make not only a very pleasant beverage, but one highly invigorating and healthful. 1869 From Domestic Cookery Harvest Beer To make fifteen gallons of beer, put into a keg three pints of yeast, three pints of molasses, and two gallons of cold water;, mix it well and let it stand a few minutes; then take three quarts of molasses and three gallons of boiling water, with one ounce of ginger; mix them well and pour into the keg, and fill it up with cold water. A decoction of root of sassafras is good to put in beer. 1877 From Buckeye Cookery Grandmother’s Harvest Drink (mix together) One quart of water, tablespoon sifted ginger, three heaping tablespoons sugar, half pint vinegar. So, have you ever tasted this odd sounding (to me at least) beverage?  Do you have a family recipe for it?  Or are you like me, totally unfamiliar with the drink?]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2012/03/19/switchel-early-american-sports-drink/feed/ 22 Christmas Cookies and Changed Lives http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2011/12/14/christmas-cookies-and-changed-lives/ http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2011/12/14/christmas-cookies-and-changed-lives/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:00:28 +0000 Victoria Bylin http://petticoatsandpistols.com/?p=29177 n to a cookie exchange? I went to my first one last Sunday and had a blast. All those treats!  Even better, the exchange was part of a bigger program. The Women’s Ministry at Centerpointe Christian Church here in Lexington used their December event to support a ministry called the Refuge for Women. The Refuge is a safe place for women who want to leave the adult entertainment industry. It’s an awesome program and one that is much needed. Yesterday’s event was a combination of education for those of us attending, gift giving to the women and children at the Refuge, and . . . cookies. I’ll get to the cookies, but they weren’t the best part of the day.  The best part was seeing changed lives. As the women spoke, I thought of the Old West, brothels and how few choices women had then and sometimes even now. Today we have many more options, but once a person goes down a rabbit hole of abuse, drugs and the allure of quick money, it’s as hard to get out as it was for a woman in the Old West who found herself alone and in need for whatever reason. The subject’s been on my mind a lot lately.  My current project has an 1894 story line about a crusading young woman from Indiana who goes to Cheyenne, Wyoming to teach school. Her story isn’t pretty. The handsome outlaw she meets is alluring but not hero material. Not at all. She goes down that rabbit hole of abuse and is afraid to go home. She’s about as low as a woman can go when her father comes to her rescue. Things turn around for her, just as they are turning for the women at the Refuge. It was pure joy to share the holiday with a mom recently reunited with her son and another woman thriving in a new career. It was sweet indeed . . . Which leads me to the cookies! There must have been 50 different kinds, everything from decorated sugar cookies to ooey-gooey concoctions of pecans, caramel, peanut butter, coconut and every other ingredient in the baking aisle at the grocery store. The cutest were the reindeer cookies. I brought Christmas Tree Spritz. They’re super easy. I had planned to bring something else, but I’ve been in the hurt locker with a tooth problem. If it weren’t for the tooth (which included a trip to the ER for pain meds and an antibiotic shot), I would have made “Nana Bylin’s Almond Crescents.”  Just for fun here are the recipes for both.

Super Quick Spritz Cookies

  • 1 lb. butter or margarine
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • 2-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4-1/2 cups flour
Cream butter and sugar.  Add beaten eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add flour.  Use a small cookie press on ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes or until bottoms are just slightly brown. Makes about 10 dozen little cookies

Nana Bylin’s Almond Crescents

  • 1 lb. butter or margarine
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 lb. raw almonds, ground fine in a food processor or blender
  • 4 cups flour
  • 2 tsp vanilla
Cream butter and sugar. Add almonds and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour. Shape into small crescents, about 2 inches long. Bake at 300 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar. Makes about 8 dozen cookies. Merry Christmas to all! I hope your holidays are filled with bright lights, beautiful music, reindeer on your roof, cookies, love and good cheer.]]> http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2011/12/14/christmas-cookies-and-changed-lives/feed/ 23