Pre-1840 Food Storage

[Spotted Bull]

Wife needs some pics and information on pre 1840 food storage containers, either stoneware or glass, and the methods used to close and seal those containers.

[Gordon H.Kemp]

Spotted Bull , I wish I could be of more help . but try your local/ares inter libray loan for a book by a housewife right around that date. If my wife were still with me I could be more accurate and get you zeroed in on the info . This is just my opinion , but much of that type of information on food storage would depend on the social status and location  as to settlements etc. If you were a pioneer family on the fringes most would use methods from the local N.A.   A woman in the larger towns and citys would most likely use whatever was the standard handed down from her familys European roots . Containers would range from wood buckets , barrels , etc. Stone ware crocks w/wood lids , some hand blown glass bottles and jars , possibly copper containers , and whatever other forms of storage being used in Europe at that time. A coulple of forms of preservation would be open air drying of herbs and spices to burying root crops in a root cellal. jerking of fish and meat and of course salt brine.  Hope you find a good source of info .
                                 

[mario]

The short version: There was smoking, jerking/drying, salting, brine, fermenting (think sauerkraut) and potting.

"Potting" being the addition of liquid fat to a stoneware jar of cooked meat. The fat solidifies as it cools and kept in a cool place, prevents bacteria from reproducing. The layer of fat prevents oxygen from reaching the bacteria. Without it, they cannot multiply. An older gentleman whose family were Amish told me his family kept meat this way that lasted over a year in the root cellar.

In modern restaurants, if you ever see "Duck Confit", it is a similar process. The duck is simmered in duck fat and allowed to cool in the fat when fully cooked. It is then stored in the fat in the fridge until served.

Things like sauerkraut and brined meats were stored in casks. The salted meat/fish usually a commercial process rather than something folks did at home.

Mario

[Gordon H.Kemp]

Thank You Mario , I knew you,d be along to help me with this . A question for you on eggs ? As a boy I used to help my Grandpa and he would raise several hundred Rhode Island Red chickens ffree range . They were sold for both their egg production and as a table meat source . I was pre-teen so it was awhile to remember all the specifics mix amounts etc. One of my tasks was to camdle the eggs and wash them .Those that didn,t  sell fairly fast were put in crocks 10gal. in a solution of "water glass"(sodium-silicate?) for our use and food storage . I had to mark the crocks with a crayon with the date anumber of eggs in the crock .As I recall they would stay near perfect for as long as a year ? The Question is are you familiar withs type of egg storage  ? andif so ? how old was the practice ?
        I . mysself havn,t used it  , but I was told at one time they also used a storage process using pig fat (renderd cureed) io seal the shells from passing bactreia into the egg and spoiling ? I think the lard was the older method ?
         Also as a youngster , I remember that nearly every farm had an Ice pond and "ice house" usuaLLY INSULATED WITH DOUBLE WALLS FILLED WITH SAWDUST . as few people could afford electric refrigeration even when it became available , no small family farms could afford it and relied on ice cooling rigtup into the early 1940s-50s  .  Got some more questions to discuss but my eyes are acting -up and I have to quit for awhile .
                                         

[mario]

Gordon,

Don't know about using sodium silicate or sealing them in lard, but if kept cool (under 45F or so), eggs last A LOT longer than we think. Sealing them in lard/fat would keep oxygen away and therefore keep bacteria at bay, just like in potted meat.

A month is not uncommon. 2 months is not rare. In restaurant kitchens, we can tell by certain things. If you are poaching eggs and the whites in a certain batch aren't coagulating well, it's likely they are getting old. Taste-wise, I've been able to tell no difference.

But these days, going through 60dz eggs a week, they never stay around long enough to test any theories!

Mario

[Gordon H.Kemp]

I guess I,ve strayed from the original question (Containers} sorry about that . will try to locate some direct information on the actual containers for you . I know theres at least the one book (journal) written by a woman of that era that had much information on cooking and storage of food . Somewhere I have a (scetch book) with nuch information also .
    Just a thought ? butit might be worthwhile to open a thread on the various forms of preservation ? Because of the varied climatic and geographic  differences here in America , What woks well one place may not in another .
       Spotted Bull you might want to do a search on storage containers in Europe at the 1840 -+ tme frame , it would give you a good base to research from .

[mario]

SB,

Check into a copy of The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse. (1st edition 1745, mine is the revised edition of 1796. IIRC, I paid $20 for it.)

Hannah describes a bunch of pickling and preservation methods. It was written in England but would have been fairly common in the Colonies for tavern/inn-keepers.

Mario

[mario]

Sealing the top with an animal bladder (usually hog):

http://siftingthepast.files.wordpress.c ... -carlo.jpg

Imitation bladder:
http://jas-townsend.com/product_info.ph ... ts_id=1290

Mario

[Three Hawks]

Maybe this'll help a little.  When I was a sprog, my gramma and my mom would take the eggs from our chickens, wash 'em carefully, candle 'em and dip the ones they wanted to store in a saturated solution of Sodium Silicate (Water Glass).  Then they'd  bury them in the flour bin in rows, keeping the most recent seperated from the older ones.  When the hens qut laying in the late fall they'd have enough eggs to last us until they began laying again.  I don't remember being able to tell the difference between a fresh egg and one that was three or four months old or older.  In later years mom said the reason they did it was that free eggs from our hens were much tastier that store eggs we couldn't afford.  It was pretty much the same way with all the veggies and fruit they canned for winter.  Mom and Gramma made hominy too, but I don't remember the process. It usually took two days to make ten bushels of hard corn into hominy.  And that homemade hominy tasted quantum leaps better than the crummy canned stuff from the store.   I do remember them keeping the dry hominy in old flour sacks.  Those flour sacks were our pillow cases and dish towels. I do remember them drying the hominy on bedsheets spread in the sun in the back yard.  I grew up eating homemade pickles too, much better than store bought.

 No, it wasn't during the depression, this was in the late 40's and early 50's.   My folks were just chea.........thrifty.  

This was the 1940's and 50's you smart alecks.

Three Hawks

[huntinguy]

Wife needs some pics and information on pre 1840 food storage containers, either stoneware or glass, and the methods used to close and seal those containers.

Crock pots/stoneware, has been around for a long time. Also, don't forget burying in dry sand. Not uncommon at all for vegetables. Both methods were used by my grandparents (they dated from the 187x time frame. I assume they learned from their parents),

Don't forget some folks used animal gut - intestines or stomach. I don't recall the method... seems to me they were occasionally cleaned  :shock: .

My mind knows more but my memory can't find it....  

[Spotted Bull]

Basically she is looking for a PC way to store and sell her homemade mustard at our events.

[Riley/MN]

How about these?



Amazon.com: Bormioli Rocco Fido Round Clear Jar, 6-3/4-Ounce: Kitchen & Dining

[Spotted Bull]

Yeah she has been looking at things along those lines. We will probably go with something very similar.

Thanks a lot guys!