SPANISH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY
BREAD, PASTRIES, BASKETS, CHEESE AND COPPER POTS ON A SHELF WITH A PINK FLOWER
One of my favourite trail foods is bread & cheese. Both can be simply wrapped in linen cloth or the cheese can be placed between pieces of bread to stop the cheese oil from soaking into the cloth. Cheese can also be potted, but this entails covering the cheese in a ceramic pot with grease, & this process makes the cheese heavier to transport even though it will keep longer in hot weather.
Cheese in any temperature will grow surface mould. IF your cheese goes mouldy, it will still be safe to eat providing you make a cut at least one inch all round & below the mould.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/food/csiro-identifies-foods-that-are-safe-to-eat-when-mould-is-cut-off/story-fneuz8zj-1226821756687
Potted meat or cheese in a ceramic jar. Still Life with Kitchen Items_Attributed to Martin Dichtl (1639-1710)
Food Preserving & Cheese Use.
Some do use to parboil their Fowl, after they have taken out
the garbage, andthen do dip them in Barrowsgreace [lard], or clarified butter,
till they have gotten a new garment over them, and then they lay them one
by one in stone pots, filling the stone pots up to the brim with
Barrowsgreace or clarified butter. – Sir Hugh Plat, 1607.
Take three pounds of Cheshire-Cheese, and put it into a
mortar, with half a pound of the best fresh butter you can get, pound them
together, and in the beating, add a gill of rich Canary wine, and half an ounce
of Mace finely beat, then sifted fine like a fine powder. When all is
extremely well mixed, press it hard down into a Gallipot, cover it with
clarified butter, and keep cool. A slice of this exceeds all the
cream-cheese that can be made.
The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse,
1747
"We pass'd Stilton, a town famous for cheese, which is
call'd our English Parmesan, and is brought to table with the mites, or maggots
round it, so thick, that they bring a spoon with them for you to eat the mites
with, as you do the cheese." A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great
Britain. Defoe 1724.
Provisions listed for the British ship Bellona 74 guns in
1760
listed as provisions for 650 men for four months.
listed as provisions for 650 men for four months.
Beef 5200 pieces 20800 lbs
Pork 9620 pieces 19240 lbs
Beer 236 butts
29736 US gallons
Water 339 butts 30 puncheons 60 hogsheads
49018 US gallons
Bread 650 bags 72800 lbs
Butter
3900 lbs
Cheese
14160 lbs
Oatmeal
19008 lbs
Peas
20800 lbs
Flour
15590 lbs
Suet
2600 lbs
Vinegar
709 US gallons
Having turned out my horse in the sweet meadows adjoining,
and finding some dry wood under shelter of the old cabin, I struck up a fire,
dryed my clothes and comforted myself with a frugal repast of biscuit and dried
beef, which was all the food my viaticum afforded me by this time, excepting a
small piece of cheese which I had furnished myself with at Charleston and kept
till this time.
John Bartram Mid 18th Century. http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/bartram/bartram.html
A seventeenth century soldier could expect 6d a day wages,
and a typical daily ration in a garrison
might be: 450 g (1 lb) of meat-beef, mutton, pork or veal
25 g (8oz) bread
350 g (12oz) oatmeal
125g (4oz) dried
peas/beans
70g (2oz) cheese
2.5 pints beer of the
weaker kind
(Chalfield garrison,
Wiltshire, 1645)
On the march in 1643 Parliamentarian Colonel Popham’s
Regiment got:
300g (10.5 oz)
biscuit 135g (5oz) meat/cheese
85g (3 oz) peas 0.5
pint beer
Braddock's Campaign of 1755 - Benjamin Franklin suggested
that campaign parcels
be compiled for officers as follows. For each officer:
6 lbs Loaf Sugar, 6 lbs good Moscavado (brown sugar)
1 lb good Green Tea, 1 lb good Bohea ditto, 6 lbs ground
Coffee
6 lbs chocolate
1-2 Cwt White Biscuit
1-2 lb Pepper,
1 Qt. best white wine Vinegar
1 Glouster (sic) Cheese
1 Kegg (sic) containing 20 lbs good Butter
2 Doz Old Madiera Wine
2 gal. Jamaica Spirits (rum)
1 bottle flour of Mustard
2 well-cured Hams
1-2 doz dried Tongues (beef)
7 lb Rice
6 lbs. Raisins
Estimation of the cost of emigration to New England were published in
the 1600s. The following is a compilation from Higginson and from Josselyn
first published about 1630.
Food
|
£
|
s
|
d
|
|
Meal, one hogshead
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
|
Malt, one hogshead
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
|
Two bushels of oatmeal
|
9
|
0
|
||
Beef one hundredweight
|
18
|
0
|
||
Pork pickled, 100 pound
|
1
|
5
|
0
|
|
Bacon, 74 pound
|
1
|
5
|
0
|
|
Peas, two bushels
|
8
|
0
|
||
Greats, one bushel
|
6
|
0
|
||
Butter, two dozen
|
8
|
0
|
||
Cheese, half a hundred
|
12
|
0
|
||
Vinegar, two gallons
|
1
|
0
|
||
Aquavitae, one gallon
|
2
|
8
|
||
Mustard seed, two quarts
|
1
|
0
|
||
Salt to save fish, half a hogshead
|
10
|
0
|
||
One gallon of oil
|
3
|
6
|
||
Salted meat, often dried as an extra measure of
preservation, was another staple. Slabs of beef and pork were stored in
casks with brine or packed directly in the salt. Butter and cheese were
sometimes available early on in the journey but did not store well and were
quickly eaten. Suet or fat cooked with flour was sometimes substituted for the
meat and cheese ration. Oatmeal and “pease,” dried peas served like
lentils, were staples for the English sailors, while rice, beans, and chickpeas
fuelled the Spanish. As much as a gallon of beer was rationed to the
sailors each day, often served mixed with water. It was a popular
beverage that could be stored for travel, repelling algae growth and bacteria
due to its alcohol content.
18th century Cheese making Print By Granger.
As for my part I shall be obliged soon to
make a Virtue of Necessity for I have torn almost all my Cloaths to pieces by
going into the Woods; and tho' we do not want for Taylors, We do, Woolen
Drapers. Our Excursions, put me in Mind of your going a Steeple Hunting, We
sometimes, put a Bit of Salt Beef, or Pork, Bisket, a Bottle of 0 be joyful, in
a Snapsack throw it over our Backs, take a Hatchet, a Brace of Pistols, and a
Musket, and away we go, scouring the Woods, sometimes East, West, N. S. if
Night overtakes us, we light up a rousing Fire, Cut Boughs & make up a
Wig-Wam, open our Wallets, and eat as hearty of our Fare as You, of your
Dainties, then lie down on a Bed, which tho' not of Roses, yet staying out all
Night, accordingly We laid down our Bread an Cheese Wallets, make up a Wig-wam
of green Boughs, cut some dry Ferns for a Bed, lit two or three rousing Fires
near our Hut, and set down to Dinner. We sung the Evening away, and about 9 O’Clock
retired to Rest, taking it by turns to keep watch, and supply the Fires with
Fuel.
George Bouchier Worgan - letter written to
his brother Richard Worgan, 12 - 18 June 1788. Includes journal fragment kept
by George on a voyage to New South Wales with the First Fleet on board HMS
Sirius, 20 January 1788 - 11 July 1788.
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