My So-Called Pilgrim Life

This is the throughly modern version
Spinach
Butter, Vinegar
Cinnamon, ginger, sugar, currents
Eggs
Bread for sippets

Hard boil eggs. When cool peel from shells and cut in fourths.
To make sippets: Use a bread that is sturdy enough to not sog up completely when the spinach is put on it. French bread (baguette) sliced thin and toasted is nice. Think great big crouton! Toast bread.
Pick through and wash spinach. Pull off large stems and chop leaves.
With the water from the last rinse clinging, put into a heavy bottomed pot and add butter and vinegar. Cook on medium heat until wilted.
Add spice and currents. Warm through and keep on low with the lid off if it’s too watery.
Put sippets on a serving dish. Top with spinach. Top spinach with quartered hard boiled eggs.

And, as they say, serve it forth.
KMWall
Colonial Foodways Culinarian

Many of you are probably unaware that our Education Department has an online interactive site for kids to investigate the “First Thanksgiving” or Harvest Feast between the English colonists and the local Wampanoag people. It’s a fun way for kids to explore this fascinating and often misunderstood event. You can access it here:

Investigate The First Thanksgiving

Buddy

Diverse Salads Boiled. (so far, pretty easy, right)
Parboil spinach (cook until done. If using fresh, pick out anything buggy, too limp or slimy. Pull off the tough stems. Wash in several changes of water. Put the spinach in the water, swish it around and lift it out so that the dirt remains behind in the water. If you find a bug, there’s probably another, so add a little salt to the water and let it sit for a minute. I’d give the package stuff from the store another rinse; I don’t care how many times they say they wash it. Frozen? They give you directions…), and chop it fine, with the edges of two hard trenchers upon a board, or the backs of two chopping knives: (chop it fine – it you are using frozen, just buy the chopped…. A trencher is a dish, usually made of wood, hence the ‘treen ware’, sometimes made of pewter or silver, in earlier times (earlier the 1627) sometimes made of bread….OK, that’s a whole ‘nuther post, chopping knives are, I hope, self evident) then set it upon a chafing-dish of coals with butter and vinegar. (And you thought chafing-dishes were a throwback to the 1950’s? Surprise – they’re showing up in all the fashionable 17th kitchens, too. There was a 17th century one found in a downtown Plymouth archeological dig, and we have a replica in the 1627 English Village. Lacking a chafing-dish put the spinach in a heavy bottomed pot and place it over low heat on your stove.) . Season it with cinnamon, ginger, sugar, and a few parboiled currants. (This particular combination of spice is a little reminiscent of modern pumpkin or apple pie. Ginger was considered warming and good for digestions – actually, it is! Vegetables were thought to be a little troublesome to digest, so you’d season accordingly. Sugar was also considered somewhat warming and good for the digestion. Keep in mind that most people were between 1 and 2 pounds of sugar a year. Most of us now polish that much off in less than a week! Currants are dried currants, which are little raisins, so feel free to use raisins here. Modern dried fruit isn’t as dry as it used to be, thanks to plastics and the push to eat them as hand-fruit, so no parboiling necessary.) Then cut hard (boiled) eggs into quarters to garnish it withal, and serve it upon sippets. (Sippets are slices of bread that have been toasted or fried. Use something that won’t melt at first contact to the food, like a sliced, toasted baguette or a ciabatto . Think brushetta!) So may you serve borage, bugloss, endive, chicory, cauliflower, sorrel, marigold leaves (Calendula, or pot marigolds, not French marigolds; if you don’t know which you have DON’T EAT THEM), watercress, leeks boiled, onions, Sparragus (asparagus), Rocket (our old friend arugula), alexanders ( I can’t find these anywhere- if you have some, would you share? Call me. Parboil them, and season them all alike: whether it be with oil and vinegar, or butter and vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, sugar, and butter: Eggs are necessary, or at least good for all boiled salads.” (That would be hard boiled eggs, peeled and quartered and placed on top)
From John Murrell’s A Newe Booke of Cookerie, London: 1615, p. 34.

So, there you have it. You got this far. In simplest terms, boiled salads are boiled veggies seasoned with ginger, cinnamon and a little sugar, dressed with either oil and vinegar or melted butter and vinegar, served over toasted bread and topped with hard boiled eggs cut into quarters.

K.M. Wall
Colonial Foodways Culinarian

A 17th century cooking lesson
I’m not sure that the Pilgrims used these particular recipes. There aren’t any cookbooks in their wills and inventories, and most of these people wouldn’t have known what to do with one if they had had one. They knew how to cook the things they were familar with in the way that was familar to them. That said, some things turn up over and over again, so they certainly cold have been familar. My history training make me want to hedge and qualify. My big sister background make want to say, “Try it, you’ll like it! And so easy!”
I keep meaning to put more recipes on this blog, but I realize that I teach cooking, not just recipes, and I teach the way of a 17th mother would have: I put out the ingredients and the various pots, and hover about ready to stir the onions, as it were. This is hard to translate into print, so please bear with me. Don’t forget to be sensible – really use all your senses: taste, sight, hearing, smell and judgment.
We’re going to start with a recipe for a salad. Salad, even a boiled one, doesn’t take much to figure out. And why boil a salad? It makes it more artificial, and artificial is good in the 17th century when they had a whole different standard of artificial, which means made by the hand of man. So, a boiled salad is the plants improved by cooking, as opposed to grazing on weeds like a cow or a hog…makes you look at that side salad a whole diffeent way, if you compare it to an animal feeding. A boiled salad will put some familiar things on your table in a way that isn’t too unfamiliar. You don’t need to be growing heirloom varieties, any old spinach will do, I mean any spinach, and it doesn’t have to be an old variety. If you have a garden, go harvest.
….So here’s how it’s gonna go –
First Lesson – Looking at a resource, in this case a period recipe, copied out of the period cookbook. It’s easier if you read it out loud, because spelling isn’t standardized, but pronunciations aren’t that far from now, or so I’ve lead myself to believe. Someday, this will be enough to start you on your way, but if you’re not there today, keep on to
Second Lesson– a version in modern spelling with parenthetical notes to explain some of what going on, define vocabulary. The second one will be the longest of the versions.
Third Lesson– a quick and easy totally 21st century translation.
Put on your aprons, wash your hands, and lets go to the kitchen.
“Diverse Sallets Boyled.
Parboyle Spinage, and chop it fine, with the edges of two hard Trenchers upon a boord, or the back of two chopping knives : then set them on a Chafingdish of coals with Butter and Vinegar. Season it with Sinamon, Ginger, Sugar, and a few parboiled Currins. Then cut hard Egges into quarter to garnish it withal, and serve it upon sippets. So may you serve Burrage, Buglosse, Endiffe, Suckory, Coleflowers, Sorrel, Marigold leaves, water-Cresses, Leekes boyled, Onions, Sparragus, Rocket, Alexanders. Parboyle them, and season them all alike: whether it be with Oyle and Vingar, or Butter and Vinegar, Sinamon, Ginger, Sugar, and Butter: Egges are necessary, or at least good for all boyled Sallets.”
From John Murrell’s A Newe Booke of Cookerie, London: 1615, p. 34.

KMWall
Colonial Foodways Culinarian

We are pleased to offer a special discount for blog readers only. From September 20-September 27 children will be able to come to Plimoth Plantation AND Mayflower 2, FREE with a paid adult. Even if you can’t make it that week, please tell all your friends about this offer on our blog. We’re trying to spread the word about our great museum and you can help!

Click here to download the Blog Discount Coupon.

This happened a couple of months ago. but I thought there might be those who would enjoy seeing Capt. Standish’s new lambs.

Pathetic. Pathetic and in disarray. Unkempt, rundown, keep up with the garden harvest and needs weeding.
The visitor comments are in for August and pathetic was the word used to describe the English Village gardens. More than once.

As discouraging as it is to hear, they weren’t mean or wrong.

Sigh.
Part of the trouble is some of our plants are weeds. Well, they weren’t then, but they are now. Tansy and chicory, for instance, were brought over for English gardens. Yellow flowered tansy is a medical herb, the seed good against the worm in the gut of children. Aren’t you glad you haven’t needed to know that before? One later New England writer said that the smell reminded him of funerals, because it was used to repel flies off the dead bodies. Aren’t you doubly glad you don’t need to know this anymore? Chicory, called succory by the English, was a potherb – still is – boiled for salads. This is in bloom in our corn ground and for the last 2 weeks I have often seen the little yellow goldfinches flitting around the blue flowered chicory, a study in yellow and blues and greens. And Queen Anne’s Lace? Wild carrot. And since 1627 predates Queen Anne by a bit, it wasn’t called that then, it was called Bird’s nest, which is totally apparent once you wait past the lacy stage and see the flower curl up on itself in the seed-forming stage.
And then there’s the nature of kitchen gardens themselves. One 17th century garden advisor suggests that you make sure that none of your windows overlook your kitchen garden because it’s always ‘decrepit’ – something going to seed, something pulled up, something not quite up yet, leaving bare spots and dried out bits.
Yet even by these forgiving and liberal standards, our gardens are… needy. They are in need of some serious muscle. On Spring Clean Day we had more volunteer help then we knew what to do with. Not that we didn’t find ways to keep them -you- extremely busy. But that was back in March and a garden needs constant care.
We’ve asked for more help, but our volunteer coordinator said she was turned down, that people had their own gardens to tend to. Fair enough. It was a long, hot summer full of snails and bunnies and woodchucks and rainy days and high humidity.
So I’m making a direct appeal to those of you who read the blog and are local and maybe aren’t part of the regular volunteer corps.
HELP! Our tender herbs are lurking and we need your help to rid the place of evil weeds. If you’ve got some time, some muscle and some patience I invite you to join THE PLIMOTH GARDENS CLUB.
Unlike the Spring Clean day, when the volunteer workforce has the run of the place, this meeting will be limited to one garden at a time. The only tools we’ll have are hand tools – no wheel barrows, no trucks, nothing to distract from the 1627 exhibit. We will be in the shadows, as it were, in front of the public and performing a ‘behind the scene’ function at the same time, a sleight of hand to hand pick the evil weeds out by their roots so we can prepare for our fall plantings. I haven’t done this before, so I don’t know what it would be like. If this works out we could continue to meet, perhaps for some training and not just for muscle.
What I’m looking for is stoop labor – bend over and pull out the weeds, and not pull out our heirloom variety plants, seedy though they may be. In return I’ll tell you about 17th century plants and practices. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at kwall@plimoth.org Even if you don’t have any questions you can reach me there.
Meeting times: Sunday, September 13th at 9:30 through 1:30 and Monday September 14th also 9:30-1:30.
Location: 1627 English Village –check in with the Museum Guide at the Fort, who will know which gardens we will be weeding.
Purpose: To remove weeds from the walkways and beds of the 12 English kitchen gardens, one garden at a time.
Bring gloves, sunscreen.
It’s not just the food, it’s the ways.
K.M.Wall
Colonial Foodways Culinarian

Justin, Shelley, and Ian
Master Howland, Goody Brown, and Master Winslow singing:

Please come to the next one, we missed you. We love when knowledgeable visitors come because we can get into much deeper levels of historical interpretation. We love what we do and really enjoy it when you enjoy it (and you might just learn something new!)!

…yesterday and it was a great time! Mr. Bradford, Mr. Winslow, Mr, Hopkins and Capt. Standish discussed the recent visit by the Dutchman Jan Jacobson and his ship the Drie Konigen. Herr Jacobson brought letters from Herr Isaac DeRassier from the (in Capt Standish’s mind) illegally planted colony of Fort Amstelredam.

Other matters were considered and then a sudden turn of events occurred. A delicate matter was brought before the court regarding one Mr. John Fells who (it was heard whispered) was keeping his maid servant in an unseemly manner. Mr. Fells, a guest in New Plimoth, stood upon his own justification, and the matter was shelved…for the time being.

Huge Kudos to everyone who participated in this dynamic event. You are too many to mention but you all know you are.

If you, dear reader, do NOT know who they are, you need to come visit with us sometime.

Thanks also to our new friends John and Jenny from Henricus Historical Park. for coming for a visit. Take a look at their website when you get a chance.

Buddy

The picture? Go Red Sox!