John Hancock's Table: Turtles, Pineapples and the Paradoxical Politics of 1768

You will always find items both useful and intriguing at the Massachusetts Historical Society (www.masshistory.org). One tasty tidbit, from the Hancock family papers, is a bill of sale dated 27 June 1768, from Oliver Wendell of Boston to John Hancock. It is bill for six turtles (a weight of 234 pounds) and eighteen pineapples. The total bill came to 16 pounds, 19 shillings. Such exotic fare was shipped from the West Indies and sold (usually dockside) to inns and tavern keepers and representatives of wealthy clientele in Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston, and so on.  

Courtesy, Massachusetts Historical Society, Hancock Family Papers

During the late 18th century & into the 19th,  Mr. Julien promoted the many benefits of turtle soup to his Boston clientele.

These were heady days for Hancock, caught up in the events that would lead ultimately to the Revolution and independence from Great Britain.  By the late spring of 1768 (with the Lydia/Liberty incidents unfolding), Hancock was allied with Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty in organizing resistance to the new taxes imposed on America in the infamous Townshend Duties.  In May, he had been elected to Governor Francis Bernard’s Council, the upper house of the Massachusetts legislature, only to have the people’s choice vetoed by Bernard.  Still, that same day, voters elected him to the House of Representatives.  Two weeks later, he would be elected Major of the Cadets, a new branch of the Massachusetts militia.

Such honors required a gentleman of Hancock’s station to demonstrate his gratitude through celebratory banquets and fetes.  That Hancock was planning festivities at this time of some sort is evident in Oliver Wendell’s bill for exotic fare, especially as the bill appears to several imposing sea turtles, no doubt to be served as a delicacy - turtle soup . Pineapples too had been long associated as luxury items and their appearance at Hancock's table would have heightened the sense of it being a significant celebration. Hancock's uncle, Thomas, had died by this time, leaving the 'Hancock Mansion' to his nephew-- a perfect place for entertaining with his Aunt Lydia as hostess.

For further reading:

Two excellent articles - and everything you could want to know about turtle and mock turtle soup from the University of Pennsylvania Museum:

http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/51-3/schweitzer.pdf

and Uncovering Hidden Lives: 18th Century Black Mariners:

http://uncoveringhiddenlives.com/2014/08/15/turtles-turtle-soup-and-class-at-sea/

A Winter Supper with Dorothy Hancock's Plain Yeast Rolls

Dorothy Quincy (Hancock), c. 1772
John Singleton Copley
Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Dorothy (Dolly) Hancock (1747-1830) was a gracious and tireless hostess, a key position in the strategic operations of any political household past or present. Currently researching a post on Mrs. Hancock's fashionable ensembles, I was sidetracked by wintery cold weather. Mulling over what it must have been like to entertain in the "Hancock Mansion" on Beacon Hill, Boston, during the heady times following the American Revolution, I came across a recipe for her plain yeast rolls. It was adapted by Robert Pelton in his 2004 publication "Baking Recipes of Our Founding Fathers." I appreciate the many learned and skilled hearth cooks and culinary historians, who recreate the food of our ancestors through scholarly research, and care. I am merely a dabbler and I make no pretense of detailed knowledge in this arena  This post is simply about connecting food with historic events, places and people - and to try something new today. 

The Hancock "Mansion" in snow, c. 1860 (Demolished 1863)
Courtesy, The Trustees of the Boston Public Library
Contemporary accounts noted that theIt was noted prior to demolition that the west wing was used for the kitchen and other domestic functions. 

Some of my favorite observations regarding the couple's entertaining -- a harried, overworked cook on the verge of collapse, an unexpected dinner for several hundred French visitors, which required Mrs. Hancock to declare all the cows grazing on the Common be milked -- were made in 1854 by William Sumner (from his conversations with Mrs. Hancock) and appear in J.L. Bell's article "Dorothy Hancock: Political Hostess" (http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2006/11/dorothy-hancock-political-hostess.html)


I am making a roast chicken with root vegetables tonight and, time permitting, plan to try out her recipe for rolls. Will let you know if there is approbation around the table.

Dorothy Hancock's Plain Yeast Rolls

4 cups milk, warm

¼ cup yeast

5 cups flour

1 egg, well beaten

2 Tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

½ tsp baking soda

Flour to suit

Make sponge by blending milk, yeast and flour in large wooden mixing bowl. Cover bowl with thick towel or cloth. Set aside in warm place to rise. When light (risen), stir in beaten egg, melted butter, salt and sugar. Dissolve baking soda in a little hot water and add while stirring. Put in sufficient flour to make soft, pliable dough. Cover as before and set in warm place to rise for about 4 or 5 hours.

Roll these out to ½" cakes. Fold cakes, not quite in center, like turnovers. Or simply shape with hands into balls. Set cakes or balls close together on shallow, buttered pan. Cover once again and set aside in warm place. Let dough rise a third time for about one hour.

When risen, cut deeply across top of each roll with sharp knife. Put into quick oven (425 degrees). Bake about thirty minutes or until tops of rolls are lightly browned.

SOURCE: "Baking Recipes Of Our Founding Fathers" By Robert W. Pelton accessed online at: http://www.books.google.com.

What were they drinking in 1793? Egg Rum & Egg Brandy

Egg Rum and Egg Brandy: The Cold Winter of 1793

On Monday May 20, 1793, there were a number of special alcohol purchases which appear in the Gen. Montgomery Store Daybook. They include postmaster Moses Dow’s 1 quart of Mallago (Malaga) wine, a glass of ginn [sic] and of particular interest, one 1/2 bowl of egg rum.  A few days earlier the purchase of “egg brandy” was noted.  According to food historians, this concoction was related to our contemporary eggnog, being a drink of egg, wine and milk/cream with many historic European antecedents. 

Egg brandy or egg rum as recorded in the Daybook, was in Colonial America somewhat different than its British counterpart in that it substituted the British use of wine for brandy or rum. It was quite popular in the Colonies, especially in the colder parts of the region where the egg beverage (egg, cream or fresh milk and brandy or rum) was rich, tasty, filling and was usually flavored with nutmeg or allspice. In a rural area like Haverhill, the ingredients – fresh cream and eggs, brandy or rum and spices-- would have been readily available. Given the fact that this was served at the Store, it is likely that it was served cold and not warm such as a posset, which required heating and carefully balanced ingredients, as well as appropriate ceramic serving vessels, frequently with a spout.

While it might seem too heavy for serving in late May by contemporary tastes, it was no doubt much lighter in concentration. However, of particular importance in the selection of this variant of “eggnog” was the fact that weather reports for May of 1793 reveal that it was the second coldest May to be recorded (in the North American Review, for example) until the famous cold of 1816, which many referred to as the year “without summer.”  The unusual cold of April and May, which reportedly froze buds and kept the ground hard well past usual planting dates, would have also changed patterns of trade, travel, purchase and even the number of ventures out of doors to the Store. The weather, not surprisingly, changed the routine of daily life not only in Haverhill but throughout New England.

Although contemporary receipt books and accounts appear not to list an egg brandy or rum (most likely because it was an understood, standard beverage) there was a close relationship between them and an eggnog and a syllabub. The creation of a syllabub required time and careful beating of eggs and cream, whereas the preparation of this "egg rum" or "egg brandy" one can easily imagine being created in the store along with the frequently mentioned bowl of grog.  (Grog was also a rum –based beverage, frequently mixed with other spirits or citrus or other juices or diluted.)

From a forthcoming article on General Montgomery and the 1793 Daybook.

Kimberly Alexander, Ph.D.
University of New Hampshire
Durham, NH., USA

Comparative Syllabub Recipes

To make whipt syllabubs

Take a quart of thick cream, and half a pint of sack, the juice of two Seville oranges, or lemons; grate in the peel of two lemons; half a pound of double-refined sugar, pour it into a broad earthen pan, and whisk it well; but first sweeten some red wine, or sack, and fill your glasses as full as you chuse; then as the froth rises take it off with a spoon, and lay it carefully into your glasses, till they are as full as it will hold.

From Charles Carter The London and Country Cook (London: 1749)

A Whipt Syllabub

Take two porringers of cream and one of white wine, grate in the skin of a lemon, take the whites of three eggs, sweeten it to your taste, then whip it with a whisk, take off the froth as it rises and put into your syllabub glasses of pots, and they are fit for use.

From Amelia Simmons American Cookery: or the Art of Dressing Viands, Poultry….Adapted to this Country and All Grades of Life (Albany, 1796)

Further information on the derivation of the term “egg nog” may be found on numerous historic food ways websites and in reproductions of historic cookbooks such as that of Amelia Simmons by Applewood Books.

Images courtesy:
^ Haverhill Historical Society, General Montgomery Store Daybook, 1793
^ Pouring a syllabub, Journal of the Early Americas (see link below for further information)

Great sites to explore:
Colonial Williamsburg: http://recipes.history.org/

Journal of the Early Americas:
http://www.journaloftheearlyamericas.com/2/post/2011/7/brand-new-recipes-archive-browse-your-favorite-historical-cuisine.html