December 19, 2008

George Washington was one of the wealthiest and most influential planters in Virginia after he returned to Mount Vernon after his years as president.

He enjoyed the elegant abundance of field and table at his estate, as witnessed by this account of a Christmas dinner at the plantation:

“Christmas Dinner at Mount Vernon: An Onion Soup Call’d the King’s Soup, Oysters on the Half Shell, Broiled Salt Roe Hering, Boiled Rockfish, Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, Mutton Chops, Roast Suckling Pig, Roast Turkey with Chestnut Stuffing, Round of Cold Boiled Beef with Horse-radish Sauce, Cold Baked Virginia Ham, Lima Beans, Baked Acorn Squash, Baked Celery with Slivered Almonds, Hominy Pudding, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Cantaloupe Pickle, Spiced Peaches in Brandy, Spiced Cranberries, Mincemeat Pie, Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Chess Tarts, Blancmange, Plums in Wine Jelly, Snowballs, Indian Pudding, Great Cake, Ice Cream, Plum Pudding, Fruits, Nuts, Raisins, Port, Madeira.”
—The American Heritage Cookbook and Illustrated History of American Eating & Drinking,.New York: American Heritage Publishing Co, 1964

December 13, 2008

Parboil the fish, pick out the meat, and mince or pound it in a mortar until very fine; it will require about fifty crayfish.

Add to the fish one-third the quantity of bread soaked in milk, and a quarter of a pound of butter, also salt to taste, a bunch of thyme, two leaves of sage, a small piece of garlic and a chopped onion.   Mix all well and cook ten minutes, stirring all the time to keep it from growing hard.

Clean the heads of the fish, throw them in strong salt and water for a few minutes and then drain them.   Fill each one with the above stuffing, flour them, and fry a light brown.

Set a clean stewpan over a slow fire, put into it three spoonfuls of lard or butter, a slice of ham or bacon, two onions chopped fine; dredge over it enough flour to absorb the grease, then add a pint and a-half of boiling water, or better still, plain beef stock.

Season this with a bunch of thyme, a bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste.

Let it cook slowly for half an hour, then put the heads of the crayfish in and let them boil fifteen minutes. Serve rice with it.
—Lafcadio Hearn, La Cuisine Creole, 1885

December 2, 2008

In the nineteenth century, wealthy Southern plantation owners were quite fond of entertaining. When travel often took days, guests frequently stayed for several days at a time, if not weeks.

Lavish dinners were served, designed to show off the hosts’ hospitality as well as the abundance of the plantation.

Margaret Devereux was mistress of many large plantations owned by the Devereux family on the Roanoke River in eastern North Carolina.

In  Plantation Sketches (1906), she detailed the elegance and opulence of a typical meal.

“For a dinner of ten or twelve persons, including ourselves, there would be a ham at the head, a large roast turkey at the foot, a quarter of boiled mutton, a round of beef a la mode, and a boiled turkey stuffed with oysters,” she wrote. “In the middle of the table would be celery in tall cut-glass stands, on the sides cranberries in moulds and various kinds of pickles. With these would be served either four or six dishes of vegetables and scalloped oysters, handed hot from the plate-warmer. The dessert would be a plum pudding, clear stewed apples with cream, with a waiter in the centre filled with calf’s-foot jelly, syllabub in glasses, and cocoanut or cheese-cake puddings at the corners. The first cloth was removed with the meats. For a larger entertainment, a roast pig would be added; ice-cream would take the place of stewed apples. The dessert cloth would be removed with the dessert, and the decanters and fruit set upon the bare mahogany, with the decanters in coasters; cigars would follow, after the ladies had left, of course.”