Revolutionary cooking : over 200 recipes inspired by colonial meals

288 Pages·2014·11.5 MB·English

by  Virginia T. Elverson

Copyright © 1975, 2013 by Virginia T. Elverson, Mary Ann McLanahan, and
Betty T. Duson All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN: 978-1-62636-416-5
eISBN: 978-1-62873-880-3
Chapter opening illustrations
Page 1, IRON KETTLE; page 3, AMERICAN IRON CORN DRIVER; page 14, HOE BLADE
(FOR HOE CAKES); page 24, PAUL
REVERE SILVER PORRINGER, 1795; page 79, NORTH
CAROLINA SILVER SUGAR TONGS, SELPH & PYLE, 1780; page 113, AMELUNG CASE
BOTTLES FOR SPIRITS, 1788; page 129, PAUL REVERE SILVER LADLE, 1795.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DEDICATED TO
THE MEMORY OF
Miss Ima Hogg
COLLECTOR, SCHOLAR, TEACHER
PHILANTHROPIST, AND
DEAR FRIEND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acookbook such as Revolutionary Cooking is totally dependent upon the
interest and generosity of the authors’ families and friends, for the rare,
unpublished family journals which are quoted throughout the book; for the
delicious recipes handed down from generation to generation in treasured
notebooks; for the private, priceless decorative art collections which illustrate
our text; for the endless hours which went into testing and tasting each recipe.
For these and many other gracious gifts of time and effort we are indebted to:
Miss Ima Hogg, who inspired the three of us with her love of Americana; Mrs.
Joseph G. Thompson, who played “put and take” until our recipes pleased even
her gourmet tastes; Mrs. Clare T. Spangler, Administrative Assistant at The
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, who typed our manuscript with never a
complaint over changes and rewrites; Mrs. William C. Touret, Mrs. Justin S.
Morrill, Mrs. Arthur D. Dyess, Jr., and Mrs. Douglas S. Craig, each of whom
shared with us her own unique family journals and recipes. These heretofore
unpublished insights into the early Colonial life of Rhode Island, Pennsylvania
and New York, and the nineteenth-century customs of the plantation owner’s
South, added a richness and depth to our text which was not duplicated in many
published sources which we studied.
To the following friends who gave of their professional counsel or their
culinary expertise, we are deeply grateful: Mr. David B. Warren, former
Associate Director, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Mr. Barry Greenlaw,
former Curator, The Bayou Bend Collection; Mr. Lonn Taylor, former Curator,
Winedale Restoration; Mr. O. B. Dyer, Interior Supervisor, The Bayou Bend
Collection; Mrs. Helen Duprey Bullock, formerly of the National Trust for
Historic Preservation; Mrs. Gail C. Beiden, former Assistant Curator,
Winterthur; Mr. Paul H. Harris, formerly of the Henry Ford Museum; Mr. John
A. Castellani, former Librarian, Mount Vernon, Virginia; special thanks to L.
Proctor Thomas for his helpful legal advice; Mr. Wendell Garrett, former Editor
and publisher of The Magazine ANTIQUES.
And to Mrs. John Mawhinney, Mrs. Raymond Risien, Mrs. William Broyles,
Mrs. T. Allen Bynum, Mrs. Teckler Borgstedt, Mrs. Flora Jahnz, Mrs. Stanley
Shipnes, Mrs. William T. Mendell, Mrs. Allen H. Carruth, Mrs. James W.
Hargrove, Mrs. C. Brien Dillon, Mrs. George R. Brown, Mr. Cleto Hernandez,
Mrs. C. P. Duson, Sr., Mrs. Donald Duson, Mrs. Adela Posadas, Mrs. William
Wareing, Mrs. Albert M. Tomforde, the Dowager Countess of Radnor, O.B.E.,
and Mrs. Charles E. Richards, Jr., Mrs. George A. Peterson, Mrs. Thomas G.
Tucker, Mrs. James C. Richdale, Mrs. M. L. Adams, Mrs. W. L. Edmundson,
Mrs. I. C. Kerridge, Mrs. Pat Perini, Mrs. Robert Buckner, Mrs. Wilbur Moore.
Our illustrations are drawings of rare artifacts most graciously shown to us
by the following public and private collectors: The Bayou Bend Collection;
Winedale Restoration; Henkel Square Restoration; The Anson Jones House;
Varner-Hogg Plantation; Mr. and Mrs. James Britton, Jr.; Mr. and Mrs.
Spurgeon K. Britt; Mr. and Mrs. Thomas D. Anderson; Mr. and Mrs. Robin
Elverson; Dr. and Mrs. Lynn A. Bernard; Mr. and Mrs. Paul Gervais Bell; Mr.
and Mrs. Fred T. Couper, Jr.; Mr. and Mrs. Harris Masterson III; Mr. and Mrs.
Robert Jameson; Mr. and Mrs. C. Pharr Duson, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Robert F.
Strange; Mr. and Mrs. Peter G. Brooks; Mrs. Charles L. Bybee; Mrs. Doris
Duckworth; Dr. and Mrs. John E. Martin; Mrs. Albert M. Tomforde; Mrs. Hazel
Ledbetter; and Mr. and Mrs. George A. Butler.
Lastly, a warm “Thank You” to our families, who patiently tasted their way
through these recipes that we might assure you of the culinary pleasures to be
found within the pages of Revolutionary Cooking.
THE AUTHORS
FOREWORD
It has been my great good fortune in life to see a number of my
fondest dreams reach fruition. The success of these endeavors has
rested very largely upon the loyal and enthusiastic help of many
people. The Collection of American Decorative Arts at Bayou Bend is
no exception. Begun by my brothers and myself in 1920, it now
belongs to The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the interested
peoples of the world.
The three friends who have written this cookbook were among those
who helped, in the very beginning, to document and study The Bayou
Bend Collection, and present it to the public for the first time. They
profess to owe much to me for their interest and their knowledge of
this exciting period in our country’s growth. I am honored by their
dedication and feel that I, in turn, owe much to them.
Their talents and their scholarship, as represented in A Cooking
Legacy will take the true flavor of America’s illustrious past into
many present-day homes, where such culinary pleasures may well
have been a treasure heretofore unexplored. I know that each of you
will enjoy, as I have, the fascinating facts and delicious recipes
gathered in these pages.

FOREWORD
TO THE NEW EDITION
This book, a true labor of love, was inspired by Miss Ima Hogg and her home,
Bayou Bend. The home is now The Collection of American Decorative Arts at
Bayou Bend, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
In the early 1960s, Miss Ima chose a few young friends to become the first
docents to guide visitors through the collection. She always said she assembled
and held this collection in trust for the public to enjoy and learn of our country’s
exciting early growth.
In 1970, Virginia Thompson Elverson and I, now professionally trained docents,
were asked by Miss Ima to give a lecture on Colonial eating and drinking habits
to the newly formed docent organization. I wrote a pamphlet to accompany the
lecture and Virginia displayed her extensive collection of early cooking tools.
Excited by research, we then approached a third docent, a gifted artist, Betty Jo
Tomforde Duson and we created the first edition of this book, which was called
A Cooking Legacy.
Virginia’s knowledge as a graduate of the Cordon Blue Cooking School was
invaluable in deciphering such things as a gill “of this,” or a “dipper full” of
that. I did the research both in the United States and England and wrote the text.
Betty Jo provided the illustrations, drawn from life, depicting items in The Bayou
Bend Collection.
Though Miss Ima, Virginia, and Betty Jo are no longer with us, it thrills me to
know that this chapter in our lives lives on.
Mary Ann (Muffy) McLanahan