How Much Was Beef in the 1800s
Cooking in the 1800s
Originally published every bit "When Dinner Wasn't Quick and Easy"
By Courtney Hybarger
Reprinted with permission from Tar Heel Junior Historian, Spring 2007.
Tar Heel Inferior Historian Association, NC Museum of History
Listen to this entry
Download MP3 audio
Today's rapidly increasing demands and hectic schedules get in challenging for a family to dine together. Many dinners include fast food or carryout delivery from places similar KFC or McDonald's. When families do have time to gear up a repast, it is rarely "from scratch." Technology that we frequently accept for granted—such equally microwaves and refrigerators—has greatly affected what we eat and how we consume it.
Modern meals are planned around the family's schedule, simply this was not the case two hundred years ago. In fact, two hundred years agone, the family planned its schedule effectually meals!
During the early on 1800s, cooking dominated the fourth dimension and free energy of the boilerplate housewife. In that location were no large grocery stores where families could go to purchase food, and eating out was truly a rare treat, usually possible only when traveling. Virtually fruits and vegetables were grown on the farmstead, and families processed meats such as poultry, beef, and pork. People had seasonal diets. In the spring and summer months, they ate many more fruits and vegetables than they did in the fall and wintertime. During those colder seasons, families institute ways to preserve their nutrient.
The three main means of curing (the process of preserving food) during this time included drying, smoking, and salting. Each method drew moisture out of foods to prevent spoiling. Fruits and vegetables could exist dried by being placed out in the sunday or virtually a heat source. Meat products could exist preserved through salting or smoking. A salt cure involved rubbing salt into the meat, which was and then completely covered in salt and placed in a cool area for at least twenty-eight days. During this fourth dimension, more table salt was constantly added. When the meat was no longer clammy, it was washed, then shelved or bagged and left to historic period. Families would hang meat preserved through a smoke cure in rooms or buildings with fire pits. For a calendar month, the meat was constantly exposed to smoke, which dried information technology out while adding flavor. Using dissimilar kinds of forest for the fire, such equally hickory or oak, could produce different tastes.
A typical day on the farm began very early. Women rose and congenital the fire based on the meals planned for that day. Families who could afford to take detached kitchens—kitchens in buildings separate from the firm—did then for several reasons. The kitchen ofttimes was hot, smoky, and smelly. Most North Carolina families did not have the resources for a carve up kitchen, though, and the hearth provided the middle of home life and family unit activity. With no ovens or electricity, women prepared meals on the hearths of brick fireplaces. They used different types of fires and flames to ready different types of food. For example, a controllable fire was used to roast and toast, while boiling and stewing required a smaller flame.
To use all of the fire's energy, families shoveled dress-down and ash underneath and onto the lids of Dutch ovens. Continuing on iii legs and available in a wide array of sizes, the cast-iron Dutch oven was ane of the almost important tools found on the hearth. It was used to prepare several types of food and allowed cooking from both the summit and the bottom. Dutch ovens evolved into woodstoves, common in homes of the later 1800s and early on 1900s earlier about people got electricity at dwelling house.
Preparing meals was non only a matter of starting a burn for cooking. Spices, such every bit nutmeg and cinnamon, and seasonings, like salt and pepper, had to be ground up with mortars and pestles. Milk had to exist brought in from the family dairy cow and cream and butter fabricated from it. After someone brought in the milk, it unremarkably sat out for virtually an hour. The cream rose to the top, separating from the milk. Women placed this foam into a butter churn and beat information technology until information technology hardened, kickoff into whipped cream and eventually into butter!
Every family member contributed to the production and preparation of meals. Men and boys spent about of their time outdoors. Chores included working crops in the fields, feeding larger livestock, and hunting. Diets included wild game, such every bit deer and turkeys. Women and girls worked mainly in the kitchen and fed smaller livestock.
When it came time to butcher animals, families joined with their neighbors to share the workload and the meat. Pork was the staple meat in the Southeast until the 1940s. Hogs proved more than manageable than their much larger counterparts, cows. The gustatory modality of pork also improved with curing. Neighbors frequently gathered in the fall, using the time to become their piece of work done just as well to catch up, sharing news and gossip. What began as a chore turned into a social event. This was besides the case at harvesttime. Neighbors pitched in to bring in crops such as corn and wheat. Afterward the piece of work was done, everyone might celebrate with feasts, bonfires, and dancing.
Clearly, meal training two hundred years ago involved several more steps than it does now. Much similar today, families usually ate iii daily meals. The primary meal in the 1800s, yet, was not the large evening repast that is familiar to us today. Rather, information technology was a meal called dinner, enjoyed in the early afternoon. Supper was a smaller meal eaten in the evening.
A big difference between the way people eat today compared with long ago is the work and time needed. For modern families, food and meals are only an afterthought in the schedule. Two hundred years ago, food and food training stood at the center of the family unit's daily lifestyle. Without the advances in technology that help us store, preserve, and ready food, men and women would spend much of their time getting meals ready to eat. Instead of calling pizza delivery, imagine spending all solar day in front of a burn!
At the time of this article's publication, Courtney Hybarger was a historic site interpreter at President James K. Polk State Celebrated Site in Pineville.
Source: https://www.ncpedia.org/culture/food/cooking-in-the-1800s
0 Response to "How Much Was Beef in the 1800s"
Post a Comment