The Perpetual Stew Pot

by Pam Hillman

I live in the 21^st century (surprise, surprise!), but my brain has been immersed in the 18^th century for the last several years. I’m writing a series set in 1790s Natchez and the surrounding area that includes the Natchez Trace. The series is appropriately called the Natchez Trace Novel Series. And the first book The Promise of Breeze Hill releases in August 2017. You can read more about the Natchez Trace here.

Yesterday, J. M. Hochstettler brought us an eye opening post about the mind-boggling amount of work the colonial housewife had to do each and every day, year in and year out. If you missed it, you can read Joan's post here.

When I read Joan's post, I was reminded of the Proverbs 31 woman who rises before dawn and well ... just does everything and then some... and they call her blessed. Then I'm reminded of the fast-food world we live in. The ease of doing laundry, picking up dinner at the drive thru, or just putting a roast and all the trimmings in a crock pot or an instant pot and walking away.

We love our shortcuts, don't we? Well, there were a few shortcuts that even the colonial housewife used... such as the perpetual stew.

In the 1790s, most colonists raised their own food and prepared meals from scratch. The staples were basically the same with a few variations depending on what part of the country people lived in… vegetables, pork, chicken, fish, beef, mutton, wild game, eggs, milk, corn and grains (also ground into meal and flour), molasses, honey. Spices such as pepper and salt might have been hard to come by, and refined sugar as we know it was a luxury, not a necessity. So was coffee for many people. Even if someone could afford to purchase or barter for something they didn’t grow on their own land, they still received the food in its “raw” state. No boxed dinners here.

While many of our modern day “plain fare” might be similar, like a hearty pot of meat and vegetable soup, we have all these conveniences that make preparing the meal so much easier, even if we choose to cook a meal from scratch occasionally. And that’s not even including the drive-thru where we can grab a burger and fries or even have a pizza delivered, or just pop a pre-made one in the oven.

The 18^th century cook should have spent most of her day preparing meals to feed her family. Just think about all that preparation if they had broiled fish for the noon meal, baked ham for supper, fried chicken or mutton stew the next day, not to mention all the vegetables and bread that she’d need to go along with the meat portion. It wasn’t like she could just run through McDonald’s or Domino’s and grab dinner for everyone.

I daresay that’s why she fed her family from the perpetual stew pot. What’s that, you ask?

“A perpetual stew, also known as hunter's pot or hunter's stew, is a pot into which whatever one can find is placed and cooked. The pot is never or rarely emptied all the way, and ingredients and liquid are replenished as necessary.” (Perpetual Stew, Wikipedia)

Now that we’re all sufficiently grossed out, done properly (and what 18^th century housewife wouldn’t have known how to do it properly), the contents of perpetual stew would be unlikely to kill anyone. Some resources I read said the perpetual stew pot might not be emptied and washed until Lent. For the uniformed, Lent only comes once a year. Gulp.

Another interesting blog mentioned that by having perpetual stew over the fire, the family could eat whenever the need arose. And if perpetual stew is being served in an inn, or a stand, as they were called along the Natchez Trace, then this makes perfect sense. The proprietor would have stew to feed travelers at any time of day or night. No rushing to the chicken coop to — you know — turn live squeaking chicken into chicken and dumplings or fried chicken that might feed two or three hungry men and no more. Nope. Instead, they’d save that chicken for the morrow and add it to the stew pot along with a lot of vegetables, grain, and an opossum or two.

What if Pop comes home from hunting and only has one rabbit? One rabbit isn’t enough to feed a family of ten, but the perpetual stew is simmering in the kettle, so Mom just browns the rabbit and adds it to the pot along with some wild onions that she found earlier in the day, and maybe a mealy potato or two, and it simmers all night and they have fresh meat in the pot for the next day.

Native Americans also got in on the act. Family groups (whole tribes, possibly?) used this method to feed their people.

Lest you think perpetual stew is something out of the dark ages, think again.

As recently as 2014, Chef David Santos prepared perpetual stew in his restaurant, Louro, in New York City. Chef David started his perpetual stew in August 2014 and as of the writing of this blog post on January 26, 2015, that perpetual stew (dubbed Stu) was still going strong. The last tweet on the Louro Perpetual Stew twitter account was March 9, 2016, so that means that Stu was alive and well and being consumed by customers for at least 18 months. Also, as an aside, Louro has now closed its doors, but Chef David has opened another restaurant with multiple locations, appropriately named Good Stock.

And last, but not least… “Some family restaurants in China claim that the same sauce has been used continuously for 75 years.” (Click for source)

I can’t even imagine. Would you? Could you?

Eat it, that is.

The Promise of Breeze Hill, available for pre-order from your favorite retailer. (The story may or may not feature a pot of perpetual stew.)

Amazon, B&N, CBD

CBA Bestselling author PAM HILLMAN was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking hay. In those days, her daddy couldn't afford two cab tractors with air conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove an Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn't mind raking. Raking hay doesn't take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan and making up stories in her head. Now, that's the kind of life every girl should dream of. www.pamhillman.com

Holiday Food: From the Middle Ages to Your Christmas Table

I smile as I type this post today, because it is with great fondness that I look back on some of my childhood memories.

When I was young, maybe six or seven, we gathered around the table on Christmas Eve to eat lamb and fruitcake and Yorkshire pudding, I hardly realized one day I’d be write books set near the Regency Period of British history, nor did I realize that I'd one day be writing novels about Cornish immigrants to the the United States in the late 1800s. So there I was, a young child scrunching up my nose at funny shaped golden blobs that didn’t resemble pudding at all but were called pudding, grumbling that the lamb tasted funny, and complaining that the fruitcake didn’t look much like cake. But my English grandmother beamed throughout the entire meal, telling us how she used to eat these foods every Christmas when she was growing up.

During Regency days, goose, venison and beef would have been the prevalent meat at Christmas feasts, not lamb. Yorkshire pudding was a common food for the lower classes, and wouldn’t have been served in aristocratic households. Gingerbread has a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages and was brought from the Middle East by a monk. (For more information on the history of gingerbread, checkout my post from last year.) And eggnog is well over 300 years old, though that drink may well date back to the Middle Ages also.

In America during the 1880s, turkey, quail, and venison were all common Christmas fare, and depending on the region of the country where you lived, oysters, clams, and other seafood might be served as well. Much like the English brought Yorkshire pudding, eggnog, and fruitcake across the Atlantic to our modern Christmas tables, German immigrants brought apple sausage, sauerkraut, and potato dumplings, and list of traditional Christmas food kept growing as more people from other cultures brought their own special recipes. (Baklava, anyone? You can thank the Ottoman Empire for that delicious desert.)

I'm curious about your family and the food you eat for Christmas. Does it reflect your heritage or is the table filled with modern American fare such as cheesy hash brown casserole and spinach artichoke dip? Do you have any favorite Christmas dishes that you remember eating as a child? What makes those dishes special to you?

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Naomi Rawlings is the author of seven historical Christian novels, including the Amazon bestselling Eagle Harbor Series. While she'd love to claim she spends her days huddled in front of her computer vigorously typing, in reality, she spends her time homeschooling, cleaning, picking up, and pretending like her house isn't in a constant state of chaos. She lives with her husband and three children in Michigan's rugged Upper Peninsula, along the southern shore of Lake Superior where they get 200 inches of snow every year, and where people still grow their own vegetables and cut down their own firewood--just like in the historical novels she writes. You can find out more about her books at www.naomirawlings.com.

Gingerbread--From the Dark Ages to Your Christmas Table

Every year during the Christmas season, gingerbread men, women, stars, and trees fill plates and tables across the world. People spend hours baking and decorating gingerbread houses while children fill their mouths with candy that should be getting glued to the houses. You may not realize it, but gingerbread has been around for over a millennium, first appearing in Western culture during the 10th Century.

The first specific record of gingerbread being introduced to Europe tells the story of an Armenian monk who traveled to France, where he then taught gingerbread baking to French Catholics. From there, gingerbread making seemed to spread throughout Europe via monasteries and convents. In England, gingerbread was also known for it's medicinal properties and increasingly sold in monasteries and pharmacies during the Medieval Period.

Gingerbread Mould

Queen Elizabeth 1 of England is credited with first serving gingerbread biscuits (or cookies) in shapes resembling plants and animals--and possibly even men. These cookies were often decorated with gold leaf rather than the icing we know today, and elaborately decorated gingerbread figures became a symbol of all things fancy and elegant. In fact, gingerbread bakers were a distinct sect of bakers' guilds who made their livings based on their artistry with the food.

While Queen Elizabeth and the English entertained themselves with their gingerbread figurines, the Germans busied themselves by making gingerbread houses. These houses were usually decorated with foil and gold leaf, and they became synonymous with Christmas--a tradition that has stuck around for five hundred years. Gingerbread houses became even more famous in the early 1800s when the Brothers Grimm penned the story of Hansel and Gretel. Do you remember the giant gingerbread house with windows of sugar that Hansel and Gretel start to eat before the witch found them?

Today the town of Bergen, Norway makes it's own gingerbread town every year, while gingerbread house contests across the U.S. and Europe culminate with people spending hours and hours of time on their beloved structures. The world's largest gingerbread house was constructed in Bryan, Texas, as a charity endeavor to raise $200,000 for the children's floor of a local hospital. The house required a building permit and was built much like a normal house with a wooden frame, but over 4,000 bricks of gingerbread were used for the walls.

So what about you? Is gingerbread part of your family's holiday traditions? Do you have any special memories revolving around gingerbread? I'd love to hear them in the comments below.

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A mother of two young boys, Naomi Rawlings spends her days picking up, cleaning, playing and, of 

course, writing. Her husband pastors a small church in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, where her family shares its ten wooded acres with black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer and bald eagles. Naomi and her family live only three miles from Lake Superior, where the scenery is beautiful and they average 200 inches of snow per winter. She is looking forward to the release of her fourth novel, Falling for the Enemy, in January 2015. For more information about Naomi, please visit her website at www.naomirawlings.com.

Host a Medieval Holiday Feast

For a fun spin on Thanksgiving or Christmas, why not host a medieval feast? It’s easier than you may think, although the philosophy menus were based on in the Middle Ages seems a little strange to us today.

Similar to the modern adherence to the food pyramid, medieval meals adhered to the four humor system. This system was founded on the belief that all Creation labored under the influence of four conditions:  melancholy (cold and dry), choler (hot and dry), phlegm (cold and moist), and blood (hot and moist). Variations on these names existed but the principles were the same. If a person suffered an imbalance, he or she was said to be “out of humor.”

Physicians advised medieval cooks to balance the four humors in the foods they served to keep diners properly balanced. For example moist foods served cold (like some meats) aligned to the property of Phlegm and as a counter-measure called for sauces or spices that were hot and dry. Foods that were on the dry side were boiled, never roasted. Moist foods were baked to dry them.

That sounds like a lot to keep track of, but surprisingly, medieval feasts were not all that different from those of today. That’s because modern eating habits have their roots in history. A medieval feast often started with a soup, salad, light fruits, or light meats. Foods more difficult to digest like beef, pork, and heavier fruits and vegetables followed. The meal wound down with something sweet. As today, special occasions called for elaborate desserts.

Cheese was taken as a digestive aid prior to the meal and after consuming meats. Similarly, fish was followed by nuts. Medieval cooks were not afraid of spices, since they also were thought to aid digestion.

A medieval feast was served in courses, with each course composed of several offerings. There might be many courses of a few items each or only a few courses made up of many dishes. Diners ended the evening with wine and sweet fruits and cakes.

Royal feasts featured lavish spectacles called solteties, elaborate creations crafted mostly from sugar in the likeness of warriors, heroes, mythical tableaus, or whatever other shape might be desired. Another medieval amusement was to disguise one food as another. A cake might appear as a realistic-looking fish, for example.

Here’s a quick guide to blend old with new and create your own medieval-inspired feast:

Course 1: bread and cheese, soup or salad, peaches

Course 2: green vegetables, fish, lean pork or chicken served with a spicy sauce

Course 3: roasted beef or turkey (if you must), cranberry sauce, poached pears, or figs, potatoes or yams

Course 4: a selection of two or three desserts in small portions

Investigate medieval recipes at GodeCookery.com.

Medieval diners drank a variety of wine and ale throughout the meal, but if you prefer, you can substitute apple cider, grape juice, and water flavored with lemon or mint.

To replicate a medieval dining experience, take time to talk, listen to music, or enjoy a holiday presentation between courses. Your feast should span several hours. Give guests a final sweet snack and drink at the end of the evening.

The post is brought to you by Janalyn Voigt. Escape into creative worlds of fiction. 

When Janalyn was a child, her father read classic literature to her at bedtime, instilling in her a love of story. With a teacher's encouragement, she decided to become a writer at the tender age of twelve.

Beginning with DawnSinger, Janalyn's medieval epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries the reader into a land only imagined in dreams. Janalyn is also working on a romantic suspense novel set in a castle. She is represented by Sarah Joy Freese of Wordserve Literary.

When Janalyn is not writing, she loves to find adventures in the great outdoors.

Janalyn posts interesting details from her research, travel journals, author journals, and updates about her books at her Creative Worlds website.