Hi. We've had some questions about potables and an offer of a recipe for dandelion beer. I didn't know there was such a thing. I'd like to try making our own potables, things like dandelion wine, beer, malt beer and the like. I made beer about 15 years ago and it turned out pretty well, so based on my vast experience and knowledge I'd like to try it again. Making your own potables is something we don't normally think about. While there are places where we can "make" our own beer and wine, we don't have the intimate involvement that was once so common that it wasn't recorded.
Beer, ale, lager, wine, small ale (good during haying season) were all available to the farm for a modest investment in time and effort. The materials would be ready to hand for the most part with the possible exception of yeast. Wild yeast would be used in place of store bought yeast, and yes, sometimes the results were less than successful.
Beer needs four ingredients, barley, malt, water and yeast. Wine needs water, yeast and some sort of fruit. Both use large pots, beer will need some wood for the fire. Both potables will need bottles, crocks, casks, barrels, tuns or a similar vessel to age and ferment in. Gassing off didn't involve very much technology. Then, with the yeast doing it's thing, the only other involvement would be a periodic checking on the process to ensure a successful outcome.
Other common potables would be water, tea and coffee. We drink all of these today although the form they come in is somewhat different than in 1865. Tea might come in a brick, you would break or cut a piece off the brick and pop it in the hot water to steep. The coffe beans came in a bag and you would grind them up with a grinder, crush them with a mallet or, in extremis, just pop the whole beans in the boiling water to create your morning beverage.
Water would be a thing to be careful off, we call it "beaver fever", a bacteria known as Giardia can cause stomach discomfort, diarhea an cramping. So folks would more likely drink water in the form of tea, coffee, beer (boiled water) or wine where the boiled water has killed off the bacteria or the alcohol has done the same thing. I believe an alcohol content of 17% or better is needed to kill the bacteria but I'm working from memory so don't bet the bank on that one.
That's all for now,
Thanks.
Ken
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi, I am really enjoying your blog, reading back to the beginning of your posts. I noticed that you said that in 1865 tea might come in a brick or block form, and you would brew it by the chunk, not the teaspoon. I've been studying tea for the past 12 years and I can say that according to the oldest and most knowledgeable tea scholars, tea was not available in brick or block form outside Tibet and Russia in 1865. Tibetan "brick" or "tile" tea was once used as currency between Tibet and Siberia, and a small sample was sent to Moscow as tribute every year, but there is every indication that actually consuming this style of tea was a custom peculiar to Tibet and Siberia.
ReplyDeleteWith tea's status as a luxury good that became a necessity, we know that a wide range of tools and equipment for storing and preparing tea was made and purchased by almost all classes where tea was consumed, especially in the British Empire during the Victorian era. There also lots of historical newspaper ads, recipes, pictures, articles and various other records of the sale and use of tea throughout the world, but they refer to loose-leaf tea. There is no historical record mentioning the purchase, sale or use of block or brick tea outside Tibet and Siberia, especially because Tibet and Siberia didn't trade with "the outside world" until fairly recently, and there are no specialized tools for breaking, grating, or otherwise dealing with solid compacted tea leaves outside those areas, which would not be the case if people were buying "brick" tea elsewhere.
Unfortunately a misunderstanding has spread among the re-enacting and history community to the point where well-respected sutlers and re-enacting suppliers have been selling decorative tea bricks as usable, potable tea in the style of earlier eras. As far as I can find, the first tea bricks to be sold or brought outside Tibet, Siberia or the Russian countryside entered North America in the 1990s.
So, you don't have to worry about importing tea bricks and figuring out how to use them! Chinese green and black tea, and Indian black tea, loose-leaf, is what people were drinking in North America in 1865. Green tea seems to have been more popular than black tea at that point in the century. While I have never seen a recipe for "iced tea" before the late 19th century, I have seen many recipes for "cold tea" in the U.S. as early as the 1840s, and I've seen (English) recipes for alcoholic punches that call for cold green tea as an ingredient as early as 1815.