Thread: Mark Twain -- American Food

What the heck are Praerie liens from Illinois?

ps he was clearly homesick :-)

"Tara" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
> http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/l...l-of-fare.html
>
>
> It has now been many months, at the present writing, since I have had
> a nourishing meal, but I shall soon have one-a modest, private affair,
> all to myself. I have selected a few dishes, and made out a little bill
> of fare, which will go home in the steamer that precedes me, and be hot
> when I arrive-as follows:
>
> Radishes. Baked apples, with cream
> Fried oysters; stewed oysters. Frogs.
> American coffee, with real cream.
> American butter.
> Fried chicken, Southern style.
> Porter-house steak.
> Saratoga potatoes.
> Broiled chicken, American style.
> Hot biscuits, Southern style.
> Hot wheat-bread, Southern style.
> Hot buckwheat cakes.
> American toast. Clear maple syrup.
> Virginia bacon, broiled.
> Blue points, on the half shell.
> Cherry-stone clams.
> San Francisco mussels, steamed.
> Oyster soup. Clam Soup.
> Philadelphia Terapin soup.
> Oysters roasted in shell-Northern style.
> Soft-shell crabs. Connecticut shad.
> Baltimore perch.
> Brook trout, from Sierra Nevadas.
> Lake trout, from Tahoe.
> Sheep-head and croakers, from New Orleans.
> Black bass from the Mississippi.
> American roast beef.
> Roast turkey, Thanksgiving style.
> Cranberry sauce. Celery.
> Roast wild turkey. Woodcock.
> Canvas-back-duck, from Baltimore.
> Prairie liens, from Illinois.
> Missouri partridges, broiled.
> 'Possum. Coon.
> Boston bacon and beans.
> Bacon and greens, Southern style.
> Hominy. Boiled onions. Turnips.
> Pumpkin. Squash. Asparagus.
> Butter beans. Sweet potatoes.
> Lettuce. Succotash. String beans.
> Mashed potatoes. Catsup.
> Boiled potatoes, in their skins.
> New potatoes, minus the skins.
> Early rose potatoes, roasted in the ashes, Southern style, served hot.
> Sliced tomatoes, with sugar or vinegar. Stewed tomatoes.
> Green corn, cut from the ear and served with butter and pepper.
> Green corn, on the ear.
> Hot corn-pone, with chitlings, Southern style.
> Hot hoe-cake, Southern style.
> Hot egg-bread, Southern style.
> Hot light-bread, Southern style.
> Buttermilk. Iced sweet milk.
> Apple dumplings, with real cream.
> Apple pie. Apple fritters.
> Apple puffs, Southern style.
> Peach cobbler, Southern style
> Peach pie. American mince pie.
> Pumpkin pie. Squash pie.
> All sorts of American pastry.
> Fresh American fruits of all sorts, including strawberries which are
> not to be doled out as if they were jewelry, but in a more liberal way.
> Ice-water-not prepared in the ineffectual goblet, but in the sincere
> and capable refrigerator.

No meatball sandwich? That's odd.


W. Pooh (AKA Winnie P.)

On Sun, 3 Feb 2013 21:05:39 -0500, "Christopher M."
<[email protected]> wrote:

>No meatball sandwich? That's odd.
The list is from "A Tramp Abroad" (1880); meatball subs hadn't been
invented yet; subs (both kinds) hadn't been invented yet.

--
Bob
www.kanyak.com

"Christopher M." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:ken4nc$e4c$[email protected]..
>
> "Tara" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]..
>> http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/l...l-of-fare.html
>>
>>
>> It has now been many months, at the present writing, since I have had
>> a nourishing meal, but I shall soon have one-a modest, private affair,
>> all to myself. I have selected a few dishes, and made out a little bill
>> of fare, which will go home in the steamer that precedes me, and be hot
>> when I arrive-as follows:
>>
>> Radishes. Baked apples, with cream
>> Fried oysters; stewed oysters. Frogs.
>> American coffee, with real cream.
>> American butter.
>> Fried chicken, Southern style.
>> Porter-house steak.
>> Saratoga potatoes.
>> Broiled chicken, American style.
>> Hot biscuits, Southern style.
>> Hot wheat-bread, Southern style.
>> Hot buckwheat cakes.
>> American toast. Clear maple syrup.
>> Virginia bacon, broiled.
>> Blue points, on the half shell.
>> Cherry-stone clams.
>> San Francisco mussels, steamed.
>> Oyster soup. Clam Soup.
>> Philadelphia Terapin soup.
>> Oysters roasted in shell-Northern style.
>> Soft-shell crabs. Connecticut shad.
>> Baltimore perch.
>> Brook trout, from Sierra Nevadas.
>> Lake trout, from Tahoe.
>> Sheep-head and croakers, from New Orleans.
>> Black bass from the Mississippi.
>> American roast beef.
>> Roast turkey, Thanksgiving style.
>> Cranberry sauce. Celery.
>> Roast wild turkey. Woodcock.
>> Canvas-back-duck, from Baltimore.
>> Prairie liens, from Illinois.
>> Missouri partridges, broiled.
>> 'Possum. Coon.
>> Boston bacon and beans.
>> Bacon and greens, Southern style.
>> Hominy. Boiled onions. Turnips.
>> Pumpkin. Squash. Asparagus.
>> Butter beans. Sweet potatoes.
>> Lettuce. Succotash. String beans.
>> Mashed potatoes. Catsup.
>> Boiled potatoes, in their skins.
>> New potatoes, minus the skins.
>> Early rose potatoes, roasted in the ashes, Southern style, served hot.
>> Sliced tomatoes, with sugar or vinegar. Stewed tomatoes.
>> Green corn, cut from the ear and served with butter and pepper.
>> Green corn, on the ear.
>> Hot corn-pone, with chitlings, Southern style.
>> Hot hoe-cake, Southern style.
>> Hot egg-bread, Southern style.
>> Hot light-bread, Southern style.
>> Buttermilk. Iced sweet milk.
>> Apple dumplings, with real cream.
>> Apple pie. Apple fritters.
>> Apple puffs, Southern style.
>> Peach cobbler, Southern style
>> Peach pie. American mince pie.
>> Pumpkin pie. Squash pie.
>> All sorts of American pastry.
>> Fresh American fruits of all sorts, including strawberries which are
>> not to be doled out as if they were jewelry, but in a more liberal way.
>> Ice-water-not prepared in the ineffectual goblet, but in the sincere
>> and capable refrigerator.
>
> No meatball sandwich? That's odd.

I wouldn't say that's American!

On Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:51:12 -0600, Tara <[email protected]>
wrote:

>http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/l...l-of-fare.html
>
>
> It has now been many months, at the present writing, since I have had
>a nourishing meal, but I shall soon have one—a modest, private affair,
>all to myself. I have selected a few dishes, and made out a little bill
>of fare, which will go home in the steamer that precedes me, and be hot
>when I arrive—as follows:
>snip
> Fresh American fruits of all sorts, including strawberries which are
>not to be doled out as if they were jewelry, but in a more liberal way.
> Ice-water—not prepared in the ineffectual goblet, but in the sincere
>and capable refrigerator.

refrigerator?
Janet US

On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:51:12 -0700, Janet Bostwick
<[email protected]> wrote:

> On Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:51:12 -0600, Tara <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> >http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/l...l-of-fare.html
> >
> >
> > Ice-water—not prepared in the ineffectual goblet, but in the sincere
> >and capable refrigerator.
>
> refrigerator?

AKA: ice box?

--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:03:41 -0800, sf <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:51:12 -0700, Janet Bostwick
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:51:12 -0600, Tara <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/l...l-of-fare.html
>> >
>> >
>> > Ice-water—not prepared in the ineffectual goblet, but in the sincere
>> >and capable refrigerator.
>>
>> refrigerator?
>
>AKA: ice box?
if the article was written then, the vernacular would be ice box.
Don't know for sure, but I don't think the word refrigerator was
around in the 1880s.
Janet US

On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:07:29 -0700, Janet Bostwick
<[email protected]> wrote:

> On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:03:41 -0800, sf <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:51:12 -0700, Janet Bostwick
> ><[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >> On Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:51:12 -0600, Tara <[email protected]>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> >http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/l...l-of-fare.html
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Ice-water—not prepared in the ineffectual goblet, but in the sincere
> >> >and capable refrigerator.
> >>
> >> refrigerator?
> >
> >AKA: ice box?
> if the article was written then, the vernacular would be ice box.
> Don't know for sure, but I don't think the word refrigerator was
> around in the 1880s.

I doubt it's an authentic article.


--
Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

On 2/4/2013 10:07 AM, Janet Bostwick wrote:
> On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:03:41 -0800, sf <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Janet Bostwick <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Tara <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/l...l-of-fare.html
>>>> Ice-water—not prepared in the ineffectual goblet, but in the sincere
>>>> and capable refrigerator.
>>>
>>> refrigerator?
>>
>> AKA: ice box?
> if the article was written then, the vernacular would be ice box.
> Don't know for sure, but I don't think the word refrigerator was
> around in the 1880s.
>
The OED shows it in use as far back as 1611, but obviously it wasn't
describing an electrical appliance.

sf wrote:

> > refrigerator?
>
> AKA: ice box?

Exactly how old are you, anyway?

On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:07:29 -0700, Janet Bostwick
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:03:41 -0800, sf <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:51:12 -0700, Janet Bostwick
>><[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:51:12 -0600, Tara <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> >http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/l...l-of-fare.html
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Ice-water—not prepared in the ineffectual goblet, but in the sincere
>>> >and capable refrigerator.
>>>
>>> refrigerator?
>>
>>AKA: ice box?
>if the article was written then, the vernacular would be ice box.
>Don't know for sure, but I don't think the word refrigerator was
>around in the 1880s.

Ice boxes made inferior ice water. After all, that was river ice,
kept cold in ice houses between layers of straw.

A gas operated refrigerator [in use before the Civil War though not in
many *homes*] made *pure* cold water. I can't remember the
essayist- but there was a great article in some 19th century magazine
about how much healthier 'refrigerated cold water' was.

Jim

Jim Elbrecht <[email protected]> wrote:

-snip-
>
>A gas operated refrigerator [in use before the Civil War though not in
>many *homes*] made *pure* cold water. I can't remember the
>essayist- but there was a great article in some 19th century magazine
>about how much healthier 'refrigerated cold water' was.
>

I couldn't immediately come up with that article. But this one is
interesting
http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cg...anu0001-7%3A83

http://tinyurl.com/1869refrigerator

A portable ice box- that they called a refrigerator in an 1869 edition
of "The Manufacturer and Builder" Volume 0001 Issue 7 (July 1869) /
p216. "A Cabinet Refrigerator"

xxxxx
A Cabinet Refrigerator.
A FEW days ago, while passing up Sixth avenue, we saw at the store of
Mr. Lesley No. 605a very neat and useful little article with which the
readers of our home department can hardly fail to be pleased. It is
nothing more or less than a small, portable refrigerator, which can be
carried from room to room as circumstances may require. It has a
reservoir for ice at the top, with a silver-plated faucet for drawing
off the water. Below the ice is the cooling apartment, which is
chilled to a low degree by the ice above. This apartment is provided
with a door having a good lock. The sides and door are filled with
charcoal, and the whole article is beautifully grained in oak. For the
sick-room, hospitals, the sideboard, and for people boarding who can
not have access to a large refrigerator, this little cabinet affair is
especially useful. Indeed, it is so small, portable, and convenient,
that it would make a capital addition to a suit of chamber furniture;
for oft in the stilly night would it be found useful, when one is not
in the mood or in the costume to descend to the kitchen for a
refreshing drink.
xxxx

I guess it wasn't important to distinguish refrigerator from ice box
until the former were a bit more popular.

Jim

On Feb 3, 9:01*pm, Opinicus <gez...@spamcop.net.which.is.not.invalid>
wrote:
> On Sun, 3 Feb 2013 21:05:39 -0500, "Christopher M."
>
> <nospam_libb...@loo.com> wrote:
> >No meatball sandwich? That's odd.
>
> The list is from "A Tramp Abroad" (1880); meatball subs hadn't been
> invented yet; subs (both kinds) hadn't been invented yet.
>
> --
> Bobwww.kanyak.com

and no sloppy joe....

On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:26:13 -0500, Jim Elbrecht <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Jim Elbrecht <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>-snip-
>>
>>A gas operated refrigerator [in use before the Civil War though not in
>>many *homes*] made *pure* cold water. I can't remember the
>>essayist- but there was a great article in some 19th century magazine
>>about how much healthier 'refrigerated cold water' was.
>>
>
>I couldn't immediately come up with that article. But this one is
>interesting
>http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cg...anu0001-7%3A83
>
>http://tinyurl.com/1869refrigerator
>
>A portable ice box- that they called a refrigerator in an 1869 edition
>of "The Manufacturer and Builder" Volume 0001 Issue 7 (July 1869) /
>p216. "A Cabinet Refrigerator"
>
>xxxxx
>A Cabinet Refrigerator.
>A FEW days ago, while passing up Sixth avenue, we saw at the store of
>Mr. Lesley No. 605a very neat and useful little article with which the
>readers of our home department can hardly fail to be pleased. It is
>nothing more or less than a small, portable refrigerator, which can be
>carried from room to room as circumstances may require. It has a
>reservoir for ice at the top, with a silver-plated faucet for drawing
>off the water. Below the ice is the cooling apartment, which is
>chilled to a low degree by the ice above. This apartment is provided
>with a door having a good lock. The sides and door are filled with
>charcoal, and the whole article is beautifully grained in oak. For the
>sick-room, hospitals, the sideboard, and for people boarding who can
>not have access to a large refrigerator, this little cabinet affair is
>especially useful. Indeed, it is so small, portable, and convenient,
>that it would make a capital addition to a suit of chamber furniture;
>for oft in the stilly night would it be found useful, when one is not
>in the mood or in the costume to descend to the kitchen for a
>refreshing drink.
>xxxx
>
>I guess it wasn't important to distinguish refrigerator from ice box
>until the former were a bit more popular.
>
>Jim
Interesting. I stand corrected.
Janet US

On 04/02/2013 11:10 AM, George M. Middius wrote:
> sf wrote:
>
>>> refrigerator?
>>
>> AKA: ice box?
>
> Exactly how old are you, anyway?
>


I was born in 1950 and I have to admit that, while most people had
electric refrigerators, there were still some people around who had ice
boxes. When I was very young there was an ice delivery service and, like
the bread man and the milk man, it was horse drawn.

When going camping or on picnics and we needed ice we used to go to the
the ice store (for lack of a better name) and they had huge blocks of
ice packed in sawdust. The used to cut it from lakes and rivers in the
winter.

Maybe it is a cultural thing but we always referred to the fridge as a
fridge, or refrigerator. My father in law was born and raised in the US
and was older than my grandparents. He was the only person I knew who
always referred to it as an ice box.

On Feb 4, 12:58*pm, Dave Smith <adavid.sm...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> On 04/02/2013 11:10 AM, George M. Middius wrote:
>
> > sf wrote:
>
> >>> refrigerator?
>
> >> AKA: ice box?
>
> > Exactly how old are you, anyway?
>
> I was born in 1950 and I have to admit that, while most people had
> electric refrigerators, there were still some people around who had ice
> boxes. When I was very young there was an ice delivery service and, like
> the bread man and the milk man, it was horse drawn.
>
> When going camping or on picnics and we needed ice we used to go to the
> the ice store (for lack of a better name) and they had huge blocks of
> ice packed in sawdust. *The used to cut it from lakes and rivers in the
> winter.
>
> Maybe it is a cultural thing but we always referred to the fridge as a
> fridge, or refrigerator. My father in law was born and raised in the US
> and was older than my grandparents. He was the only person I knew who
> always referred to it as an ice box.

Your father was older than your grandparents....interesting.

On Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:58:24 -0500, Dave Smith
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On 04/02/2013 11:10 AM, George M. Middius wrote:
>> sf wrote:
>>
>>>> refrigerator?
>>>
>>> AKA: ice box?
>>
>> Exactly how old are you, anyway?
>>
>
>
>I was born in 1950 and I have to admit that, while most people had
>electric refrigerators, there were still some people around who had ice
>boxes. When I was very young there was an ice delivery service and, like
>the bread man and the milk man, it was horse drawn.
>

Yup-- I'm a year younger, and when I was a kid the old guy next door
had an ice box. I remember when he got a 'Frigidaire' [which might
have been a GE or Whirlpool] because he and I smashed that gorgeous
old oak ice box into kindling wood for his stove.

>When going camping or on picnics and we needed ice we used to go to the
>the ice store (for lack of a better name) and they had huge blocks of
>ice packed in sawdust. The used to cut it from lakes and rivers in the
>winter.
>
>Maybe it is a cultural thing but we always referred to the fridge as a
>fridge, or refrigerator. My father in law was born and raised in the US
>and was older than my grandparents. He was the only person I knew who
>always referred to it as an ice box.

When we were growing up in upstate NY I think the 2 terms were about
equally common.

Jim

Dave Smith wrote:

> >>> refrigerator?
> >>
> >> AKA: ice box?
> >
> > Exactly how old are you, anyway?

> I was born in 1950 and I have to admit that, while most people had
> electric refrigerators, there were still some people around who had ice
> boxes.

I've only see pix, never a real-life icebox. I suppose 'lectric chillers
weren't standard accouterments until maybe 1970.

Any Eskimos post here? They don't even need boxes for ice.