A Chew Celebration

Please Join Us for "A Chew Celebration" at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

6 p.m. Wednesday, October 14

Join HSP as we celebrate the completion of the Chew Family Papers project, a two-year project to process and preserve one of the society’s most significant collections. The papers span 300 years and provide a rare insight into this elite Philadelphia family as well as into the lives of workers, slaves, servants, and women from early America. This project was made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and individual donations. Project Archivist Cathleen Miller will discuss the highlights of the collection and original documents will be on display. Refreshments will be served. FREE

To register for this event, please visit the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's website http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=10.

For the Foodies

Elizabeth J.J. Brown's cook book (ca. 1860) has come into the lab for repairs. And what a sweet little thing it is, especially the title page:

The Historical Society also owns Martha Washington's Cook Book. Last June we had a Solstice Potluck with staff and interns using the recipes from Mrs. Washington's book. It was quite successful and we've been anticipating the second annual potluck all winter. But perhaps the format will need to change in honor of the Chews the year?

The cookbooks are interesting to compare. Both are written by one writer and were started at both ends. Each has interesting instructions and measurements. For example, Elizabeth has a recipe for Morning Rolls, which calls for "a piece of butter the size of an egg and a 1/2." However, Mrs. Washington's book was clearly written before foods of the new world became part of the diet. There is no mention of tomatoes, potatoes, or squash. Her book is also organized into two sections; one of "cookery" and one of "sweetmeats." Elizabeth's book is full of food from the new world including recipes for catsup of tomatoes and of mushrooms, and references for straining things "as you would for squash." There does not seem to be a logical organization of Elizabeth's book.

Some of the more fun recipes include the "Kisses" above, and the Plumb Gingerbread. Although we have yet to find the plumbs in the gingerbread.

There are interesting recipes for Pickled Walnuts, and sevreal recipes for oysters, (boiled, fried, baked, or as a pie). A few of the eyebrow-raising items include: "Oily Mixture" and one "To Turtle Calves Head."

Along with recipes written down, there are a few dozen given to her by others, hastily written on scraps of paper or cut from the newspaper. She has several for Summer Complaint; this one sounds the yummiest - while others call for Gum Arabic and Laudanum.

And finally, one of the more interesting recipes to compare directly with Mrs. Washington's book is for Tomato Tart.

Without a doubt, the favorite surprise success recipe at last year's potluck was Mrs. Washington's Lettuce Pie. While the recipe sounded easy none of us trusted it to be any good. But Annie put it together it was the hit of the day. I suspect this one could be quite tasty with homegrown tomatoes completely ripened. I also suspect that it could inspire a very nice savory tart as well.

Let them eat cake

A different monarch, a different century, but this letter to Anne Sophia Penn Chew (1805-1892) includes not only an interesting reference to a remarkable cake, but fragments of the cake itself! Anna Maria Rush wrote to Anne on March 13, 1840, including crumbs from Queen Victoria of England's wedding cake. Rush had received some crumbs from another woman, Mrs. Stevenson, who attended the February 10 wedding, and sent on to Anne a few of them, "as a curiosity at least."

(click on images to enlarge them)

The crumbs are encapsulated to prevent them from harming the letters they are filed amongst. The envelope that the encapsulated crumbs are stored in dates from earlier processing of parts of the collection, in the early 1980s.





I am beginning to sort Anne's correspondence this week and my first impression of this Chew is that she was a strong and independently-minded woman. I wonder if her friend Anna's opening comment in this letter provides a clue to a less-than-orthodox range of womanly interests: "I do not know that you will value any thing so trifling as Queen Victoria's wedding cake..."

What They Were Drinking

This recipe for "Mrs. Dysons Champaign" was found in a bundle containing bills and correspondence. Perhaps they drank this at Benjamin Chew's birthday celebration in 1840, for which there was a list of attendees.

Apparently, this brew can fool even the most discriminating palates.