Although it may sound
strange at first, the denizens of
Revolutionary-era America often used food to express
their anger at the British. From the Boston Tea Party
to the coffee riots, Americans would use food to
declare their independence. Meals and ingredients
associated with the British were rejected and replaced
with homegrown alternatives. Today, we're going
to take a look at some of the foods Americans
ate during the Revolutionary War. But before we get started, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel, and let us
know in the comments below what other culinary topics you
would like to hear about. OK? We hope you brought
your patriotic appetite. We have some wonderful
menu items for you today. [MUSIC PLAYING] Food was a valuable commodity
during the Revolution, so Americans were sure to use
every part of the animal-- even the blood. Take, for example, the
recipe for blood pudding from an 1885 cookbook
by Hannah Glasse. The directions call for mixing
cornmeal with boiled milk or, failing that, water. Next, blood is stirred in. And the whole thing
is mixed thoroughly. Finally, Glasse recommends
adding a molasses-based syrup called "treacle" and, for good
measure, a little hog's lard. Cooks were advised to boil the
blood pudding for up to seven hours before serving it. [MUSIC PLAYING] When we said that Americans
during the Revolution used every part of the
animal, we meant it. Take, for example,
Joseph Plumb Martin, a private from
Connecticut who recorded some of the more unusual
foods he ate during the war. For example, on one occasion
he boiled an old ox's liver. It probably seemed like
a good idea at the time. But it wasn't. Martin reports the meat gave
him a terrible stomachache. After taking some medicine,
Martin, in his own words, "discharged the hard chunks
of liver like grapeshot from a fieldpiece,"
which sounds just awful in every conceivable way. You would think an incident like
that would make Martin pickier about what he ate. But no, sir-- not for
that Connecticut private. Martin seemed to be
especially fond of bits that, even then, others
thought of as undesirable. This is illustrated in journals
where, among other things, he also records eating a
sheep's head so it wouldn't go to waste, and an ox's milt,
or spleen, which made him hurl. [MUSIC PLAYING] As anyone who has seen
Hamilton could tell you, as soon as the American
Revolution ended, Thomas Jefferson went to France. While he was there, the
American Founding Father may have, for the
first time in his life, tasted something many
of us take for granted-- ice cream. Yes, from the first
moment he tried it, the dessert became a huge
favorite with Jefferson. He's even the first American
to create and popularize his own recipe for the stuff. As president of
the United States, Jefferson is known to have
served ice cream on at least six occasions. Manasseh Cutler, a
congressman from Massachusetts who Jefferson
introduced to ice cream, wrote of the experience,
"ice cream, very good. Crust wholly dried,
crumbled into thin flakes." It sounds like a
review from a caveman. (MIMICKING A CAVEMAN)
Ice cream, very good. Crust wholly dried,
crumbled into thin flakes. Another White House
guest marveled at the balls of the
frozen material enclosed in covers of warm pastry,
exhibiting a curious contrast, as if the ice had just
been taken from the oven. [MUSIC PLAYING] The recipe for firecake
included water, flour, and not a single other thing. If that doesn't sound
too appetizing to you, well, it didn't to
Revolutionary soldiers either. In truth, they only ate firecake
when they absolutely had to. However, ration shortages during
George Washington's winter at Valley Forge meant that many
soldiers had no other option. To make it, they would mix
their flour rations with water and then bake it
in an iron kettle. Since there was
no yeast involved, the cake was dense and
basically tasteless. But if that sounds boring, there
was a way it got spiced up-- maggots and weevils regularly
got into the flower stores. Since there was
basically nothing that could be done
about it, the men would simply cook them
up with the flour. Well, at least it added
some protein to the meal. If you have never had
it, anyone from Philly can tell you how good this
meat concoction can be. Popularized by the
Pennsylvania Dutch, scrapple was made from the
leftover parts of a pig. That's right. It's the American Revolutionary
version of the McRib. One recipe that dates all the
way back to the colonial period called for using the pig's
head, feet, and any pieces which may be left after having
made sausage meat. Is anyone else's mouth watering? The parts were to be
tossed into a pot with salt and boiled until they
were soft enough to allow for removal of the bones. Americans were in the habit of
seasoning the meat with salt and pepper and
adding Indian meal to thicken the mixture into
something closer to a mush. After it was cooked, the "chef"
was to slice the scrapple and then fry it in hot lard. Scrapple-- made from
the best stuff on Earth. [MUSIC PLAYING] Pumpkins were a New World food. And Americans of the
Revolutionary era had several ways of
incorporating them into their cooking. One of the most
popular was a way that remains widely beloved today-- pumpkin pie. In Hannah Glasse's
aforementioned cookbook of 1805, she carefully explains
how the Founding Fathers made and ate their own pumpkin pie. According to Glasse, the
cook should peel a pumpkin and stew it until it gets soft. The recipe then called
for one pint of pumpkin, one glass of rosewater,
one pint of milk, and one glass of Malaga wine. After that, the
recipe was rounded off with half a pound of butter,
sugar, salt, seven eggs, and a dash of nutmeg. Like most people,
George Washington enjoyed a drink
from time to time. And just months after
the Revolutionary War began, George Washington
stocked up on Madeira wine. This particular
wine was imported from the Portuguese
colony of Madeira and might contain brandy
or other sweeteners, depending on the variety. In preparation for what he knew
would be an extended conflict, Washington ordered 1,900
bottles of the stuff. He wasn't the only
Founding Father who was fond of the stuff either. In 1760, John Hancock
underreported his Madeira wine imports to protest British
import taxes, which led to a mob in Boston. The delegates to the
First Continental Congress drank Madeira while
debating independence. And Thomas Jefferson
raised a glass of Madeira right after signing the
Declaration of Independence. [MUSIC PLAYING] While they didn't have a
Starbucks on every corner quite yet, coffee
was wildly popular during the American Revolution. In fact, when a merchant
named Thomas Boylston drove up the price of coffee
by stockpiling it, at least 100 women marched
to his warehouse and rioted. The riot took place
on July 24, 1777. According to Abigail
Adams, at least 100 women assembled with a
cart and trucks, marched down to the warehouse,
and demanded the keys, which Boylston refused to deliver. That is when things took
an ugly, aggressive turn. Do not deny people their coffee. Adams reports one of the
women seized him by his neck and tossed him into a cart. With no way to escape,
he handed over the keys. They tipped the cart
over to free him and then opened the warehouse. The coffee was removed,
loaded into trucks, and then taken away. It all seems pretty reasonable
to a coffee drinker. [MUSIC PLAYING] Unless you're Oprah, bread might
not sound too exciting to you. But to the starving
Continental forces of 1777, it was a life-saver. The troops stuck in Valley
Forge had requested more food. But instead, Congress
sent them a baker named Christopher Ludwick. Ludwick wasn't just
any old baker, though. In fact, his actual
title was Superintendent of Bakers and Director of Baking
in the Grand Army of the United States, which I have to admit
is the best LinkedIn title ever. Congress offered
Ludwick a deal in which he would bake 1 pound of
bread per pound of flour. This would allow him to
sell some excess flour and pocket the money. However, Ludwick refused. He told Congress he
had enough money, and he had no desire to
grow richer from a conflict. Instead, he insisted
that he would furnish 135 pounds of bread
for every 100 pounds of flour you put into my hands-- a very classy move. [MUSIC PLAYING] Made from fermented
molasses, which is a byproduct of Caribbean
sugar plantations, rum has a very long
history in the Americas. At first, it was shipped to the
British colonies by the gallon. But by the time of the
American Revolution, the colonists were
distilling their own. New England alone had
over 150 rum distilleries. Revolutionary
Americans loved rum so much that at the
time of the war, consumption of the beverage
was as high as an astonishing 4 gallons per person per year. Being, for the most
part, former Brits, the American colonists
enjoyed many British foods. However, they also
had no opposition to adopting new foods that
were grown in North America. In fact, Hannah Glasse even
included several recipes in her cookbook,
which she described as "adapted to the
American mode of cooking." One of these recipes
was for cranberry tarts. Glasse's recommendation
was to stew the cranberries into a jelly, add brown
sugar, and then bake with butter and flour. [MUSIC PLAYING] Like most soldiers in
wartime, the American forces that fought in the Revolution
received daily rations to sustain themselves. The rations typically
included a pound of meat per day, which might be
beef, salt pork, or salt fish. Each soldier also received
a pound of flour per day. In addition to those,
the troops would get some helping
of peas or beans, some milk, and usually a
small quantity of rice, corn, and molasses. However, that was under
ideal circumstances. And war is often
less than ideal. In fact, the troops often
didn't receive full rations. And when they were on
the march, fresh milk was especially hard to find. During the long winter
of 1777 in Valley Forge, many of the allowances
had to be adjusted based on limited availability. And many soldiers just
had to go without. [MUSIC PLAYING] Given that they
were mostly British, the Americans of the colonies
had a special fondness for tea. When Parliament cracked
down on tea smugglers, the colonists didn't
take it too well. They tossed their tea
into Boston Harbor at an event that would forever
be called the "Boston Tea Party." Once the Revolution started,
however, many Americans began to reject the idea
of drinking British tea as a matter of patriotism. Moreover, British loyalists who
continued to enjoy the drink would often face
criticism from their more revolutionary neighbors, which
probably didn't help sales too much. Many of the Americans who
swore off drinking tea took to drinking coffee instead. But some replaced it
with raspberry leaf tea or other American-grown,
herbal tea alternatives. The Americans weren't
just revolutionaries, they were trendsetters. Just a few years after the
former English colonists won their own independence,
their allies over in France staged a little
revolution of their own. In Boston, the French Revolution
was celebrated with a feast. They hung a sign reading
"Peace Offering to Liberty and Equality" around
the neck of an ox, and then led the animal
to Liberty Square. There, the ox was carved up and
served alongside turkey, punch, and 1,600 loaves of bread. Long live the
Revolution, indeed. So what do you think? Which of these dishes
sounds the yummiest to you? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our weird history.
