Woodcraft and Camping Skills from the 18th to the 21st Centuries, Survival Skills, Lost Prevention, Gear Reviews and Much More...
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Coffee, Tea or … Chocolate? Part One ©
Picture by the author. |
An excerpt from Ann Moore’s journal, recounting her visit to Fort Edward on February 12th, 1758, from the Friends Miscellany, page 320. |
It
is almost Christmas; the weather is cold, and the days are short. It is the perfect time for a hot drink,
whether you are inside or outside, or travelling through the winter woods. Did you ever wonder what our ancestors drank,
when they were out on a winter hunt in the woods; or on a scout between Fort
Edward and Ticonderoga, in 1758? Was it
coffee, tea or chocolate and how did they make it when they were travelling
through the woods?
I
got curious and so I decided to find out, and the answer surprised me! Here is what I found.
I
was surprised to find that during the late 18th to the early 19th
centuries, people drank more chocolate than tea, and more tea than coffee, at
least until the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution. In fact, it wasn’t until the middle of the 19th
century that coffee became the number one hot drink in the United States.
Price
matters, and drinking chocolate was less expensive than coffee or tea. In London, England, coffee per pound cost
between four shillings, nine pence and six shillings, which was less expensive
than tea per pound, which sold for between seven shillings, six pence and
sixteen shillings per pound2.
During the mid-1700s, unsweetened chocolate was sold in Williamsburg,
Virginia for about two shillings, six pence per pound, which was slightly more than
a free unskilled laborer or sailor earned in a day1, back then. As
the century advanced the price of chocolate decreased, in 1780, at Fort
Niagara, deep in the old Northwest Frontier, the price of chocolate was 8 pence
per pound3. Even in the wilds
of northern New York drinking chocolate was less expensive than tea, as can be
seen in Lieut. William Henshaw’s 1759 journal.
During this time, in the traditional pounds, shillings and pence system,
a pound equaled 20 shillings and there were 12 pence per shilling; so, Lieut.
Henshaw’s pound of tea cost 150 pence per pound, while his cake of chocolate, cost
42 pence.
Eighteenth
century drinking chocolate was more of a food than a drink and it is not at all
the same as modern hot chocolate. It was
a richer, thicker, oilier, dark or semi-sweet drink that is in some ways like
Sherpa butter tea. Because it was less
expensive, and therefore more available to everyone during the 18th
century, it was a more common hot drink than either coffee or tea. Since it was considered more of a food than a
drink, it was often drank at breakfast, and sometimes added to coffee, wine or even
beer!
So
hot drinking chocolate for breakfast it is, as we travel through the winter
woods, but just how did they make it and how do we, modern folk, duplicate it?
An incident during a scout, from September 1st to September 3rd, 1757, near Fort Edward, from the Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam, page 44. |
Late
18th and early 19th century chocolate “cakes”, which were
chipped, shaved or ground into boiling milk, water or a combination of both, to
make hot drinking chocolate, started out as cacao beans. At that time a chocolatier
had to ferment, sort, dry, roast, remove the cacao shells to get to the cocoa “nibs”
and winnow the nibs before he could pound, grind and roll the nibs into a thick
paste. Today, this thick paste, is
called chocolate liquor, and it is a combination of cocoa butter, which is about
52-54% of the paste, and cocoa solids, which make up about 46-48% of the paste. When sold in its solid form is called
“unsweetened chocolate” or “baking chocolate”, and it is 100% cacao. The “% Cacao” on a chocolate bar, tells you
how much of the bar came from a cacao bean, adding sugar and other flavorings
lowers the percentage of cacao. Usually late
18th and early 19th century chocolatiers would add sugar
to the chocolate paste, they might also add nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, or other
flavorings to it as well. Once it had
cooled into a gritty, powdery cake it was ready to be sold and enjoyed.
In
1879 Rudolf Lindt invented the conching machine: today most chocolate is
conched, which gives chocolate it’s bright shiny finish and creamy, smooth feel. Before conching, in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries, chocolate would not have had a creamy,
smooth feel and it would have had a dull finish. Also, 18th century chocolate was
not milled as fine as modern chocolate and it would have had a grainy, gritty
texture. And, as for the taste, 18th
century chocolate tastes like modern day bittersweet or dark chocolate.
But,
in this day and age, how do you find modern chocolate that has been prepared
the way it was in 18th century, or at least in a similar manner?
Jim
Gay, an interpreter for Colonial Williamsburg’s Department of Historic
Foodways, and a leading authority on historic chocolate; recommends Mars candy
corporation’s American Heritage Chocolate (click HERE for the American Heritage
Chocolate site). American Heritage
Chocolate can be purchased at their website or at different historical sites, like
Fort Ticonderoga or George Washington’s Mount Vernon. American Heritage Chocolate is made in small
batches with well researched recipes and flavorings; however, it is conched and
because of this it won’t have the same look as 18th century
chocolate. Chef and chocolate professor,
Michael Laiskonis, recommends Taza Chocolate, which is stone-ground on hand
carved granite millstones and mixed with sugar: it is not conched, which means
that it has a 18th century look and feel to it (click HERE for the
Taza Chocolate site)4.
Fortunately
for me, the Wegmans Food Markets near my house carry Taza Chocolate; unfortunately
for me, Fort Ticonderoga, the nearest distributor of American Heritage
Chocolate, is about a seven-hour drive from where I live. If you find that these two chocolates are not
available near you, and you are impatient, or on a deadline, and you can’t wait
to try the deliciousness of 18th century drinking chocolate; you can
use unsweetened, or as it is also called, baking chocolate and to sweeten it
you can use turbinado sugar, which is a raw or minimally processed sugar.
So
now that we know what chocolate to use, pick one of the recipes below, and cook
yourself a delicious cup of 18th century drinking chocolate
And
it wasn’t just late 18th and early 19th century travelers
in the wilderness that enjoyed a cup of drinking chocolate. The outdoorsman Horace Kephart included a
recipe for drinking chocolate made on the campfire, in
his book Camp Cookery, which was published in 1910 and later republished
as late as 1941. So modern explorers can
have a cup too.
So,
drink up and enjoy!
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.
Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube,
and if you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either
site. I announce new articles on
Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at
Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1 “The Cost of Living, London, mid 1700s”, http://footguards.tripod.com/08HISTORY/08_costofliving.htm
2
Mary Miley Theobold, “A Cup of Hot Chocolate, S’good for What Ails Ya”
3
Farmer, Dennis and Carol; The Kings Bread, 2d Rising: Cooking At
Niagara, 1726 – 1815, p. 51
4 If
you are using Taza Chocolate in the recipes in this article, since Taza
Chocolate already contains sugar, taste your drinking chocolate before adding the
sugar mentioned in the recipe.
Sources
American
Antiquarian Society, Manuscript Records Of The French And Indian War,
[American Antiquarian Society, Worcester Massachusetts, 1909], p. 202, https://books.google.com/books?id=hd5NAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA202&lpg=PA202&dq=indians+%22fort+edward%22+chocolate&source=bl&ots=SxYOyaFM_2&sig=ACfU3U2g5dwH9vJHWswh8nDlMHdg_yqirg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicy_-7mbrmAhUPzlkKHWYODHIQ6AEwAnoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=indians%20%22fort%20edward%22%20chocolate&f=false,
accessed 12/17/19
Clayton,
Cindy; “A Colonial treat: Old-time chocolate”, The Virginian-Pilot, January 18,
2009, https://www.pilotonline.com/news/article_55e318e2-911a-50d3-9421-, accessed 12/17/19
Comly, John and Isaac, Editors; Friends’
Miscellany, [Printed by J. Richards, Philadelphia, 1833], p 320 https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8gYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA320&dq=%22fort+edward%22+chocolate+journal&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjj1oXtnLrmAhVpAp0JHVSFBJ44RhDoATAJegQIARAC#v=onepage&q=%22fort%20edward%22%20chocolate%20journal&f=false, accessed 12/17/19
Dawes,
Ephraim Cutler; Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam, [Joel Munsell’s Sons,
Albany, New York, 1886], p. 44, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Journal_of_Gen_Rufus_Putnam_Kept_in_Nort/3DkTAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=and+they+sd+that+as+one+of+them+was+some+way+off+boiling+some+cocolatt&pg=PA44&printsec=frontcover,
accessed 12/25/19
Erickson, Mark St. John; “Historically
delicious: Colonial Williamsburg expert creates chocolate like you've never
seen or tasted before”, McClatchy Newspapers, October 13,
2008, https://www.catholic.org/news/hf/home/story.php?id=30044,
accessed 12/22/19
Farmer, Dennis and Carol; The Kings Bread,
2d Rising: Cooking At Niagara, 1726 – 1815,
[Old Fort Niagara Association, Youngstown, New York, 1989]. p. 51
Grossman,
Jayne Georgette; “Chocolate: A
Complete Beginner’s Guide”, [© 2019 Fizzle Co], https://expertenough.com/973/chocolate, accessed 12/25/19
Guittard Chocolate
Company; “Glossary Of Terms”, [© 2019. Guittard Chocolate
Company], https://www.guittard.com/in-the-kitchen/article/glossary-of-terms, accessed 12/28/19
Kephart,
Horace; Camp Cookery, [Outing Publishing Company, New York, 1910], pages 11 and
135-136, https://archive.org/details/campcookery01keph/page/n7,
accessed 12/28/19
Knox,
John; An Historical Journal Of The Campaigns in North-America, For The Years
1757, 1758, 1759 And 1760, Volume 2, [W. Johnston, in Ludgate-Street, and
J. Dodsley, in Pall Mall, London, 1769], page 11 https://books.google.com/books?id=6L1FAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22john+Knox%22+%22hyson+tea%22&source=bl&ots=qrEcAGX97O&sig=ACfU3U1Y2TAtNHXkTl_OkBYYTr7LgICPVg&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjioeO429TmAhVimuAKHclZCbEQ6AEwAXoECA4QAQ#v=onepage&q=%22john%20Knox%22%20%22hyson%20tea%22&f=false,
accessed 12/26/19
Raposo,
Jacqueline; “Colonial America Was Obsessed With Chocolate That Probably Tasted
Pretty Bad”, Vice, January 22, 2019, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a3bzy8/colonial-america-was-obsessed-with-chocolate-that-probably-tasted-pretty-bad, accessed 12/22/19
Sally’s Baking Addiction,
“Baking Basics: Baking with Chocolate”, February 8, 2017, https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/baking-basics-baking-chocolate/, accessed 12/25/19
“The
Cost of Living, London, mid 1700s”, [The First Foot Guards] http://footguards.tripod.com/08HISTORY/08_costofliving.htm,
accessed 12/28/19
Theobold,
Mary Miley, “A Cup of Hot Chocolate, S’good for What Ails Ya” CW Journal, 2012,
[© 2019 The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation]
https://www.history.org/foundation/journal/winter12/chocolate.cfm,
accessed 12/22/19
Velie, Marissa Sertich; “Everything You Need to Know About Baking With Chocolate”, July
31, 2014, Last Updated: April 4, 2019, https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/07/baking-with-chocolate.html,
accessed 12/25/19
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Comfortably Cold, What’s That?©
I
frequently write and teach about the need to stay “comfortably cold” in the
winter, and for that matter in the spring and fall as well.
Now,
you might be asking yourself, “Comfortably cold, what’s that”? That is a good question, so let’s talk about
it.
The
first thing you need to know is that your body is like an engine, you take in
food as fuel and you burn it as you move about, work or even when you sit and
read an article from The Woodsman’s Journal Online! And just like an engine, only about 20% of
the food energy that you burn is used to do work, the other 80% or so becomes
heat. Like a car’s engine, you also have
a radiator, it is your skin! As with any
radiator, the greater its surface area in relation to its thickness, the
greater the heat loss and the more effective the radiator. Because of this your ears, nose and chin; and
your arms and legs, and in particular, your hands, fingers, feet and toes are
very good radiators: that is why during the winter they get cold and frostbit
the quickest.
Now
the more work your body does, the more food-fuel you burn and the more heat you
produce. Some of you have probably
poured water on an overheating radiator, to cool off a hot engine, this is what
your body is doing when you start to sweat: it is pouring water on the radiator
to cool off the engine!
But
the problem with sweating, is that you get wet.
And during the winter, but any time really, you must stay dry, because
water removes heat 32 times faster than air1. And the cold winter or Arctic air can quickly
pull heat away from your body.
Perspiration
in the Arctic or during the winter condenses and freezes as hoarfrost either in
your underlayers or on your windproof outer layer. Once this happens you become cold and
hypothermia begins to loom on the horizon!
“Okay,
so our bodies are a finely tuned machine, with a large radiator and getting
sweaty is bad”, you say, “but what is comfortably cold and how do you get
it”?
Comfortably
cold is when you are neither too warm nor too cold, you’re just right, maybe a little
bit cool, and you are not perspiring. You
can keep comfortably cold by reducing or increasing your activity level as you
become too hot or too cold. But the best
way to stay comfortably cold in the outdoors is by layering your clothes, and by
loosening, removing or adding layers as you warm up or cool down.
Layers of clothes wick
away sweat, adjust insulation and protect against wind, rain and snow. Layering allows you to make quick adjustments
based on changes in the weather and your level of activity by adding or
removing layers to trap heat or to avoid overheating. Remember it is always better to underdress
and be cool than to overdress, be too hot, perspire heavily, and become wet and
then cold later. Also, make sure that each level is sized larger than the one
under it so that the clothes fit loosely, because pressure from your clothes,
particularly around your joints, will quickly shut off the blood supply to the
pinched areas and make it more likely that you will become cold or frostbitten.
There are three layers
and each layer has its own function.
The base layer or under-most
layer is the most important as it is against your skin and keeps you dry. Your base layer should be made of wool,
synthetics or silk, since these fabrics transport perspiration away from your
skin. Also, these fabrics when wet dry
fast.
Your base layer or
underwear can be anything from briefs and a T-shirt in warm weather to long
underwear tops and bottoms in cold weather, and long underwear should be the two-piece
kind, not the one-piece kind, because they are easier to change if you get either
the tops or the bottoms wet. You
under-layer or base layer should fit loosely in warmer conditions to increase
air circulation and in cool conditions your base layer should be snug, but not
tight or constricting, to keep body warmth next to your skin.
The Middle layer, or
insulating layer, helps you retain heat by trapping warmed air close to your
body and it should be made of wool, fleece or goose down. The middle layer is available in three different
weights; lightweight for high energy activities or mild climates, mid-weight
for moderate activity or moderate climates and heavy-weight or expedition-weight
for low activity or cold climates. It is
always better to have two or more light-weight, middle layers than just one
heavy one.
The outer layer is
sometimes also called, the shell layer, the weather-proof layer or rain gear
and is vital in bad weather because wind and water can quickly chill you and
KILL YOU! Your outer layer should be a wind
and water-resistant or waterproof layer, to protect you from the rain, snow and
wind. Your outer layer must be roomy
enough to fit easily over your other layers and not restrict your movements or
make your clothes feel tight.
Excerpts from Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, pages 159, 161 and 165 to 166 |
If you are beginning to overheat, remove your hat or if you becoming too
cold put on a hat, since heat loss from your bare head can be up to
33% at 60oF (15oC), up to 50% at 40oF (4oC)
and up to 75% at 5oF (-15oC)2. Also, besides removing layers, if you are
becoming too warm you can open your zippers
and vents or loosen your clothes by loosening the waist belt of your outer-most
layer. If you are becoming cold you can close
your vents and zippers and tighten your waist belt. Don’t remove your outer most weather-proof
layer, instead remove your middle, insulating layers and then put your
weather-proof layer back on, Whenever
you stop to rest, put an insulating layer back on, under your weather-proof
layer, and whenever you begin to increase activity, remove one of your
insulating layers. Bring a pack to put the layers you have
removed into, because clothes tied around your waist or on the outside of your
pack will get snagged, lost or wet. The Naval
Arctic Operations Manual also has some great tips, which are below.
But
what do you do if you do end up with hoarfrost within your layers of clothes or
your clothes have become covered with snow?
You should brush the snow and hoarfrost off your clothes before you
enter some place warm. If you don’t have
a brush, you can use a smooth stick to beat the snow and hoarfrost out of your
clothes.
The author’s whisk broom for removing frost and snow, originally it was an umpire's brush, photo by the author. |
And
remember no matter what season it is, it is important that you stay dry! During the spring or fall, and even during
the summer, while wet clothes might not freeze, they can still overcool you and
cause hypothermia.
I
hope that you enjoy your next winter trip into the wilderness and I hope that you
can stay comfortably cold!
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.
Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube,
and if you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either
site. I announce new articles on
Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at
Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1
Ministry of Forests, Wilderness Survival, [Ministry of Forests, British
Columbia, 1978], p. 46
2
Captain
Earland E. Hedblom, MC, USN; Polar Manual, Fourth Edition,
[National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MA, 1965], p. 37
Sources
Hedblom,
Captain Earland E. MC, USN; Polar Manual, Fourth Edition, [National
Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD, 1965], p. 37, https://ia800305.us.archive.org/33/items/PolarManual4thEd1965/Polar%20Manual%204th%20ed%20%281965%29.pdf,
accessed 12/07/2019
Ministry
of Forests, Wilderness Survival, [Ministry of Forests, British Columbia,
1978], p. 46
Moye, Jayme; “Day hikers are the most vulnerable in survival situations”,
[National Geographic, April 11, 2016], https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/2019/04/hikers-survival-tips/,
accessed 12/06/2019
Navy, Department of the, Naval Arctic
Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, [Department of the Navy, 1949,
Revised in 1950], p. 157-175,
https://ia600301.us.archive.org/27/items/navalarcticopera00unit/navalarcticopera00unit.pdf, accessed August 28, 2018
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Accidental Lessons … Boots Freeze!©
Ice camping on Cuba Lake, New York, circa 1978 or 1979. Photograph courtesy of the Gerry L. Reynolds collection |
Experience
is a harsh teacher, it is the best teacher, but a harsh one and accidental
lessons, many times, are lessons you will never forget! This is the first article in a series of
articles on accidental lessons and this one is about frozen boots.
Did
you know that boots can freeze? I do
now, but when I was thirteen or fourteen years old, I didn’t know that. I sure found out the hard way though, when we
pitched a tent on the ice of Cuba Lake, New York. As I remember the temperature was between 10oF
(-12oC) and 20oF (-7oC), the ice was thick and
there was more than a foot (30 cm) of snow on the surface of the lake. I was wearing a pair of shoepacs with felt
insoles: that night when I took them off, as I got ready to climb into my
sleeping bag, I casually tossed them into a heap in the vestibule of my two-man
tent. The next morning when I woke up
and went to put them on, I found that they were frozen solid! Worse yet, because I had thrown them in a
pile on the snow, they had frozen flattened and bent and I couldn’t put my feet
into them. My tent partner had the same
problem. Luckily for the two of us we
were able to walk in our socks the half mile (800 meters) or so to a warming
hut on the shore, where we were able to thaw them out in front of a kerosene
heater enough to get them back onto our feet!
Lesson
learned; I will never do that again! The
second night and ever since then, during the winter I have been very careful to
put my boots into my turned inside-out stuff sack, under the foot of my
sleeping bag, on top of my ensolite sleeping mat: and so far, I have never
woken up, again to frozen boots.
Now
10oF (-12oC) to 20oF (-7oC) isn’t
all that cold in the grand scheme of things, but what if where you are going it
gets really cold? How do you keep your
boots from freezing then?
The
Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General
Information, 1949,
has some thoughts about what to wear on your feet when it is cold and how to
make sure that you can put them on in the morning.
Shoes, just like clothes, must fit loosely when it is cold, excerpts from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 166 |
Don’t lace your shoes or boots tightly, otherwise it will cut-off the circulation in your feet; an excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 167 |
It is important to keep your feet dry in the winter, an excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 166 to 167 |
Shoepacs should not be used in temperatures below freezing or 0oC, an excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 167 |
Muklucks are excellent for extremely cold temperatures, but are not waterproof, an excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 167 |
Tips on insoles and socks in the cold; excerpts from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, pages 167 to 169 |
Tips on how to care for footwear, excerpts from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, pages 162 to 163 |
In
addition, here are some tips on drying clothes from Alan Innes-Taylor’s Arctic
Survival Manual.
Tips on drying clothes in the field, an excerpt from the Arctic Survival Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 78 |
And
a final word, from the Arctic Survival Manual by Alan Innes-Taylor, on
survival or emergency socks and insoles.
Emergency or survival insoles and “socks”, excerpts from the Arctic Survival Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 80 |
I
hope that you have learned something from my accidental lesson, because it is
always better if you can learn from someone else’s experiences. Also, hopefully, you have found the information from
the Arctic Survival Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor and from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General
Information useful.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.
Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube,
and if you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either
site. I announce new articles on
Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at
Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always until next time, Happy Trails
Sources
Innes-Taylor,
Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, [Scandinavian Airlines System, Stockholm,
1957], page 64-65
Department of the Navy, Naval
Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, [Department of
the Navy, 1949, Revised in 1950], p. 157-175,
https://ia600301.us.archive.org/27/items/navalarcticopera00unit/navalarcticopera00unit.pdf, accessed August 28, 2018
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