The Woodsman's Journal Online: 2019

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Happy Holidays from the BandanaMan

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 12^th, 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 18^th to the early 19^th 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 19^th 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.

An excerpt from the June 18^th, 1759 entry in the “The Orderly Book of Lieut. William Henshaw”, written at Fort Edward, showing the relative prices of drinking chocolate and tea. From the Manuscript Records Of The French And Indian War, page 202.

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 18^th 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 1^st to September 3^rd, 1757, near Fort Edward, from the Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam, page 44.

Late 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th 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 18^th and early 19^th centuries, chocolate would not have had a creamy, smooth feel and it would have had a dull finish. Also, 18^th century chocolate was not milled as fine as modern chocolate and it would have had a grainy, gritty texture. And, as for the taste, 18^th 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 18^th century, or at least in a similar manner?

Photo by the author.

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 18^th 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 18^th century look and feel to it (click HERE for the Taza Chocolate site)⁴.

Photos by the author.

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 18^th 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.

Photo by the author.

So now that we know what chocolate to use, pick one of the recipes below, and cook yourself a delicious cup of 18^th century drinking chocolate

And it wasn’t just late 18^th and early 19^th 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.

Excerpts from Camp Cookery, pages 11 and 136.

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, 2^d 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, 2^d Rising: Cooking At Niagara, 1726 – 1815, [Old Fort Niagara Association, Youngstown, New York, 1989]. p. 51

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?©

Photo by the author

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!

An excerpt from Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, p. 157

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.

Excerpts from Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, pages 161 and 163

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 60^oF (15^oC), up to 50% at 40^oF (4^oC) and up to 75% at 5^oF (-15^oC)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.

An excerpt from Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, pages 161 to 162

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.

An excerpt from Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, pages 162

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.

An excerpt from “Day hikers are the most vulnerable in survival situations”, by Jayme Moye

I hope that you enjoy your next winter trip into the wilderness and I hope that you can stay comfortably cold!

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

²Captain 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 10^oF (-12^oC) and 20^oF (-7^oC), 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 10^oF (-12^oC) to 20^oF (-7^oC) 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?

An excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 166

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

Tips on wearing leather boots in the cold, leather boots should not be worn when temperatures are below 20^oF (-7^oC); excerpts from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, The first and the last are from page 167 and the middle tip is from page163

Figure 5-2 from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 162

Shoepacs should not be used in temperatures below freezing or 0^oC, an excerpt from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 167

Figure 5-7 from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 168

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

Figure 5-5 from the Naval Arctic Operations Manual: Part 1 General Information, page 167

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.

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

The Woodsman's Journal Online

Pages

Pages

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Happy Holidays from the BandanaMan

Coffee, Tea or … Chocolate? Part One ©

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Comfortably Cold, What’s That?©

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Accidental Lessons … Boots Freeze!©