Pirates invade Greenwich

For the second year running Tastes Of History joined the crew of The Phoenix encamped on the genteel lawns of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London. Collectively the aim was to celebrate the Golden Age of Piracy - if indeed “celebrating” notorious criminals is an appropriate thing to do. Regardless, Tastes Of History's task was to introduce visitors to good ol' English recipes from circa AD 1700 and explain the types of foods available and how they were preserved and cooked on board sailing ships of the period.

Most of the recipes we prepared and offered visitors the chance to sample have been published in earlier Blog entries, namely “A Banquet Fit for Pirates”, “Pirates of Pendennis”, and “Sailing the Pirate Round” [1] but for this occasion we added two further options: beef gobbets and chicken the Dutch way (below).

In this instance, “Gobbets” for those unfamiliar with the term refers to “a piece or lump of flesh, food, or other matter”. In other words, this 18th-century recipe for a stew contained bite-sized pieces of beef. It is a perfect example of a meal that could be easily prepared and cooked in a ship's galley to feed a crew. Most vessels in the Age of Sail would have had the facilities for “one-pot cooking”. Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose for example had two huge brass cauldrons, each holding up to 400 litres of liquid. Both were set in a brick structure that also incorporated two wood-fuelled ovens accessed via arched openings beneath the cauldrons. With the ship’s bread baking in the ovens, muslin sacks filled with peas or greens floated in the cauldrons of simmering broth. Meats were hung above the oven arches to roast while pottery vessels - the ubiquitous three-footed pipkins - or smaller cauldrons might be set in front of the ovens to separately cook the officers’ meals.

A ship’s galley was typically located in the cramped space below deck. With physical space and resources limited, it was important for the cook to use efficient cooking methods and techniques. Some of the common methods used were:

• Boiling in water was one of the simplest ways to cook food on a ship and an ideal method for preparing soups, stews, and steamed puddings.

• Grilling was a popular method for cooking meats and seafood. A ship's crew might often use a small grill to cook their meals quickly.

• Baking onboard ship would have proved a challenge when at sea on rough waters. Bread, however, could be bought from a baker ashore with a request that it be “twice-baked”. Loaves baked this way were tough to cut up, except with a saw, but the loaves would remain edible for a long time. Most bread was thus shipped on board in the form of hard “biscuit”, and hence it was often called “hard-tack” or simply “ship’s bread”. These were rough three inch-square or diameter cakes of dough made with flour and water only, either maize, wheat or perhaps even cassava flour, with an added pinch of salt. The dough would then be baked in batches until hard and packed in casks or sacks. They could be handled several times and, unless they got damp, would keep for a very long time.

• Sautéing was also a common technique for quickly cooking vegetables, meat, and seafood in a small amount of oil or butter.

It may seem somewhat foolhardy to have fires burning in a wooden ship, but the vessel is surrounded by a rather convenient fire suppressant called the ocean. While the risk of fire was always present, especially where gunpowder was on board, water soaked timbers created a damp environment below deck that mitigated the danger somewhat.

Why this dish is “chicken the Dutch way” [2] no one really knows. The same can be said of a Tudor recipe for “Dutch Pudding”, which is essentially minced beef mixed with several herbs and spices that is boiled in a muslin bag as one would for a Christmas, or plum, pudding. Interestingly, both recipes include cloves, mace, and nutmeg. The latter two are both obtained from the nutmeg tree (Myristica fragrans), a tropical evergreen. Mace is the red lacy coating (called the aril) that encases the nutmeg seed. When the tree's fruit reaches maturity, it splits open and reveals the aril and seed. The fruit is harvested and the aril is removed by hand, flattened, and left to dry for up to two weeks. As it dries the red aril turns an amber-, yellow- or orange-brown colour. Left whole the aril is called a “blade” of mace which can be sold as is or processed into a ground spice. Significantly all three spices are indigenous to the Moluccas Islands, also known as the “Spice Islands”, in Indonesia. Recognising the potential of the East Indies commerce, from 1603 until 1799, the islands were part of the Dutch East Indies controlled by the United East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC) [3]. Unsurprisingly, the VOC exploited the lucrative spice trade and thus Tastes Of History hypothesises the “Dutch” connection in the recipes' names probably reflect the use of spices from Dutch East Indies.

Bon appétit!

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Endnotes:

1. On a historical note, the desserts offered to visitors, namely Lemon Posset, Orange Cake and Fruit Fool, would hardly be typical fare for sailors on Royal Navy, merchant or pirate vessels of the 18th-century. Yet who can resist a sweet treat. ▲

2. The original recipe is named “fowl or chicken the Dutch way” so could be applied to turkey, duck or other game birds. ▲

3. Also known as the Dutch East India Company. ▲