Mid 19th Century Quilt Idea

Quilts are hands down one of the most nuanced, complicated, fraught with myth and misinformation corners of textile history. Most of my sewing life, I have been saving scraps from projects hoping to one day turn them into some sort of basic quilt of a form correct to somewhere in the middle to late 19th Century. But while I am always fascinated to read scholarship on the evolution of quilts during the 19th Century, I find myself nowhere close to wrapping my mind around it. Even the seemingly haphazard late Century crazy quilts combine their own brand of specialized joining and stitches, leaving me wondering in the end if the make-do quilts of legend ever existed at all. While artistic license is always a possibility, these two works seem to portray something that may be possible with my random period scraps and novice hands:

The above image appears to be ca. 1850s but I have not found specific information on the date or artist. The bed covering appears to be a simple arrangement of a variety of squares and rectangles. Detail of the piece:

And the following is ca. 1870 Story of Golden Locks Seymour Joseph Guy:

I'm not sure if the detail at the lower left here is meant to portray a decorative curved form of the edge of this quilt or if it is just a fold but this also appears to be an arrangement of random pieces arranged in basic geometric shapes fit together as able:

May be worth a try.

Your's & c.

The Victorian Man

Peach Pie from 1886

Another very well done cookbook from the Victorian period is The Philadelphia Cookbook: A Manual of Home Economics by Mrs. S. T. Rorer, principal of the Philadelphia Cooking School, 1886. this evening, I tried her recipe for peach pie and it turned out very well:

"Line pie dishes with good plain paste. Pare, cut the peaches in halves, and take out the stones, then lay them in the dishes, sprinkle lightly with sugar, add a quarter cup of water, cover with an upper crust, and bake in a quick oven for thirty minutes; or the peaches may be thoroughly rubbed without paring, slightly mashed and baked without stoning."

Use whatever your favorite pie crust recipe is. You'll need seven or eight peaches. We were a little short so, at Amy's suggestion, we added some blackberries to make up the space, which were great. I just cut the peaches into nice sized bits. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.

Your's & c.
The Victorian Man

Mint Juleps in Victorian England?

Not quite but good effort. In 1845, Englishwoman Eliza Acton published one of the greatest cook books in history. In my personal experience, her book blows the slightly later work by Mrs. Beeton out of the water. She makes a great effort to not only relate contemporary English recipes but acquaint her readers with food and beverages from elsewhere, in this case America. In her entry, "Mint Julep, an American Receipt," she does note that, "...the receipt, which was contributed by an American gentlemen, is somewhat vague." Could be that the American gentleman wasn't letting loose of his secret. One way or another, pursuing further documentation of mint julep methods in the 1840s is now on my agenda.

It comes out rather charming but is brandy based (even though she does note that it doesn't have to be) and lacks any sweetener, which it could have stood (and I do not generally like very sweet beverages).

So here it is:

"'Strip the tender leaves of mint into a tumbler, and add to them as much wine, brandy, or any other spirit, as you wish to take. Put some pounded ice into a second tumbler; pour this on the mint and brandy, and continue to pour the mixture from one tumbler to the other until the whole is sufficiently impregnated with the flavor of the mint, which is extracted by the particles of the ice coming into brisk contact when changed from one vessel to the other. Now place the glass in a larger one, containing pounded ice: on taking it out of which it will be covered with frost work.'"

Acton then notes, "We apprehend that this preparation is, like most other iced American beverages, to be imbibed through a reed...."

I placed it in the freezer for a few minutes instead of placing it in a glass of ice and used a paper straw instead of a reed (plastic straws never touch the lips of real Victorian men)

It was a great little experiment with one country trying to interpret what was going on in another in 1845. Please feel free to contribute your julep history notes in the comments!

Your's & c
The Victorian Man