By Merry Post Special to The Ellsworth American In 1829, women from Hallowell, Maine, signed a letter petitioning Congress to vote against the Indian Removal Act. This was the first time a group of American women organized to lobby the federal government on a policy issue. President Andrew Jackson fully supported the removal of Indian …
By Merry Post Special to The Ellsworth American For a few years, the Oneida Community in upstate New York was the home of a notorious assassin whose trial was the first well-known application of the insanity defense in the United States. Charles J. Guiteau (1841-1882) joined the Oneida religious community because his father was a …
Special to The Ellsworth American For a few years, the Oneida Community in upstate New York was the home of a notorious assassin whose trial was the first well-known application of the insanity defense in the United States. Charles J. Guiteau (1841-1882) joined the Oneida religious community because his father was a loyal member. The …
By Merry Post Special to The Ellsworth American One of my favorite 19th-century vegetable recipes comes from a religious group that practiced communal property ownership and free love. The Oneida Community formed in Putney, Vt., around a charismatic leader, John Humphrey Noyes, and moved to upstate New York in 1848. They were one of a …
By Merry Post Special to The Ellsworth American It wobbles and rebounds like an alien life form. Once an ornament for elaborate banquets, it became an odd form of salad popular in the 1950s. But gelatin, or jelly if you are British, actually goes back centuries in European cuisine. Long before the age of Jell-O, …
By Merry Post Special to The Ellsworth American It would be easy to ridicule the accomplishments of the temperance movement and its earnest reformers. Even when the temperance movement was at its peak of popularity, songs such as “The Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine” were lampooned. National prohibition lasted for 13 years …
By Merry Post Special to The Ellsworth American Community cookbooks from the last quarter of the 19th century sometimes include advertisements that hint at the importance of public mourning customs. The “Excelsior Cook Book,” put out in 1891 by the Congregational Church of Rutland, Vt., includes two advertisements that show the need for proper mourning …
By Merry Post Special to The Ellsworth American The European custom of naming foods after famous people gave us dishes such as Beef Wellington and Tournedos Rossini (named for the Duke of Wellington and the Italian composer, respectively). Americans usually reserved their honorific food names for desserts. Presidents Washington, Madison, Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, Lincoln and …
Special to The Ellsworth American In the 19th century, chicken usually contained just chicken meat or chicken parts sauced with gravy and baked in pie pastry. I found a more interesting vintage recipe that brings to mind two remarkable Rhode Island women who shattered expectations for women of their time. One, Elleanor Eldridge, was the …
Special to The Ellsworth American The 1800s were golden years for the manufacture of patent medicines. These untested proprietary products were sold over the counter. Before the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, American entrepreneurs sold hundreds of dubious preparations as medicine with no legal requirement to list their ingredients or to prove efficacy …
Since Colonial times, New Englanders have liked ginger in their cakes and cookies. I agree with Jane Fiske that gingersnaps are welcome when you are tired and out of sorts or just any time.
Susan B. Anthony’s cake was flavored with a little almond extract. Apparently, she served it plain, with no indication that it should be improved with frosting. Sponge cake alone has a light, airy texture, but it is rather dry.
