Georgetown University Archives is a home for records that shine a light on many aspects of University life. Some of the most fun pieces are the recipes and menus which capture both the culinary trends of the time and the challenge of creating meals for an entire school! This Thanksgiving season, as you plan your own menus, we invite you to take a little “inspiration” from some of these historic recipes in the Archives!
1806 Recipe for Spruce Beer
This recipe for spruce beer was found in a Georgetown College expense book from the early 1800s. Spruce beer, while hard to find today, was very popular with sailors in the British Navy in the 18th century. The addition of spruce was thought to help prevent scurvy on long voyages. The first recipe for spruce beer in America was printed in 1796 in American Cookery: Or the Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables, by Amelia Simmons. Georgetown’s recipe dates back to 1806.
To Make Spruce Beer
Take 10 Gallons Water, 1 Gallon Molasses, 1 Gill Spruce, 1/2 pint Yeast & Some Hops & Ginger Boiled. mix all together in a large tub. then put it in a Cask leave the Bunghole open so as it may work over. let it stand in the Cask for 24 Hours. then Bottle it off and in 24 Hours its fit for use.
NB Keep the Bottles in a cool Cellar or the [word missing?] will be apt to fly.
1806 Recipes for Calf’s Head, Entrails, and Feet
This collection of three recipes may not be for the faint of heart, but it is very reflective of the financial situation of the College at the time. They were using every part of the animal to feed the school, reminiscent of the current trend for ‘nose to tail’ cooking! One term you may be surprised to see in the “A Method of Dressing Calf’s Head” recipe is “put the brains first in a pot or spider.” A spider was a kind of dutch oven used when cooking over coals and ashes of a fire. It had a handle and three legs that allowed it to stand up over the coals to heat evenly across the bottom!
A Method of Dressing Calf’s Head
Put it in a pot and boil it for about 3 or 4 hours, take the bones entirely out and put the brains first in a pot or spider mix’d well with pepper, allspice & salt. Then put the remainder of the meat on the pot or pan, and add thereto a little water, about half a pint of wine, a little water & butter, put it on a slow fire for about one hour having it close covered so as to stew, you may sprinkle a little flour over it before stewing, and then its fit for use. R.R.L.N.
To Prepare Calf’s Entrails
Take and wash 'em very clean. Let them stay in salt & water overnight. Boil them in little water, put them on a dish, with a little cream, butter & parsley put over it. Then its fit for use. Medium.
To Prepare Calf’s Feet
Put on the fire, the feet covered with [missing word?] & let them boil for about 4 hours. Take them off & take the bones clean out, take 4 or 5 eggs, beat them very well together with a little pepper & salt. Put the meat through the eggs, and sprinkle a little flour over them. Fry them in a pan with a little fat, and you have them fit for use. Ibia April 15.
Brother Thomas Gavan’s Bread Recipe
This historic bread recipe comes from Brother Thomas Gavan who tended the College Bakehouse and Store from about 1856 until 1895. Bread was a huge part of the campus diet in the 1800s and was served at nearly every meal. Father Francis Barnum, a Jesuit and Georgetown alum once said that “his bread was unexcelled. During his time the reputation of Georgetown bread extended over the entire province [of Maryland].”
-Proportions-
-To a barrel of flour, a gallon of yeast. Take a bucket of potatoes, boil them skins and all, -when well boiled turn them into a tub, pour over them 4 lbs of flour; then smash them up-
Then take 3 gallons of lukewarm water and pour the water over the smash.
Take three gallons more of cold water & mix them all well.
Over this pour the gallon of yeast; mix well ; and leave in a tub of double capacity for the space of from 12 to 13 hours.- It ripens thus.
Then strain it well through a tin strainer
-pour 2 gallons of 1. w. [lukewarm water] over the skins -mix
& with it make the sponge, as above.
-To make yeast-
1 oz of hops & 1 oz of malt for a gallon of water.
1) Take a gallon of water & when it begins to boil put one ounce of hops - Let boil ½ hr -
2) Take 4 oz of flour & mix with it the juice of the hops until made into a dough - then pour the rest of it -
3) Take one ounce of malt & put it into a pint of cold water - & then pour it over the juice of the hops.
4) Let cool until lukewarm - Put a quart of stock yeast into it - mix well & let ferment 24 hours - Strain & use.