Portrait of Harriott
Harriott was the only daughter of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, and followed closely in her mother’s footsteps. After the death of her husband in 1785, Harriott took over the duties of running their plantation at Hampton. Eliza moved to the plantation and undoubtedly aided her daughter in running things. In 1770, Harriott began her own recipe book, now called A colonial plantation cookbook: the receipt book of Harriott Pinckney Horry. Harriott’s book borrows many recipes from her mother’s book. Some recipes are even copied word for word. However, there are many more recipes for household necessities like paint, dye, and soap that are lacking in her mother’s record. There are also many culinary recipes gathered on trips through the Northern colonies.
Harriott’s book is an expansion on the work of her mother. The wider range of cures, recipes, and instructions for household tasks in her version provides us with a more thorough look into the lives of early South Carolinians. The recipes selected cover traditional Southern dishes like gravy, bacon, and two different baked goods using rice in place of a more traditional grain like wheat.
Indigo powder
Preventing food spoilage was a continuous struggle in the days before refrigeration. This problem was compounded in the summer colonies where the winter temperatures generally didn’t drop below freezing. Hogs were let loose to graze and proliferated in the wilds of the colony. Their large size made it difficult for a family to eat all of the meat before it spoiled. Making bacon was one method for preserving meat that was more appetizing than dry jerky. Like hogs, rice was in abundance in the lowlands. It saw its way into many recipes that might have used wheat or barley in England. Finally, there is a method for dying yarn with indigo. Eliza herself helped popularize this crop. The problem was not in cultivation, but in extraction of the dye itself. Therefore, Harriott’s recipe is particularly interesting.
Although there is overlap between Eliza’s and Harriott’s books, Harriott recorded many more formulas for household products.
The inclusion of these recipes indicates the importance of being able to produce them at home. Even the Pinckneys, who were a particularly prominent family in Charleston, were somewhat cut off from the comforts of England. The ingenuity of these recipes to use all available ingredients reflects the resourceful American spirit that was already beginning to grow in the colonies.
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Excerpts from A colonial plantation cookbook: the receipt book of Harriott Pinckney Horry
To make a good Gravy
Take a peice of lean Beef cut in thin Pieces put a peice of Butter in Your Stew Pan and fry it Brown but take care it does not Burn. Season it with Pepper, Salt, Mace and Cloves; when it becomes a little Brown thro’ in a little Strong broth made of some Beef or Veal Bones, a Couple of Anchovies, and a Gill of Claret, boil it up and set it by for any use in the Savory way of Cooking.
Shrewsbury Cakes
Take one pound of Flour, ½ pound of Butter, ¾ of a pound of Sugar 4 Egg whites and Yolks, a good deal of Mace, a little Nutmeg and 2 spoonfulls of rose water; beat it up well and drop it on Tin Sheets (a pap spoonfull in a drop) grate a little fine sugar over them and bake them in a light Oven. Memorandum I find putting only a pound of Flour makes them rather too thin, therefore ‘tis best to add a little more.
Bacon
Cut up the Hogs the day they are kill’d, salt them well while they are warm but do not rub them, let them lay singly on your table for the bloody brine to run off, the first day rub them well with salt and put all together in your tubs, then 2d and 3d day rub them well, the 4th day let them alone of the 5th day rub well with salt Petre (2 Ozs. to a Hog) the 6th day do not touch them and let them lay till 7th or the 8th day when they must be put in Pickle made of salt and Water not boil’d that will bear an Egg it must remain in Pickle two Weeks then smoke 5 Weeks with red oak Bark. The Pickle should be boild often and must be sure to stand all night to cool before the meat is put in. Whenever the meat is taken out to rub always drain the bloody brine away. Let the Meat hang in the Smoke house a day to drain before smoking.
Mrs. McPherson
Rice Bread
Take 4 quarts of rice beat it into flour, sift it, take one quart of the [one word illegible] siftings and boil it soft, spread it in your tray and while just warm put in your leaven or yeast and mix by degrees all the flour in, put it to rise and when risen which will be seen by its cracking put it into your pans and bake it. NB. It will be so soft when put in the pans that you may dip it up.
Mrs. McPherson
Journey cake
Take a pint of Hominy cold mash it and mix well with a gill fine flower then mix 6 Spoonsfull of milk and spread it on your board and spread a little milk over it as you put it down to bake. This quantity for 2 middlesized Journey cakes. When rice is used it should be boild very soft and let stand to cool and mix as above.
For Dying Blue
Take 24 Galls. Rain Water free from grease or dirt and put into it 4 lb. copras and 4 lb. stone lime. Take 2 lb. Indigo grind it as fine as possible (adding rain Water to it till you have a quart or 3 pints of the Indigo and Water) it must be quite an impalpable powder. then put it in a Bll. with the other ingredients and churn it up 3 times a day till you see a foam on the top of a changable colour and the dye of a dark green streak’d with black then let it stand 2 days to settle. Boil the yarn so as to be thoroughly Wet,* wring it very hard dip it in the dye about half the depth of the Baul turning it over the hands three or four times observing never to let it go to the bottom among the grounds wring it and hang it up till you go over the yarn 2 or 3 times a day. When the yarn quits turning green it will dye no more set it with Vitriol and Water made sour enough to drink then rince it thro’ one or two Waters—When the dye grow too weak you may put in ½ of each of the above quantities of Indigo, Stone lime and copras and a bit of allum the size of an Egg but this quantity will dye near 200 hanks before it becomes too weak to use.
Mrs. Robinson
*Mrs. Holmes says should be ½ lb. Allum in this Water