Shaded clearings stir and streams warm up. Summer has arrived, which means it’s time for a picnic.
Although farmers, hunters and travelers have been dining small meals outdoors for centuries, the French coined the term “picnic” in the seventeenth century.
This meant “picking up little food. “
In the last nineteenth century, tables specially designed for picnics were manufactured and sold in both the old and the new worlds.
One of the most fun facets of picnicking is that picnics can be what we need.
Whether it’s a last-minute whiplash or a well-planned, elaborate preparation, it’s hard to believe anyone doesn’t wake up and hear, “Let’s have a picnic!
It’s great to plan something special, and it’s not at all complicated to turn a cardboard dish business into a memorable event.
This summer, catch the attention of your picnic buddies with a meal inspired by a story.
colonial
“My life is simple . . . a glass of wine and a little lamb. “~ George Washington
By the time the first Americans settled in an apartment in cities like Williamsburg, Virginia, it was not unusual for a giant organization of young men or a couple of accompanied courtiers to fetch a deer for a deer for an outdoor meal.
For a colonial-inspired picnic, decide what foods our eighteenth-century ancestors would have had.
One of the foods that the settlers fed the most on any meal would probably have been meat.
Hunting is probably the maximum amount of game meat, but turkey, capercaillie, duck, geese, rabbits and squirrels were the most they also took home.
Colonial regimes included pork, as wild boars were hunted and pigs were raised on some farms.
Most colonial cities were close to the ocean or a river, so fish and seafood were not unusual foods either.
A roast chicken, served hot or cold, would possibly have been served with boiled potatoes and berries, apples, grapes or raisins.
Meat and vegetable cakes were the favorite takeaway.
What can be more convenient for a picnic than a cake that can be enjoyed hot or cold?
You’ll be getting compliments with a homemade Cheshire red meatloaf.
Remove excess fat from the red meat and cut it into slices about an inch thick in two- or three-inch squares, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Peel the apples, cut them along and peel them, cut them into thick slices and put them in a bowl with water to which 1 t. c is added. of lemon juice.
Place a layer of slices of red meat in the spread dough on the back of a baked dish spread with butter and cover with a layer of sliced apples. Sprinkle apples with sugar and garnish with a layer of red meat. Serve the wine. Polka dot cake with butter.
Lower the rest of the dough and cover the cake (or roll the dough into marble-sized balls, flatter them in the form of dough, and layer them to cover the plate).
Cook in the pot over medium heat or in a domestic oven at 350º until browned, about forty-five minutes. Serve hot or cold.
If you’re feeling a little less ambitious, fill a ready-made pie base with minced meat and potatoes and/or vegetables (the onion “Pye,” an eighteenth-century favorite), partly fold it, and bake in the oven.
In addition to apples, peaches and grapes, the berries would have been cooked in cakes.
Bread and butter, cheese, wild or grown vegetable salads, carrots, onions, garlic, chives, nuts and, in some colonies, even pineapple and coconut were available, so you can also accompany them on your picnic menu.
Gingerbread some other colonial favorite.
It is said that when Mary Ball Washington, the mother of George Washington, entertained the Marquis de Lafayette at his home in Fredericksburg, she served the beloved French general a gingerbread made from a recipe from an old circle of relatives.
He was so inspired that he ordered the recipe and is now known as Lafayette gingerbread.
Cornmeal and beans were also staple foods, so it wouldn’t have been unusual to come with cornbread and some sort of bean dish.
For added authenticity, bring your colonial picnic in eighteenth-century-inspired baskets and offer your visitors wooden “cutters” (plates), two-toothed forks and lace towels, if you can.
Present your colonial cuisine on a tin or wood tray loaded with punch, cider, wine or beer bottles, as those are the usual drinks of the day.
Americans drank more alcohol in colonial times than at any time in our country’s history.
It is estimated that the average consumer consumes at least 8 alcohol a day: beer or cider for breakfast, rum and wine at dinner and punch, bordeaux and other wines at night.
This would possibly imply that after a maximum of picnics, the day’s schedule would have included time for visitors to take long naps.
Victorian
“A table extended in the shade . . . all as herbal and as possible. ~ Jane Austen, Emma
Contrary to what Jane Austen said in Emma, the Victorian picnic is not easy.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the English and European upper classes, and even those of America, had reshaped what could have begun as an undeniable peasant meal, consumed in a basket, on an occasion worthy of royalty.
A circle of working-class relatives and their neighbors, confined to urban and rocky life, probably enjoyed gigantic casual picnics in the city’s parks.
But picnics were a completely different proposition for classes.
For them, picnics were more like expeditions: complex matters that required a lot of organization and effort, in which elaborate arrangements would have been made to bring a dinner and everything but the kitchen sink, to make the party as glorious as possible.
Garden chairs, blankets and hammocks were used and it was no more unusual for a table and dining chairs to be packaged in a cart and transported to the picnic spot in horse-drawn carts.
The knights might have arrived on horseback, but most visitors would be transported to the picnic in a horse-drawn carriage.
Picnic or no picnic, they would never have ventured outdoors without their caps, umbrellas and gloves. Even if they dine outdoors, Victorians would still have been limited by many social etiquette regulations.
Carefully planned activities would be limited to picnicking and could include music and songs, storytelling, games, sports and hiking.
Porcelain and silver were packaged in wicker baskets with ironed napkins and linen tablecloths, salt and pepper, sugar and, always, a bottle of cream.
The picnic fare has been carefully selected for its ability to cope with the journey, so nothing looks hopeless, soaked or not soaked.
Pickled vegetables and canned culmination were served with crackers, cheese and canned sardines.
For dessert, four-quarters, the cake and fruit cake were popular as new, candied fruit.
A typical Victorian picnic menu would possibly include:
This would have been a poor picnic basket that didn’t come with the queen of Victorian sandwiches: the cucumber sandwich.
Traditionally, a cucumber sandwich consisted only of cucumbers, and a little butter, but the Americans added an extension called Benedictine.
There are many variations, but a bloodless benedictine cream is composed of herbs or spices combined with cream cheese.
In a small bowl, combine the combination of cream cheese, sour cream and dried Italian dressing. Arrange the slices of cocktail rye bread on a medium-sized serving plate. Spread with the cream cheese combination. Decorate with a slice of cucumber.
Traditionally, cucumber sandwiches would have been served without, but, if desired, they can be served with a piece of bread on top.
“The secret of good fortune in life is to eat what you love and let the food fight it inside. “~ Mark Twain
The term “pioneer” picnic evokes welcome food in the evening after a hard day trip in nature or a short break for an early meal at noon through a cool creek on a busy day of farming or hay.
It might have been rare for pioneering friends and neighbors to take a day to gather for a picnic, but whether it was for a barn, a wedding, or just a poolside picnic basket, they did.
Their pioneering picnic menu desires the kind of homemade food that would have adorned muslin-covered easel tables or worn on a duvet stretched out under a tree.
And instead of staining your stylish cloth towels, make denim towels with old jeans and cover them by hand or with a sewing device or leave the edges rough and torn to complete the rustic theme.
A nineteenth-century meal would never be complicated: only meat, potatoes and onions, garden vegetables, seasonal culmination and berries and, of course, homemade bread, rolls or cookies and any dessert sweets.
You can never go with fried chicken, veneer, red meatloaf or minced veneer pie served with pickles or homemade seasonings.
For sandwiches, use boiled beef or red meat on thick wholemeal bread or raised bread with butter or cheese.
So that the bread or sandwiches remain new and continue to sing with their pioneering theme, wrap them in a damp cloth.
Boil 2 cups of water with sugar.
Place on the lid and let cool.
Once cooled, load 2 cups of water and lemon juice.
Some other people prefer a spicy lemonade, others a sweeter taste.
Adjust the amounts to your liking.
If your hikers have lit a fire, you can prepare a Brunswick stew or a pot of beans, as the pioneers did, in a faitout melted on hot ash.
A small jar of jam would be the best accompaniment to leftovers of rolls or cookies served with coffee from a jar of teeth when the night cools.
Whether you’re planning a Victorian, colonial, or pioneer picnic, ask an organization member to bring a flashlight in case your picnic is delayed at night.
Use a rope or rope to hang them on the branches above your picnic box for a lovely glow and when hikers leave, they will use their flashlights to remove darkness from their path to civilization and, unfortunately, into the twenty-first century.
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