How Many Teaspoons in a Jelly Glass?

If your grandmother measures ingredients in pinches and smidgens, here's a way to record her recipes for posterity.

Get out the camcorders and film them making those recipes in person. Have them show you just how to do it, so even if they don't have measurements, you can zoom in and see that it's a "jelly glass full of water" added to the pot. Or you fold the dough in thirds, then flip it "like this."

At the very least, have a tape recorder with you so you can capture their voices telling about the food and when they first ate it, or relating that story that goes along with it. The more details you can get, the better. [Link]

And then buy some of these.

They Abhorred Hoarding

Model Jodie Kidd's great-grandfather was a shipping tycoon and a baronet. He was also a convicted food hoarder.

In the final year of the Great War the Government introduced strict food rationing. Food cards were issued to everyone, including the King and the hoarding of food had become a serious offence carrying heavy penalties.

The Tyne and Wear Archives holds Gosforth Urban District Council records and specifically those of the Gosforth Local Food Control Committee 1917-1919, including the Profiteering Committee minutes, which details the conviction of one Rowland Frederick William Hodge for food hoarding in 1918.

Chief archivist Liz Rees explains: “We weren’t aware of the scandal. We knew his name and we knew that the shipyard had closed but we didn’t know the story behind it.” [Link]

Genealogue Challenge #123

I just learned over at Genealogy Reviews Online that the inventor of the Egg McMuffin has died.

When did his maternal grandparents marry, and who were his maternal grandmother's parents?

The Sauces of South Carolina

Dana Huff sent me a link to this Strange Maps post about one state's condiment preferences.

The map shows the state of South Carolina divided into four regions, according to the preferred style of condiment used on barbecued food.

• The vinegar and pepper region covers the eastern quarter of the state. This is “a southward extension of eastern North Carolina-style sauce,” states Mr Reed.
• “The tomato region ditto for North Carolina’s Piedmont- or Lexington-style sauce, which is basically the eastern sauce with a little tomato added, still thin and vinegar-flavored.”
• The ketchup region is influenced by what they serve in Georgia “and most of the trans-Appalachian South – or for that matter in grocery stores – a thick, sweet, ketchupy sauce.”
• Unique to South Carolina, though, is “the mustard sauce of central South Carolina, (which) is unique to that state, and (which) gives it more distinct barbecue regions than any other.”

The prevalence of this last sauce John Shelton Reed attributes to "the great 18th century wave of German immigrants to the Southern uplands."

Dinner With the Dunhams

Guest List
Lemuel Dunham — Chris' 3rd-great-grandfather.

Moses Dunham — Chris' 4th-great-grandfather, and father of Lemuel.

Samuel Dunham — Chris' 8th-great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather of Moses.

Deacon John Dunham — The immigrant ancestor, Chris' 9th-great-grandfather, and father of Samuel.

---

Chris: I'm glad you all could come tonight, what with the weather and all.

Lemuel: Not nearly as cold as 1816. Snow on the ground in June. Never been so cold.

Moses: Lord, what a pansy I raised! Why, when I served in the Continental Army—

Lemuel: There he goes with his "I'm a hero of the Revolution" bit. You know, you're not the only one who fought for his country.

Moses: That's right, I forgot about your days guzzling rum with the boys in the militia.

Lemuel: We saw some action!

Moses: Oh yes, you marched all the way to Portland in 1814 to thwart the British invasion. How did that turn out, Lem?

(Lemuel is silent.)

Moses: I'll tell you how it turned out. You spent two weeks marching and swilling liquor and never was a shot fired.

Lemuel (menacingly): Shut your mouth, old man.

Moses: You hear how he talks to me? If I hadn't been crippled in the war I'd have knocked some sense into you long ago. Why don't you tell them about your wife, Lem? Oh, she was a prize. Mother of a bastard and knocked up when you married her.

Lemuel: Don't you talk about my Molly that way! And you don't have to pretend you're crippled. There's no one here from the pension office.

Chris: Guys, please! You're making the other guests nervous!

Deacon John: Don't mind me, I've heard worse. You should have heard the rows we had back in Plymouth. Not a week went by that John and Priscilla Alden weren't throwing punches at each other. Chris, I must tell Abigail about this wonderful food. What do you call it?

Chris: Totino's Pizza Rolls.

Deacon John: Really, you must give her the recipe.

Chris: Sure ... Sam, are you feeling all right?

Samuel: Yes, yes, I must have the flu.

Deacon John: The flu? Are you sure it wasn't the eight beers you had on the ride over?

Samuel: It wasn't eight beers. Seven, maybe.

Deacon John: Yes, there's my pride and joy. All those years I spent as deacon of the Plymouth church, and he goes and gets himself excommunicated for being a drunkard. How do you think that makes me feel?

Samuel: I was never good enough for you!

Deacon John: Truer words were never spoken.

Samuel: Do you know how hard it was to measure up? You were a deacon, for God's sake! I don't know—maybe if you'd come on the Mayflower things would have been different.

Deacon John: I missed the boat! How many times do I have to explain that?

Samuel: Yeah, you missed the boat, all right. You could have been a "Mayflower Pilgrim." You could have been famous. I could have been famous!

Lemuel: Sam, be cool.

Samuel: Yeah, I'm OK.

Lemuel: Let's get out of here. There must be a bar open.

Samuel: Yeah, let's go.

(Samuel and Lemuel leave.)

Chris: Well, it looks like I'm out of pizza rolls.

Deacon John: Sorry.

Chris: No problem. I think I have some waffles in the freezer.

Deacon John (putting on his coat): Don't trouble yourself. I really have to be getting along.

Moses (also preparing to leave): Can I bum a ride?

Deacon John: You bet. So long, Chris!

Chris: Thanks for coming! Come back anyt—

(Door slams.)

The Gift of Grace

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good turkey!

SAN BERNARDINO, Cal., Dec. 25.—A large camp of brake-beam tourists just beyond the city limits is without a sumptuous turkey and chicken feast to-day only because the prompt action of Mr. and Mrs. George Delaney saved from the pot the entire stock of their poultry farm which had been given the tramps by their eight-year-old daughter Grace as a Christmas gift.

Grace had just returned from a church service when a tramp wandered up to the door. The sermon had been preached from the text that it is better to give than receive. The child put it to the test by presenting the wanderer with her own pet rooster. He promptly sent all the other denizens of the "Tincan" camp for Christmas gifts, and the little girl continued applying her pastor's text through the medium of her parents' poultry.

Just as the last pullet passed into the hands of a smiling tramp, Mrs. Delaney discovered the little Lady Bountiful. A hurried visit to the camp saved several hundred dollars' worth of turkey and chicken from being spitted over the sage-brush and yucca fires of the hungry tramps. [The New York Times, Dec. 26, 1909 (Link)]

His PB & J Did Not Survive

Coal miner Joseph Roberts went to work on Feb. 19, 1891, with an orange in his lunchbox. He was fatally injured in an explosion that day, and never got to eat his lunch. So his family kept the orange for 116 years, donating it recently to a museum in Staffordshire.

Spokeswoman Deb Klemperer said it may just be a piece of dried fruit but the story behind it made it an amazing piece for the museum.

The orange is completely blackened and dried out - the pips can be heard rattling when it is shaken. [Link]

Genealogue Challenge #3

Here's another challenge to start off your week:

Chef Boyardee's landlady in 1920 was a widow. What was her late husband's name?

For extra credit: When did her husband die?

Two Sisters' Sausage Sneakiness

For no particular reason, Flora Zimbelman slipped an uncooked hot dog into her sister Rose's suitcase 54 years ago. Rose mailed it back, starting a game that lasted until her death earlier this year.

In the years that followed, Flora would find a way to sneak the hot dog back into Rose's life. And Rose would find another way to sneak it back to Flora.

"I found it under my pillow once, I found it in between the drapes and once I found it in the kitchen drawer," said Flora.

Flora still has that hot dog. It looks just about as disgusting as you might expect. [Link, via Neatorama]

Tomb Raiders Waiters

Some of the patrons at an Ahmedabad, India, restaurant are lousy tippers.

Serving Indian cuisine to over 300 customers daily, the "Lucky Hotel" in Ahmedabad has 22 tombs nestled between wooden tables and chairs.

Visitors eat sitting by an ancient Muslim burial place and waiters jump over the tombs to serve food.

"It is a bit eerie to sit beside a grave for a meal but I have got used to it," said 45-year-old Usman Vora, who has been visiting the restaurant since the age of ten. [Link]

The Cream of Wheat Man Has a Name

Frank L. White—thought to have been the model for the "Cream of Wheat man"—finally has a proper marker on his grave in Leslie, Michigan.

On Wednesday, a granite gravestone was placed at his burial site. It bears his name and an etching taken from the man depicted on the Cream of Wheat box.

Researcher Jesse Lasorda started the campaign to secure a marker. He discovered that White was a naturalized citizen, born in Barbados in about 1867.

The chef was photographed about 1900 while working in a Chicago restaurant. His name was not recorded. White was a chef, traveled a lot, was about the right age and told neighbors that he was the Cream of Wheat model, the Jackson Citizen Patriot said. [Link]

Be Sure to Clean Up Afterwards

Lou Charlton of DNAPrint Genomics explains that, genetically speaking, sex can be messy.

Charlton's company can analyze not only DNA from maternal or paternal lineages, which aren't mixed in offspring, but also the rest of a person's DNA, which is combined randomly from the mother and father every generation.

Charlton compares the process to trying to re-order the peas and carrots in a bowl of vegetable soup that's been tossed onto the kitchen floor. "It's not easy," she says. "Each generation, when the man and the woman mate, the bowl gets dumped on the floor again." [Link]

He Finally Kicked the KFC Bucket

Emma Carroll says she's lived to be 112 through "Good clean living and hard work." Fellow Iowan Edward Harlam, who died in 1997 at 117, had a different approach.

Harlam said he came to the United States in 1911 and was kicked off a boxcar at Columbus Junction in 1916. Harlam claimed that he stole cars for legendary mobster Al Capone, fathered a son at 84, and fought in World War I. He celebrated his birthday with a non-filtered Camel and some Kentucky Fried Chicken. [Link]

Tamale Suspected in Woman's Death

A 128-year-old woman was buried Friday in El Salvador.

Cruz Hernandez, who national birth records show was born on May 3, 1878, in central El Salvador, passed away in her sleep on Thursday, neighbour and close family friend Margarita Ascencio said by telephone. Hernandez died without being recognized by the Guinness Book of Records.

"She had been poorly for a few days, and yesterday, after eating a tamale and drinking some milk, she went to sleep and never woke up," Ascencio said.

Many who knew her attributed her longevity to her favourite drink of a beer with two raw eggs in it. [Link]

Her diet was strangely similar to that of this woman. I need to eat more eggs and drink more booze.

Some Things They Don't Teach at Cambridge

Centenarian Jessie Ridd of New Zealand recalls here the early days of her married life, she a Cambridge graduate fresh off the boat from England.

Her husband had removed the coalrange from his Woodville farmhouse, but because of war restrictions no replacement electric range was available. She had to cook outdoors on an open fire.

"I said to John 'What should I cook?' 'Stew,' he replied, and I asked 'How?'

"Put meat and vegies in the pot and boil it," he said.

To keep the fire going in the rain, Mr Ridd erected a corrugated iron roof over her temporary kitchen. "The carpenter was living with us, building a bathroom because I refused to marry John until I had a toilet inside." [Link]

Dodd Doomed in Iowa

D-Day has the scoop on the latest scandal to rock the 2008 presidential race: Chris Dodd's great-great-great-great-aunt hated corn.

"Mama never usually cooks it right," wrote Rose-a-Sharon Millicent Dodd in a diary entry dated March 16, 1835. "An' e'en if she did, it sticks between my teeth like President Jackson sticks to the Indian Removal Act!"

Staffers for Senator Dodd hastily assembled a closed-door meeting to discuss how best to deflect the damage this could do to his nascent campaign. Needless to say, the eating habits of a distant relative twice remove[d] would have a crushing effect in the farmlands of this midwestern state, home to the first caucus in the nation.

Eggstreme Longevity

Florrie Baldwin is the oldest woman in Britain. According to her six-year-old great-great grandson Harry, "She really, really is 110. None of my friends have a grandma as old as mine."

Apart from the odd niggle she is still fit and healthy for her age and attributes her long life to eating an egg sandwich for breakfast and a cooked meal for dinner.

She said: "I always eat an egg sandwich in the morning and have at least one hot meal each day. I think I've had an egg sandwich almost every day since I was married at 23. I also do like a glass of sherry now and again."

If she had eaten a fried egg sandwich every day since she was 23, it would mean she had polished off 31,755 in her lifetime. [Link]

Give Your Bread a 160 Year Head Start

Send Carl Griffith's friends an SASE, and they'll send you some sourdough starter that's been active since Carl's great-great-grandfather was active.

All I know is that it started west in 1847 from Missouri. I would guess with the family of Dr. John Savage as one of his daughters (my great grandmother) was the cook. It came on west and settled near Salem Or. Doc. Savage’s daughter met and married my great grand father on the trail and they had 10 children. It was passed on to me though my parents when they passed away. I am 76 years old so that was some time ago. [Link, via Boing Boing]

Carl has since passed on, but his friends continue to distribute the starter for the price of postage.

This Gandhi Likes Meat

Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mohandas, says it's sometimes a drag being known as the Mahatma's descendant.

"I have been termed Gandhi-in-Jeans by the press. I recall an incident when I was joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party and Congress from Mumbai north-west constituency in 1997. The campaign was held sometime during Ramzan. There were lavish spreads of non-vegetarian food. Photographers would click pictures of me eating non-vegetarian food all the time. I wish they could understand I am a descendant of the Mahatma, not Mahatma myself. If being Mahatma was hereditary, there would be 54 living Mahatmas today!" says Tushar, recounting another episode. [Link]

The Newest Oldest People

Just days after the death of the world's oldest woman, the world's oldest man has died. Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico was 115, and was a lifelong bachelor who claimed to have had three girlfriends (presumably not, like Hugh Hefner, all at the same time). He credited his longevity to eating boiled corn, cod and milk, a diet which apparently failed him in the end.

This makes Tomoji Tanabe of Japan the world's oldest man, and Emma Faust Tillman of Connecticut the world's oldest person. Emma (according to Wikipedia) was the child of former slaves, and once worked as a servant for Katharine Hepburn's family. She was one of 23 children, five of whom lived past 100. Imagine if they'd eaten cod every day.