Some sample dishes and delicacies of Spanish Colonial Texas

Article 3 in a series about historic foodways of the Camino Real de Los Tejas by Richard G. Santos, an international research historian, linguist and educator based in San Antonio, Texas. If you have family recipes to share, please send these recipes and memories of home cooked meals to richardgsantos@yahoo.com.

The other two articles can be found here...

Enjoy!

3 Some Sample Dishes and Delicacies of Spanish Colonial Texas

Legal and Illegal Food Ingredients on Los Caminos Real

Article 2 in a series about historic foodways of the Camino Real de Los Tejas by Richard G. Santos, an international research historian, linguist and educator based in San Antonio, Texas. If you have family recipes to share, please send these recipes and memories of home cooked meals to richardgsantos@yahoo.com.


2 Legal and Illegal Food Ingredients on Los Caminos Real

Cuisine and recipes of the Camino Real de Los Tejas...

Article 1 in a series about historic foodways of the Camino Real de Los Tejas by Richard G. Santos, an international research historian, linguist and educator based in San Antonio, Texas. If you have family recipes to share, please send these recipes and memories of home cooked meals to richardgsantos@yahoo.com.

As a Board Member of the State Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail, Santos decided to do this series in a chronological perspective. He is about half way through, still wanting to deal with the Post Civil War, Great Depression and Mexican migration of the 20th Century.

Santos has graciously shared these articles with Log Cabin Village and other educational outlets. We will continue to bring the installments to you.

1 Cuisine and Recipes of the Camino Real de Los Tejas Wanted

More food research--sweet potatoes and the Lone Star State...

I've been having a lot of fun researching 19th century food and cooking for our upcoming event. Like all research projects, however, one can only cram so much information into so little space (i.e. special signs, handouts, etc). Fortunately we have a blog! Yay! Another outlet for exciting 19th century food information! Don't act like you're not interested... :) :) :)



Sweet potatoes...(a.k.a. "I yam what I yam"--or not since sweet potatoes are actually in a different plant family than yams...but I digress)


Here are some great "morsels" from The Handbook of Texas Online:


"The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) belongs to the Convolvulaceae, or morning glory family. It is a native of tropical America and is unrelated to the true yam, which is a climbing plant of the genus Dioscorea and an Old World native. The sweet potato was first cultivated in Texas by the Spanish and was later grown by Anglo-American settlers. Several varieties of sweet potatoes have been grown in Texas, including the Puerto Rico, Goldrush, Redgold, Allgold, Centennial, Jewel, and Red Velvet. Sweet potatoes were grown in Texas in the late 1800s primarily for home consumption. The 1870 census shows 68 of 139 counties reporting production of over 10,000 bushels and a total state production of 2,188,041 bushels. Only eighteen counties reported no sweet potato production in 1870. Sweet potatoes were not grown commercially in Texas until the early 1900s."


Sweet potatoes are not only historic...they're tasty and healthy! Try this recipe at home for spicy sweet potato fries...

About bread...

Bread is about as universal in time and geography as it gets. Flat breads go back thousands of years, and lighter yeast breads were often served on our 19th century ancestors' tables.

Just in time for the holiday season, here's an 1849 excerpt about bread from Victoria Rumble's OUTSTANDING compilation of historic foodways: Victoria's Home Companion (pp. 63-64)

"Bread made of wheat flour, when taken out of the oven, is unprepared for the stomach. It should go through a change or ripen before it is eaten. Young persons, or persons in the enjoyment of vigorous health may eat bread immediately after being baked, without any sensible injury from it; but weakly and aged persons cannot, and none can eat such without doing harm to the digestive organs. Bread, after being baked, goes through a change similar to the change in newly-brewed beer, or newly-churned buttermilk. During the change in bread it sends off a large portion of carbon, or unhealthy gas, and imbibes a large portion of oxygen, or healthy gas. Bread has, according to the computation of physicians, one fifth more nutrient in it when ripe, than it has when just out of the oven. It not only has more nutriment but imparts a much greater degree of cheerfulness. He that eats old ripe bread will have a much greater flow of animal spirits than he would were he to eat unripe bread. Bread, as before observed, discharges carbon, and imbibes oxygen. One thing in connection with this thought, should be particularly noticed by all housewives. It is to let the bread ripen where it can inhale the oxygen in a pure state. Bread will always taste of the air that surrounds it while ripening--hence it should ripen where the air is pure. It should never ripen in a cellar, nor in a close cupboard, nor in a bedroom. The noxious vapors of the cellar or a cupboard never should enter into and form a part of the bread we eat. Bread should be light, well baked, and properly ripened, before it should be eaten.

Bread that is several days old may be renewed so as to have all the freshness and lightness of new bread, by simply putting it into a common steamer over a fire, and steaming it half or three quarters of an hour. The vessel under the steamer, containing the water, should not be more than half full; otherwise the water may boil up in the steamer, and wet the bread. After the bread is thus steamed, it should be taken out of the steamer, and wrapped loosely in a cloth, to dry and cool, and remain so a short time, when it will be ready to be cut and used. It will then be like cold, new bread."