Every so often, I will re-read a book called Women's Diaries of the Westword Journey, by Lillian Schlissel. As you might gather from the title, it is a collection of diary entries written by women who migrated west with the wagon trains and so on in the 1800s.
There are many reasons I like to re-read this book, but one of the main reasons is that it reminds me how comparitively easy my life is now.
Those women were cooking over open fires, when it wasn't raining, blowing wind, or otherwise unsuitable for fires.
They were hauling water from streams, when they could get water.
They were walking miles a day, or riding on uncomfortably jouncy and hard wagon seats.
They were sewing all the clothing for themselves and their large families.
They were scrubbing that clothing in streams, if they were lucky.
And they were doing all of this while almost constantly pregnant or nursing a very small baby.
I was contemplating this the other day as I was making Mexican Wedding Cookies. I don't make these cookies often, because they take much more time and effort than most cookies. I have to chop walnuts, grind walnuts (I use my immersion blender), cream butter with my hand mixer, roll the balls individually to bake, and then roll them again individually in powdered sugar.
However, a woman in 1890 making these cookies would have started by cracking and shelling all the walnuts. She would have had to grind the nuts in a molcajete. She would have had to cream the butter by hand with a spoon. She would have had to pulverize the sugar for rolling in a mortar and pestle. She would have had to build a fire in her cookstove and keep it at just the right temperature for baking.
This is a truly unimaginable amount of work to the modern cook. It occurred to me that this is most probably why they were considered wedding cookies, too, because no one would go to so much effort for anything but a very special occasion.
5 comments:
Running hot and cold water, central heat and air conditioning, electric lighting, refrigeration. We take it all for granted until there is a power outage.
I read that book again every so often too. And I remember Laura whipping the egg whites on a platter for her wedding cake. Right now in our world, I'd have to say I'm most grateful for air conditioning since it's been 95 or so every day for awhile. The rest of the year? Maybe my electric oven, maybe the washing machine. Maybe modern hygienic products (rags, ugh).
Modern plumbing, hygiene, agriculture. I can't even imagine the smells of yore. I can't grow anything, so I'm thrilled to live in an age where I can go to a store and buy things. Modern medicine- it has its flaws, but our lives would be so different without antibiotics, MRI's , and the like. I certainly wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for these things.
Clean running water and the indoor plumbing for toilets.
We live in Florida and lose power for about a week or so every few years due to hurricanes. The worst was a week without power or running water in the Florida heat while I was pregnant with my daughter. I've learned that, even more than electricity, running water (even just cold) is a game-changer. I should add that we have a well, so when we lose power, we also lose water as we can't run the pump. After that hurricane my dad made a way to hook the generator to the pump so we could run it periodically. Being able to wash your hands, flush toilets, and do a cold rinse make the unpleasant time a whole lot less awful.
Post a Comment