This stuff is fascinating. I have lived in Leadville for 29 years now. My great grandfather was killed in a mine in the 1890’s here. Some of this food I remember my grandmother making when I was little. In my last house we still had the lead fridge, and meat hooks in pantry. I have started a collection of antique kitchen gadgets, fun stuff.
Excellent presentation! Thank you for using your real voice. You are soothing and interesting. You captivated my attention and that’s hard to do. There were many excellent choices at excellent prices. I wish it was so easy today.
Being from the old west of America and being 80 years old, I am surprised that not only I nor any really old relatives know what a recipe ingredient called "well washed butter" is or how it is used or washed in what? It is in the old Household Searchlight cookbook owned by my Grandmother now long deceased. Hope you will know and share the secret with me. Thanks
well-washed butter refers to the removal of all the buttermilk after the churning cream breaks into milk solids and buttermilk. The butter is rinsed in cool water to get as much buttermilk out before forming into a ball. Failure to rinse adequately will cause the butter to become rancid faster.
I noticed that there wasn’t any bread on the menus. I’m guessing it was a given with most meals. Great video by the way… you might be interested in JohnLevi’s recent video on early american menus.
Ya, a very good question, everyone and their uncles and aunts appear to have had oysters on hand. Where in the world did those come from and how the heck did they get to Leadville?! And cheaply! That's pretty wild. My mom had grown up on a farm in Missouri nowhere near any towns of any size, back in the 1910s and 20s. Food was a very spartan affair for her way back then, mostly what was grown locally. Getting so much as an orange was a big exotic treat. Distribution was an issue. All the women in Leadville would certainly have known how to cook and bake and would have done just fine given a wood stove and a list of ingredients.
Oysters are transported live and can actually “keep” for about 4 weeks. US oyster beds used to be numerous and prolific before pollution and overfishing affected the industry, so they were way more affordable. I don’t know specifically about the lobster but I’m guessing the same goes about it being transported live and thus not spoiling. I don’t know about the price of lobsters at this point in history, but earlier they were considered “trash food” and were fed to slaves.
Thanks for your question. If there was a boarding house associated with the operation, probably a variant of everyday working man’s dishes I listed here were eaten. Some mines had dining halls for both resident and shift workers and those also would have been similar to these dishes. If men lived near their house or rooms they would have gone home and eaten whatever their wife or boarding house keeper made. Some probably brought lunch pails too, with more portable food items. Sometimes these were provided by the company if it was a big enough operation, sometimes by wives or boarding house keepers. A great source of info on this topic is a book called “My Home at Present : Life in the Mine Boarding Houses in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado”.
@@lostleadville Ex-Leadvillite here. Chance are the underground food was similar (i.e. leftovers) to what was served in the boarding house or, if they were lucky enough to have a home life, what Mama made for them. I imagine that both the recipes and cooking was quite different (and much more local and expensive) prior to the arrival of the railroads in July 1880, i.e. no oysters or lobster. Glad to see you mentioned "My Home at Present: Life in the Boarding Houses of the San Juan Mountains," (Western Reflections Publishing, 2013). OK, it's the San Juans and mostly in the 20s but I doubt it had changed much since Leadville's heyday. Chapter 4, "Mmmmm, Good!" is about food, cooks and cooking and "Appendix B" is a month-by month "shopping list" for the boarding house at the Atlas Mill in Ouray, ranging from "Dressed Chicken" and "Logan Berries" in January to "Oranges" and "Vegetables" in July. No oysters listed, but "ham and bacon" (sometime in the form of "hogs") was almost universal. Each list also shows the 1920s prices of each item. As for the work-shift meals, yes the miners carried "lunch pails" but not like the square and round top ones used by the UAW today. They were indeed "pails," usually three containers high with a top lid, similar to the "Japanese Lunch Box" devices you can find today. Lacking Zip-lock bags, the multiple containers kept the various vittles separated until mealtime. Because of the wide diversity of ethnic groups in Pb-ville, the food varied as well, though one of the most common underground or at-he-mill grub was "pasties," meat-filled pastries (that "r" makes a big difference) carried by the Cornish, Irish and Welsh miners in their lunch pails. Oh, to have a time machine, though your series is a good second choice. Thanks!
This channel is just fantastic. I have a similar hobby, with something local to me, that has been absolutely wrung through the transmogrifier of pop-culture, with the "Vikings" and "their culture". And it's of course interesting to find that most, if not all, of the stereotypes are wrong, and that a great deal of assumptions have simply been reinforced from other assumptions made in more recent history. Much like your mention of Hollywood's representation of the Old West. But it always ends up with giving me a deeper appreciation for the pluck involved with these people, even when it turns out that the biggest battle that was fought for a hundred years in the region was to make the crops grow. How did they actually dress, what would they have eaten, where did they trade - we actually know a great deal about this, so piecing together something else than the Hollywood narrative is actually not difficult. It's just that it involves a lot more legwork than just going with the first and best assumption. Really interesting stuff on this channel.
These are great praises, thank you very much. Happy to have a kindred spirit in finding the essence of history. I agree it's not difficult it just involves looking critically and thinking (legwork) about what was actually written down at the time.
@@lostleadville I saw this on a you tube video show called "Cast iron cooking", he prepared and ate the dish. One or two other history YT shows mentioned it but in no detail..
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I looked into this possibility, thanks for pointing it out. Ocean oysters were very popular all over the US during this period. This grocery list from the time period referred to "Cove Oysters": www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=LEC18790416-01.2.25.5&srpos=12&e=--1879---1890--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22oysters%22-------0-Lake----- This advertisement from 1880 refers to "fresh shell oysters": www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=LDH18801030.2.35&srpos=45&e=--1879---1890--en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22oysters%22-------0-Lake----- A reference to half-shell: www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=LDH18801031.2.29&srpos=47&e=--1879---1890--en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22oysters%22-------0-Lake----- There may have been isolated instances of the Rocky Mountain variety cooked, but a restaurant or grocery would have made the distinction, because ocean oysters were so popular at the time. I think the "Rocky Mountain" variety are a later cowboy/cattle country preparation.
This stuff is fascinating. I have lived in Leadville for 29 years now. My great grandfather was killed in a mine in the 1890’s here. Some of this food I remember my grandmother making when I was little. In my last house we still had the lead fridge, and meat hooks in pantry. I have started a collection of antique kitchen gadgets, fun stuff.
You have an incredibly calming delivery , this stuff is fascinating!!
Sir Thank u for posting. You did what u set out to do and more. Very interesting and well done. Kudos!
Excellent presentation! Thank you for using your real voice. You are soothing and interesting. You captivated my attention and that’s hard to do.
There were many excellent choices at excellent prices. I wish it was so easy today.
Love these videos 🤗
Being from the old west of America and being 80 years old, I am surprised that not only I nor any really old relatives know what a recipe ingredient called "well washed butter" is or how it is used or washed in what? It is in the old Household Searchlight cookbook owned by my Grandmother now long deceased.
Hope you will know and share the secret with me.
Thanks
well-washed butter refers to the removal of all the buttermilk after the churning cream breaks into milk solids and buttermilk. The butter is rinsed in cool water to get as much buttermilk out before forming into a ball. Failure to rinse adequately will cause the butter to become rancid faster.
"pure force of awkwardness"
What a quote lol
Loved this video. Subscribed
This was fascinating! Brings me back to some of my grandmas recipes from her farm.
I noticed that there wasn’t any bread on the menus. I’m guessing it was a given with most meals. Great video by the way… you might be interested in JohnLevi’s recent video on early american menus.
Thank you very much. Yes, I believe bread was a given as well, there were bakeries everywhere. Thanks for the video recommendation, I will look at it.
Ya, a very good question, everyone and their uncles and aunts appear to have had oysters on hand. Where in the world did those come from and how the heck did they get to Leadville?! And cheaply! That's pretty wild. My mom had grown up on a farm in Missouri nowhere near any towns of any size, back in the 1910s and 20s. Food was a very spartan affair for her way back then, mostly what was grown locally. Getting so much as an orange was a big exotic treat. Distribution was an issue. All the women in Leadville would certainly have known how to cook and bake and would have done just fine given a wood stove and a list of ingredients.
The lobster on one menu also struck as something strange to find.
@@389383 Lobster?! i didn't catch that one. Wow!
Oysters are transported live and can actually “keep” for about 4 weeks. US oyster beds used to be numerous and prolific before pollution and overfishing affected the industry, so they were way more affordable. I don’t know specifically about the lobster but I’m guessing the same goes about it being transported live and thus not spoiling. I don’t know about the price of lobsters at this point in history, but earlier they were considered “trash food” and were fed to slaves.
I like this.
Would you have any information about what miners would have eaten for their meals during their work shifts?
Thanks for your question. If there was a boarding house associated with the operation, probably a variant of everyday working man’s dishes I listed here were eaten. Some mines had dining halls for both resident and shift workers and those also would have been similar to these dishes. If men lived near their house or rooms they would have gone home and eaten whatever their wife or boarding house keeper made. Some probably brought lunch pails too, with more portable food items. Sometimes these were provided by the company if it was a big enough operation, sometimes by wives or boarding house keepers. A great source of info on this topic is a book called “My Home at Present : Life in the Mine Boarding Houses in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado”.
@@lostleadville Ex-Leadvillite here. Chance are the underground food was similar (i.e. leftovers) to what was served in the boarding house or, if they were lucky enough to have a home life, what Mama made for them.
I imagine that both the recipes and cooking was quite different (and much more local and expensive) prior to the arrival of the railroads in July 1880, i.e. no oysters or lobster.
Glad to see you mentioned "My Home at Present: Life in the Boarding Houses of the San Juan Mountains," (Western Reflections Publishing, 2013). OK, it's the San Juans and mostly in the 20s but I doubt it had changed much since Leadville's heyday. Chapter 4, "Mmmmm, Good!" is about food, cooks and cooking and "Appendix B" is a month-by month "shopping list" for the boarding house at the Atlas Mill in Ouray, ranging from "Dressed Chicken" and "Logan Berries" in January to "Oranges" and "Vegetables" in July. No oysters listed, but "ham and bacon" (sometime in the form of "hogs") was almost universal. Each list also shows the 1920s prices of each item.
As for the work-shift meals, yes the miners carried "lunch pails" but not like the square and round top ones used by the UAW today. They were indeed "pails," usually three containers high with a top lid, similar to the "Japanese Lunch Box" devices you can find today. Lacking Zip-lock bags, the multiple containers kept the various vittles separated until mealtime.
Because of the wide diversity of ethnic groups in Pb-ville, the food varied as well, though one of the most common underground or at-he-mill grub was "pasties," meat-filled pastries (that "r" makes a big difference) carried by the Cornish, Irish and Welsh miners in their lunch pails.
Oh, to have a time machine, though your series is a good second choice. Thanks!
This channel is just fantastic. I have a similar hobby, with something local to me, that has been absolutely wrung through the transmogrifier of pop-culture, with the "Vikings" and "their culture". And it's of course interesting to find that most, if not all, of the stereotypes are wrong, and that a great deal of assumptions have simply been reinforced from other assumptions made in more recent history. Much like your mention of Hollywood's representation of the Old West. But it always ends up with giving me a deeper appreciation for the pluck involved with these people, even when it turns out that the biggest battle that was fought for a hundred years in the region was to make the crops grow. How did they actually dress, what would they have eaten, where did they trade - we actually know a great deal about this, so piecing together something else than the Hollywood narrative is actually not difficult. It's just that it involves a lot more legwork than just going with the first and best assumption.
Really interesting stuff on this channel.
These are great praises, thank you very much. Happy to have a kindred spirit in finding the essence of history. I agree it's not difficult it just involves looking critically and thinking (legwork) about what was actually written down at the time.
I think all yeast was sourdough. Brewer's yeast hadn't yet been introduced.
Based on this limited example at least it doesn't appear that chocolate was much of a thing then.
Oppossum?
Yes possums are edible but i perfer raccoon ( dad was hunter so i grew up eating game)
Cake 🎂
Oysters in the west could be mountain oysters. Horse balls from Castrated horses.
Interesting theory, usually they are from calves- I thought. I don't think that is what is being referred to here, though.
@@lostleadville I saw this on a you tube video show called "Cast iron cooking", he prepared and ate the dish. One or two other history YT shows mentioned it but in no detail..
@@lostleadville Also the you tube search function on Mountain Oysters is not a short list.
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Rocky Mountain oysters = from castrated livestock
I looked into this possibility, thanks for pointing it out. Ocean oysters were very popular all over the US during this period.
This grocery list from the time period referred to "Cove Oysters": www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=LEC18790416-01.2.25.5&srpos=12&e=--1879---1890--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22oysters%22-------0-Lake-----
This advertisement from 1880 refers to "fresh shell oysters": www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=LDH18801030.2.35&srpos=45&e=--1879---1890--en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22oysters%22-------0-Lake-----
A reference to half-shell: www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=LDH18801031.2.29&srpos=47&e=--1879---1890--en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22oysters%22-------0-Lake-----
There may have been isolated instances of the Rocky Mountain variety cooked, but a restaurant or grocery would have made the distinction, because ocean oysters were so popular at the time. I think the "Rocky Mountain" variety are a later cowboy/cattle country preparation.
They're not referring to Rocky Mountain Oysters... Are they? 👀
Ocean oysters.