{"id":40,"date":"2019-10-17T16:07:16","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T20:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/thejake\/?p=40"},"modified":"2020-09-17T11:10:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T15:10:04","slug":"what-would-mrs-biddle-serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/smithwrites\/issue-0-spring-2020\/what-would-mrs-biddle-serve\/","title":{"rendered":"What Would Mrs. Biddle Serve?: Food as Social Currency in Gilded Age Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"
What Would Mrs. Biddle Serve?: Food as Social Currency in Gilded Age Philadelphia<\/strong><\/h5>\n
by Emma Tierney ’22<\/strong><\/h6>\n
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Cookbooks exemplify the ideals of a society–what an authority thinks people should eat, what their society values.\u00a0 Print cookbooks are generally aspirational, while handwritten cookbooks give an account of what people actually ate, giving us a glimpse of their real lives.\u00a0 In her handwritten recipe book, Mrs. George W. Biddle gives an honest view of the values of high-society women in the 19th century through the recipes she includes.\u00a0 Mrs. Biddle used recipes as social currency,\u00a0<\/span>trading with other women and recording ones that elevated the status of her family.<\/p>\n

Backgr<\/strong>ound<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Upper<\/a>Maria Coxe McMurtie (1818-1901) married the head of the prominent Biddle family of Philadelphia to become Mrs. George W. Biddle.\u00a0 George Biddle (1818-1897), her husband, was a lawyer who served several Presidential counsel appointments.\u00a0 The family had a long history of military service, including a Revolutionary War soldier and Civil War Colonel (Dodge).\u00a0 With large amounts of land, the family had significant generational wealth.\u00a0 Combined with their historical significance, their wealth allowed the family to move among the top circles of society, which enabled Maria to be a society hostess (Biddle).<\/p>\n

The physical book provides useful information about its owner.\u00a0 The upper pastedown shows that the book was purchased from Wm. H. Maurice, Stationer, who occupied 123 Chestnut Street between 1853 and 1856, when the book must have been bought.\u00a0 The shop was situated between the Society Hill and Old City neighborhoods, which, at the time, were very affluent and desirable areas.\u00a0 From this, we know that the Biddle family had means, but also frequented socially fashionable places where their presence would be noticed by their peers (Biddle).<\/p>\n

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The Cookbook<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The most notable feature of the cookbook is the type of recipes included.\u00a0 The recipes are best described \"\"<\/a>as decorative; they serve the same function as the silverware being used and the painting on the wall.\u00a0 The purpose is to impress the guest with the amount of money the host is willing to spend on a meal, and to make them wonder: \u201cIf they have this much money for food, how rich are they?\u201d\u00a0 The \u201centree\u201d recipes are all comprised of fine cuts of meat.\u00a0 Due to the lack of electricity, meat spoiled very quickly, making it extremely expensive in the mid 19th Century (United States).\u00a0 Serving meat was a socially acceptable way of flaunting wealth, or, conversely, creating the illusion of wealth.\u00a0 Therefore, serving recipes such as \u201cVeal Cutlets,\u201d \u201cCalf\u2019s Head,\u201d \u201cBouillis Beef,\u201d and \u201cMutton Chops\u201d impressed the company, heightening the reputation of the Biddles among their friends and peers.\u00a0 The quantities of meat are particularly impressive with \u201cBouillis Beef\u201d using a whole brisket, and a whole veal shoulder and head used in various other recipes (Biddle).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The names of the recipes also served a decorative and self-aggrandizing purpose, while allowing the family to stay humbly separated, as the butler would announce the dish.\u00a0 Most notably, the \u201cFederal Cake\u201d casually reminds the guests of the family\u2019s heritage\u2014Clement Biddle\u2019s significant role in the Revolutionary War\u2014 while showing their patriotism through devotion to American identity, and hinting at Mr. Biddle\u2019s role as a counsel to the President.\u00a0 The book also contains five recipes for turtle soup or mock turtle soup (Calf\u2019s Head Soup), a dish with a strong tradition in Philadelphia (Schweitzer).\u00a0 Serving turtle soup, especially to out of town guests, connects the Biddles with a culturally significant dish, showing their prestige and influence as one of the most prominent families in Philadelphia.\u00a0 While, contrarily, \u201cIndian cake\u201d and \u201cSpanish buns\u201d make the family appear cultured and well traveled, which were very desirable traits as young upper class Americans were expected to go on their Grand Tour (Biddle) (Sorabella).<\/p>\n

The recent creation of afternoon tea facilitated an occasion during which upper class women socialized and was often used for self and family promotion (Whitehead).\u00a0 This ritual explains both the prevalence of sweets in the cookbook and the inclusion of recipes attributed to other women.\u00a0 The table of contents highlights the abundance of recipes for sweets and baked goods.\u00a0 Presumably, Mrs. Biddle created the categories, putting savory recipes into broad and sparsely populated categories like \u201csoups\u201d and \u201cmeats,\u201d while sweet categories were made very specific, such as \u201chot cakes\u201d and \u201cpuddings,\u201d which have the highest concentration of recipes.\u00a0 The first recipe in the book, \u201cSoft Gingerbread,\u201d is followed by many more desserts, which suggests that Mrs. Biddle felt they were most important to record (Biddle).\u00a0 They would have been important because sweets and finger sandwiches were served at afternoon tea.\u00a0 Serving delicious sweets would have improved her reputation as a society hostess, which in turn would heighten the prestige of her entire family.<\/p>\n

While Mrs. Biddle hosted afternoon tea, she also attended those held by her peers who tried to accomplish the same goal of impressing their guests.\u00a0 This reciprocated social event led to the sharing of recipes which made their way into the recipe book of Mrs. Biddle.\u00a0 An \u201cIndian Pudding\u201d recipe is attributed to Mrs. B.B., meringue was borrowed from Mrs. Jacobs, and her mother-in-law contributed with \u201cMrs. Clement Biddle\u2019s Black Cake\u201d (Biddle).\u00a0 The trading of recipes was the most physical representation of social currency, with the woman giving out recipes receiving social accolade.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the recipes\u2014even the shared ones\u2014assume a high level of culinary knowledge, ranging from techniques to specificity of ingredients.\u00a0 Due to their socioeconomic status, it can be assumed the Biddle family had servants and cooks, who would have the necessary culinary knowledge.\u00a0 In addition, the recipes included in the book are not ones that would be made everyday, showing that Mrs. Biddle left the day-to-day meals up to the cook, while taking part in the collection of recipes for guests and special occasions, when she would have had higher expectations, and, thus, wanted to be involved in the planning process (Biddle).\u00a0 The recording also assumes a significance of the recipes, whether it be sentimentality or popularity among guests.\u00a0 Presumably, Mrs. Biddle wanted these\u2014her favorite\u2014recipes written down in the event that she got a new cook.<\/p>\n

\u201cFine Sponge cake:\u201d Creating a Recipe<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When reading the recipes it becomes apparent that they are meant for someone with a background in cooking.\u00a0 This is reasonable, given the previously stated assumption that Mrs. Biddle used the book to record her favorite recipes to pass along to new cook.\u00a0 As an avid baker, lover of sweets and history nerd, I decided to recreate the \u201cFine Sponge cake\u201d recipe.\u00a0 This page particularly interested me because it has food stains, meaning it was probably a popular dessert.\u00a0 The recipe also calls for a dozen eggs, and I was very curious as to how a recipe could use that many and not taste like scrambled eggs (Biddle).<\/p>\n

The first step was transcribing the recipe from the handwritten text.\u00a0 Some words were unable to be deciphered due to the penmanship, which often left t\u2019s uncrossed and occasionally misspelled words.\u00a0 Question marks indicate an unknown word, and words in parenthesis next to the question marks indicate unconfirmed possibilities.\u00a0 The transcription of the page:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pg 4<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fine Sponge Cake<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tak<\/em><\/strong>e the weight of 10 eggs and five (oz\/in)??? Flour.\u00a0 Beat the yolks + whites separately until very light; have your sugar in the ???? pan, pat the whites above in 2 stir the ???? well together as you add the yolks + stir in the flour a little as a time.\u00a0 Flavour with the grated rind of two lemons and the juice of one.\u00a0 Do not beat the cake after the materials are put together.\u00a0 Bake it at once in a moderate oven about 3\/4 of an hour.\u00a0 It should be bake<\/em><\/strong>d in a shallow pan well greased.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To make the icing<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Beat \u00bd pound of white sugar with the whites of two eggs.\u00a0 Half quantity which be enough for the above.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Take out the cake as soon as done to ice the under side while hot<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Getting ingredients was easy, as the dining halls have scales to measure out ingredients in weight, not cups.\u00a0 I assumed that \u201cthe weight of 10 eggs\u201d was referring to the amount of sugar, and five was referring to the amount of flour (Biddle).\u00a0 I approximated this to 1.5 pounds sugar and .75 pounds flour.<\/p>\n

The making of the cake was challenging due to the inexact ingredient measurements listed and the capabilities of the Jordan House kitchen.\u00a0 The stiff peak egg whites deflated due to the amount of time zesting the lemons took, resulting in a denser cake than intended.\u00a0 No zesters were available to \u201cgrate the rind of two lemons\u201d so I used the sharpest tools I could find: a potato peeler and pumpkin carving knife.\u00a0 The only pans available were two quarter sheet pans, so the cake was spread thinner than I presume was intended; so it baked in less time than instructed\u2014about 25 minutes\u2014resulting in a sponge drier than intended (Biddle).<\/p>\n

The resulting cake was surprisingly enjoyable, despite the challenges.\u00a0 The sponge was not very sweet, but balanced out with the sugary icing.\u00a0 Each bite had a nice hint of lemon, without the flavor overpowering.\u00a0 Slightly more dense than a sponge should be, it would have made an enjoyable pound cake.\u00a0 I was surprised by how light it actually was without any leavening agents.\u00a0 While not necessarily what I\u2014nor Mrs. Biddle, I\u2019m sure\u2014intended, it was a respectable dessert that was a refreshing break from the ultra-sweet desserts of the present.<\/p>\n

I think the cake, while simple, exemplifies the Biddle family and their cookbook.\u00a0 It is rich and fulfilling, yet sophisticated in a minimalist way; exactly what they were trying to portray with their food: a humble and refined expression of their immense wealth and cultural influence within the city of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

In a way, this recipe book is very similar to modern \u201ccoffee table cookbooks\u201d and the Martha Stewart era of cooking.\u00a0 The Biddles used food to show their wealth; modern food culture uses food to show wealth, leisure time and perfection.\u00a0 The feigned humility of the Biddles has transformed into the modern \u201cI woke up like this\u201d approach to cooking.\u00a0 Modern Americans do not show the time and effort that went into planning every small detail, but pretend as if they create Instagram worthy feasts every day with the ample spare time and amazing culinary skills they have.\u00a0 Leisure time is the new wealth.\u00a0 Having spare time is enviable and posting what one does with their leisure time has become the new form of social currency: afternoon tea and dinner parties have given way to social media.<\/p>\n

The video below chronicles one of my attempts to make \u201cA Fine Sponge cake.\u201d\u00a0 When recreating and filming the recipe, I too followed modern food culture trends\u2014slowing down the process to make sure I got the right shot and doing everything in my power to assure a beautiful product.\u00a0 While it is not a true record of either the modern or original process of baking such a difficult dessert, it truthfully shows the careful consideration to detail required of both the recipe and current culinary content.<\/span><\/p>\n

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