English New York continued the cosmopolitan tradition. New York was less English and more diverse than any other British North American colony. It became known for its Jews. Kalm said that when he was in New York he often found himself in the company of Jews. He was surprised to find that unlike in Europe, New York Jews had full rights of citizenship. “They have a synagogue, own their dwelling houses, possess large country seats and are allowed to keep shops in town. They have like wise several ships which they load and send out with their own goods. In fine, they enjoy all the privileges common to the other inhabitants of this town and province.” In 1679, Jasper Danckaerts commented on the racial integration of Broadway. “Upon both sides of this way were many habitations of negroes, mulattoes, and whites.” The first black in Manhattan was an explorer named Jan Rodrigues who came on a Dutch ship in 1613 and for a number of years was the only non-Indian full-time resident of the island. By the 1630s, a free black community had been established north of the pond. By 1750, Manhattan was 18 percent black, comparable to today’s ratio. However, this did not necessarily indicate progressive attitudes. British New York became far more involved in the slave trade than New Amsterdam had been, and between 1701 and 1774, 6,800 slaves were imported to New York, about one-third of them directly from Africa. By 1750, New York had the most slaves of any American city except Charleston.
Oysters were sold from street carts and this was traditionally a black job. They were also sold by boats tied up in the canals the Dutch had built in lower Manhattan, but by the eighteenth century, the canals were gone and the oyster boats had moved to the end of Broad Street.
Along with oysters often went drinking. New York was the leading American city for oyster and alcohol consumption, as well as prostitution. Sarah Kemble Knight, who at age thirty-eight became the first woman to travel by herself from Boston to New York, noted in her diary that New Yorkers “are not strict in keeping the Sabbath as in Boston and other places I have been.” New York was known to be the port to land stolen goods and the place where pirates went to sell their spoils. Pirates would sell at low prices, which made their trade profitable for New York merchants who welcomed these grim, colorful characters and showed them around the streets of Manhattan. Captain William Kidd, one of the most famous of the seventeenth-century pirates, lived the life of a popular celebrity in New York. He married a wealthy New York widow and settled into what is now 119–21 Pearl Street—with the summer home that all well-off New Yorkers must have along the East River where Seventy-fourth Street is today. He was a respectable New Yorker with a pew at Trinity Church until one day he made the mistake of sailing into Boston. Promptly arrested, he was taken back to England and hanged. Boston was never New York.
New York became British very quickly, but it retained some Dutch ways. The Dutch contribution most often cited, and a great contribution to the American language it is, is the word cookies from the Dutch word koeckjes. If it hadn’t been for the Dutch, Americans today would be calling them biscuits as the British still do. In fact, in colonial times New Yorkers were the only Americans to use the word cookies. The first recipe book to be published in the postrevolutionary United States has two recipes for cookies, in one place spelled “cookey.” The adoption of the New York word, cookie, may have been a conscious effort to use language differently from the British—the first American dictionary by Noah Webster intentionally created different spellings—or it may be that the author was a New Yorker. The book American Cookery was published in 1796 in both Hartford and Albany and there is much speculation on whether the author named Amelia Simmons was a New Yorker or New Englander. The use of cookies suggests she was a New Yorker, though it is forgotten that Hartford also had Dutch origins. In any event, they have been called cookies everywhere in the United States ever since Amelia Simmons published her book.
The oyster recipe she included also argues for her being a New Yorker. For it calls for an obscene quantity of oysters—and all just to cook a chicken.
To Smother a Fowl in Oysters
Gill the bird with dry oysters and sew up and boil in water just sufficient to cover the bird, salt and season to your taste—when done tender, put it into a deep dish and pour over it a pint of stewed oysters, well buttered and peppered, garnish a turkey with sprigs of parsley or leaves of celery: a fowl is best with a parsley sauce.
The question is What was the eighteenth-century New York concept of stewed oysters? The Albany families of van Cortlandt and van Rensselaer left numerous handwritten recipe books. All of these manuscripts offer oyster recipes, indicating that the tradition of shipping them up the Hudson outlasted the Dutch. There are recipes for oyster sauces, oyster “pye,” fried oysters, stewed oysters, oysters rolled in Indian cornmeal, pickled oysters, colloped oysters, and oyster soups. Maria Sanders van Rensselaer, who lived from 1740 to 1830 and was a resident of Cherry Hill, Albany, handwrote this family recipe:
To Stew Oysters
Take one pint of oysters, set them over the fire in their own liquor with a glass of wine, a lump of butter, some salt, pepper, and mace. Let them stew gently.
When the British took over New Amsterdam, its hundreds of miles of natural oyster beds fell into the hands of another oyster-loving people. British oyster shells have been excavated from the ruins of ancient Rome. The Romans, who were themselves great oyster eaters, with a fondness for the largest ones they could find, appreciated the oysters of Essex and Kent. The Roman favorites were thought to be from Richborough, near Whitstable, which they labeled “Rutupians,” and from the river Colne at Colchester. Both have remained British favorites. In fact, in 50 B.C., the Roman historian and politician Sallust wrote, “Poor Britons—there is some good in them after all—they produce an oyster.” In Poole, Dorset, a large shell midden has been dated to Saxon times. Anglos, Danish, Saxons, Normans—all the ancient British cultures left behind evidence of oyster eating, though Celts seemed to prefer cockles and mussels.
This recipe from an anonymous fifteenth-century manuscript is written in Middle English:
Oystyrs in grave [gravy]
Shelle oystyrs into a pott and the sewe therwith. Put therto fayre watyr; perboyle hem. Take hem up; put hem yn fayre watyr. Peke him clene. Blaunch almondys; grynd hem, tempyr hem up with the same broth: draw up a good mylke. Do hitin a pott with onyons and hole spycez and a lytyll poudyr of sygure. Boyle hit togedyr, & doo the oystres therto, & serve hit forth. & caste theryn youre dragge of hole spicys abovyn, & blaunche poudyr.
In 1699, Billingsgate, an area where shellfish and fish merchants had long hawked their goods, officially became a seafood market, greatly increasing the availability of oysters and fish. The seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English were passionate about oysters, which were remarkably inexpensive. In 1701, two hundred oysters sold for a paltry four shillings. Prices must have remained low for English oysters for a long time—at least from Chaucer, whose “Monk’s Tale” expresses insignificance as being “not worth an oyster,” to Dickens, whose Pickwick Papers equates poverty and oysters. According to the eighteenth-century author Tobias Smollett, freshness was not always the most prized aspect of these shellfish, and some oysters were deliberately kept in “slimepits” for several days covered with “vitriolic scum” until they acquired the desired greenish color.
Diarist Samuel Pepys often mentioned eating, giving, or receiving oysters for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners—in all he mentions oysters fifty times in his diaries. Dr. Johnson fed oysters to his cat, Hodge, buying them personally because he feared that if he sent servants, they would end up resenting the cat. Sir Robert Walpole, British prime minister in 1715, was noted for his program to reduce national debt, but he ran up an enormous personal bill for the barrels of oysters he had shipped to himself. Seventeenth-century English cookbooks invariably gave recipes for oysters, and not surprisingly these recipes later turned up in New York. This recipe, similar to one in the van Rensselaer manuscript in Albany, comes from Elinor Fettiplace’s Receipt Book, an En
glish book that was written in the first half of the seventeenth century.
To Stew Oysters
Take the water of the oisters, and one slice of an onyon, and boile the oisters in it, when they are boiled put in some butter and an oringes peel minced, & some lemon cut verie smale, and so serve it. You must put some whight wine in your stewinge.
A popular English dish of the seventeenth century that was to remain in fashion in New York into the twentieth century was the oyster pie. This recipe, from a 1694 English cookbook by Anne Blencowes, is typical of British cooking at the time, which was reluctant to cook anything without “a lump of butter,” a few anchovies, always preserved in salt, and some nutmeg or the casing, which is mace. This also became the American way of cooking. Nutmeg, which the British planted in their Caribbean islands, became a reliable trade commodity for the port of New York. Pies, as in the French word pâté, were a way of cooking in a sealed envelope. The crust was unimportant as food and was often discarded.
Oyster Pye
Take about a quart of oysters and take off ye black fins and wash ’em clean and blanch ’em and Drayn the liquor from them; then take a quarter of a pound of fresh butter and a minced anchovie and two spoonfulls of grated bread, and a spoonfull of minced Parsley, and a little grated Nutmeg, no salt (for ye anchovy is salt enough).
Squese these into a lump, then line your Patepan with good cold crust, but not flacky, and put to one half of your mix’s, Butter and anchovie etc. at the bottom; then lay your oysters two or three thick at most; then put to ’em ye other half of ye mixed Butter and anchovie etc. and pick some grayns of Lemon on ye top (and youlks of hard egg if you like ’em).
Put in two or three spoonfulls of ye oyster liquor and close it with ye Crust which should be a good deal higher than ye oysters to keep in the liquor. Bake it, and when it comes out of the oven cut up the Lid, and have ready a little oyster Lyquor and lemon juice stew’d together, and pour it in and cut ye lidd in Pieces and lay round it.
The leading English cookbook of the eighteenth century, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse, was published in 1747 and also became the leading cookbook in the British colonies in America. One of the most influential cookbooks ever published, the book reflects a cuisine that used oysters, and almost everything else, extravagantly. There are ten oyster recipes, including a soup, a sauce, two ragouts, an oyster loaf, an oyster pie, and pickled oysters—all of which would have been found on eighteenth-century New York tables. The fact that the oyster loaves are simply an ornament to accompany an appetizer gives an idea of the quantity of food served in prosperous eighteenth-century homes.
To Roast a Leg of Lamb with Oysters
Take a Leg about two or three Days kill’d, stuff it all over with Oysters and roast it. Garnish with horse-raddish.
To Make Collups of Oysters
Put your Oysters into Scollop-shells for that purpose, set them on your Gridiron over a good clear Fire, let them stew till you think your Oysters are enough, then have ready some Crumbs of bread rubbed in a clean Napkin, fill your Shells, and set them before a good Fire, and baste them well with Butter. Let them be of a fine brown, keeping them turning, to be brown all over alike; but a Tin Oven does them best before the Fire. They eat much the best done this way, though most People stew the Oysters first in a Sauce-pan, with a Blade of Mace, thickened with a Piece of Butter, and fill the Shell, and then cover them with Crumbs, and brown them with a hot Iron—but the Bread has not the fine Taste of the former.
A tin oven, also called a Dutch oven, was a polished tin box into which the food was put. One end was open and this open side was placed close to a fire. Food would cook both from direct fire heat and the reflected heat of the polished tin. A back door permitted basting.
To Make Oyster-Loaves
Fry the French Roles as above [Take three French Roles, take out all the Crumb, by first a Piece of the Top-crust off; but be careful that the crust fits again the Same place. Fry the roles brown in fresh Butter] take half a Pint of Oysters, stew them in their own Liquor, then take out the Oysters with a Fork, strain the liquor to them, put them into a sauce-pan again, with a Glass of White Wine, a little beaten Mace, a little grated Nutmeg, a quarter of a Pound of Butter rolled in Flour, shake them well together, then put them into the roles; and these make a pretty side dish for a first Course. You may rub in the crumbs of two Roles, and toss up with the Oysters.
Probably the most common fate of the eighteenth-century New York oyster was to be pickled. Peter Kalm found this recipe in New York City:
As soon as the oysters are caught, their shells are opened and the fish washed clean; some water is then poured into a pot, the oysters are put into it, and they are boiled for a while; the pot is then taken off the fire again and the oysters taken out and put upon a dish until they are almost dry. Then some nutmeg allspice and black pepper are added, and as much vinegar as is thought sufficient to give a sourish taste. All this is mixed with half the liquor in which the oysters are boiled, and put over the fire again. While boiling great care should be taken to skim off the thick scum. At last the whole pickling liquid is poured into a giant glass or earthen vessel, the oysters are put into it, and the vessel is well stopped to keep out the air. In this manner oysters will keep for years, and may be sent to the most distant parts of the world.
Kalm reported that oysters pickled by this recipe “have a very fine flavor.” His only complaint was that they could not be fried. Fried oysters were already a well-established New York passion. He suggested a second recipe for preserving oysters that was also used by New York merchants.
They are taken out of the shells, fried in butter, put into a glass or earthen vessel with melted butter over them, so that they are fully covered with it and no air can get to them. Oysters prepared in this manner have likewise an agreeable taste, and are exported to the West Indies and other parts.
The first recipe was a more typical way of preserving oysters. Pickling is an old technique used for fish, vegetables, and meat—a way of keeping food for long journeys. Oysters, though, could also be shipped live. Contrary to popular opinion, they are not fragile and in fact are far more durable than most other food. Their shell amounts to a thick, lime-rock encasement and they can live out of the water for a number of days. Sprinkled with oatmeal for nourishment, they can live even longer.
To Feed Oysters
Put them into water, and wash them with a birch besom till quite clean; then lay them bottom downwards into a pan, sprinkle with flour or oatmeal and salt, and cover with water. Do the same everyday, and they will fatten. The water should be pretty salty.
—MARIA ELIZA KETELBY RUNDELL,
The Experienced American Housekeeper or Domestic Cookery formed on Principles of Economy for the Use of Private Families, 1823
In Europe, the Dutch, English, and others had gathered oysters by wading out in low tide and picking them up or by raking, a technique that works well for gathering lunch but becomes backbreaking when used to harvest large quantities for commerce. In New York, oysters were only occasionally found in water shallow enough so that they could be picked up. The Lenape showed the Europeans how to row out in ten or fifteen or more feet of water and use tongs, a rakelike tool with a long handle and two sets of teeth to grab the shells. When the floor of the skiff was filled, they would row back to shore and unload. In the eighteenth century, oystermen began using sail power, often in catboats, which have a single mast planted forward and a large open deck. A few were larger, with a cabin that slept two. But oyster beds are close to shore and there were no long trips at sea. Sail power allowed oystermen to harvest greater quantities of oysters and bring them to market inexpensively.
A question of considerable interest to New York merchants in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was how to convert the harbor’s oyster beds into a profitable commodity of trade. Without refrigeration and given the traveling time of horses and sailing ships, this was a difficult problem, but it was t
he logical next challenge for a plentiful native New York product.
New York was rapidly becoming a leading North American port. After 1664, when British colonial government replaced the rule of the Dutch West India Company, New York’s economy evolved from one based on hunting to one based on agriculture and fishing. In 1686, the last of the wolves in Manhattan, the only remaining feared predator, were killed. The flour barrel replaced the fur pelt as the most valued cargo, and remained so for more than one hundred years. In 1678, the colonial government required the sifting, “bolting,” of flour for export to be done at the port, thus facilitating inspection and quality control. As a result, port trade increased. In 1678, 3 ships, 8 sloops, and 7 boats came to New York. Only sixteen years later, 60 ships, 62 sloops, and 40 boats came. Between 1714 and 1717, an average of 64 ships cleared the port of New York in a year. By 1721, the average was 215 ships.
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