Maine's "Coot Stew," "Flip" (1938); Demon Rum (1845,1854)

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TRENDING INTO MAINE
by Kenneth Roberts
Boston: Little, Brown and Company
1938

   Great read for "coot stew" and "ketchup," too.  OED has "flip" from 1695, but this is still worthwhile.


Pg. 143 (Chapter 7):  _A Maine Kitchen_

Pg. 144:  ...it's not to be compared with a Maine cunner, cod or haddock chowder, made with salt pork and common-crackers.

Pg. 144:  Ah me!  Those Saturday night dinners of baked beans, brown bread, cottage cheese, Grandma's ketchup; and for a grand finale, chocolate custards!

Pg. 147:  Ketchup is an important adjunct to many Maine dishes, particularly in families whose manner of cooking comes down to them from seafaring ancestors.

Pg. 148:  Such was the passion for my grandmother's ketchup in my own family that we could never get enough of it.  We were allowed to have it on beans, fish cakes and hash, since those dishes were acknowledged to be incomplete without them; but when we went so far as to demand it on bread, as we often did, we were peremptorily refused, and had to go down in the cellar and steal it--which we also often did.
(Long recipe for Maine ketchup on page 149 will be typed on request--ed.)

Pg. 153:  My grandmother's beans were prepared like this...
(I'll type it on request--ed.)

Pg. 154:  The hash trick was simpler.
(I'll type it on request--ed.)

Pg. 154:  Mystery has risen like a fog around Maine fish chowder.
(I'll type it on request--ed.)

Pg. 156:  The first step in making chocolate custards is to buy two or three dozen glass goblets--the sort shaped like large egg-cups.
(I'll type it on request--ed.)

Pg. 158: A coot, of course, is crazy, as is shown by the expression, "As crazy as a coot"; so if a gunner moves up on a flock while it is under water, and ceases to move when the flock, with military precision, reappears on the surface, no suspicion of evil ever enters the minds of his quarry.

Pg. 159:  There's an old, old recipe in Maine for stewing coot; and that recipe, I suspect, originated in the dim, dim past, probably with the Norsemen who came to Maine in their little open boats a thousand years ago.  To stew coot, runs this recipe, place the bird in a kettle of water with a red building-brick free of mortar and blemishes.  Parboil the coot and the brick together for three hours.  Pour off the water, refill the kettle, and again parboil for three hours.  For the (Pg. 160--ed.) third time throw off the water, for the last time add fresh water, and let the coot and the brick simmer together overnight.  In the morning throw away the coot and eat the brick.
   State-of-Mainers, no matter how often they hear it, always find this recipe inordinately amusing.  It used to amuse my grandmother, and I've heard her repeat that venerable recipe herself, with many a quiet chuckle; yet she served coot stew whenever coot couldn't be avoided.
   She had the coot skinned, never plucked; and all fat was carefully removed.  The bodies were parboiled fifteen minutes in water to which soda had been added.  Then they were put in an iron kettle with a moderate amount of water and boiled three hours, at the end of which time as many sliced potatoes were added as the situation seemed to require.  Dumplings were added as soon as the potatoes were done; and when the dumplings in turn were thoroughly cooked, they were temporarily removed while the remaining liquid was thickened with flour and water, and salted and peppered to taste.  The dumplings were then put back, and the stew was ready to serve.

Pg. 161:  The State of Maine, in my grandmother's day, was perhaps a trifle odd about what was known as the Demon Rum--rum being the generic term for all alcoholic beverages.

Pg. 163:  In northern Maine, where winters are lingering and oppressive, early settlers made buttered rum by using hot hard cider in place of hot water; and Local Tradition--in which, as I have repeatedly intimated, I put little faith--says that men have been known, at the beginning of winter, to drink too much hot buttered rum made with a base of hot hard cider, fall into a stupor and not wake up till spring.

Pg. 163:  Flip was a milder and more popular beverage in Maine in the early days, though not much cheaper, since there was a period, a couple of generations before the Revolution, when rum sold for a shilling and a half a gallon.
   The base of flip was beer.  A two-quart pitcher was three-quarters filled with beer, to which was added a cup of rum, and sweetening matter to taste--brown sugar, molasses or dried pumpkin.  This mixture was stirred with the red-hot poker, which was kept constantly clean and hot for that purpose.Taverns which pretended to great gentility and elegance kept on hand a bowl of flip-sweetener made of a pint of cream, four pounds of sugar, and four eggs, well beaten together.

Pg. 164:  On occasions the sweetening matter was omitted from a mixture of beer and rum, in which case the drink was known as "calibogus."

Pg. 348 (Maine road signs):
BARBARA DEAN'S--FOOD WE ARE PROUD TO SERVE
THIS IS P.J.'S DINER--A GOOD PLACE TO EAT
FRANCES JEWELL DINING ROOM--REAL MAINE HOME COOKING
HOT FRIED CLAMS TO TAKE OUT
HOT FRIED CLAMS TO TAKE WITH U

Pg. 354 (Maine road signs):
TRY OUR FRIED CLAM DINNER
A LONG COOL DRINK MADE WITH 4 ROSES
GORTON'S CODFISH
MARY ANN'S LUNCH
CLOVERBLOOM BUTTER
PICKWICK ALE
NISSEN'S BREAD--FRESHEST THING IN TOWN
FRIED CLAMS TO TAKE OUT

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DEMON RUM

   Score another one for the BROOKLYN EAGLE--until I check with the American Periodical Series, not available here are NYU.


   14 November 1845, BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, pg. 2:
   He was under the influence of the demon, rum.


(MAKING OF AMERICA-MICHIGAN, BOOKS)
Author: Robinson, Solon, 1803-1880.
Title: Hot corn: life scenes in New York illustrated. Including the story of little Katy, Madalina, the rag-pikcer's daughter, wild Maggie, etc. With original designs, engraved by N. Orr. By Solon Robinson.
Publication date: 1854.
Search results: 2 matches in full text
Page 63  - 1 term matching "demon rum"
Page 361  - 1 term matching "demon rum"
Pg. 361:  It was not the man who struck the blow, it was the demon Rum!