Taino Barabicu

The above engraving is by De Bry (printed 1590) based on a watercolor by White.
Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

This is the season for football and tailgate barbeques, but did you know where the name BBQ came from? And, since this is a blog about piratical food, what does it have to do with pirates?

Here's the answer. On December 6, 1492 Christopher Columbus arrived in Hispaniola. The island, called La Espanola in Spanish, was far from a deserted wilderness. It was inhabited by seagoing Native Americans called Taino Indians who are believed to be relatives of the Arawak people of South America. Scholars disagree on the exact numbers, but the population could have been as few as 100,000 or as many as 400,000. Today the island Hispaniola is known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Many of the islands in the Caribbean were stocked with cattle and hogs by the Spanish on their routes to Central and South America in case they needed to resupply their ships with food en route. The resident Taino figured out how to dry and smoke the meat on a rack over a smoldering fire. According to H.L. Mencken in “The American Language” from 1919 the word barbeque comes from the Spanish word barbacoa which comes from the Taino words “Ba” from baba (father); “ra” from Yara (fire); “bi” from Bibi (beginning) and “cu” from Guacu (the sacred fire). So, “Taino Barabicu” means sacred fire pit. I know some of you probably consider your state of the art grill the sacred fire pit, but read on…

The Arawak word buccan refers to a wooden frame for smoking meat. Enter the French who also inhabited the island and the word for the wooden frame became boucane. So, the French hunter who smoked feral cow and pig meat on a boucan became a boucanier, perhaps an early term for the grill master. You see where this is going? English colonists further changed the word boucanier to buccaneer. And here the grill master allusion departs and visions of pirates come into view. The first usage of the word buccaneer is recorded in 1661 (with its original meaning). English settlers in Jamaica began to use the term buccaneer as synonymous with pirate, especially after Alexandre Exquemelin’s book The Buccaneers of America was published in English in 1684. This French writer knew his subject through his employment with the French West India Company, and as a confidante of and possibly barber-surgeon for Captain Henry Morgan. Put all that in your grill and smoke it.

Congratulations Stasi and Jason!

Happy one-week anniversary!

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Yankee Doodle Dandy was probably the first song I learned in school as a child, as did most of us. But did we know what the lyrics meant? Especially the part about "stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni"? I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with pasta!

It wasn't until my next door neighbor sent me this card from Colonial Williamsburg that I finally knew the story behind macaroni. Here's the caption from the back of the card. Now we know...

Hunter's Head Tavern

On a recent trip to Maryland we stopped at Hunter's Head Tavern for lunch. It's a lovely traditional British pub that uses local, organic ingredients and non-GMO meats. Al chowed down on Bangers and Mash and I had vegetarian Bubble and Squeak. We thoroughly enjoyed dining outside in the courtyard among the flowers on a beautiful spring day. I would call the tavern an "off the beaten track" site, but if you are ever close to Upperville, Virginia we think it is worth a visit. Hunter's Head is on John Mosby Highway (Route 50), or visit their website www.HuntersHeadTavern.com

Virginia Ham

I was sorting through my collection of cookbooks, trying to thin the herd, but mostly getting caught up in reading books I hadn't looked at for a while. One called Vintage Virginia, A History of Good Taste (published in 2000 by the Virginia Dietetic Association) caught my eye - especially the chapter entitled Williamsburg and Tidewater Hospitality.

According to the authors; "Hams from Virginia were always special. In the early colony, the hogs were fed on a mixture of fruits and nuts from the oak, hickory, chestnut, beech, and persimmon trees. The settlers learned how the Indians salt-cured and smoked venison for preservation, and they adapted the process to pork.

Virginia ladies took great pride in the quality of their hams. Martha Washington cured her own, and it was reported that one was boiled daily for guests at Mount Vernon."

For more information about how hams were prepared for preservation in the Virginia colony check out this link from the Colonial Williamsburg Foodways program: http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/winter04-05/smoke.cfm

Natonal Geographic Museum "Real Pirates" Exhibit, Washington, D.C.

The Moody Crewe was invited by the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., last stop of their traveling Real Pirates exhibit, to participate in the "Pirate Family Festival" June 22nd. What a honor to reconnect with the same exhibit we worked with in 2010 at Nauticus in Norfolk. The museum chose four of our displays to incorporate: navigation and weapons were inside the exhibit; medical and tavern were outside in the activity area. The final headcount for the day was 4300 visitors, so needless to say we were too busy to take many pictures once the doors opened. This was one of those highlight experiences for us, made even better by the welcome we received from the staff and visitors.

Moody Crewe Invades Cape Charles

The Moody Crewe participated in the Tall Ships Event at Cape Charles, VA this past weekend.
We hoisted our colors and engaged in cannon volley with the tall ship the Alliance, then conscripted some new recruits in our pirate school.

Harborfest 2013, Norfolk, VA

Despite a soggy start to the weekend thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea, The Moody Crewe rolled with the waves and carried on first inside Waterside, then outside in Town Point Park next to the beautiful ship Kalmar Nyckel.

The Spring Tansy

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), also known as golden buttons or bitter buttons, is a tall perennial native to Europe with a strong scent and a bitter taste. The name comes from the Greek athanatos meaning immortal, and either refers to tansy's long bloom time or its use as a preservative in coffins. Historically tansy was used as an insect repellant for ants and flies, as a strewing herb on floors, as a disinfectant, and as a medicinal herb. Today we know tansy is potentially toxic and should not be taken internally. Tansy oil is highly toxic both internally and externally.

"The Herb fried with Eggs (as is accustomed in the Spring time) which is called a Tansy, helpeth to digest, and carry downward the bad Humours that trouble the Stomach: The Seed is very profitably given to Children for Worms, and the Juice in Drink is effectual. Being boiled in Oil it is good for the sinews shrunk by Cramps, or pained with cold, if thereto applied. Also it consumes the Phlegmatic Humours, the cold and moist condition of Winter most usually infects the Body of Man with, and that was the first reason of eating Tansies in the Spring. At last the world being overrun with Popery, a Monster called Superstition perks up his head...and now forsooth Tansies must be eaten only on Palm and Easter Sundays, and their neighbor days; [the] Superstition of the time was found out, but the Virtue of the herb hidden, and now 'tis almost, if not altogether, left off." Nicholas Culpepper (1616-1654) The English Physician, 1652

During the sixteenth century, the English served custardy Easter puddings and sweet cakes made with tansy and served with fried eggs to cleanse the blood and undo the ills of the salted fish Lenten diet. Tansy juice was added to egg dishes called "tanseys" making them green, and the cream and sugar helped to offset the bitter taste. Since tansy was considered a "stomachic", this practice may have improved a digestive system gone sluggish from winter. So the name refers not only to the plant, but also to the spring dishes made with it. It is possible that tansy was eaten as a Christian tradition in honor of the bitter herbs of Passover, not solely as a spring tonic.

A Virginia cookbook from "Anonymous", circa 1700, lists this recipe for a Tansey (the writer wasn't much on punctuation, but could read and write which was no small feat for a woman at that time): "Take 20 Eggs beat them well and a Double handful of Spinage (spinach) Stamp it and Strain it beat a little Tansey with ye Spinage & put it a mong ye Eggs with a pint of Cream & Rowles (rolls) Greated with Salt and Sugar then put it in a Skillet well Buttered with a Lump of Butter in it & keep Sturing till it is as Thick as pudding then Butter a Dish put in & Lay it over Coles (coals) for above an hour & then turn it out & Serve it with Rose watter Butter & Sugar and Eat it." This recipe is for historic informational purposes only.