Tea Geek Speak
October 6, 2022
These unique TEA recipes are from “The Kentucky Housewife” on 1839. The Southern cooking that is recorded by Mrs. Lettice Bryan in The Kentucky Housewife has been refined by its practitioners and extolled by its consumers for centuries now. It is the product of an active, dynamic synthesis of the foodways of three continents, three cultures.
In buying tea, try to get the best quality, selecting only such as looks firm and glossy, and has a strong fragrant smell. Tea that is very dry and crumbly, affording but little smell or taste, is sure to be weak, having lost much of its excellency. The best of green tea will look smartly green in the cup, after it is drawn, and good black tea will look dark.
The strictest attention should be paid to your tea-pots and tea-kettles, to keep them well scalded and sunned, otherwise the best of tea will be indifferent when drawn.
Scald your tea-pot well, then put in your tea, pour on enough boiling water to cover it well, shut down the lid, and set it before the fire to infuse for ten or fifteen minutes; then fill up the pot with boiling water from a tea-kettle, and send it immediately to table, with another tea-pot filled witl, boiling water to weaken it at table. for those who may prefer it.
If you have large company, of course you must have more than one pot of tea: then it will ne more convenient to have a tea-kettle of boiling water placed on a chafing-dish and set in the room for the purpose of filling your pots; or, if you choose, just before you sit down to table, put a portion of tea in a cup, pour on a little boiling water, cover it closely with a saucer or small plate, and let it set on your tea-board to steep, and after you have filled the first course of cups, put the tea from the cup into the tea-pot, and fill it up immediately with water from a boiling kettle, that the second course of cups may be as strong as the first. Never fail to have your tea perfectly hot when you fill the cups, otherwise it will not be good.
The black tea is considerably weaker than the green: of course a larger quantity of it will be required for a drawing. Two tea-spoons, heaping full of good tea, will be enough for a pint of water.
Ginger Tea-
Ginger tea is at once food and medicine. Break up some of the root ginger, and boil it in clear water till just strong enough to be palatable; then cool it, and you may drink it so, or sweeten it as you like; or you may sup it with cold buttered biscuit. It is excellent for a weak stomach.
Pepper Tea-
Pepper tea is also good. Put a little capsicum or powdered red pepper into a cup, fill it up with warm water, sweeten it, and drink it on going to bed. It is a very good remedy for a bad cold, and for its simplicity, it is rejected many times when it ought to be used.
Mint Tea-
Pick the leaves and stalks so spare mint, rinse them clean, put them in a pitcher, and pour boiling water on, cover it, and let it stand for a few minutes to infuse; then turn the tea from the leaves, sweeten it lightly with loaf sugar, and serve it warm. It is a sovereign efficacy in settling a sick stomach after taking an emetic.
Sage Tea-
Sage tea is good. Balm makes a very cooling tea; it is good to use in fevers as a constant drink.
Barley Tea-
Take a quarter of a pound of common, or pearl barley, and wash it clean. Put it in a sauce-pan, with two quarts of water, and boil it soft, or till the liquid is reduced to one half; the strain it, dissolve in it while hot, enough liquorice to give it a strong flavor, and sweeten it to your taste with loaf sugar.
