The Working Man's Dessert

It can be kind of funny for us to think about what dessert was like for the working class in 18th century America. There was no ice cream, or was there? Fruit, cake, fritter? Find out right here in The Working Man’s Dessert!

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[stepsbeyondtheeventhorizon]

I'm immediately adding a daily event to my calendar called "Cheesing time". If my employer asks about it I'll send them this video.

[coffeelover]

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are essential for energy and health. Dessert is essential for morale.

[natviolen]

"a little bit of bread and cheese and some beer makes a good meal"
As a German, I can confirm that this still is true today 👍

[Kalhiki]

Pasties allow you to eat them with your hands dirty. You'd hold the crimped, sealed edge and eat the pocket. When you were done, you'd discard the edge you were holding since it was dirty from being held. I don't remember where I learned this, but I believe it was mainly in reference to coal miners so they wouldn't be getting their food full of coal dust.

[kirkvoelcker]

Having more than three meals a day is a common practice. In NOLA the second meal of the day is longshoreman''s breakfast, a hearty meal in comparison to the coffee and bread at the first of the day. Many farming communities have the large breakfast after morning chores are done. So, as The Shire is an agricultural community, a hobbits "second breakfast" is not a silliness.

[jakecavendish]

Eighteenth century dessert was a very different concept though, it was because the table was "deserted", i.e. cleared of all the savoury and sweet main dishes, the cloth removed and then a new cold meal of cheese, fruit etc would be served as the dessert course. In grand houses (and some Oxbridge colleges today) the dessert dining room was an entirely different room you'd move to after dinner in the main dining room

[giovana]

I love how they called dessert "pudding" even if they would have another dish. In portuguese, breakfast is literally called "morning's coffee" no matter what you are having. It shows the level of importance it has in our culture.

[lenOwOo]

It's still a customary to provide food/meal to the people you hire to harvest your field, repair something, or renovate your house.

[Simlatio]

I've been growing 'bloody butcher' in Australia for years, and what I love about it is that it has tremendous flavour, while being able to pass as acceptably sweet enough for fresh sweet corn, yet if left in the field to dry makes a great grain corn for things like tortillas.

[faithsrvtrip]

My mother would core an apple and stuff it with butter and brown sugar and bake it in the oven.

[LadyCatFelineTheSeventh]

My Grandparents were hired hands on a farm. My Grandma would help in kitchens to feed the harvest workers and everyone else on different farms around the area. But usually the harvesters, hired hands and families would eat together. But the children were always served first, then the adults. She told us how she was helping one lady at harvest cooking and this lady was very vocal about how the kids were going to have to wait until the adults finished eating (not just served, but actually finished with the meal.) My Grandma, even though she was still young in her 20s, put her foot down and those kids got their plates filled first and ate with everyone else. Funny how different families even in the same area had such different ways of doing things.

[m.a.]

The apple fritters are a popular dish in our region (Interlaken, Switzerland) and are called "Öpfelchüechli". The recipe from 1940 (Bernerkochbuch) reads as follows:
100g Flour
1 pinch of Salt
1 Teaspoon of Sugar
1/3 cup Water
3 Egg Yolks
1 Spoon of Vinegar
1 Spoon of Olive Oil
3 Beaten Egg Whites
Apples or Pears
Sugar and Cinnamon to sprinkle.

Preparation is the same as in the video.

As it was war time in Europe, when the book was published, there is an alternative recipe right there:
150g Flour
1 dl Water
1 dl Milk
a little Salt
2 Egg Yolks
2 Beaten Egg Whites
Apples or Pears

As you see, the recipe John showed us is essentially the recipe people fell back to, when food was rationed. Today "Öpfelchüechli" are served with a sweet vanilla sauce.

[robzinawarriorprincess]

My mom-in-law taught our kids to make little apple pies. It was the first thing they learned to make. Happy Mother's Day to her and all you amazing Nutmeg Moms!

[pfive]

Our purple corn is planted and it was a good spring for Maple Syrup in WV. So we will be making this pudding in September. Thank you for all of the great content!

[nikiTricoteuse]

In my family here in Aotearoa/ New Zealand, pudding was always something stodgy (in the nicest possible way) and filling. Steamed pudding, Rice pudding, Sago pudding, Tapioca pudding, Bread and Butter pudding, Bread pudding, Fruit pies and Crumbles and Crisps and Bettys... all guaranteed to fill bellies that may otherwise have remained a little bit empty. Anything a little more refined (and therefore lighter and less stodgy) was known as a Dessert. For some reason all the ones l can think of were chilled or frozen but, l'm not sure if the was part of the classification or just coincidence - Gooseberry or any fruit Fool, Blancmange, Flummery, Trifle, Fruit salad, Jelly, lcecream... 😊
Edited to add: l can't believe l forgot Jam RolyPoly in my list of puddings. Lovingly dubbed "Dead Man's Arm" and always served with custard, as were most of the Pies and Crumbles etc. Wanted to also add that Sago pudding was always known as Frogs' Eggs and Tapioca pudding was Dolls' Eyes despite our mother's protests.

[LifeofBrad]

Here in the UK, pudding still means dessert more generally. For instance, most people over here say "What's for pudding?", not "What's for dessert?". I don't know when or why pudding became the word for custard over there in the states.

[shawnbrown]

My grandfather and his father grew up as share-croppers. And sweets were always a treat. They would tell me how on Sunday for dessert they would have biscuits and molasses after supper.

[BlaBla-pfmf]

Pudding can still mean dessert. For example "if you don't eat your meat you can't have any pudding" from Pink Floyd.

[roostershooter]

A Kentucky Twist on your Apple Turnovers are a Fried version of the same dessert. Here in Kentucky, the Amish still make them as a sweet treat. They are an affordable mid afternoon treat to eat on an afternoon between lunch and supper.

[slapttastic]

Beer, the working man's desert 😂