Do You Really Know What Bundling Is?

Only one thing comes to mind, now, when you hear the word bundling. But did you know that bundling originally meant when a guy and a gal(unmarried)layed down together to "sleep". Although Puritans were very VERY strict when it came to morality, bundling was somewhat overlooked in many family's. Here is an excerpt from a book entitled It's An Old New England Custom, of which I have been quoting in several different posts.

"To Indulge In Bundling

What is the truth about the old New England custom of bundling, which has its rise in the severe weather conditions which prevail throughout the region during part of the year? Was this antique winter sport as innocent as some have said it was, or was it, as others have alleged, a low and immoral practice? New England has long been taunted with this unpuritan custom which permitted a young courting couple to spend the night together in the same bed either fully or only partly clad,It flourished, paradoxically enough, while the shadow of Calvin was still over the land and the private life of everyone was the intimate concern of the whole community, especially of those ardent investigators into local sin-the clergy.

Yet there were clergymen who condoned bundling, and some who even approved the custom. Others actually engaged in the practice themselves. One candidate for ordination, who later became a distinguished minister, wooed a number of girls, with at least one of whom, according to an entry in his diary, he bundled magna cum voluptate.

The Rev. Samuel Peters, author of the General History of Connecticut(1781), gave bundling a clean bill of health. He said it was not only a Christian custom, but a very polite and prudent one. The modesty of Connecticut females was such, he cleared, that it would have been accounted the greatest rudeness to mention to a lady a garter or leg, yet it was thought but a piece of civility to ask her to bundle. But Mr. Peters as a social historian is unreliable. He had a rich talent for invention, one of his most notorious hoaxes being the spurious code of blue laws, which he promulgated out of whole cloth in the same work in which he discussed bundling. Yet there were people who shared his opinion that bundling was an innocent pastime, a view reflected in the following contemporary lines;

Let coat and shift be turned adrift,
And breeches take their flight,
An honest man and virgin can
Lie quiet all the night.

But when western Massachusetts became a hotbed o bundling Jonathan Edwards at Northampton raised his voice in stern warning against the custom, the consequences of which were only too evident in the number of babies born in less than the orthodox period after marriage. Al over New England during the period of the Great Revival couple after couple stood up in open meeting and confessed to sexual intimacy before marriage.
In 1781, the Rev. Mr. haven of Dedham, Massachusetts, shocked at the increase of sexual incontinence in his vicinage, attacked the growing sin in a memorable discourse in which he attributed the fault "to the custom then prevalent of females admitting young men to their beds who sought their company with intentions of marriage." The trouble was, of course, that marriage did not necessarily follow a course of bundling , and unless nature called a halt and precipitated a choice by the girl, there was danger that indulgence in the4 custom would lead to promiscuity.
It must be said, however that despite the fact that bundling was done under cover in the dark, there was nothing furtive abut it. Parents took the custom as a matter of course, the mother and sisters of the fortunate girl often helping to tuck the courting couple in bed together.

Comtemporary Picture of a Bundling Board, a true likeness though.



Everything was done without self-consciousness. At the same time, the extreme temptation involved in the situation was recognized, as the girl was frequently swathered like a mummy, or her legs were tied together, or a dividing board(bundling board) or other object placed between the bundlers and slight bells attached to the bed. But love laughs at token safeguards of this kind, and whether a case turned out to be one of guilt or innocence, conquest or control, rested ultimately, as it always has, with the young people themselves."

Stages of Boiled Sugar.....and more

Here is some information on the different temperatures of candy cooking.

As a sugar syrup is cooked, water boils away, the sugar concentration increases, and the temperature rises. The highest temperature that the sugar syrup reaches tells you what the syrup will be like when it cools. In fact, that’s how each of the temperature stages discussed below is named.

For example, at 235° F, the syrup is at the “soft-ball” stage. That means that when you drop a bit of it into cold water to cool it down, it will form a soft ball.

Most candy recipes will tell you to boil your sugar mixture until it reaches one of the stages below. For the best results and most accuracy, The Yankee Chef recommends that you use both a candy thermometer and the cold water test. It's also a good idea to test your thermometer's accuracy by placing it in plain boiling water. At sea level, it should read 212° F. If it reads above or below this number, make the necessary adjustments when cooking your candy syrup.

Note: The temperatures specified here are for sea level. At higher altitudes, subtract 1° F from every listed temperature for each 500 feet above sea level.





Thread Stage
230° F–235° F
Sugar concentration: 80%

At this relatively low temperature, there is still a lot of water left in the syrup. When you drop a little of this syrup into cold water to cool, it forms a liquid thread that will not ball up. Cooking sugar syrup to this stage gives you not candy, but syrup—something you might make to pour over ice cream.


1. Soft-Ball Stage
235° F–240° F
Sugar concentration: 85%

At this temperature, sugar syrup dropped into cold water will form a soft, flexible ball. If you remove the ball from water, it will flatten like a pancake after a few moments in your hand.

Fudge, pralines, and fondant are made by cooking ingredients to the soft-ball stage.



2. Firm-Ball Stage
245° F–250° F
Sugar concentration: 87%

Drop a little of this syrup in cold water and it will form a firm ball, one that won’t flatten when you take it out of the water, but remains malleable and will flatten when squeezed.

Caramels are cooked to the firm-ball stage.



3. Hard-Ball Stage
250° F–265° F
Sugar concentration: 92%

At this stage, the syrup will form thick, "ropy" threads as it drips from the spoon. The sugar concentration is rather high now, which means there’s less and less moisture in the sugar syrup. A little of this syrup dropped into cold water will form a hard ball. If you take the ball out of the water, it won’t flatten. The ball will be hard, but you can still change its shape by squashing it.

Nougat, marshmallows, gummies, divinity, and rock candy are cooked to the hard-ball stage.




4. Soft-Crack Stage
270° F–290° F
Sugar concentration: 95%

As the syrup reached soft-crack stage, the bubbles on top will become smaller, thicker, and closer together. At this stage, the moisture content is low. When you drop a bit of this syrup into cold water, it will solidify into threads that, when removed from the water, are flexible, not brittle. They will bend slightly before breaking.

Saltwater taffy and butterscotch are cooked to the soft-crack stage.





5. Hard-Crack Stage
300° F–310° F
Sugar concentration: 99%

The hard-crack stage is the highest temperature you are likely to see specified in a candy recipe. At these temperatures, there is almost no water left in the syrup. Drop a little of the molten syrup in cold water and it will form hard, brittle threads that break when bent. CAUTION: To avoid burns, allow the syrup to cool in the cold water for a few moments before touching it!

Toffee, nut brittles, and lollipops are all cooked to the hard-crack stage.

Caramelizing Sugar

If you heat a sugar syrup to temperatures higher than any of the candy stages, you will be on your way to creating caramelized sugar (the brown liquid stage)—a rich addition to many desserts.

Clear-Liquid Stage
320° F
Sugar concentration: 100%

At this temperature all the water has boiled away. The remaining sugar is liquid and light amber in color.



Brown-Liquid Stage
338° F
Sugar concentration: 100%

Now the liquefied sugar turns brown in color due to carmelization. The sugar is beginning to break down and form many complex compounds that contribute to a richer flavor.

Caramelized sugar is used for dessert decorations and can also be used to give a candy coating to nuts.


Burnt-Sugar Stage
350° F
Sugar concentration: 100%

Watch out! Above about 350° F, the sugar begins to burn and develops a bitter, burnt taste.

Maine Folklore

The Fisherman and the Bear

One fine day an old Maine man was fishing and fishing on his favorite lake and catching nary a thing. Finally, he gave up and walked back along the shore to his fishing shack. When he got close to the front door, he saw it was open. Being of a suspicious nature, he walked to the door quietly and looked inside. There was a big black bear. It was just pulling the cork out of his molasses jug with its teeth. The molasses spilled all over the floor and the bear rubbed his paw in it, smearing it all over.

Well, the old man was not the timid sort. He went to the back of the shack, put his head in the window and gave a loud yell. The bear jumped and ran out the door. It was running strangely. The old man saw that the bear was holding up the foot covered with molasses so it wouldn't get dirty.

The bear ran to the lake shore. Standing on its hind legs, it held up the paw full of molasses. Soon all the flies and bugs and mosquitoes were swarming all over the sticky sweet paw. Then the bear waded into the water with his sticky paw full of bugs. It held the paw out over the water. Suddenly, a big trout came jumping out of the water trying to get to the flies. The bear gave it a swat and it flew to the shore and flopped there. Then another fish jumped into the air after the flies, followed swiftly by another. Every time a fish jumped after his paw, the bear cuffed it ashore. Soon it had a large pile.

Finally, the bear decided he had enough fish and waded to shore. The bear had caught a mess of fish any fisherman would envy. The old man had caught nothing. He watched that bear eat half a dozen trout, his stomach rumbling. All he had for dinner was some bread and what was left of the molasses. Finally the bear paused in his eating, and looked over to the bushes where the old man was hidden. The bear stood up and laid the remaining fish in a row. Then it walked away up the shore. It kept looking back at the bushes where the old man stood.

The old man crept out of the bushes and down to the shore. Sure enough, the bear had left six large trout for him. He looked over at the bear. It was standing at the edge of the wood watching. "Thanks a lot," the old man called to the bear. The bear waved the now-clean paw at the old man and disappeared into the thicket. "Well," said the old man, "That's the first time a bear has ever paid me for my molasses."

The old man never hunted bears again.



A Maine Spooky Story

Now Colonel Buck was not what you'd call the most virtuous man in town. No sir! He had an eye for the ladies, did Colonel Buck, and he would chase them 'til he got what he wanted. Then he would drop them like a hot brick.

Well, Colonel Buck has a pretty maid working for him. It weren't long before he started noticing her and she, poor lass, started looking back. One thing led to another, don't you know, and one day Colonel Buck turned out his pretty maid, seeing as she was unmarried and in the family way.

Well now, that pretty lass had a deformed baby boy, and she had a hard time making ends meet with a growing son. She began putting pressure on ol' Colonel Buck to take responsibility for the boy. Well, Colonel Buck weren't having none of that. He began putting it about town that this lassie was really a witch. The rumor spread and spread. The townsfolk became a-feared of the lass and one day they grabbed the woman and brought her before Colonel Buck. He condemned her to death for sorcery, and had her burned at the stake. The woman shouted a curse at the Colonel as she burned, swearing that he would always bear the mark of this injustice.

Her poor young son was forced to watch his mother being burned as a witch. When one of his mother's legs fell from her burning body, he broke away from the crowd, ran forward to pick up the leg and fled. It was the only piece of his mother he had left to bury.

After Colonel Buck's death, a grand tombstone was erected in his honor. A few weeks later, a strange discoloration began to form on the stone. It was the picture of a woman's leg. The reminder of the woman and her curse embarrassed the people of Bucksport. They had the stone thrown out to sea. But the stone was washed ashore, the image of the leg still branded upon it. The town leaders had the stone smashed to bits and they put a new tombstone on Colonel Buck's grave. But the image of the leg reappeared on the new stone, and could not be removed. It remains there to this day; a reminder of a poor girl who was robbed of her innocence and later her life by Colonel Buck.



Fog

You can talk 'til you're blue in the face about the thickest of fogs in ye merry olde England, but I'm tellin' you now, sure as I'm standing here, that England's fogs don't hold nothing over them thick fogs which roll in over the Bay of Fundy here in Maine. These ain't your little pea soupers, you can betcher life. These fogs is so thick you can drive a nail into them and hang yer hat on it. It's the honest truth.

One of my neighbors works a fishing boat, but he can't do nothin' when a Maine fog comes rolling into the bay. He always saves up his chores for a foggy day. One day, the fog came rollin' in overnight, and my friend knew there wasn't to be no fishin' that day. So he decides his roof needs shingling. He got started at the shingling right after breakfast, and didn't come down 'til dinner.

"Maude, we got a mighty long house," he told his wife over supper. "Took me all day to shingle."

Well, Maude knew right enough that they lived in a small house. After all, she'd been cleanin' it for nigh on twenty years, so who would know better? She went outside to take a look. And I'll be jiggered if she didn't discover that my neighbor had shingled right past the edge of the roof and out onto the fog!

Birth of Paul Bunyan

Now I hear tell that Paul Bunyan was born in Bangor, Maine. It took five giant storks to deliver Paul to his parents. His first bed was a lumber wagon pulled by a team of horses. His father had to drive the wagon up to the top of Maine and back whenever he wanted to rock the baby to sleep.

As a newborn, Paul Bunyan could hollar so loud he scared all the fish out of the rivers and streams. All the local frogs started wearing earmuffs so they wouldn't go deaf when Paul screamed for his breakfast. His parents had to milk two dozen cows morning and night to keep his milk bottle full and his mother had to feed him ten barrels of porrige every two hours to keep his stomach from rumbling and knocking the house down.

Within a week of his birth, Paul Bunyan could fit into his father's clothes. After three weeks, Paul rolled around so much during his nap that he destroyed four square miles of prime timberland. His parents were at their wits' end! They decided to build him a raft and floated it off the coast of Maine. When Paul turned over, it caused a 75 foot tidal wave in the Bay of Fundy. They had to send the British Navy over to Maine to wake him up. The sailors fired every canon they had in the fleet for seven hours straight before Paul Bunyan woke from his nap! When he stepped off the raft, Paul accidentally sank four war ships and he had to scramble around sccooping sailors out of the water before they drowned.

After this incident, Paul's parents decided the East was just too plumb small for him, and so the family moved to Minnesota.





Maine Tall Tales retold by S. E. Schlosser

Making Your Own Fruit Bouquet

As you may have noticed, edible arrangements are flooding the internet and airwaves as of late, having you shell out $49.99 just for a small coffee mug with fruited "florals" or chocolates. Now I know many of you just don't have the time nor the inclination to make your own but let me show you not only how easy it is to make, but how fast and how deliciously economical as well.

Don't follow the exact fruit and chocolate I am showing you if you don't want. Make your own shapes, sizes, elements and imagination. I am only giving you the basics, and you can expound on that.

Make a bouquet with nothing but white chocolate covered strawberries, dark or milk chocolate covered and plain, this type is very attractive. Roll some of these covered strawberries in crushed nuts, coconut, colored sugar or opposite colored mini chocolate chips from which it was dipped. Mix up plain strawberries with cantaloupe centered pineapple flowers for a bright, cheery bouquet. Or mix all the aforementioned together, it's entirely up to you.

As for the vase, again, use your imagination. A glass, ceramic, straw, wicker or plastic holder of any kind is sufficient. Make a few small bouquets in decorative, coffee mugs.

Many people use halved lettuce head to stick the skewered items in, which works very well. Top this with either fresh chicory or kale or use M&M's or jelly beans or gum drops(which I much prefer because of the color added).
Also keep in mind that your fruit arrangement will be top heavy so either use a wide-bottomed container or just be careful and equitable when distributing the fruited skewers.

Items you will need:

bamboo skewers
vase or basket
crafters foam or lettuce head
cookie cutters in the shape of flowers(or any shape-up to you)
melon baller
gumdrops or mini marshmallows
Fruit of your choice; pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew,strawberries,grapes,watermelon, fresh cherries and/or blueberries
Lemon juice(needed to prevent browning of some fruit)


Shape to fit your crafters foam into your container, making sure there is a half inch space from the top of the basket, or cut to fit the lettuce head. Pour gum drops over the top so the foam is not seen, leaving about 20-30 for skewered fruit. Slice all fruit into at least 1/2-inch thick slices. Using a melon baller, "scoop" ot balls of fruit from cantaloupe and/or honey dew melon. You can also cut wedges from the seeded melons as well.

Do what you wnat with the strawberries, dipping or cutting an "x" in the top of the berries, spreading open for a grape or blueberry or just leave. Wedge watermelon into desired shapes, I used mini pyramids. Using your cookie cutters, cut out desired shapes from desired fruit. Follow the pictures shown for ideas.

Before threading on the fruit(and remembering to break some skewers down to size so that the middle of the arrangement is higher than the rest) push a gumdrop down on the skewer first and then the fruit.

This serves as a solid anchor so that none of the fruit will slide off. You can also thread all blueberries and/or grapes on to skewers or wedged cantaloupe and/or honeydew melons.

There are two ways of threading fruit onto a skewer. Either going from one edge to the other with the center cut out into a small hole so that a grape can be skewered as well or after sliding a gum drop on, slide a fruit cutout onto the skewer flat side down, topping with a melon ball.
Arrange according to desired presentation. With a pastry brush or a clean small paint brush, brush some lemon juice onto pineapple, and other fruit you think may brown.

Now let me give you another idea. Cookie Baskets. They are great for a children party or just someone you want to say "Have a Great Day" to. Buy prepackaged cookie dough or use your own recipe. After rolling out your dough or balling up the dough to bake, stick a bamboo skewer into each and then bake. Once done and cooled, warp each skewered cookie in colored cellophane decoratively and use the same technique as with the fruited baskets. Try some doughnut holes, of varying types, as an arrangement as well. Especially attractive in a large coffee mug. How about dipping apple wedges in melted chocolate and rolling all or just one side into nuts, sprinkles or mini M&M's, coconut or chocolate chips?
Use all strawberries for a beautiful arrangement as well,. Melt dark, milk or white chocolate and dip skewered strawberries. Let cool on waxed paper or film warp in the refrigerator until hardened and arrange in a basket prepared as directed above. Again, roll them in anything you choose for that extra special touch.
You can always stick to one theme as well. If you want just pineapple flowers with cantaloupe ball middles throughout the entire arrangement, that is pretty as well. What ever you choose, remember to add your own little touch, such as raffia tied around the outside of your container or large flower leaves around the base of the basket. Thin about some special ways to make it say "You" and everyone will be delighted at your gesture.

Continuing on with It's An Old New England Custom-To Have Pie for Breakfast

The anti-pie crusade was helped by the increasing tempo of American life. The curious notion that the more we rushed about the more civilized we were was beginning to take root. When we began to measure our progress by the rate of speed at which we could move and began to think that because we could get around ten or a dozen times faster than our grandfathers we were that much better than they were, pie as a morning dish was doomed. For nobody had time to eat a decent breakfast.
The female figure, too, may have had something to do with it, or rather men's ideas concerning the female figure.

When pie was in vogue, the buxom figure was admired. Matrons were expected to look matronly. Women could afford to let themselves go in the matter of food, helping themselves to pie at any meal they wished without giving it a second thought. But with he gradual change in ideas of feminine beauty, women were obliged to consider the consequences of heavy eating. They began to cut down on food to reduce their figures, and breakfast, the first meal of the day, was the first to suffer. It was whittled down until it became nothing but an empty mockery of a meal.

Pie, however, continued to linger for some time on may New England breakfast tables. Journeying toward the White Mountains one summer at the close of the last century{1800s}, Charles Dudley Warner fancied that he could draw a diet line passing through Bellows Falls and bending a little south on either side, which would mark, northward, the region of perpetual pie. But he came to the conclusion that pie was perhaps a matter of altitude rather than latitude, as he found that all the hill and country towns were full of women who would have felt ready to sink in mortification through their scoured kitchen floors if visitors caught them without a pie in the house.

The absence of pie would have been more noticeable, he declared than a scarcity of the Bible.
Since then, of course, pie has almost completely vanished from the breakfast tables of New England. Only occasionally is it to be encountered, and then in the most remote places. In the winter of 1940, I visited Criehaven off the Maine coast. It is a tiny fishing port on one of New England's farthest flung islands. My host, entering the kitchen in the morning, gazed for a moment at what his wife had set out for our breakfast, and then, "God bless my soul," he cried, "no pie!" But he was mistaken, for there was pie, and a memorable breakfast we made of it. there was oatmeal and toast and coffee, lobster stew and custard pie. It was the best stew I ever ate, and the custard pie just melted down my throat.

More recently, at Gouldsborough, Maine, a relative of mine was served black pumpkin pie for breakfast, which he said was delicious. Also on the table was a splendid chocolate cake.
But why, people ask, did New Englander's formerly eat so much for breakfast? The answer is quite simple.

It was because they had great things to do.

Me....Just ME

Downtown Bangor

I have decided to be a little more personable here on my blog. I am usually sometime who sees things in black and white but I truly am colorful and artsy on the inside. I have been truly blessed with everything that has happened in my life, from my children to my parents. I grew up in Bangor and moved away for a few years during high school to Skowhegan.

My grandfather


My grandfather was my father's driving influence, ad Dad is mine. Grampy Sam died when I was 5 and what a shame it is I couldn't have known him. A world class violinist and chef. Although my biological mother divorced my father when I was 2, my stepmother stepped into her role as mother with dignification and fortitude seldom seen today.

Dad

My father, Jack, was to undergo many serious health issues relating to his drinking habits genetically handed him by my grandfather. The full potential was never realized by father and son, and I am going to break that awful spell.

Watching and mimicking everything my father did, I started playing the same violin that has been in my family since 1870 at age 5. Yes, 5 years old. I wanted to be just like Dad and Grampy. I also went into his first restaurant at age 13, the Treadwell's Restaurant. I missed out on a lot of kid stuff but I was extremely happy helping Dad wash dishes, peeling potatoes and scrubbing floors. It was because of this work ethic(and desire to be another Jack Bailey)that I am who I am now.

The great area of New England, in particular Maine, afforded me the demeanor of frugality, thrift and a dry wit. It is often said that us New Englander's don't believe in or like ghosts because they don't pay rent. That is spot on when it comes to our heritage and personality.
Although I have my favorites when it comes to television chefs, it is only those who know where they came from, give back what has been given to them and, above4 all, those that show no pretentiousness. If(I should say when) I am on television or become well known, the general public will see me as one of their own. I cherish that.

I mean really? Where else can you see sights such as this EVERYWHERE?


Sure, I could go retain a position at a Michelin-star restaurant in order to further my culinary pursuits, but the route I want is the hard way. The same way I got to where I am now. You learn and I love learning. Many come out of culinary schools with their diplomas thinking they could be a chef anywhere they so choose without even having flipped an egg in a restaurant setting or tagged along a sommelier for a time.

Or this?

I am happy to say I have gone from bleaching a toilet to peeling potatoes to the fry station. I have worked in every aspect of the restaurant and I would do it again if it meant feeding my family. Through the years of tasting my grandmothers blueberry cake when a teen to my first chefs position, I love what I do and I can honestly say I can make a soup out of a pot of water.
My grandfather and father are gone now, but there legacy remains, pushing me to make The Yankee Chef™ as [popular as I can.

Continuing with "It's An Old New England Custom"

"The seasons were not without their influence on the New England breakfast. Buckwheat cakes,

thin and crisp around the edges, were considered suitable only for a winter morning, as were also baptist cakes. Oatmeal,

which has simmered on the stove all night and it would have been sacrilege to call porridge, was supposed to heat the blood, so many persons did not eat it in summer. According to The Epicure, published by the famous New England grocery house of S.S. Pierce and Company of Boston,

the ladies of Beacon Hill in the late sixties[1860s-jjb] found the following dishes suitable for breakfast in autumn and winter; stewed pigeons with mushrooms, deviled gizzards, liver pudding, pork cheese, hashed poultry, minced veal, hash balls, game birds, venison pasty, tongue or ham toast, rice cakes, sausages, fish cakes and broiled tomatoes. Norwegian salt mackerel was a favorite breakfast dish with some men. But many families stuck to the same breakfast the year round. One family I knew never deviated winter or summer from hash and pancakes.
Codfish cakes, brown and crisp and fluffy, are still a Sunday morning tradition in many New England families, especially in the vicinity of Boston, since breakfast on that day is usually a more leisurely affair than on weekdays. When the English poet and critic, Matthew Arnold, came to this country to lecture and was confronted with fish cakes for breakfast, he is reported to have remarked to a table companion, "Try one of these buns. They're not so bad as they look".
Matthew Arnold came here for the first time in 1883. He wisely refrained from writing a book about America, but in his letters home he had a good deal to say about the country in general and American food in particular.

He was too kind a man to criticize our diet, but he did view it with surprise, and occasionally with alarm. In Boston he had a great dinner of venison and champagne with Phillips Brooks. The next day he left for Amherst to lecture. Here he stayed at the president's house, where he had to get up at half past five to catch a train. The president's three daughters breakfasted with him. "A porridge made of split oat groats," he writes, "which I am beginning to like(one takes it with cream), a roll and a cup of tea did very well for me. There was in immense beef steak, but that was too much for me so early."
A few days later he was at Andover, Massachusetts. "Called at seven," he reports, "breakfast with a party of professors and their wives-coffee, fruit, fishballs, potatoes, hashed veal, and mince-pies, with rolls and butter." When Arnold's letters were published posthumously a dozen years later, a cry went up from Andover. the pie was absolutely denied. Neither mince nor any other kind of pie, it was protested, was served for breakfast at Andover when Mr. Arnold was there. The poet perhaps had in mind some other New England breakfast he had recently eaten, and credited the pie to the wrong place, or maybe there were pancakes that morning which he mistook for pies. Large-scale pancakes were not unknown in New Engnad in the days of spacious breakfasts. In any case, it is amusing to think of the professors years later making a casus belli of mince pie.
By the time Arnold's letters were published in the mid-nineties[1890s jjb], pie for breakfast was rapidly going out of fashion, along with almost everything else on the morning menu. Why was this? During the last decades of the last century[20th century jjb] more and more Americans went abroad, and it was these travelers who brought home the idea of the Continental breakfast, consisting of nothing but a hard, cold roll and a cup of coffee. It became fashionable to denounce pie as provincial.

19th century pie safe

No one who wished to be thought sophisticated dared eat a big breakfast. One must do as they did in Paris-not Paris, Maine, but Paris, France-and conform to the Continental standard, low as it was. Instead of converting the Parisians to pie, these innocents abroad permitted themselves to be seduced into surrendering their birthright. It is a conspicuous historical fact that nations are apt to copy each other's worst features rather than their best."

19th century advertisement