Food on the West Indian Stations

[Hannah_Methwell]

A query, if you will.

We're trying to recreate the menu of an officer's dinner serving on the West Indian stations of the early 1800s.

Does anyone have any suggestions for where we could look for pointers - mostly, wondering if the menu would have been an attempt to recreate "home" dining with local ingredients, or more adventurous?

[PMarione]

That's a really difficult one !

Have you ideas of what colonists were eating there at the time ?

@+P

[Hannah_Methwell]

We have a pretty good idea - but I don't know whether it would have transferred on-board.

We have a dilemma, you see, in that we re-create period food, but my husband is also a Caribbean food nut who got lots of exotic condiments for Christmas
So he's hoping to recreate authentic curried goat!
(NB - not impossible - we do have a recipe for authentic curry powder, and we do know goat was a meat that would have been available on-board...)

[PMarione]

The most famous naval goat was the one which accompanied Cook on the Endeavour. It's name was apprently Folly but didn't end on his table.
There is also the famous story of Captain Bligh's cheese of Bounty fame.
One meat that you'll would never have found on board was rabbit.

Here is an interesting article on the livestock of the Plymouth Colony in the 17th century : http://plymoutharch.tripod.com/id133.html.

The captain had his own table, cook and stewart. The officers were organized in mess ans so were the would be officers.
The quality of the food and the wine depended of the wealth of the messmates and the time spent at sea.
One can suppose that when in port in the West Indies they could buy fresh fruits, vegetables and meat.
Soft bread could be baked on board for the officers and hens furnished eggs.
Puddings were also great hits (at least for British seamen).

A very good and funny book is "Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels" by Anne Chotzinoff, but I don't remember reading a specific recipe from the West Indies.

Maybe you can find some good recipes in "Mrs Cook's Book of Recipes: For Mariners in Distant Seas" ?

Another article on food at sea :[url] http://www.britishfoodinamerica.com/Our-First-Nautical-Number/the-lyrical/Food-at-sea-in-the-age-of-fighting-sail/[/url]

I think that sea cooks were masters in the art of accommodating the leftovers.

A famous dish was chowder : a stew made of shark meat but I am not sure that you will want to try this.

As I have not a great taste for goat, I would suggest some poultry .

@+P

[Redfish]

Curry and other strong tasting condiments where often used by those who could afford it, as they would mask the taste of not-fresh meat.