‘The Passionate Foodie’
A weekly column
St. Maarten, St. Martin is an amazing island to live on. Not only are there countless beautiful beaches, lovely scenery and an incredible variety of restaurants but there are also an amazing mix of wonderful people.
Folk who have arrived on this island over the years have brought with them the foods from their home countries. From way back when the Arawaks and Caribs lived here to present day, when we have visitors from all over the world making their vacation homes here, the island has seen a huge variety of different dishes and foods being prepared and consumed.
Today we are most fortunate to have some of the best supermarkets, delis, provisioning stores and fresh food markets to be found anywhere in this region. All these stores supply to the needs and demands of the different ethnic groups that have found their way to St. Maarten, St. Martin.
The ‘Passionate Foodie’ has taken on the task of recording recipes from all ethnic groups on SXM so that everyone can have the opportunity to share, prepare and delight in the favourite dishes of those that live amongst us.
List of ethnic groups on St. Maarten: Arawaks, Caribs, Spanish, Dutch, French and then the
English:
Privateering, smuggling and piracy were condoned, even encouraged, by the various nations fighting for control of the Caribbean. England, along with various other Western powers, island-hopped by means of naval attacks; control of the seas was the name of the game.
Although Spanish, Dutch and French had control of St. Maarten for a number of years the English occupied the whole island a number of times too.
A breakdown of periods of rule by the Netherlands, England and France gives a good idea of the tempo of the times.
Spain had controlled the island then;
St. Martin was under Dutch rule seven times between 1631 and 1816 and
The French Governed the entire island four times between 1672 and 1801.
1690 – 1699 British occupy entire island 1781 – 1781 British occupy entire island
1801 – 1802 British occupy entire island 1810 – 1816 British occupy entire island
Tobacco was introduced to Europe by the Spanish during this period. They had learned to smoke it from Native Americans, despite some early criticism of "drinking smoke," tobacco became popular among the middle classes in England. Much of the tobacco smoked in England was grown in the West Indies.
Sugary Delights
The English had an ever increasing appetite for sugar, imported from territories in the West and East Indies. Sugar was used for anything from dressing vegetables and preserving fruit to the concoction of medical remedies. But it was still an expensive ingredient, and therefore eaten mainly by the rich. As a result, the wealthier you were, the more rotten your teeth were likely to be. Queen Elizabeth was said to have loved sugar so much that her teeth were black.
St. Maarten’s economy was originally driven by salt production and plantation-style crops of cocoa, sugar, cotton, coffee and indigo but without rivers on St. Maarten agriculture was hard.
The Accomplisht Cook was written in 1660 by Robert May when he was already 72 years old, and in it he shares his experiences and many secrets of his profession. Here are a couple of cheese cake recipes from that era that may well have been made here on St. Maarten. How very rich and heavy these recipes were.
1) Cheesecakes otherwayes.
For the paste take a pottle of flour, half a pound of butter and the white of an egg, work it well in the flour with the butter, then put a little cold water to it, and work it up stiff; then take a pottle of cream, half a pound of sugar, and a pound of currans boild before you put them in, a whole nutmeg grated, and a little pepper fine beaten, boil these gently, and stir it continually with twenty eggs well beaten amongst the cream, being boild and cold, fill the cheesecakes.
2) To make Cheesecakes otherwayes.
Take eighteen eggs, and beat them very well, beat some flour amongst them to make them pretty thick; then have a pottle of cream and boil it, being boiled put in your eggs, flour, and half a pund of butter, some cinamon salt, boild currans, and sugar, set them over the fire, and boil it pretty thick, being cold fill them and bake them, make the crust as before said.
And another recipe using sugar but this time from
Countrey Contentments or The English Huswife written by Gervase Markham in 1615, and was a best-seller of its time - reprints continued up until 1683. A sweet fish pie???? Sugar is not only used in the sauce but used as a garnish too.
A Herring Pie.
Take white pickled Herrings of one nights watering, and boil them a little, then pill off the skin, and take only the backs of them, and picke the fish cleane from the bones, then take good store of raysins of the Sunne, and stone them and put them to the fish: then take a warden or two, and pare it, and slice it in small slices from the chore, and put it likewise to the fish: then with a very sharp shredding knife shred all as small and a fine as may be; then put in a good store of currants, sugar, cinammon, slic't dates, and so put it in the coffin with good store of very sweete butter, and so cover it, and leave only a round vent-hole on the top of the lid, and so bake it like pies of that nature: When it is sufficiently baked, draw it out and take Claret-wine and a little verjuyce, sugar cinammon, and sweet butter, and boyle them together; then put it in at the vent hole, and shake the pie a little, put it again into the Oven for a little space, and so serve it up, the lid being candied over with sugar, and the sides of the dish being trimmed with sugar.
A weekly column
St. Maarten, St. Martin is an amazing island to live on. Not only are there countless beautiful beaches, lovely scenery and an incredible variety of restaurants but there are also an amazing mix of wonderful people.
Folk who have arrived on this island over the years have brought with them the foods from their home countries. From way back when the Arawaks and Caribs lived here to present day, when we have visitors from all over the world making their vacation homes here, the island has seen a huge variety of different dishes and foods being prepared and consumed.
Today we are most fortunate to have some of the best supermarkets, delis, provisioning stores and fresh food markets to be found anywhere in this region. All these stores supply to the needs and demands of the different ethnic groups that have found their way to St. Maarten, St. Martin.
The ‘Passionate Foodie’ has taken on the task of recording recipes from all ethnic groups on SXM so that everyone can have the opportunity to share, prepare and delight in the favourite dishes of those that live amongst us.
List of ethnic groups on St. Maarten: Arawaks, Caribs, Spanish, Dutch, French and then the
English:
Privateering, smuggling and piracy were condoned, even encouraged, by the various nations fighting for control of the Caribbean. England, along with various other Western powers, island-hopped by means of naval attacks; control of the seas was the name of the game.
Although Spanish, Dutch and French had control of St. Maarten for a number of years the English occupied the whole island a number of times too.
A breakdown of periods of rule by the Netherlands, England and France gives a good idea of the tempo of the times.
Spain had controlled the island then;
St. Martin was under Dutch rule seven times between 1631 and 1816 and
The French Governed the entire island four times between 1672 and 1801.
1690 – 1699 British occupy entire island 1781 – 1781 British occupy entire island
1801 – 1802 British occupy entire island 1810 – 1816 British occupy entire island
Tobacco was introduced to Europe by the Spanish during this period. They had learned to smoke it from Native Americans, despite some early criticism of "drinking smoke," tobacco became popular among the middle classes in England. Much of the tobacco smoked in England was grown in the West Indies.
Sugary Delights
The English had an ever increasing appetite for sugar, imported from territories in the West and East Indies. Sugar was used for anything from dressing vegetables and preserving fruit to the concoction of medical remedies. But it was still an expensive ingredient, and therefore eaten mainly by the rich. As a result, the wealthier you were, the more rotten your teeth were likely to be. Queen Elizabeth was said to have loved sugar so much that her teeth were black.
St. Maarten’s economy was originally driven by salt production and plantation-style crops of cocoa, sugar, cotton, coffee and indigo but without rivers on St. Maarten agriculture was hard.
The Accomplisht Cook was written in 1660 by Robert May when he was already 72 years old, and in it he shares his experiences and many secrets of his profession. Here are a couple of cheese cake recipes from that era that may well have been made here on St. Maarten. How very rich and heavy these recipes were.
1) Cheesecakes otherwayes.
For the paste take a pottle of flour, half a pound of butter and the white of an egg, work it well in the flour with the butter, then put a little cold water to it, and work it up stiff; then take a pottle of cream, half a pound of sugar, and a pound of currans boild before you put them in, a whole nutmeg grated, and a little pepper fine beaten, boil these gently, and stir it continually with twenty eggs well beaten amongst the cream, being boild and cold, fill the cheesecakes.
2) To make Cheesecakes otherwayes.
Take eighteen eggs, and beat them very well, beat some flour amongst them to make them pretty thick; then have a pottle of cream and boil it, being boiled put in your eggs, flour, and half a pund of butter, some cinamon salt, boild currans, and sugar, set them over the fire, and boil it pretty thick, being cold fill them and bake them, make the crust as before said.
And another recipe using sugar but this time from
Countrey Contentments or The English Huswife written by Gervase Markham in 1615, and was a best-seller of its time - reprints continued up until 1683. A sweet fish pie???? Sugar is not only used in the sauce but used as a garnish too.
A Herring Pie.
Take white pickled Herrings of one nights watering, and boil them a little, then pill off the skin, and take only the backs of them, and picke the fish cleane from the bones, then take good store of raysins of the Sunne, and stone them and put them to the fish: then take a warden or two, and pare it, and slice it in small slices from the chore, and put it likewise to the fish: then with a very sharp shredding knife shred all as small and a fine as may be; then put in a good store of currants, sugar, cinammon, slic't dates, and so put it in the coffin with good store of very sweete butter, and so cover it, and leave only a round vent-hole on the top of the lid, and so bake it like pies of that nature: When it is sufficiently baked, draw it out and take Claret-wine and a little verjuyce, sugar cinammon, and sweet butter, and boyle them together; then put it in at the vent hole, and shake the pie a little, put it again into the Oven for a little space, and so serve it up, the lid being candied over with sugar, and the sides of the dish being trimmed with sugar.