And Lo, The Sick And Infirm Shall Preserve Cherries

I was conferring with Martha Washington about the brunch we will be serving at Mount Vernon on Inauguration day. We haven't finalized the menu, but I have nixed her suggestions for a few dishes such as stewed sparrows on toast, humble pie, boiled pike and stewed carpe. She is sending me a copy of her recipe books, A Booke of Cookery and A Booke of Sweetmeats. I asked her to please explain several terms that pop up frquently in her recipes: sops, sippits, sack, suckets and verges.

Bing - the "bling" of cherrydom

We talked about the holidays, and Martha was reminded of a method she uses to "keepe cherries that you may have them for tarts at Christmass without preserving."

To do this you will need the following:

Cherries

Barrell

Hay

Feather Bed

Invalid

Take ye fayrest cherries you can get, fresh from ye trees; with out bruising, wipe them one by one with a linnen cloth, then put them into a barrell of hay and lay them in ranks, first laying hay on the bottom, and then cherries, & then hay agayne. Stop them close up that no ayre get to them. Then set them under a fether bed where one lyeth continually, for the warmer they are kept, the better it is. See they are neere noe fire. Thus doing you may have cherries any time of ye yeare.

Invalid Cherry Pie

On the subject of cherries, Martha asked me to remind you that George did not chop down a cherry tree and then admit to his father "I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet." Mason Locke Weems invented this story for his Biography of George Washington. A bit of dishonesty to express honesty. Honest.