Beer History Kilkenny: James's Street Breweries - Sullivan's Selection...

(Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project)

Back on the 6th February this year I posted this Tweet as a follow up to a post I did about Smithwicks...

'... not wishing to leave the reincarnation of @SullivansBrewCo out, here's an advert from 1895. A Sullivan's Pale Butt is probably out of the question but how about a rebrew of a Double Stout?'

Kilkenny People - 1895,

If nothing else it's nice to remind people yet again that the brewing history of Kilkenny doesn't just involve red ales, and worth posting permanently here for those researching the city's brewing history. I have more information on James's Street Breweries and a couple of its neighbours that I'll try and compile into an original and longer post soon...ish.

In the meantime here's another advert...

Waterford News and Star - 1870

Although I can't guarantee that Sullivan's solicit sample orders anymore ... but who knows?

Oh, and regarding the original Tweet, they did brew a single stout recently...

Liam

Part of my Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project to give a slightly more permanent and expanded home to some of my previous Tweets.

With thanks again to my local library for their newspaper archive access.

(All written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and can not be reproduced elsewhere without full credit to its source and a link back to this post.)

Beer History - Carlow: Incident at Casey's Brewery

Working in a brewery in the 19th century probably wasn't an easy task given the heat, physical work itself and the varied workload. Having said that, this incident from 1833 looks like it was driven by more than just work issues...

The Carlow Sentinel -1833

John Casey's brewery was situated where Dunleckney Maltings - or just 'The Maltings' as it is locally known - now stands, on the banks of the Barrow just outside of Bagenalstown in county Carlow. Indeed some of the existing structure is possibly part of the earlier brewery, which was there from the late 18th century. It changed hands a number of times before it was converted to solely a maltings and I will post more about it at a later date. It may even turn full circle given its current owners...

I'm not sure if Mr. Lynch ever recovered but it seems unlikely, nor do I know if Mr. Keating was ever found...

Not a nice way to go, so all of you current brewery workers with axes to grind might want to wander outside before you start any fights!

Thanks as ever to the local studies room in Carlow library.

Liam

(All written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and can not be reproduced elsewhere without full credit to its source and a link back to this post.)

Beer History: Guinness Depot Carlow, c. 1900...

(Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project)

Back in March 2017 I posted these tweets...

'Guinness depot on the Barrow in Carlow - late 1800s(?)

[via NLI Photo Collection - Cropped]'

'...Here's a better photo from the same source. If you look through the gate you can see the delivery system post-barge! More likely c. 1900.'

---

The original images are from The Lawrence Photograph Collection on the NLI website are here and here, and you can see St.Anne's church on the Athy road (before it was moved to Graigue to become St. Clare's), and a malthouse and the gasworks chimney in the background. I think this is the building (under the C) via GioHive on the OSI's historic 25inch map.

It would be great to get a name for the gentleman inside that archway!

Edit: Thanks to Charlie Roche (@charleymcguffin on Twitter) here's a photo of the same building from 1948 via the Britain from Above website. I've added the arrow to make it clearer.

Part of my Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project to give a slightly more permanent and expanded home to some of my previous Tweets.

(My original thread is here)

With thanks to OSI, GeoHive and NLI websites

Beer History: Keily's Ale - St. Stephen's Brewery, Waterford

(Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project)

Back in 2017 I posted a reply to an old photograph put up by Waterford History that showed a window of a pub in Waterford with a sign for Kiely's Pale Ale...

'Here's Keily's - 1865...'

(The Carlow Post - 1865)

My next Keily's post in that thread was this...

'...Here's another one from 1866...'

(The Carlow Post - 1866)

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As you can see from these advertisements, St. Stephen's brewed a wide range of ales ... East India Pale Ale, Strong & Mild Ales, Double (XX), Medium & Single Stouts (I'm assuming that these were porters and not just stout (strong) ales, which wouldn't make sense to my mind if categorised in this way?)

I've mentioned the brewery previously in a post about an exhibition in Cork in 1883, where they were then exhibiting an XXX Ale as well as their India Pale Ale (Brewed with malt from Perry's in Rathdowney, Laois.) and an XXX Stout...

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Last week I came across this nice write up about the brewery in the Munster Express from 1895, which originally came from the Irish Mineral Water Journal:

I'm unsure who the author of this passage was but they were seriously impressed by Keily's well hopped and flavoursome ale!

It's interesting to see how many of their comments echo similar points being made about our present beer revival, as to why we need to import so many foreign beers when we have such good ones here? I presume the answer is something to do with keeping breweries on their toes and giving a reference point as to how good is good? The same argument was, and is, given about food too, but surely without this foreign influx of different styles and products our own produce would be a lot less interesting and diverse, and our palates all the poorer too? (Having said all of that I do appreciate the sentiment of their tirade!)

And although I don't really know, I would think that when the time came for Keily's to finally stop brewing ,that foreign imports didn't play a huge part in that decision...

Part of my Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project to give a slightly more permanent and expanded home to some of my previous Tweets.

(My original thread is here)

With thanks to my Local Library's Local Studies room.

Beer History: Pale Stouts ... from Cork and London

(Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project)

Hardly exciting or new but two nice mentions of Beamish & Crawford's Bavarian Pale and Brown Stouts from The Lancet in 1844, the only possible mystery is the Bavarian twist ... also of note is the mention of professor Liebig, previously mentioned here:

_____

I Tweeted that here back in January 2018 and since then I've come across a couple more mentions of this Bavarian Pale Stout from 1843. Keeping in mind that the word 'Stout' just meant heavy or robust when attached to a beer then and had not become attached solely to a type of strong porter...

I also came across an advertisement for Thrale's Brewery from 1771 - which I posted about here - that mentioned a 'London Pale Stout of a bright Amber Colour, superior to any Pale Beer or Ale imported...'

Note: Other, wiser minds than mine have talked about Pale Stouts in more detail, let Google be your friend...

(Part of my Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project)

(With thanks to my Local Library's Local Studies room and Google Books)

Beer History: Mountjoy Brewery, Brown Ale and Nourishing Stout

(Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project)

"Mountjoy Brewery brewed a 'Dublin Brown Ale' in 1953 it seems ... this is from the Irish Press of that year. I wonder if all their recipes are in someone's safe hands...?"

(This drew a question as to when they actually closed, some websites say 1949 but then I then found something online...)

"... Interesting ... the online version of the Findlater book has an addendum that says it closed in 'August 1956'..."

(I then added this...)

"... Further to the Mountjoy Brown Ale tweet above, here's a dubiously worded advert and a writeup from The Irish Press in 1955. It looks like that brown ale died a death - or isn't mentioned at least - and sadly the brewery was soon to head in the same direction..."

(Part of my Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project - Original Tweet is here)

(With thanks to Carlow Library Local Studies room and Findlater's online book.)

Beer History: Cairnes' Irish Stingo Ale Adverts

(Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project)

"Huh ... I never knew there was an Irish Stingo ale. I'd always associated it with England, but Cairnes brewed one in the 30s..."

(Here's another from the same publication, including a suggestion to mix Cairnes and Stingo!)

Images via:

Drogheda Museum's Blog

An Caman on the Limerick City Library Website

Update: Here's another Irish Stingo advert from the Saturday Herald 1932...

(Part of my Tweet-to-Blog-Conversion-Project - Original Tweet is here...)

Beer History: Notes from The Cork Industrial Exhibition 1883 - Thin & Rough, Pungent ... and Over Burtonized Beer

In 1883 Cork city held its second industrial exhibition, having held its first in 1852 just one year after the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in London. Amongst the usual arts, machinery and  other assorted produce was a selection of ales and porters from some of the breweries operating in Cork - and one in Waterford.

Here we have:

Beamish and Crawford showing their East India Pale Ale, Pale Bitter Ale, Extra Stout, Double Stout and Single Stout.

Lane & Co. had their Draught Porter in cask and West India Stout in cask and bottles.

Allman, Dowden & Co. with an ale and a stout.

Arnott & Co had an Extra Stout, a Stout and a Pale Ale in cask and bottle and a Mild Ale in cask.

Keily & Sons from Waterford - the only non-Cork brewers - had an India Pale Ale brewed with malt from Perry's in Rathdowney and an XXX Ale and XXX Stout made with their own malt.

All of this is interesting enough and once again shows that Irish breweries were attempting styles other than just porters, as I highlighted in my last post, but hardly too exciting...

But I've also come across both the awards handed out and also some interesting, if somewhat vague in some cases, tasting notes from a separate report published three years after the exhibition....

As can be seen, Arnott's, Beamish & Crawford's and Lane's breweries all won medals.

Beamish & Crawford's single stout has the 'characteristic thin rough flavour required of a quick consumption stout.' An interesting choice of words, as both thin and rough would often be used as negatives nowadays - not a profile of an award winning stout! Their bottled double stout was also described as clean but missing the 'pungency' required for a such a beer, again a word that is usually seen as negative

Lane & Co. won just a commendation but no medal for their export stout (presumably the West India Stout mentioned above), which seems to have been highly hopped and has 'kept well', but with some preservatives added ... perhaps? Their Stout, which wasn't listed above, is low hopped and the comments seem to give the impression that it could have been better ... that it 'should have been presented' fresher. The porter gets the best review, being a 'Good pleasant porter, full, sweet and clean.'

Although John Arnott's brewery also won two medals for its pale ale, there appears to have been some disagreement in the judges camp, as one of the jurors pointed out that both ales were so over 'Burtonized' to put them 'outside the category of genuine ales.' This was pointed out by William Sullivan, president of Queen's College in Cork, although Mr. C. O'Sullivan was a consulting chemist for Bass, in Burton-on-Trent. I'm not sure if names were mixed up or the analysis came to Cork's Mr. Sullivan via the Burton one, either way it seems that one Cork brewery may have been trying too hard to emulate Bass & Co.!

Anyhow, these are some of the earliest comments I have come across on the taste of Irish beers in any sort of judging setting, and they make interesting reading ... as does the rest of the report with comments on whiskey, cooperage, cider and other related issues that might lead some down a similar rabbithole to my own...

Liam

Cork Industrial Exhibition 1883 Catalogue(1883) via Cork Past & Present

Cork Industrial Exhibition 1883 Report (1886) via Google Books

Beer History : Lane & Co.'s Brewery, Cork - More Than Plain Porter...

So ... I'm not really sure what my fascination is with old Cork breweries, although I think the two excellent books on its most famous ones by Donol Ó Drisceoil and Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil have a lot to do with it, but it's also because I really like the city, its buildings, history and people. My biggest issue is that I don't get down there often enough...

I've previously tweeted these adverts from Lane & Co.'s brewery but felt they deserved a more permanent home on my blog to go along with my related posts about Lady's Well Brewery (Murphy's).

Lane's (along with Arnott's) was a competitor to Murphy's and Beamish & Crawford's breweries in Cork in the 1800s before it was sold to B & C in 1901, with Murphy's buying Arnotts the same year.

Both were closed...

---

This first advertisement is from The Cork Examiner in 1843 and states that their extra stout was popular in London at this time and which is echoed at a later date by Barnard in his comments in 'The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland'. They also brewed a Porter, East India Pale XX and an Amber Ale - more evidence perhaps of early, elusive red ales in the country perhaps!

The next advert is from the same paper in 1894 and is promoting its Mild and Bitter, plus an early version of a tapped growler!

One of the points of this post is to show again that there was a greater variety of beers brewed in the country than many would expect, and certainly more than I suspected when I started down this brewing history road. It's worth mentioning that the Ó Drisceoil's also mention West India Stout, Double Stout, Bottling Stout, Mixing Stout, Single Stout, X and an XB being brewed in Lane's.

Obviously porter or its variants were by far the most popular style consumed up until relatively recently, but there were plent of other beer styles brewed...

Liam

(With thanks to my local library and Donol Ó Drisceoil and Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil's 'Beamish & Crawford: The History of an Irish Brewery'.)

Beer History: London Calling - Thrale's Exports to Dublin in 1771

(So it's been a couple of months since my last post, this was due to a number of reasons but mostly a mixture of apathy towards blogging and perhaps a little lethargy due to 'real life' work, family and other personal issues. I've always wrote for myself and not for others, so it didn't bother me greatly that I hadn't posted something new here in a while, as I knew I'd return to it ... and when I spotted my page views go over the 100k count (Meagre compared to others, I know!) it prompted me to dust off my account and put something new up. I'm not sure how often I'll post in the future but let's take it one at a time.)

Here's an interesting advertisement from March 1771 that deserved more than a tweeted reference so I decided to put it here, as it will hopefully have a little more longevity and permanence. It shows the prices and styles of John Grant's imports from Thrale's Brewery into his store on Jervais Street, Dublin ... London Porter, London Brown Stout and London Pale Stout are all listed.

There's nothing new here in the wording if taken as separate pieces of information, from the beers to the sizes listed - even to the mention of a Winchester Gallon, which preempted the imperial gallon I believe - but taken all together it's still, perhaps, an interesting snapshot into what beers were being imported and their relative costs and volumes.

Freeman's Journal 1771

Some of the wording is interesting too, I read 'NEAT as imported' to mean not diluted, which sounds like it was a common practice back then. 'Allowance for casks returned sweet' meant you couldn't return a dirty or infected cask, a 'clean as you go' ethos perhaps in action in the late eighteenth century! The Pale Stout is described as having 'a bright Amber Colour', which is my first time reading a colour description for such a beer, as vague as it is. (Don't forget stout just meant strong at this point in time...) He specifies his casks are all made in London, is this a dig at Irish coopering abilities? Probably not, more to do with sizes/volume I'd imagine...

What we are missing of course is what they tasted like exactly, if only we had a time machine we could order some from William Halligan? Although if we did possess a time machine then getting beer samples would probably be low on our list of things to do...

Anyhow, it's nice to be back!

Liam

(With thanks as ever to my local library...)

Drink History: Size Matters ... Gauging a Gallon

'The more I see, the less I know...'

These words by the Red Hot Chili Peppers - at the risk of using an incongruous reference in a post about drink history - have sprung to mind on more than one occasion as I plough through the wealth of historical information on brewing online, and occasionally wander Alice-like down all of those other drink related rabbit holes freely available to all.

But this can be disheartening at times, as I realise that I have so much to learn ... and this thought means that I am often left deflated as I read something that's new to me which I feel was well known to others and is indicative of the wealth of my ignorance on a subject matter in which I have a lot of interest.

This also means that in many of my posts I tend to just regurgitate snippets of found information rather than trying to solve problems or add my own thoughts and opinions. (Although in part this is also driven by the fear of sticking my fat, bearded head above the parapet in case it is cracked open by a truth-laden salvo delivered from those knowledgeable drink historians that stalk the interweb seeking falsehoods and long-repeated myths to - rightly - take aim at with an arching lob from their Trebuchet of Truth™...)

Don't get me wrong I enjoy all the historical commentary and get immense satisfaction from all my research, and I've even questioned a few dodgy comments on other peoples websites, blog posts and tweets, but there always this nagging voice in the back of my sieve-like brain asking ... 'Are you REALLY sure about that ... ?'

So with all that in mind you won't find it odd that I never knew a gallon could mean so many different sizes to different people in the past. Sure, I knew that US gallons were different to 'our' gallons ... but not that Irish gallons, British gallons and even wine gallons were all different - and let's not forget mash tun gallons. I should have suspected this to be the case, as I was aware of British miles and Irish miles being different measurements in the past, but it was only when I came across a book on gauging - the measuring of dutiable goods - from 1823 that I had it all laid out in front of me in black and sepia (Okay, so I added the sepia...), complete with measurements in cubic inches...

The Theory and Practice of Gauging - Peter Jonas - 1823

So I'm putting this up here to enlighten others that didn't know - and who may care - and to allow those who did know to roll their eyes and shout out, 'Well, duh Liam!' at the top of their voices.

And it raises questions...

Firstly, is it true? Next did it cause headaches for exports and imports of beer between Ireland and Britain? Were all casks physically the same size, so that it was just the declared volume was different? When did this end? As presumably at some point English and Irish gallons became the same.

I don't profess to know the answers but leave it with me, as some answers may be in the above book which I have yet to completely absorb. It looks like I have a lot more reading to do in order to avoid a missile from those in the know...

(On that note, while reading through the book and coming across shapes such as prolate spheroids and parabolic spindles - coupled with the extremely difficult looking maths required - it makes me think gaugers would have made excellent rocket scientists...)

Liam

Beer History: Exhibitions All Round...

On the day that the Alltech Craft Brews & Food Fair (There's a post from last year's event here.) starts in The Convention Centre in Dublin it seemed appropriate to do this post about another exhibition from 1892, this was held in another iconic - and circle-focussed - building, the Round Room of the Rotunda.

As you can see it had a cosmopolitan air with a focus on Spain, and Californian brandy and wine as you can see here...

Macardle, Moore and Co. from Dundalk were also there, showcasing their stout and a cask cleaner to remove the flaw of casky beer! This is my first time seeing this as a negative term...

Lager was also on show from 'Frankfort' Brewery, along with some beer pumps...

(This piece just led into a different section on glass, you're not missing anything on lager or pumps!)

Last but not least was a display from Corcoran's from my home town of Carlow, once a big employer at a site near the castle...

So there we go, drink fairs of a sort have been around for a few years in Dublin, and imported beverages are not a new thing. Remember that when you're opening your next bottle of California Merlot or German lager!

Liam

(Thanks as usual to my local library...)

Recipe: Mangel Wurzel Ale, Whisky ... and Paper!

I've been quite busy and distracted over the last few weeks so blog posts have been scarce to say the least, but with a bit of luck I'll be back to more regular writing soon.

In the meantime here's a quick recipe from the Belfast Newsletter of 1833 for Mangle Wurzel Ale that someone might like to try? Often called fodder beet it's an interesting root that appears to have culinary, imbibing and practical uses that should be explored more!

Let me know if you make some ... and I'll do the same.

So you can make some ale or whisky and the brown paper bag to wrap it up in!

(Thanks as always to my local library...)

Liam

Beer & Travel History: A Grand Day Out in Kilkenny - October Ales & Orchards

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about William Cobbett's visit to Kilkenny and his thoughts on the city, people and the beers of Ireland in general ... and while down my rabbithole of beer history research I came across an article about a visit by a group of Waterfordians to Kilkenny that I thought would be a nice follow up for balance ... with a more positive slant for Kilkenny and for the local beer.

It was published in The Waterford News and Star in September 1873 and I've included the article in its entirety below ... but a couple of intriguing parts stood out to me with relation to the  Smithwicks brewery, which they visited...

'... the Black Abbey Brewery, otherwise St. Francis's, owned and worked by [...] E. Smithwick...'

The Black Abbey is a completely different site to St. Francis's Abbey and it's a little strange that a visitor should confuse the two ... furthermore at this time Sullivan's would have then been the closest brewery to The Black Abbey. Perhaps the writer of the article had one too many on the trip and confused the two, or did someone not want the visitors to know there were two breweries in close proximity to one another in the city, and choose to amalgamate both in our visitor's mind? The writer had visited the city on a number of occasions so either way it seems a strange comment. (I can't of course rule out that it was also known as the Black Abbey Brewery but I can't find any reference to this name, and it would seem highly unlikely...)

We'll never know but it's a lesson to all researchers to be wary about what you read in old newspapers...

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'We were taken into what may be termed the "Refreshment Room" on these annual visits, into a large cellar filled with October ales, eleven months old, clear as amber when filled out, ardent as malt when imbibed. [...] with a measure of strong ale in hand and it had to be drunk... '

I wonder if that 'Refreshment Room' is still in use? I confess I've never done the tour so I don't know...

The comments on the storage time, colour and strength - both in flavour and, presumably, alcohol are interesting to read, and sound a far cry from the Smithwick's of now apart perhaps from the colour - but there was a red-ish ale in Kilkenny even back then it would seem ... if not what we think of as an 'Irish Red Ale'!

Not that we should think that Smithwick's have always just brewed one beer - and they don't anymore anyhow, and nor do they brew in Kilkenny of course - as beer history books list the varied output from the brewery in its early days...

But again it's nice see some of this information in print and I came across an advert from The Munster Express in 1866 with regard to Smithwick's opening a store in Waterford to help satisfy demand in the city, although it was possibly a logistical help with exports too.

It also shows that there was a good connection between Waterford and the Smithwick brewery, which would make sense given their relatively close proximity on the new-ish railway, and explains why our visitors would make a point of visiting the brewery on their trip to Kilkenny. (Beresford Street was what is now Parnell Street in Waterford.)

{Edit} Here's another advert showing more detail of what they were brewing in 1897 ... Stouts, Mild, Bitter plus an IPA and Dinner Ale ... and a good amount for export too it appears.

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'... we were taken my Mr. McGrath through the extensive orchards, under the experienced Mr Hayes, and I must say I never saw anything to near equal the great profusion of luxuriant crops of apples and pears I there witnessed. The crop proves Mr. Hayes to be one of the top of his luscious profession.'

I never thought of there being an urban orchard at the back of the brewery but the Ordnance Survey maps of around this time do indeed show a great deal of space down towards the river. Top quality apples and pears in the Smithwick's orchard it appears - non for cider or perry?!

... and wouldn't we all like a 'luscious profession'?

So, it looks like Kilkenny has been a tourist destination for quite a while, and although Smithwick's site is no longer a working commercial brewery, the new, reborn Sullivan's Brewing Company do a few specials in the small kit in their tap room and Costellos Brewery have a full production brewery just out from the city centre, which is great for a city with such a brewing history. (I've written previously about beery places in the city too...)

I wonder will either make an eleven month old, amber, strong October ale that I can quaff in a cellar?

I can dream I suppose...

Liam

Thanks as ever to my local library...

Beer History: Politics versus Bad Beer ... and The True Heart of Man?

In 1834 William Cobbett an English journalist, farmer and member of parliament wrote a series of letters back to a labourer called Charles Marshall at Normandy Farm, his home in Surrey, England, recounting his recent tour of Ireland.

I came across the following excerpt from these letters in an edition of The Kerry Evening Post of that year, where he talks about a few topics from a discussion on marble by gentlemen "much bemused by beer" to a rant about a Mr. Finn ... he of the local paper Finn's Leinster Journal I presume!

He also has some disparaging words to say about the beers he came across during his travels, prompted by a meeting with 'Mr. Smithwick' in Kilkenny...

"I dined with one Smithwick, a popular brewer - O heavens! What stuff the wild Irish will drink out of political friendship. Why Marshall, if Tom Paine were to come on the earth again - as I suppose he will at the general resurrection - and turn brewer, I would not deal with him unless he put malt and hops in his ale. The purest principles of patriotism and philanthropy could not make cockles indicus go down. Don't suppose I allude to brewer Smithwick's drink, which I understand is some of the best political swipes in Ireland. But I have a prejudice in favor of good unadulterated malt drinks; and I hope, Marshall, your pity for these poor people will prevail upon you to lose your taste for the same sort of potation. Love your country as much as you will, you cannot love it too much; but love your beer also. Beer is the heart of man."

As you can read below he goes on to complain about those who attend his lectures - which he abandons - for not paying to do so but gives a backhanded compliment with regard to the people of Kilkenny's thirst for knowledge. He has some choice words to say about the city itself, and Waterford too!

It all makes for interesting reading...

But even after all of that ranting, it's those sentences from above that stick in my mind...

"Love your country as much as you will, you cannot love it too much; but love your beer also. Beer is the heart of man." 

Wise words? Who knows...

Liam

[With thanks as ever to my local library.]

Food & Drink History: {Opinion} Be Careful What You Wish For...

As you may be aware, many food writers, bloggers, tweeters and other so called food/nutrition/wellness 'experts' tend to annoy me.

But what's really galled me in recent days are those who say we need to eat 'what our grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents ate...' 

If we think that food wasn't 'processed' or was 'additive-free' (their words) back in these halcyon good-old-days we would do well to read a little more history and give our 'like' thumbs a rest. There seems to be a body of people who think that everyone baked their own bread, made their own drink and grew their own food back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, or bought everything from some wholesome local market or guano-fed local farm, but looking back through any newspaper from that time will quickly highlight the issues that existed with food and drink poisoning or other contamination, and just how unsafe eating or drinking could be back then. We only need to think back at the plethora of chemicals available in the last century to know this - for example we used mercury-based products to prevent clubroot in brassicas, also, DDT anyone?

We can debate until be are blue in the face about whether these or any of the batch of still available controls are absorbed into our bodies but the fact remains that there was less science-based knowledge, testing and understanding back in the last couple of centuries than there is now. Sure some people grew more vegetables themselves but not everyone did, could or even wanted to. And yes, I'm being purposely selective and controversial with my points but then again so do those who spout food related nonsense...

Here's an article that appeared in an old local paper, which talks of issues in England but I'm sure that the same sentiment would/could have been applied to Ireland too.

Commercial Honesty in England

A writer, who made no small noise in the world among a certain class of individuals, wrote a book entitled “What to Eat, Drink, and Avoid.” If he were alive now, perhaps he might tell us how to avoid these things, recommend for daily food, which area adulterated, and that to a shameful extent. Unfortunately, the public generally are not up to snuff; it is only the practical chemist who can throw a light upon the matter, and show that we swallow slow poison daily, while we hug ourselves with an assurance, that by going to the best market things may be purchased “pure and adulterated.” Alas! Human weakness leads us to strange conclusions. It is not the tradesman making the greatest show who are the most honest. Allured by the greed of gain, he discovers that honesty in business is but a name, and that unless he acts like his neighbours, in his defence, he must shut up shop, or walk through the Bankruptcy or Insolvent Debtors’ Court, to throw off his liabilities.

Modern science, aided by the alembic of the chemist, has evolved many hidden mysteries, which, in some shape or other, have brought to bear upon the food we eat, in clothes we wear, and the liquid we drink. Our forefathers drank their nut-brown ale, brewed from malt and hops; they ate bread made from good wheaten flour, regardless of its whiteness; and tossed off wine that had not been flavoured, or sham age given to it by the brewers’ druggist. All things are altered in this respect for the worse. People must have their appetites tickled. Your English sausage is too common for the table. Nothing short of real German will do now-a-days, and the newer the importation the better. Perhaps, instead of coming from Germany, it may have been manufactured in Cow-cross, the knacker’s yard contributing greatly to the stuffing department; or some superannuated cow, that had been killed to save it dying a natural death, may have furnished the material; but no matter, the sausage is German, and German sausages must be good, because it is sold at a heavy price. Has no one ever experienced a fullness of the stomach accompanied with dyspepsia, without asking himself the cause? Of course, it was not the German sausage, made of well seasoned offal, like Goldner’s preserved meat. They cannot account for it. The gentleman who drank three bottles of wine after dinner and found himself the next day unwell, laid the fault to eating those “cursed potatoes.” It was not the wine, for his friend never introduced wine that would give any man the head-ache, or cause him to fall under the table in a state of giddiness; and so with those who devour sausage – they fly to something else as an excuse for their illness. 

Some people snub what is called “second bread,” because it is not so white as the loaf of the first quality. Perhaps they do not know that the chemist has taught the baker how to bleach his flour with alum and other ingredients. They may not know that he has the power to make a very white loaf out of the cheapest materials; but such is the case, and the baker who can make the whitest loaf at the cheapest price will out-distance all his competitors. 

The beer we drink is made intoxicating by the druggist’s aid; malt and hops are very well in their way, but, notwithstanding the aid of these, the beer wants body; a fullness is required to be given to it, and Messrs. Strychnine, Cocolus Indicus, and Quassia, are called in to aid the process of the mash-tub. Wine is snubbed if it present no bead, and therefore what is done to make it sparkling and beady? Mr. Arsenic is ready with his recipe to give it the required advantages. Gin, the most adulterated of all liquor, is flavoured, and made strong or rendered weak by the aid of modern discovery. 

You think you use pure colonial sugar, whereas one-half of it is adulterated with sugar manufactured from potatoes, at three half-pence a pound. As to coffee, it is compounded of chicory, horse beans, horses’ liver, and other delicacies. Your milk and cream are manufactured of bruised sheep’s brains, with sugar of lead, and other choice things from the laboratory. The young Raleighs of the day plume themselves upon being able to detect a “prime Havannah” from a sham one, little dreaming that, with the exception of the outward coating (we speak of English manufactured cigars), there is not a particle of tobacco in their composition. If a sceptic doubt what we say, he may see, in the eastern warehouse of the Customhouse, plenty of the imitation of leaf tobacco, which the authorities have seized. 

We talk of the “cup which cheers, but not inebriates,” and buy the finest green tea, brought to that state by Prussian blue, copper, and other deleterious ingredients. The nerves get unstrung, and the hands become shaky from drinking gin; and they would be shaky if the beverage of a person were green tea. There is not a thing we eat but what is adulterated or doctored in some shape or other; there is not a thing we drink but contains slow poison. Your best Witney blankets are half yarn; the gold chain you so much delight in is nothing but lacquered copper; in fact, cheating and humbug extend over every business and profession. Londoners area surfeited with drugs of one description or another. They attribute half their ailments to a want of pure air; and, in the hope of improving their health, retreat to Bleak House, Thacheray Villa, or Gothic Cottage, in the suburbs of the metropolis. Pure air is now the panacea for all conceivable ills. It is time we learned “What to Eat, Drink, and Avoid” - Dispatch

via The Carlow Post 1854

(Paragraphs added by me to aid reading - original text below)

This is from 1854 ... but ironically with a few changes to the language and examples it could have been written today and posted up on a number of food-scarer's websites. Whole paragraphs could be lifted and used by some of the confusion/fear merchants that ply their trade in the nod-along, retweet, repost social media society we now live in. After all, doesn't it sound like some of the food snobs that spout their half-baked (Hah!) opinions on social media and now also in too many mainstream publications?

Even taking the side that the above writer was just some crackpot and food contamination wasn't in reality an issue, then doesn't that play into my personal belief that some of these modern food-gurus are crackpots too?  Either way it tells a tale...

[The part about the German sausages put a wry smile on my face because we now think something similar regarding local ones, and given my distrust of promoting overpriced, local-for-local-sake products with no oversight or accountability it struck a chord.

 '...but no matter, the sausage is German local, and German local sausages must be good, because it is sold at a heavy price...'

(But don't get me started on local and the word 'cheap' again, I got enough abuse last time.)]

Next time someone says that they wish they could eat like they did back in their ancestors time show them this, and tell them to read more, question everything (yes, even this post) and - ironically I know - believe less of what you see on your screens.

It's time we looked at how we eat and drink as much as what we consume, perhaps even more so in my opinion. I'd never claim to be an expert on anything, but I do question and research as much as I can about the subjects I write about.

I take everything with a pinch of salt...

... although apparently we can't do than anymore, unless it's some kind of special salt of course!

Liam

(With the usual thanks to my local library.)