Plum Duff, Sea Pie, Porpoise Liver, Dandyfunk and Lobscouse

On October 5, 1849, Ezekial I. Barra was among 31 passengers aboard the "Samson" headed out of Philadelphia for the gold fields of California. In "Tale of Two Oceans," published in 1893, Barra recounts the lengthy journey around Cape Horn to San Francisco. It’s a remarkable telling of the adventure that vividly recounts life aboard a sailing ship in the mid 19th century. I was particularly curious about the meals provided to the crew and passengers.
First Dinner at Sea
Gliding down the Delaware river, Barra recounts: "At one o’clock the first dinner of the voyage was served. It consisted of roast beef, roast pork, boiled cabbage, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, stewed tomatoes and rice pudding. ... candor compels me to say that it was the last one we enjoyed of the kind during the voyage, for after that our fare consisted of salt beef, salt pork, beans, rice, codfish, mackerel, and potatoes while they lasted, which was about one month. Twice a week we had plum duff with raisins, the duff is composed of flour, lard, raisins, saleratus (baking soda) and water, with eggs mixed in when they can be had. When well mixed it is put into a canvas bag, wide at the top and very narrow at the bottom, boiled two hours and then turned into a platter and served with wine sauce when it can be had, or else with vinegar, butter, sugar and water boiled well together and thickened with flour and flavored with nutmeg. On other days we had boiled rice, with sugar, for dessert."
Making a Sea Pie
Later, following a three-day storm, Barra writes: " ... on this day, the cook exerted himself and prepared a sea pie for our dinner. A sea pie consists of onions fried brown, lean pork cut in small pieces, potatoes cut in quarters and the all simmered together; then make dough enough to cover all sides of the baking pan; and after the sides are covered, put in the filling to stew, season with tomato ketchup an pepper, sprinkle in a little dry flour to thicken it, and cover the pan with a thick crust and put it in the oven for two hours. In the absence of chicken or fresh beef, this is a very palatable dish. Beside the pie we had a large plum duff."
Porpoise Liver and Bacon
"November 15th. We are now having light winds, Lat. 18 12 No., Long 30 22 W., weather warm. We are daily approached by schools of porpoises and they would often sport around the ship and come right under her bows. We had a sailor that had once been on a whaling voyage in a schooner from Provincetown, Cape Cod, and he claimed to be a good harpooner. The chief mate caused a harpoon to be rigged and used a coil of rattling stuff for a line; it was placed in the waist, on the lee side, and the end passed outside the forerigging to the bow, and lashed to the harpoon. When everything was ready the whaleman, whose name was Amaziah Nickerson, took the harpoon, went out to the martingale and lashed himself to it, so as to have free use of his hands, and stand ready for a chance to strike a porpoise. The chance soon occurred, for a porpoise came within range and Amaziah threw the harpoon with such force and precision that it passed clear through the body of the monster. As soon as the porpoise was stuck the mate ordered the helm to be put hard down and eased up the head sheets. In the meantime the porpoise was struggling fiercely, but without avail. The struggle soon ceased and the porpoise was hauled alongside. Amaziah was placed in the bight of a rope and lowered over the side; he then placed a running bowline over the flukes of he monster and it was hoisted on board with a watch tackle. When it was stretched on deck all the passengers gathered around and all of them expressed unbounded wonder at the sight of the denizen of the mighty deep. Its weight reckoned to be about three hundred and fifty pounds. Sailors often call them sea hogs. The monster was immediately opened and its liver taken out. It was then 9:30 a.m. The captain ordered the cook to prepare the liver for a special luncheon for the ladies and have it ready by eleven o’clock.
The cook cut the liver into slices and washed it with salt and water, after which he wiped it dry, dredged it with dry flour and fried it with slices of bacon. The odor of the frying liver and bacon that issued from the galley carried the memory of the young passengers from the interior of Pennsylvania back to their father’s farm in hog killing time, and excited their gustatory organs to such a degree that it caused the saliva to exude from their mouths and trickle down their chins in tiny rivulets. The eight ladies on board enjoyed the novel dish of fried porpoise liver and bacon and declared it was the most delicious morsel that they had eaten in many a day. Then the body of the porpoise was stripped of blubber, which was tried out for oil for the forecastle lamps, and the meat was cut into strips, parboiled in salt and water and wiped dry. After this it was mixed with a small proportion of salt pork and chopped fine. It was then seasoned with dried sage and summer savory, pepper and salt and rolled into small balls, covered with dry flour and then fried in a pan of hot fat, and served piping hot. It must be said that to us it tasted as palatable as a dish of Fulton market sausage meat ever tasted to us when in New York. We all liked it so well that when the supply – which lasted two days – was exhausted we, like Oliver Twist, asked for more of the same kind. The French passengers were so well pleased that one of them sent a bottle of brandy, by the cabin boy, to Amaziah as a reward for his prowess. After this feast everything moved along in the old groove."
Fried mince turnovers
Following the visit of King Neptune and the initiation of 12 passengers into the Realm of the Sea, awarded to those who cross the equator for the first time, Barra writes:
"During the afternoon I noticed that the two cooks appeared to be extra busy. The steward told me that Stanwood had given him one of the four bottles of cognac, therefore he was gong to reciprocate by giving the sailors a treat of mince turnovers for their supper. Mince turnovers, on board of ship, are made of salt beef, chopped fine and mixed with three times the quantity of boiled dried apples, a little dried orange peel, allspice, and molasses to taste, and a taste of vinegar. Dough cut into small sections after it is rolled thin. Put one spoonful of the mince in each section, bringing the edges together, put each one in a frying pan, filled with hot fat, and fry them brown. When one side is fried, turn the pie over – hence the name "fried turnovers." In the absence of luxuries on board of a ship such simple dishes are a great boon to the sailor."
‘Dandyfunk:" Not a high-toned dish
On the last Thursday of November – Thanksgiving in some countries – the sailors "got one kit of beef, one kit of pork and one bake-pan full of dandyfunk."
Barra explains: "Dandyfunk is a dish composed of navy biscuit soaked in water, mashed with a pestle, mixed with fat taken from the coppers in which the meat is boiled, sweetened with molasses and flavored with allspice, then put into a pan and baked in the oven. It isn’t a very high-toned dish, but in the absence of something better, it is very palatable to a sailor."
Lobscouse: ‘Fit For the Gods’
After changing ships at Rio de Janeiro, Barra discuss the fare offered aboard the "Urania:"
"Our daily fare in the forecastle was passably good. As the captain had supplied a large stock of potatoes, we were enabled to have plenty of salt beef hash, as well as a good dish of lobscouse for breakfast.
"Lobscouse is a sea dish and is made of one onion cut and put into a gallon water, a dozen potatoes peeled and cut into quarters, four cakes of navy bread soaked and broken up. Boil for half an hour. Cut up salt beef into small square pieces equal to one-third of the whole mass, and boil again for half an hour. Then add pepper to taste and add, when about to be taken up, a half cupful of thickening. On a cold morning it is a dish ‘fit for the gods!’ Just try it."