Nor' West Company

Historically Authentic Provisions

Click line or scroll down to see

• Victuals, including wild rice, hominy and hardtack

• Beverages, including teas, chocolate and green coffee beans

• Sweets, including muscovado and the best maple sugar in the living history trade

• Cooking and serving suggestions

Victuals

VICTUALS, n. vit'lz. [L. victus, food, from the root of vivo, which was vigo or vico, coinciding with vigeo. Basque, vicia life. This word is now never used in the singular.]  Food for human beings, prepared for eating; that which supports human life; provisions; meat; sustenance. We never apply this word to that on which beasts or birds feed, and we apply it chiefly to food for men when cooked or prepared for the table. We do not now give this name to flesh, corn or flour, in a crude state; but we say, the victuals are well cooked or dressed, and in great abundance. We say, a man eats his victuals with a good relish. [Source - Webster's 1828 Dictionary]

Bineshii Wild Rice:  Harvested by canoe and processed over wood fires in the traditional manner by Ojibwe people of the Leech Lake (MN) Indian Reservation, our Bineshii brand wild rice is the most authentic and best tasting in the living history trade. (P) Only $13.00 per lb. 

Bineshii Oak Rosted Hominy:  Like our wild rice, our hominy is made by Ojibwe people in the same traditional manner as was done in the eighteenth century.  Made of sun-dried corn slow roasted over oak ashes. (P) Only $8.00 / lb. 

Beverages:

Historically Authentic Teas: (P)

Prior to the American Revolution, tea was as much preferred by Colonial Americans as by their English peers.  As the revolution neared Colonists tried to avoid anything "English", and coffee became the preferred beverage of the common people.

Bohea (black) tea                                $1.00 / oz

Young Hyson (green leaf chai)              $1.00 / oz

Gunpowder (rolled green) tea               $1.00 / oz

Check out our beautiful tin tea kettle on our Historical Reproduction Tin and Copperware page.

Chocolate

Historically, chocolate was a favorite treat of everyone but most especially of the Spanish.  Spaniards drank chocolate like the English drank tea or the early Americans consumed coffee.   That's why we feel our Spanish style chocolate is probably as close to the historical preparations as can be obtained today.

Chocolate:  Historically authentic Spanish style chocolate cakes.  Your choice of Ibara (with Cinnamon) or Abuelita brand.  Both are products of Mexico.  Carton of 6 chocolate cakes.  $5.00 ea. (P)

Maple Sugar

Our maple sugar blocks are produced at an award-winning maple farm in New York.  These folks have been producing maple sugar since the family immigrated to the United States in the 19th century.  The patriarch of the family was inducted into the Maple Hall of Fame in the American Maple Museum at Croghan, New York in 1988.  Nor' West Company is proud to offer the highest quality pure maple sugar blocks in the living history trade.

Maple Sugar Blocks.  (P)

In his 1799 book, Isaac Weld wrote "The maple is the only sort of raw sugar made use of in the country parts of Canada; it is very generally used also by the inhabitants of the towns, whither it is brought for sale by the country people who attend the markets, just the same as any other type of country produce....These cakes are of a very dark color in general and are very hard; as they are wanted they are scraped down with a knife, and when thus reduced into a powder, the sugar appears as a much lighter cast, and not unlike West Indian muscovada or grained sugar."  (Weld, Isaac; Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797; (London : Printed for John Stockdale, 1799; ppg 220 - 221.)

Nor' West Company's maple sugar is processed in the same manner as it was in the 1700s and in our opinion is far superior to those little round candy wafers offered by our competitors.  

4 oz blocks.  Just the right size for a long weekend rendezvous or historical trek, only $3.50 each.

1 pound block.  Provides a supply for a good, long time.  Only $12.00 each

Indian Sugar (granulated maple sugar) is ready for use on the table.  1 pound plastic-lined muslin bags only $12.00 (G)

Cooking and Serving Suggestions

Wild Rice:

Wild rice is cooked the same as domestic varieties, but has a more substantial and nuttier flavor.  It is an excellent side-dish for game or wildfowl and a great addition to historical soups and stews.

Hominy: 

Hominy should be rehydrated in clear water for an hour or two before cooking.  It can then be boiled until it achieves a firm, chewy texture, and seasoned to taste.  Like wild rice, hominy makes a fine side-dish and is also an excellent addition to soups and stews. 

Hardtack or ships bread:

Ships bread can be eaten plain, perhaps accompanied by some jerk or maple sugar, for a quick snack or cold meal on the trail.

Broken into small pieces and boiled with other ingredients as a soup or stew, hardtack helps thicken the stew and provides additional nutrition.

Soak in brandy or rum and eat as an intoxicating treat.

If you happen to have some milk along, soak a piece of hardtack in milk until it becomes soggy.  Mash the hardtack and sweeten to taste with granulated maple or muscavado sugar.

Make hot chocolate (see below) and soak a piece of hardtack in the chocolate to make a sort of chocolate mush.  Makes an excellent trail-side breakfast.

Trail side cobbler - This is best prepared in a small boiler or kettle.  First soak a piece or two of ships bread in just enough water to render it a soggy mass.  Add maple sugar and fresh berries of any type.  Stir it up good, adding just enough water to make the dough a bit heavier than common pancakes.  Place the kettle in hot coals and heat to the boiling point.  Remove from the fire and enjoy a hot sweet treat.

Chocolate:

Chocolate was used almost exclusively as a beverage until the late nineteenth century.  To make hot chocolate bring a cup or kettle of water to boiling.  Break up 1/2 cake of Spanish style chocolate into small pieces, the smaller the better.  (if you have a grater along, grinding it to powder will help).  Place the chocolate into the boiling water and stir until the chunks have disappeared. dissolved.  Drink hot, and stir often.  It's worth noting that the chocolate doesn't actually dissolve into the water.  Instead, the melted chocolate is suspended in the liquid and can easily settle into the bottom of the cup.

Chocolate mush, like the chocolate ships bread described above, makes a fine trail-side breakfast.  This is especially true if it's accompanied by some crisp bacon or a few small pieces of boiled jerk.  First make the hot chocolate as described above.  Bring the drink to a full boil and add corn-meal, roasted corn meal (rockahominy) or grits.  Cook the meal in the hot chocolate as you normally would in water.

Top of Page