BLUE-PRINTEDP ICKLE D ISHES & M ILSEYS

A social and historical commentaryby

Richard Halliday

6PICKLE HISTORY

History of Pickles

The first question we must answer is; what are pickles? Modern-dayterminology and thinking suggests that pickles are gherkins or cucumbers, butthe broader and more specifically, the historical term, differs from this greatly.Historically, the term pickles did refer to an item that had been pickled orpreserved, but also the term encompasses sauces and relishes that were designedto accompany a meal. As such, pickles as an item generally consists ofdiscernible vegetable or fruit pieces in a sauce, although the sauce is subordinatein character to the vegetable or fruit pieces. It might consist of a single type ofvegetable or fruit, or a combination of these. These fruits or vegetables might becoarsely or finely chopped, but generally a relish is not as smooth as asauce-type condiment, such as ketchup. The overall taste sensation might besweet or savory, hot or mild, but it is always a strong flavour that complementsor adds to the primary food item with which it is served. Relish probably cameabout from the need to preserve vegetables in the winter. Chutney might beconsidered a type of relish. Indian pickles and relishes, where the preparationoriginated from, generally includes either vegetables, herbs or fruits.

Pickle dishes in their intended use.

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A Durham Ox series leaf dish, c.1815. It is 6 long and is printed with a scene of acow and calf. This is actually part of a larger scene which includes a cowman tendinga group of three cows. It is unmarked.

A Durham Ox series leaf dish, c.1815. It is 5 long and is printed with a scene of amilkmaid milking a cow and whilst a seated man and other cows look on. It isunmarked.

A Durham Ox series leaf dish, c.1815. It is 5 long and is printed with a slightlydifferent section of the milkmaid scene (see above). It is unmarked.

This Turner Elephant pattern milsey has leaves, circles and heart-shaped cut-outs.

The holes in these strainers were punched out by hand and were not moulded aspart of the manufacturing process. Im sure that some potters had quite largepunches that included the majority of the holes in one punch, or at least quitelarge sections of the overall pattern that could easily be reproduced. This canseen in a number of examples how symmetrical and crisply the intricate holepattern is produced.

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The next question must be related to the namemilsey. If the name indeed comes from acorruption of the two words, milk sieve, thenwe must try this out and see how successful itis at doings this job and the below imagesillustrate this in use. The milk was boiledbefore being strained just as it would havebeen done two-hundred years ago when it wasdone to prevent it tasting sour in thepre-refrigeration days

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As can be seen from the above images of both the small and large-holed milsey,they both work extremely effectively at removing the milk skin from whatdrains through. Of all the possible uses, this one works by far the best and mostsuccessfully. You will notice that the milk in the teabowl in both sets of results iscompletely free from the unwanted skin. The only other thing to mention is thatthe milsey with the smaller holes require slight agitation to get the requiredresults.

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A Chinese Flag Bearers pattern (border print only) milsey, c.1810. It is 4 long.

A Flying Pennant pattern milsey, c.1815. It is 3.5 long and is unmarked.

A Nankin pattern milsey, c.1815. It is 3.75 long and is unmarked.