Sappaen

sappaen an interesting cornmeal ‘mush and milk dish’ prepared for the evening meal by Dutch settlers in New York state, as vividly described in a manuscript notebook by Rufus A. Grider, a teacher and artist of the Mohawk Valley, quoted in Peter Rose’s The Sensible Cook (1989) and here given in a slightly edited form:

Until about 1830 to 1840 the inhabitants of the rural districts of Schoharie—which were settled by the Dutch and Germans—ate their meals from a large pewter dish placed by the housewife in the center of a round top table [an example of such a ‘top table’ measured 20.5" in diameter] … Mush was prepared in the fall and winter of the year. It was boiled in the afternoon and about one hour before mealtime poured from the iron pot into the pewter dish and set in a cold place; cooling stiffens it. Near meal time the house wife made as many excavations as there were guests—piling or heaping up the centre, and filling the hollows with cold milk …—as many pewter table spoons as milk ponds were supplied. After Grace was said by the head of the family, everyone began to diminish the bank and increase the size of his white lake by feeding on its banks and centre—but there were limits, and beyond those no one could go—if for instance any one tapped his neighbors milk pond it was ill manners—if children did so, the penalty was finger clips.