Mensam Mundum – World Table: The Fourth of July – Celebrate like it’s 1776
By the time the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, we’d been working on our independence from Great Britain for at least three years. This began with dumping tea into Boston Harbor as a protest against steep taxation of the beloved brew.
The following year, in 1774, the newly formed Continental Congress began meeting to discuss what to do about British imposition of inequitable laws. The result, the birth of a new nation, was made official when the Declaration of Independence was signed two years later.
A war had to be fought to make this a reality. For eight long years, the sheer grit and determination of an untrained Continental Army – with some help from the French — eventually overcame the elite fighting force that was the British military.
Two hundred and 45 years later, we still celebrate this victory — and the pre-victory declaration — with aplomb. As we should.
To enhance your festivities, however the Fourth is observed by you, I offer a bit of trivia about the holiday, including some obscure tidbits with which you can impress your friends and family if you so desire.
In addition, some Fourth of July food history is presented. We may think that barbecuing on this holiday is relatively new but think again — it’s been happening on the Fourth longer than we may imagine.
Today’s recipes are variations on refreshing and thirst-quenching lemonade, a must for summer and any Fourth of July celebration. A traditional version is included –— among the best I’ve tasted — as well as some revved up fancy ones just for fun. Enjoy!
Fourth of July trivia
July 2, 1776 could just have easily been designated our nation’s birthday. It was then that the Continental Congress voted to declare independence from British rule; however, the Declaration of Independence wasn’t finalized until two days later, making July 4, 1776 the official date on the document.
John Adams, who later became our second President, favored July 2 as our designated Independence Day. He so vehemently opposed July 4 that he refused to attend future Independence Day celebrations.
Or Independence Day could’ve been Aug. 2, the date that the document was finally signed.
The “pursuit of happiness” as famously recorded in the preamble, wasn’t the wording in the original draft. Thomas Jefferson initially wrote “pursuit of property,” but Benjamin Franklin convinced him to make the change since he considered property too narrow a definition.
While Thomas Jefferson is considered the Declaration’s author, the document was written by a five-man committee also consisting of Franklin, Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. To be fair, Jefferson was the one officially responsible for drafting the formal statement, however, he wasn’t recognized as its principal author until the 1790s.
One of Jefferson’s early drafts condemned the slave trade. Though he owned more than 200 slaves in 1776, he called it a “cruel war against human nature” and condemned King George III for “creating and sustaining” it.
The first official Independence Day celebration was held the following year, July 4, 1777.
The tradition of Fourth of July fireworks began in 1777 at this first celebration. In addition to the fireworks, bells were rung and thirteen cannons were fired, one round for each state of the union.
Massachusetts was the first to declare the Fourth of July a state holiday, which it did in 1781, several months before the key American victory in Yorktown.
Button Gwinnett is considered the most obscure signer of the document. He passed away a year later, making his signature the rarest and therefore the most valuable, despite his relative lack of future accomplishment.
And finally, a woman’s signature appears on some copies of the Declaration of Independence. Though she’s not an official signer, Mary Katharine Goddard, a well-known patriot and one of the nation’s first woman publishers and postmasters, was commissioned by Congress to print copies of the document. For an unknown reason, she added her name below the original signers.
Fourth of July food history
If you want to get really authentic with your Fourth of July celebration, you could dine on what those in George Washington’s era ate. Things like turtle soup, pickled eel, boiled pigeon or Indian pudding could grace your plate.
Or you could eat your way through the original thirteen colonies by serving a dish that represents each one. Modern choices could include Virginia ham, Philly cheese steak or Massachusetts lobster rolls (you get the idea) or, with a bit of research, historical dishes can be presented.
As to beverages, it’s said that colonists on average consumed the equivalent of seven shots of alcohol each day (in forms such as beer, hard cider, rum or brandy).
It’s no wonder that Ben Franklin collected more than 200 euphemisms for drunkenness, from “addled” to “out of the way.” (My favorite is “halfway to Concord.”)
Drinks had interesting names like Rattle-Skull (a concoction of porter, rum or brandy, lime juice, and brown sugar syrup) and Stonewall (rum with just enough cider to take the edge off).
Other amusing monikers for colonial quaffs include Bogus, Blackstrap, Bombo, Mimbo, Whistle Belly, Syllabub, Sling, Toddy and Flip.
Since upwards of 74 million Americans will break out their backyard grills on Independence Day, chances are many of us will indulge in something from the barbecue. This tradition took hold in the U. S. in the early 1800s and has been part of Fourth of July celebrations since.
Virginia colonists had long been pit roasting the pigs abundant in the American south, a tradition most likely imported from the West Indies; however, grilled meat gained widespread popularity as a Fourth of July staple when political leaders staged Independence Day rallies and used massive barbecues to draw large crowds.
July has been declared National Hot Dog Month, and for good reason — it’s estimated that 150 million hot dogs will be consumed on Fourth of July alone.
Sausages have been around for a long time — they were mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, after all — but the hot dog as we know it likely evolved from the German frankfurter brought to America by immigrants. In 1893 the hot dog became standard fare at many baseball parks across the country, leading to its prominent place in American food culture.
Lemonade, the star of today’s recipes and a popular potable on the Fourth of July, has origins deep in Medieval Egypt. There a sweet and tangy lemon drink, qatarmizat, was a common offering. A related beverage, Kashkab, was a frothy mixture of fermented barley, mint, a meadow flower called rue, black pepper and citron leaf, which provided lemony tang.
True lemonade, at least as we know it to be, made its debut in Paris in the summer of 1630 as an effervescent medley of sparkling water, lemon juice and honey. Vendors sold it on the streets from tanks strapped to their backs.
Limonade, as it was known in France, became popular throughout Europe, but especially so in Paris. Some say this beverage, which was full of immune-boosting vitamin C, helped Parisians stave off the second bubonic plague pandemic. Perhaps this gives us good reason to indulge in it these days.
Happy Fourth!
Sparkling Lemonade
This is a delightfully refreshing twist on a traditional summer favorite!
8 ounce bottle lemon juice concentrate
1 cup sugar
Club soda
Mix lemon juice concentrate and sugar together. Heat until sugar is dissolved but mixture is not thickened. Cool and store the mixture in the fridge. Mix with club soda just before serving, either in individual glasses or in a pitcher. The ratio is one-third lemon syrup to two-thirds club soda. (This can be adjusted to your liking).
Raspberry Lemonade Slushie
Juice of two lemons
2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen
½ cup sugar
2 cups ice cubes
Puree all ingredients in a blender until smooth and icy.
Minty Lemonade with Kiwi
Juice of two large lemons
½ cup sugar
5 or 6 kiwis, peeled and pulverized in blender or food processor
4 quarts water
3 or 4 sprigs fresh mint, muddled (i.e., smashed into small pieces)
Kiwi slices and mint to garnish
Blend all ingredients in an extra large pitcher or punch bowl. Garnish as desired.
Red, White and Blue Sparkling Lemonade
2 tablespoons strawberry syrup*
1 tablespoon blue raspberry syrup*
½ cup sparkling water
1 cup lemonade
Ice
Fill a tall glass with ice.
Pour strawberry syrup into glass to form a red layer.
Pour lemonade very gently into the glass over the back of a spoon for the white layer.
Mix the blue raspberry syrup with the sparkling water in a separate container with a pour spout, like a measuring cup, and cascade very gently into the glass over the back of a spoon to make the blue layer.
*Recipe adapted from the Torani syrup website.
Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa. She lives in Middletown, California.