Not Another History Podcast
We are Cindy and Katie, and every two weeks we bring you a random theme and offer several of our favorite historical events loosely based on that theme. We are basically just living out our old lady fantasies of rocking on the front porch together, drinking, and gossiping about people who are already dead. Music: The Life of a Divorced Bumblebee by Josef Bel Habib (www.epidemicsound.com). Design: canva.com
Not Another History Podcast
8 Maids a Milking
In honor of the holiday season, we are re-releasing our 12 Days of Christmas special! For the next 12 days, we will re-release one episode a day, each one with our own spin on the classic holiday theme, "The 12 Days of Christmas."
Liz the Historian tells the story of urban milk maids in London of the 18th/19th century.
On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me eight maids, a-milking and Katie. That reminds me. So, as you know, the holidays are a time for goodwill and generosity. A lot of people like to buy each other presents. I would have gotten you a present, Katie, but I'm an educator and we have a history podcast, which means I have no money. Since I have no money with which to buy you a gift, I want to give you the gift of Liz the Historian.
Speaker 2:Oh my God. Merry Christmas, Liz. This is the best gift ever.
Speaker 3:This is the best gift ever, oh my God. So your guys' voice is just that my dogs laugh. They like think you're in my house and they're going crazy.
Speaker 2:They're like there's somebody here Check your attic. We're in the attic.
Speaker 1:We were there the whole time, surprise.
Speaker 2:Yes, I warned you several episodes ago. We were there the whole time, surprise. Yes, I warned you several episodes ago. Check the attic for any you know serial killers or secret maps or any of that. And apparently you didn't, because we've been living there the whole time, liz, surprise.
Speaker 3:Well to occupy myself until she told me to go. I'm working on my needlepoint Very excited. Did you make that? Yeah, it's an ornament. Oh that's fabulous, that's gorgeous, thank you, yeah, so I made like all different ones, Maybe at some point.
Speaker 1:hey, we should have Liz do a needlepoint as a giveaway for the podcast.
Speaker 3:Not another history podcast in stitches.
Speaker 2:I could do it. That would be amazing. I can't believe how talented you are, liz. Is there anything you can't do? Liz Lots.
Speaker 3:Lots, so so many things. I stick with needlepoint for a reason.
Speaker 1:Well, katie, for Christmas I am giving you, my eight maids, a milking story by Liz. This is fantastic, so take it away, liz. This is fantastic, so take it away Liz.
Speaker 3:To get in the holiday spirit one, I'm trying. I tried to get my Christmas tree in the background. It looks crooked, I don't know, but it's there.
Speaker 2:It looks amazing. It looks fantastic. My Christmas tree is still in the forest right now, so you're way ahead of me.
Speaker 3:You haven't harvested your Christmas tree yet and I'm eating, um, a gingerbread cookie from our dear friend's mama. Um, to, yes, recall you guys, because eating a gingerbread cookie always makes me think of you guys, as you're listening to your favorite christmas carols, uh, and enjoying your gingerbread cookies and needlepoint if that is your jam, then maybe you are wondering about the eight maids a-milking when you two think of eight maids a-milking. Okay, so in recent podcasts you guys have asked each other a question and each of you have not come up with the right answer that the person was looking for. I've noticed that a couple of times, so I'm going to ask a question and I'm not sure which way you're going to go with it. You think of eight mates milking, like. What scene comes to your mind? Like, are you picturing a field, a barn, a modern dairy? I don't know? What are you thinking?
Speaker 2:about. Oh no, I'm thinking like Swiss Alps, like Heidi coming down the mountain with her keg that's not the right word Bucket of milk after furiously milking mountain dairy cows with the big bells around their necks. Furiously, Cows are like oh my God, we're exhausted, we're chafed. Mountain dairy cows with the big bells around their necks.
Speaker 1:Seriously, the cows are like oh my God, we're exhausted, we're chafed.
Speaker 3:I love that, I love that scene.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm sort of on the same line as you, katie. I visualize no joke eight Julie Andrews spinning on a field in the Alps and there are cows around.
Speaker 3:Spinning, so they're dizzy milkmaids. Where do you think whipped butter comes from, liz? That makes so much sense, so much easier than churning Just spin around with it. I love it. I love it. Well, I think that's what most people think about. I think you get like this very pastoral idea of ape maids milking, right that they're out on these beautiful farms. But if you're thinking about people today as well as people in the past, a very large part of our population live in urban dwellings. So where are their?
Speaker 1:milkmaids. They would be in a barn in the middle of town, right like next to the grocer yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 3:So I want to just give you a little snippet into milkmaids in, uh, urban london during the turn of the 18th to 19th century. Right, and many of her books take place out in the country, but then they do travel into cities at some points in time in her books. And she herself lived in the country for most of her life. But then her family did move to Bath and they had to move into a city and a large portion of the population was living in the city at least for part of the year at this time. So if you were living in London around the early 1800s, your milk was coming from, most likely from, like, the surrounding areas, so your milkmaids were not all in the city. Sorry, my dog is trying to attack Jingle Bells. Don't attack the Jingle.
Speaker 1:Bells Attack the Bells. Or is that your elf on the shelf?
Speaker 3:We don't have an elf. I support that decision.
Speaker 2:I am very, I'm very anti-elf on the shelf, me too.
Speaker 3:Can't do that. So if you're living in London, there are approximately 8,500 dairy cows with their accompanying milkmaids surrounding London that then get milked and the milk gets carted into the city, coming from up to 20 miles away. The milk's not super fresh by the time it gets to London. Enter the urban dairy cow and milkmaid.
Speaker 1:I just picture her with like her Chanel bag, like her Louis Vuitton sunglasses, and she's just like hey.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's super stylish. So in London there is a beautiful park called St James's Park. It was purchased by Henry VIII from Eton College and was about 58 acres Most of the maintenance of these urban parks at that time. You know they didn't have lawnmowers and you know a guy riding around on his John Deere, so they had sheep or cows that grazed and ate the grass to keep it low. But keep in mind that Osomance they pooped everywhere. So you know, when you're imagining these beautiful pristine parks, they're not perfect. So when you're imagining these beautiful pristine parks, they're not perfect. And in St James's Park they did have some cows that grazed. And one of the benefits of these cows is most of the cows if you had an urban dairy were literally kept in stalls in a barn all the time. They'd be like, let out into an alley to eat and then brought back into their stall, led out into an alley to eat and then brought back into their stall.
Speaker 2:I just imagine like a cow getting into a dumpster and like coming out with like a slice of pizza, like the pizza rat a couple of years ago, yep.
Speaker 3:Yep, exactly, so you can imagine the quality of a pizza eating rat cow. The quality of their milk is not the best, so it was a big deal for people to go and get what was called new milk. New milk was something you would get fresh from the udders of your St.
Speaker 1:James's park cow. We were both waiting for you to fill milk tanks. Where is she going with this so?
Speaker 3:you could arrive at the milkmaid's stand and she would have a table with little tin cups already there and she would pour the milk directly. Was already there and she would pour the milk directly, squeeze it from those little udders right into the tin cup that you could then drink from and then leave at the table, just shaker that cup around.
Speaker 2:That's so much more classy than what I thought you were going to say, which was like just come on up and I'm just going to squirt it right into your mouth.
Speaker 3:No. Now, if you were really classy, though, Katie, there were some upper crust children that would not deem to drink from said tin cups. So when their nurses brought them to the dairy maids to have their sip of new milk, they would bring their own china teacups with them. Yes, so you could bring your own cup oracups with them. Yes, so you could bring your own cup or vessel to drink your new cup.
Speaker 1:This is amazing. I just have to. I have to interject here because I was just talking to somebody the other day about how pretentious milk has gotten. Or we think milk has gotten like all those almonds, there's coconut milk, there's soy milk, but really I mean Milk has gotten like oh, there's almond milk, there's coconut milk, there's soy milk, but really I mean it's never. Like you show up at Starbucks with your own teacup and you're like I expect my milk straight from the udder. Like really you're not that bad when you compare us to 19th century Londoners.
Speaker 2:But now I think I want to. Now I think I want to show up with a fine China cup and a saucer Barista. Yeah, would you be so kind as to give me some new milk please? That's how you get kicked out of a Starbucks right quick, but it would be a fun experiment.
Speaker 3:Or they're ahead of us on conservation. Oh, that's true too, because we waste with all these to-go cups.
Speaker 3:You know, maybe we should start bringing our own teacups with us. So I want you now, as you're singing the 12 Days of Christmas right, to imagine this scene in St James's Park, where you would have eight or more milkmaids with their little stations set up, each milking their cows. Now, obviously, there are children coming. As I said, children were still drinking milk, but who else might be here amongst the milling crowds at the milkmaid's stand? Well, there were often young ladies that came out attempting to meet a fine gentleman, possibly a soldier, because occasionally the soldiers would come. Now, do you think the soldiers were just drinking milk at these stands?
Speaker 2:I have a feeling there was a little something extra in there. You're right.
Speaker 3:Have you ever heard of the delicious syllabub?
Speaker 1:No, is it like eggnog?
Speaker 3:Okay, so somewhat similar. Cindy Katie, I don't know if you're a fan, but, Cindy, I believe you're a fan of the Great British Baking Show. Oh, yes.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you're a fan, but Cindy I believe you're a fan of the Great British Baking. Show. Oh, yes, I love it as well.
Speaker 3:Okay, yes, Right, and there have been in past seasons a mention of syllabub and it was one of those words that I was like, oh, interesting word, Not totally sure what you funny British people are talking about. So a syllabub is a drink. It originally came from the Cornish area and essentially it is fresh, like straight from the cow milk that is poured directly onto an acidic type of alcoholic beverage to curdle the milk immediately. It sounds repulsive to me personally, but syllabubs are still something that are created today. Now, back then you literally would have your cup and there'd be a wine, a cider, you know an alcoholic beverage on the bottom. You'd give it to the milkmaid. She would literally milk the cow straight into your cup and the resulting drink was your lovely beverage for the day.
Speaker 3:Today, syllabubs have become more of a dessert. So if you are not inclined to want to be one of those lovely ladies on her day off trying to meet a soldier and have some syllabub at your neighboring milkmaid stand and you want to take a modern approach to the age old tradition of a syllabub for the holiday season, there are modern takes on this recipe, particularly here in the South I'm in the Southeast. For those of you out in the internet that don't know me and in the Southeastern part of the United States they like to back in colonial times. They like to take a lot of British traditions and reshape them into interesting Southern New World traditions, and syllabub was one of the ones they decided to keep. Not totally sure why.
Speaker 3:Why of all the traditions? Why, Basically, the modern day Southern version of a syllabub is you create homemade whipped cream, right? So you have a heavy cream and sugar that you whip together until it creates a beautiful whipped cream, but then you're going to pour in white wine, brandy, lemon juice and nutmeg and you're going to beat it until it literally creates a whipped like peaked substance that you can eat with a spoon and you chill it and you serve it for dessert. That's not terrible, so it makes the curdling sound less bad.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I could get behind that, yeah, so there are wonderful recipes out there.
Speaker 3:I'll send some to you, ladies, in case you want to share with your listeners on your Instagram page how to make your own syllabub so that when you're listening to your Christmas carols, you can channel your eight maids a milking and have some delicious old world treats in your modern Christmas. That's so cool. That's my interpretation of eight maids of milking.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Liz, liz, that was amazing. Katie, you're so welcome. I'll expect a thank you card in the mail. Yes, definitely.
Speaker 2:You're the best I love definitely.
Speaker 1:You're the best. I love you. That was so good.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, liz, that was wonderful. Thank you all for having me on. Hopefully you'll come back. Thank you.