H70.142.36

• california gold rush

Container/jars. Description: Round metal box containing eight spice jars. Round spice box of Japanned tin, holding eight individual lidded round boxes. a: Round metal box. b-i: Eight spice jars. History: Said to have been used in Drytown. Box actually contains six cans. S. Macarron 10/24/08 From the History Information Station: This is a tin spice box with individual boxes for cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, allspice, ginger, pepper,and mustard fitted inside. Many 19th century households had a spice box like this one. Since spices were bought in bulk, women needed containers for them at home. This box could hold all the spices needed for cooking traditional anglo-American foods, like pumpkin pudding, or ginger snaps. A popular woman's magazine printed this ginger snap recipe in 1870: "One quarter pound of butter, and the same of lard, mixed in a quarter pound of brown sugar, a pint of West India molasses, ginger according to its strength, and cinnamon according to taste; add one quart of flour, two teaspoonsful of soda dissolved in a wineglass of milk, and flour to enable you to roll it thin. Bake in a moderate oven."

Used: cooking ~ kitchen | Drytown