Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
Tallow
Mondays were popular days at the Colden store. Now that the season was turning to Spring, the customers were favoring the first day of the week as the day to make the trek to the store. Twenty-three customers bought sixty-four items on this day, 250 years-ago.
Peter DuBois purchased three and on-half pounds of tallow for about two and one-half shillings.
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| Beef Tallow. Image courtesy of theprairiehomestead.com |
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This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.
Tallow was primarily an export item at the store. Of the seventeen tallow transactions at the store in the prior eight months, ten were sales to the store. The quantities were even more lopsided. Over 200 pounds of tallow were sold to the store, but only 31 pounds were sold by the store. Colden must have had a buyer of tallow in New Windsor or New York City. Colden paid 6-7 pence per pound of tallow and sold it for 7-8 pence.
[Tallow is also mentioned in my blogs on Beeswax and Soap.]
I have written about Peter DuBois in a prior blog. He was an adventurous investor, who had inherited the Wileman patent (where one Campbell farm sat), but was deeply in debt and loved the bottle a bit too much. He seldom appeared in person at the store and today was no exception as John Hurley took delivery of the tallow.
The 'rendering' of tallow from fat of ox, cow, sheep (chiefly the fat around the kidneys and intestines) involved heating it slowly to melt the fat. Impurities floating to the top were skimmed away and the remaining liquid poured into molds.
Webster explained in his 1828 dictionary that the fat from swine was never called tallow, rather lard or suet. The fat of bear was called grease. His definition ended with "tallow is applied to various uses, but chiefly to the manufacture of candles."
Perhaps John Hurley would make some tallow candles for Peter and Catherine DuBois on this evening, 250 years-ago.
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| Hand-dipped Tallow Candles c 18th century. Image courtesy of the-saleroom.com |
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