MOLASSES! July 16, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Saturday, July 16, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Molasses

Jacob Bodine purchased one-half gallon of Molasses at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago.

Molasses. Image courtesy of trigger-rum.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.

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The principle use of molasses was in the production of rum. There were several distilleries in New York City (Massachusetts supposedly had 63 distilleries!). Colden sold copious amounts of Y Rum, which was presumably 'York' Rum.

There were many other domestic uses for molasses with its high caloric content. Domestic Beer was undoubtedly one of the uses. (Note that Colden did not sell beer.) Mary Randolph's cook book of 1838 gives this recipe for Molasses Beer:

"Put five quarts of hops, and five of wheat bran, into fifteen gallons of water; boil it three or four hours, strain it, and pour into a cask with one head taken out; put in five quarts of molasses, stir it till well mixed, throw a cloth over the barrel; when moderately warm, add a quart of fresh yeast, which must be stirred in; then stop it close with a cloth and board...."

Molasses was shipped in barrels.  Customers came to the Colden store with their own containers and filled them with the viscous dark-brown fluid.

Molasses was such a common item at the store that it was often abbreviated as Mol^s. It was almost always priced at three shillings per gallon.

Colden sold almost 400 gallons of Molasses in more than 325 transactions over the sixteen months covered by the DayBook. That is a lot of beer.

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