One kind reader has sent in a tidbit regarding the "Saleratus" listed as one item for sale in the grocery list in the "Great Western Hotel" ad shown in the recent "1840 Mystery Spot" post. He says:
I didn't want to sidetrack the 1840's Mystery Spot discussion, but I noticed one of the grocery items for sale in the Great Western Hotel was salaratus, a term I didn't recognize.It turns out that saleratus is "Sodium or potassium bicarbonate used as a leavening agent; baking soda", which has a tenuous link back to the discussion about Royal Baking Powder earlier in the year. Thought you might be interested...
Absolutely! How much more elegant is this term than "baking soda." Dusty D wants to revive this term. Next time I go to Meijer's I will enquire of the nearest employee, "Pardon me, would you by chance have any saleratus?"
"Any...what?"
"Saleratus! Saleratus! What you young'uns call 'baking soda.' Incidentally, is it anywhere near the Michigan Made Beet Sugar? You DO carry Michigan Made Beet Sugar, don't you? In the hundred-pound sack? And saleratus? Where's the saleratus aisle?!"
I may end up recognizing myself on Customerssuck.com, but if 'saleratus' reenters common parlance, it'll all be worth it.
Some stories about "Sody Saleratus"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.story-lovers.com/listssodysalleratus.html
"According to my late grandmother..... Sody was baking soda, i.e., sodium bicarbonate. "Sody saleratus" was just an informal prounuciation of the old-time Latin term for it, "soda sal aeratus" (the sodium salt that aerates/makes bubbles). Pioneer women's diaries mention how delighted they were to find natural deposits of "sody saleratus" on the rocks out west. "
Baking soda? In rocks?!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed that site; thank you. Liked this story:
"Mother needs sody sallyrutus (baking soda) to make biscuits. Family is mother, father, sister, brother and one little squirrel who lives in the house. Mother sends her son to town to buy SS. On the way back he crosses over a bridge. Bear jumps out and says, (in his best bear voice) "Whose that walkin on my bridge!" Little boy says, "It's just me and my SS." Bear eats boy in one gulp! Mothers sends daughter too look for brother. Same scenario, bear jumps out, etc. Mother sends father to look for children. Ditto Mother goes herself. Same thing happens. Meanwhile, back at the ranch...ahh I mean house :) the squirrel is getting really hungry. Goes to look for family. Bear jumps out. Squirrel runs up tree. Bear follows. Squirrel leaps to another tree. Bear figures he can do that too. Jumps and falls to the ground. Splat! Bear's stomach burst open and out jumps the mother, father, sister brother. (remember the bear ate them in one gulp) Son gives SS to mother. Mother takes needle and thread out and sews bear back up and tells him go and never come back. He does. They go home and Mom makes the bisquets and the squirrel ate the most...those bisquits made with Sody Sallyrutus. Whenever I tell this the children love to chime in with "Whose that walkin' on my bridge."
There are tons upon tons of baking soda and baking powder ads in the old papers, particularly by Royal. Underlines the volume of labor women did every day just to get a meal on the table...from scratch, every time.