My parents were describing a food that my grandparents used to eat called “saps.” It was basically a cracker that you put butter and boiling water on. Is anyone else familiar with this? Perhaps by another name?
Well, in the middle ages, sops were bread/toast soaked in broth or ale. Good way to use up stale dry bread and fill the stomach fairly cheaply.
go here and search for ‘sops’
Milquetoast is simply toast torn up and soaked in milk, and has been used as a derrogatory term for a mousy little feeble man as milquetoast was used as food for sick people and people with ‘weak stomachs’.
Sometimes, I eat crushed saltines with milk instead of Wheat Chex. I learned it from my dad. He never called it anything but “crackers and milk,” though.
I have an old “tips for housekeepers” type book that suggests something called “tea crackers” – you pour boiling water over crackers, and then add butter and salt. The book suggests you could also use milk if you have it. Nothing about “saps” though. There’s also nothing about what exactly you are supposed to do with them – do you eat them with a spoon, or what? The way this is presented in the book makes you think it was a completely obvious thing to eat – does that make sense? Some of the recipes in the book are described as new or unusual, but this one assumes that the reader is completely familiar with the concept.
Hey, don’t knock the stuff - it’s great for when you’ve had your wisdom teeth out and can’t eat much else. :o
I used to have a recipe book that went one better. Toast water - you soaked the toast, then discarded it and drank the water it had soaked in. Wholesome!
I have eaten it myself, so I dont knock it. I happen to like it=) I am simply saying that that is where the deroggatory term milquetoast comes from. Think Walter Mitty [tolerable danny kaye movie, absolutely hysterical book by Thurber.]
My dad ate banana and onion sandwhiches. Sometimes with pickles. Nothing shocks me,
My grandparents used to eat what they called “sop”–cornbread soaked in milk.