Shoo fly! Protecting food on the table

Flies were a nuisance and a danger, such as "fly blown" - flies leaving eggs on meat which turned into maggots.  Punkas - large fans suspended from the ceiling moved by a cord - were popular in India and the American South.  Other methods described below included meat safes, dish (fly) covers, cloth over milk, meat or windows; spices or chemicals.  Painting from 1637 depicts a fly on the bread.

Cavendish bananas, the Duke of Devonshire & Sir Joseph Paxton

Sir Joseph Paxton (1803-1865) was the gardener at Chatsworth House for 30+ years, built it’s Great Conservatory (left, 1830s) and later built the famed Crystal Palace in 1851. He named this variety of banana after his employer, William Cavendish, 6^th Duke of Devonshire (1790-1858). Queen Victoria visited...

Neapolitan Cakes

While people may know about the tri-colored Neapolitan ice cream (past post HERE) there once was a notable layer cake.  Neapolitan Cakes were showy multilayer cakes of bright colors, different flavors and icings for each layer. Same name, but an 1846 cake of 12 thin layers with whipped cream up the center was created by Queen Victoria's chef Francatelli, left.

Neapolitan or Harlequin ice cream

The tri-colored Neapolitan ice cream was/is generally white, pink/red and chocolate like the 1806 Naples flag or other colors.  Add pistachio ice cream to make Harlequin ice cream.

Selling Ice Cream in 1850s Philadelphia - Street criers, Saloons, Parkinson, and Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton - not the Sir Isaac one - was a farmer, owned an ice cream saloon, and later became the first Commissioner (Director) of the Dept. of Agriculture in DC, created by Lincoln in 1862. He was a competitor of the more famous Parkinson family: Eleanor wrote a cookbook in 1844 and opened a saloon in 1818, and her son James a famed restaurateur, created a $1000 dinner, and for 20 years wrote in the Confectioners' Journal.

Moravian meals... "the piece" in the morning

Moravians started a community in Bethlehem, Pa. in 1741.   The members gathered several times a day to eat: breakfast at 6, "the piece" or mid-morning lunch/snack at 9, dinner at noon, vespers at 2, and supper at 6.  In 1906 Pennsylvania "the piece" was still kept and reluctantly allowed in the coal mines.

Nesselrode Pudding (ice cream) created by Careme... or was it Mony?

The story goes that the renowned French chef Careme created this ice cream for Russian statesman Nesselrode in 1814 after Napoleon's defeat.  In 1828 Careme tried to gain credit saying his boiled chestnut pudding inspired a Parisian chef Mr. Mony (or Monni, Nesselrode's cook).  It worked and Mony was forgotten for 30 years until his recipe was in Gouffe's cookbook; and now is mostly forgotten.

Maryland crabs ... before Old Bay

In 1939, Gustav Brunn fled Germany and then developed the Old Bay crab seasoning - celery salt, peppers, paprika and secret spices - in Baltimore. Some spices used in 1800s Maryland recipes were nutmeg, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, mace, cloves, and allspice. Photo of 1906 crab pickers.

Medieval crab recipes and 1723 recipes for crabs with dates, ginger, pistachios....

Nott in 1723 added all sorts of fruit, spices, nuts and veggies to 10 crab recipes: dates, grapes, oranges, barberries, gooseberries, ginger, mace, cinnamon, fennel, artichoke bottoms, asparagus, almond paste, pistachios, pine nuts, fried parsley, raw or hard egg yolks, wine, vinegar and butter.
Two Medieval crabbe recipes simply boiled or baked the crab then served it cold with vinegar; or with cinnamon, sugar, vinegar and butter upon a chaffing dish.

Cheseapeake crabs in 1850 Philadelphia, & Crabs in 17th and 19th century Britain

"Crab Crab any Crab" in the flat basket from 1688 Cryes of the city of London .  A second street seller with a wheel-barrel "Crabs! Crabs Alive!" in 1850 City Cries of Philadelphia (where a crab has caught a boy).  How a monkey catches crabs, crabs from Norway, and British crab-pots...

Taking the cook stove out of the kitchen for the summer ... then putting up the stove

If there was no out-kitchen (later called summer kitchen HERE) cooking stoves were moved out to the porch, lean-to shed, woodshed or someplace "fire-proof" to keep the kitchen cooler in the summer. Then comes the fall and the daunting task of "putting up stoves." 

Crimean War steamers Abundance (bakery) and Bruiser (flour mill)

The famed cook Alexis Soyer (1810-1858) wrote Soyer's Culinary Campaign (1857) about his experiences to improve the cooking and baking for the British Soldiers during the Crimean War (1853-56).  Floating bakeries on ships were described at length; from "working of the flour" to 15+ thousand rations baked each day.  More on floating mills HERE

Chicken coops in the kitchen

"1 wire chicken coop" was listed in a July 1818 kitchen inventory of the Virginia Governor's mansion, in the center of Richmond (Gov. James Patton Preston). 

Other Black eyed Susan recipes for the Preakness

The Preakness Stakes, "second leg" of horse racing's Triple Crown, features Maryland's state flower as the winner's horse blanket and a drink (though not as famous as the Kentucky Derby's Mint Julep).  An 1827 pudding from Domestic Economy and Cookery... receipts for sea-faring men... was probably named for a 1720 poem and later song about a sailor's goodbye.

Cafe Procope - limonadier opened in 1686 Paris

The first successful cafe in Paris sold lemonade, liquor, coffee, ices... and was across from the state theater Comedie Francaise. Its many famous patrons included Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Marat, Robespierre, George Sand and Benjamin Franklin.

Dandelion wine and dandelion salad with hot bacon dressing

Anyone tired of seeing the sunny yellow flowers in their lawn?  If you have a big yard with dandelions away from a road... and don't use chemicals... you can eat the leaves you weed (or just buy from store). My grandmother made  bacon salad dressing on dandelion leaves.  Tom Martin, who was at Landis Valley museum for years, HERE made a terrific version, which is in the cookbook and below.  Recently someone made dandelion wine, which was very sweet... so yes it was a good cordial.

Flour as a war target

In April 1861 the Civil War was started when Ft. Sumter was attacked. The tale from the Revolutionary War, below, from an 1831 children's book, describes how a miller trickily did not lie while protecting barrels of flour from the British.

Secret communal bread ovens during the French Revolution

Some revolutionary period bake ovens still remain in the Dordogne area.  Before the French Revolution began in 1789, rural ovens were owned by the wealthy overlords, then clandestine ovens were built in the woods to feed the peasants.

Birds in the kitchen: 16th through 18th century bird cages

There are several paintings... particularly from the 1600s... showing bird cages in the kitchen and taverns. Many of the paintings by the Dutch painter Jan Steen included bird cages. The late 18th cen. cage, left, has a marvelous water glass.

Left over jelly made into drinks

Two jelly drink recipes made when "jams or jellies are too old" for "table use" contain vinegar and soda for effervescence - Beecher, 1850 or the later, 1884 recipe is just jelly stirred in water and sugar.