Pepper Slaw, Pickled Cabbage

The sugar and vinegar makes this a sweet and sour side dish that was found in Pennsylvania Dutch and German meals. It is different from creamy coleslaw.

A few new talks have been added, including Saturday, so I am putting out a fast post before Sunday.

Hattie Burr and the first Suffrage cookbook 1886

Hattie A. Colby Burr (1841-1935) compiled the fundraising book The Woman Suffrage Cookbook in 1886. While it was the first in the United States, it would not be the last suffrage cookbook until women got the right to vote... in 1920! For a short time she lived on same street (of 6 houses) as the more well known cookbook author Maria Parloa (1843-1909).

Amelia Simmons

The first cookbook written by an American was American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, An American Orphan in 1796. But who was she? Perhaps Pamela Cooley has found her! After extensive research, she presents a convincing case for Amelia Simonds/Simons (1767-1796) of Windham, Connecticut.

Medieval taped talks

There have been many Medieval talks, one this month on the archaelogy of a Jewish German oven. And ofcourse upcoming talks. Image from book: Ein Köstlich new Kochbuch by Anna Wecker, 1598.

Tossing the Pancake on Shrove Tuesday

"Shrovetide, Tossing the Pancake" 1862.
Pancakes and donuts (Fat Tuesday), Washington Cakes (President's Day), and Welsh Cakes (St. David's Day in Wales, March 1) links below.

Salt in the hearth - in Niche or Salt-box

A stoneware container in a niche/hole in the hearth wall, or salt cellars kept salt "from running." Two period images, with one showing something in the niche, the other with a wooden salt cellar. CHNY's talk this Thursday is on... salt. History of salt-making in England taped talk.

Dining in America late 1820s - from the British point of view

Mrs. Frances Trollope (1779-1863), the mother of Anthony Trollope, travelled and lived in the US from 1827-1831. She wrote her observations - "Almost everyone drinks water," Pic-nics were rare, "dessert (invariably pronounced desart)" was common. This weeks talks.

Food Diversity Day taped talks and more

Terrific talk on Swiss cows move to alpine meadows (CH of Chicago). 11 panels of speakers promoting diversity of cheese, bread, seeds, oceans, lentils and more, developed by Dan Saladino (Eating to Extinction). Taped and upcoming talks.

Temperance Drinks ... 1850

It's Dry January, so here are over 25 recipes in Temperance Drinks section in Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book. NY: 1850. Image (click to enlarge) of coffee urn cart with free bread, from a temperance group. Harper's Weekly. NY: 1880.

Flour mills taped talks - Tidal, Floating, Water, Wind

Tidal mills cleverly run by tides, mills built on boats (famed Alexis Soyer used naval ships as a mill and bakery), windmills, mills in many states and countries are all described in tapes of talks or written excerts, below. Removing mill dams for river restoration. Upcoming talks.

Twelfth Night Cake period images

Queen Victoria's 30 inch-diameter "Twelfth Cake," 1849, is the first of many images of Twelfth Night cakes, other food/drinks and activities for Twelfth Night (Jan 6). Click images to enlarge.

New Year’s Day in New Amsterdam

This 1870 artwork by George Henry Boughton depicts the visits on New Year's day - with no "wines, brandy wines, or beers" and ... no shooting guns or beating drums.

Holiday spirits and Christmas taped talks

"Merry Christmas to All!!"
Image from Clement Moore's A Visit from Saint Nicholas. 1862

Christmas taped talks: Tudor; Victorian; Wartime - Am Rev, Civil War, WWII; PA German; how slaves were really treated on Christmas; 400 years at sea, many more.

Marking King George II dishes with the cook's name

This story from 1827, in The Table Book, was copied for years.

Ice Box Cookies or Refrigerator Cookies

During the 1920s, dough was chilled in rolls or logs in the ice boxes, then sliced and baked. With more electric refrigerators, the variety increased. Links to other historic cookies are below.

Stir-up Sunday; also Christmas talks and tapes 2022

Everyone took a turn to stir the Plum Pudding for Christmas. More on Stir up Sunday on blog post HERE many posts on Plum Pudding HERE

Many upcoming talks on Christmas (over 30), Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Variety of taped Christmas talks since 2020.

Coffee and other intoxicants (1600-1850) virtual exhibition and talk

From 1600-1850, new intoxicants included sugar, coffee, tea, chocolate, opiates and tobacco. A talk on the Intoxicating Spaces: The Impact of New Intoxicants on Urban Spaces in Europe website is on Nv 16.

Image of an "Ottoman coffee house in Istambul" from 1819. 

Revolutionary War comes to the Tatnall and Lea mills in Delaware

During the Revolutionary War the Tatnall and Lea flour mills of Brandywine, by Wilmington, Delaware furnished flour to the American army. Washington and Lafayette visited Joseph Tatnall. Before the battle of the Brandywine, Washington ordered the top grinding stones of the mills to be removed and hidden from the British troops.

Candies of old Salem - Gibralter & Black Jack

Salem Gibralters, created early 1800s, still sold today. Hawthorne wrote about them - rock hard, white and wrapped in white paper. Black Jacks were a deliberately burnt mixture of maple syrup, butter, brown sugar and molasses.

The hard life of bakers in Victorian London

Starting at 11pm to make the dough, nap on flour sack over the kneading board (on the trough). wake at 2am, start kneeding and forming the dough then bake loaves in oven. When all that was done (in extreme heat), the bakers had to change clothes and go out on the street to sell the bread.

This week's talks including several on Halloween foods.