Baron von Steuben's French chef at Valley Forge

Cooking beef on a string.  Steuben's "cook of celebrity" couldn't prepare their ration of beef and bread without utensils. He asked their 'wagoner" how to cook the meat and was told "by hanging it up by a string, and turning it before a good fire..."

Cranberry Muffins

This 1908 recipe has a very rich, thick batter loaded with baking powder.  The berries were fresh and softened during the baking. 

A hard life - gathering & carrying firewood in the winter; start early in the morning

Cooking and heating needed fuel... and it was very labor intensive for the poor.  "In the depth of snow" women and children dragged hacked up stumps, branches or anything the "wood police" allowed.

Richard Dolby's The Cook's Dictionary and the Thatched House Tavern

This extensive 1830 cooking dictionary is remarkable because it was touted as the first cookbook set in alphabetical order.  Also Dolby was the second cook-turned-author from the famed Thatched-House Tavern.  The frontispiece is left.

Food History Conferences, Symposiums, Exhibits and Writings 2017

This year there are conferences/symposiums in Leeds and Oxford, UK; Oxford, Miss; France; Amsterdam. A new exhibit using Getty Institute images "The Edible Monument" is being held in Detroit.  For food history in Pennsylvania, an upcoming special issue on food.