Monday, May 28, 2018

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

Monday, May 21, 2018

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). 

Monday, May 14, 2018

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.

Monday, May 7, 2018

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.