Mustard seeds and vinegar makers in 1765

Mustard seed merchants had to wait until vinegar makers, who also made mustard, had inspected and chosen the seeds they wanted. Large scale mustard grinding from Diderot's encyclopedia. Upcoming talk on Colman, the "mustard king."

German foodways - in Germany and US

German immigrant cookbooks, industrialization caused changes in German cheese production, and Octoberfest talks.

Peach Cordial 1845

Elizabeth Ellicott Lea's Cordial recipe was included in her slim first edition of 1845 and the enlarged 1846 and 1851 editions (reprinted for 40 years). Her Peach Cordial required peaches, sugar, brandy, mace and blanched peach kernels. Born in 1793 in Ellicott City, Maryland, Lea included many peach recipes, which have been great, as have her other recipes. I have not made a cake flavored with her Peach Cordial, yet.

Mexican foodways

National Hispanic Heritage Month is from September 15 to October 15.

There are many past tape talks on cookbooks, foods and Dia de los Muertos.

Cast iron and metal pot

This unusual cooking pot is not entirely cast iron. It has a cast iron bottom which extends 3/4" up the thinner metal body. Both sections feel and sound different, and are probably from a three part mold. My great grandmother used it on her wood stove or at the large stone hearth in an outbuilding on their eastern Penn. farm. Perhaps it's a transitional iron pot from hearth to cookstove?