Researching Food History

Although the ice house image and description are nice, the second paragraph is intriguing. Ice piled on the ground, covered with a layer of...

The first "Jelly Cake" using cake in an English language cookbook was in the third edition , of Philadelphian Eliza Leslie’s Seve...

Described by a ten year old boy in 1895, the practice was called old fashioned in a 1914 magazine article. Some food history zoom talks...

Wonderful illustrations accompany this 1870 description of corking and tying to a bottle. Wooden topped corks from Beeton 1...

General Regulations for the Army included instructions for quartermasters to inspect the bakery and officers were to read articles on ...

Paul Sandby (1731-1809) made several pen and watercolor images of this kitchen which included an indoor water pump onto a stone sink, shap...

Charcoal made from hard wood was good for fuel, from soft wood good to clarify liquids or make crayons or gunpowder. Blacksmiths used che...

This early beet recipe with a lovely wine and cloves flavor is a delicious and different way to use beets this fall.  An earlier post detail...

A ‘Gateau de Mille Feuilles’ recipe was described in La Varenne’s Le Cuisinier Francois , in 1651. It’s name, translated ‘Cake of a thous...

Excerpts about bait, 1594; preserving fish, 1732; To cure tainted Fish, 1819; and cooking. Over thirty taped talks on fishing, Herring Gir...

Memorial Day - never forget. Soldiers had a rough time in the trenches, and civilians at home were asked to... "FEED A FIGHTER E...

Happy Mother's Day. This is one of my favorite pictures ... a Russian stove 1803 by Atkinson. Interesting baby keeper and a sleeper o...

If your loaf of bread becomes stale, you can clean “wall-paper that has become darkened by smoke." Following are a sampling of instru...

There are several items which have been termed dumb waiters over the years - a table, revolving door with shelf/shelves or a small shelf t...

John Derricke wrote in his The Image of Irelande about English victories over the Irish... and describing an image of cooking and a feast. ...

By 1850, some sponge biscuits (cookies) were named Ladyfingers. “Fingers, or Naples Biscuits” combined the two names in a recipe by Franca...

During the World's Fair of 1893 in Chicago, the Stollwerck chocolate company of Germany created the Statue of Germania out of a 2,200 ...

There are many styles of stone sinks. This 1740s one by the window is in the Ephrata Cloisters kitchen, Pennsylvania. The second set of imag...

Although Peter Cooper (1791-1883) of New York City may be more well known for designing 'Tom Thumb', the first American steam locom...

Gifts were exchanged on New Year's, and foods included German gingerbread made with honey, aniseeds, almonds in the shape of hearts th...