Archive 2026 - past virtual food talks.

Past talks will be added to this page to finish the 2026 year. The server for my website (started before 2000) was discontinued and took down everything including past zoom talks. Since there are fewer talks now (not the 250-290s per month) they will fit in one blog post.

Cambridge Butter - Sold by the yard

Cambridge "yard butter" was described in 1727 as long rolls put in long baskets, hung in the cool well and cut when at market. It's quality was described over a hundred years later as: "The Cambridgeshire butter is produced from cows that feed one part of the year on chalky uplands, and the other on rich meadows or fens, which alternation is thought to explain its excellence."

Preserving eggs 1909

Many methods to preserve eggs are given in this excerpt of Sidney Morse's Household Discoveries encyclopaedia. Also instructions to pickle eggs and how to make dried eggs.

Ice house 1854 and a pile of ice kept above ground for a year

Although the ice house image and description are nice, the second paragraph is intriguing. Ice piled on the ground, covered with a layer of firewood, then a layer of straw, then thatch as the outer layer. It should be on "dry ground (the north side of a hill being preferable), in a conical form, of a considerable size, in winter during a hard frost..."

Popcorn and New Year's Eve

Described by a ten year old boy in 1895, the practice was called old fashioned in a 1914 magazine article.

New Year's Eve/Day in Germany 1840s-1860s

Gifts were exchanged on New Year's, and foods included German gingerbread made with honey, aniseeds, almonds in the shape of hearts that could be as large as half a yard and a foot wide. Herrings, lentils, wassail-bowls, and Glee wine.

Frederick MD working hearths ... Museums by Candlelight

On Saturday, December 9, there will be 26 sites open for free with music, activities, and crafts in Frederick and the County. Several homes have squirrel tail ovens (in small section in photo) and other interesting features. Always fun. If you are nearby, go visit.

Silk bolting for flour mills 1790s

By 1794 a "manufactory for making bolting silk" was started in Wilmington, Delaware by Robert Dawson. He applied for a patent (got it), and petitioned the US House of Rep to not pay duty on imported raw silk (denied).

Easter Eggs - Paas Dyes, White Rabbit Dye, onion skins, anilin

Paas Egg Dyes were first packaged by a pharmacist named William Townley of Newark, NJ in 1880 and patent 8355, Ap 12, 1881.

Medieval taped talks

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

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.

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.

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.

Recipe manuscript - school project at a woman's college c1831

Ann Augusta Forman Cooley (1810-1890) filled this composition book with recipes, possibly started as a school project. Raised a Quaker in NJ, then from 1828 to 1831 she attended Van Doren's Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies in Brooklyn Heights, perhaps the first woman's college. Click images to enlarge.

Walker's "artificial cold" (ice) for wine, ice cream 1828

Richard Walker spent many years developing "artificial cold" - making ice using chemicals (writings from 1787 to at least 1832). He was the Apothecary to the Radcliffe Infirmary at Oxford from 1781 to 1805. He heard that an ice cream apparatus was being sold that used one of his 'freezing powders' so he investigated.

Elder flowers to make ... Grape Water Ice

The other year I noticed while doing a blog post HERE on the 6 cookbooks (describe freezing pots/tubs and sabotieres) by people who worked at Negri’s, then Gunter’s tea shop; that half (Nutt, Jarrin, Jeanes) included an ice made from elder flowers... called Grape Water Ice. And yet, grapes could also be used to make Grape Water Ice.

Army chef used umbrella to protect fried croquettes - 1854

Memorial Day... never forget.

During the Crimean War, the chef for Prince George (Lt. Gen. & cousin of Queen Victoria) was preparing a dish of fried croquettes in the rain before the Battle of Alma (Sept. 1854)

Barrel butter churns 1758-1805

It is spring, so time for another post on butter. Over the years I have covered butter types and shapes, and a wide variety of churns. HERE. Instead of plunger churns, with the up and down motion, the barrel churns used a circular motion. Pictured is a c1900 churn of my great grandmother from an eastern PA farm.