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?

Edible England - national festival and UK talks

The theme for this year's Heritage Open Days is food and related topics, with online and in person activities throughout the country from Sept. 10 to 19.
Edible England search HERE and general information HERE

Dining out - Restaurants, Diners, Fast food, Street food, Picnics, Trains and Taverns virtual talks

Tapes of talks on restaurant histories, types of restaurants, eating on trains and ships, WWII municipal restaurants ('British Restaurants') and Paris' Cabarets of Death.

German Sweet Pickled Peaches

It's August, so yet another peach recipe from Maryland. Tyson's 1870 recipe called for equal amounts of vinegar and brown sugar, with cinnamon. Marylanders Howard's Peach Chutnee is equal, but Lea's Spiced Peaches used 4:1 sugar to vinegar. As for the German in the title...

Rice puddings

My grandmother's recipe, baked in her rice pudding bowl (left). Another baked for 4 hours adding milk every half hour until extremely thick. Or boiled around an apple in a cloth. Or a c1800 MD manuscript recipe boiled with suet. Or used rice flour. Or burnt rice...

Bank Barns and taped barn & farm talks

The Bank Barn was set into a hill to allow the horse and wagon to enter the upper story to unload the hay, which would be dropped to the lower floor to feed the cows, horses, etc, who could exit on that level through doors under the overhang.

Feeding the poor and needy

Soyer's Soup Kitchens during Irish Famine (image) more HERE, Americans sending aid to Ireland in 1847 and Europe after WWI, workhouses, almshouses and other ways to help the poor.

Ice cream cone molds in the 1910s

An ice cream cone factory in 1917 Oklahoma depicts making the cones, and other images show various US patents. The metal molds were heated, thick batter poured in, then the top mold was lowered into the bottom.
This is a test email since the blog email server was switched. Click images to enlarge.

Change in delivery of blog posts

The service to send out emails for each new blog post is being discontinued. This came at a busy time for me, so I just picked a service that is supposed to be popular. Hopefully there will not be too much of a difference in emails when I switch over this week. Let me know if you don't get the emails. My blog, and the Calendar of food history talks (first on links list, right side), will stay at researchingfoodhistory.blogspot.com.

Beaten Biscuit Brake demo

This Friday there is a demo making Beaten Biscuits on an 1877 biscuit brake (not this pic), Cold Water Biscuits from Malinda Russell's cookbook. Just heard about it today... thanks Foodways Pilgrim for posting on Facebook!

Chinese foodways, restaurants

Several interesting upcoming talks - one on Chinese workers in early Napa Valley wineries, evolution of restaurants in Southern Cal, and China's eight regional cuisines. There have been many tapes on restaurants, tea, even chili peppers.

Whipped ice cream - Iced Froths or Mousses Glacees in 1869

Jules Gouffe (1807-1877) was born to a Parisian patisserie (pastry shop) owner and spent seven years with the great Careme.  In his 1869 cookbook he tried to popularize the lighter Iced Froths served in jelly glasses.  They were "superior to either Ices or Sorbets" during "this transition period" and thus "improve the indifferent quality of the refreshments now served at evening parties." The frothing stick and sieve were needed to make his 5 flavors: Chocolate, Coffee, Strawberry, Maraschino and Almond Milk.

Fishing, River restoration, Seafood, Roman Fish Sauce (Garum) talks

World Ocean Day is June 8. As some may have noticed, a few of my monthly search terms involve fish, oysters and river restoration measures like old mill dam removal and removing weirs. This month there are 12 talks, including a virtual international Fish Passage Conference, archival films of Scottish fishing communities, environmental, and women herring packers travel around Scotland. Past taped talks include shrimpers, oysters, shad, and salmon.

Rations and Rationing

Memorial Day ... when we honor those who gave their lives so we can live free.

There have been many talks on rationing over the past year.

Virtual talks... a year ago

When I started gathering together a list of virtual talks, classes, readings last April, I never thought I would still be at it, and how much time it would take. This post will be on some of the Zooming pioneers who got us through the first few months with talks, tours, and cook/or bake-alongs.

Italian foodways in Italy and America

From Michelangelo to Scappi (image), from pasta to pizza to olive oil to many more subjects. And so many interesting talks were taped. Also Greek foodways talks.

Peat in Ireland for cooking, heating

Much manual labor was involved to get peat from a bog to the hearth. Slabs (like long bricks) were/are sliced off the bank by a special tool, then dried, turned, and dried until all surfaces were hardened and able to burn. Cooking over peat is shown in the picture An Irish farm kitchen with its open grate for peat. [1906]

Many taped talks and links to info.

Women cookbook authors

Hannah Glasse vs Ann Cook, Margaret Dods was Christian Isobel Johnstone. Glasse (1708-1770), the most well known, published her first book The Art of Cookery in 1747. Cook's The Professed Cook came out in 1754 with her critique of Glasse. Johnstone (1781-1857) wrote The Cook and Housewife's Manual 1826, using the name of a character created by Sir Walter Scott in 1823. All will be explained in two upcoming talks, one by Ivan Day.