Researching Food History

How to cut a long neck pumpkin to make Pumpkin Pickles.

Last Thanksgiving I wrote a bit about Lydia Child, this time I'll present the more well known connection - Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (17...

10  Symposiums, exhibits

The first time I tasted stuffed ham, I thought there was something wrong with the meat! It didn't taste at all like the ham and currie...

There are numerous ways to prepare beets. In addition to Pickled, Salad, or Harvard Beets , beets are delicious fried or used in baking. So...

This year is the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, ratified on August 18, 1920,which declared "The right of citizens of the Uni...

Although botanically different, the three berries were often used interchangeably by cooks, as seen in the following recipes. The White Hous...

A marvelous description of the harvest of cinnamon from the book Oriental Commerce describes the twice a year barking, the rolling into 4 f...

In 1816, John Nash updated the Royal Pavillion at Brighton kitchen with state of the art steam features, while still containing a roasting ...

Salmagundy is a layered salad with colorful greens, meat, anchovies, and eggs among the variety of ingredients, with a vinegar based dressin...

There were several methods, in addition to roasting on a plank or encasing in clay , to prepare fish by a fire. The Lewis and Clarke exped...

The term Sparrow Grass , was occasionally used in the 18th and 19th centuries to refer to Asparagus. "Sparrow-Grass. A vulgar pronuncia...

When was the term "summer kitchen" first used? The separated kitchen building we refer to as the summer kitchen has been built for...

A picture of Slater's Patent Steam Kitchen, 1812. Click to enlarge. 

This engaging and thoroughly researched (150 pages of endnotes) work delves into all aspects of Madeira from the growing of the grapes on th...

One way of preserving foods, but also for “present use” [Hale] was by potting. Many cookery books from the 18th (almost twenty) into the 20t...

George Cruikshank illustrated the custom of tossing the pancake on Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday, in the 1837 edition of Comic Almanac. A desc...

The large snowfalls (45") in the mid Atlantic area has caused a sudden popularity of Snow Cream recipes on the internet, and local news...

For centuries cooks have used the gridiron as one way to prepare meat, fish, poultry, and vegetables. Hearth cooks often misuse the gridiron...

The candy thermometer did not become available to most housekeepers until the early 1900s when appeared in advertisements and recipes. The p...