Researching Food History

In the mid1800s, Halloween was celebrated "roughly" -  parts of a wagon were put in different trees, gates taken off hinges, woo...

The lovely long curved oak trough and millstone, apple press, and 'monstrous tuns' were used to turn the "golden apples"...

The melon cannot be eaten unprocessed but when cooked in sugar water it is candied and used in cakes, puddings, mincemeat, green custard;  i...

A little dog - the turnspit dog - ran inside the wheel high on the wall which turned the spit in front of the fire.   The turn-spit was men...

These fundraising annual dinners are held in church rec halls and fire departments in St. Mary's County.  The corned ham - wet cured...

Schnitz are slices of apples placed on drying racks then put in a slack brick bake oven.  People could gather for 'apple cuts' part...

The Seckel pear, the "finest pear," had a celebrated ‘original tree’ on Seckel’s farm, later part of the Stephen Girard estate,...

Asenath Nicholson (1792-1855) started as a teacher then social activist, writer, managed Graham boarding houses in NYC, vegetarian and tra...

Alexis Soyer (1810-1858) went to the aid of the starving poor during the Irish potato famine by designing a soup kitchen and recipes.  He ...

Another of the 10 peach recipes in Maryland's Elizabeth Ellicott Lea Domestic Cookery - Peaches in Brandy. The glorious peach on the ...

Mary Randolph's Virginia Housewife , first published in 1824, included many ice cream recipes - peach, vanilla, coffee, chocolate, coco...

Standing in water for hours pushing their nets ahead of them in the sand, the picturesque Shrimpers captured the shrimp and/or prawns.  When...

In a previous post - 7 years ago, (when this post was written, oops) - HERE , I discussed 19th century 'summer kitchens'.  In the ...

Stew stoves - one of my favorite flue-zies - were described in a 1882 camping book. The image shows two green logs flattened along the to...

Two poems in a children's book from 1880.  In the first poem, the little girl is "plucking the raisins so rich" from her [Qu...

The avocado, once called the Alligator Pear, appeared in books since the early 17th century, and by mid 1800s in London was "much eat...

For Girl Scouts, and now most campers, s'mores are THE summer campfire treat.  And no, you can't eat just one.  From the 1965 offi...

A variety of kitchen items become musical instruments in this 1890 sketch: "Fourth of July in the Kitchen."  Click to enlarge, cl...

Richard Bradley's 1727 cookbook had several fake/mock crabs using liver or chicken & potatoes, anchovy liquor, lemon and placed in c...

Cartoons and descriptions of the hazards of fishing. "Wading half an inch deeper than the tops of your boots, and finding afterward...