Chocolate by Liotard

Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702-1789) did the famous watercolor "The Chocolate Girl" (La Belle Chocolatiere) c1744 which has been copied many times over the years. He also did some other interesting chocolate paintings with closeups of the details...

Valentine Hearts

A recipe for Chocolate Hearts is from the Baker's Chocolate booklet, 1913.

The Art of Refining Sugar

7 great images showing the equipment being made and used to refine sugar from a french book, 1764.

Flour bin at Zoar

Zoar Village in Ohio has a gorgeous flour bin in their 1845 bakery.  The top lid was made from one large width of wood and was constructed by community members. 

Charles Darwin and... rice??

Emma Darwin kept a small handwritten recipe book, and about fifty of her recipes with modern interpretations are in Mrs. Charles Darwin's Recipe Book which also contains a lengthy information section.   Several of the recipes had differences from others in contemporary cookbooks, such as almonds replacing chestnuts in the Nesselrode ice cream...

Cochineal

The tiny purple shells of the Cochineal (found on cactus - see last section of this post) was used as a dye.  The scale insects were generally dried in the sun or oven.  In food, it's pink/red/purple color enhanced jelly, marmalade, blanc mange as well as pickled Eggs, "Golden Pippins to look like Apricots," collared Beef,  icing (as described on the Christmas or Black Cake HERE ) and other foods.

Food Symposiums - 2013

5 events in UK and USA

Twelfth Night pranks

The beguiling display of elaborate cakes in the windows lured those walking by and waiting patrons too close to the window sills.

Mischievous boys would nail, NAIL the coat tails to the sills or pin adults coats together.. as many as "eight to ten persons." ...

Plum Pudding - slicing

Cutting the round "cannon ball" pudding in a wedge slice.

Plum Pudding

Notice how the round pudding was cut in slices from the top left side.

Panetieres

The panetiere was/is a wooden French bread box or bread bin; and a gloriously elaborate one at that.  Not your 1960s bread box - causing a rethinking of the querry - "Is it bigger than a bread box?"
More examples follow.

Christmas Cake and the Little Mouse

"The Little Mouse, who made itself a House in a Christmas Cake" - excerpts of the poem with illustrations from the book Aunt Affable's New Books for Children. London: 1844   

Christmas Cake or Black Cake

Black Cake certainly doesn't sound as festive as Christmas Cake as it was sometimes called, or even Fruit Cake or Plum Pudding.  Not only does it not sound festive, black cake doesn't sound too appetizing... thoughts of burnt cookies or toast spring to mind.  But it is tasty, rather like a spice cake if only raisins are used. 

Thanksgiving and the 14th Amendment

Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner by Thomas Nash depicts the many immigrants affected by the Fourteenth Ammendment...

Nutting Parties

Nutting?? Two social events were called Nutting Parties - an indoor party with a nut theme (see below for a 1907 description) and an outing to pick various types of nuts (1832 and 1902, below).

Election Cake

Election Cakes, which appeared in the 1796 cookbook by Amelia Simmons, were labeled “old fashioned” by 1830 in Child’s The Frugal Housewife and by 1850 (in Beecher), they were at least '”100 years old.” ...

Campaign Tables

18th Century British campaign tables, George Washington, and 19th Century American Civil War army tables.  40 sketches and photographs show some ingenious ways tables were taken apart, folded and transported by the army.

Chicken ladders

Just look at that chicken climbing the ladder. The following 9 pictures show three basic types of ladders and ramps since the 16th century.

Peacock Pye and Swan Pies

17th century paintings show elaborate peacock and swan pies adorning the dining tables.  No question, a real show piece.  But - a real head, neck and wings??  A 1757 recipe below detailed how it was done.  Other options - butter, wax or stick forms.

Sweet Potato Dinner



Placing sweet potatoes in or on coals from a fire is an easy way to cook them...and that is how they were cooked in the painting "General Marion Inviting a British Officer to Share His Meal."   The image was on the $10 bill of the Confederate States, and on a post war South Carolina $5 bill...