Shad fishing

The weather is warming and the Shad are running.  Actually they are swimming up the rivers to spawn.  The following 14 images [click to enlarge] from the 16th and 19th centuries show the various ways to catch the shad from wiers, spears, nets on sticks and large nets. 

Smithsonian food exhibit

FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000, at the National Museum of American History in DC contains Julia Child's home kitchen, a Krispy Kream donut machine, the first frozen margarita machine and more...

Fools

For April Fools Day... a variety of Fools.   While most of the Fool recipes were for Gooseberry, other cooked and mashed fruits included Strawberry, Raspberry, Apple, Orange, Cherry or Rhubarb.  14 recipes from 1675 to 1908...

Food History Symposiums and Conferences 2013 pt.2

15 events in the USA and Europe

Irish Potato Pudding

When a Sweet Potato Pie is a sweet, Potato Pie.  Using Irish or white potatoes.  One of the recipes, by Mary Randolph, states 1 pound of potato to 3 sticks of butter!

Feeding the Papal Conclave

The most striking images of a Papal Conclave - at least for food historians - are found in The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi, 1570.  Close-ups of the hamper, credenza tub, carafe container and the 'ruota' dumbwaiter door. 

Liotard and a breakfast conversation

Jean-Etienne Liotards pictures, including an interesting one of a boy cutting a piece off a butter cone, highlight an interesting 1803 breakfast description.

Pictures on Pinterest

Last month I started making some Pinterest boards.   Most of the pictures so far are from my old postings, so I am using it as an pictorial index of the contents of my blog.  ...

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