Food Day Canada - Aug. 1

Let's show support for our Canadian friends and "Cook like a Canadian" on their #FoodDayCanada. Their catchy "Put Canada on the Menu" with recipes and nice photos are on the official website HERE And remarkably, cooking in a First Nations wooden box.

Lady Baltimore Ice Cream and Spun Sugar Webs

Owen Wister's popular 1906 novel was followed the next year by a Lady Baltimore Cake recipe, and in 1909 the Lady Baltimore Ice Cream appeared. picture of LB cake

World Heritage Sourdough Library

The remarkable Puratos World Heritage Sourdough Library in Belgium was created by the Puratos company to "safeguard the sourdough biodiversity and preserve the sourdough heritage and baking knowledge."  It opened seven years ago.

Whole Strawberry Fritters 1755

Large strawberries are coated in a batter of flour, egg whites, wine and oil, then fried, rolled in sugar and glazed (browned) with a salamander (broiler). John Nott had a delicious fried beet recipe with a wine batter from 1723.

Free JSTOR

JSTOR - Individual Account - free -100 articles per month through December 31, 2020.  It is a collection of scholarly journals, ebooks, and images. Home page HERE.    Special offer HERE


Constantly updated post on upcoming virtual talks, workshops, etc.  HERE

Fig lemonade

This is a lemonade for hot weather - like Switchel or Shrub - very tart (only 1T or a teaspoon of honey).  Alexis Soyer called it a "Cooling Lemonade" in 1849, and a later cookbook author named it "Picnic Lemonade."  The vivid pink color happens instantly when lemon juice is added to the liquid from boiling the figs and yellow of the lemon peels.

Historic cooking at home - Benjamin Franklin's recipes

The American Philosophical Society, founded in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin in 1743, houses his papers, which include recipes in French. The APS “invited scholars, public historians, and chefs with a range of interests to share their reflections on Franklin, his recipes, and the culture of the eighteenth-century Atlantic World over the coming weeks” on their BLOG.  Other sites offer videos or old recipes, below.

A dozen favorite posts from the past

Some of my favorite topics over the last 11 years - from the conical strawberry pottles image on left, HERE to the most popular, Snap-apple at Halloween - were easy to list, since they are viewed the most. It was harder not to include many others. I even considered making it a "baker's dozen" ...

Volunteer to transcribe manuscript cookbook recipes

Handwritten documents - recipes, letters - are important for research.  You can help other researchers and libraries from your home computer by transcribing digitized manuscript cookbooks; thus making them easier to read and able to be searched.

Memorial Day - Never forget

Remember those who served... and those still serving to protect us.


John Billings’ Hardtack and Coffee. Boston: 1887

"Food and Disruption" - free online Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

50 peer reviewed papers and wonderfully illustrated talks from 17 countries were presented at the 5th Dublin Gastronomy Symposium (usually held in Ireland).  This online event was free and... terrific!

Muffin Pudding 1826

English Muffins (in this case from Hannah Glasse, changed slightly by Richard Briggs in 1796, made during William Rubel's weekly bread seminar) can be made into a pudding layered with dried cherries. Rundell's 1826 baked version contained brandy and orange-flower water. 

Bees from hive to branch to wooden hive

The bees are out enjoying all the dandelions from all the rain. This 1869 image depicts the "three classes of bees" and how the swarm leaves the beehive to "settle upon a limb" then placed in the wooden box. The author clearly was not allergic, boasting "no protection to face or hands."  Don't try this at home!

Calendar of virtual food history talks

The Calendar, my Covid service project, will continue in a limited way, since I must cut back on the long hours I have spent on it the last four years.
There have been over 4,500 (in 2023) virtual food history talks, demos and tours by museums, historical associations, small businesses, groups, and others.

Doctors' house calls and medicine

Doctors attended to the sick in their homes, but according to Rosalie Calvert of Maryland, "he makes us prepare all the remedies."  Many cookbooks during this period included "simple remedies."

White Rabbit Egg Dye for Easter Eggs

Since 1888, White Rabbit has been competing with Paas (founded 1880) packaged egg dyes.  The White Rabbit advertising included colorful graphics and lovely paper dye sheets. These 1899 ads are more colorful than Paas Egg Dye Co's advertising. Their web site is just as colorful and creative.

Mary Randolph and Thomas Jefferson

Mary Randolph Randolph was a distant cousin of Thomas Jefferson, as was her husband; and her brother married Jefferson's daughter.  There were other connections, and several false stories...

Mothering Sunday - Simnel cakes and furmety

Three weeks before Easter, in the middle of Lent, was Mothering Sunday, Mid-Lent Sunday or in Bury, England - Simnel Sunday. Simnel Cake (boiled then baked), Mothering Buns, Furmity and lamb.  

Saving snow in 18th century Naples for iced drinks and food

Snow instead of ice was used in Naples. The snow was stored in the "cliffs and caverns on the mountain of San Angelo, between Castell-a-Mare and Sorento."  Donkeys carried the snow down to boats then to Naples. The Bourbon kings of Naples felt they had to provide the snow for their subjects drinks or they would revolt.

Olio

Olio was an extravagant stew of many meats, vegetables, herbs and spices served in it's own "close-covered" cooking "olio pot."   Vincent La Chapelle, "Chief Cook" to the Earl of Chesterfield, included three recipes in his 1733 work The Modern Cook - one French Olio and two Spanish.  By the 1860s a Crab Olio was in two Maryland cookbooks - no meat, but crab, eggplant and tomatoes.