Stay ConnectedStarting with the first English settlements in the 17th Century, this podcasts traces how we went from barrels of salted meat & peas to Korean bbq tacos and the largest grocery store selections ever seen anywhere in the world. We’ll go everywhere – and it is full of surprises.
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Internets: @THoAFood
Copyright: © Copyright Margaret Hardin
Did you know there was no "stew" before the 18th Century?
OK - there was stew, it's just that it went by all sorts of other names. While the concept of stew is old, the word "stew" itself is only about 300 years old. I know I was shocked as well.
To find out about stew, gravy, soup, braise and all sorts of other words - and more importantly how YOU can make your stews better, come along and listen for a bit.
And then next week I'll tell you about all the regional styles of stew that are going to influence our national cuisine on into the future.
(Chicken & dumplins anyone?)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
This week’s bonus episode is an interview I did with Rich Napolitano of the delightfully dark and decidedly educational podcast highlighting the Age of Sail - Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs - Tales of Mishaps, Misfortune, and Misadventures
Bring along all the Cabin Girls & Boys - this one is for everyone.
Rich does me the favor of quoting vivid primary sources to back up all these things I’ve been saying about food at sea. In a word: Terrible.
Check out Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs (https://shipwrecksandseadogs.com/blog/) to discover many more engaging episodes about tales of mishaps, misfortune, and misadventures.
For images and sources, please visit https://shipwrecksandseadogs.com/blog/2024/11/12/danderfunk-salt-junk-and-scurvy-cuisine-aboard-ships/ For ad-free listening to Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs and many other fantastic history podcasts, subscribe to Into History at IntoHistory.com/shipwreckspod.
Can I just be a black cat now?
Anyway - what are Baked Beans really, how did they come about, and why, in my opinion are they America's first influential fusion food? Also, why did America pass up the chance to become a pottery power house - and give it all up in favor of steel and glass (is it becasue we think art is secretly decadant and a waste of time?)
Come along for the journey, give pork a chance and don't give up on mustard. We all need it.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
Look - I should really plan better when I take an unexpected trip to Romania. But I did not.
Enjoy all the same. #NSFW
Things just get more. More more.
Oh you were confused last week? Well it doesn't get any better this week. If anything it gets worse... more soupy, more sloppy, more salacious.
Greta badly speaks more Spanish - but mainly in the service of the 2! DOS! Zorros issue.
Jamie is baffled by the twins issue - not twin Zorros, just regular Telenovella twins.
Excitement as we are in New York. Consternation as a transit across the Panama Isthmus is proposed.
And as always we have fun dashing about the (not actually) old Los Angeles countryside as the Mexican sway over Las Californias is in the process of being lost. But not before we are teased with more bears.
When will we solve the mystery of the dang bears!?
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
and his NEW YouTube Apprearances on Carved Outta Stone Wednesday AM or Friday PM
Schedule Details: instagram.com/carvedouttastone
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
Have you ever thought about how there are so few North American foods that are globally available - or even regular foods for people living in North America?
Well wonder no more. Or at least slightly less - and explore some of the major items that are native to Norht America, and yet almost made it to "famous because they are yummy" but not quite. Also - what are the possible global superstars in waiting.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
As long as you remember... this is the NSFW Bonus part, come on along.
We are back in Alta California when the wine was Spanish, and the churches were all adobe. Americans were eyeing the other side of the continent... but only in a desultory manner. Snd the richest people of the land - were giant jerks with no thought of the little people actaully doing all the labor, or the local tribes who had been there for a minute. Like a real long time.
Anyway - if you'd like to Telanovela up your history, let's Zorro!
What the Hell is going on? That's the entire sentiment of this episode.
And well, as viewers always trying to figure things out we may have brought it on ourselves.
One approach of course is to take one story line and then make it endlessly twisty - each twist more diabolical than the last and it's some of the these post Game of Thrones shows where eventually people just can't care anymore. The characters are so contradictory - nothing matters anymore.
The other, more fun approach is to just keep throwing in new characters (who's Guadalupe Montero?), sting out plot points (what is up with the bear pins?) and moving the story around to new locations (how are we in New York - err Nueva York?)
And that is what Zorro has chosen to do, because it is a fun show! So buckle those swashes and let's go! (That will get old, I know. But not yet)
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
This week - First a tribute to the forever changed Blue Ridge Parkway.
But mainly a look at how little American Diet Culture has changed in almost 200 years. We came up with some very sticky ideas about how diets should work - including general cluelessness about complex ideas, fuzzy recolections of a fantastic past and the fact that you need more money than you have to follow it correctly.
Sylvester Graham and his boring approach to vegetables is going to lead the way in how America is going to try to regain health and lose weight.
Follow along for America's first encounter with, "you are eating wrong."
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
In case you are new here - these are the NSFW Eps. Not serious food content, fit for sharing with everyone. Instead, we are being silly about media - mostly about the 19th Century. And there are swears. Sharing this becasue this Zorro series wonderful escapist nonsense.
Catch Season 1 of Zorro on Amazon Prime Video to watch along
This episode is where this show goes mask off and shows it’s Telenovela True Colors.
Go watch this episode first on Amazon Prime. Twists, Turns, Escándalo! & we just sorted out that Dani Rojas from Ted Lasso is Zorro 1. This series is SO MUCH FUN.
Jamie and Greta are here to absolutely enjoy every last minute of the escapist nonsense. Ok Ok - not just for the fun of it, but how it shows so much of what was up in 19th century California that was not concerned with America. Which, actually, for along time was most of it.
So come along for the wild ride that is Zorro - in Spanish.
You can go the Subtitles route... or English Dub. We are #Team Subtitles, but enjoy it your way.
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
and his NEW YouTube Apprearances on Carved Outta Stone Wednesday AM or Friday PM
Schedule Details: instagram.com/carvedouttastone
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
A BUSY WEEK!
1st hooray - Women's Work - The Untold Story of America’s Female Farmers
has its PBS Premier on September 26 on KSPS serving the Spokane, WA area!
But seriously - let's talk about jelly. Yeah - I definitey learned great disdain for Jell-O as I grew up - cheap and ceerful, and it seemed like tawdry empty calories. The research for this episode showed me it has a long and proud history as an exclusive food that us moderns poorly understand.
As an American I am incredibly suspicious of savory jellies. I have been fooled into missing some good stuff. How did it all go wrong? This episode holds a few clues.
Also - finally all those references to Blancmange in British English media will make sense to all us American English types.
But in the meantime - check out my appearance on TodayFood.com
And - keep your ears out for the crossover episode about the 1st Glass of Coca-Cola from History Daily and Wondery
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
In case you are new here - these are the NSFW Eps. Not serious food content, fit for sharing with everyone. Instead, we are being silly about media - mostly about the 19th Century. And there are swears. Sharing this becasue this Zorro series is very joyously fun.
Catch Season 1 of Zorro on Amazon Prime Video to watch along
After watching the movie Zorro - it became clear, we need more of Zorro. We also need more of the 19th Century Americas... from something other than the USA America perspective. Because, during the 19th century, the Americnan America was a very different shape than the USA we live in now. There were lots of other nations in those spaces we conveniently forget about.
Also - the 21st century adventure and super hero stories have gotten a little... dark. We need a little light. Not to mention, some way better clothes.
So get out the cape, saddle up and let's ride for better adventures with Zorro in Alta California. A different way to pursue fashion, fighting and hey, let's have some fun.
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
and his NEW YouTube Apprearances on Carved Outta Stone Wednesday AM or Friday PM
Schedule Details: instagram.com/carvedouttastone
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
Join me for a journey through the end of old world cake to find what the first true American cake would really be.
Find out what is at the root of American cake mixes - and why it is essentially an American idea. Just older than you think - much older than I thought for sure.
And a nice assortment of cakes you can try out to taste the early 19th century scene.
Bavarian Zwetschgendatschi (fresh plum sheet cake)
Yeasted Lincolnshire Plum Cake
Poundcake - note, No Vanilla!
King Cake - it's New Orleans, they could have Vanilla
Gingerbread Cake
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
In case you are new here - these are the NSFW Eps. Not serious food content, fit for sharing. Instead, we are being silly about media - mostly about the 19th Century. Though here, about the new SHOGUN becasue - so VERY COOL!
So we've come to the end of Shogun - a story that both haunted and informed us in our younger years.
Racist, Orientalist - as a book, YES! But this version. as far as I'm concerned redeems the Entire Venture.
And as a 1970's work written by a former prisoner of war during the Japanese Occupation during WW2, writing a book trying to get into the somewhat legendary history of Japan - it did what James Clavell wanted, it introduced Japan as a complex society to America and Britain and it's still sprawling empire at the time.
Writing is hard, editing is much much easier. Clavell's 1st try - needed some work, but somebody had to bust open the doors. And Shogun did that.
Now - how did the Blackthorne/Anjin-san story actually end? Unclear. But that's fine with me.
Now let's all cheer for whatever H. Sanada has up his sleeve and hope it comes with All The Costumes.
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
and his NEW YouTube Apprearances on Carved Outta Stone Wednesday AM or Friday PM
Schedule Details: instagram.com/carvedouttastone
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
We still have all the puddings - we just came up with more awsome names for them.
Popover is way more awesome than "drippings pudding" and nobody ever turns down a proper coconut cream pie. And it's nice to not get confused over whether that pudding on the table is a sweet one or is it actually sausage.
That's right - America became the disambuigation machine for puddings. You are Welcome.
Now for some Recipes -
Popovers:
thoroughly grease a muffin tin (12 small or 6 jumbo)
4 large eggs
1 ½ Cups of milk
½ teaspoon of salt.
mix well with beaters or in a blender
1 ½ cups of flour
mix in thoroughly
Melt 3 tbs of fat and cool slightly - add it in
mix or blend until frothy.
Take top racks out of the oven so the puffs can rise.
Let batter sit 15 mins while heating the oven to 450F/230C
Bake for 20 minutes at 450F/230C.
Turn the oven down to 350F/180C and bake another 10 minutes. Adjust the time up for a single pan pudding, Adjust the times down for a 12 muffin tin version. Thank goodness for oven windows and lights. Bake 'til puffy and browned is still the goal. If you want to retain the puff – pierce puffs with a knife to stop deflation.
Try Cornbread Bread Bread Pudding with Pineapple, Pecans & a sauce of Butter, Brown Sugar & Rum
- follow this link to a good basic pudding with a boozy sauce, but sub in the right stuff! I cut the sugar in 1/2 and sub in brown sugar.
Breadpudding with Whiskey Sauce & Fruit
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
In case you are new here - these are the NSFW Eps. Not serious food content, fit for sharing. Instead, we are being silly about media - mostly about the 19th Century. Though here, about the new SHOGUN becasue - so VERY COOL!
With that out of the way - Are Jamie & Greta fighting? Is Mariko sad about her son no longer being hers - or did she just eat some bad fish, and never really cared?
But at least everyone can agree that Yabushige is the master of the expressive grunt, even if Fuji is the queen of eye-acting. And we all know what's going to happen to Yabu next ep.
Oh yeah... and we will be laughing at Ishido's expense as he steps on all the rakes. Dames - can't talke to 'em, can't listen to 'em.
Listen and find out all the ways Anjin looks ridiculous (and yet somehow compelling?) this week
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
and his NEW YouTube Apprearances on Carved Outta Stone Wednesday AM or Friday PM
Schedule Details: instagram.com/carvedouttastone
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
Why is American bread like that? Why did we swoon of "Old Fashioned Bread" during the pandemic? What happened so that our bread is these nice neat rectangular loaves with close textured middles and soft crust perfect for sandwiches - while so much of the rest of bread world is more interesting?
The answers - surprisingly enought lie in the start of the 19th century when the New Americans got itchy feet and started to head Out West. Not that it's surprising - but such activities were not conducive to cultivating yeast and baking the slow rise, freeform breads of the community bake oven. That took time, and skill and babued yeast.
Instead, on the move, in a hurry, and going it alone, the quick bread, the Johhny cake, the pancake and the biscuit were all more practical (if not basically the same darn thing.)
This isn't the entire reason American Bread is like "that", but it's about half of it. Come along, and hear the roots of some American habits and lore.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
This is NSFW or small children. You know the drill.
If you want to get to the end - and to more fun stuff - go check out the regular feed at Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters.
I dunno what is up with this episode, but the comparrisons are flying fast and thick. But what really matters is Greta's synopsis of Romeo & Juliet along with the implication that Toronaga is actually a bit of a Drama Queen and the analysis of Japanese house construction technology.
There's the problem with what happens when you do try to go home again, and what happens when going into the trap is actually the best option. Lots goes down in this Episode of Shogun... and we are here to tell you all about it.
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
So there are a few fish we eat... and a few ways we eat them. Breaded and fried of course, but as sushi, and then baked in the oven or fried on the stove - with this spice mix or that. And that's... that's about it.
But what if I told you that for a time there we at lots of fish in lots of ways. So many that it starts to sound ridiculous.
If you want to hear about all the different ways and the many different fish you could have encountered at the high point of America's fish period, this is the episode for you. Likely far more butter sauces than you thought possible - and far more kinds of fish.
But to peek at America's fishy past, this is where you want to be.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
This is NSFW or small children. You know the drill.
If you want to get to the end - and to more fun stuff - go check out the regular feed at Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters.
Curious George should have taught us - be wary of the man in the unusual hat. But we just won't learn.
Good stories, expert kneeling and why does everyone feel the need to share their relationship woes in the midst of the most tenuous moments?
Kilingon revelations & more Zombie Buntaro for all of us to enjoy,
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
If we are ever going to cryogeneically preserve humans, we have got to learn a lot more about Oyster Liquor. Sci-Fi aside, come along and discover how much 19th cenurty America - not just American food is built upon the oyster harvest. Everybody everywhere was eating them - by the barrel and bucket full. It was common to find recipes that blithely started with a gallon of oysters or a hundred oysters. Can you imagine?
I can't.
But follow along with Thomas G Downing as he builds his fortune and America starts to grow up with the sale of oysters for lunch and as an export food.
If you're exporting to New Jersey, you might as well head out into the world.
It's oyster time in America.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
As long as you know... ehhhhh not so safe for work. But this means something even when there's no ep this week!
TIme to do the WAR!
And come join us over on Prizefighters, Circusfreaks & Gangsters - so you can get to the end of the series!
Join us to find out WHO IS CORRECT!
Jamie says there's no fighting this episode.
Greta says there's lots of fighting - you just have to listen for it.
And then there's the whole thing where we discuss just how bad the YA Movies of the 1980's & 1990's screwed up the sexes abilities to ya' know... talk to one another.
Join us for this, and some music memories.
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
Look for us weekly and on Instagram & Threads: @pcgpodcast
Is it just too hot? Then come along for this talk about Frostbite by Nicola Twilley on the history & future of refrigeration.
You can read up on some outtakes and extra stuff at the blog: https://www.ediblegeography.com/
And order your own copy of the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/551601/frostbite-by-nicola-twilley/
Of course, if you have your favorite local bookshop - buy one there.
If you’d like more Nicola Twilley, you can see her on her book tour - details here: https://www.nicolatwilley.com/events/
or catch more interviews with her here: https://www.nicolatwilley.com/frostbite/
Some come along, and listen to thoughts on ThermoKing, and learn about my emerging Grand Unified Theory of American Food.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
Histroy Cookbook you say?
Check out The History of the World in 10 Dinners by Victoria Flexner & Jey Reifel
to figure out how to make your dinner table a time machine. Appreciate how we can travel through time and space through the grocery store & our refrigerators. And give thanks for the wire whisk while you're at it.
-----------
ICE! How did we ever get by without it? Well, turns out some people never really had to do without if they had enough money. But for the little people - especially in the English speaking world, it took until the 19th century for icy treats to move out into the masses. Not a lot - but it was a start.
And cool spaces for The People (rather than The Leaders) would only take off from there. Becasue at the same time the Ice King was making deliveries world wide - the power of cold was coming under human control.
Come check out the earliest days of refrigerated America.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
Now that America is on the road to getting involved with the world and becoming a mechanical, industrial company, it's time to ramp up salt production and get in on the chemical revolution.
It's not just salt that matters but all the associated sodium compounds or sodas.
So it's a turn about the kitchen chemistry kit, an explanation of where they all work - and the arrival of actual modern baking soda - and how it, and the new modern food systems made the modern coffee cake happen.
So get salty - if you don't stay salty.
Salt Potatoes Recipe:
1 gallon/4L Water
1 Cup/ 150g salt
3 lbs little potatoes - SKIN ON & unpunctured
Butter or Sour cream etc. & herbs
Dissolve salt, pop in the potatoes, bring to a boil - simmer about 30 min. Until potatoes are good to eat. Drain in a colander. Eat with metled butter or sour cream and herbs. No extra salt needed.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
As long as you know... ehhhhh not so safe for work. But this means something even when there's no ep this week!
But Let's go earthquakes.
And come join us over on Prizefighters, Circusfreaks & Gangsters - so you can get to the end of the series!
---
What show can bring you managerial manipulation, whispers of medival animal cruelty, zombie family insights and pheasant fetishization?
Shogun of course - and as always with phenominal costumes and nice views of some of the behind the scenes that are required to run the world. As in... have you ever tried to get rabbit blood out of a bamboo cutting board without Dawn Dish Soap?
If any of this sounds like fun to you, jump in the palanquin and come along for the adventure.
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
Look for us weekly and on Instagram & Threads: @pcgpodcast
Corn is so hot right now. No other crop even comes close in the 19th century.
This week corn grows up and shows up everywhere but on the fanciest of tables. It's mush, it's booze, it's pork & beef and butter... and fancy pleated collars.
But wait, there's more! It was important in the Napoleonic Wars, and the power shifts in Ireland. And ithelped drive America's first major economic depression. Pretty powerful for a little grain.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
I have an ENOURMOUS back catalog. Get in there.
But for the future, I have plans for about 10 seasons. To make sure I don't absolutely turn myself into a quivering lump of jelly, structures of reasonable dimensions have been put in place to keep this baby rolling along.
Every other week baby!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
Heads up! NSFW, Not E for Everyone. Think - F for Fun
Want to get more of the Shogun?
Head over to Prizefighters, Circusfreaks & Gangsters - we're up to Ep 7!
BUt in the meantime... you can just sit back and listen to us take apart and give context to 17th Century Japan.
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
Look for us weekly and on Instagram & Threads: @pcgpodcast
It's officially the appearance of the Mason. Jar in American Food.
You get to learn about how lack. of child labor protections made it possible, and how inventing stuff in the food preservation doesn't seem to make you rich.
Learnn about how water power made inventing metal stuff possible, and how important the screw is to the development of American food.
And learn how they way humans fight wars and travel the earth has never been the same since the introduction of canned and jarred food
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood
(Want more Shogun? - jump over here to Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters - shortcut: PCG)
Silly me, I thought I could encompass the whole can and glass jar thing in one episode. I was wrong.
Instead this episode talks about early bottling, the introduction of canning and how it was used in the early 19th century. And there's lots of talk about botulinum toxin and botulism... a fear of my childhood, but a cosmetic procedure today. Who knew?
So to learn about the steps that lead to canned food coming in glass jars - tune in!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Heads up! NSFW, Not E for Everyone. Think - F for Fun
Look you guys... Ep 4 & Ep 5 are already up on the other feed. No need to wait!
I'm super glad you are digging this bonus content.
If you want more just subscribe to the main
Prizefighters Circus Freak & Gangsters Podcast
We are like this ALL the time, and you get to learn ALL the new stuff - ok all the new stuff about the old stuff.
Come enjoy it all.
As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)
Look for us weekly and on Instagram & Threads: @pcgpodcast
(Want more Shogun? - jump over here to Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters - shortcut: PCG)
This week it’s glass - a history.
We talk sand (SAND!) fire, volcanos and sharp things. Minerals, amorphous materials and how glass is a solid and not even a little a liquid.
What was glass before it was windows - or even see through? And how badly did the early Americans want glass? Bad enough that they lured European glass makers here - with the promise of plenty of fuel, plenty of sand (SAND!) and an apparently forever growing market. Along with slightly less hard work with the promise of mechanization.
So stand back, but look on at the shiny hot stuff and learn some facts about the history of glass.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Does war make people innovate? Sure sometimes, but profit and shortages can often do more.
In this case, Mercantilist sentiments crossed with Napoleon losing wars and causing a big ol' blockade by the British didn't hurt.
This week sugar and sweeteners grow! It's not just all sugar anymore. Corn syrup appears. The sugar beet is made real.
For the video where that either nostalgic OR brnad new sugar beet ditty comes from... here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuZNSGdg2ms
I'll be sending out a toffee recipe in the socials as soon as I get myself together. Moving house and all that!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Heads up! NSFW, Not E for Everyone. Think - F for Fun
OK - Episode 1 of Shogun... A bunch of you tuned in.
I have SACRIFICED my CLEAN rating on Apple Podcasts for this.
So here's Ep 2
Come on over to Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters to hear Episode 3 of Shogun... Today!
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
You Tube Music
Spreaker
This only get's messier. And after this episode (Ep 3 available now) the sound gets fixed.
It's the 19th Century and the whole show is about to change - and it's Iron that makes it possible. How we cook, how we get around and what is going to be available to even make food out of.
With a mysterious detour through why calculus is important, find out how Iron and American food continue to be absolutely inextricable.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
For those of you looking for the Shōgun review - the unhinged 19th Century - and our take on it at Prizefighters Circus Freaks & Gangsters is what you are looking for… even though not technically the 19th century.
Want to visit the Oregon Trail - here’s the link I promised: https://www.nps.gov/oreg/index.htm
And for Old American Food - you are in the right place. The 19th Century - it’s braggadocio, optimism and hopefulness, plus a certain sprinkling of constructive narcissism... honestly is more representative of the American Spirit as we know it today than almost anything that happened in the 18th century.
As a warning and a warm up, this week’s episode takes you through just how much and how far I have to go to encompass 1800 to 1861 - the start of the American civil war.
Jump in, and buckle up. The loop de loops are coming.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Heads up! NSFW, Not E for Everyone. Think - F for Fun
It is KILLING me that I get featured while on a research break!
I mean yes - head for the back catalog... but if you are a "what's new" kinda listener I gotta let you have something.
So - for fun, here's a crossover episode from my other podcast -
Prizefighters, Circusfreaks & Gangsters - which is mainly about the mayhem that was the 19th century in America and the hot nonsense that is most of the media that depicts the 19th Century in America. Food, Fashion, Fighting and Fraud - and then as we go on... a whole bunch of other F's
So of course, I'm posting a special episode that covers media that's about the 17th century (wrong time) and Japan (wrong place!)
But if you are interested at all in the show Shogun, or why the 19th century is as riotous as it is - and what it's busting up - come in for a listen.
-------
Shogun - The Mini Series - The Reboot
How, you ask, can we justify leaping all the way back to the 17th Century in a 19th Century podcast? Tune in and find out.
But also - the perils & hilarity of reading the source material are revealed.Who'd face blind?Why do the Japanese interiors look so cool?Find out who has the best beard!
They're aren't many fights - but there's plenty of all the other F's!Come for the standard stuff, but stay for the detours.
And go enjoy the stylish as hell show.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)&Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)Look for us weekly and on Instagram & Threads: @pcgpodcast
The 19th Century - when America starts to really take shape as the America we recognize (more or less) today. It starts to be more diverse - and gets mad about it right away.
The cold chain starts here. Food miles start here. Jars of strawberry jam starts here.
The 19th century up to 1861 holds so much of what made America not the rest of the world - and also started to absorb influences from the rest of the world.
America really gets moving - so don't miss the train.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
End of Season 3
Hot Take - American food is the way it is becasue we became obsessed with enough food - more food just as we were becomeing a country. How do we feed ourselves well, and then how do we make money feeding everybody else.
For much of the rest of the world - food was identity, survival, a way of life and celebration. For America food was how you got things done, got places and got paid.
This leads to very different attitudes and outcomes when it comes to food.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Well here's a weird little detour for you - not food exactly, but ingested by early Americans all the same. Not so much by soldiers and adventurers on the road - but often when they were let on leave - especially if they were rich.
Lots of people were doing lots more drugs in early America than I thought - but in different ways and by different folks than I expected. Little old rich ladies were the most common opium addicts? Who knew? Me now.
And American and European medicine had little interest in anasthesia apparently. Wild.
Just whatever you do - don't get hurt on the battlefield. Dodge or die seemed to be the preferred modes. Because everything hurt, and unless you were really rich, or really lucky, it stayed that way.
Book! The African Roots of Marijuana by Chris S. Duvall
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
How hard drinking were the American soldiers and adventurers? Far far less than you might think. Yeah, sure they went nuts on leave, or when they got left alone in a cellar full of brandy - but that's only because it was mostly water most of the time.
How come you ask? Well, this whole episode is here to answer your questions.
Drink Up!
oh - and read up on the Fresnel Lens
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Who gets to eat wild meat on campaign?
It depends on the type, how big and how long. The answer of course ranges from everyone to almost noone and always to almost never. Of course.
So here are all the links I promised!
The Old Fort at Fort Wayne, Indiana
A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry:
Foraging
On The Move
Maximum Effort, Minimum Reward
Single Donkey Physics
Undaunted Courage by Stephan Ambrose
The Corps of Discovery Journal - online
That NPS Interactive Map of the Lewis & Clark Trail
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Come try Prizefighters, Circusfreaks & Gangsters!
But if that's too much adventure, come along and learn about the war that happened around pemmican.
Sure, just drop your colony on top of other people's lives - what's the problem? Sure, sending under prepared colonists with not enough food into a pretty tight food economy is going to be dicey, but how bad could it get? War bad my friends. War bad.
But as far as my little history brain is concerned - this is the first real big energy war of the Americas. Come see what I mean.
in the meantime - links I promised:
Modern beadwork - Modern beading in Vogue Magazine
Modern Beadwork Exhibits
Hudson's Bay Blankets - https://www.hbcheritage.ca/things/fashion-pop/hbc-point-blanket
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
In these years of war and adventure - American Military Rations were invented. And they rested squarely on barrels of salted meat.
Just like today much of the ration went to soldiers hanging out in forts or camps waiting for something to happen.
But unlike today - another big chunk of rations went to just getting soldiers to where they were gonna fight.
Marching soldiers to where they're going to do battle in today's modern army takes up much less of the food pile than it used to. No more 2 - 5 month crossings of the Atlantic. Now we know at least within a day when the troops will get somewhere. And dang if the maps aren't better and the rations lighter and much, much tastier.
To hear all about the challenges of supplying your late 18th century and early 19th century army or adventure squad, come along for this LONG DELAYED episode.
Sorry about that... and glad to be back!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
No wood - no fuel - no food
In war an adventure that was usually the first and last word.
Whether stuck at winter quarters in Valley Forge (and check out these cool Earthen Camp Kitchens - paper is at the link.)
Or on the trail with Lewis and Clark
Wood to cook the food to keep the whole adventure going could be the make or break of the whole affair.
But wood also shaped the international aspects of early food - in the shipping that was built on our shores with the big giant trees that were available. How we got our luxuries, and how we imported labor. The boats - mainly the fast boats built in America were essential for how American food was going to shape itself.
Ah yes - and the containers. Wood was essential for containers - not just barrels but for the fuel to make iron, pottery and glass
OH - and yes - go read _The Black Joke_ by A.E. Rooks
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Sorry 'bout that!
Anyway - we are back... and it's time to thing about the starchy vegetables that star in our holiday recipes. And to make you greatful that mashed potatoes today... are what they are!
But it's also a chance to think about - how much work bread really is, and what we would use to take it's place.
No candied yams here kids, and no pumpkin pie at war. But maybe it's time to reconsider our looking down on the potatoes - both kinds. And find new (old) ways of eating squashes.
Also check out:
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (we swear... we laugh, we tease, it's fun)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
This might be one of my only, and definitely the most forceful hot take I've had so far:
The variety of food depends almost entirely on the vegetables - well the plant foods. After all, there are only so many ways to cook meat - roast, boil, fry, braise... all the interesting flavors come from the plant additions.
But also - going on the move, and the "hurry up" of American culture made our food bland.
Not everyone in new America had bland food, but note, they stayed in place!
Pawpaw & sweet corn pudding vs. baked beans. I ask you...
Books by William Woys Weaver:
The Christmas Cook: Three Centuries of American Yuletide Sweets
Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking
American Eats: Forms of Edible Folk Art
Sauerkraut Yankees
Country Scrapple: An American Tradition
Videos on Typical Early American Diets via Townsends:
The Poor Hunter
The Poor Fronteirsman
The Poor Farmer
The Poor Sailor
The Poor Soldier
Also check out:
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (we swear... we laugh, we tease, it's fun)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
After rubbing shoulders all the time in prisons, in towns, or on land owned by a Lord or The Church - getting out there in the great wide open skies was startling for people.
But even more startling were just how many birds there were. Sometimes too many birds! How can there be such a thing?
To find out what was up with birds, and what was making it to the early American table - when we mostly weren't keeping chickens for meat - for really good reasons, listen along.
Also check out:
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (we swear... we laugh, we tease, it's fun)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Listen to me more!
Intelligent Speech Online 2023 where I talk about the 4 W's of Butter Substitutes - Talk with other people about the Contigency Plans for Women & even more stuff!
Come check it out on Saturday November 4th
My Discount Code is: Food
Do Americans eat rabbit? Or did they? And if so, where are all th rabbit recipes?
Well they do and they did, but no - they didn't seem to write it down. What gives?
And why don't retrospective and history looking cookery books tend to mention rabbit?
And just for fun, I go over what's the difference between a rabbit and a hare. And in the process explain how hjackass is a word.
Also check out:
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (we swear... we laugh, we tease, it's fun)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Listen to me more!
Intelligent Speech Online 2023 where I talk about the 4 W's of Butter Substitutes - Talk with other people about the Contigency Plans for Women & even more stuff!
Come check it out on Saturday November 4th
My Discount Code is: Food
What's the difference between a Smuggler, a Pirate & a Privateer? How do Slavers fit into this lot? And what exactly do they have to do with American Food of the past - or advertisements for Truffle Burgers now?
As always I'm here to pose and answer purposterous questions. Grab your hot cocoa and candied orange peel and listen up.
Cool Books -
_The Black Joke_ by A.E. Rooks
_The Nutmeg's Curse_ by Amitav Ghosh
Also check out:
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (we swear... we laugh, we tease, it's fun)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Listen to me more!
Intelligent Speech Online 2023 where I talk about the 4 W's of Butter Substitutes - Talk with other people about the Contigency Plans for Women & even more stuff!
Come check it out on Saturday November 4th
My Coupon code is: Food
This week I look into the question of what was Gumbo and what was Jambalaya at the time America bought themselves a new port city... that was actually pretty old.
What did Gumbo look like, and what were it's roots? And was it always served with rice.
And what's the story on Jambalaya? Where did it come from - especially if... wait isn't rice real fancy?
I answer these questions and more.
Also check out:
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (we swear... we laugh, w tease, it's fun)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Listen to me more!
Intelligent Speech Online 2023 where I talk about the 4 W's of Butter Substitutes
My Coupon code is: Food
We apparently love a competition show - so how America got Louisiana is right in there - soap opera slap fights and all.
But really - this is a lead up to what we need to know to learn about the beginnings of gumbo - next week - and why the rest of the country didn't flavor up their stews with gumbo goodness with the absorbtion of La Louisiane.
Frankly - the idea of a spice blend in most American Cookery - way WAY too much flavor.
So to get the dirt on why Napoleon was doomed as head of state - and what that has to do with our food journey jump in!
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (we swear... we laugh, w tease, it's fun)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Holy Moly! Episode 100! I'm here!
What does that mean? Not sure except I'm not so bad at this and will keep going. So keep up.
Listen to me more!
Intelligent Speech Online 2023 where I talk about the 4 W's of Butter Substitutes
My Coupon code is: Food
This week - Oysters! And some how, why spoons will out your social class. Or at least once they did.
Anyway - can you be an late18th century or early 19th century soldier on the move and still get an oyster stew? Often yes. Especially when the march is The Worst through the swamps.
But if you're inland - no oysters with your adventure.
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (we swear... we laugh, w tease, it's fun)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Listen to me more!
Intelligent Speech Online 2023 where I talk about the 4 W's of Butter Substitutes
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (and it's much more fun)
Rice is a Fine & Fancy Food at this time.
So rice as food of War & Adventure... not so much.
But the limiting of the usual overseas markets due to overseas chaos meant that rice was entering the American pantry all the same. It's just that... well, how do you use rice?
To find out how they did it, come along.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Listen to me more!
Intelligent Speech Online 2023 where I talke about the 4 W's of Butter Substitutes
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (and it's much more fun)
Salt.
I don't feel like I'm talking too far out of turn to say I'm feeling salty about the way modern treatment of the natural world is going.
Butt if you are curious about how salt lived in the18th century - and on the road for war and adventure -
Well - Listen UP!
I will talk to you about that.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Listen to me more!
Intelligent Speech Online 2023 where I talke about the 4 W's of Butter Substitutes
Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters! There's Fighting, Food, Fashion & Fraud (and it's much more fun)
Come along as I talk about what we did in early America as we were doing war and conquest that set us up for far fewer fish.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
BlueSky: THoAFood.bsky.social
Wheat goes on the road
More Americans than ever can get wheat in this period. It's also an old school demonstration of the supply and demand ideas when stuff was made for people actually consume.
The most fun - learn why wheat beer and wheat whiskey was a New Idea to Americans in the 20th century.
The least fun - learn why sailors ate their hard bread in the dark.
Have some apple brandy, and hear about all the ways you could consume wheat flour that wasn't bread in this period - especially if you were on the road.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
BlueSky: THoAFood.bsky.social
As Europeans and their decendents the Earliest Americans desired, loved and craved bread. But with wheat being a tough go generally at these early stages, the whole in their grain loving hearts was filled by corn.
So when it was time to leave home and go to war, or just on adventure, corn came with them as well. As cornbread - sure - but that was actually pretty uncommon. Instead puddings, porridges and as parched corn was much more likely.
Find out why cornmeal now needs wheat flour to hold together (bad) but doesn't go rancid in three month or less (good).
And Corn Whiskey is back - feeding the troops and calming them down when food is short.
Corn for all seasons - even when not at home.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
BlueSky: THoAFood.bsky.social
Sugar is sugar... right?
Not so much. I mean, the sugar everyone cares about it cane sugar, but honey and maple syrup & sugar are also playing a role at this point.
And then war. War gets in the way of everything, especially when you end up in a war with the country supplying you most of your sugar.
Twice!
And then there's a whole seperate revolutioin on the other place you are getting your sugar from.
1776 - 1815 were certainly fraught years for sugar in the brand new United States.
Come find out how.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
BlueSky: THoAFood.bsky.social
Three iron innovations that made a difference during this age - two on the battle front, and one in people's homes.
With furnaces and forges both up and running - and expanding to meet the insatiable appitite for iron, iron workers had to eat as well.
Food, wood and water - all plentiful in this new country - they made American iron cheaper than it had ever been.
Also for fun - some facts about Valley Forge. Mainly why it was called that, and why it was a good place for winter quarters for the Continental Army.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
BlueSky: THoAFood.bsky.social
Why so much Iron America?
Well, it has to do with the stars, and I'll explaon why. But I'll also spend time going over how American Iron - and most Iron from the Age of Sail until the 20th Century was made - Charcoal Fired Blast Furnaces!
Read enough on iron - and one gets very frustrated with not understanding the common terminology used around it. I've broken it down to the important basics so you can understand it to. Becasue iron will not stop being important to American food - coming 1st - so we can fight wars. Coming 2nd and soon - railroads!
And then refrigeration and then gasoline engines and trucks and metal framed buildings that hold our grocery stores. It's inescapable, so let's take a look at the tech.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
BlueSky: THoAFood.bsky.social
Now that American food is actually American food, we egeet to talk about the food as America starts to sort out what it wants to be.
The first answer is, BIGGER!
And in order to do that the country has to break away - war #1 - and then kick the parent country to show that they aree big boy now - war #2 - and then continue to push the borders of the infant countryinto the lands of other nations - wars #3 to n+1.
How American food adapted to all this expansion and fighting will be the center of season 3. But we also geet Gumbo, so that's good.
Hop onto the Season 3 Mule Train and lets go see the new country.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
BlueSky: THoAFood.bsky.social
Still up to my ears in military history, food logistics, the end of the age of Fighting Sail (so C.S. Forester) and so very much sugar. That's right - Season 3 is on it's way.
But that's not all - I'm up to new stuff in more places. Check it out!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
BlueSky: THoAFood.bsky.social
Done with only England
Done with Great Britain
At last we are going to be - AMERICA!
That whole transition is going to be So Messy.
Time to look back on what's changed over the last season and century - what it all means for a daily meal (meat, so much more meat! and from the farm)
There are forks now. More people get to have their own plates and cups. Not everyone drinks beer for breakfast. Now you can also choose from tea, herbal tea or whiskey. Its a change.
Subscribe so you know about bonus episodes, and when I get back on the air.
See you in August!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads@THoAFood
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
BlueSky: THoAFood.bsky.social
Let's Go Outside and look at all the jobs out there that helped the 18th Century food-o-verse go around.
While not every job outside the home was food related in the 18th century - quite a few of them were. I take you through Grain, Livestock, Fish, Sugar, Iron and Wood. There's a detour through buldings and even a shoutout to the American McMansion.
Lots of fun pictures this week.
McMansion Hell: The Faux quarried blocks look - https://mcmansionhell.com/post/707909502449614849/every-small-city-has-that-one-dictator-chic-house
Fieldstone:
Newport Tower -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_Tower_(Rhode_Island)
Grove Park Inn -
https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/dining/great-hall-bar
All the old northern European style buildings in America are made of wood:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_buildings_in_the_United_States
Omohundro Institute: https://oieahc.wm.edu/
Ben Franklin's World: https://benfranklinsworld.com/
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Send in your Questions! Chemistry Class for food is back and this time it is protein. Again, no tests and no homework.
Fascinating Topics Addressed:
Why amino acids are called that;
Where protein as a substance was identified in chemistry experiments;
What a peptide bond is;
Why proteins inspire micro manufacturing;
Can you survive only eating aminos - but no proteins;
How we get energy from protein;
And I say primordial ooze.
As always - you can catch the Dinosaur Neil Episode of the The Tick here: "Don't eat in the Lab or you might turn into a Dinosaur!" References - The Tick v. Dinosaur Neil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8HxakmkWU
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com Twitter: @THoAFood Instagram: @THoAFood
Shout out to the National Park Service! Hallowell Furnace is a beautiful spot all full of history.
So what does it take to run an 18th century house - inside?
Who does the work? (and how glad am I to live in the. age of not just running water - but hot running water?)
It's women and children working on the household jobs - find out what kind of women and children. But mostly - an update on the orphan situation.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Deep Fat Frying has come to the North American British colonies... how far away could the French fry be?
Not the question I'm answering. Not yet. Instead, it's a look at the arrival of savory deep fried food in (pre) America. What are it's roots, and how it came from a different place than sweet fried foods.
Incredible.
And why fried foods were a bigger thing in the south east than everywhere else in the country before the railroad showed up and scrambled everything up.
Oh! Check out these pictures of the ridiculously huge oil bean seeds (plus a recipe for using them):
https://ounjealadun.com/2022/10/25/ofe-ugba/
Send in Qestions for the End of Season 2 show in just 3 (or maybe 4) weeks!
Interested in @notyourmommashistory (insta) Cheyney McKnight or #letstalkaboutslavery ?
Find her on fb Not Your Mommas History, gmail; notyourmommashistory@gmail.com or http://www.notyourmommashistory.com/
See how to really use a spider.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Time to send me question for the end of Season 2 question show!
Getting around the colonies.
South of the Mason-Dixon Line, there is way more water transport than I had realized. Which lead to fewer roads and more little trails than I expected. And the political philosophies tied up in why it was that way go deeper than I ever knew.
So yes, there's discussion of roads or no roads - but we end up a little bit in the political philosophy weeds.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Tell me about your local library or history resource!
Round 2: Her Half of History - written and presented by Lori Davis
https://herhalfofhistory.com/
This week - how did stuff get around the colonies, and back out into the world?
Why were port cities the only big cities?
Were they all the same? Who did what where?
For part one of the answer join me this week to see why food export was not the game north of the Mason-Dixon line. Also learn just how old that line was, and how petty the reason for its existence was.
The philosophy of the these colonies was markedly different from that of most of their southern neighbors. Find out how this week. And I'll wrap this all up next week - including how weird North Carolina was.
And send me your questions for the end of season question show!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Tell me about your local library or history resource!
Round 1: Kelsey Creek Farm - sheep shearing, farm life and animal care
https://bellevuewa.gov/city-government/departments/parks/community-centers/kelsey-creek-farm/visiting-the-farm
Looking for a great Spring Dish - that's mostly greens and herbs... with just aenough egg to hold it all together? Kuku Sabzi:
http://persianfoodtours.com/kuku-sabzi-persian-herb-frittata/ (you can sub dried cranberries – as lightly sweetened as you can find them or unsweetened – for the barberries if you can’t find those.)
Look - Americans don't forage. Or we don't forage much. Or we pay for other people to forage.
Why have we lost to knack of it? Well, we've been working to make foraging weird or only for profit, and no longer for fun - for centuries as this point.
Anyway - look up local foraging books AT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY!
or follow @BlackForager on the Insta
and join your local mushroom club.
And send me your questions for the end of season question show!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Pemmican Week - Part 1 - the intro. (Part 2 comes in a later season)
It’s a favorite food for a variety of American Fad diets that cost a lot to follow. Yet it has a skilled and knowledge filled past, along with its own origin story.
Learn what pemmican is, why we call it that, and some wicked foreshadowing as you learn how it’s about to turn the prairies of the Americas upside down.
Oh yeah, and I make a wild leap of logic about the sexism of European translation of the Cree language. I sure know how to provide fun party conversation ideas.
Anyway, learn about salmon pemmican and the origin of modern American Army C-rations, if not MRE’s.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
This week I deal pretty frankly with the facts of turning animals into food. There is a little discussion of blood and guts - and how removing them from an animal transformed it from a dead animal into meat - that is, food.
These are essential transformations we don’t think about much - but they are unavoidable steps if you are going to eat meat. ANd it is a lot of work we almost never see anymore.
Beyond that - it’s a look at what animals most people were eating most of the time. And what circumstances helped arrange things that way.
In other words, yes, another episode of lists of animals.
The two cool books:
US History in 15 Foods by Anna Zeide
The Larder - Edited by by John T. Edge, Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt & Ted Ownby
This week the essay, “Bodies of the Dead” by Wiley C. Prewitt Jr. was particularly useful
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
I love coffee and I love sugar (and tea and chocolate for the record). This is clearly a typical human response. I am also unhappy about their history and their present conditions of production.
This episode is dedicated to understanding the history & why I think these things are luxuries - and should be somewhat condiered so - but also that treating the people producing them will not only make ALL our lives better but preserve the agricultural health of the planet.
Seriously - good working conditions for agricultural labor only makes all human life better. It ain't bad for the animals either.
Anyway - hit me up if you are playing around with coffee cherry products.
FYI - Here's one translation of Bernardin St. Pierre's Diary. I was not making it up:
https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0088/ch1-32.xhtml
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
If for no other reason, listen this week to hear me say "Worcestershire" while looking at the word.
This week it's ketchup - and what it was before tomatoes got involved. You'll learn about the history, and find out about all sorts of sauces that can reasonably stand in for the 18th century no sugar versions.
A link so you can make your own:
Towndends - How to Make Mushroom Ketchup - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29u_FejNuks
Links to some podcasts that go deep on Fish Sauce - if you you're interested:
Unchefed: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unchefed/id1578898329?i=1000563764347
Gastropod: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gastropod/id918896288?i=1000570523345
All those sauces I mentioned:
Mushroom Soy Sauce - https://umamicart.com/products/lkk-mushroom-dark-soy-sauce
Oyster Soy Sauce - https://japanesetaste.com/products/asamurasaki-natural-oyster-soy-sauce-600ml
Salsa Lizano - https://www.amazon.com/Lizano-Salsa-Sauce-23-7/dp/B078FHCJG7
Kitchen Bouquet - https://www.hiddenvalleykitchens.com/products/kitchen-bouquet/browning-seasoning-sauce/
Gravy Master - https://myflavormaster.com/
HP Sauce - https://www.hpsauce.co.uk/
Maggi Seasoning - https://www.nestleprofessional.us/maggi/maggi-seasoning-6-x-27-fluid-ounces
Knorr Liquid Seasoning - https://www.knorr.com/ph/knorr-products/knorr-liquid-seasoning/knorr-liquid-seasoning.html
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
This week it's fruit's turn, and time to learn which fruits are locals, which are imports and how they got to North America, and into the colonial pantry.
We glance briefly at fruits we've covered, mention familiar imports and look at the known locals - cranberries & blueberries and the surprise - strawberries!
Then we examine the famous imports - tomatoes, melons and chilies and see where they came from and how they got here. I spend time pondering how the eggplant may have determined who liked tomatoes first. And why watermelon with chili and lime is a fusion food we need to thank Mexico for putting together.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
All the "normal" colonial vegetables were foreign. Or they were imports anyway. Except for the famous ones - pumpkins (which are a fruit) and corn (which is a grain - mostly). But what is up with potatoes?
All about potatoes - both kinds - and the general inability for English people to come up with useful descriptive clearly definative names for new stuff.
Alsp how the Incan potato and the sweet potato did a complete status switcharoo in the colonies, and how pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie are the first American successes at fusion food.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Turns out colonists were making mixed drinks in America... before there was America, or cocktails (officially). Some were elborate and required prep-work (syllabub, cherry bounce), some were super familliar (whiskey Tod?), and some were just a shot and a beer - but together - probobly.
If you want to know what the equivalent of rolling up to the bar and asking for a Jack and Coke in the days before either of those existed, stop in for a listen.
And yes - the Mint Julep is older than America, but not the version with chipped ice. That's later.
If you want to hear me do a bad job of pronouncing Portuguese, this is also your chance. Aguardente.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
THe 17th century was the age of Rum. The 18th century has a new fighter, Whisky or Whiskey - choose your spelling.
How is happened, and where it was most important are all explored. There's some brandy and such, but these other things aren't as important, and don't shape the economic futiure the way whiskey and rum do.
This week follow their adventures - you'll have to wait for next week to learn about all the mixed drinks - tasty and otherwise of the age.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Was there wine in the North American British Colonies?
No, but yes. There was pricey imported wine, and there were also other fruit wines - including stuff made from some of the American grapes.
But no one was selling wine, and definitely no one was exporting any.
All the reasons why, and the most maddening bug in the wine world all get described.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Horses - it's an issue we've basically used the whole country and most of history to run away from. Find out how the American horse problem started - and far we have not come in 300 years.
Also - does your town have a Race St? FInd out why today!
I'm not going to solve the American Horse problem, but I hope you can be more thoughtful about it - and maybe then you can solve it?
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Eggs & Chickens
In the 18th century eggs made practical and fancy food (cake!). Chickens made fancy food. Or at least special occasion food. If you wanted bird meat, you usually ate it wild.
Chickens on the other hand were always underfoot. They were just there. Until it was time to develop the fancy chicken. Hear all about how the rising demand for more art, and the changing economics of paintings lead to lots and lots of chicken art!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Hey!
Hey, Guess what?
Did you know that pigs have many names... and many fats. No, please. Wait. Don't run away from me. I'm really here to talk about dental health and delcious sausages. Does this sound like a strange pairing. You migh be correct.
Anyway. I just got back from a Boucherie. For the 5th time, so maybe that's a lame excuse. Really, what I'm trying to say is there is no modern American breakfast without piggies. Ask me how. I dare you? No I mean that nicely. I have sausages I desperately want you to like!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
This week we are about to lose an original member off the leader board.
But before the pumpkin slips away for a few seasons, I'll share with you why American food pumpkin dishes are so boring, despite this country being the home of the pumpkin, plus another slightly terrifying but very surprising fact.
So enjoy!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
Well, well, well. Still not eating whale are we? Why in the heck are you talking about whale in a food podcast then? Turns out the global trade that lead to the pelagic (open ocean) whaling trade is a follow on of the "food for sea" in development.
The same thinking about food in action (travel food) will become essential to soon-future-America's expansionist and war dreams (not always different).
Anyway - reading at night used to smell like whale oil... if you were lucky.
Look at that glow of your phone a bit differently my friend.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Post: @THoAFood
This week one of my cats makes his debut in sound design. His playing about in the closet makes me it seem as if I have Very Strong Feelings about trends in rich people food.
But mostly this is a look into the past of large-whale eating on a global scale up until about the 18th century. There are also surprises around how long it took Europeans to agree that whales are not fish. The pre-modern relationship to fat comes in to play - when you are most of your own heating source for most of the day, consuming fat has a different purposefulness.
And I spend a fair amount of time sorting out why most Americans have probobly never met anyone who knows what whale meat tastes like.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
OK - No regular episode, just a bonus one. But the season of Misrule is just going to do that to us here in the 18th Century. It's kindof a chemistry class - but worry not - no tests and no homework.
This feels like a timely episode for those of us in the snow belt, since it helps you understand why salting the sidewalk prevents ice. But mainly I take the long way - through fire and dynamite - to explain why you make ice from water by causing already frozen ice to melt using salt.
Chemical bonds are interesting little things, and the phase changes of matter are strange places where energy exchange can cause things to happen that don't make sense at the human scale.
Oh - and snowflakes have six sides becase of the bent shape of water molecules - and the fact that they have a negative middle and positive ends.
All sorts of tiny trivia that will make the mundane ice - water - steam cycle seem interesting and possibly dangerous. Or at least inspire you to use hotpads in the kitchen.
As always - you can catch the Dinosaur Neil Episode of the The Tick here:
"Don't eat in the Lab or you might turn into a Dinosaur!" References - The Tick v. Dinosaur Neil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8HxakmkWU
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Deer are really cute. Well baby deer are cute. We've been making pictures of them for ages. We've been making pants and shoes and stuff of deer generally for even longer though. And while people generally agree that deer are darn tasty, Americans continue to regard them as either exotic meat or food for the fancy rich or the rustic poor - but never everyday food for normal people. Not for regular Americans on a regular basis anyway.
Some of the the why may lie in the 18th century colonial adventures with deer.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Wood continues to do it all!
But this time, mainly as charcoal. It makes iron, it ages booze, it's necessary for barbecue, it makes gunpowder.
Charcoal - where did it come from, how does it happen, and a whole list of things it can do.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Wood! It is back, and now it's worth money.
You get to hear about how the iron industry wrecked English wood stocks, the King's Broad Arrow, crusty New Hampshire-ians & the Pine Tree Riot, fancy woodworking and just how there were so many MANY barrels rolling around the New World. Oh and how you can date pictures approximately by looking at the hoops on barrels.
This week the blog will also have really pretty pictures of marquetry - that is - fancy wood inlay.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
I was almost done with this super cool look at wood and charcoal - and then my computer went down. I have to completely rewrite the 6 pages I already had - AHHHHH! Even the outline I wrote for myself went POOF!
But enough doom and gloom. Instead of killing myself, I'm hitting the kitchen to make béchamel and lots of delicious other stuff. And you can revisit my Tour de Turkey.
Plus a blast from the past of 1901.
See you next week - back in my usual form.
------
Finally - the truth comes out. Why is this truly American bird called the name of a country it was never from? And is it true your Thanksgiving turkey came from… 16th century Mexico, and not New England… at all? And we’ll continue to follow the baffling saga of Colonists taking perfectly good domestic animals and letting them get feral.
All this and more on this week's episode of The History of American Food!
(*cue jaunty synth music from ‘80s evening magazine style show*)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Biscuit Biscuit Biscuit
There are few baking words that can elicit so much general consternation.
Cupcake - maybe? But mostly not since most of the world can agree on cupcake, but biscuit is a word that means so many and yet also some deadly specific things to some people.
How did this mess get stared? I don't claim to have all the answers - but I do have some.
Rock hard - to middle stage to fluffy - I can explain!
So come along, and find out what the heck!
Check out the blog for details. Calm down - it'll be up after Thanksgiving 2022. I'm busy.
Anyway - if this is the future - anytime after Dec 1 2022 - just hit up the blog and all the promised links and recipes are there see below.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Mastadon: @THoAFood@Mastadon.social
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
By the end of the 18th century - we are SO CLOSE to ice cream - but we are not there yet. But I want to set the scene that dessert is becoming a thing, and that all the pieces are there. Sitting there, just waiting to be ice cream.
I mean Jefferson has a recipe in his own hand - likely told to him by his enslaved, Paris trained, French speaking, Black cook, James Hemmings. And George Washington had an ice cream freezer among his presidential party throwing accoutrements - likely used by his masterful enslaved cook - Hercules.
But none of that happens until AFTER the war. This episode is to let you know, ice cream did not come out of thin air. This is the background. Find out what it is!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Mastadon: @THoAFood@Mastadon.social
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Enter the Dairy Maid - or Milk Maid, I'll accept either answer.
They were one of the these groups of women who used to be a skilled worker, but that pesky no being able to sign contracts or own stuff really stifled the ability to do any business beyond work for wages. Funny that.
But in the 18th century and the rise of Dairies as stand alone businesses because there was
A) land to have them
and
B) large bustling cities that worked as a customer base
you could start to get cream skimmed by someone else, summer cream cheese became a thing, and you could even buy a swallow of milk on the street - maybe to cool your fiery palate from that mug of Pepper-Pot Stew you got from the other street vendor.
Oh yeah, and people were noticing that dairy maids were doing better than the general population as a couple of waves of The Smallpox washed through the colonies. What to do about that? Not clear yet.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Mastadon: @THoAFood@Mastadon.social
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
This week the ox stops being fancy food for fancy people and becomes workaday food for city people and sailors alike. But it also became manly party food all at the same time.
I explain why its ox, not cow - but will be cow again.
Here's Bugs Bunny in the Bull Fighting Ring - nostalgia or new? Just watch it. It's all fun.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7yzp40
Not up on yourColonial History of New Spain? Here's a cheat sheet on Coronado - https://www.desertusa.com/desert-trails/coronado-expedition-cibola.html
And one on Oñate (just wikipedia, but hey I have deadlines here) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_de_O%C3%B1ate
And the Boat Stuck reference was to the Ever Forward getting stuck in the Chesapeake in March 2022 (for 5 weeks!). This of course was the sister ship to the notorious Ever Given (or the Evergreen Shipping Lines) that got stuck in the Suez Canal in March 2021. Leading me to be #Team "Beware the Tides of March".
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/03/ever-forward-chesapeake-bay-boat-shipping-supply-chain.html
But the Beefsteak makes it first appearance as do Beefeaters, Paddington Bear & the first appearance of Barbecue.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
So many Links this week!
But great places to visit - a blog, a rice foundation, a shop for all things (many things?) Carib - I admit I'm excited about that one. There's not much Caribbean representation on my Global Shopping Street.
But most exciting of all - the exposure of fakes and the possibility of breaking news!
Rice pretends like its a background player - but it's a drama grain.
A savory calas (rice croquette) recipe: https://www.poppytooker.com/calas
Oh - just look up Poppy Tooker, this a New Orleans name of note. (I know the French are the Enemy right now, but its OK) https://www.poppytooker.com/this-weeks-show
Woah - can no longer find the digital version of the Lucayos Cook Book I snagged. Sloppy of me... and it looks like I have a pirated book! As a work published between 1924 and 1978 - it has a 95 year copyright... So I won't be slapping up a PDF. But! When do my bonus episode, I will be providing extensive recipes as quotations, and you'll definitely get the flavor of it.
In the meantime, a fair selection of smaller University libraries seem to have a copy of those book, so you can check it out.
Modern-ish take on Carolina Snowballs with Turnspit & Table
https://www.turnspitandtable.com/uncategorized/carolina-snowballs-re-do/
Anson Mills - https://www.ansonmills.com/
Get some Carolina Gold - regular rice, or rice grits - https://www.ansonmills.com/products
Carolina Gold Foundation - http://www.thecarolinagoldricefoundation.org/
But you can buy the red rice from Trinidad! Caribshopper:
https://caribshopper.com/blogs/caribshopper-blog/moruga-hill-rice-the-red-grain-with-a-great-story-and-taste
Links to the better red rice information:
Michael Twitty - https://leitesculinaria.com/325844/writings-the-history-of-rice.html
Abena Offeh-Gyimah - https://abenaoffehgyimah.com/blog/oryza-glaberrima-and-the-decline-of-indigenous-african-foods
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
American Rice - Voyage the First
Some of the rice might have started from Asia, but all of it came directly from Africa.
But which side - the West, or from Madagascar?
How from Madagascar - isn't that all the way over on the east side?
Yes to all of this. The who and the when - kindof - are all covered. And learn what a monocot is. You'll have to look up the spelling of cotyledon on your own. Oh wait. You can see how it's spelled there.
But a video to look at Old Colonial or at least Early American rice field sight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3fcEvGmmXE
And check out the blog for Old School Navigation
You have to wait until next week to get the foods - but this week, learn how rice got here.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
For more of Me & Jess talking about Spice
Visit: https://theflakyfoodie.com/
Watch: https://youtu.be/K_2pZ3VhbwQ
Listen: https://theflakyfoodie.com/2022/09/447/
For Juneteenth - https://theflakyfoodie.com/2022/08/19-juneteenth-365-with-nicole-a-taylor-watermelon-redbirds/
Grilled Cheese: https://theflakyfoodie.com/2022/09/21-grilled-cheese-restaurant-impossible-with-tim-of-the-melting-truck/
And Finnish Sandwich Cake: https://theflakyfoodie.com/2022/05/16-finnish-food-sauna-culture-and-more-with-rachael-jukarainen/
This week - cider takes center stage, hip checking beer out of the spotlight. And it comes with opinions on liberty and labor. Carrie Nation will come for cider later, but in the 18th century was the virtuous drink, over wine, brandy, rum and even beer.
Also learn about Apple Jack and how it was different, initially from Apple Brandy.
And whatever you do, don't drink rubbing alcohol.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Beer! It's as American as apple pie. Or maybe its English? Or German? OK - Colonial Beer has a bit of an identity crisis. Can you call it beer if it doesn't even contain malted grain?
Anyway spruce is the trendy thing - or hop tea? Anyway, there's not much dry hopping because the little buggers are expensive, the best way to get the most power out of them is to boil the dickens out of them... right?
Look - lots was going on in 18th century beer. Come along and find out. And discover if you would have been a dirty Royalist hop importer or a rustic home brewer.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
We have the bored rich to blame for tiny little bite size tarts. As busy colonials with outdoor ovens and too many things to do, we made our tarts big - and to go at meal times.
We will, alas have to wait for the coffee cake.
The liver pudding could go in the second course, but honestly, everyone would prefer the marrow pudding.
Even more than that - lets go with the fruit tarts - because that's what the busy cook and the sugar happy colonials want. Like so much spice - complex sweet savory puddings might just be a bit weird.
And check out a recipe for Grape Pie:
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/concord-grape-pie-recipe
Or fancier Grape Tarts - go 1st or 2nd course with this recipe:
https://umamigirl.com/grape-tart/
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Spelling Guide:
PIE & PYE
Sea Pie - the English version with no fish. Fancy or only 2 meats as you will.
Cipaille, Cipâtes (spelling like the filling is up for debate, if not inviting argument) - Quebecois. 3 meats is most common. Regional variations with vegetables and spices or not. Onions almost always.
Six-Pâtes as you will - higher and with more meats is best for that true Louis XIV Sun King feel. An historical curiosity.
Head on over to the blog for nursery rhymes, coffin lids, and spanakopita hand pie recipes.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
America has long been known as a Destination for Innovation. But what if I told you the innovation was ...
a) just editing on the hard work of many individual from many civilizations?
&
b) lots of the hard scut work was done in colonies before there were even was an America?
OK... ok ok there's more to it than that. But it is high time we recognize that sweeping innovations are ALWAYS the result of immersion in the contemporary environment. Sure, some jumps are bigger than others, but no innovation can exist without the thing it is innovating.
There's no boiling water without the recognition of fire and containers.
I'm not saying the best marketer shouldn't get rich - just that all the people assembling the widgets should also have food & shelter & water too!
Mechanized Milling - the start of American Prosperity, but not without problems.
So enjoy your bread - but can we make sure there's bread for all?
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
What a disappointment, beans.
The green bean - the French bean - how this quintessential American food got that name, I'll explain - is the only fancy tasty bean. The rest, and sad stand-ins for when there's no meat.
And since the British diner - at home or in the colonies - doesn't use garlic, except as a cough remedy, it's unlikely they could even enjoy beans.
Except down south, where spiced and smoked pork, the cayan pepper, and rice are all conspiring to bring the black-eyed pea to a good place.
But alas - overall, the 18th century bean is a bummer. No garbanzos, no lentils - but surprise! Soy Beans!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
What better time to explain scurvy (a very gross disease) - than right after my paean to the 18th century orange?
Learn it's causes, what it looks like, how to prevent and how to cure it - including, eat your cabbage!
This is the first in what will be an ongoing series in the diseases of deprivation that haunt us humans. Stay tuned for the greatest hits that includes things like pellagra, rickets and goiter! And become much more grateful for some of the food additives and cooking rules that are part of our daily lives - now that food prep is considered "so easy anyone can do it".
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Orange - a strange word, and important fruit - not just in the kitchen, but as a political symbol as well.
Come hear about it all, and some mythbusting about the origins of marmalade - and the defense of onion marmalade as well.
Link to Townsends recipe for Orange Fool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2AG545WIsg
Link to Orange Syllabub with the Kitchn (I would suggest orange flower water instead of the rose water): https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-orange-syllabub-166177
Feel free to do an orange liqueur tasting! Choose from the very many options.
Cointreau
Triple Sec
Grand Manier
Curaçao (blue or clear - either is fine)
Bols Orange Liqueur
Pierre Ferrand
Gran Gala
DeKuyper
Combier
Clement Creole Shrubb
Naranja Liqueur
and so on...
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Mary Mary, Quite Contrary , How does your Garden Grow?
Or more importantly what grows in it, is it geometric or naturalistic, and who's doing the spade work?
Gardens in 18th century America run the gamut from pure survival to combining pleasure and purpose, to being show pieces entirely - Just like the Dowager Lady Grantham's
Most Important (and very readable) Book for this Episode:
Leighton, Anne. _American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century: For Use or Delight_
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Tea -
We did a big tea history last time. This time, it's smaller time. More details, more ceremony, more farce. But if you are curious what tea was drunk when, and how the Dutch lost ground to the English - stop by to find out.
And pirate plunder shows up on the tea table - both as tea and tea pot.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Lemons - they solved scurvy right? Or was it limes. Neither. These little ovoids were way WAY too precious to use on the common sailor like that. But find out where lemons came from and how they were used in food in the 18th century. How long ago was oyster with a squeeze of lemon a thing people were into?
And pineapples - where are they from, and how did they get to Europe and North America?
Is there a reason that there are a million pineapple household decor things, but barely any pineapple recipes? Yes! Yes there is. Find out what it is.
And an introduction to the madness of why scurvy was allowed to ravage British (and American) shipping into the 20th century. No - really.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
I cannot let the story stand that abortion and management of fertility is only a modern issue in America. It has been part of the landscape before Europeans arrived. But I'm not even close to being qualified to comment on that.
Instead this is a deep dive into the back of cookbooks of the popular and widely available 17th and 18th century cookbooks that were to be found in British Colonial and American Kitchens - and the fact that they contained recipes and instructions for both ending early pregnancies and helping along childbirth.
Fertility and reproductive care was the province of women and unregulated by legislation. Until it was.
In the 20th and 21st century, the legend was, access to fertility regulation in the past had always been treated as A Big Secret. I'm here to tell it wasn't. The how tos were available in the contemporary equivalent of the Julia Child cookbook. Don't believe me - listen in.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Come Join the Fun!
Intelligent Speech Conference - 2022, June 25th
Come here me reveal scandalous information about Gumbo.
https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
Regular Ticket Price: $30
Extra 10% Off? Use the code: FOOD
Mercantilism has more money now… so it also has more Pirates!
Is committing Murder and Bribery the worst a pirate can do?
Nope - being unsuccessful and not having the money for the Bribe, that’s what does you in.
That & doing too much to create the foundations of a rebel economy.
But really the bigger questions here are:
Is your town #Team Madagascar or #Team Curaçao?
There was a second Triangle Trade triangle?
Just where was Paul Revere getting his Silver?
And does Great Great Grandma actually have pirate treasure?
Tune in for this and more economic history - including how tobacco farming in the age before chemical fertilizer may have jumpstarted the Revolution.
Special Thanks to Dr. Jamie L. H. Goodall
And her books
Pirates & Privateers - from Long Island Sound to Delaware Bay
Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay - from the Colonial Era to the Oyster Wars
https://www.amazon.com/Jamie-L.-H.-Goodall/e/B07ZS2Z4T3%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Come Join the Fun!
Intelligent Speech Conference - 2022, June 25th
Come hear me reveal possibly dangerous information about Gumbo.
https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
Regular Ticket Price: $30
Extra 10% Off? Use the code: FOOD
Oysters are EVERYTHING.
It's like cronuts meet 1990's fro-yo. Everyone is Obsessed.
Sure there are some other shellfish, but who cares about them? Throw in a crab for variety now and then.
But more importantly I address why prisoners got mad about lobster, why there was oyster ketchup, and the most ridiculous DoorDash order ever.
On a more serious note: The Townsend's YouTube Channel. It's the Bob Ross of 18thC living. A great escape, and really informative as well.
Mushroom Ketchup: https://youtu.be/29u_FejNuks
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Come Join the Fun!
Intelligent Speech Conference - 2022, June 25th
Come hear me reveal possibly dangerous information about Gumbo.
https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
Regular Ticket Price: $30
Extra 10% Off? Use the code: FOOD
But Salt!
Fish!
Pirates!
Possible Independence!
The Sugar Economy!
The accidental creation of the Cajuns!
18th Century Salt in the New World is responsible for all sorts of things. And Cherokee or as we know them now - Virginia Hams.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Do take a peek at Unchefed https://www.unchefed.com/about
https://twitter.com/unchefed
and me when I'm not just in Teacher Mode: The History of Fish Sauce
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-fish-sauce/id1578898329?i=1000563764347
Don't Forget! Intelligent Speech Conference - 2022, June 25th
Come hear me reveal possibly dangerous information about Gumbo.
https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
Regular Ticket Price: $30
Extra 10% Off? Use the code: FOOD
Everybody was eating fish for about 80 years there. Then too many people moved away from the coast, we did some not smart things to our waterways, and the fish utopia ended.
But during that time - this is how we ate all that fish. One way if you were rich, and another way if you were everybody else. And if we were making so much dried codfish - why don't we have recipes for it?
A little paper history, and a small !Escandalo! regarding just how original Caesar Salad dressing is.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Do take a peek at Unchefed https://www.unchefed.com/about
https://twitter.com/unchefed
and me when I'm not just in Teacher Mode: The History of Fish Sauce
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-fish-sauce/id1578898329?i=1000563764347
Don't Forget! Intelligent Speech Conference - 2022, June 25th
Come hear me reveal possibly dangerous information about Gumbo.
https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
Regular Ticket Price: $30
Purchase Tickets before June 1: $20
Extra 10% Off? Use the code: FOOD
For a minute there, for the colonists, Corn was a "foreign food", a poor substitute to real food. But by the 18th century it had become American Food for real. This is a long wander through American pyramids, the precursors to hushpuppies and Jell-o pudding, along with the birth of Moonshine before it was Moonshine.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Don't Forget! Intelligent Speech Conference - 2022, June 25th
Come hear me reveal possibly dangerous information about Gumbo.
https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
Regular Ticket Price: $30
Purchase Tickets before June 1: $20
Extra 10% Off? Use the code: FOOD
Sugar! In the 18th century it entered the kitchen. As mostly syrup it was used in dessert. But it also changed the kitchen wine and the kitchen beer. One was made easier and one was frankly made kinda worse.
A detour about blue paper - because why not!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Don't Forget - Intelligent Speech Conference - 2022, June 25th
Come hear me reveal possibly dangerous information about Gumbo.
https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
Regular Ticket Price: $30
Purchase Tickets before June 1: $20
Extra 10% Off? Use the code: FOOD
I thought I was going to be talking about Labor and Charcoal and Iron... but instead - I am talking to you about the invention of Toast. New research and old things in my brains do interesting things sometimes.
The Toaster Project - Thomas Thwaites: https://www.thomasthwaites.com/the-toaster-project/
Douglas Adams - Mostly Harmless: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Mostly_Harmless
Michelle Obama - Becoming: https://becomingmichelleobama.com/
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Welcome Back!
(Sorry about the late Ep - I thought it would be only 12 hrs late... but wood chippers)
Don't Forget - Intelligent Speech Con - 2022, June 25th
Come hear me reveal possibly dangerous information about Gumbo.
https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
Regular Ticket Price: $30
Purchase Tickets before June 1: $20
Extra 10% Off? Use the code: FOOD
Iron & Wood & Food are hopelessly entangled in the 18th C colonies
The short version is that there is more iron to cook more things - but the stuff you can import to Britain is limited. Which means the cash workers can earn is limited... so the trouble starts.
But more nails means more rooms in a house. 100% increase from 1 room to 2!
That and so much more, including the burning building for nails fight.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Welcome Back! Season 2 is just around the corner. With more kinds of food, a little less time spent in the prehistory of food and much more access to contemporary cookbooks.
Intelligent Speech 2022
Celebrating Independent Educational Podcasts
Year 4 - Theme: Crossings
https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
Tickets - $30, but Early Bird Tickets are $20 - Before June 1
For an extra 10% Discount
Use the Promo Code: FOOD
This time there will be an exploration of the unusual literacy of the population, and pineapples appear. I look forward to sharing with you the upcoming changes - as the population gets more sweets, gets drunker, and the bread oven moves indoors. I think I may have also found the roots of why America never really developed solid bakeries or its own street-food culture.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Intelligent Speech - June 25th - come hear me reveal possibly dangerous information about Gumbo.
https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/
Regular Ticket Price: $30
Purchase Tickets before May 15: $20
Extra 10% Off? Use the code: FOOD
I read a whole bunch of stuff about distilling in the way back of history. It was messy and when it came to immortality potions and alcohol - kinda dangerous. Come hear about it, and all the places distillation happened - and how distillation seems to have met itself again in South America over Pulque.
Source of the, "Don't eat in the Lab or you might turn into a Dinosaur!" References - The Tick v. Dinosaur Neil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8HxakmkWU
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
We've come to the end of Season 1. I'll answer some questions, give a preview and let you know about the future of the show. But mainly I'm just here to let you know there's going to be a break while I sort out exactly how Season 2 is going to go.
Don't worry I'll be back - I just need to get organized.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
1660 - When England gets serious about money and stuff & makes some big changes to its laws. This is going to make some big changes to North America. But first - sugar is about to get cheap. Learn the one weird trick they used. Ok - it's not weird, its awful. But they did it - and so as not to do it again - time to learn about the how and the why.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
When I figure it out - Instagram: @THoAFood
When this whole America project got started as a bunch of random colonies, it wasn't just the Colonists there, they brought their servants as well. While there was slavery right from the jump, nearly all the domestic help in the 17th century were actually Indentured Servants. I'm not sure the right lessons were learned.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
When I figure it out - Instagram: @THoAFood
Without cars - there were no drive-thrus, so was every meal a sit down affair? Of course not. Too much to do - and as we'll soon see - nobody's got time for 3 hot meals a day. Besides, that was practically gluttony.
Apologies in advance for Nursery Rhymes.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Find out what fast food was in the Old World - and why it was often a better bet than home cooked if you lived in the city. And what is was in the New World. They really miss that eel pie and an ale pine in New Plimouth.
What critters are you willing to eat? If you were a certain kind of colonist, the answer would have been deer, or bird, possibly some certain fish, or none. And you would also likely be dead. The surviving children of these disasters and later arrivals had different opinions. Some because they were transported peasants and vagrants, other because they had just seen a whole bunch of people who were overly picky eaters die of starvation. But even the new adventurous eaters had standards. No one wanted to eat a skunk if they really didn't have to.
Listen up if you want a run down of the 17th century colonial Varmint scene.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
When I figure it out - Instagram: @THoAFood
So I'm reading along about the Spice Islands and start to wonder - was #Dune just Frank Herbert vibing out in Big University Archives and smoking too many clove ciggies?
But seriously, the world really did turn in on itself over the dried plant bits from a couple of islands between India and Australia. (Was it #Aliens? It wasn't Aliens.) But I will explain how the busiest place in the world in the 16th Century was a place that is really hard to get to even now, but has food you really want to try.
The show notes will have spice lists in what looks like made-up languages, and a link to a PDF ( https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8102 ) of the Forme of Cury.
Also - shoutout to @NYPL for having a bound version of this on display at 5th Ave - I got to see it!)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
The debut of Rum - or Kill-Devil as it was known at first. Regardless, this was a bad liquor, and it was how you let other people know you were bad. Yo-ho-ho and all that.
Molasses was the origin, and if anything, molasses was the receptacle of all of the evils of the sugar trade. You can clearly tell by its color of course. (If you are not a listener, and don't know me - heavens child, this is called sarcasm).
And from this waste stream of white sugar, the Demon rum was born.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Less Food and more Religious Baggage! I really know how to liven up a conversation. I was so taken aback at the preserved ire at humans just living in so much of the early New England writing, and how vilified the fat, the lazy, the people who even acknowledge pretty things, or like flavors were - that I had to do an episode on it.
I was surprised at how old explicit fat-phobia, both in food and on bodies was in this country. So buckle up for the ride.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Soap - Just what is soap, and what makes soap... soapy? How do you make it? Is it better or worse than chemical detergents? And how were people getting clean before soap? I look into all that and more, and express my love for the 90's Comic Masterpiece _The Tick_.
But seriously - Chemicals are not The Enemy - profiteering off fear is.
Books and other info I promised:
The Tick v. Dinosaur Neil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8HxakmkWU
Scientific Soap Making: https://www.soapguild.org/cart/books/78/scientific-soapmaking.php
Lab Muffin - Make Your Own Soap!: https://labmuffin.com/make-your-own-soap-part-1-the-chemistry-behind-soap-making/
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Fat – and not for just this week, but next week too. I foolishly thought I could get through this in one week. Not so. As a result this week is fat overview and fat prestige rankings, and not until next week do I get on to the morality.
But you do get to hear about my up close and personal time with cracklings.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Wild horses, feral horses, eatin' horses - only 2 of those exist in 17th Century America. The eating and not eating of horses has shifted across European and American history - as have the reasons why. I'll explain that - and pronounce "Przewalski" - the P is silent!
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Caffeine, Nicotine & Theobromine - along with the printing press and sugar all arrived in a big way in Europe in the 17th Century. They each affected the colonization of America - some immediately... and some waited.
Do you think kids these days are bad? Well! Consider how crazy-making those guys (and in those days, it was the Boys) were with their propositions of allowing the Bible to be read in English, and establishing smoking in public. It was wild I tell you.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Part 2 of the 17th Century Dutch colonial influence on Modern American food. Doing doughnuts before they were cool - or maple bars. Also a quick peek at the why of Santa Claus vs. Father Christmas.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
What portion of what we think of American food has its feet in Dutch clogs? I'm not entirely sure, but the research tells me it is more than I thought. After a helping of Dutch history, I look at sweet bread things - and why it is cookie in America, but biscuits in England.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Do you want to listen? You want to listen, and learn about why American food is the way it is. Grab a red Solo cup and some Popcorn.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Finally - the truth comes out. Why is this truly American bird called the name of a country it was never from? And is it true your Thanksgiving turkey came from… 16th century Mexico, and not New England… at all? And we’ll continue to follow the baffling saga of Colonists taking perfectly good domestic animals and letting them get feral.
All this and more on this week's episode of The History of American Food!
(*cue jaunty synth music from ‘80s evening magazine style show*)
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Back then chicken probably tasted not like our chicken. If you could catch one of the scrawny little birds. But of much more import were the eggs. All four iterations - whole eggs, the rich yolks, the strong whites, and the practical hard cooked egg. The 17th Century colonies was the land before omelettes.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
After dealing with the good, solid, respectable apples, this week we deal with liquid apples. There's the fermented juice - cider & the fermented fermented juice - vinegar. I throw in the rest of the fruit juices because it's essentially the same process regardless of whether it's a peach or a pear or a mulberry. So apple juice - briefly sweet, tipsy and then sour.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
This week is History of Apples, and Solid Apples, Liquid Apples is next week. I hold myself open to a possible future Gaseous Apples, but draw the line at Plasma Apples.
The hegemony of the Apple is covered, as is the transformation of the Apple from its role as Biblical Bad Girl to Colonial Goody.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Piggies piggies piggies. It's all bacon, salt and smoked hams in the 17th century. The images of Babe and Wilbur from Charlotte's Web are all off the mark. The early colonial pig was lean, mean, long legged and would bite you if it could. Some apparently even beat up on wolves. Come visit the colonial pig pen.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Yes I've already mentioned Pickles once, but this time I'll be looking into the whole range of what was pickled (boy oh boy, it was more than cucumbers - it was more than vegetables), the different ways of pickling, how those pickles were stored, and how they were used.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Once again - not a food, but wood is absolutely essential in the quest for edibles in the 17th century. Wood was necessary to grow food, harvest food, process food, cook food, store food, and transport it to market. And there were lots of trees used in lots of different ways. A few provided edibles - fruits and nuts, sweet sap and medicinal bark, but for the most part, trees provided the infrastructure required to get food on the board.
I will lists trees like Harlan Pepper lists nuts. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_in_Show_(film) )
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Deer are 17th Century Colonial Food. But because they are seen as free, and not well managed, they quickly fall off the regular American Menu. Learn about the toughest meat everyone ate for a few years, but then only the richest and poorest ended up eating… and still eat today.
Venison will go largely into eclipse, but not the deer antler handle.
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
17th Century bread had plenty of fiber, and occasionally some very tiny rocks. The hand milled grain - and initially this was mostly corn - that went into to the early breads was more meal than flour, so bread was rather dense. More of an unleavened fireside puck than a familiar loaf.
It would take decades and the settlement of early Pennsylvania before the bread we would recognize became somewhat common. From those earliest colonial campsites… ovens had to be built, the bread tools had to be carved, the wheat successfully grown and to get a regular barm (yeast) supply, they had to get the beer brewing.
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
No coffee? No orange juice? No sparkling water? What did the 17th C colonists drink to wake up, to refresh themselves? Beer of course.
The problem was… it was bad beer. Join me to find out why, and how long it lasted.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Corn bread and Pumpkin beer - that was some serious suffering in the 17th century. Finally the competent farmers showed up in Pennsylvania to grow the real grains the English colonists missed in the New World.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
How does milk work so you can take a liquid and make it in to solids?
This episode I talk about how liquid milk, which will just go bad on you in a second was turned into butter and cheese so it could travel around the 17th Century American food world.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Did you know milk fresh from the cow is 101F/38C ?
That's right, a "cold glass of milk" wasn't really a thing in 17th Century Colonial America. But people still drank or supped on liquid dairy. Find out how - and learn about the most cow to table dessert ever.
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
I finally did it - I've covered all the thingies in my logo! Beef, Sugar and Iron (though that cowboy coffee pot will remain empty until the 18th Century). 17th Century beef did not come in steaks - rather gobbets and slices, or reconstituted from salting or stringy, stringy jerky.
And what good is a steak knife if you don't yet have a fork?
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Another reason for America at all... Cows. Arable England was all out of room - and there were lots of casks of salt beef the Navy needed to buy. So, go grow cows in the New World! This episode looks at just what a cow is, and how they got to Colonial America.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Digging out the rest of the vegetables our 17th Century pre-Americans were eating. But really showing how vegetables are involved in the North-South rift, and just how early that started. While it was partly the weather, it turns out religion, economics, labor policies and farm kids vs. city kids all had a hand in it. I was surprised how what could have been a very small topic went so for afield.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
How and why the 17th century colonists made a distinction between pumpkin and squash. One was good and the other bad. Spoiler alert - those Puritan Pilgrims had some ideas about bright colors and what made a loose woman.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Pease/Peas and Beans and the other ones. Unglamorous, but dependable, legumes have been with humans for a long time. Untangling Old World & New World beans, and why you never eat New World Beans raw.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
We love our perishables now, but they were both welcome and considered worthless in the 17th Century. Is that dandelion food or medicine? What about that mulberry?
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
There are other things that cause pirates, but restrictive shipping rules, navigation acts and tariffs - enforced from over 8 weeks away definitely causes pirates.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
A chemistry tangent on salt - 17th Century Style
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
How salty was 17th Century American food? Very, very salty. The fridge of the age. I'll talk about how the salt was made and used and why salt went industrial in the 17th century.
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Can't live without it... wouldn't want to live without it. So the development of industry, tax, and cuisine are all tied up here with salt. Listen up for history, more trivia, and one way global silver and salt are BFF's.
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
How important was 17th Century fish? And how did people keep and prepare fish when there was no refrigeration?
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Corn really is how 17th Century colonists either just didn't die - or made fortunes. There are 3 different versions depending on if you were in New England, the Mid-Atlantic or the South. For all three groups Corn was Life.
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Corn has come a long way from that little grass, teosinte, near Oaxaca State, Mexico. Where did it go on its travels, and how the heck did it get, not just to the east coast, but all over the world?
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Sugar changed the world in the 17th Century. It became a way to make lots of money - and changed the map of North America. The changes to food will take a little while, but the seeds are planted in kitchen and in trade.
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Here's where I didn't go in the Sugar History episode. This shows the bones of how medical thinking worked until germ theory got off the ground in the 19th Century. These ideas will return in each century. I don't go deep down the hole, just show you were it is.
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Where is sugar even from? When did it make it to Europe? How did it get to the West Indies? I have questions.
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
When everything – including making food – is done by muscle power – how did Colonial America decide to get more for less? In many cases – by using iron to make chains to enslave Native Americans and Africans. How did the colonists talk themselves into this? How far back did it start?
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Podcast Music: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Tools and Weapons – this is what lots of the iron was used for. How were they connected to colonial food?
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
Sure, Iron's not a food - but it is an essential part of how America does food. We'll go back to the beginning and look at how the very 1st settlements' dependance on iron shaped how they saw food.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
What is this podcast? How in the world am I going to do the History of American Food without getting lost? For a quick preview try this introduction.
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood@gmail.com
Twitter: @THOAFood
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