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
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Copyright: © Copyright Margaret Hardin
What happens when you grow more cows to make more milk to make more cheese and butter?
You end up with more oxen that can't make milk - but are useful as a source of beef.
And this works out well when you are living in a society that craves more meat,
and are in a place with apparently wide open spaces that are just fine for feeding said cattle.
A bonus when you have lots of growing industries that are willing to buy beef from you to feed their growing ambitions - whaling, the railroad, new factories, a military pushing out the borders...
And then... you also have new technologies to cook the beef, and have come up with new flavors for seasoning the beef.
The result - American is ready to become a beefy country.
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
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood
So you are a typical early 19th Century American type...
Is there a dairy scene? Yes.
But are you drinking milk? Maybe... and probobly only for breakfast.
Ok... but is it Raw Milk? Most likely not.
In the early 19th century, most milk products were at least heated (cheese) or outright cooked - almost everything else - or downright boiled - your breakfast milk.
Funny thing is, Americans have retained their passion for boiled milk at breakfast. We just flavor it with coffee and tea now.
For more on this and how the evolution of the American Barn got us ready to have Milk Runs on trains, listen in.
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
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood
Check out the NCPTT... while it's still there, and maybe find an unexpectedly cool place to live. Or maybe a cool woodworking job.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ncptt/index.htm
Hey - so were early Americans eating mushrooms?
Yeah. But not all that much. Just enough for a mushroom industry to spring up in the end of the century - but only in one place, and only for one kind.
But in the meantime - mushroom powder is DELICIOUS... and not that hard to make.
Recipe for 1 quart/4 cups/1 litre of Mushrooms
Clean your favortie way. Cut or break up.
Combine with:
1/2 tsp mace (or slightly less nutmeg)
5 cloves
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp pepper (or more depending on your tastes)
1 Tbs salt
1 small onion quartered (or half a large one)
1 Tbs fat (butter or your favorite oil)
1 Tbs vinegar (white/rice/apple cider all good choices)
Heat over medium-low heat to sweat the mushrooms. When mushrooms have withered - take off heat. Squeeze out all the liquid using lint free tea-towel.
Save liquid, reduce by 1/2 - Mushroom Ketchup!
Remove large spices and larger onion pieces. Spread out on drying tray.
Dehydrate to crispy. (Dehydrator - or 200F/100C for a few hours)
Crush to powder in favorite appliance.
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
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood
While last episode was drowning in information - this week when hunting down mushroom info... it's a bit of a desert. But no worries, there's still fun stuff to be learned - mainly just what is a mushroom? And how have humans crossed paths with it - in ways besides tripping out?
Also - how is the lack of information and the limited presence of mushrooms in AMerican food related?
Some answers are here.
Also - The Fantasia clip of Tchaikovsky's "Chinese Dance" will let you see (among other things) open and closed mushrooms - the "li'l-est" one with it's veil more or less intact
Also - that in the 1940's Americans were pretty mushroom clueless
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
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood
This week - it’s time to look at the connection between westward American Expansion and the apple. How is the apple all tangled up with our creation of the 19th century tall tales we started to tell on and about ourselves?
So get ready for a visit from some of the features/specters of that myth making that inhabited a huge part of the 20th century.
Links:
Johnny Appleseed Cartoon (1948)
Paul Bunyan Cartoon (1958)
John Henry Cartoon 1 (1973 – narrated by Roberta Flack)
John Henry Cartoon 2 (2000 - Disney)
Pecos Bill Cartoon (1948)
Davy Crockett Disney TV show Theme Song (1954 – This is… OOoooF rough)
Iriana Geogescu's plum dumplings you can use with apples. Or apricots of course.
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
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood
As odd as it sounds, there was a time in American Food before oatmeal.
And while that's wild on it's own, even more impossible to imagine is how much of agriculture used to be dedicated simply to growing food to feed the animals that allowed you to run the farm. Having solar panels and biodigesters to create power on the farm now is pretty wild... but it wasn't that long ago, all things considered when all the energy used on a farm was grown... on the farm!
But it does help put into perspective how much energy it took to simply grow enough food for the farm - and then a little more to sell. The surplusses we have now - simply NOT possible.
To learn about the origins of 40 acres and a Mule - no the earlier origins... and how 160 acres would become the standard for American farms, tune in, and marvel at the idea of the oatmeal raisin cookie - and how far away it is from it's high end hose food origin.
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
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood
Finally - Recipes for early 19th Century Fried Chicken - sorta.
IT's time to learn some chicken history and face the reality about what chickens were really for in the early 19th century - eggs!
If you wanted bird meat there were lots of better birds out there to eat above and beyond the scrawny backyard chcicken.
But that was about to change as the worlds chickens began to come to America.
To learn about all that and more - listen in.
And the old Temple in Turkiye / Anatolia
Göbekli Tepe
Scorpion Carving (photo 11)
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
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood
Ever notice that fabulous dinner parties depicted on screen rarely take place earlier than the 1800's - and in America pretty much always after the Civil War?
Well! That's because in just about every one of those situations the eating etiquette would look so different it would be unrecognizable - in fact it's likely people would be eating with their fingers!
Americans have only been eating with forks - on a regualr basis for about 150 years!
The earliest Americans ate with their hands - becasue so did almost everyone else.
Oh - and I answer the question, why do Americans constantly switch which hands they hold knife and fork when eating fancy?
All manner of Fork Trivia is covered.
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
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood
Yes yes... tasty pigs.
But as you might have gathered I'm not entirely OK right now. Will there be a National Park Service -NPS.gov by next episode?
Will I have access to the library of congress or is it going to get "Alexandira'd"?
I don't know, but at least I do know that I can hook you up with both old school and modern methods of preserving pork when the power grid goes down.
I the mean time take care, love your local food producers and be kind. Even and possibly especially to the people who don't eat pork. They're fine as well - and it mean more for us ominivores.
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
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood
Turns out all I was able to squeeze in to this episode was the fresh pork - more or less.
How to keep pork will be around next time.
But the big lesson is - boy do we need our hands held when it comes to recipes.
Is 50 words not enough for you to prepare boiled poik and pease porridge?
It certainly isn't enough for me. I'd be absolutely sunk.
Though it does explain why enslaved cooks could learn the recipes that were read to them out loud. The recipes weren't that long. Just small notes getting them to combine techniques they were already familliar with.
The woman reading the recipe probobly didn't know what it was supposed to be like either. As long as it tasted good - that was good enough.
So come along - and be glad at the variety in your pantry. Becasue in the 19th century - it was likely all pork a lot of the time.
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
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood
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