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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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. ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 -...

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...

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:...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...