After years of no plates, not enough plates and just enough plates - you suddenly have access to many plates and pretty plates.  What's a hostess of fashion to do?

Obviously - upend the way food is served.  Obviously if you have access to more artificial light - you can make meals longer.  Especially on dark, chilly, wet nights when no one wants to be outside anyway.

Luckily - cookbooks are up to the challenge.  With all sorts of ideas of how to roll out this new style of multi-course dining.

So come check out the complications.

And if you are interested in seeing what American pottery looked like - pre-China and pre-imported porcelain - look at the Workshop of the Poor Potter in Historic Yorktown!

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
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Every wondered how we got into this fix of needing so many plates - or more specifically why you’re supposed to put a set of plates on a registry for a wedding that you are never gonna use?  Or at least why did people do that on the regular ,even just 20 years ago?
 
And now it means you have relatives that are trying to push off plates on to you that you never got to eat off as a kid - and now why in the world would you want to lug them around now?
 
For what’s at the bottom of these mysteries, and how we got into this fix - I look at the history of plates from my particular American Food History vantage point.

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
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As a child reader, I always thought it was so quaint that "dinner" was this old-timey word for lunch.  It was a "Dinner Pail"  - which was a crude Indian Tiffin - only 1 chamber - vs. a Lunch Box.

But I had never spent any tme thinking about why and how Dinner was the big meal of the day, and supper was toast dipped in cooling stew.

Until I thought about it in terms of cooking in the dark.  When the sun goes down at 4:25 pm, why was anyone making all manner of food they can't see!?

But - the Whale as Light in the early 1800's started to make it's mark.  Sure factories were changing the rhythm of life, but without artificial light to support the change, it never would have taken.

The age of sail was also the Age of the Pursuit of the Whale.

So come join the chase.

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
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& some other socials... @THoAFood

Celebrate National Public Lands Day by finding a place to visit and get involved at 
NEEFAUSA.og
or
NPS.gov

And get into what was getting to be popular as vegetables in the early 19th century.

How did Avocado Toast become a thing?  
Well, it would never have gotten the traction it did with out practice runs by spinach or even more glamourously by celery.

And those would have never had a chance if not for the propensity for food fads developed by the early 19th century Americans who had lost their food traditions and were now looking for something new.

Join me on the journey to see what was cool in plant foods in the early 19th century.  We can't all be spring peas after all.

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

Wake up America!  Coffee is on its way to becoming the drink of the people.  Sure Cider and Beer are out there... but coffee is coming up on the outside.

But how did one brew coffee in the 19th century?
And just how weak was it?

To find out, tune 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

Last show on the substandard mic - but the paper towel as popfilter helped some.

Let's talk tea - what tea were people drinking in the early 19th century?  The answer was almost uniformly, "bad tea".  
Ignorance lead to people needing sugar in their tea b/c they were drinking the bad stuff.  In fact a whole grade of "export quality" tea was invented to fulfill the growing global/European/American demand.  Just in this case - "expot quality" mostly meant the dregs.  Or the dust anyway.

Understanding that most tea Americans were drinking in this age was somewhere between stale and adulterated, and only became more so as time went on, the swing to coffee starts to make more sense.  It had less to do with feelings towards England, and more to do with the tea just not tasting that good.  

To understand just what tea was then, join 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

First of all - sorry about the diferent mic.  But this way we get the episode.  I'll see what I can do to make things better for next ep - and all will be back to normal by the one after that.

Anyway - 19th Century Chinese Food?

What can I tell you?  It would have looked much the same as lots of the food you will find right now around the Pearl RIver Delta, the old district of Canton - now known as Guangzhou.

But this episode is not just about the food - it also looks a bit into how the US and China started dealing with each other.  How did that stream of labor from China - that would be essential in the gold fileds and then the construction of the US railroads get a foot hold in California.

While there is much made of the Chinese presence in New York - and how they influenced east coast culture - there is the less well known story of China and the early west.
So grab your dried fish, pickled vegetables, boiled millet and see what's there.



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

Think you're fancy with your lobster roll... or did you get it from a Massachusetts McDonalds?

All are possible... and much more - including death by lobster poisoning.

To get more of the story - tune in to early 19th century lobster

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

Have you ever thought how we got here - that farm land is all AWAY and houses are all in close?

That products come to you... and packaging is often more important than the thing inside?
That didn't happen over night.  

The fact that farms are there, house are here, and manufacturing stuff is a third place altogether is not an accident.  Instead it's something that has been developing in America for about 200 year.

To see WHY you don't have neighborhood farms - as well as why things like setting up local recycling centers and other things that make stuff is hard - listen in to how the roots of segregated land use ties back to the early railroad.

I mean... maybe a local goat and donkey pasture wouldn't be such a bad thing?
Anyway - more Pea Patches...!
But also understand why modern American Farms Markets will always have food from hundreds of miles away.

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

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
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& 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

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

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
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& 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

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
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& 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

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
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& 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

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

To Market to market to buy a fat pig
Home again home again jiggety jig...

But how did those pigs get to market in the first place?

On their own 4 feet!  That's right, there's more than one way to concentrate corn down for better transport and not all of it is Bourbon / Corn Whiskey.

Also learn about how early mechanical America only kept moving due to the presence of pigs.

Big contributions to the script from Mark Essig's _Lesser Beasts_ 

Be sure to look up the Canadian Super Pigs... and the problem they are.

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