Reviewing food history: How much do you take your kitchen and your modern conveniences for granted?

Tropicalsenior · October 16, 2023

I'm an avid history buff and I love food history. Not just the history of Escoffier and the great foods of Europe but mainly about the food that the common people ate and the trials and tribulations of finding and preparing food in the difficult times that they lived.

I'm ashamed to admit that I'd never gave much thought to the food of the United States except in the context of the foods that our immigrant forefathers brought to this country. That is, until I got addicted to a YouTube series called The Townsends. Jon Townsend presents hundreds of recipes from the 18th and early 19th century and what's more he prepares them on an open hearth or over a campfire. Everything that he bakes is in a brick or a mud oven. He even gives you directions to make your own mud oven, that is if you are so inclined and have enough horse dung to make a good binding agent.

The series is interesting and informative and certainly makes you appreciate the conveniences that we have today.

My kitchen in Costa Rica is quite primitive compared to most of what all of you are used to in the US. But it is much better than what my mother had when I was growing up. My earliest memories were of the old wood range and the icebox. We only had running water in the summer when the pipes didn't freeze. The rest of the time we had to bring it in from a pump outside. I think a lot of that early training helped me to cope with what I learned to live with in Costa Rica.

How much do you take your conveniences for granted. And how well would you cope if you were suddenly thrust back into the 18th century.

If you like history and you like food I highly recommend this series. It explains a lot about the food that we eat, the preparation and a wealth of knowledge about the food terms that we use today.

Right now I'm curing salt pork to use in their baked bean recipe. It looks delicious. I just have to find a good bean pot and I still have to find a horse so I can make my mud oven.

AlaMoi · October 16, 2023

don't close the cover on my fingers . . .

I grew up "rural" - visiting my grandparents in the Catskills - they did not (at first) have electricity. they operated a 3 story hunting/fishing lodge - still in operation today - my grandmother had two large coal stoves/ovens in a very large kitchen.

my grandfather hooked up a pipe from a spring "up the hill" to a turbine, driving an automobile generator, so they had 12v lighting - in the kitchen only . . . for evenings.

as a teen I spent a year in southern Germany. the local village had the fire pond, and the community brick oven for bread baking.

I'm veddy fond of the historical approach to cooking stuff.

I set out to build a beehive oven . . . and in my research discovered how many hours and hours it took to get it up to temperature for bread baking . . . . and that put a gigantic kabosh on that idea. baking fresh bread in a beehive oven for company / special occasions . . . mega effort not fitting into "modern day office job & life"

(sigh)

Tropicalsenior · October 16, 2023

21 minutes ago, AlaMoi said:

my grandmother had two large coal stoves/ovens in a very large kitchen.

I'll bet there was some really good food came out of that kitchen. My mother was a magician when it came to baking and how she did it in that unreliable oven I will never know and when she got a gas stove she had a terrible time adapting.

I would have loved to have seen your German Village. Bread has been so important through the centuries. Everybody had to have it because sometimes that was all they had to eat but nobody had an oven. At the end of his day the baker would let the people bring their bread and he would bake it.

Some of the modern conveniences that we take entirely for granted are our leavening agents. If you wanted to bake bread you had to beg, borrow or steal brewers yeast from the person that was making the beer. Contrary to popular belief, not everybody had a pot of sourdough brewing in the pantry. Baking powder and baking soda are like a gift from the gods. Before the 19th century they didn't have it at all or anything even similar. Cookies or biscuits were as hard as rocks and if you wanted to bake a nice fluffy cake you stood there and beat that sucker for a full hour. Or your scullery maid did it if you were lucky enough to have one.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

**TdeV** · October 16, 2023

Award-winning food writer Bee Wilson's secret history of kitchens, showing how new technologies - from the fork to the microwave and beyond - have fundamentally shaped how and what we eat.
Since prehistory, humans have braved sharp knives, fire, and grindstones to transform raw ingredients into something delicious--or at least edible. But these tools have also transformed how we consume, and how we think about, our food. In Consider the Fork, award-winning food writer Bee Wilson takes readers on a wonderful and witty tour of the evolution of cooking around the world, revealing the hidden history of objects we often take for granted. Technology in the kitchen does not just mean the Pacojets and sous-vide machines of the modern kitchen, but also the humbler tools of everyday cooking and eating: a wooden spoon and a skillet, chopsticks and forks. Blending history, science, and personal anecdotes, Wilson reveals how our culinary tools and tricks came to be and how their influence has shaped food culture today. The story of how we have tamed fire and ice and wielded whisks, spoons, and graters, all for the sake of putting food in our mouths, Consider the Fork is truly a book to savor.

AlaMoi · October 16, 2023

how she did that . . .

when my grandparents retired, moved to MD, hadpropane.... my grandmother would fire up the oven - after a bit open the door&stick her arm in, then 'adjust' the temperature knob . . . she had 30+ years of calibrated arm, mucho better accurate than a knob with degrees on it . . .

jeesh did I have to dig.... I do have a couple pix of the village - me, winter, frozen pond, doing the ice skating thing - the whole village then knew they were raising an idiot . . .

Edited October 16, 2023 by AlaMoi (log)

Tropicalsenior · October 16, 2023

4 minutes ago, AlaMoi said:

doing the ice skating thing

At least you are upright. My only experience with ice skating was a school outing where we went to a fairly big-sized pond. The idiots had set up the fire and the food on the other side of the pond. I crawled across on my hands and knees. Never went ice skating again.

Tropicalsenior · October 16, 2023

I just went back to watching some of the Townsend's videos and the first one that came up was about the evolution of biscuits and it explains so much about the difference in at leavening agents since that time.

heidih · October 16, 2023

Time saving conveniemnce I do take for granted. I have done two complete kitchen renos while living in the houses and limped by with electric fry pan and dishes in bathtub or on front lawn. As a teen I got a reprint of https://www.amazon.com/Housekeeping-Containing-Contributions-Housewives-Distringuished/dp/B000GU4QEA and loved the cooking stories in Little House On The Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Also as an adult Edna Lewis The Taste of Country Cooking

Edited October 16, 2023 by heidih (log)

MetsFan5 · October 17, 2023

I definitely take it for granted. I was using a microwave at age 5 or 6 (I’m 43) a computer at age 2, I have never not used indoor plumbing or not had central AC. But I live in a suburb close to Manhattan.

This historical living farm in my home town has offered a lot of different experiences, from cooking to butter churning: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fosterfields

Raamo · October 17, 2023

I'm reading a book on the history of Salt....

There were wars fought over salt access, salt was the key to preserving everything.

Before refigeration the world was very different and salt was king.

Tropicalsenior · October 17, 2023

45 minutes ago, Raamo said:

salt was king

That would be fascinating. I think that salt is probably one of the most underappreciated items in our kitchens. Some of us have problems living with it but we certainly could never live without it.

Many of our expressions, like salt of the earth, come from Salt and a lot of our words, like salary, are based on salt.

Thanks @Raamo.

Maison Rustique · October 17, 2023

I love The Townsends! I don't know if they still have it in print, but they used to publish a catalog of reproduction clothing and kitchen/cooking items. I've never ordered anything, but it is great fun to browse it. There are a couple of other video series that feature historical cooking/food. I'll write myself a note to take a look for them to post. And I know I have some historical food books--will also try to track them down. Will take me a while. I've got about 503 balls in the air right now.

And member (former member?) @Carolyn Tillie blogs and gives talks on food history. Be sure to follow her. If you need links, I'll get those, too.

chromedome · October 17, 2023

1 hour ago, Raamo said:

I'm reading a book on the history of Salt....

There were wars fought over salt access, salt was the key to preserving everything.

Before refigeration the world was very different and salt was king.

That's Kurlansky's book, is it? A great read.

Tropicalsenior · October 17, 2023

54 minutes ago, Maison Rustique said:

If you need links, I'll get those, too

Yes, please!

Since my eyes no longer permit me to read for very long, I've been watching a lot of YouTube and the BBC has done a marvelous job presenting several series about people that have spent an entire year living and running farms during different periods of time. They lived on a Farm during medieval times, the Tudor period, Victorian, Edwardian, and during World War II. They aren't just reenacting the period, they are actually living the lifestyle that these people would have endured.

It's a fascinating series and it certainly makes you appreciate the times that we are living in.

btbyrd · October 17, 2023

I've found that if I do any significant backpacking, it changes my appreciation of everything. Four or five days on a trail carrying all of your food, water, and shelter over miles and miles of wilderness shifts your perspective (and also makes you ravenously hungry). When you get back to civilization, wherever that is, there is splendor everywhere. Indoor plumbing seems like a miracle. Fresh water from a tap? And hot too?! Climate control? Electric lights?! Refrigeration! Taking a shower and going to a grocery store or restaurant after a week on the trail is like crash landing in the Capitol City from The Hunger Games -- everything seems like opulent luxury and every bite is the most delicious thing you've ever tasted. And you're cleaner and better smelling than you've ever been before in your life.

But in terms of things we take for granted, I think that high speed blenders (and to a lesser extent, food processors) are underappreciated. My bones ache whenever I see a video of someone using a metate to grind ingredients for mole. Blenders make luxurious sauces, purees, and soups in virtually no time. Doing it manually is just awful.

But comparing now with Townsend times, one of the bigger things we all seem to take for granted are advances in metallurgy. Stainless steel clad cookware (and knives) helped transform the home kitchen (along with our old friend aluminum). Prior to that, most cookware was either poorly conducting cast iron or expensive and fussy copper. Aluminum and stainless ushered in an era of low-maintaince, high performance, moderately priced cookware that we all are lucky to be able to take advantage of. That's to say nothing of how good knife steels are now compared to 150 years ago.

Tropicalsenior · October 17, 2023

28 minutes ago, btbyrd said:

everything seems like opulent luxury and every bite is the most delicious thing you've ever tasted. And you're cleaner and better smelling than you've ever been before in your life.

I've never been backpacking but I have been camping and what you say is so true. A warm bath or shower is heaven compared to bathing in a cold mountain river.

I've lived in seven states and three countries so I have pretty much learned to adapt to a lot of different situations. I've cooked in kitchens everything from the size of one in a closet to one so large that I had to run a mile to fix a meal. But if I really think about something that I would never give up it has to be my automatic washing machine and my dryer.

I remember my mother washing with a ringer washing machine and having to heat all her water in a copper boiler on the wood range. In the winter time she would bring the clothes in from the line frozen stiff and stack them on the kitchen table until they thawed enough to fold. I've lived for short periods of time without my dryer in the last 60 years, but never again. That's one repairman I have on speed dial just in case.

**TdeV** · October 17, 2023

@btbyrd, you've just been backpacking, haven't you? 😁

pastrygirl · October 17, 2023

I really appreciate modern convenience when making things like meringue buttercream or brioche. So much beating!

+1 to finally getting a hot shower after a camping trip, though a cold river or lake feels amazing in hot weather.

I like to watch survivalist shows like 'Alone' and 'Life Below Zero' and marvel at how much time and energy is spent just acquiring food and water. The local supermarket with thousands of items from around the world is pretty amazing.

Raamo · October 17, 2023

6 hours ago, chromedome said:

That's Kurlansky's book, is it? A great read.

Yup, We also checked out Paper by same author I plan to read after.

Raamo · October 17, 2023

7 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Many of our expressions, like salt of the earth, come from Salt and a lot of our words, like salary, are based on salt.

So many words I didn't expect to come from Salt do, google lead me to this list:

It forms all or part of: hali-; halide; halieutic; halite; halo-; halogen; sal; salad; salami; salary; saline; salmagundi; salsa; salsify; salt; salt-cellar; saltpeter; sauce; sausage; silt; souse.

chromedome · October 17, 2023

I read his earlier book on cod; I rather suspect the research for that one inspired the salt book as well.

Tropicalsenior · October 17, 2023

The Townsends did a short video on the importance of salt in the colonies during the Revolutionary War. The British felt that if they blockaded the colonies from receiving salt that they would have to surrender.

Raamo · October 17, 2023

3 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

The Townsends did a short video on the importance of salt in the colonies during the Revolutionary War. The British felt that if they blockaded the colonies from receiving salt that they would have to surrender.

I just read that part of the book last night, folks used ways to make salt that would normally not be profitable - but it was due to the war.

Tropicalsenior · October 17, 2023

1 minute ago, Raamo said:

I just read that part of the book last night, folks used ways to make salt that would normally not be profitable - but it was due to the war.

As you said before, salt was King. Without salt there was no way to preserve meat to feed the soldiers or the ships crews. And the colonists would never have made it through the winters without some form of food preservation. If they had succeeded we would still be saying God Save the King.