Food History Articles and Links

JoNorvelleWalker · October 14, 2021

5 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

I don't suppose reusable shopping lists were mainstream in the 1920s either.

Probably more mainstream than frozen foods.

liuzhou · October 14, 2021

By the 1920s, commercially distributed frozen food had been around for about 60 years, initially in Australia. Perhaps more so in the UK than the USA. Meat was exported from Australia to the UK in 1868. Frozen chickens were imported by the UK from Russia starting in 1885.

It wasn't until Birdeye developed flash freezing in 1929, that it really took off en masse.

Of course, frozen food had been around since neolithic times.

liuzhou · October 14, 2021

2,700-year-old blue cheese and beer.

Tropicalsenior · October 19, 2021

Recently @Duvel made Maultaschen and posted a recipe in the dinner topic. I found this interesting article on its origins.

heidih · October 19, 2021

Recently @Duvel made Maultaschen and posted a recipe in the dinner topic. I found this interesting article on its origins.

Interesting - thanks. Beautiful site. I assumed it was "mouth pocket/purse" because that is the meaning in my dialect.

chromedome · October 22, 2021

A nice piece about a local hobbyist perpetuating historic apple varieties, both local and international. New Brunswick, like neighbouring Nova Scotia, is a significant apple producer.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/apple-orchard-keswick-ridge-1.6219194

As it happens I know a farmer in Keswick Ridge who's perpetuating a number of heirloom potato varieties that are seldom grown any more. For some of them, she's the only grower in the country and one of just a handful in North America.

chromedome · October 22, 2021

*Fermented* fish, Smithsonian. Fermented. Get it right...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/recoving-the-recipe-for-garum-180978846/

Edited October 22, 2021 by chromedome (log)

liuzhou · October 23, 2021

3 hours ago, chromedome said:

*Fermented* fish, Smithsonian. Fermented. Get it right...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/recoving-the-recipe-for-garum-180978846/

Er, the article talks at some length about fermentation. It uses fermented or fermentation etc 19 times. Where's the problem?

Edited October 23, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

chromedome · October 23, 2021

29 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Er, the article talks at some length about fermentation. It uses fermented or fermentation etc 19 times. Where's the problem?

That big ol' subtitle at the very top of the article... "a sauce made from decaying fish." Also the introductory paragraph, where they speak of "putrefying fish."

It's a fine line, I know (fermentation could be described perhaps as "controlled decay") but it's a pet peeve of mine.

liuzhou · October 23, 2021

They also explain the connection between rotting and fermenatation in some detail. I can see nothing wrong with the article.

liuzhou · October 23, 2021

Samuel Pepys Buries His Parmesan

medieval-parmesan-cheese.jpg.0f5ff52fbb8c36367c956c9548810cf7.jpg

chromedome · October 24, 2021

On 10/22/2021 at 11:03 PM, liuzhou said:

They also explain the connection between rotting and fermenatation in some detail. I can see nothing wrong with the article.

Yes, the article was otherwise good and informative. That's why I posted it, but also what made the deliberate use of the "rotted fish" trope so jarring to my sensibilities. To me, it's like reading an otherwise lucid and well-written article about Indian food that begins with the assertion that curries were invented to - say it with me now, y'all - conceal the taste of half-spoiled meat. We all have our hot-button issues and pet peeves, and this is one of mine. Evidently it doesn't rankle in the same way for you, and that's fine. We all have our quirks, and as I recall you have one or two of your own.

It only occurred to me in retrospect that my comments on the original post might make it seem that I'd posted the article solely for the purpose of dunking on it for that specific bit of tone-deafness. That's not the case, I had intended it as a minor quibble about an otherwise-solid bit of writing.

chromedome · October 31, 2021

Putting this here, because traditional rail dining has been "history" on Amtrak for a few years now:

https://www.eater.com/22736799/train-food-travel-dining-cars-amtrak

**ElsieD** · October 31, 2021

@chromedome That article sure took me back to when I moved to Ottawa from my home town. I used to go home about every 6 weeks and in those days, they had dining room cars as described in the article, tables decked out with silver and real china. You would order from a menu. Service was impeccable. I would often have my dinner there and yes, we were seated with other people. On one trip back to Ottawa I was seated at a table with just one other person, a woman, and we got along famously. She lived with her three kids near where I worked, I was on the hunt for a place to live, she had an extra bedroom and I moved in. She, her kids and I had some great times, and I have the train service to thank for it.

kayb · October 31, 2021

What a great story! Reminds me of the day I stopped en route to Nashville for lunch at a busy restaurant. There was a wait, and I was alone; I offered to the waiting crowd that I'd be happy to share my table if anyone else wanted to share. Wound up eating lunch with a retired Tennessee state trooper who had worked for years with a guy I'd grown up with and had not seen since. We had to call the guy while we were eating and tell him we were talking about him.

liuzhou · November 2, 2021

Interesting read here from Trinity College Dublin about their research and experience brewing a 16th century beer in 2021. Very detailed.

Quote

Along the way, a documentary team from Anglia Ruskin University’s StoryLab recorded every part of the project, from meeting with the farmers in Orkney to picking hops in Kent to brewing the beer in Sussex. A film, directed by Shreepali Patel, will appear in 2022 and be published freely online. It will be a vivid record of the project, demonstrating the craft, tradition, and pioneering research involved in bringing to life a drink from so long ago.

I look forward to seeing that!

**Mjx** · November 15, 2021

From 1892, Drinks of the World, courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

gfweb · November 15, 2021

On 10/31/2021 at 7:56 AM, chromedome said:

Putting this here, because traditional rail dining has been "history" on Amtrak for a few years now:

https://www.eater.com/22736799/train-food-travel-dining-cars-amtrak

Amtrak has never had, at least in my memory, anything approaching civilized dining on the Northeast Corridor trains. The offerings are more like a 3rd rate convenience store even in First Class on the Acela. Wawa puts Amtrak to shame.

But I'm not sure there is a market for more than what they have now. Perhaps on one of the few long distance trains.

weinoo · November 15, 2021

15 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Amtrak has never had, at least in my memory, anything approaching civilized dining on the Northeast Corridor trains. The offerings are more like a 3rd rate convenience store even in First Class on the Acela. Wawa puts Amtrak to shame.

But I'm not sure there is a market for more than what they have now. Perhaps on one of the few long distance trains.

Years ago, Significant Eater and I took the auto train up from Florida to Virginia. We did the whole deal - dining car, overnight "stateroom" or whatever they called it. Kinda fun, and yes we were seated at our appointed time with another couple. Who, if I recall correctly, looked at us as if we were crazy people from NYC (so they got that right). The food was pretty ordinary (I think the choices were probably salmon, chicken, or filet mignon - the stuff you get at poorly catered affairs), but the experience was worth doing once. And I didn't have to drive all the way from Florida.