Any interest in my pinning the Historic Food thread?

[Lucinda]

I am going to keep adding to it...

I added a free ebook from Project Gutenberg this morning - it is a cookbook by Mary Randolph. Some of her story can be found here. The atrticle discusses her use of African foods/techniques - which was unusual in cookbooks of the period. :

http://makinghistorynow.com/2016/04/mary-randolph-and-african-culinary-connections/

The thread will be available in my journal if there is no interest in pinning it.

L

[Major Nikon]

1. I usually don't pay much attention to pinned threads

However, I am interested in historical foods, particularly historical recipes and their discussion. For me, food transcends both space and time. You can learn a lot about a people by figuring out what they eat.

[Lucinda]

2. I find it fascinating, and I suspect I will come across a lot of good info as I

spend time digging in to my genealogical research.

I've always been interested in food throughout history, and working around my health issues, has really made me understand just how much food/nutrition influences even the smallest aspects of our day to day lives.

[msanthrope]

3. Yes....please pin it. nt

[MerryBlooms]

4. Yes.

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

5. Absolutely.

[dem in texas]

6. I have done a lot of reading and research on food history.

Most of my reading and research has been on Mexican and Southwestern food. But also have read many other books about food, starting with the origin of man and what we ate then and all the years forward. I love to read about Early American food and food customs.

One interesting tidbit was Colonial Americans were the great ice cream lovers because we had so many small lakes where ice could be harvested. In Europe. most of the small lakes had been drained to make more farm land. Harvesting and selling ice was big business for New England farmers. Ice was shipped as far away as Jamaica, wrapped in hay and stored on sailing ships. Philadelphia was the center for ice cream making. George Washington liked ice cream so much that he once ran up a bill of over $200 just for cream that was made in Philadelphia and delivered to his home in Virginia

A large baked dish like a pie was served at banquets by Aztecs. The top of the pie would be turkey meat and the bottom; dog meat.
The important people took their serving with turkey first and the lower ranking people then got to eat the rest of the dish.

I tell my little Chihuahua to stop yapping so much or I will put her in Montezuma's pie!

[Lucinda]

7. LOL If your chihuahua is like my cats, it wont do any good!

My two furry dudes can be hella stubborn.

Interesting info about Colonial America. Thankie for sharing it.

I've got a huge love for Mexican and SW (also Native American) foods so I would probably go crazy over your research!

[dem in texas]

8. Two Pre-Hispanic Mexican Recipes

An old issue of Arqueologia Mexicana magazine featured foods and recipes from Mexico's Pre-Hispanic times. Here are a few recipes to give you an idea of Mayan and Aztec cooking.

Stone Broth - from Oaxaca
1 pound shrimp
1 pound fish
5 plum tomatoes, chopped
10 cloves of garlic
Chopped chives and dry chiles to taste
Sprig of epazote.
Before preparing the broth, you must also obtain five gourds, five small forked sticks to use as spoons, a terco of fire wood and 25 small white river stones.

To prepare, build fire and place the stones in the fire until very hot. Place equal amounts of tomato, garlic chives, chiles and epazote into each gourd. Add one or two of the stones to each gourd and stir to cook, removing stones before adding other ingredients. This procedure is repeated until ingredients cooked. Add the shrimp and fish. Finally add another hot stone to each gourd to allow the broth to finish boiling. Remove stones from the gourds and the broth is ready to eat.

Ha'Sikil-P'ar - From Yucatan
The name of this Mayan dish is taken from it's ingredients: ha', (water), sikil,(squash seed) and p'ak, (tomato), The dish is still served in Yucatan and is called sikil pak. It is a soft squash seed paste that is served with crisp corn tortillas and makes a excellent appetizer.

1 cup squash or pumpkin seed (sold at Mexican markets)
1 habanero chili, roasted
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 large ripe tomato, roasted
2/3 cups water, or as needed
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons minced chives

Toast squash seed in dry skillet or comal, taking care not to burn. Place squash seeds, about half of the habanero chili, salt, tomato and water in blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Stir in cilantro and chives. Serve with crisp corn tortilla chips.