Wild chestnut trees have flourished in southern Europe since the ancient Greeks brought them from Asia Minor and the Romans spread them throughout their empire. For thousands of years poor subsistence farmers in that part of the world extended their crops with wild foods like chestnuts. In addition to roasting or boiling them, chestnuts were [...]
Archive for the ‘Food as Anthropology’ Category
Chestnuts: Famine Food on the Holiday Table
Posted in Festival Cooking, Food as Anthropology, Food History, Ingredients, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged cake, castagnaccio, chestnut flour, chestnuts, dessert, famine food, gluten-free, Italian food, recipe, Thanksgiving, vegan on November 23, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Coffee Preparation Through the Ages, Part II
Posted in Food as Anthropology, Food History, Ingredients, tagged coffee, Food History, History of Coffee Preparation, History of Espresso on October 18, 2010 | 1 Comment »
This is part II of an article exploring the development of coffee preparation techniques from the 17th Century Ottoman Turks to the Italian Espresso of the mid-20th Century. Part I can be found here We last met in 1838 Paris where the French Balloon style vacuum pot was patented. This high-tech, theatrical method of brewing [...]
Coffee Preparation Through the Ages, Part I
Posted in Food as Anthropology, Food History, Ingredients, tagged coffee, Food History, History of Coffee Preparation, History of Espresso on October 13, 2010 | 10 Comments »
A two part article in which we explore the development of coffee preparation techniques from the 17th Century Ottoman Turks to the Italian Espresso of the mid-20th Century. Europeans have been drinking coffee since about 1615 when Venetian traders obtained it from the Ottoman Turks. The first European coffee house outside of Istanbul opened in [...]
In the Kitchens of King Henry VIII
Posted in Food as Anthropology, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged Food History, Hampton Court Palace Tudor Kitchens, Henry VIII kitchen, Tudor Food on August 17, 2010 | 7 Comments »
One of the best things about attending the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery is the chance to meet people with all sorts of interesting food-related jobs. Two years ago I met Marc Meltonville, who runs all of the kitchens in Britain’s Historic Palaces. These are historic buildings that are owned by the Crown but [...]
Highlights from Oxford 2010: Cured, Fermented and Smoked
Posted in Festival Cooking, Food as Anthropology, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged Cured Food, Fermented Food, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Smoked Food on July 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This is the first of a two-part round-up of this year’s Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery which took place from July 9-11, 2010 at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. The weather was unseasonably warm and I was glad the College Bar — why don’t American colleges have official bars? It’s so civilized — opened at [...]
Cured, Fermented, and Smoked
Posted in Food as Anthropology, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged Cured Food, Fermented Food, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Smoked Food on July 7, 2010 | 3 Comments »
The highlight of my food history year is coming up this weekend. I’ll be attending the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery in the UK. This annual gathering of food historians includes both professionals and enthusiastic amateurs and focuses on a specific theme. This year we’ll be exploring cured, fermented, and smoked foods. These are [...]
Vegemite: Australian for “Yummy”
Posted in Food as Anthropology, Food History, Ingredients, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged Australian Food, australian food history, how to eat vegemite, vegemite on April 19, 2010 | 8 Comments »
When visiting Australia it is impossible not to encounter Vegemite, that mysterious black goop which many Aussies spread on their toast every morning and hold in a special place in their hearts. As a recent commercial attests, “Australian made….internationally misunderstood.” I can report that while it looks like sludge left over from a secret experiment [...]
Coffee as it was Served A Thousand Years Ago
Posted in Food as Anthropology, Food History, Ingredients, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged ancient coffee recipe, cascara, coffee, dried coffee cherries, history of coffee, quishir, recipe, sufism on April 7, 2010 | 2 Comments »
It must have seemed like magic, a substance that not only granted boundless energy, but curbed hunger as well. It wasn’t the first drug of course, we’ve had opium, alcohol, and psychedelic mushrooms for a lot longer. But coffee was different. As Balzac wrote: Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to [...]
Why I Cook
Posted in Food as Anthropology, Food History, Travel, tagged Food History, Why I Cook on February 22, 2010 | 3 Comments »
The other day one of my favorite food writers, Michael Ruhlman, began musing on Twitter about why he cooks. He then wrote a blog post about it and encouraged others to follow suit. Here are my thoughts. Cooking is a magical window onto other cultures. In particular, for me it is a window onto the [...]
