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 ‘Traditional Foodways’ 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 »
A Brief History of the Birthday Cake
Posted in Festival Cooking, Food History, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged birthday cake, blogoversary, Food History, history of the birthday cake, victorian birthday cake on August 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Today is Comestibles’ first anniversary, so what better corner of food history to explore than that of the birthday cake. People have been celebrating holidays with special baked goods for thousands of years, but the white fluffy birthday cake with sweet icing we associate with every child’s party is a fairly modern invention. It could [...]
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 Part II
Posted in Festival Cooking, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged cured foods, fermented foods, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, smoked foods on August 2, 2010 | 6 Comments »
This is the second post in 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. This year’s theme was Cured, Fermented, and Smoked Foods. You can find Part I here. Saturday night’s dinner celebrated the rich cornucopia that is the [...]
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 [...]
The Infamous Surströmming of Sweden
Posted in Food History, Food Safety, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Traditional Foodways, Travel, tagged Fermented Herring, Food History, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010, Surströmming, Swedish Food on July 12, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Just a quick note from the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. As this year’s theme was Cured, Fermented and Smoked Foods, I got to try lots of unusual preparations from around the world, the most striking of which was Swedish surströmming. Food science maven Harold McGee spoke about it in his Plenary presentation titled [...]
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 [...]
From the Emergency Baking Department: Pound Cake
Posted in Food History, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged cooking with a scale, cooking without a recipe, Food History, pound cake, recipe on June 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Pound cake is the workhorse of the tea cart, able to withstand drowning in fruit syrups and whipped cream, or it can be easily tarted up with a citrus glaze. It’s the perfect thing to toss in the oven when you find out the new vicar is coming to tea in a couple of hours. [...]
Raclette, No Fancy Equipment Needed
Posted in Farmers' Market Cooking, Food History, Ingredients, recipes, Traditional Foodways, tagged cheese, Food History, Raclette, Raclette without a machine, Swiss Food on June 23, 2010 | 5 Comments »
In the past, I have expressed my withering disdain for single-use kitchen gadgets like garlic presses, shrimp de-veiners, and pineapple slicers. Today I’m adding another one to the list, the Raclette Machine. I’m bowled over that people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for an appliance that makes a dish created by Swiss livestock [...]
