I'm a huge fan of history, but I'm also a huge fan of cooking. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise I'm fascinated by historical cooking. I think my interest began when I was a kid in Rhode Island. We used to take an annual field trip to Plymouth Plantation (Go if you can, it's exceptional!). At Plymouth, we found out the food of the 1600's was very different from the food of today. It seemed weird the bread, eggs and meats we eat currently would be foreign to the people of back then. How did they live day to day in the time before processed foods and electricity?
Along with the differences in cooking, there's a profound difference in how food was prepared and preserved. Without refrigeration and vacuum sealing, these people managed to survive through all seasons with a robust and diverse diet (most of the time).
A big thanks to my good friend Alicia on Twitter (@gbrshalo) who knew I'd love the video series. The YouTube video channel is from Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc., and focuses on food of the 1700's and earlier, with demonstrations on how to make what the settlers ate, using the equipment they had available to them at the time. It's fascinating to see how they were able to make some incredible foods in meager, humble kitchens.
I highly encourage you to spend time looking at all the videos, but I'm going to post the two I've actually tried (they were quite tasty).
I never knew asparagus wasn't native to North America! Also, here is a great episode (part of a series) on making Pemmican. When explorers came out into the wild, they couldn't take even basic cooking ingredients. How did they survive long trips? Pemmican. Think of it like the elvish bread Frodo and Sam ate on the trip to Mordor. There was a war fought in Canada called the Pemmican War, which plays a role in the history of Minnesota. Refugees from that crisis, and of the weather, ended up migrating out of near Selkirk, Manitoba to around Fort Snelling, and eventually became some of the first settlers of St. Paul.
Please enjoy, and let me know if you end up trying any of the recipes from the channel, and how they came out! Have a great weekend!
A friend of mine is Alice the Cook at the MN Renaissance Festival. She does a cooking show with ingredients and techniques of the time (well, probably close around that time). It's fascinating!
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