Food History

Today you get a picture of my lunch. Kate and I shared a cheese from Milawa. It was a fine goat’s cheese, called Affine (does it count as a pun if you say similar things in two different languages?).

This is one of the cheeses I bought when Sharyn whisked me away from my retreat on Monday afternoon. We went to the Milawa Cheese Factory>, where I tasted over twenty cheeses. Not a bad one among them and the best were as good as anything I’ve tasted anywhere.

The factory isn’t that old (established 1988 according to the website) but they do use traditional methods, and it definitely shows. Please note that I said ‘traditional,’ not ‘old.’ (more…)

(I’m claiming quite a large area as my hometown. Deal with it.)

Sharyn Lilley here again, taking a break from Eneit Press, to annoy … er, that would be share, more recipes and history from ‘my home town’ with Gillian’s readers. I grew up in North East Victoria, nicely situated between the Rutherglen wineries, The King Valley winery and gourmet food region, the Murray River, and the High Country. I claim them all as ‘home’. The Aurealis Awards short-list has been posted here. Huge congratulations to those who have made the short list, there has been some fantastic speculative fiction put out this year. For those who didn’t make it through I’m sharing one of my favourite comfort food recipes. Normally this would mean chocolate, today’s recipe, however, is pumpkin soup. And for pumpkin soup, you need honey! (more…)

This is one of my special posts for January. Flick has written to tell us how foodways wove into her research for the first volume of the Janna Mysteries. She has also kindly donated a copy of the new edition, which has both the first and second volume. In February we might have a competition or a draw or something to find the new owner of this terrific volume.

I was her historical consultant and it is such a joy to work with a good writer who listens so carefully. I adore getting a new draft of her latest Janna book in the mail. I get to comment on Flick’s manuscripts and explain why this won’t work or that won’t work historically, then Flick goes back and sorts out how she can improve the history without talking away from the story or the characters. Often she finds a way of improving everything at once.

This post gives you an insight into how she works and how a bit of foodways can really make a difference to a novel.

“A difficulty arose while I was writing Rue for Repentance, Book 2 of my medieval crime series for teenagers titled The Janna Mysteries. In this novel, Janna is on the run and hides out in a forest. How is she to survive?

This is an example of how my writing angels ‘look after me’ when I most need information. One thing I used to do (until I discovered it was illegal!) was to pick wildflowers on my walks during my research trips in England. I’d been tramping the downs & forest all morning and, tired, hungry and thirsty, I lobbed into one of those delightful English pubs for lunch and a refreshing ale. While I was waiting, I pulled out my wilting flowers and whatnots, and my reference guide to wildflowers in the UK, and set about trying to find out what they were (and if anything was edible!)

The chef wandered out and gave me what for (that’s when I discovered that picking stuff is illegal.) When I explained it wasn’t just wanton destruction and that I had a good reason for it, he darted back to his kitchen and then presented me with a wonderful publication that was the answer to all my prayers and my problems. It’s a Collins gem called Food for Free, subtitled ‘a fantastic feast of plants and folklore’ and it’s written by Richard Mabey.

It’s divided into four sections (after an introduction): plants & trees; fungi; seaweeds and shellfish. A handy calendar at the beginning of the book lists what’s available in which months, while a list of recipes at the end promises such delights as dandelion leaf salad, elderflower fritters or cordial; fried puffball steaks, sloe gin, nettle haggis … and the list goes on.

I discovered that young hawthorn leaves are commonly referred to as ‘bread and cheese’, being such a staple in the country, while stinging nettles can be made into a soup or pureed as well as being mixed with bacon and oatmeal for a haggis. The elder is another bountiful plant with medicinal as well as culinary qualities. Elderflowers ‘taste as frothy as a glass of icecream soda’ eaten straight from the tree, and the berries are used in pies and jellies.

There are also little historical nuggets of info; apparently the seeds of ‘fat hen’ formed part of the last ritual gruel fed to the 2,4000 year old ‘Tolland Man’ whose perfectly preserved corpse was recovered from a bog in Jutland, Denmark in 1950. The leaves of fat hen can be eaten raw or cooked like spinach.

The section on fungi is very detailed, with clear instructions for picking and preparation, and also for telling the difference between the edible and poisonous. (DId you know that there are 3000 species of large-bodied fungi growing in the UK and only about 20 are seriously poisonous?)

As Janna was nowhere near the sea, I didn’t have to address seaweeds (YUK!) or shellfish (YUM!) but there was plenty in the first two sections to keep her alive in the forest for a very long time.
(What a great book to take on a camping trip in England!) ”

Felicity Pulman

PS from Gillian - the picture above ought to link to where you can buy it, since not all of you are near bookshops that sell Australian books.

PPS from Gillian. More about me and historical fiction here (but only sometimes). More about books here (all the time!). The New Year makes me feel just exceptionally helpful.

You don’t have nearly enough cookie recipes yet. I’m assuming this because all my friends who do that mysterious and little-known festival called Christmas are baking and baking and baking. Slices and biscuits and every kind of cake, as well as identifiable recipes such as plum pudding and Christmas cake.

Me? I’m taking pasta with avocado and macadamia cream sauce (maybe also artichokes in the sauce – I need to think about this) to Christmas lunch at a friends, and that’s really all the cooking I have to do.

Today’s recipes are from 1845, (more…)

So, what are the new ingedients that people fried with, and why am I so excited? (it’s my second post today and I’m excited - that says a lot)

In older cookbooks the raising agent is yeast or other substances (I’ll introduce you to the other substances one day, I promise - they’re fascinating). Today I’m introducing you to that extraordinary new stuff, baking powder.

It really is surprisingly recent and it has definitely changed the taste of our food and how we cook. I ought to do a special post about it one day. Too much food history and only 24 hours in a day: that’s my problem.

Baking powder had really good advertising. Tonight’s recipes come from The New Dr. Price Cook Book for use with Dr. Price’s phosphate baking powder, Chicago, Royal Baking Powder Co. 1921, and gives you a bit of the newness, the advertorialness and just how recently it came into our lives. Actually, Dr Price’s book is a bit deceptive, as you’ll see by the second book from tonight. Baking powder was in common use by World War I. This gives you the real Educational Stuff - never trust one source! (more…)

For a different type of fried food, let’s look at Cassell’s Vegetarian Cookery. A manual of cheap and wholesome diet. It was written by A.G. Payne and was published in 1891. It’s very much a book of the Commonwealth, rather than the US. There are some major differences in ingredients (oil instead of animal fat for frying, for instance – the simple response to this is “But it’s a vegetarian cookbook”. The thing is, though, that I’ve seen US vegetarian recipes from the same period that still use animal fat) and Payne is very full of explanations that tell us exactly how innovations affect recipes (the general techniques for sweet fritters says it all).

I’m so fascinated by the US/UK differences that I think I might do another post today, just so that you can see US and UK nineteenth century recipes back to back, and draw your own conclusions.

Piroski Sernikis (more…)

A bunch of fiction writers expressed great interest this week in knowing what food travelers could sensibly eat. This isn’t even nearly a complete answer, but it’s fascinating in its own right. What food did explorers recommend for the road a century ago?

I think this set of recipes comes from a 1908 book on suffrage for women. If it didn’t, then it mysteriously appeared in the middle of one in a document I was working on. I’ll blog more on the book itself another day. I’m putting the recipes behind a cut because there are a few of them. (more…)

I’m off to the Aussie goldfields in a few weeks for a writers’ retreat. I have some special guest posts lined up for then and of course I’ll be bringing just as much food history back with me as my brain can handle. As well as all this, I was wondering if any of you would like to go to your local markets or greengrocers (or whatever your local equivalent is) this week or the next. If you send me descriptions of what fruit and vegetables and other edibles you find, then I’ll post the descriptions in January - something for everyone to look forward to!

It’s really simple. Whererver you are in the world this fortnight, you go to the shops. You note the new season peaches or the preponderance of turkeys or the strange imports of emu from Australia. Make us hungry: tell us about the everyday food and the food that catches your eye. In January we’ll find out what everyone else has been seeing in the shops and we’ll shrink the world just a little bit.

I know some of you aren’t native English speakers. Send your lists anyway. If you’re worried about your grammar, let me know and I’ll silently correct it. If you don’t know the words in Australian English, then use the names you know.

I know it’s a busy time of year now and a quiet time then, but any emails I get (use the “contact me” link in the column on the right, under the “About Food History” description) we will all enjoy. And if you find any really, really interesting ingredients, you might spark a special post about its history. It’s been a while since I’ve written a post about a specific ingredient, so let’s see what happens.

I asked Cindy Renfrow if I could interview her for my interview series and I emailed her some questions. Instead of normal interview answers, she sent me a letter for you, so I’m going to give you her thoughts without even a proper introduction. Explaining who she is would be gilding the lily, anyhow, since she explains things so beautifully clearly. Needless to say, I own one of her books.

“Hello!

My name is Cindy Renfrow and I’m the author of A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing Recipes, and Take a Thousand Eggs or More, a Collection of 15th century recipes. I’ve always been interested in foods of other cultures, (more…)

The paths that food travel show where people get their fresh food from. You can draw circles on a map and find out just how cohesive a region is by where they get their food. That marketing is a major force in social cohesion for many people.

In the Middle Ages (more…)

This morning was market morning and all the new season’s produce is happening. Tomatoes with scent and flavour, cherries, tiny parsnips and new varieties of apples. Kate takes me marketwards once a fortnight or so, and I’m getting used to the apple guy telling me “Two weeks now and we’ll have those heritage carrots for you again. This year there’ll be multicoloured beets as well.”

I’ve blogged about the nature of farmers’ market shopping before, so you probably don’t want me bouncing up and down about how different it is to buy something direct from the grower as opposed to direct from the supermarket or local shop which gets it direct from the wholesale market or from its own suppliers which (in Canberra’s case) often means ‘fresh’ fruit and vegetables coming via Sydney. Except I’m going to anyway, because there are important historical points involved. And I’m breaking it into two posts, one of which will appear tomorrow. I have a lot to say, even keeping it not-too-technical.

The pattern of who buys what from where (more…)

I keep promising you details of the olive oil tasting. You remember, the amazing bottle of olive oil I won from Olive Oil Passion? That’s what this post is about. Not just the tasting, however, but to note that there is history in them thar bottle. All foodstuffs has history, and this particular bottle had more history than most.

Laudemio, Marchesi de Frescobaldi, olive oil from Tuscany

Tasting (more…)

Today I finally found the specimen bags I need for my teaching spices and herbs. I just labelled them and put them away. This means that instead of the next book in my ‘must-out-away’ pile, you get a small celebration of these lovely things. We even get to celebrate the ammonia, though I admit that celebrating ammonia is hard to fathom.

What did I add to my tin tonight?
(more…)

This is the second book my friend Kaaron brought me from Fiji.

Carolyn Niethammer’s American Indian Food and Lore has some similarities to Kavasch’s Native Harvests. The biggest is that it also focuses on recognising foodstuffs through botanical descriptions and pencil sketches. Or maybe the biggest is that Niethammer has taken great care with her research.

I particular adore (more…)

Today is the calm before the storm. You know, one of those days when you have things to do and enough of them so you ought to be quietly rather busy for about ten hours, but you know that tomorrow is going to be positively frantic and the day after that improbably long and busy and you just don’t want to push things? Well, today is that day.

What do I do on days like this? I invent recipes, of course, using sound historical principles. I could argue (to make everything look relevant to food history) that this is another example of how recipes change over time and new classics become established, but me being lazy doesn’t create classic recipes.

The other thing I could do is give you an entirely irrelevant foodie link to someone else’s blog, to throw you and make you think that I know what I’m, doing. I suspect that’s a good idea and I’m making sure that the link is more historical than this post.

Mind you, the fact that today my mind is less-than-focussed doesn’t mean that my cooking wasn’t historically inspired. (more…)