Preserving food, household management
Tonight’s course was very quiet. Canberra is in the middle of a rather nasty virus (the one that took me out) and so my students needed something special. I surprised them with a change in teaching plan.
What we were supposed to do this week was the effect of British politics on foodways. What we did instead was a brief overview of preserving (especially canning, so I could talk about lead poisoning and Arctic expeditions) and we looked at a few books of household management.
To my surprise, the book that attracted everyone’s attention was a rather battered 1848 Receipts book, which I just might have to photograph and blog one day. Robert Roberts was much appreciated (especially his cure for alcoholism), but not the volume everyone wanted to quietly take home. Not even the Nostradamus was as popular as that battered old list of household notions.
We ate mulligatawny soup (which is perfect for next week’s British stuff) and dolmades and met some barberries and had some fabulous icecream. I was very relieved that I could eat again (after three days of not being so enabled), with a class full of good cooks experimenting with interesting historical recipes.
Because I am in the post viral doldrums, I’m afraid I gave the class the main early ingredient of margarine and showed them a US tin (since we were talking about canning) that incorporates quicklime into the packaging. I don’t think they’ll be buying that coffee, now they know other uses for quicklime. Cannibalism got mentioned alongisde lead poisoning, too. Pity I only had two hours. Think of all the extra grue I could have snuck in.
food history, teaching, preserving methods
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