How did Appalachians make buttermilk biscuits in the 19th century?

My basic assumptions that I am starting with are:
a) almost all US homes have ovens
b) traditionally, Chinese homes do not have ovens

Today this is reflected in different home cooking styles. But if you go back before 1800s, there are no ovens in anyone's home. So why did the west come to widely adopt the oven?

Is it about availability of materials? Was it that the stovetop was developed first, and the oven become an obvious addition? Something about homesteading life that made ovens more essential? Or was it just that cooking style in the west at the time was already more amenable to an oven?

EDIT: just to be clear I'm talking about ovens inside the home, vs say an oven that would be used by a community.

Know that they made at least twenty barrels using Florida muscadine grapes, even giving some to Captain John Hawkins, but how would they have made it? What was winemaking like at that time?

Long time lurker, first time writer!

I’m a market farmer, so my interaction with food is usually before it hits the plate. I come from a long line of coal miners, and one of the reasons I do what I do is because I grew up on stories of how important growing food was to life in the western coal camps of old.

I’m currently researching how people fed themselves in the coal camps—hunting, fishing, foraging, perennial crops, annual gardens etc. Looking hard specifically at the 1890s-1950s, as that’s the time the camps in my region were running; focusing on New Mexico and Colorado because that’s the documents I have access to (through libraries, etc)

Which is to say: I’d really appreciate if anyone had leads to that effect. It’d be wonderful to work backwards from recipes/cookbooks to see how they were sourcing ingredients. I realize it varies wildly, particularly by ethnic group!

TLDR: What did miners eat?

So I know that when Americans were first introduced to Italian cuisine they made some changes to it like making it blander than traditional Italian food and introducing new dishes like Chicken Marsala, Garlic bread, fettucine alfredo, and pepperoni pizza.

But how did the locals in France, Brazil, and Argentina react to Italian cuisine? And what changes did they make to Italian cuisine that made it different from traditional Italian cuisine?

I have an interest in learning more about the history of recipes that are stuffed in ingredients that are inedible when raw for example like grape leaves being stuffed with meat and/or veggies and the ideas/potential process of figuring out things like grapes leaves are edible after cleaning, deveining, and cooking them.

For at least 4 generations (back to early 1900s or before), my family has referred to candied ginger as Hot Dollah. I'm wondering if any food historians have run into this expression before? Or do you think it more likely this was a family joke where we've forgotten why (I could see a kid thinking they looked like old gold dollar pieces). This came out of New England, possibly with a Quebec or Irish connection.

Hoping to someday run into someone else who uses this expression!

I'm a writing a story with a character from Frankfurt Germany and I like to give my main characters 3 favorite foods rn I have Black Forest Cake, Rindswurst, and Jagerschitzel but I'm not sure if any of those were around/popular at the time and region

Hi!

I've been reading on the "dangers" of double-dipping, so the act of dipping a piece of food in a communal/shared sauce, eating a bite, then dipping it again. Most of the sources I found say the term was either coined or at least popularized in 1993, by the sitcom Seinfeld. It got me thinking :

1. Was the term really coined in 1993, or was it in use before?
2. Even if the term wasn't yet invented, has there always been a cultural disapproval about double-dipping? Or is it a relatively new concept, linked with the discovery of microbes, or something else?

Thanks!

I mean we in India literally call black pepper as miri and green chili as mirchi, and yet there is no connection between the two. Given that it's not even native and Portuguese introduced it, it baffling its not some iteration of Pimento but instead taking after USA and calling it pepper as well.

I'm interested in the use of salt as a function of recent time.

My perception is that most Americans under salted through the 1950s while cooking although some people made up for that on their plates. It is my perception that sometime in the early to mid 2000s the pendulum began to swing, accelerating with burgeoning food blogs and the onset of cable food channels. I think that currently Americans over salt pretty much everything.

I don't trust anyone, including myself. Is there credible data to support or refute my observations?

As the title says, due to a time traveling main character, modern day potatoes are introduced to the Mycenaeans. Thousands of years before the potato even makes it to the region and the rest of the world. How could this change the climate of dishes in the region and even in possibly Europe and the other continents and cultures?

Hi how are you guys? I’m a professional chef and I recently found out that food anthropology is a career field. It sounds like something that I’d be super interested in and to be frank it sounds a bit easier on the body than being a chef. For those that work in that field, how is life like? What do you do an a weekly basis and is a PHD required to work in this field?

If I may ask a food related question, for those that focus on eastern cuisine and history, do you think the impoverishment of the late Qing dynasty, KMT and continued impoverishment of the communist rule has deal a large and significant blow to Chinese cuisine as a whole? And which types of cuisine do you think were affected most?

I ask because modern fruits likes lemons, watermelons, apples, etc... are the beneficiaries of millennia of selective breeding. Even modern cattle breeds are a fairly recent creation with the crossbreeding of select cattle breeds looking for heavier milk production or tastier meat.

But would that have been possible with fish like cod or tuna? I know aquaculture is a thing, but would it have had the sort of impact like making wagyu breeds a thing?

I'm wondering, before rice ever made its way to Europe, if Scandinavians had a similar porridge dish, if so which grain would it likely have used?

I know that the living arrangements meant that most people didn't have a kitchen, and the thermopolium were very popular, but I've noticed at the Pompeii sites that there is very little room for patrons to sit: so where were people taking their meals? Was there seating? Would they eat in the plazas? Is there any record of people going outside the city, or any form of public gardens, for picnics?

The medieval French and English famously cooked vegetables and fruits which were safe to eat raw when sanitary, so the knowledge that raw foods carried risk of contamination isn't new.

But from steak tartare to sashimi, raw foods remained desirable despite the risks. And cultures who ate raw foods did prohibit or advise against the sick or infirm from eating them. This was even during periods when fuel, time or space for cooking was not at a premium. While indulging in exotic food on a dare isn't unknown, eating on a almost regular basis raw foods when sanitation can be unreliable seems risky. Did any pre industrial culture attempt to ban consumption of raw meat and fish? How successful was it?

I was watching a historical fantasy anime recently. In this kind of alternate universe history, kind of medieval period, the culture of the protagonist boils vegetables as part of their diet. And then they throw away the stock because they think it has no use.

Which boggles my mind.

Because soup exists in this culture. So to me if you know what soup is then you would understand that boiling ingredients, particularly vegetables, is giving you another food item, not food waste.

But maybe I'm wrong and this has some historical precedent?

Until early 2010 fats were the worst thing that you could put in your mouth if you wanted to lose weight. What changed culturally and scientifically to get to the current low-carb high fat approach of diets such as keto or paleo?

Both Japan and Korea are situated in cold regions like Britain and the Netherlands, making it harder to grow crops year-round.

Both Japan and Korea have workaholic countries like Britain and the Netherlands, making people care less about eating good.

Japan also had a law banning excessive usage of spices because Japanese Buddhism bans it.

Both Japan and Korea suffered heavily from WW2 with many years of rationing.

However, Japanese and Korean cuisines are well-renowned while British and Dutch cuisine are universally mocked.

Why is this the case?

recently read an article about african cuisine that said "cooking techniques such as frying, steaming in leaves, grilling, roasting, baking [and] boiling" were transferred during the columbian exchange, but due to the phrasing i'm unsure if they meant from africa or to africa.

could anyone give me some clarification on this? :) those are very basic (from a modern perspective) ways of cooking so i'm really curious! thank you!

From what I know, the most relevant fat used in Western mid-southern Europe was historically fat pork (because of better resistance to warm temperatures). In Spain a lot of historical pastries are still made with fat pork (ensaïmada, polvorones, coca de llardons, etc).

However, in France even pastries with a long-life tradition (before 1800s), such as brioche, mille-feuille or croissants were made with butter. Same with panettone and colomba in Italy.

When did butter become relevant in some West-European countries (especially France) and substituted lard as the main fat?

A buttercream frosting made with butter and powdered sugar without eggs is typically called American buttercream but most British and Australian cake recipes I've seen online use the same type of buttercream which makes me question if it's actually American or not.

If it is American, why did British home bakers adopt American style buttercream instead of European style buttercreams? I'm assuming that before mass communications British cuisine would be more influenced by continental Europe than by the United States.

If it's not American then where did it actually originate and how did it come to be called American?

I’ve heard it said before that French cuisine and culinary techniques has its roots in medieval peasant dishes; French people during those times lacked variety and quality of ingredients, so they had to create dishes that relied on novel cooking techniques, which has influenced French fine dining today. While this sentiment is very romantic, I’m wondering how much of it is true, as I haven’t been able to find any sources suggesting it. On the contrary, I have found articles describing that the sophistication of French cuisine comes from recipes served to French nobility at lavish banquets thrown to impress their wealthy guests, which carries a different sentiment altogether.

I’m hoping someone can help clarify these points, and provide sources if possible :)

For me, it would be bringing dumplings to England, just to introduce spices to their palate

I ask this cuz I was curious about the food eaten by different ethnic groups and nations

Especially when I'm interested in authentic culture in general that was practised before modern colonialism. For me, modern culture is more artificial and homogenous.

When I searched for Native Americans, I couldn't find a lot. I could only find fry bread, which is only eaten as a result of oppression from colonisation.

But when I searched pre colonial food, all that I could find are specific crops that they ate. Are there no records of specific meals and recipes, unlike in India and China? Or did they really not have a sophisticated culinary culture?

When I searched for Native Americans, the results were mostly about indigenous people of the USA, but I'm interested about cultured of all the people's of the Americas.

I recently stumbled across a YouTuber who has been documenting his Cantonese chef Dad's cooking know-how (Made with Lau). Prior to this channel, his dad would cook intuitively, without any documentation.

Is anyone aware of similar resources that document the oral know-how of older generations?

I'm interested specifically in the documentation of oral cooking knowledge of individuals who are 50+ years old, across the "Global South" & historically marginalized communities in the "West".

The Yamato had a reputation for serving rations far superior than any other vessel in the Imperial Japanese Navy. But considering the far superior US logistical train, how did the Yamato's menu compare to say, the USS Iowa or the Enterprise? Did capital ships in the USN even have better food than say a heavy cruiser?

I was researching history of Hummus and found the following comment in a food history encyclopedia. "The earliest recorded recipe for Hummus Kasa is an anonymous 13th century Cairo cookbook Kitab Wasf al-Atima al-Mutada."

Is anyone aware of this book and could share the hummus recipe?

This is less a question and more of a request for food historians. I am performing research at the University of Central Florida through critical making with a digital public history project called The Historic American Recipe Marginalia Archive.

I am asking for those interested to submit examples of handwriting found within historical cookbooks and other cookery texts to be part of a public digital archive. This is a public project meaning anyone may submit.

The objective of this project is to create a collaborative public-facing online archive that identifies largely unindexed examples of cookery marginalia so they may be indexed and accessed digitally as support of the presence and historical contributions of mothers, parents, homemakers, cooks, and others who labored within the home, for the benefit of the household. The examples collected and presented support histories of the private sphere of the historical American household between the 1700s and 1928.

Handwritten marginalia can be understood as writings found within the margins of documents. This project focuses on these handwritings found within commercially published historical American cookery texts. These marginalia can be in the forms of full recipes written within already published cookbooks, periodicals, and pamphlets. But it may also exist as corrections and alterations to published recipes, commentary and other notes surrounding recipe texts, illustrations, sketches and doodles around cookery text, and marks within cookery publications that denote the ownership or gifting of the texts and areas of emphasis and importance.

This is an exercise in community critical making and public history; that is, learning and researching through the collaborative creation of things. I encourage anyone who is interested in contributing to this archive to submit examples of marginalia that you have found in American cookery publications from between 1700s and 1928. These could be found in your own personal collection, at a physical library, or from already digitized historical publications within other online archives that have not been indexed and are therefore not searchable.

If you are interested in helping build the objects and collections within this archive by submitting examples you have found, please visit the below Qualtrics form. Thank you.

https://ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5pT6auaj45bUHwq

The archive is currently under construction and can be accessed at:

https://recipemarginalia.omeka.net/