A couple of weeks ago there was a post about truffled turkey that sent me down a research rabbit hole. I thought some of you might enjoy the resulting piece of writing.

"The Lost Indulgence of Truffled Turkey."

https://historicalfoodways.substack.com/p/the-lost-indulgence-of-truffled-turkey?r=1n7r7o

I noticed a lot of restaurant menu/catered holiday meals menus in the US around 1900-1940 would have an appetizer listed of assorted olives, relishes and celery. How would this have been traditionally served? Communal plate for table, individual portion, or some other combination?

I'm looking for books about the history and culture of food - Japanese, Italian , French, etc. so far, I only found History of Japanese Food written by Ishige Naomichi but the book was published in 2001. I'm looking for something that are written in 2010 or later.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nutiE8gJ6KY

In this YouTube Short, a woman is shown to recreate a Medieval pork fillet recipe. It is roasted on a fire and sauce made from egg yolks, flour, saffron, pepper, and ginger is applied in layers. The video does not say the name of the dish. Does anyone know?

Asking as a woman that only wants chocolate around mine, and specifically chocolate not just sweets in general!

In a video about the daily Roman diet I heard "Bread for a slave" mentioned but couldnt find any source mentioning it. What was this slave bread like, how did it taste and how was it made?

I was reading memoirs of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, daughter of Nicholas I of Russia, who wrote that the court doctor prescribed her mother, Charlotte of Prussia, the following diet: "no liquid dishes, no soups, but roastbeef, mashed potatoes, milk based porridge and a bitter orange peel" (translation is by me, I'm reading this in Russian).

A friend of mine, who is dealing with modern day GIT diet, told me this does not sound healthy. I reminded her that the modern day GIT diet also bans "strong" broth, and vegetable broths would not be something anyone would want to eat outside the Lent.

Am I right in thinking that the majority of soups a Royal family could order was what would nowadays be considered "strong broth" and the diet prescribed to Nicholas I' wife actually makes sense (if only for the fact she lived 20 more years after this)?

I've run across a phone book listing for June's Kitchen, 6346 S. Kenzie mentioning "home of the Polish pizza." Just wondering if anyone has the specifics!

This was in the Heian period (794-1185) and a precursor to Honzen Ryori (本膳料理). I've seen it described as "consists of rice, raw meat, dried fish, fruit and confectionery," seasoned "with salt or vinegar by themselves because this cuisine was tasteless." However, I've just seen pictures showing cooked food that looks a bit modern and I can't find any specific examples of dishes. Does anyone know of any specific dishes or recipes that were served at these meals or know where I could find them?

Some links:

https://www.foodinjapan.org/japan/daikyo-ryori/

https://piece-of-japan.com/eating/full-course-meal/history-of-five-cuisine.html

Hello! I’m too late for this year but next year I would love to host a thanksgiving meal utilizing only foods that are indigenous to North America! Obviously, wild turkey is good to go, and I want to make acorn flour to use for crust/flour. I was thinking tying to forage American groundnut/hopniss to use as a potato fill in. What are the foods I could use that would have been available to forage, hunt, or grow in North America pre-European contact?

A random question that I've been trying to research to no avail is what varietal of apples would have been on the Titanic since we know from their menu and ledgers they DID have apples. Same with the other fruits but apples in specific have been haunting me, any educated guesses would be greatly appreciated.

For instance, if the most important foods in history were for example: wheat, meat, and salt; the tools would be a scythe(or plow?), a Shepard’s staff, and something for salt, not sure what that would be. More recently, there are certain pesticides or fertilizers that have been very impactful on food growth, but have not covered nearly as much time as the previous inventions.

I had a chance to spend some time with a mature historian, in downtown Salt Lake. He says at about 50 south main there used to be some kind of a railroad car made into a long thin dinner. It could seat about 50 people side by side.

They served pancakes. These pancakes were baked in a 3-4 inch deep sheet pan. Each pan made about 6 pancakes. The product was more cake like. It was a very popular place to each especially for miners and blue collar workers.

These cakes were more cake like than the fried bread I am used to. Anyone know of a recipe I could use to make a pan of these?

The fellow said that they used ovens that were mostly outdoors. Covered not enclosed.

Historically speaking, is grilled cheese considered a breakfast or lunch food?

My husband and I rarely argue over things, but grilled cheese has definitely been the one that keeps coming up.

He insists that grilled cheese is, and always has been, a breakfast food and refuses to eat it if its lunch time or later. He tells me how he's been all over the US and everywhere he has gone, it's been a breakfast food.

I grew up with it being a lunch thing. Like the idea of eating that much cheese in the morning is awful to me (but that may be the lactose intolerance speaking.)

So please, someone educate me on this. Tbh, he hella stubborn about it so even if I show him proof it won't really change how he feels about it and that's fine. I just want to make sure I haven't been living in an alternate reality or something for my whole life.

I was keen to find a book of recipes from pre-1500, ideally from as many different countries around the world as possible but would also consider ones from particular regions. It's for a gift for a friend, I'm doing research on my own but also interested in if anyone here has any favorites : ) Thanks

Hello,

There's a line in the movie The Taste of Things, which is largely about late 1800s French cuisine, which goes

I agree all conversation must cease when a truffled turkey appears. But this is merely veal loin with braised lettuce.

It got me curious about this show-stopping "truffled turkey" but surprisingly cannot find many references to it. There's an Escoffier recipe which calls for a whopping 2 pounds of truffles. There's mention of a dinde truffêe recipe in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book (1954) which poaches truffles in lard. There' a Gordon Ramsay recipe in which he makes a compound butter to pipe under the turkey skin. So I'm wondering if anyone knows much about this dish. Was it actually made relatively often? Would they actually use 2 pounds of truffles?

Also if anyone has tried a truffled turkey I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it tastes.

Hey all! I'm really into cooking but have limited knowledge on the history's of why things pair together and how certain cultures foods became what they are. I wanna learn more and wanna be able to implement that into my daily cooking and special dinners I do. I just wanna be able to look at a table of food and understand what I'm eating/what I'm making and be able to translate that into being able to grab random ingredients and just go for it! What books do you recommend for those types of wants?

I love the guys youtube channel, it combines two of my favorite things. Food and history.

I think the cookbook is a cool idea, being able to taste foods that people really ate in our past.

I was curious how authentic the recipes are, how researched they are if anyone knows, are they actually stuff people from this time ate? Also if they taste any good.

It's pretty cheap on Amazon right now so I'll probably end up getting it, but I was curious on people's opinions on it.

Edit: cookbook name - Tasting History by Ann Volwein and Max Miller

Currently trying to complete and assignment for uni but cannot seem to find a reputable source for information on the origins of choux pastry, I’ve read a lot of different info about where exactly it originated, I’ve heard Italy, France, Germany, England etc… I was just wondering if anyone would have anything at all on choux pastry that is reputable and is old enough to be accurate

I’m absolutely no historian I’m just a pastry chef so excuse my lack of knowledge on lingo and such, any information is appreciated!! :)

I am especially asking about how it came to be a Black soul food. When did it become popular? What part of the country? Was it always made with elbow macaroni? Who popularized that?

The Huns are notorious for lacking a written legacy, despite their impacts on history. I am working on a YouTube cooking series called Meals of Empires focusing on vegan meals that could have occurred in each of the 45 civilizations present in the video game Age of Empires 2.

My best guess is that the Huns would eat a lot of meat from domesticated animals, paired with what they could forage or raid. Please share any more insight or leads you might have. Thanks!

How did these wines from these very different eras differ in taste, production and distribution?

They'll last a bit in their shells but start to rot in certain conditions, and animals will go after them

Alright folks, you did me solid last time so here I am again! I'm looking for any wild drinks that time may have forgotten. Anything from the 1800's to the 1980's would be great. The only real criteria is that I'd like it to have more than 3 ingredients, and ideally ingredients I can actually get being someone living in this century. Bonus points if you have sources! (newspaper clippings, random magazine submissions, old bartender books, etc).

Basically tl;dr: think Dylan Hollis but alcoholic.

Most local cuisines across China, Korea, southern and southeastern Asia feature a great deal of spiciness through liberal use of ingredients such as black pepper, chili pepper, tumeric, garlic, and other similar strong flavours. Japanese cuisine on the other hand tends to be more "delicate" and "balanced" by our western standards (one might say umami?). Ingredients like wasabi or soy sauce are generally only used in moderation to add that little extra touch. I was wondering why that is - I read that one of the reasons why spicy food is so common is because it would make you sweat and therefore fight the humid heat, but Japan is also quite humid.

EDIT a possibly misguided theory I came up with is that the modern Japanese cuisine, much like the French one, is a result of central efforts at codifications which favour dishes where all flavours are balanced and identifiable, as opposed to the cuisine from other places which is more practical and reflects the habits of "the people".

I've just finished Madrid: A Culinary History and am planning to read Delicioso: A History of Food in Spain next, but any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Books in English are ideal, but I'm happy to tackle ones in Spanish as well.

Was watching a medievalesque show and genuinely wondered this. People generally say sheep and pigs were not common staples but I think they may be overgeneralizing. Could a medieval peasant have access to say sheep especially if the economy of the city he lived in relied on it ?

*SOME

Southeast Asian cuisines have been heavily influenced by Chinese (noodles, stir fry, tofu) and Indian (curry, steamed rice cakes like puto). What did ancient pre-Indianized/Sinicized Southeast Asian food look like and are there highland peoples that preserved cooking methods similar to those eaten in the distant past?

Ok, so hear me, out I came up with this insane idea for a chart:

and I know it's neither comprehensive or even entirely accurate, but it got me wondering, like, why is curry so weird and so many different things? Did all curry originate in India? And my understanding is curry is also a plant, but I think I have seen "curries" that don't even involve that plant. Help I am confused and need a history for dumb people.