Today’s recipe is an interesting 19th century take on a classic: Gingerbread. Unlike most traditional gingerbread that is dense, dark, and heavy on ginger, this “New York” Gingerbread is soft and fluffy and has subtler flavors. When we think of gingerbread we tend to imagine little crunchy cookies shaped into little men for the Christmas…
Category: American History
A Civil War Era Pineappleade
I decided to take a break from the medieval cookery manuscripts and try something a little closer to home. Today’s recipe is a very simple infused pineapple drink that is perfect for the summer! This one comes from a book called Six Hundred Receipts Worth their Weight in Gold by John Marquart, published in Philadelphia in…
Minnehaha Cake, Chicago World’s Fair (1893)
Today’s recipe is brought to you by The World’s Fair Recipe Book by J.F. Landis, which featured over 600 recipes for food, medicine, remedies for various human and animal ailments, etc. Because it was published in April of 1893, I would assume it was sold at the Columbian Exposition (“Chicago World’s Fair”) beginning the following…
An Ox Died. The Making of The Oregon Trail
Few video games have made such an impression on generations of school children as The Oregon Trail. As an elementary student in the ’90’s I vividly recall looking forward to “computer lab,” which was basically Oregon Trail Quiet Hour with a few desperate minutes of Mavis Beacon typing lessons thrown in to justify all the wasted educational time. The…
BE MINE. Love, Esther Howland
Believe it or not, Valentine’s Day existed long before Hallmark and holiday-themed jewelry ads. Valentine greetings were popular even before roses became the “flower of love” or kindergarteners crafted valentine boxes (arguably the best activity in all of K-12). Valentine’s Day goes back to ancient Rome and early Christianity but nobody seems to know exactly…
Typhoid Mary
Mary Mallon was born in Ireland in 1869 and moved to the United States in probably 1884, if what she told her friends was true. Like many other Irish immigrants, she paid the bills as a domestic servant to wealthy families in New York. Eventually she discovered that cooking was her thing and settled into a…
