Last show on the substandard mic - but the paper towel as popfilter helped some.

Let's talk tea - what tea were people drinking in the early 19th century?  The answer was almost uniformly, "bad tea".  
Ignorance lead to people needing sugar in their tea b/c they were drinking the bad stuff.  In fact a whole grade of "export quality" tea was invented to fulfill the growing global/European/American demand.  Just in this case - "expot quality" mostly meant the dregs.  Or the dust anyway.

Understanding that most tea Americans were drinking in this age was somewhere between stale and adulterated, and only became more so as time went on, the swing to coffee starts to make more sense.  It had less to do with feelings towards England, and more to do with the tea just not tasting that good.  

To understand just what tea was then, join in...

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood

First of all - sorry about the diferent mic.  But this way we get the episode.  I'll see what I can do to make things better for next ep - and all will be back to normal by the one after that.

Anyway - 19th Century Chinese Food?

What can I tell you?  It would have looked much the same as lots of the food you will find right now around the Pearl RIver Delta, the old district of Canton - now known as Guangzhou.

But this episode is not just about the food - it also looks a bit into how the US and China started dealing with each other.  How did that stream of labor from China - that would be essential in the gold fileds and then the construction of the US railroads get a foot hold in California.

While there is much made of the Chinese presence in New York - and how they influenced east coast culture - there is the less well known story of China and the early west.
So grab your dried fish, pickled vegetables, boiled millet and see what's there.



Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood

Think you're fancy with your lobster roll... or did you get it from a Massachusetts McDonalds?

All are possible... and much more - including death by lobster poisoning.

To get more of the story - tune in to early 19th century lobster

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood

Have you ever thought how we got here - that farm land is all AWAY and houses are all in close?

That products come to you... and packaging is often more important than the thing inside?
That didn't happen over night.  

The fact that farms are there, house are here, and manufacturing stuff is a third place altogether is not an accident.  Instead it's something that has been developing in America for about 200 year.

To see WHY you don't have neighborhood farms - as well as why things like setting up local recycling centers and other things that make stuff is hard - listen in to how the roots of segregated land use ties back to the early railroad.

I mean... maybe a local goat and donkey pasture wouldn't be such a bad thing?
Anyway - more Pea Patches...!
But also understand why modern American Farms Markets will always have food from hundreds of miles away.

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood

What happens when you grow more cows to make more milk to make more cheese and butter?
You end up with more oxen that can't make milk - but are useful as a source of beef.

And this works out well when you are living in a society that craves more meat, 
and are in a place with apparently wide open spaces that are just fine for feeding said cattle.

A bonus when you have lots of growing industries that are willing to buy beef from you to feed their growing ambitions - whaling, the railroad, new factories, a military pushing out the borders...

And then... you also have new technologies to cook the beef, and have come up with new flavors for seasoning the beef.

The result - American is ready to become a beefy country.


Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood

So you are a typical early 19th Century American type... 

Is there a dairy scene?  Yes.
But are you drinking milk?  Maybe... and probobly only for breakfast.
Ok... but is it Raw Milk?  Most likely not.

In the early 19th century, most milk products were at least heated (cheese) or outright cooked - almost everything else - or downright boiled - your breakfast milk.

Funny thing is, Americans have retained their passion for boiled milk at breakfast.  We just flavor it with coffee and tea now.

For more on this and how the evolution of the American Barn got us ready to have Milk Runs on trains, listen in.

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood

Check out the NCPTT... while it's still there, and maybe find an unexpectedly cool place to live.  Or maybe a cool woodworking job.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ncptt/index.htm

Hey - so were early Americans eating mushrooms?

Yeah.  But not all that much.  Just enough for a mushroom industry to spring up in the end of the century - but only in one place, and only for one kind.

But in the meantime - mushroom powder is DELICIOUS... and not that hard to make.

Recipe for 1 quart/4 cups/1 litre of Mushrooms

Clean your favortie way.  Cut or break up.
Combine with:
1/2 tsp mace (or slightly less nutmeg)
5 cloves
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp pepper (or more depending on your tastes)
1 Tbs salt
1 small onion quartered (or half a large one)
1 Tbs fat (butter or your favorite oil)
1 Tbs vinegar (white/rice/apple cider all good choices)

Heat over medium-low heat to sweat the mushrooms.  When mushrooms have withered - take off heat.  Squeeze out all the liquid using lint free tea-towel.

Save liquid, reduce by 1/2 - Mushroom Ketchup!
Remove large spices and larger onion pieces.  Spread out on drying tray.
Dehydrate to crispy. (Dehydrator - or 200F/100C for a few hours)
Crush to powder in favorite appliance.


Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood

While last episode was drowning in information - this week when hunting down mushroom info... it's a bit of a desert.  But no worries, there's still fun stuff to be learned - mainly just what is a mushroom?  And how have humans crossed paths with it - in ways besides tripping out?

Also - how is the lack of information and the limited presence of mushrooms in AMerican food related?

Some answers are here.

Also - The Fantasia clip of Tchaikovsky's "Chinese Dance" will let you see (among other things) open and closed mushrooms - the "li'l-est" one with it's veil more or less intact

Also - that in the 1940's Americans were pretty mushroom clueless

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood

This week - it’s time to look at the connection between westward American Expansion and the apple. How is the apple all tangled up with our creation of the  19th century tall tales we started to tell on and about ourselves?
So get ready for a visit from some of the features/specters of that myth making that inhabited a huge part of the 20th century.
 
Links:
Johnny Appleseed Cartoon (1948) 
Paul Bunyan Cartoon (1958) 
John Henry Cartoon 1 (1973 – narrated by Roberta Flack)
John Henry Cartoon 2 (2000 - Disney)
Pecos Bill Cartoon (1948) 
Davy Crockett Disney TV show Theme Song (1954 – This is… OOoooF rough) 

Iriana Geogescu's plum dumplings you can use with apples.  Or apricots of course.  

 
Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood

As odd as it sounds, there was a time in American Food before oatmeal.

And while that's wild on it's own, even more impossible to imagine is how much of agriculture used to be dedicated simply to growing food to feed the animals that allowed you to run the farm.  Having solar panels and biodigesters to create power on the farm now is pretty wild... but it wasn't that long ago, all things considered when all the energy used on a farm was grown... on the farm!

But it does help put into perspective how much energy it took to simply grow enough food for the farm - and then a little more to sell.  The surplusses we have now - simply NOT possible.

To learn about the origins of 40 acres and a Mule - no the earlier origins... and how 160 acres would become the standard for American farms, tune in, and marvel at the idea of the oatmeal raisin cookie - and how far away it is from it's high end hose food origin.

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
& some other socials... @THoAFood