So far America is pretty hostile to everyday hunting - but for some reason we keep adding categories.

And lets face it, for a country that keeps talking about how we don't need roaylty, we do seem to keep mimicking aritocrats.

the early 19th century loves some fox hunting - so much so that we imported foxes (even though there are plenty already here).  Hunting keeps happening everyday - but we like to say it's not cool.

Unless you are doing it for leisure... or to earn money.

Yes - the early 19th century brings the birth of the Market Hunter - which needed the railroad to create itself.
The Buffalo may cease to roam - and the Passenger Pigeon darken the skies by the end of the century - but the seeds of their destruction are planted here... at the start of the 19th cenutry.

But worry not, it's not all bad news - you can still get a giant game pie.

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle

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After years of no plates, not enough plates and just enough plates - you suddenly have access to many plates and pretty plates.  What's a hostess of fashion to do?

Obviously - upend the way food is served.  Obviously if you have access to more artificial light - you can make meals longer.  Especially on dark, chilly, wet nights when no one wants to be outside anyway.

Luckily - cookbooks are up to the challenge.  With all sorts of ideas of how to roll out this new style of multi-course dining.

So come check out the complications.

And if you are interested in seeing what American pottery looked like - pre-China and pre-imported porcelain - look at the Workshop of the Poor Potter in Historic Yorktown!

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle

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Every wondered how we got into this fix of needing so many plates - or more specifically why you’re supposed to put a set of plates on a registry for a wedding that you are never gonna use?  Or at least why did people do that on the regular ,even just 20 years ago?
 
And now it means you have relatives that are trying to push off plates on to you that you never got to eat off as a kid - and now why in the world would you want to lug them around now?
 
For what’s at the bottom of these mysteries, and how we got into this fix - I look at the history of plates from my particular American Food History vantage point.

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle

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Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
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As a child reader, I always thought it was so quaint that "dinner" was this old-timey word for lunch.  It was a "Dinner Pail"  - which was a crude Indian Tiffin - only 1 chamber - vs. a Lunch Box.

But I had never spent any tme thinking about why and how Dinner was the big meal of the day, and supper was toast dipped in cooling stew.

Until I thought about it in terms of cooking in the dark.  When the sun goes down at 4:25 pm, why was anyone making all manner of food they can't see!?

But - the Whale as Light in the early 1800's started to make it's mark.  Sure factories were changing the rhythm of life, but without artificial light to support the change, it never would have taken.

The age of sail was also the Age of the Pursuit of the Whale.

So come join the chase.

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle

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Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
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Celebrate National Public Lands Day by finding a place to visit and get involved at 
NEEFAUSA.og
or
NPS.gov

And get into what was getting to be popular as vegetables in the early 19th century.

How did Avocado Toast become a thing?  
Well, it would never have gotten the traction it did with out practice runs by spinach or even more glamourously by celery.

And those would have never had a chance if not for the propensity for food fads developed by the early 19th century Americans who had lost their food traditions and were now looking for something new.

Join me on the journey to see what was cool in plant foods in the early 19th century.  We can't all be spring peas after all.

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle

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Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
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& some other socials... @THoAFood

Wake up America!  Coffee is on its way to becoming the drink of the people.  Sure Cider and Beer are out there... but coffee is coming up on the outside.

But how did one brew coffee in the 19th century?
And just how weak was it?

To find out, tune in.



Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle

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Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
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& some other socials... @THoAFood

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

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle

Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& 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

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle

Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& 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

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle

Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& 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

Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle

Substack: https://thoafood.substack.com/
Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com
Threads: @THoAFood
Instagram: @THoAFood
Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/
& some other socials... @THoAFood