Join me for a journey through the end of old world cake to find what the first true American cake would really be.
Find out what is at the root of American cake mixes - and why it is essentially an American idea.  Just older than you think - much older than I thought for sure.

And a nice assortment of cakes you can try out to taste the early 19th century scene.

Bavarian Zwetschgendatschi (fresh plum sheet cake)

Yeasted Lincolnshire Plum Cake

Poundcake - note, No Vanilla!

King Cake - it's New Orleans, they could have Vanilla

Gingerbread Cake

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

In case you are new here - these are the NSFW Eps.  Not serious food content, fit for sharing.  Instead, we are being silly about media - mostly about the 19th Century.  Though here, about the new SHOGUN becasue - so VERY COOL!

So we've come to the end of Shogun - a story that both haunted and informed us in our younger years.  
Racist, Orientalist - as a book, YES!  But this version. as far as I'm concerned redeems the Entire Venture. 
And as a 1970's work written by a former prisoner of war during the Japanese Occupation during WW2, writing a book trying to get into the somewhat legendary history of Japan - it did what James Clavell wanted, it introduced Japan as a complex society to America and Britain and it's still sprawling empire at the time. 
Writing is hard, editing is much much easier.  Clavell's 1st try - needed some work, but somebody had to bust open the doors.  And Shogun did that.

Now - how did the Blackthorne/Anjin-san story actually end?  Unclear.  But that's fine with me.
Now let's all cheer for whatever H. Sanada has up his sleeve and hope it comes with All The Costumes.

As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
and his NEW YouTube Apprearances on Carved Outta Stone Wednesday AM or Friday PM
Schedule Details: instagram.com/carvedouttastone
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)

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

We still have all the puddings - we just came up with more awsome names for them.  

Popover is way more awesome than "drippings pudding" and nobody ever turns down a proper coconut cream pie.  And it's nice to not get confused over whether that pudding on the table is a sweet one or is it actually sausage.  
That's right - America became the disambuigation machine for puddings.  You are Welcome.

Now for some Recipes - 

Popovers:
thoroughly grease a muffin tin (12 small or 6 jumbo)
4 large eggs
1 ½ Cups of milk
½ teaspoon of salt.
mix well with beaters or in a blender
1 ½ cups of flour
mix in thoroughly
Melt 3 tbs of fat and cool slightly - add it in
mix or blend until frothy.
Take top racks out of the oven so the puffs can rise.
Let batter sit 15 mins while heating the oven to 450F/230C
Bake for 20 minutes at 450F/230C. 
Turn the oven down to 350F/180C and bake another 10 minutes. Adjust the time up for a single pan pudding, Adjust the times down for a 12 muffin tin version.  Thank goodness for oven windows and lights.  Bake 'til  puffy and browned is still the goal.  If you want to retain the puff – pierce puffs with a knife to stop deflation.

Try Cornbread Bread Bread Pudding with Pineapple, Pecans & a sauce of Butter, Brown Sugar & Rum
- follow this link to a good basic pudding with a boozy sauce, but sub in the right stuff!  I cut the sugar in 1/2 and sub in brown sugar. 
Breadpudding with Whiskey Sauce & Fruit

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

In case you are new here - these are the NSFW Eps.  Not serious food content, fit for sharing.  Instead, we are being silly about media - mostly about the 19th Century.  Though here, about the new SHOGUN becasue - so VERY COOL!

With that out of the way - Are Jamie & Greta fighting?  Is Mariko sad about her son no longer being hers - or did she just eat some bad fish, and never really cared?  

But at least everyone can agree that Yabushige is the master of the expressive grunt, even if Fuji is the queen of eye-acting.  And we all know what's going to happen to Yabu next ep.

Oh yeah... and we will be laughing at Ishido's expense as he steps on all the rakes.  Dames - can't talke to 'em, can't listen to 'em. 

Listen and find out all the ways Anjin looks ridiculous (and yet somehow compelling?) this week

As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
and his NEW YouTube Apprearances on Carved Outta Stone Wednesday AM or Friday PM
Schedule Details: instagram.com/carvedouttastone
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)

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

Why is American bread like that? Why did we swoon of "Old Fashioned Bread" during the pandemic?  What happened so that our bread is these nice neat rectangular loaves with close textured middles and soft crust perfect for sandwiches - while so much of the rest of bread world is more interesting?

The answers - surprisingly enought lie in the start of the 19th century when the New Americans got itchy feet and started to head Out West.  Not that it's surprising - but such activities were not conducive to cultivating yeast and baking the slow rise, freeform breads of the community bake oven.  That took time, and skill and babued yeast.

Instead, on the move, in a hurry, and going it alone, the quick bread, the Johhny cake, the pancake and the biscuit were all more practical (if not basically the same darn thing.)

This isn't the entire reason American Bread is like "that", but it's about half of it.  Come along, and hear the roots of some  American habits and lore.

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

This is NSFW or small children.  You know the drill.
If you want to get to the end - and to more fun stuff - go check out the regular feed at Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters.

I dunno what is up with this episode, but the comparrisons are flying fast and thick.  But what really matters is Greta's synopsis of Romeo & Juliet along with the implication that Toronaga is actually a bit of a Drama Queen and the analysis of Japanese house construction technology.

There's the problem with what happens when you do try to go home again, and what happens when going into the trap is actually the best option.  Lots goes down in this Episode of Shogun... and we are here to tell you all about it.


As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)

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

So there are a few fish we eat... and a few ways we eat them.  Breaded and fried of course, but as sushi, and then baked in the oven or fried on the stove - with this spice mix or that.  And that's... that's about it.

But what if I told you that for a time there we at lots of fish in lots of ways.  So many that it starts to sound ridiculous.

If you want to hear about all the different ways and the many different fish you could have encountered at the high point of America's fish period, this is the episode for you.  Likely far more butter sauces than you thought possible - and far more kinds of fish.

But to peek at America's fishy past, this is where you want to be.

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

This is NSFW or small children.  You know the drill.
If you want to get to the end - and to more fun stuff - go check out the regular feed at Prizefighters, Circus Freaks & Gangsters.

Curious George should have taught us - be wary of the man in the unusual hat.  But we just won't learn.
Good stories, expert kneeling and why does everyone feel the need to share their relationship woes in the midst of the most tenuous moments?
Kilingon revelations & more Zombie Buntaro for all of us to enjoy,

As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)

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

If we are ever going to cryogeneically preserve humans, we have got to learn a lot more about Oyster Liquor.  Sci-Fi aside, come along and discover how much 19th cenurty America - not just American food is built upon the oyster harvest.  Everybody everywhere was eating them - by the barrel and bucket full.  It was common to find recipes that blithely started with a gallon of oysters or a hundred oysters.  Can you imagine?

I can't. 

But follow along with Thomas G Downing as he builds his fortune and America starts to grow up with the sale of oysters for lunch and as an export food.

If you're exporting to New Jersey, you might as well head out into the world.

It's oyster time in America.

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

As long as you know... ehhhhh not so safe for work.  But this means something even when there's no ep this week!

TIme to do the WAR!

And come join us over on Prizefighters, Circusfreaks & Gangsters - so you can get to the end of the series!

Join us to find out WHO IS CORRECT!

Jamie says there's no fighting this episode.
Greta says there's lots of fighting - you just have to listen for it.

And then there's the whole thing where we discuss just how bad the YA Movies of the 1980's & 1990's screwed up the sexes abilities to ya' know... talk to one another.

Join us for this, and some music memories.

As always - you can reach us on the internets.
Jamie Lewis (plagueofstrength.com & IG @plagueofstrength)
&
Greta Hardin (The History of American Food podcast & @THoAFood all over)

Look for us weekly and on Instagram & Threads: @pcgpodcast

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