Yes yes... tasty pigs.

But as you might have gathered I'm not entirely OK right now.  Will there be a National Park Service -NPS.gov by next episode?
Will I have access to the library of congress or is it going to get "Alexandira'd"?

I don't know, but at least I do know that I can hook you up with both old school and modern methods of preserving pork when the power grid goes down.
I the mean time take care, love your local food producers and be kind.  Even and possibly especially to the people who don't eat pork.  They're fine as well - and it mean more for us ominivores.

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

Turns out all I was able to squeeze in to this episode was the fresh pork - more or less.

How to keep pork will be around next time.

But the big lesson is - boy do we need our hands held when it comes to recipes.
Is 50 words not enough for you to prepare boiled poik and pease porridge?  
It certainly isn't enough for me.  I'd be absolutely sunk.

Though it does explain why enslaved cooks could learn the recipes that were read to them out loud.  The recipes weren't that long.   Just small notes getting them to combine techniques they were already familliar with.
The woman reading the recipe probobly didn't know what it was supposed to be like either.  As long as it tasted good - that was good enough.

So come along - and be glad at the variety in your pantry.  Becasue in the 19th century - it was likely all pork a lot of the time.

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

To Market to market to buy a fat pig
Home again home again jiggety jig...

But how did those pigs get to market in the first place?

On their own 4 feet!  That's right, there's more than one way to concentrate corn down for better transport and not all of it is Bourbon / Corn Whiskey.

Also learn about how early mechanical America only kept moving due to the presence of pigs.

Big contributions to the script from Mark Essig's _Lesser Beasts_ 

Be sure to look up the Canadian Super Pigs... and the problem they are.

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 I've gone crackers.  I've wondered for awhile why it's biscuits everywhere else - but sometimes ... it's crackers.  
I mean, the most British of British claymation - Wallace and Grommit, when they go to the moon to get cheese, even they bring crackers.... not biscuits.

That, and a few other things had me wondering if crackers and biscuts DIDN'T come from the same source?  Rather did the two just meet in America.  Turns out - that's what it was.

It was Douglas Mack of The Snack Shack that got me stared with this post on biscuit and cracker mysteries of the past: The Snack That's a Secret Ingredient

And here are the llinks to @oliviacooks excellent cracker recipes made with sourdough discard:

Love & Olive Oil - 
Sourdough Crackers
Siicilian Parchment Sourdough Crackers (pane carasau)
both include a non-sourdough version.

Find out how it was New Sweden all along.  Or maybe not that... but they were involved.  Anyway, be glad your crackers have fat and leavening in them.  


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

Sure - people say America is built on A LOT of things, but the rise of Industrial America depends on two things - Bread and Steel.  Steel to make the Great American Dessert into the Great American Bread Basket - and all that wheat would make the steel of the railroad make lots of sense very quickly.

If you are curious just what steel is - and how all that early American iron is related, this is your episode.  Sure - I'm a food podcast, but this time it's all about Geology, Steel and some bread.

The King Arthur Focaccia Bread Recipe

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

For those of you listenting along at home - a little reminder, these are just filler episodes from the other podcast project I was playing around with.  If you want that feed and not this one - hop over there.

But for those of you who need something to tide you over - listen along to the Hot Nonsense (and a little Cristo Fernandez appreciation).

Again - this is not the safe for everyone part of the feed.  And some of the bonus contect will be just fine.  But this is to simply avoid a blank space if I can help it.

So carry on with the Zorro-ing and say in the comments if it's too many locations #locations #toomuch

Bust seriously - your 6 eps in to a 10 episode season and you're just going to send this many hares running in the field of story.
What Gives?
Also - Greta admits she entirely absolutely was guessing and was WRONG.
But that's happened before & will most likely happen again.


You better start paying some things off in the next few episodes.  That's all I ask. 
Oh - and don't stop delivering on the fashion.

Welcome to the messy alcoholic beverage scene in the early 19th century.  Migration, mechanization and new profit centers are all going to shift how alcoholic beverages are made and regarded in early America.  

They are less part of community exchange, and instead become part of the flow of economic life.  Any sense of aged or carefully constructed liquors will never develop.  Instead alcohol will have more of an identity as a cog in the economic wheel.
And becaseu booze is about to become big business, lots of people are going to have lots to say about it.

So to find out how messy and fast moving thing are as the split in what the north drinks and what the south drinks emerges - jump in and hang on.  There is a whole bunch of information in here.

Drink Up! 

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* is the don't listen at work part of the feed. 
I'll include this for all the naughty episodes.  And Zorro - he's a Bad Boy?  Bad Girl? 
Oh heck... it's just how bad people can be when it all becomes about money, power and entertaining TV.

So have you been following along?
Now that we have our major players set up - and the relationships are established we can really get the plates spinning:
Secret Societies - check
Love Triangle - check
Twin Brothers - check
Mysterious/Nefarious Death - check
and a SLAP! - check and check

There's some fun close quarters fighting, riding off frantically into the moonlight, and jaw clenching to beat the band.  Capt. Monestario get's to employ his jaw clenching in a range of emotional situations.
We get a doctor that washes his hands (what!?)

But most of all - Jamie and Greta hint what's next after we come to the end of the 1st season of Zorro.
So saddle up - and come along for the ride.

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)

This episode wwas one for the books.  So many many books.  
And the reading and researching of all those recipes showed me that - once again - some of the assumptions I went in with were way off!

Chicken and dumplins... dumplin - are not typical early 19th century fare.  But plenty of other stew type things are.  And there are lessons in the recipes for all us modern cooks - regardless of how we cook our stew.

The biggest big deal - brown your meat!  The other thing - freshen up your seasoning right before serving.  Do it!

But what if it's a vegetable... a meatless stew?  Well, I fear to tell you, due to the spice fearing vegetarian crusaders of the 19th century (the Grahamites and their ilk) this was a terrible time to go hunting for good American vegetable stew.  It was there, but not in any printed cookbook.  America's date with generally good vegetable cookery got badly shoved into the corner.

Sigh.

But get on board with why our stew got so bad - and how you can make yours great!

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 episode is a not a love letter, more of a crush note about Romania. 
   I’m at the point of fascination. I don’t know a lot about Romania, really, and they definitely know nothing about me, but what I got to see in a short amount of time has me wanting to know more.  
   If Romania strikes you the same way – here are all the links I mentioned to look up cool and tasty stuff. Along with the Russian History
(None of this is beng done on a promotional basis - I get nothing out of this.  I just wanted to share!)   

Perestroika 
Glasnost
Boris Yeltsin   

Step by Step Bucharest
Exodus Romania   
Irina Georgescu – Cookbooks
Carpathia 
Danube 
Tava 

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

Did you know there was no "stew" before the 18th Century?

OK - there was stew, it's just that it went by all sorts of other names.  While the concept of stew is old, the word "stew" itself is only about 300 years old.  I know I was shocked as well.

To find out about stew, gravy, soup, braise and all sorts of other words - and more importantly how YOU can make your stews better, come along and listen for a bit.

And then next week I'll tell you about all the regional styles of stew that are going to influence our national cuisine on into the future.
(Chicken & dumplins anyone?)

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