The History of American Food

Margaret Hardin

From the 17th Century to the Present. Let's dig in.

  • 58 minutes 10 seconds
    132.5 Bonus - Danderfunk, Salt Junk, & Scurvy- Cuisine Aboard Ships
    This week’s bonus episode is an interview I did with Rich Napolitano of the delightfully dark and decidedly educational podcast highlighting the Age of Sail - Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs - Tales of Mishaps, Misfortune, and Misadventures

    Bring along all the Cabin Girls & Boys - this one is for everyone.

    Rich does me the favor of quoting vivid primary sources to back up all these things I’ve been saying about food at sea. In a word: Terrible. 

    Check out Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs (https://shipwrecksandseadogs.com/blog/) to discover many more engaging episodes about tales of mishaps, misfortune, and misadventures.

    For images and sources, please visit https://shipwrecksandseadogs.com/blog/2024/11/12/danderfunk-salt-junk-and-scurvy-cuisine-aboard-ships/ For ad-free listening to Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs and many other fantastic history podcasts, subscribe to Into History at IntoHistory.com/shipwreckspod.
    13 November 2024, 11:00 am
  • 28 minutes 56 seconds
    132 Baked Beans - Boston and the Other Kinds
    Can I just be a black cat now?

    Anyway - what are Baked Beans really, how did they come about, and why, in my opinion are they America's first influential fusion food?  Also, why did America pass up the chance to become a poettery power house - and give it all up in favor of steel and glass (is it becasue we think art is secretly decadant and a waste of time?)

    Come along for the journey, give pork a chance and don't give up on mustard.  We all need it.


    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
    6 November 2024, 11:00 am
  • 1 hour 16 minutes
    Crossover… Part 14: It’s Definitely a Telenovela - Now With Twins - Zorro S1E4 on Amazon Prime
    Look - I should really plan better when I take an unexpected trip to Romania. But I did not. 

    Enjoy all the same. #NSFW
    Things just get more. More more. 


    Oh you were confused last week?  Well it doesn't get any better this week.  If anything it gets worse... more soupy, more sloppy, more salacious.

    Greta badly speaks more Spanish - but mainly in the service of the 2! DOS! Zorros issue.
    Jamie is baffled by the twins issue - not twin Zorros, just regular Telenovella twins.
    Excitement as we are in New York.  Consternation as a transit across the Panama Isthmus is proposed.
    And as always we have fun dashing about the (not actually) old Los Angeles countryside as the Mexican sway over Las Californias is in the process of being lost.  But not before we are teased with more bears.  
    When will we solve the mystery of the dang bears!?

    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)
    2 November 2024, 9:32 am
  • 36 minutes 12 seconds
    131 The Fruits and Nuts of America - The Natives, Not the Imports - 10:23:24, 12.31 AM
    Have you ever thought about how there are so few North American foods that are globally available - or even regular foods for people living in North America?
    Well wonder no more.  Or at least slightly less - and explore some of the major items that are native to Norht America, and yet almost made it to "famous because they are yummy" but not quite.  Also - what are the possible global superstars in waiting.

    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
    23 October 2024, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 9 minutes
    Crossover... Part 13: What The Hell Is Going On, 1st Installment - Zorro S1E3 on Amazon Prime
    As long as you remember... this is the NSFW Bonus part, come on along.

    We are back in Alta California when the wine was Spanish, and the churches were all adobe.  Americans were eyeing the other side of the continent... but only in a desultory manner. Snd the richest people of the land - were giant jerks with no thought of the little people actaully doing all the labor, or the local tribes who had been there for a minute.  Like a real long time.

    Anyway - if you'd like to Telanovela up your history, let's Zorro!

    What the Hell is going on?  That's the entire sentiment of this episode.
    And well, as viewers always trying to figure things out we may have brought it on ourselves.

    One approach of course is to take one story line and then make it endlessly twisty - each twist more diabolical than the last and it's some of the these post Game of Thrones shows where eventually people just can't care anymore.  The characters are so contradictory - nothing matters anymore.

    The other, more fun approach is to just keep throwing in new characters (who's Guadalupe Montero?), sting out plot points (what is up with the bear pins?) and moving the story around to new locations (how are we in New York - err Nueva York?)

    And that is what Zorro has chosen to do, because it is a fun show!  So buckle those swashes and let's go! (That will get old, I know.  But not yet)


    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)
    18 October 2024, 10:00 am
  • 40 minutes 23 seconds
    130 America Goes on a Diet - Part 1: Grahamism and the Vegetable Diet
    This week - First a tribute to the forever changed Blue Ridge Parkway.

    But mainly a look at how little American Diet Culture has changed in almost 200 years.  We came up with some very sticky ideas about how diets should work - including general cluelessness about complex ideas, fuzzy recolections of a fantastic past and the fact that you need more money than you have to follow it correctly.

    Sylvester Graham and his boring approach to vegetables is going to lead the way in how America is going to try to regain health and lose weight.

    Follow along for America's first encounter with, "you are eating wrong."

    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
    9 October 2024, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 11 minutes
    Crossover... Part 12: No Tapas, But This Has EVERYTHING Else - Zorro S1E2 on Amazon Prime
    In case you are new here - these are the NSFW Eps.  Not serious food content, fit for sharing with everyone.  Instead, we are being silly about media - mostly about the 19th Century.   And there are swears.  Sharing this becasue this Zorro series wonderful escapist nonsense.

    Catch Season 1 of Zorro on Amazon Prime Video to watch along

    This episode is where this show goes mask off and shows it’s Telenovela True Colors.

    Go watch this episode first on Amazon Prime.  Twists, Turns, Escándalo! & we just sorted out that Dani Rojas from Ted Lasso is Zorro 1.  This series is SO MUCH FUN.
     
    Jamie and Greta are here to absolutely enjoy every last minute of the escapist nonsense.  Ok Ok - not just for the fun of it, but how it shows so much of what was up in 19th century California that was not concerned with America.  Which, actually, for along time was most of it.
    So come along for the wild ride that is Zorro - in Spanish.  
    You can go the Subtitles route... or English Dub.  We are #Team Subtitles, but enjoy it your way.

    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)
    4 October 2024, 10:00 am
  • 24 minutes 27 seconds
    129 America Goes on a Diet - A History
    Women's Work - The Untold Story of America’s Female Farmers
    has its PBS Premier on September 26 on KSPS serving the Spokane, WA area!
    And heads up Western Washington - it will be out on KBTC (Broadcast Channel 28) in November 

    How long has America been following diets to improve our health and gain ever more vitality and possibly super-human powers?  Almost since the beginning of the country.
    While we seem to always beleive that the past was somehow a food golden age, the goals and targets of diets have changed over the years.

    So check out the reasons why we seem to fall for the wildest diets, and seemingly why we got started.

    And don't forget about my contribution to HotDish discovery  on TodayFood.com

    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
    25 September 2024, 10:00 am
  • 15 minutes 41 seconds
    BONUS: John S. Pemberton Sells the First Glass of Coca-Cola - History Daily
    May 8, 1886. American pharmacist John S. Pemberton sells the first glass of Coca-Cola at a pharmacy in downtown Atlanta, a drink he originally bills as a cure-all tonic.

    This week - here's a cross post from History Daily, presented by (not that) Lindsay Graham.  
    In this episode we jump ahead a very little bit to when soda fountains and health elixirs are both starting to travel across the country to change America's beverage landscape forever.

    Listen in to hear where and why Coca Cola got its start.

    On History Daily, we do history, daily. Every weekday, host Lindsay Graham (American Scandal, American History Tellers) takes you back in time to explore a momentous event that happened ‘on this day’ in history.

    Whether it’s to remember the tragedy of December 7th, 1941, the day “that will live in infamy,” or to celebrate that 20th day in July, 1969, when mankind reached the moon, History Daily is there to tell you the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world—one day at a time.

    So if you’re stuck in traffic, bored at work—wherever you are, listen to History Daily to remind yourself that something incredible happened to make that day historic.A co-production from award-winning podcasters Airship and Noiser.



    I'll be back next week with more about fish!
    18 September 2024, 10:00 am
  • 31 minutes 58 seconds
    128 Blancmange, Jelly and other Jiggly Things
    A BUSY WEEK!

    1st hooray - Women's Work - The Untold Story of America’s Female Farmers
    has its PBS Premier on September 26 on KSPS serving the Spokane, WA area!

    But seriously - let's talk about jelly.  Yeah - I definitey learned great disdain for Jell-O as I grew up - cheap and ceerful, and it seemed like tawdry empty calories.  The research for this episode showed me it has a long and proud history as an exclusive food that us moderns poorly understand.

    As an American I am incredibly suspicious of savory jellies.  I have been fooled into missing some good stuff.  How did it all go wrong?  This episode holds a few clues.
    Also - finally all those references to Blancmange in British English media will make sense to all us American English types.

    But in the meantime - check out my appearance on TodayFood.com

    And - keep your ears out for the crossover episode about the 1st Glass of Coca-Cola from History Daily and Wondery 

    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
    11 September 2024, 10:00 am
  • 1 hour 17 minutes
    Crossover... Part 11: So What if Zorro - but a Telenovela and So Much Fun? - Zorro S1E1 on Amazon Prime
    In case you are new here - these are the NSFW Eps.  Not serious food content, fit for sharing with everyone.  Instead, we are being silly about media - mostly about the 19th Century.   And there are swears.  Sharing this becasue this Zorro series is very joyously fun.

    Catch Season 1 of Zorro on Amazon Prime Video to watch along

    After watching the movie Zorro - it became clear, we need more of Zorro.  We also need more of the 19th Century Americas... from something other than the USA America perspective. Because, during the 19th century, the Americnan America was a very different shape than the USA we live in now.  There were lots of other nations in those spaces we conveniently forget about. 

    Also - the 21st century adventure and super hero stories have gotten a little... dark.  We need a little light.  Not to mention, some way better clothes.
    So get out the cape, saddle up and let's ride for better adventures with Zorro in Alta California.  A different way to pursue fashion, fighting and hey, let's have some fun.

    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)
    6 September 2024, 10:00 am
  • More Episodes? Get the App
© MoonFM 2024. All rights reserved.