As The Historical Cooking Project passes 230,000 views, we want to celebrate our last 1300 days and over 180 posts!
Founded in November 2013, The Historical Cooking Project began with monthly bilingual (french and english) meetings where members would cook recipes from a chosen cookbook using the culinary techniques (when possible) of the same time period as the book’s original publication. For the first eighteen months of the organization, we surveyed recipes from many different time periods and continents. The initial editorial board consisted of Alex Ketchum, Carolynn McNally, Emili Bellefleur, and Kathleen Gudmundsson. Over time we grew interested in exploring new aspects of historical cooking and foodways and as a result, the content and scope of the blog has grown beyond the initial focus on cookbooks.
Check out our past posts on the cookbooks:
Catherine Parr Traill’s Female Emigrants' Guide (1854) Canada
Nicolas de Bonnefons’ Les Délices de la Campagne (1654) France
The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook (1950) United States
Le Livre de la Nouvelle Mariée (1934) Quebec
Gervase Markham’s The English Housewife (1615)
Auguste Escoffier’s Le Guide culinaire (1903) France
Amelia Simmons’American Cookery, or the art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plum to plain cake: Adapted to this country, and all grades of life. (1798) United States
Salvador Dali's Les Dîners de Gala (1973) Spain/ France (which we did before this year's reprint)
Pellegrino Artusi's La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangier bene (1891) Italy
Fannie Farmer's The Boston Cooking School Cookbook (1896)
The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food (Книга о вкусной и здоровой пище), (1939) Soviet Union
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Special Topics
Special Topics
We have also have had a series of special topics posts such as:
The State of Scholarly Food Blogging (which has made it on at least one university syllabus!)
Acadian food history/ Arsenault
Early modern literature and food
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Guest Posts
One of the most exciting aspects of The Historical Cooking Project is the guest posts from our wonderful contributors. Here are a few:
The Norwegian National Archive's “Corent Sukker Brød” (Currant Sugar Bread)
Miguel Esquirol Rio's very popular post on Ancient Egyptian Bread
Peter Hynd on Distilling in India
Luke Ryder on Butchery in Slovakia
Sam Mongeau's series on eels in New France
Geoff Wallace on colonialism, pigs, and Mexico
Marie-Louise Ermisch on Oxfam's Cookbooks
and many more!
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These links are just a start. We have produced over 180 posts over the years and there are more to come! We have been able to share the work of scholars around the world and eaten quite well during the process.
These links are just a start. We have produced over 180 posts over the years and there are more to come! We have been able to share the work of scholars around the world and eaten quite well during the process.
Finally, we would not be the blog that we are without you, our loyal readers. Thank you for your support over the past three and a half years.
Now let's get cooking!