Category Archives: Historic Cooking

A Rare Glimpse and a Unique Resource

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Kevin Carter

Here at Jas. Townsend & Son, we’re presently researching, of all things, the history of pancakes.  We noticed a broad range of various pancake recipes as we perused the numerous period cookbooks in preparation for our video series, but we … Continue reading →

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Baking, Bread, Historic Cooking, Ingredients, Medicine, Recipe | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

18th century Sailor’s food – Ships Provisions

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Jon Townsend

Just to give an idea of the variety or lack there of, in the 18th century sailor’s diet. Provisions listed for the British ship Bellona 74 guns in 1760 listed as provisions for 650 men for four months. Beef 5200 … Continue reading →

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Historic Cooking, Ingredients | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments

Lobscouse

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Jon Townsend

Ship’s bread or hard tack as it was known in the 19th century was a staple of the sailor’s diet in the 18th and 19th century and was also frequently issued to soldiers and used by other long distance travelers. … Continue reading →

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Bread, Historic Cooking, Recipe, Video | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

A Pork Pie with a Standing Crust

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Kevin Carter

In a previous post, I presented three common types of pastry crust used in the 18th century: the standing crust, the puff paste, and the short paste. These are fairly broad categories of crusts, and recipes for numerous variations for … Continue reading →

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Historic Cooking, Ingredients, Pies, Recipe, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Suet, Part Four: A Few Recipes.

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Kevin Carter

While perusing several 18th century cookbooks, I’ve identified and included below a selection of recipes using suet. I chose these recipes because they seem to be fairly typical representations of food categories which commonly use suet: puddings, dumplings, pastry crusts, … Continue reading →

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Suet, Part Three: Preparing it.

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Kevin Carter

Suet was apparently used both raw and rendered (refined) in 18th century cooking. While some of the original recipes specified the use of rendered suet, most seemed to leave the option open.  It is fairly common for recipes to instruct the … Continue reading →

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Historic Cooking, Ingredients, Recipe, Video | Tagged , , , | 23 Comments

Suet, Part One: Its role in 18th Century Foodways and Life

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Kevin Carter

Scan through almost any 18th century cookbook and you will find a recurring term: Suet. Suet was an important ingredient in English cooking. It’s still used today, though it seems to have reserved its spot on British grocery shelves much more … Continue reading →

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Salted Meat for a Long Journey at Sea

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Kevin Carter

I recently received an email from a fellow historical foodie, who…well, for efficiency sake, I’ll include his email message while respecting his privacy: Good evening, First I’d like to say that I watch your YouTube historical cooking videos quite avidly, … Continue reading →

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Historic Cooking, Recipe | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

The Christmas Pie

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Kevin Carter

In most English societies, for centuries Christmas has been a time of gatherings, and food, and festivities, and traditions, and family. For many people in the eighteenth century, Christmas was celebrated much differently than it typically is today. Remnants of … Continue reading →

Posted in 18th Century Cooking, Baking, Historic Cooking, Ingredients, Pies, Recipe, Spices, Video | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments