Over the next several weeks, we’ll be looking back in the Dispatches archives to replay a selection of notable interviews. In this episode, first aired in March 2019, host Brady Crytzer interviews writer, culinary historian, and educator Michael W. Twitty, about the legacy and influence of enslaved Africans on American and world culture and cuisine. He is […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and managing editor of the Journal of the American Revolution, Don N. Hagist, about the fascinating story of Martha Bradley and her influential eighteenth-century book, The British Housewife: or, the Cook, Housekeeper’s, and Gardiner’s Companion. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews educator, US Army and US Air Force veteran, and JAR contributor, John L. Smith, Jr., about the role Thomas Jefferson may have played in introducing fried potatoes—“French Fries”—to American cuisine. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is […]
In her recipes for November, Martha Bradley included only three for “Confectionary,” all of them jellies or custards. Her pies were savory, and her section on baking discussed only pigeons and larks. No cakes, biscuits, tarts or candies for this month. The desert table, if based strictly on the 1756 The British Housewife: or, the […]
To accompany our roast, Martha Bradley in her 1756 work The British Housewife: or, the Cook, Housekeeper’s, and Gardiner’s Companion included recipes for stews, savory pies, dinner puddings, soups, sauces, and savory jellies called cullisses. She did not neglect side dishes of vegetables, one of which was the Savoy cabbage: Forced Savoys Chuse a Couple of […]
Yesterday, Martha Bradley, in her 1756 publication The British Housewife: or, the Cook, Housekeeper’s, and Gardiner’s Companion, explained to us the various poultry available in the month of November. Rather than presenting separate recipes for each bird, her November section on “Cookery” offered this one: To roast Fowls in the Italian Way. Chuse for this Dish […]
Autumn is when many North Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, a tradition that dates back to the Reformation in England in the sixteenth century. Journal of the American Revolution has a tradition of presenting articles about food during the week of Thanksgiving in the United States. In 1756, Martha Bradley published a weekly series of pamphlets titled […]
JAR: In a nutshell, can you give us a basic overview of The General’s Cook? RG: The General’s Cook is about George Washington’s enslaved chef, Hercules, a man who was known in his own time for his skills in the kitchen. I often call him America’s first celebrity chef. By period accounts, he was something like an […]
He may have beaten the British, but by the time George Washington became president, his sweet tooth (singular tooth)[i] for tasty desserts had not yet been conquered. Puddings, jellies and pies had been commonplace dessert offerings when George and Martha entertained at Mount Vernon, which they did before and after the War for Independence. But […]
All of that great eating on Thanksgiving Day sometimes has natural consequences that lead us to seek entirely different recipes for Friday. If we’ve time-traveled to the mid 18th century and are relying on published cookbooks for information, we’re in luck: most books containing recipes were not strictly cookbooks in the sense that we know […]
What to serve for desert after a Thanksgiving meal? Pumpkin pie, obviously. Unfortunately for the revolutionary-era aspiring chef in America, pumpkins are plentiful but pie-making recipes using them have yet to be published. Indeed, one of the most widely-printed British cookbooks said that “The Pumpkin is a very ordinary Fruit, and is principally the Food […]
Yesterday we saw how to roast a turkey according to a popular 18th century cookbook. It wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving dinner without turkey, but it also wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving dinner without an assortment of tasty dishes to go with that luscious bird. This is where preparing the meal in accordance with published period recipes […]
It’s the time of year when Americans are musing over favorite recipes for Thanksgiving meals. Everyone has a favorite dish and there are countless family traditions, but the undisputed king of the holiday table is the turkey. This tasty fowl is also a cook’s challenge, because whole turkeys are seldom served in the home at […]
Although many immigrants to the American colonies enjoyed a richer and more varied diet than they had in their home countries, as evidenced by the relative height of European-born and American-born men[i], across much of inland New England, with trade disrupted by the Crown’s blockades and other military action of the Revolution, the most reliable […]
We’ve all had to “eat humble pie” at one time or another, a saying that hearkens back to the medieval period, when the term meant that one was eating a dish made with the scrap meat from a successful hunt or slaughter[i]. Where the master of the house might get a fine roast, the servants […]
These articles have, to this point, focused on reproducing the meals of our Revolutionary-era forefathers with all of the conveniences of the modern kitchen. However, it is important to remember that the cooks of those days prepared all of these wonderful foods using wood fires and cast iron. When Daniel O’Neil, Executive Director of the […]
Although often overlooked, New Orleans, as a Spanish colonial city, was the site of pivotal events in the war for American independence from Great Britain. As detailed in an earlier article published in the Journal of the American Revolution, it was here that Bernardo de Galvéz vaulted onto the scene. He rose from his role […]
While it is a shameful chapter in our national past, the fact of slavery during the Revolutionary Era is inescapable, and part of understanding how the people of this nascent country ate is exploring how the slaves were fed. Sources are exceptionally scarce and contemporary recipes are nonexistent, but we can reconstruct some idea of […]
Most of us learned the song “Yankee Doodle Dandy” as schoolchildren, and many of us puzzled over the reference to macaroni in its lyrics. How could one confuse a feather for pasta, and did they even have macaroni back then? The short answer is, “yes,” but short answers are rarely as interesting as long ones. […]
Over the course of time, many fashions change. The hem lines on women’s skirts rise and fall, folks give up hula-hooping for jogging, and emus replace llamas as the trendy exotic livestock to raise. So it is with food fashions, as well. Reading “receipt books” – cookbooks – of the Revolutionary era, one is struck […]
One of the best ways to get a visceral sense of what life in the Revolutionary Era was like is to eat the foods that they ate. Of course, there are challenges in this endeavor, not the least of which are changes in ingredient availability, cooking technology, labor availability and the overall culture of food. […]
