Posted on 12/06/2016 10:33:08 PM PST by nickcarraway
Sarah Lohman has made everything from colonial-era cocktails to cakes with black pepper to stewed moose face. She is a historical gastronomist, which means she re-creates historical recipes to connect with the past.
That moose-face recipe dates back to the 19th century, and it wasn't easy. She recalls spending hours trying to butcher the moose from Alaska in her kitchen in Queens, New York. She tried scalding the face in hot water to remove the fur, but it didn't quite work and her apartment stunk of wet moose.
But "at the end of the day, people showed up and ate it, someone actually liked it, and then we ordered a pizza," she says.
Spurred by her friends' enthusiasm, she started a blog. "Every time I made something, a conversation would start. It was just this gateway ... as soon as they were eating, they were asking questions," she says. "They loved the good recipes and the schadenfreude of the bad ones."
Lohman's work got her wondering about the flavors that represent American cuisine and where they came from. That's the subject of her new book, Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine.
"Chili powder spread across the country because of entrepreneurial Texan-Mexican women who fed soldiers and tourists, and a clever German immigrant who was looking for a culinary shortcut," Lohman writes. Peter Van Hyning She made a list of common flavors from many historical cookbooks, and used Google's Ngram viewer to count how often the various flavors were mentioned in American books from 1796 to 2000. Eight popular and enduring flavors emerged: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG and Sriracha.
"I didn't so much choose the flavors that appear in this book, as discover them," Lohman writes.
Researching the book "really upended my idea of these flavors that always stood on the shelf in my kitchen," she says. "I would always pick up a pepper grinder or a bottle of vanilla extract and would never think about what it was and where it came from."
Many historical recipes don't exactly work now — like one for black pepper cake from Martha Washington. Lohman says the original recipe is "really gross" because it used as much ground spice as flour.
She reworked it for our modern tastes, and says more people should be open to adapting recipes to taste rather than following instructions to the letter.
"I find when I'm teaching cooking classes ... my students are often afraid of doing something so massively wrong in the process of cooking that will be irrecoverable that they don't even try in the first place," she says. "I would love to get back to a world where we can be a little bit more relaxed and confident in the kitchen."
But Lohman quickly discovered there was much more than translating historic recipes for modern use: "I didn't realize I was going to be telling the story of disenfranchised people in America throughout history."
She says food study "wasn't really seen as a real way of looking at society and culture" until recently, because it's mostly a history of women, slaves and immigrants — "the people that have been cooking for the people that have been enfranchised for the past 200 years."
She hopes the book is "a successful ode to these people that have affected our history in this country just as much as the establishment, but up till this point, have not gotten the attention they deserved."
For instance, "vanilla is here thanks to a 12-year-old slave who figured out a botanical secret no one else knew. Chili powder spread across the country because of entrepreneurial Texan-Mexican women who fed soldiers and tourists — and a clever German immigrant who was looking for a culinary shortcut," she writes.
Slave Edmond Albius and a vanilla plant: "Vanilla is here thanks to a 12-year-old slave who figured out a botanical secret no one else knew," Lohman writes.
One story that stands out to her is the creation of Sriracha, which, according to the book, has "seen a meteoric rise in popularity" since its debut in 1980. Lohman notes sales of bottled Sriracha exceeded $60 million in 2014.
She calls it a "quintessentially American story" — founder David Tran is ethnically Chinese, but he is also a Vietnamese refugee. He combined elements of French and Thai cuisine, using peppers grown on a farm north of Los Angeles to make a hot sauce produced entirely in Southern California.
After the Vietnam War ended, the new government systematically targeted and forcibly expelled ethnic Chinese from the country, while charging each person $11,500 for the "privilege" of leaving. Tran, along with his immediate family and more than 3,000 refugees, boarded a Panamanian freighter called the Huey Fong.
After arriving in the U.S., Tran needed to support his family. He was a hot-sauce maker in Vietnam, so he decided to try that in his new home. Now Tran's company is called Huy Fong Foods.
"This ... says immigrants are our culture; they are who we are," Lohman says. "We have to broaden our idea of what an American is."
She points out the Italians, who brought us garlic, were initially "considered a separate race of people that were damaging to the climate of our country."
She says that attitude is still playing out today.
"Food is something that is often accepted in this country before we accept the immigrants themselves. ... We happily buy hummus in our grocery store, but in the meantime, they were going to ban Muslims from entering this country."
K. I will keep that a secret. LOL!
Gee...I wonder if we can submit Amazon reviews for this?
;D
/brutally peels a banana, while scowling
;)
Probably vinegar [something artsy and artisanal, no doubt] or lime or lemon.
:)
What kind of salt? There are many different varieties of salt that it could blow your blood pressure just like a pressure cooker! Did that make sense? Getting late!
Ice cream was one of Dolly Madison's favorite deserts to sever at dinners at the White House; for crying out loud!
Soy Sauce has been used for over 200 years here? I don't believe that is true at all!
I’ve been eating middle eastern food forever since it is Israeli food. Then we met a lot of Armenians and dang if they didn’t eat the same foods! And none of us are Muslim. But I’ve traveled to many Muslim countries and eaten delicious stuff there, too.
You sound like me. I don’t think I go a day without basil in at least one meal or snack. I actually grow a lot, use it fresh, dehydrated and freeze some but still buy it dried in bulk for when I run low. I am going to remember “green toothpaste” for the grandkids. The 2 plants they’ve all learned to recognize as toddlers are mints and basil. Have 21 grandkids and almost all will pick basil or mint leaves to eat as they play outside.
Feed it to the snakes! :-)
Not surprisingly, I like that Celtic Sea Salt stuff they’re pimping, lately and also, the pink Himalayan salt.
They’ve both got a crisp, fresh, complex flavor, unlike just...”salt”.
:)
Yes, that too. :-)
If you watched ‘How It’s Made’ when they do a soy or Worcestershire sauce episode, you would *never* use either, again.
*hint: there’s an awful lot of “carefully controlled decay” involved
:D
I use white vinegar as a cleaner. Love apple cider vinegar for cooking. Then there is basalmic vinegar, and all the rest with flavorings.
Sadly, there's no other way to get the nutmeg into/onto something, except to shred your knuckles too. I wish there was, but IF there is, I don't know of it.
As if they’d eat that crap.
Hell, even Camo, my Chameleon eats specially “loaded” crickets and superworms.
Although, they do sell Crickets In A Can for other reptiles.
*ew*
LOL..oh you can spread that “secret” around. :-)
No CHeese??? No SYrup??? No SHrimp??? LOL
I'm not sure how to do it, but we all should write just what we think of her crappy, specious, stupid book.
:-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.