And no, they are not equine tooth extractors. :)
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."
My mom always sprinkled paprika on her potatoe salad as well as her deviled eggs.
She used it on several dishes which now escape my memory.
We were too poor to afford anything remotely connected to maple syrup.
It was Karo syrup for pancakes and French toast.
Now the dang Karo is so expensive I can’t afford THAT.
No cinnamon?
No salt and too much SJW wrapped into this. Things created in 1980 don’t qualify as defining American Cuisine historically in my opinion (and I know what opinions are worth).
Where’s the bay leaf? Where’s the red crab boil? Nothing from a gumbo or a chowder? How about tomato flavoring/catsup/ketchup? No mustard? How is MSG a flavor and not a flavor enhancer?
Keeping my head down, this is a dangerous thread. :)
I haven't had a good moose face in years. I prefer it deep-fried. Seriously, I remember reading somewhere that it was Michelle O's favorite dish. You know what they say: You are what you eat.
Around 6 months ago in my local supermarket here in Queens, NY, in a neighborhood of now mostly spanish and chinese, was an entire pig's head in with the normal pork products. The neighborhood, which I've for just around 2 years, has come a long way over the decades when it was largely Italian.
As an aside, there is a street a block away named "Justice". Found out a couple months ago it was named after Justice Scalia who grew up here in the 50s.
Yeah, I understand that. The ‘old man’ was a government employee, so proximity to the Fort Meade area was crucial.
I stewed a moose once that bit my sister.
In all honesty it was a nasti dish.
Yes, and mentioned in my link above, for those who may not know. :)
The bigger puzzle is why we are still known as the *Constitution State*. {{{GUFFAW}}}
I haven’t had a dish of hummus blow up and kill everyone in the room yet, so hummus can stick around.
And no, they are not equine tooth extractors. :)
Oh, OK, I hadn’t followed the link. (I don’t follow very many links in comments; it takes a lot of time.)
Sriracha? Really? It has defined American Cuisine?
Well, at least you *read* the comments. :)
Carry on
Just ordered a sample of her book for Kindle!
I love books on spices and old recipes!
We were the only ones there, and it was a hot, hot July day in the middle of the week. They brought us into a room, opened a fridge, and asked us what we wanted. Ten-Penny Ale, Moosehead, and half a dozen or more other names I never heard of. Ice cold, we would drink a bottle, and they would give us another!
Needless to say, when we walked outside, we had more in us than we should have. We jumped in the car and drove back to the camp ground, passed out inside that tent. I'll tell ya, sleeping inside a tent in 90 degree weather in the middle of the day with a few drinks...it sucks when you wake up. Doesn't feel good.
How times have changed. They didn't check ID. They didn't limit us, we could have as much beer as we wanted...now THAT was a brewery tour!
I have a nylon Moosehead duffel I got there, and I still have it. I think that has done the equivalent of traveling around the world several times over...:)
Sarah Lohman once again provides us with a mosaic view of her interpretive misunderstanding from inside the urban bubble she inhabits.
Pure schlock and jigsaw puzzlebug.
That is precisely what I needed...or a ball peen hammer, chisel and a flat rock..
;)
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