A Culinary Road Trip at AAS

We at AAS are excited to be embarking on a culinary road trip this summer! What’s a culinary road trip, you might ask? A culinary road trip is an AAS social media series featuring AAS staff members traveling back in time and across the country (we’re not really doing either, but it’s fun to imagine) by ...

So you think you can bake? Nineteenth-Century Edition

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Kristina Bush is a rising senior at Mount Holyoke College. She majors in medieval studies and minors in public history, museums, archives, and digital humanities. Kristina is currently working at the American Antiquarian Society as a summer page in readers’ services. Being an avid book-lover and history nerd, Kristina has greatly enjoyed her time at ...

Oil of toads and the perishable arts

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As visions of baked goods dance through the pages of holiday Instagram, we bloggers at Past is Present have decided to take a look at some of our historical manuscript cookbooks to see what early American bakers were cooking up instead. Like our fellow bloggers at Cooking in the Archives and the experts at Colonial Williamsburg, ...

“The buckwheat cake was in her mouth. The tear was in her eye.”: Early American Cookery and Women’s History

Ever wonder what Susanna was chewing on in Stephen Foster’s famous folk song?  Curious about how women occupied their days at home in early America?  Interested in learning more about the relationship between early American housewives and their maids?  Whether you are interested in the history of American cooking, women’s history, domestic history, or the ...

It’s a lovely brew, farinaceous and balsamic without being overtly alcalous.

Making beer, hard cider, and other spirits at home has long been part of American culture. Most students of American history know this and know that both genders consumed alcohol and that children did as well. I was surprised though, to learn how much alcohol was consumed. According to Sarah Hand Meacham in her ...

Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkins, and Squash … Oh My!

Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is less than a week away.  So for all of you hosts and hostesses out there, I thought I’d share a menu to make your worries seem a little less overwhelming.  Perhaps you, like me, are already stressing about the big day, planning and shopping and worrying about how to ...

Fishy Chowder

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A few weeks ago, I spent some time with AAS’s cookbook collection. As promised in my earlier post, I whipped up a batch of fish chowder from Mrs. Bliss’ Practical Cook Book (1851). The overwhelming consensus was, simply put, “not bad.” It wasn’t great. I certainly wouldn’t entertain with this recipe. However, it was entirely ...