By Rebecca Friedel A Coveted Tree Theobroma cacao is a coveted tree known as the source of the globally celebrated chocolate, initially known as xocolatl in Nahuatl. The fruits of cacao are a variety of berry known as drupes. Drupes grow from pollinated flowers on the tree’s trunks and lower branches, each containing between 20 … Continue reading Cacao: Indigenous Network to Global Commodity
Tyler Rainford Everyone has a favourite drink. Whether it’s a pint of pale ale, a smooth glass of merlot, or a certain cocktail for when we’re feeling fancy, we know what we like and what we’d rather avoid. We’re also very particular about how we drink it. Hold the ice. Shaken not stirred. Deviations from … Continue reading Novel Liquids: Brandy, Shrub, and Early Modern “Cocktails”
By Elaine Leong, Lisa Smith and Laurence Totelin The Cultural History of Medicine, a six-volume collection under the direction of Roger Cooter, was published in April 2021 by Bloomsbury. The editors of three of its volumes happen to be past or present editors of The Recipes Project: Laurence Totelin edited volume 1 (A Cultural History … Continue reading Interview with the Editors: The Cultural History of Medicine
Today we revisit a post originally published in 2013 by Glennda Bayron dealing with rickets, an endemic disease of the early modern world that is on the rise in parts of Europe and Asia. This wonderfully detailed piece contains a rich historically-grounded recipe. Physicians, both early modern and contemporary, identified nutritional deficiencies as critical to … Continue reading Revisiting Glennda Bayron’s An Early Modern Medicine for a Re-emerging Disease
