Cooperative living is an idea that comes and goes throughout history. In its simplest expression, cooperative living is a bunch of roommates sharing a big apartment, each person getting a room of their own and then sharing the expenses of … Continue reading →

From the January, 1901 issue of Good Housekeeping comes the image below, titled “UTENSILS WHICH PAY FOR THEMSELVES, SAVING TIME AND STRENGTH.” These are the utensils that Good Housekeeping considered important at the time for the cook to have, some … Continue reading →

I wrote about corn beer last week, so it seems natural for me to write about the Whiskey Rebellion this week. The Whiskey Rebellion is one of the few times in American history that food has directly led to violence … Continue reading →

I have  a lot of old cookbooks and cooking magazines downloaded from Google Books and converted into text files on my computer, and when I search for “Corn Beer” I get exactly one result: The Southern Gardener and Receipt-Book, by … Continue reading →

Back in 1902 The American Kitchen Magazine had a regular feature titled “Gas Stove Department,” which was exactly what it sounds like: at a time when gas stoves were just becoming popular (replacing wood- and coal-burning stoves), readers could send … Continue reading →