The Buckinghams: Saltwater Farming
New Englanders and Their Food at Sea and Ashore in the Nineteenth Century - How one saltwater farm family provided for their sustenance and cooked it on the open hearth at the start of the 19th century.
The Greenmans: Prosperity and Plenty
The prosperous ship builders, merchants, and captain's families of New England's seaport towns cooked on stoves and established the standards for the three squares a day familiar today. Commerce and industry change seasonality, food distribution, and New England's metabolism.
The Burrows Household: Risk and Uncertainty
Who were the Temperance and health food reformers trying to change? Tippler, gambler, and storekeeper Wint Burrows gives us a chance to explore the 19th century roots of our modern concerns with drug abuse and healthy eating.
Eating Forward and Dining Aft
Aboard the deep water merchant and whaling ships of the 19th century were two strikingly different menus and eating habits. This chapter explores the foodways of the fo'cs'le and cabin.
Fishermen's Fare
The fishermen of the New England fleet were famous for their hearty appetites, well-laid mess-tables, and hard-working cooks.
The Life-Saving Service: Messroom Meals
Though, in the late 19th century, few men cooked for themselves, the life-savers patrolling New England's coast did. How did men more accustomed to wind, waves, and daring rescues cope with housekeeping and cooking chores?
Fresh and Exotic Provisions
Seafarers encountered new and strange foods at sea and in foreign ports, described as a great adventure by some sailors, by others a frustrating search for the familiar.
Meals Ashore for All Hands
From the oyster saloons of New England to a feast with a Chinese host, seafarers looked for a good place to eat the world around; their reactions to meals ashore tell us a lot about their eating habits at home.
Fourth of July: America's Day of Days
How sailors and seafaring families marked the day at sea, while the folks at home observed the national holiday with family and friends on picnics and excursions.
Thanksgiving: New England's Premier Holiday
At the start of the 19th century Thanksgiving was the great annual holiday of New Englanders; by the end of the century, Christmas was catching up in importance. This chapter explores the main elements of the day turkey, pies, family reunions, and thoughts of those at sea.
Christmas at Sea and Ashore
New Englanders gradually accepted the December holiday and seafaring families far from home recreated holiday excitement with stockings and presents, sweets and treats.
Clambakes and Shore Dinners
Clams and lobsters steaming in a bed of hot rock-heated seaweed is the very depiction of summer fun in New England, and this chapter traces the history of this shoreside meal.
Chowders and Chowder Parties
Chowder in New England was both a centuries old dish and a common seaside recreation. Here we explore both fish and clam chowders.
Refreshments Were Served
Weddings, ship launchings, and church suppers gave coastal people an opportunity to gather and eat socially. Gallons of ice cream was churned and thousands of cakes baked to provide refreshment at church festivals and support the work of charitable societies.
Not as Nutritious as Flesh: Fish-Eating in New England
Fishing and seafood are important to New England's image, but like other North Americans even coastal Yankees resisted eating it more than once a week. This chapter tells why.
Cooking and Eating Seafood
What were New England's favorite fish in the 1800s and how were they prepared? Trace the changes from halibut napes and cod shoulders to haddock fillets.
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