Strange and Useful: Kitchen Tools of the Early Twentieth Century
A look at the specialized tools that filled Central European kitchens a century ago, from a fruit press called an ala to a sand-timer for boiling eggs.
#Food History
10 articles
-
Food History & Culture -
Ingredient Guides Agar-Agar: The Seaweed That Set the Table
From a Japanese innkeeper's accident to European kitchens and bacteriology labs — the long.
-
Food History & Culture Why Your Grandmother's Ajvar Tasted Different
Sun-drying, wood fire, frying in oil — the old ajvar method produced something darker and deeper than what most jars contain today. What changed and why.
-
Food History & Culture The Columbian Exchange and the Central European Table
Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, maize — Central European cooking is built on American crops. The story of how they arrived and why they stayed.
-
Food History & Culture When Organ Meats Were Not "Offal" — They Were Dinner
In pre-war European households, liver, kidney, tongue, and brain were not niche ingredients. They were weekly staples cooked with serious technical skill.
-
Food History & Culture Salt, Smoke, and Cold: How Food Was Preserved Before Refrigeration
Before refrigerators, kitchens relied on salt, smoke, acid, and cold to keep food safe. These were not workarounds — they were precise, tested techniques.
-
Cooking Techniques The Stock Pot: Why Old Kitchens Kept One Going All Week
A stock pot running all week was not a wellness trend. It was kitchen economy — extracting every gram of flavor from what most people now throw away.
-
Food History & Culture What Archaeology Tells Us About What People Actually Ate
Bones, teeth, and ancient cooking vessels reveal a diet that looks nothing like what we assume. Here is what the evidence actually shows — and what it does not.
-
Food History & Culture Why Old Cookbooks Still Matter Today
Early 20th-century cookbooks were practical manuals shaped by scarcity and ingenuity — and the techniques they documented still hold up in modern kitchens.
-
Food History & Culture How Industrialization Changed What Is in Your Food
Between 1900 and 1980, the food supply changed more than in the previous thousand years. Here is what changed, how it happened, and what the evidence shows.