POSTPONED New Castle Historical Society Online Lecture – History and Home Cooking

During the pandemic many people have discovered or rediscovered home cooking. Working from home has turned the frantic after-work cooking rush into a slow all-day multi-stage process. All the dishes we didn’t have time to make before suddenly seem possible. And these new kitchen lives have also led people to reach out to family and friends for recipes. If we can’t eat with people, at least we can share cooking ideas and tips. Many of these changes bring us closer to ways that people cooked before the industrialization of food in the 20th century, helping us understand our ancestor’s daily lives a little better. During this talk Professor Elias will discuss the history of home cooking as it relates to social changes over time in the US and the current crisis. Using the Chappaqua Cook Book (first published in the 1940s) as an example, she will address the many ways that our cooking can reflect our place in the world and in our local history.

Megan J. Elias is Director of the Gastronomy Program at Boston University, Associate Professor, and author of five books about food history. Her most recent book is Food on the Page: Cookbooks and American Culture (Penn Press, 2017)

This program is part of the New Castle Historical Society’s Food for Thought: A Tasty Exploration of Food, History, Culture and Community program.

Registration details and program fee TBA