HUNGRY FOR MORE: BLACK FOOD HISTORY AT FORT YORK

Weekend Edition | Elizabeth Cytko

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A sign helpfully directs me to where I need to check in for the event. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko.

It's February 23, and I am at the annual Hungry for Comfort Event organized by the Fort York staff with the OBHS acting as guest Curator of Programming. The theme focuses on the culinary stories of Black communities across Canada and how their food traditions adapted as they integrated themselves into Canadian society.

Helping supervise the baking competition was the Culinary Historians of Canada (CHC). The CHC is a volunteer driven society brought together by a love of food and history. They put on various events throughout the year where one can learn historic methods of food preparation, how to ethically attain food in the modern day, and learn about the histories behind Canadian food culture.

Our historic friend for the day is James Mink. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko.

Entering the Blue Barracks there is a lowkey buzz as people settle in. Long tables are set up with seats around them. The center piece features a local historic Black person with a brief biography of what they did.

Historic panels are placed beside the refreshment table to be read while waiting in line.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko.

Refreshments tantalize. Photograph courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko.

Much care and effort has been put in to emphasize Black Canadian history. There are large poster boards beside the morning refreshment table, which inform the visitor of the Black soldiers at Fort York. Paper plate laden with Basic Hot biscuits, Fort York Honey, Little Fine Cakes (my absolute historic favourite!) and Akara, I make my way to the table and sit down. The communal set up means I get to meet new people who also appreciate historic food and share this experience.

A photo of the powerpoint because I did not manage to get a good close up photo of Eden Hagos.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko.

The keynote speaker is Eden Hagos who is a food writer and founder of the Black Foodie. Hagos shares how growing up in Canada, she viewed her traditional Ethiopian food as a source of shame when she compared her home made lunches to the other kids at her school. When she began to reconnect with her food culture, she realized that it was a reconnection with her ancestral home. In starting her blog the “Black Foodie” she wanted to connect with other people her age that had similar experiences, to share traditional recipes and build up a community.

Chef Selwyn Richards educates us about diasporic food history. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko.

Chef Selwyn Richards dazzle us with his fiery technique. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko.

Our chef for our afternoon lunch Masterclass is Chef Selwyn Richards from The Art of Catering. Powerpoint ready he discusses the diasporic food history across the West, pointing out how foods have travelled from Africa to North America. When he talks about modern food he says “If you can imagine it, we can create it!” followed by the idea of Jerk Chicken lasagna. His advice for visiting restaurants is to ask the waiter what the best dish is and go with that, as this is the best way to try something new that is guaranteed to be good.

The various speakers and workshops I attend emphasize how food is a conduit to the past and future. I learn how enslavery has shaped the African food experience in the Western world and how the recipes of today contain the memories of bondage, resistance and liberation.

A sampling of the fare. I learned from my mistakes from last year and made sure to bring some food containers to take leftovers home. If you attend this event I suggest that you bring containers too!
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko. 

Lunch is then served in a buffet style, with each table getting food in an orderly fashion. Jerk chicken, Rasta pasta salad, Jollof rice – the food is delicious. Full from lunch we make our way to the respective workshops.

I attend a workshop facilitated by an educator who taught us how to make Breadfruit Chips. As a white settler I had never encountered breadfruit before in my usual culinary adventures, so I purposely chose this workshop to expand my food horizons. I learn what breadfruit is, along with the importance of integrating it into a larger diet since the plant is easy to grow, helps prevent deforestation, and contains many vital nutrients!

Dessert is served! I could not get enough of those Date Bars -- absolutely delicious!
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Cytko.

After the workshop and back in the Blue Barracks, we are served a historic dessert of Sweet Potato pie, Date Bars, and Ice Cream. With the concluding remarks and the handing out of the competition prizes, contentedly, I leave the event with a better understanding of historic foodways and a new item on my shopping list: breadfruit.

This article has been updated to reflect that the event is in fact put on by Fort York staff with the OBHS acting as guest Curator of Programming. The Culinary Historians of Canada supervised the baking competition on the day of the event. Apologies for the misinformation.

WHO'S IN THE KITCHEN? EXPLORING CANADA'S CULINARY CULTURE AT THE THOMAS FISHER RARE BOOK LIBRARY

A MUSE BOUCHE

BY: JENNIFER LEE

It's exhibition opening season, gentle readers! My colleagues Cassandra Curtis and Sadie MacDonald graciously answered my questions about their project, an upcoming exhibition at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and a banquet of associated programming (both public and digital). Join us to talk about complementary interpretive vehicles, making exclusion visible, and a really, really cool cookbook. 

JL: Hello! Can you describe the project and your specific roles in it?

SM: Our exhibition is entitled Mixed Messages: Making and Shaping Culinary Culture in Canada. We explore Canadian culinary texts, objects, and ephemera with a focus on the individuals and communities who participated in and influenced - or were excluded from - that wider culinary culture.

Image used with permission of Rogers Media Inc., All Rights Reserved.

Cassandra and I are responsible for curating an interactive exhibition in the MacLean Hunter room, the lower gallery/classroom space of the Thomas Fisher. We are also preparing a public program connected to the exhibition at Fort York for Doors Open Toronto 2018.
Officially, Cassandra is in charge of all digital content (such as our exhibition blog, which Cassandra built on Omeka and coordinated content for) and I am coordinating physical content (I researched the culinary print material in the Fisher), but we basically have been working on everything together and jumping in to support each other when needed. As curators we have been working under the direction of Irina Mihalache, Nathalie Cook, and Elizabeth Ridolfo, who are curating the upper gallery space.

Our external partners are the programming team at Fort York. We have been working closely with Bridget Wranich and Jocelyn Kent to develop programming for Doors Open Toronto. 

JL: This is a multifaceted project, using digital content and public programming alongside more traditional exhibition models. How have you found the process of working with so many different interpretive vehicles? How does each enhance the exhibition as a whole?

SM: It has been a bit of a learning curve working with these multiple project components (before this project, neither of us had extensive experience with programming, for example), but Cassandra and I have both been really enjoying the process so far.

Each component - digital, programming, and traditional - has unique qualities that add to the exhibition. For example, this an exhibition that is all about food and cooking, but obviously we can’t have any of that take place in a rare book library space! This is why the Doors Open public program is so valuable; it gives us an opportunity to actively participate in the culinary culture explored in this exhibition, and invite others to do so as well. We will be serving food based on recipes in the exhibition at this event.

A bottle of Crosse and Blackwell curry powder, estimated to be from the Edwardian period. On loan to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library from the Collection of Mary Williamson. Photo courtesy of Sadie MacDonald.

The digital content provides an additional way to share the themes and stories of this exhibition with our audiences. There will be an iPad in the gallery that visitors can use to explore culinary texts - not all of which will be explored in detail in the physical gallery displays. The exhibition blog also adds a personal, “behind the scenes” touch to our exhibition, as it is a way for those involved in curating the exhibition to share their experiences bringing the project together.

The digital, programming, and traditional aspects all play into each other and reference each other, but each adds something special to the exhibition using the unique qualities provided by that medium.

CC: It really has been very valuable how multifaceted this project has been for us. I never would have chosen solely a public programming project but I've found it surprisingly fun and engaging to put together!

JL: You mentioned that the exhibition discusses individuals and communities who were excluded from culinary culture, not just those who were visible. It can be difficult to tell these stories when marginalization and erasure affect the material available to us. Has this been an issue for you?

CC: Interesting question! Like a lot of collections, what's absent is what stands out sometimes when it comes to marginalized communities. We've been trying to find a constructive way to talk about the fact that so many of these recipes reference ingredients from these communities without giving them any credit. Then there are some opposite examples too, where a surprising amount of credit is given.

SM: Yes, there is more material out there than one might anticipate. Dr Mihalache and Liz Ridolfo will be discussing Indigenous community cookbooks in the upstairs gallery, for example. And there is one fascinating cookbook, a “crowd-sourced” recipe collection of “Canadian Favourites” organized by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (a forerunner party to the NDP) in the 1940s. This book includes a wide variety of recipes from many cultures present in Canada, including Indigenous and immigrant cultures, and more importantly, credits those cultures and the individual who provided each recipe.

However, this is something of an exception. A lot of the cookbooks we look at fail to credit the original cultures, or superficially or erroneously make reference to the recipe’s cultural context (for example, the trend of cookbooks referring to recipes with pineapple in them as “Hawaiian”).

So that in itself provides a way to open this conversation about marginalization - by talking about the gaps and oversights themselves and looking at what they tell us.

Canadian Favourites: CCF Cookbook. Ottawa: CCF National Council, 1947. Collection of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.

JL: Is there an object or story that you've found particularly meaningful or delightful?

CC: For myself I've most enjoyed thinking about these cookbooks in the context of the real women who used them and how much they were asked to do. One of the angles we're looking at this from is the resourcefulness that was demanded of women in terms of domestic work, from angles such as rationing and technology. The feminist in me has been really enjoying doing research about women and domesticity! 

SM: I already mentioned the CCF cookbook, and I think that’s my favourite object because of how surprising it is in the context of this exhibition. While many cookbooks from our period of study (1860-1960) appropriate recipes and fail to credit their cultures of origin, that isn’t the case with this cookbook. There are a few Indigenous recipes provided by the Fisher River Reserve in Manitoba, for example - and they are given credit for it. Recipes from immigrant communities are also credited, and the names of the dish in their original languages are often given as well. It’s a very multicultural cookbook - you can find Chinese and Russian recipes on the same page! Reading this cookbook, which was produced in a political context, one gets the sense that it is attempting to speak to the multicultural make-up of 20th-century Canada.

JL: I'm so excited to see this woke proto-NDP cookbook, I can't even tell you.

Mixed Messages: Making and Shaping Culinary Culture in Canada will open on May 21st at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and run until August 31st. The Doors Open event will take place on May 26th and 27th at Fort York. You can find more information about the exhibition here and read blog posts from Sadie, Cassandra, and other project team members at the exhibition blog.

HUZZAH! RE-ENACTMENT THROUGH THE AGES

THROWBACK THURSDAY

BY: SERENA YPELAAR

When visiting historic sites, I’m always trying to visualize what they might have looked like centuries ago, back when the surrounding area was devoid of parking lots, gift shops, and camera-toting tourists. Many of my fondest museum memories involve military demonstrations or costumed interpretation, which led me to wonder: when and how did re-enactment first begin? Read on to learn how historical re-enactments evolved from an early form of showmanship to an interpretive tool to animate historic sites.

Historic interpreters at the Fortress of Louisbourg in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Louisbourg highlights storytelling as an interpretive approach and immerses visitors in the 18th century French fort. Source.

Earliest Re-enactments

The origins of re-enactment date back to the Roman Empire, when re-enactment was a public spectacle involving the recreation of well-known battles. Just as contemporary gladiator films often depict hand-to-hand combat in a crowded amphitheatre, staged battles also served as public entertainment in Roman society. This tradition of dramatizing battles carried on into the medieval period, in which tournaments were fought with thematic elements from Ancient Rome. 

This lithograph by Edward Henry Corbould, titled The joust between the Lord of the Tournament and the Knight of the Red Rose, illustrates the Eglinton Tournament of  1839, a re-enactment of a medieval joust. Source.

Widespread Romanticism

By the 17^th century, these historical displays had become popular in England, specifically as military re-enactments. Both during and after the English Civil War in the 1640s, re-enactments sought to demonstrate recent battles such as the battle at Blackheath in 1645.

Alongside the recreation of high profile military conflicts, the 19^th century saw another shift as the Middle Ages were celebrated once more. In light of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, a fascination with the medieval era emerged and was perpetuated by shows that romanticized medieval jousts (not unlike the present-day dinner and tournament at Medieval Times). In this sense, nostalgia for centuries gone by informed a cultural phenomenon in Great Britain. But this longing for the glamour of the past did not completely eclipse the present, as the 1815 conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars inspired a public re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo at Astley’s Amphitheatre in 1824. 

An illustration of Astley's Amphitheatre in London, published c. 1808-1810 and held by the British Library.  Source.

Celebrating Military Efforts

While re-enactment had become prevalent in the United Kingdom and the United States by the late 19^th century, re-enactments now offered a way for military regiments to display specific, more recent conflicts, rather than reflect on the romanticism of past societies. In 1895, the Gloucester Engineer Volunteers re-enacted the famous British victory at Rorke’s Drift (1879).

American Civil War Re-enactment of the Battle of Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Source.

Not all regimental performances were sentimental or self-congratulatory, however. The U.S. 7^th Cavalry Regiment re-enacted their defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn within a year of its occurrence, meaning that the re-enactors were the actual survivors of the battle. In this case, the re-enactment was photographed, and its purpose was more educational than spectacular.

Education and Commemoration

After the American Civil War, veterans demonstrated famous battles to educate people on the conflicts and to pay tribute to their fellow soldiers who had been killed. This tradition developed into commemorative events whereby re-enacting groups continued to stage significant battles for an audience – the 50^th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1913 was attended by 50,000 veterans, both Union and Confederate.

Also in the early 20^th century, re-enactments gained popularity in Russia, with demonstrations of conflicts such as the Siege of Sevastopol (1854 to 1855), re-enacted in 1906. Alongside educating audiences, the re-enactments were a means of forming national identity through military commemoration. They perform similar functions today, as re-enactment groups often partner with historic sites to commemorate military anniversaries. (I myself had the chance to attend the re-enactments of the Battle of Queenston Heights at Fort George in 2012, and the Battle of York at Fort York in 2013, both for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.) 

Today, re-enactments commemorate significant historical battles, such as the Battle of Queenston Heights (1812) in Niagara, Ontario. (Photo courtesy of Serena Ypelaar)

Despite its origins as a form of visually impressive entertainment, re-enactment has transformed into a storytelling technique we recognize at historic sites and commemorative events today. I'm looking forward to seeing how re-enactment will continue to change in the future!

CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE: FOOD AND MUSEUMS

WHAT'S HAPPENING WEDNESDAYS

BY: EMILY WELSH

Although our Thanksgiving has passed, American Thanksgiving is celebrated tomorrow and Christmas holidays are just around the corner; it's that time of year where plentiful, delicious food abounds! This edition of What's Happening Wednesdays will take a look at six museum or heritage events taking place in the coming weeks that incorporate or feature food. For those readers approaching the end of another term, perhaps one of these will inspire you to take a refreshing break from your hard work or celebrate all you have achieved so far. Without further ado, let's dig in!

Plenty! Check out six heritage events featuring food in this week's edition! Source.

1. Dishing Up Toronto

The Pasquale Brothers is known for its fine selection of Italian food. Source.

The next event in the Dishing Up Toronto series, run in part by the Toronto Ward Museum, is taking place this Saturday, November 26th. Join the Pasquale Family as they share the stories behind the Pasquale Brothers, a family run business approaching its 100th anniversary. The Pasquale Brothers was founded to serve the Italian immigrant community but quickly became a business frequented by a wider Torontonian audience. Today the shelves are stocked with not only Italian wares but also the finest foods of the world to reflect the global nature of Toronto. The event includes food and two drink tickets.

What: Importing A Taste of Home: A Special Event at the Pasquale Brothers Warehouse, Dishing
           Up Toronto series
When: Saturday, November 26, 2016; 6pm - 9pm
Where: 16 Goodrich Road, Etobicoke, ON
Tickets: $60, pre-registration required
Learn more: http://www.wardmuseum.ca/dishinguptoronto/


2. Historic Cooking Class - Mince Pies

Dean Winchester would be interested in this class. Source.

 
 Fort York is hosting a historic cooking class to teach participants how to make mince pies, traditionally made of fruit and meat. Participants receive recipes and pies to take home.

What: Historic Cooking Class - Mince Pies
When: Sunday, November 27, 2016, 10am - 3:30pm
Where: Fort York
Tickets: $75 + HST; pre-registration and payment required; Call 416 392 7484.
Learn More: 416 392 7484
http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=ab897a334f6a0410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD 


 3. Festive Weekends
   

Festive Weekends at Black Creek Pioneer Village feature a variety of food items. Source.

Festive Weekends at Black Creek Pioneer Village feature a variety of holiday events and a delectable assortment of food. Try chestnuts roasted on an open fire (and maybe get a true sense of The Christmas Song).

The weekends also feature old-fashioned Christmas feasts and allow visitors to taste flaming puddings of yesteryear. Mincemeat tarts and apple cider are also available for purchase. In addition to holiday foods, visitors can view the decorated homes, participate in holiday workshops, make decorations, try Victorian Dancing, and learn about historic holiday customs. The weekends started on November 19th and run to December 23rd.

What: Festive Weekends
When: Weekends, November 19th - December 23rd.
Where: Black Creek Pioneer Village
Learn More: To learn about Festive Weekends and other holiday events check out http://www.blackcreek.ca/whats-on/christmas/


4. Frost Fair

Frost Fair will be a jolly time at Fort York! Source.

Among the many activities at Fort York's Frost Fair is the opportunity to sample 18th and 19th century recipes in the Officers' Mess Kitchen. In addition to sampling recipes, visitors can peruse the wares of artisan vendors featuring unique gifts, enjoy military demonstrations and pick up a souvenir at the Mackenzie House Museum proof press.

What: Frost Fair
When: Saturday, December 3, 2016, 10am - 5pm
Where: Fort York
Tickets: Regular admission.
Learn More: http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=7899606b4d301410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD


5. Holidays Farmer's Market and Gift Sale

On Dec. 7th, Montgomery's Inn is hosting its Holidays Farmer's Market. Source.

Montgomery's Inn Holidays Farmer's Market and Gift Sale is a special edition of their weekly Wednesday Farmer's Market. Vendors will be selling a variety of food including preserves, sweets, wine, cheese, dried fruit, honey, and winter vegetables. Bread from the Inn's bake oven will also be for sale and you can purchase a gingerbread man from the winter witch.

What: Holidays Farmer's Market and Gift Sale
When: Wednesday, December 7, 2016, 2pm - 7 pm
Where: Montgomery's Inn
Tickets: Free admission. Fundraising fruitcakes for sale ($10)
Learn More: http://montgomerysinn.com/current-events/

6. MUSSA End-of-Term/Holiday Pub Night

Don't forget about MUSSA's end-of-term/holiday party! Source.

MUSSA's end-of-term/holiday pub night is taking place Friday, December 9th at the Victory Cafe. The entire upstairs is booked for MMSt/CRO students and MMSt professors. Come celebrate the end of term and the holidays (or come for the free appetizers)!

What: MUSSA End-of-Term/Holiday Pub Night
When: Friday, December 9, 2016, 8pm - late
Where: Victory Cafe, 581 Markham St.
Who: MMSt/CRO students and MMSt professors
Learn More: https://www.facebook.com/events/1810313035890099/



Happy Holidays and happy studying everyone! Enjoy all of that delicious food! Comment below if you would like to share other food related or holiday heritage events!

Bon appétit! Source.

HAVE A CUP OF TEA: VOLUNTEERING AT FORT YORK NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

A MUSE BOUCHE

BY: ERIKA ROBERTSON

Welcome to the fourth installment of A Muse Bouche, where I trace the many relationships between museums and food. After a wonderful summer of travel, I’m back in Toronto for my second year of Museum Studies. The Toronto cultural sector has amazing resources, especially experienced, knowledgeable, and passionate people. 

In September, I had the pleasure working in the kitchen at Fort York National Historic Site to help with the Farm to Fork On Common Ground festival. Fort York interprets dishes that have been served in the officers’ mess in the early 1800s. 

Bridget Wranich (right) and Melissa Beynon have mastered the art of teaching while cooking.
Photo by the author. 

My role for the day was assisting with the Heritage Apple Tart Making Workshop. Bridget Wranich, Program Officer, and Melissa Beynon provided visitors with a lesson on historic foodways through a short cooking class. We learned useful facts, like the difference between pies and tarts. It’s simple: tarts don’t have a crust on top. I found my biggest takeaways outside the workshop. I’ll share my top two and wrap up with a simple, historic Fall recipe.

Never too busy for a cup of tea. Photo by the author.

Lesson 1: Hospitality first. 

As soon as I stepped back into the commercial kitchen, Bridget insisted that I make myself at home with a proper cup of black tea. Throughout the afternoon, staff and volunteers stepped into the kitchen for a warm-up and a chat. The simple ritual immediately made me feel like a member of the family. The people at Fort York know how to welcome volunteers and visitors alike.

Warning: It’s about to get very British in here. Source.

Lesson 2: Food doesn’t have to be complicated to be delicious. 

After the workshop, I followed the tantalizing smells over to the historic kitchen, where Emily Cooper was handing out samples of blackcaps. When she said the name, it sounded like some sort of mushroom dish to me. Nope!

Definitely not mushrooms! Photo of historic interpreter Emily Cooper by the author.

Emily took whole apples, cored them, cut them in half, and placed them cut-side-down in a pie pan with lemon zest, lemon juice, orange flower water, and sugar. They baked in the bread oven until the skin crisped and the middle soaked up the aromatic citrus flavors. If you want to try baking blackcaps at home, follow the timeless wisdom of Hannah Glasse from The Art of Cookery Make Plain and Easy. Her best-selling cookbook in the 18^th century have become favourites for historic cooks today. 

“Cut twelve large apples into Halves, and take out the Cores, place them on a thin Patty-pan, or Mazarine, as close together as they can lye, with the flat Side downwards, squeeze Lemon in, two spoonfuls of Orange-flower water, and pour over them; shred some Lemon-peel fine and throw over them, and grate fine Sugar all over; set them in a quick [hot] Oven, and Half an Hour will do them.  When you send them to Table throw fine sugar all over the dish.”

 

A warm thank you to everyone at the Fort, especially Bridget, for your hospitality! Everyone should volunteer at their local museum--you never know what you could learn. Halloween will find me back at the Fort for a spooky Lantern Tour. Hope to see some of you there.

Autumn is definitely the best season for food... except for all the others. Photo by the author. 

Work cited:

Glasse, H. (1748). To make Black Caps. P. 168. In The art of cookery, made plain and easy; which far exceeds any thing of the kind ever yet published. 3rd ed. Gale. University of Toronto Libraries. Retrieved from: find.galegroup.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/ecco/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=ECCO&userGroupName=utoronto_main&tabID=T001&docId=CW108061039&type=multipage&contentSet=ECCOArticles&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE

A FINE MESS: 18TH C. UPPER CANADA

HISTORIC KITCHEN

CANADA PART 1: 18TH C. UPPER CANADA

BY: LEAH MONCADA

Selected Recipes

Chocolate Cream

Shrewsbury Cakes

This term I shall explore Canadian Cuisine, in three parts.

Firstly, I would like to say that yes! Such a thing as Canadian Cuisine does exist. This country has a huge variety of regionally unique, beloved, and sometimes iconically controversial food items. Unfortunately, Canada has long fought against bad stereotypes or a disbelief in good cuisine. Colonel Sanders famously loathed Canadian food, calling it "plumb tasteless!" This series shall feature Canadian recipes of the late 18th and early 19th centuries in this post, and followed by posts exploring the 19th and 20th centuries.

Secondly, I would like to make a brief statement about where I am starting my journey in this three part exploration of Canadian cuisine. Many books, histories, and recountings of Canadian history begin with the First Nations, Inuit, (and later,) Metis, before moving onto settler topics. In order to highlight some of the rich and diverse foods of these three nations, I am going to feature their foodways not in the earliest post, but rather in a later post. Instead of relegating their cultures to the distant past, I want to highlight the continuous presence of their traditions throughout all of Canadian history, and into the modern day. Therefore, it is amongst the 20th century that I shall explore their recipes.

The Garrison at Fort York in 1804. Source.

The following two recipes are both from my favourite Christmas present this year, the locally published work Setting a Fine Table: Historical Desserts and Drinks from the Officers' Kitchens at Fort York, a delicious undertaking by the Food Historians at Fork York. According to the introduction, these recipes would have been served from the Mess Kitchen during social events hosted by the Fort, to which many prominent families and figures would have been invited. The attached dining and sitting rooms were an exclusive social club for early York citizens. While this social program began in the very early 19th century, most of the recipes date from the mid-late 18th century, with a few peaking into the 19th. These foods would have been found in early Canadian homes before gracing the tables of Fort York. 

Unlike our interpretation, the word mess at this time did not mean a chaotic or disorganized state (this would not come to be until the early 20th century). When we picture a mess hall before 1900, our modern understanding of mess likely skews our understanding. According to my brief etymological research, the mess of military terminology likely stems from the Middle English mes, literally meaning "food for one meal" or "one portion or course". Etymologists can trace the word even further back into Old English, Old French, and even Latin. A mess hall of the 18th century, such as the one found at Fort York should not be associated with chaos, but remembered by the fine dishes served there during the aforementioned prominent social events.

For a map of late 18th c Toronto, find one here from the Toronto Archives.

Chocolate Cream

Hannah Glasse, The Complete Confectioner; or The Whole Art of Confectionery Made Plain and Easy, 1760

Chocolate Cream. Photo: Leah Moncada.

"Take a Quart of Cream, a Pint of white Wine, and a little Juice of Lemon; sweeten it very well, lay in a sprig of Rosemary, grate some Chocolate, and mix it all together; stir them over the Fire till it is thick, and pour it into your Cups."

1 cup fruit white wine (Ontario Riesling)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

2 cups whipping cream

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

one 4-inch sprig of fresh rosemary

In a heavy bottomed sauce-pan, dissolve the sugar in the wine and lemon. Stir in the whipping cream, chocolate, and rosemary.

Raise to medium heat and whisk constantly until the chocolate melts and the mixture comes to a simmer. Simmer until the chocolate coats the back of a metal spoon (about 5-10 minutes). Strain through a fine sieve and pour into small cups or ramekins. Let cool, cover, and refrigerate. 

Can be prepared up to two days ahead when stored in the fridge.

As a chocolate junkie, boy was I looking forward to this one! However, my idea of what it would be was very different from the end result. The richness of this dessert limited my consumption to very small, spread out moments. If you're looking for a sweet French chocolate mousse, keep searching my friend, because this is not your standard chocolate pot. The rosemary and wine create a nice flavour, but not one I've ever imagined in chocolate!

The preface to Glasse's work reveals it is actually a British cookbook, but the Food Historians at Fort York are quite correct in including it, given the predominantly english background of the early residents of the town of York. This is one of the earliest cookbooks for the English household (in Britian, Ireland, or Upper Canada) that provided such a variety of recipes using sugar. It was around this time that sugar entered widespread use amongst the middle class. Recipe books from the early 18th century seem to mostly be for exclusive use in the great households.

Hannah Glasse was a prolific author throughout the second half of the 18th century, publishing multiple editions of The Complete Confectioner, including a compilation edition published as a serial over ten weeks in 1799. The title of this edition, in the practice of the time, served as full introductory paragraph:

"The complete confectioner, or, Housekeeper's guide to a simple and speedy method of understanding the whole art of confectionary : the various ways of preserving and candying, dry and liquid, all kinds of fruit, nuts, flowers, herbs, &c. And the method of keeping them fresh and fine all the year round; the different ways of clarifying sugar; with directions for making fruit pastes, bomboons, pastils, compotes, fruit ices, cream ices, marmalades, jellies, jams, cakes, puffs, biscuits, tarts, custards, cheesecakes, sweetmeats, fritters, creams, syllabubs, blanc-mange, flummeries, ornaments for grand entertainments, dragees, syrups of all kinds, nicknacks and trifles for desserts, strong cordials, oils, simple waters, milk punch that will keep 20 years, and all sorts of English wines. Also, the art of making artificial fruit, with the stalks in it, so as to resemble the natural fruit. To which are added, some bills of fare for desserts for private families / by Mrs. H. Glass, author of The art of cookery, with considerable additions and corrections, by Maria Wilson."

Shrewsbury Cakes
John Farley, The London Art of Cookery, 1800

Shrewsbury Cakes. Photo: Leah Moncada.

Beat half a pound of butter to a fine cream, and put in the same weight of flour, one egg, six ounces of beaten and sifted loaf of sugar, and half an ounce of caraway seeds. Mix them into a paste, roll them thin, and cut them round with a small glass or little tins; prick them, lay them on sheets of tin, and bake them in a slow oven.

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

4 tsp caraway seeds

1 medium egg

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Line 2 rimless baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease lightly.

In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the caraway and then the egg. In three batches, stir in the flour. Press the dough together and gently knead until smooth. Divide in half and shape into two disks. Wrap separately and store in the fridge until ready to roll, keeps up to one day. Soften to room temp before rolling.

Roll out the dough one disk at a time on a well floured surface, up to 5mm (1/4 inch) thickness. With a fluted 5cm (2 inch) diameter cookie cutter, cut the dough into rounds. Arrange 2.5cm (1 inch) on prepared sheets. (Optional: using a skewer and a comb, press a diamond and dot pattern on each cake, as seen here.) Form the scraps into a new disk and reroll for more cookies until finished.

Bake in the middle rack at 350F until light golden on the bottom, about 12-15 minutes. Let firm on the sheet for 3 minutes, and transfer to racks to cool.

Lasts in the fridge up to 3 days, the freezer up to two weeks.

Shrewsbury cakes are originally from Shropshire England, and could be flavoured with savoury herbs, spices, and sometimes brandy. The inclusion of caraway, an herb familiar to those who read this post, reminds us of the long-lasting influence of Roman trade and cooking in Roman Britain. Upper Canada saw the beginnings of caraway cultivation in the early 19th c, given its immense popularity in British biscuits and cakes. It has become much less popular in the 20th and 21st centuries, found only in some breads. Personally, I thought these were delicious!

If you pay attention to the original recipe, you will see that as usual, there is no oven temperature given. I was intrigued by this "slow oven", as I have seen it named before in other recipes, and had just assumed it was a particular construction or type of stone oven. However! I have discovered my error! "Slow" and "fast" were actually used as descriptors for temperature in the days before electric ovens with our gas marks and C/F designations. "Slow oven" likely means something between 300F - 325F, though definitions of slow have varied throughout the centuries and in different parts of Europe. Cooks of my generation are likely unfamiliar to this terminology,  though my mother and grandmother's generation would have been familiar with it. The internet doesn't say where the "slow" or "fast" terminology comes from, but my mother suggests (quite logically) that it refers to the length of time it would take to cook something. (I.e. a lower temperature would cook more slowly.) As she says "it is a term that would have been very meaningful to those generations who used ovens that did not have temperature displays, but it has generally fallen out of use."

Next time on Historic Kitchen: 20th c Canada Part 1! In this post I shall explore the radical shift in culinary practices during the early twentieth century! 

WHAT'S HAPPENING WEDNESDAYS

BY: CAMERON CRAWLEY

If you are reading this I assume you are the sole survivor of our recent frigid temperatures. To reward you (and ensure your continued survival), Musings has curated some indoor activities for you this coming week. That being said, if you do get frostbite in transit to one of these events, Musings assumes no responsibility for any adverse health related issues.

First up we have an event that will simultaneously get you in the mood for spring, whilst allowing you to sit in front of a wood fire and soak in the ambiance (such as smoke inhalation) associated with that particular activity. This coming Saturday February 21st, Fort York is hosting their annual Mad for Marmalade event between 10am-4pm in the historic kitchen. This particular activity is for all of the foodies out there; perks include a citrus themed lunch, as well as the opportunity to attend various workshops and the option to buy various homemade preserves using historic recipes.

All of this deliciousness if withing your grasp.
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If you are feeling particularly ambitious, you can even enter the marmalade making competition for a chance to win prizes. Or you could just be a freeloader and eat a bunch of what everyone else makes; the choice is yours. Pre-registration is required and will cost you $56; further information and registration options can be found here. From prior experience, I suggest stocking up on the preserves on offer as you won't find anything half as good anywhere else in the city.

Also happening this week is the opening of a new combined exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum. Both exhibitions showcase works from the Howard Hodgkin collection of Indian art housed at the Ashmolean Museum. The first, Visions of Mughal India, exhibits historic paintings and portraits from the Mughal court, Deccan Sultans, and the Rajput kingdoms. The second, Inspired by India, showcases the contemporary works of Howard Hodgkin himself which are inspired by the artists' time in India and his passion for Indian art.

Maharaja Bakhat Singh has a considerably more impressive moustache and sideburns than you ever will.
https://www.agakhanmuseum.org/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions

The exhibits run jointly from February 21st-June 21st and are included with the cost of general admission ($20 for adults or $15 for students). Further information about the artist and the paintings can be found here.

Finally, happening at our very own iSchool on February 23rd is a talk by Professor Jon Ippolito from the Digital Curation Institute (DCI). As part of the DCI's 2015 lecture series, Prof. Ippolito is speaking about digital preservation and the search for renewable culture. The lecture will include a question and answer period moderated by the Director of Museum Studies at the iSchool, Prof. Costis Dallas.

I'm hoping Prof. Ippolito wears his leather jacket to the discussion.
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The lecture will take place between noon-1:30pm in room 728 of the Bissell building and entry is free. Further information can be found about the event here.

Whether it be enjoying artistic depictions of fantastic facial hair, eating unreasonable amounts of jam, or bettering your academic side, Musings has plenty of events for you to enjoy. Now go forth and learn something new!

FORT YORK'S VISITOR CENTRE

EXHIBITION REVIEW

BY: KATIE WILSON

September has been an exciting time for Toronto museum lovers as it is not very often that two massive cultural institutions open in the same month. The Aga Khan Museum opened its doors to the public this September as did the brand new, highly anticipated Fort York Visitor Centre. Last Sunday after walking around the Word on the Street Festival, I (and my newly purchased books) decided to hop on a streetcar and head down to Fort York. The rain looked like it was going to stop and I hadn’t been to the Fort since a Grade Six class trip. 

A beautiful day to visit Fort York 

While I entered off of Bathurst Street and had trouble finding the Visitor Centre (a problem I was assured would be remedied with the inclusion of signs) I had no problem wandering about the grounds. Turns out the Centre is located directly under the Gardiner Expressway making it easy to access for those coming along Lakeshore Blvd but difficult to find otherwise.  

The Visitor Centre underneath the Gardiner Expressway 

The barracks-like Visitor Centre is quite stunning from the outside, and is designed to resemble the original embankment. Unfortunately the Centre is not quite finished yet and only had a few galleries open for public viewing; The Great War – In Your Cellar, Closet or Storage Locker; Charles Patcher’s “1812: The Art of War” Series; Outfitted For War; an Art and the Great War: A Toronto Perspective

Art and the Great War: A Toronto Perspective 

While the exhibits all contain interesting artifacts, especially The Great War – In Your Cellar Closet or Storage Locker, which broadened its scope to include decorations and souvenirs form other countries to remind us that “the war to end all wars” was truly global, the collections themselves are rather small. The Art in the Great War exhibit contains a few cases and framed photographs and the Outfitted For War collection is placed in a room called “The Vault” which is roughly the size of a large walk in closet. The objects in this collection include iconic uniforms and weapons worn and used by Torontonians during the Great War, but the size of the gallery space makes it difficult to appreciate the display.

The same weekend, the Visitor Centre played host to Toronto’s Great War Attic a series of Pop-Up Museum-Style events taking place around Toronto this fall. Residents of Toronto are encouraged to bring their stories, heirlooms, and photographs from the First World War to be saved and documented on the forthcoming website. These events are a great way to engage the public with museums and are going on until November 28. You can check times and locations here. 

"Fine Cakes" being baked in the Fort York kitchens

Having spent enough time looking at the galleries in the Visitor Centre I decided to call it a day. No trip to Fort York would be complete, however, without a visit to the kitchen where I sampled a “fine cake” before heading home.

While Fort York's Visitor Centre is incomplete and a little sparse at the moment I feel that it holds real potential, and not purely as a site to celebrate Toronto’s military accomplishments. While most of the upcoming exhibits, including a “Battle of York immersion experience,” pay tribute to the city's military heritage, the Fort York Visitor Centre may be able to branch out into celebrating other aspects of Toronto's rich history. There is currently no museum space that focuses solely on the history of Toronto, which is a role that Fort York may be able to at least partially fill. With the centennial of the First World War however, it is pretty safe to say that most (if not all) upcoming exhibits will be dedicated to celebrating Canada’s military role.