Masters of Social Gastronomy: Strange Meats!
Where: Public Assembly, 70 North 6th Street in Williamsburg
When: Tuesday, January 31st. Doors at 7
FREE
We’re kicking off a new bar room lecture series all about food! Each month, Sarah Lohman of Four Pounds Flour and Jonathan Soma of the Brooklyn Brainery will take on a curious food topic and break down the history, science, and stories behind it.
This month’s topic is STRANGE MEAT! Sarah will recount her adventures eating beaver, bear and moose “mouffle,” along with the historic precedent for each. Soma will be taking on unusual meat preparations, from how to turn jerky into cotton candy to what to do with a pig’s head.
Word on the street is we might even have samples.
***
Pre-Industrial Dinner
Where: The Farm on Adderly,
When: Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 7:30 PM
Cost: $69 / person (beverages, tax & gratuity not included)
To sign-up, send an e-mail tothefarmonadderleyevents@gmail.com
Step back in time with us and imagine Brooklyn in the mid-1800s. Farms flourished and Flatbush bustled as workers harvested crops in the neighborhoods we now call home. Join us at The Farm on Adderley for a meal inspired by the food eaten by the people who lived and worked on farms in the area. Refrigeration wasn’t yet available, so preservation techniques were the key to ensure food could be enjoyed all-year long. Chef Tom Kearney is creating a four-course meal showcasing these practices and techniques. Our guest for the evening is ‘historic gastronomist’ Sarah Lohman, who will provide a historical context for the food we’re eating and how Brooklyn – and specifically Flatbush – fit into the larger network of farms and food distribution in New York in the 1800s.
***
Reducing Recipes: American Weight-Loss Trends
Where: The American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, New York, NY
When: Tuesday, January 24th 6:30 pm
Cost: $30 Buy Tickets Here.
What New Year’s resolution did you make this year? Millions of Americans will promise to shed a couple pounds in 2012; but when Americans start worrying about their waistlines to begin with? How did we count calories before we knew a calorie existed? How did faddish diets in the past change the way Americans ate forever?
***
Cocktail Bitters: The Liquid Spice
6:30 pm – 8 pm @ The Brooklyn Brainery 515 Court St., Brooklyn, NY
$15
This class includes everything you need to know about the world’s most popular cocktail ingredient–bitters!
– A history of bitters and their link to Victorian medicine. — A bitters tasting of three classic bitters, as well as three new, artisanal blends from Brooklyn Hemispherical Bitters. — A how-to demo to make bitters at home, as well as a taste of bitters made from a historic recipe. — A bitters-focused cocktail that’s easy and delicious. — A special sweet treat flavored with bitters.
Impress your friends and improve your cocktails by understanding this complex, versatile, and historic “liquid spice.” Sign up here.
***
The Grand Secret of Punch
8:30 pm – 10 pm @ The Brooklyn Brainery 515 Court St., Brooklyn, NY
$35
This year, enliven your holiday party with a delicious, historic punch!
Punch is a time-honored tradition in New York, past due for a revival. According to The Lights and Shadows of New York Life published 1873: ”Punch is seen in all its glory on [New Year's] day, and each household strives to have the best of this article. There are regular punch-makers in the city, who reap a harvest at this time. Their services are engaged long before-hand, and they are kept busy all morning going from house to house, to make this beverage, which is no-where so palatable as in this city.”
In this class, we’ll demo and drink, giving you the chance to make and taste three wintery punches. You’ll learn how to make Charles Dickens’ own recipe for an impressive, flaming-hot punch; we’ll discuss the safety concerns regarding eggnog and look at several contemporary and antiquated recipes; and we’ll try apple alcohol based cocktailsthat take advantage of holiday flavors and local ingredients.
Sign up to learn the time-tested secrets for perfectly delicious punch!
***
Appetite City: Screening & Panel Discussion with William Grimes
6:30pm @ The Lower East Side Tenement Museum
FREE. RSVP Here.
Former NYTimes restaurant critic William Grimes brings his epicurean knowledge to Appetite City, a new TV series that tells the history of New York City through its iconic food. Tonight’s screening of the episode “Street Food” brings together Leslie Farrell, (producer), food historians Jane Ziegleman, (moderator) and Sarah Lohman (cooking up her delicious apple pancakes).
***
Saturday, October 22nd
Greenpoint 1861
1pm-4pm @ McGolrick Park, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
FREE
On October 25, 1861 the keel of the USS Monitor was laid. Come and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the USS Monitor and the workers who built Greenpoint and worked in the shipbuilding industry. The Diggers will recreate Greenpoint circa 1861 for a one day festival that imagines North Brooklyn when it was the center of national trade and shipbuilding. The event will include:
-A near lifesize model of the Monitor made out of papermache by Jason Gaspar
-Historic food that would have been Greenpoint staples by Sarah Lohmanfrom Fourpoundsflour.com as well as a talk on culinary developments & the spice trade in Greenpoint
-Knot tying demonstration & workshop by Peter Haakon Thompson
-Talk on Alfred and Carnes Eddey, shipwrights in Greenpoint, by their descendant Gary E Eddey
-1860s music by the Depressionaires
-Historic costuming by Melissa Estro and a chance to actually “Walk in the shoes” of 1860s Greenpointers
-Mini pop up museum with educators
***
Thursday, October 20
The Big Apple: Historic Cocktails with Regional Apple Alcohols
7:00 p.m. @ The Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street Brooklyn, New York
Ticket: $30 BHS members/$40 non-members. Purchase your ticket here.
Apple cider, apple brandy, and applejack are complex alcohols that are infinitely mixable. We’re going inspire you to add them to your liquor cabinets with a night of nineteenth-century cocktails!
The evening will begin with a cup of Apple Punch, which features slices of crisp New York apples steeped in wine. While sipping drinks, guests will hear a short talk on the history of apple alcohol in New York. Afterward, participants will learn how to make three historic apple cocktails: the refreshing, spicy Jersey Cocktail; the warm and comforting Apple Toddy; and the sweet, meringue-like Tiger’s Milk Punch. These drinks will feature local apple alcohols made from traditional recipes. Participants will work with educators in small groups, learning about the history of each drink as they imbibe their handmade cocktails. Additionally, local apple alcohol producers will be on hand to talk about their products and the state of the apple industry today.
Generous donations have been made to this event by Revolution Cider, Warwick Valley Winery, and Cornelius Applejack.
This event is part of Glynwood’s Cider Week, which seeks to cultivate an appreciation for hard cider. Glynwood preserves apple orchards in the Hudson Valley by promoting the production of hard cider and apple spirits. Learn more atwww.glynwood.org.
This event is part of BHS’s Brooklyn Food Stories. Advanced ticket purchase recommended as the event will fill up. Ticket: $30 BHS members/$40 non-members. Purchase your ticket here.
***
Saturday, October 15th
Alice, or the Scottish Gravediggers: An Evening of Victorian Medicine and Cocktail Bitters.
6pm-8pm @ The Old Stone House, 336 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY
FREE
Polybe + Seats theater presents a preview of Alice, or the Scottish Gravediggers in part with a bitters tasting withHistoric Gastronomist Sarah Lohman.
Premiering in late October, Alice is an 1829 melodrama about a penniless orphan who works as a maid in her aunt’s inn and is torn between two suitors. She subjects her body to mysterious experiments at a nearby medical school in exchange for treatment for her wounded beloved, a medical student himself. At this event, you’ll get a preview of the play’s gothic set design, music, and art as well as a taste of how Victorian medicine begot the modern cocktail.
Arrive at six for a talk on the link between cocktail bitters and old fashioned medicine. Afterwards, mix and mingle while sipping a bitters-focused cocktail, featuring Original Sin Hard Cider. Then, attend a bitters tasting from local makers, and watch a demo on how to make your own bitters.
Attendees will receive a coupon for discounted admission to the premiere of Alice, or the Scottish Gravedigggers.
This event is part of Open House New York and the Historic House Trust Festival Weekend.
***
Sunday, September 25th
The Real Housewives of Henry St., 1905
3pm @ The Henry St. Settlement, 265 Henry St, New York, NY.
$19.05 Buy Tickets Here.
Please join us as Jane Ziegelman (author of 97 Orchard) explains how the housewives cooked in their primitive tenement kitchens, shopped at pushcart markets, and kept Old World traditions alive in their new homeland, while settlement houses sought to impart the food habits of mainstream America. Historic gastronomist (and star of William Grimes’ new show Appetite City) Sarah Lohman will speak about her three-day experiment keeping Kosher by following a daily menu from the Ellis Island Kosher kitchen. Historian Suzanne Wasserman (Director of the Gotham Center for New York City History) will show a film clip of the 1902 Kosher butcher boycott on the Lower East Side from her upcoming film Meat Hooked!
The event, held in Henry Street’s historic dining room, will include a strudel-making demonstration (audience participation invited!), refreshments like those enjoyed by the 1905 real housewives, and a signature cocktail made with Manischewitz wine. Buy Tickets Here.
***
Wednesday, September 21
Brooklyn Bounty Cocktail Party and the First Brooklyn Food Recognition Awards
6:30 – 9:30 p.m. @ The Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street Brooklyn, New York
Purchase your ticket here.
Brooklyn Bounty Cocktail Party and the First Brooklyn Food Recognition Awards will include tastings of food and drink from Brooklyn growers, chefs and purveyors; historic cocktails in our beautiful library; storytelling by local people from neighborhoods far and wide across Brooklyn; viewings of historical and new maps and materials related to local food and agriculture; a creative silent auction of unique Brooklyn prizes and experiences; and music by The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn. All funds raised at Brooklyn Bounty will be used to support BHS’s nationally-recognized education programs. Purchase your ticket here.
I’m demoing three historic cocktails made from local Brooklyn ingredients. Demo–plus your own cocktail to sip and recipes to take home!
***
Thursday, September 15th
Rewriting Recipes with Historic Gastronomist Sarah Lohman
7:00 p.m. @ The Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street Brooklyn, New York
Perhaps you found a box of ancient handwritten recipes cards at the Brooklyn Flea. Maybe, you have your grandmother’s cookbook, gathering dust on the shelf. Or perhaps you simply enjoy browsing Google books to page through cookbooks from 100 years ago. Why aren’t you cooking from these recipes? These treasures from the past are valuable resources to draw inspiration for a contemporary kitchen. Sarah Lohman is here to help you negotiate the difficulties of translating historic recipes. In Rewriting Recipes, she’ll use BHS’s historic Lefferts Family cookbook to teach how to interpret historic recipes. Lohman will unveil tricks to modernize these recipes for today’s kitchen: how to interpret amounts, flesh out directions, and find comparable ingredients. Most importantly, she’ll show how to pull inspiration from these recipes to create unique contemporary dishes. Feel free to bring your own vintage and historical recipes to share.
This event is part of BHS’s Brooklyn Food Stories. Advanced ticket purchase recommended as the event will fill up. Tickets: $8 BHS members/$10 non-members. Purchase your ticket here.
***
Sunday, September 18th
NYC Apple Day
11 am-5 pm @ Orchard St. between Broome and Grand
FREE
I’ll be at Apple Day again this year, passing out historic apple treats on behalf of the Lower East Side Tenement museum. Swing by my pushcarts for a free apple baked good and a chat; then browse the rest of the festival (which includes a competitive pie-eating contest)
***
Sunday, September 4
Intro to Ice Cream Making
12-2:30pm or 3:30-6pm @ The Brooklyn Brainery 515 Court Street, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY
$30
Sign Up Here
I won’t lie: buying an ice cream maker has been one of the best investments of my life. I am amazed at the endless joy it has brought me; and now, I want to share that joy with you.
Join me to learn the simple steps of making homemade ice cream, from heating the custard to freezing the final product. We’ll chat about the history of ice cream in America as well as discuss the science of ice cream making. Finally, we’ll sample the delicious results of all our hard work. Sign up here!
***
Thursday, September 1
Timeline of Taste with Historic Gastronomist Sarah Lohman
7:00 p.m. @ The Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street Brooklyn, New York
Tickets: $8 BHS members/$10 non-members. Purchase your ticket here.
Have you ever noticed that the names of Greenpoint’s streets bring to mind exotic locales? From Java to India, these Brooklyn roadways took their names from the distant countries that brought spices from the Far East to America’s shores. Once a major port for trading ships, Greenpoint can be used as a guidebook to explore the history of American food through flavor. When did American palates favor one spice over another and why? When did ships stop bringing mace and start carrying vanilla beans?
In A Timeline of Taste Sarah Lohman will take you on a journey from 1800-1950, making a pit stop every fifty years to explore the tastes of a particular time. You’ll get to smell and sample the spices, fruits, extracts, and other ingredients that defined the flavors of each time period. From rosewater to vanilla, nutmeg to cinnamon, citron to reddi-whip, SarahLohman will discuss why these flavors were popular and how they were used in day- to-day cooking.
This event is part of BHS’s Brooklyn Food Stories. Advanced ticket purchase recommended as the event will fill up. Tickets: $8 BHS members/$10 non-members. Purchase your ticket here.
