Campfire Cuisine Beyond Hot Dogs: An Introduction to Hearth Cooking
May 13th, 30th and June 1st, 11am-2pm
@ The Old Stone House & Washington Park, Park Slope, Brooklyn
In this hands-on class, you’re going to learn how to cook a meal over an open fire. But what you’ll really learn are the primal cooking skills that will make you a better cook in your daily life.
We’re going to cover the four basic cooking techniques: baking, roasting, frying and boiling. While preparing a meal on an outdoor hearth, you’ll learn how to tell temperature without a thermometer, how to tell the doneness of food by using all of your senses, and how to build a bad-ass fire.
The skills you will learn in this three-hour session will allow you to amaze your friends on your next camping trip; put on an old-timey costume and cook at a historic house; or simply become a better, more intuitive home chef.
The cost of the class includes a light meal you will help to make: A vegetarian soup; Rusks, a fried bread; a grilled meat (moose or venison); and dessert.
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Masters of Social Gastronomy
Tuesday, April 30th, doors at 7pm
Public Assembly (70 North 6th Street)
Free, but RSVP recommended So we can bring enough samples!
Come on down to Public Assembly in Williamsburg on Tuesday, April 30, for our monthly Masters of Social Gastronomy lecture. This month we’re talking about **sugar and artificial sweeteners**.
If you’ve ever crossed the Williamsburg Bridge, then you’ve surely noticed the towering structures of the defunct Domino’s Sugar factory. In this month’s MSG we’ll explore Brooklyn in an era when sugar was king, as well as take a behind-the-scenes peek at its modern day inheritor Sweet n’ Low.
But is giving in to our sweet tooth digging our own graves? Let’s break down the science behind the fear of sugar, from carcinogenic artificial sweeteners to the possible perils of that ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup.
MSG is free! Doors at 7, talks shortly thereafter, bring an ID with you. Please RSVP HERE so we know how many sweet samples to bring!
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Bitters, Infusions, and Simple Syrups: A Custom Cocktail Workshop
Wednesday, April 10, 6pm
@ The New York Horticultural Society
Tickets $50; Register Here!
Join us as Sarah Lohman teaches us how to recreate those ever-so-delicious cocktails that you thought only a trained “mixologist” could create. Learn how to infuse liquors with herbs and spices using historic recipes as inspiration, and concoct herbal cocktails with flavored simple syrups and fresh ingredients. She’ll also discuss how to use cocktail bitters—as well as their fascinating history—and you’ll make your own bitters from scratch. You’ll learn how to make your own botanically inspired cocktails with a hands-on demo. We’ll enjoy a cocktail in class and you’ll get to take home a sample of your own cocktail bitters.
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Food of the Dead: A Culinary History of Funeral Food
Brooklyn Brainery, 190 Underhill Ave. Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
$12 Tickets Available Here!
At the end of an early American funeral, participants were often given a cookie: spiced with caraway, and stamped with a special design, they were often kept for years as a memento of the departed.
Although mourning traditions have changed over time, and vary from place to place, what they often have in common is food and drink. From the home parlour to the funeral parlor; from Irish wakes to sitting Shiva, consumption offers comfort in a time of grief.
In this talk we’ll look at the culinary traditions surrounding funerals throughout American history, and we’ll taste beer from Midas’s tomb, funeral cakes, and Mormon funeral potatoes
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Masters of Social Gastronomy
Tuesday, March 26, doors at 7pm
Public Assembly (70 North 6th Street)
Free, but PLEASE RSVP recommended So we can bring enough samples!
At this month’s Masters of Social Gastronomy, we’ll look at the culinary world’s experiments with illicit substances.
Let’s get high with the Victorians! From patent medicines to absinthe, Coca-Cola to laughing gas, we’ll look at all the forms of socially acceptable substance abuse during the 19th century.
Later, we’ll fast-forward to modern-day America, where quasi-legal marijuana has spawned an industry of cannabis edibles. We’ll survey the range of altered-state culinary concoctions and see what both science and chefs have to say about epicurean euphoria.
For Storytime, we’ll explore the 1971 cookbook “Supermother’s Cooking with Grass,” and this mama’s not using lawn clippings. For those preferring to stay on the good side of the law, we’ll also see if vodka sauce can make some seriously drunken noodles.
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Vanilla: A History
Thursday, March 28th @ 6:30 – 8:00pm or 8:30 – 10:00pm
Brooklyn Brainery, 190 Underhill Ave. Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
$15 – Buy Tickets Here
America’s most popular ice cream flavor has only been in use for the last 200 years. Where did vanilla come from, and what came before it? Let’s learn and taste our way through its history. In this class:
-Learn the history of vanilla and its culinary uses
-See how vanilla is farmed and processed
-Taste three different regional vanillas and one “pre-vanilla”flavor.
All in all, you’ll be filled with facts you can bust out at your next dinner party and dazzle your friends, as well as make better informed choices when using vanilla in your kitchen.
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The Masters of Social Gastronomy Love Sandwiches!
Tuesday, February 26th, 7pm
Public Assembly (70 North 6th Street) in Williamsburg
FREE! But Please RSVP HERE
The history of sandwiches is laced with vice, ingenuity, and industry.
Sarah will relate this sordid tale via the PB&J, perhaps the sandwich Americans feel the most passionate about. But jelly wasn’t always thought to be peanut butter’s natural companion and at MSG you’ll get to experience long-forgotten peanut butter sandwiches of the past.
Later, Soma will take us on a tour of America’s best sandwiches, from national standbys like the BLT to regional treasures like the Po’ Boy. He’ll go to bat for thegrilled cheese as the greatest sandwich of all time, and use the power of experimentation to uncover the Perfect Grilled Cheese.
During Storytime, former-Sandwich-Artist Soma will spill the beans on Subway’s secrets, because we know you’ve always wondered what exactly that “Subway smell” is. Afterward, they’ll put on their brave faces while tasting the most bizarre and innovative sandwich combinations history has to offer.
RSVP HERE. So we know how many free samples to bring.
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The Pearl Harbor Sandwich: Food at the Brooklyn Navy YardThe Brooklyn Historical Society 128 Pierrepont Street Brooklyn, NY
Tickets available here!
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At the Kids’ Table: Victory Gardens!
Saturday, March 2nd, 2-4pm
The New York Historical Society
RSVP required at familyprograms@nyhistory.org; $10 materials fee
During WWII, families were encouraged to grown their own food to free up more of the food supply for the troops. In this workshop, kids will join in for this wartime challenge by planting their own windowsill Victory Garden of spinach and tomatoes and learnhow to use their vegetables to cook a delicious 1940s dish.
ABOUT AT THE KIDS’ TABLE
This is a series of three family programs on New York City’s food history. Each two-hour program allows participants to experience historic foodways through an exploration of kitchen objects based on the New-York Historical Society’s collection and cooking.
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Before New York Was New York: A Culinary History of New Amsterdam
Tuesday, February 19th, 7:30 PM
@ The Farm on Adderley, 1108 Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn
$60 (+ beverages, tax & gratuity)
To sign-up, send an e-mail to thefarmonadderleyevents@gmail.com.
The Farm on Adderley is thrilled to welcome ‘historic gastronomist’ Sarah Lohman to host a meal inspired by what people were eating in New York in the 1600s and the lasting influence of Dutch tastes. The meal will be inspired by a cookbook compiled by the Lefferts family, who had a stronghold on land in the Flatbush (“Vlacke Bos”) area of Brooklyn.
To sign-up, send an e-mail to thefarmonadderleyevents@gmail.com.
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MSG does MSG!
Tuesday, January 29, 7pm
Public Assembly (70 North 6th Street) in Williamsburg
To celebrate its one year anniversary, this month’s Masters of Social Gastronomy takes on its namesake: monosodium glutamate (MSG)! Savory spice or fatal flavor?
Sarah Lohman of Four Pounds Flour will track MSG back to its source intraditional Japanese food, showing how time and money can turned an innocuous plant into the darling of mass production
Soma will take on modern-day interpretations of MSG, from its role in “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” to its many relatives hiding ineveryday foods. Science fact will be separated from science fiction as myths are deflated and truths laid bare.
While Sarah crafts organic MSG from scratch, Soma will bend science to his iron will and produce factory-farm MSG in his very own kitchen.
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How the Kitchen Has Changed
Saturday, January 12th, 2-4pm
The New York Historical Society
RSVP required at familyprograms@nyhistory.org; $10 materials fee
Families will begin with a game in the NYHS gallery, matching a modern kitchen tool to its historic counterpart–from toasters to tupperware. We’ll highlight how kitchen work has changed over time by making cinnamon toast from scratch, including churning butter, grinding cinnamon and sugar, and making toast with an old fashioned toaster.
ABOUT AT THE KIDS’ TABLE
This is a series of three family programs on New York City’s food history. Each two-hour program allows participants to experience historic foodways through an exploration of kitchen objects based on the New-York Historical Society’s collection and cooking. The first program focuses on seventeenth-century Dutch food traditions, the second on how kitchen tools have changed since the early nineteenth century, and the third victory gardens in New York during WWII. Sign up for one or all programs in the series!
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The Masters of Social Gastronomy Cut the Fat
@ Public Assembly, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
FREE (but please RSVP here so we bring enough samples)
For every supposedly innovative weight loss fad, there is a century-old counterpart. From low-carb diets to extreme mastication, calorie counting to calisthenics, Sarah will reveal the radicals and pseudo-scientists that invented America’s favorite dieting trends.
Soma will pull back the curtain on the dieting industry, from the shadowy producers of diet pillsto our dear frozen friends at Healthy Choice. See what happens when Budweiser battles South Beach, and how marketing muscle can be found in an IBM computer from the 60′s. Featuring kickbacks, intrigue and many many cigarettes.
At Storytime, we’ll figure out whether tapeworm diets, negative calories and other crazy ideas are fact or fiction.
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CORNELIA VAN VARICK’S HOLIDAY KITCHEN
Saturday, December 1st 2-4 pm
The New York Historical Society
RSVP required at familyprograms@nyhistory.org; $10 materials fee
Dutch families in New Amsterdam were known for their delicious holiday confections—can you imagine all the good smells that would have come out of their kitchens?
During this program, participants will take the place of Cornelia van Varick in her seventeenth-century kitchen as she prepares traditional food for the New Year. We’ll handle objects and ingredients that Cornelia would have had, such as sugar cones and nippers, Dutch ovens, and mortar and pestles. Then we’ll use them to make two Dutch holiday treats, orange caraway cookies and fried doughnuts, that participants can taste and take home.
ABOUT AT THE KIDS’ TABLE
This is a series of three family programs on New York City’s food history. Each two-hour program allows participants to experience historic foodways through an exploration of kitchen objects based on the New-York Historical Society’s collection and cooking. The first program focuses on seventeenth-century Dutch food traditions, the second on how kitchen tools have changed since the early nineteenth century, and the third on how food rationing affected families during WWII. Sign up for one or all programs in the series!
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Fifteen Cent Dinners - in part with the NYPL’s Lunch Hour NYC
Thursday, November 15, 5:30 PM
Morningside Heights Library - Community Room
2900 Broadway, NY NY
FREE
In 1877, Juliet Corson self-published a pamphlet entitled “15 Cent Dinners for Families of Six.” What motivated Corson to publish this pamphlet and who were the families that needed to survive on $3 a week, about $50 in today’s money? And what is it like to survive on a diet of organ meats, beans, and beef broth, totaling about 800 calories a day?
In this talk, we’ll look at Corson’s pamphlet, and talk about the effect it had on a population left destitute by a great depression. I lived on her suggested diet for a week, and I’ll share my personal experience with her food and advice. With tastings!
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Extracts, Infusions and Bitters: Holiday Cooking and Baking
Sunday, November 11th, 10 am
@ The Brooklyn Botanical Garden
$43 - Buy Tickets
Learn how to enliven your kitchen with the unique flavors of rich spices. This class begins with a tour of cooking spices found in the BBG greenhouses, along with a discussion about when and why they became popular in American cuisine. Back in the classroom, learn to make a variety of spice infused ingredients that compliment wintertime cooking and baking as well as tips and techniques for building layers of flavor in holiday dishes. From infused oils to mulling spices to fruitcakes, we’ll learn how to make homemade holiday gifts for culinary enthusiasts. Participants will make a baking extract, filled with winter flavors, to take home.
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Extracts, Infusions and Bitters: Winter Cocktails
Sunday, November 11th, 1pm or 4pm
@ The Brooklyn Botanical Garden
$43 – SOLD OUT
When the weather turns cold, the best way to warm up is with a spicy, warm winter cocktail . First we’ll take a tour of the BBG greenhouses for a tutorial on great cocktail ingredients: coffee, vanilla, and other spices in their natural state—as well as their place in cocktail history. Then we’ll head into the classroom to learn how to infuse liquors with herbs and spices, concoct warm, winter cocktails, and make your own bitters from scratch. We’ll learn to layer flavor, and how to make great holiday cocktails on the fly. The class includes hands-on demos, an in-class cocktail, and a take-away sample of your own, home-made cocktail bitters.
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American Cookery: A Culinary History of Thanksgiving Dinner
Tuesday, November 13th 7:30 PM
@ The Farm on Adderley, 1108 Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn
$60/person (+ tax & gratuity)
The Farm on Adderley is thrilled to welcome ‘historic gastronomist’ Sarah Lohman to host a meal inspired by the culinary traditions behind America’s favorite holiday. From gravy to green bean casserole, mashed potatoes to pumpkin pie, Sarah will trace our most-loved foods back to their original recipes and shed light on how the traditions we know and love came to be.
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Chinatown and Chop Suey - in part with the NYPL’s Lunch Hour NYC
Saturday, November 3, 10:30 AM
Seward Park Library
192 East Broadway, NY NY
FREE
Chinatown and its cuisine have always been a lunchtime favorite. In this talk, we’ll chat dim sum and tea houses, the Jewish connection to Chinese food, and the history of Chinatown as a cheap lunch destination. Live demo (and tasting!) of a 19th century recipe for the “original” Chop Suey, featuring chicken livers and gizzards.
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The Masters of Social Gastronomy take on Taboo Foods! CANCELLED DUE TO HURRICANE
@ Public Assembly, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
FREE (but please RSVP here!)
MSG is our monthly lecture series all about the history and science of some of your favorite edibles. This month? Taboo foods, just in time for Halloween.
What culture is forbidden to eat pork? Who was denied access to bananas? What is the most adorable animal the Aztecs ate? What’s worse than eating people?
All these questions answered, and more, when Sarah looks at a worldwide history of taboo foods.
Meanwhile, Soma will unravel the sinfulness of garlic, the pros and cons of eating your enemy’s brains, and a breakdown of what awaits those who break the rules in all your favorite myths. Don’t eat a slice if you can’t pay the price!
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Inwood Library
4790 Broadway, NY NY
67th st Library
328 East 67 St. NY NY
The stories behind three fountain favorites: the egg cream, Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda, and the Lime Rickey. Will include a demo of how to mix each drink, as well as a tasting! This program is for families–bring the kids and learn together!
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Brooklyn Boozehounds: A History of Distilling in Kings County
The Brooklyn Historical Society 128 Pierrepont Street Brooklyn, NY
Tickets are $10/ Free for BHS members.
Eating our Emotions: The History of Food in Funeral Traditions
Sunday, October 7th, 2:30 pm
@ The Queens Historical Society
Free! But please RSVP here so I know how much food to bring!
Campfire Cuisine Beyond Hot Dogs: An Introduction to Hearth Cooking
Sunday, September 30th.
The Old Stone House & Washington Park, Park Slope, Brooklyn
In this hands-on class, you’re going to learn how to cook an authentic 18th century meal over an open fire. But what you’ll really learn are the primal cooking skills that will make you a better cook in your daily life.
We’re going to cover the four basic cooking techniques: baking, roasting, frying and boiling. While preparing a meal on an outdoor hearth, you’ll learn how to tell temperature without a thermometer, how to tell the doneness of food by using all of your senses, and how to build a bad-ass fire.
The skills you will learn in this four-hour session will allow you to amaze your friends on your next camping trip; put on an old-timey costume and cook at a historic house; or simply become a better, more intuitive home chef.
The cost of the class includes a light meal you will help to make. Buy tickets HERE.
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The Master of Social Gastronomy Get Shelved: Preservatives and Convenience Food
Tuesday, September 25th, 7pm
@ Public Assembly, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
FREE (but please RSVP here!)
MSG is our FREE monthly food science and history lecture, and this time we’re talking all about convenience food!
It’s evil, right?
Well, you may change your tune after Sarah’s Ode to Convenience Food in Three Parts: How Convenience Food Won the Civil War; How Convenience Food Almost Killed Us at the Turn of the Century; and How Convenience Food Liberated the Modern Woman.
Sarah is fairly certain modern society was built on the back of Borden’s Sweetened Condensed Milk, and at MSG, you’ll find out why.
Why does your bacon clamor about its lack of nitrites, but your soda keeps quiet about sodium benzoate? Soma will unwrap our love/hate relationship with modern preservatives, and how keeping our food safe may or may not kill us in the end. Learn to read the small print of food labeling with terrifying ease!
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Masters of Social Gastronomy Get Tipsy
Public Assembly, 70 North 6th Street, Williamsburg
Tuesday, August 28, 7pm
Free, PLEASE RSVP
Jonathan Soma of the Brooklyn Brainery will unravel the science behind inebriation, from the moment it hits your lips to your next-day regrets. We’ll break down “beer before liquor,” red wine’s affection for hangovers, and other boozy old wives’ tales.
After Soma explains the whys of getting drunk, Sarah Lohman, author of Four Pounds Flour, will actually get you drunk! She’ll unveil the history of drinking games, from the Greeks flinging wine at each other in a game of skill, to the American practice of “toasting,” that instigated the prohibition movement. From Geisha Games to Ancient Rock, Paper, Scissors, you’ll be invited on stage to play and compete for fabulous prizes and free drinks!
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Special Preview: Tenement Kitchens Tour
Monday, August 6 at 6:30 PM
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, 97 Orchard St., New York, NY
Purchase tickets online HERE
For many Lower East Side women, feeding the family was a daily struggle. Scraping together what money was left after paying rent, tenement women scoured the markets in search of the best ingredients, while sharpening their wits haggling over prices. They made dinner in apartments without running water, electricity or refrigeration. Their meals show us how they preserved their heritage while adapting to a new land.
In this tour, you’ll see the apartments of three different 97 Orchard families with three different ethnic backgrounds: German, Sephardic, and Italian. You’ll learn the important role that the kitchen played as the heart of the home and you’ll get to see, smell, and finally taste the foods of the tenements. The tour will end with a sample of a unique Chinese-American dish.
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$15 Members
$25 General Public
Call 877-97-LESTM [877-975-3786] or purchase tickets online HERE.
Members must call the number listed above for the member discount.
Masters of Social Gastronomy: ICE CREAM!
Tuesday, July 24th, Doors at 7
Public Assembly, Brooklyn
FREE with FREE Samples
MSG is our free monthly lecture series all about the history and science of food. Up this month: ice cream.
Sarah Lohman of Four Pounds Flour will unearth the stories behind our favorite ice cream treats and share some of history’s wildest bygone flavors–that may be due for a revival. By the end of the night, you’ll be able to answer questions like: which came first, chocolate or vanilla? The ice cream sandwich or the ice cream cone? Neapolitan or liquid nitrogen?
Meanwhile, Soma will show you the science behind making the perfect batch at home, and Big Ice Cream’s tricks for plumping up their profit margins. We’ll also track frozen desserts across the globe, from Italian gelato to dondurma, the magically stretchy ice cream from Turkey.
At the storytime halftime show, they’ll make ice cream right before your eyes, using an easy method you can replicate anytime, anywhere.
As always, MSG is free and takes place at Public Assembly (70 North 6th Street) in Williamsburg. Doors open at 7pm, with samples and drink specials all night long.
RSVP here! (so we know how much free ice cream to bring!)
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American Taste: Black Pepper
Wednesday, July 25th, 6:30-8
@ The Brooklyn Brainery
$12 Buy tickets here.
This is an all you ever need to know class about black pepper!
We’ll look at the history of this spice, and discover how it went from being as precious as gold to the ubiquitous plastic shaker on a diner table.
Then, we’ll track its production, from life on a vine in Sumatra to tri-color pepper in the spice aisle of Whole Foods.
And lastly, we’ll taste five varieties of pepper from different regions, discuss pepper recipes past and present, and analyze the flavor qualities of America’s favorite savory spice. Buy tickets here!
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Masters of Social Gastronomy: Gelatin!
Tuesday, June 26th, 7pm
Public Assembly, 70 North 6th Street, Williamsburg
FREE! Free samples! Drink Specials!
Masters of Social Gastronomy (MSG) is a monthly lecture series all about the history and science behind some of your favorite, or not so favorite, foods. This month: gelatinous edibles of all sorts.
Sarah will discuss the origins of gelatinous desserts, starting long ago when jiggly delights were made with drippings from beef stew or extracts from the swimbladders of sturgeon. Then we’ll take on that modern wonder:Jell-O, exploring the greatest atrocities and wildest successes of the 20th century Jell-O mold, while figuring our why recipes for meat in lime Jell-O exist. From 19th-century “Punch Jelly,” to 20th-century “Jell-O Sea Dream with Shrimps” you will see gelatin both beautiful and horrible.
Meanwhile, Soma will untangle the science of gelatin and its kin, introducing a few lesser-known relatives along the way. How’d we get the wiggle in those jigglers? Find out where killer bacteria and Jell-O meet on the other side, and dive into the amazing world of edible dishware. Stretch the boundaries of reality through an introduction to counterfeit Chinese eggs and the fancy-pants world of molecular gastronomy.
As if that’s not enough, we’ll be joined by Michelle Zatta and Nadia Siddiqui, co-directors of the Jell-O Mold Design Competition, who will present the good, the bad, and the ugly of gelatin design, including tips on how to create a successful Jell-O mold.
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Tenement Talks Behind the Scenes: Goldie Lustgarten’s Kosher Butcher Shop and the Riot of 1902
Tuesday, June 19th, 6:30 PM
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum
103 Orchard Street, New York, NY
FREE
Join historians Judith Rosenbaum from the Jewish Women’s Archives and Annie Polland as they discuss the impact of the Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902 on the city and our own 97 Orchard Street. Savor a tasting prepared by food historian Sarah Lohman.
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Extracts, Infusions and Bitters: Cooking and Baking
Sunday, June 10th, Noon-2:30 pm
@ The Brooklyn Botanical Garden
$55
Learn how to enliven your kitchen with the unique flavors of fresh botanicals. This class begins with a tour of cooking herbs and spices found at BBG, along with a discussion about when they became popular, or fell out of favor, in the American diet. Back in the classroom, learn to make a variety of herbally infused ingredients, including a botanical vinegar and an extract for baking to take home.
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Extracts, Infusions and Bitters: Cocktails
Sunday, June 10th, 3:00pm – 5:30 pm
@ The Brooklyn Botanical Garden
$55
Learn how to make your own fresh-flavored, botanically inspired cocktails. First we take a tour of BBG for a tutorial on coffee, vanilla, medicinal herbs, and spices in their natural state-as well as their place in cocktail history. Then we’ll head into the classroom to learn how to infuse liquors with herbs and spices, concoct herbal cocktails, and make your own bitters from scratch. The class includes hands-on demos, an in-class cocktail, and a take-away sample of your own fresh-from-the-garden cocktail bitters.
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Masters of Social Gastronomy: Fake Meat!
Tuesday, April 24, 7pm
Public Assembly, 70 North 6th Street, Williamsburg
FREE! RSVP HERE
Each month, MSG takes on a curious food topic and breaks down the history, science, and stories behind it. Accept no imitations, because on April 24th we’ll be talking FAKE MEAT.
Sarah Lohman of Four Pounds Flour will give you a run-down of vegetarianism in the west. From Benjamin Franklin’s ”Tow-fu” to Dr. Kellogg’s commercial “Protose,” we’ll explore just how long we’ve been eating things that masquerade as meat.
Soma will be taking charge of all your favorite modern imitation meats, exploring the many faces of soy and revealing the not-so-secret fungi factories that power your favorite frauds. We’ll take a look at crafting mock duck and tempeh at home, as well as where to shop if your culinary prowess fails.
There’ll samples of historic fake meats so good you might be inspired to replace your veggie burger with some history food, along with drink specials from the always awesome Buffalo Trace Bourbon. RSVP HERE so we know how many free samples to bring!
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Behind the Scenes: Caroline Schneider’s Kitchen
April. 3 at 6:30 PM
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum
103 Orchard Street, New York, NY
FREE
John and Caroline Schneider’s saloon enlivened 97 Orchard from 1864 to 1886. VP of Education Annie Polland explores the vital role Caroline played in organizing the saloon. Food historian Sarah Lohman introduces recipes Caroline might have used.
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Masters of Social Gastronomy: The Flavor Battles!
Where: Public Assembly, 70 North 6th Street in Williamsburg
When: Tuesday, March 27th. Doors at 7
FREE with FREE SAMPLES
RSVP now!
MSG is a free, monthly lecture on food history and science! Our next MSG lecture is on Tuesday, March 27, and it’s going to be themost epic yet, as we take on the history and science of imitation ingredients. There’ll even be a sample-heavy showdown where you get to definitively decide if there’s any difference between artifical and natural flavorings.
As for the lectures, Sarah will explore the history of artificial food, starting with medieval feasts obsessed with disgusting foods like “meat pitchers.” After a trip to the 19th century to explore theearliest artificial flavorings, we’ll visit the “Poison Squad,” a team of early 20th-century chemists who tested the safety of food additives by ingesting them in large quantities.
Soma will open up the science behind artificial flavorings, tracking the back-room work of flavor chemists. Find out what notebook paper has in common with vanilla ice cream, and uncover the secrets of Juicy Fruit gum. We’ll bring it all back home by examining the NYC’s very own maple-syrup-scent mystery, and Soma’s attempts to recreate it in his kitchen.
Then, during the Storytime interlude, natural and artificial flavors will square off. Sarah and Soma will state the case for two sets of flavorings, and the audience will do a blind taste test to decide which ones reign supreme.
You have to be there. RSVPing helps us know how many free samples to bring. RSVP HERE.
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Buzzard Sunday
When: Sunday, March 18th, 11 am-4 pm
Where: Brooklyn Brainery, 515 Court St., Brooklyn, NY.
Tickets: $15, Get ‘em Here
Masters of Social Gastronomy: Candy!
Where:Public Assembly, 70 North 6th Street in Williamsburg
When: Tuesday, February 28sth. Doors at 7
FREE with FREE SAMPLES
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.
Sarah will talk about ancient candies with a connection to the present day: from the first sweet treats in Asia to the development of confections like Halvah, we’ll explore the story of candy from pre-history to Marshmallow Peeps.
Meanwhile, Soma will unravel the science behind all your favorite niche candy and show you how to whip up cunning imitations at home. From the explosive power of Pop Rocks and the spicy burn of Atomic Fireballs to the sour rush of Warheads and the soothing coolness of Orbit gum – it’s chemistry vs candy!
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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!
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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).
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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)
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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!
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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.
Masters of Social Gastronomy: Gelatin!
Tuesday, June 26th, 7pm
Public Assembly, 70 North 6th Street, Williamsburg
FREE! Free samples! Drink Specials! RSVP HERE
Masters of Social Gastronomy (MSG) is a monthly lecture series all about the history and science behind some of your favorite, or not so favorite, foods. This month: gelatinous edibles of all sorts.
Sarah will discuss the origins of gelatinous desserts, starting long ago when jiggly delights were made with drippings from beef stew or extracts from the swimbladders of sturgeon. Then we’ll take on that modern wonder:Jell-O, exploring the greatest atrocities and wildest successes of the 20th century Jell-O mold, while figuring our why recipes for meat in lime Jell-O exist. From 19th-century “Punch Jelly,” to 20th-century “Jell-O Sea Dream with Shrimps” you will see gelatin both beautiful and horrible.
Meanwhile, Soma will untangle the science of gelatin and its kin, introducing a few lesser-known relatives along the way. How’d we get the wiggle in those jigglers? Find out where killer bacteria and Jell-O meet on the other side, and dive into the amazing world of edible dishware. Stretch the boundaries of reality through an introduction to counterfeit Chinese eggs and the fancy-pants world of molecular gastronomy.
As if that’s not enough, we’ll be joined by Michelle Zatta and Nadia Siddiqui, co-directors of the Jell-O Mold Design Competition, who will present the good, the bad, and the ugly of gelatin design, including tips on how to create a successful Jell-O mold.
RSVP HERE so we know how many free samples to bring!
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