Index

CHC News & Upcoming Events
News & Opportunities
Destinations
Food for Thought (book reviews)
Events of Interest
International Conferences

1. CHC News and Upcoming Events

Happy Canada Day!

As of July 1 each year, CHC offers new members a bonus: 15 months for the price of 12. Normally, CHC membership starts and ends on the dates of our Annual General Meeting in the autumn. If you sign up today, your membership will be valid right away, and will extend until the fall of 2022.

Besides supporting this newsletter and our very active Facebook page, membership in the CHC also supports our annual sponsorships of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair and Taste Canada, among other projects. It offers substantial discounts on our events and publications for two individuals living at the same address (or members of the same organization). Members are included in the CHC membership directory and receive a copy, and are entitled to voting privileges.

Membership is only $30 for one year or $55 for two. Apply or renew online using PayPal, a credit card or Visa Debit.

CHC Annual General Meeting

Please note that the CHC AGM will take place on the afternoon of Sunday, September 26. Members in good standing as of that date have the right to stand for board membership, to elect board members and to vote on official matters that may arise.

Like last year, the meeting will be held virtually, so we expect strong attendance from across the country. We will be offering fascinating presentations on culinary history relating to rural women, and participants will receive some simple historic recipes so that we can all “share” a snack.

For further information, or to find out about board vacancies, contact info@culinaryhistorians.ca.

An array of baking from The Practice of Cookery, prepared at a workshop hosted by CHC Lifetime Member Mya Sangster in 2013.

A Special Event: Mrs. Dalgairns’s Kitchen

At 7:30 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 27, culinary historian and CHC honorary lifetime member Mary F. Williamson will talk about her new book, Mrs. Dalgairns’s Kitchen: Rediscovering “The Practice of Cookery,” an in-depth look at a cookbook first published in 1829. Mary will be joined by Elizabeth Baird, who adapted some of the recipes in the book for modern kitchens. Baird—who found Dalgairn’s recipes extremely practical—will demonstrate two of the updated recipes. A question-and-answer session with both women will follow.

When The Practice of Cookery first appeared in 1829, reviewers went into ecstasies, and it was a top seller for nearly 30 years, until it was finally eclipsed by Mrs. Beeton’s famous cookbook. Mrs. Dalgairns was thought by her contemporaries to be Scottish, but she had lived for over 20 years on Prince Edward Island. In Mrs. Dalgairns’s Kitchen, Mary Williamson reclaims Dalgairns’ and her book’s Canadian roots.

In addition to the author’s experience of Acadian and Mi’kmaq foodways, Mrs. Dalgairns lived in the Scottish Highlands for a number of years and added recipes from there to her repertoire. Her mother had come from Boston, inspiring the cookbook’s several American recipes; Dalgairns’s brothers-in-law lived in India, as reflected in the chapter devoted to curry recipes.

Admission: $19.10 (general); $11.34 (CHC members). Tickets are available on Eventbrite.

Packaged Toronto Report

By Sylvia Lovegren

On Thursday, June 24, CHC hosted writer-historian Jamie Bradburn to talk about vintage packaging and the companies behind it, as featured in Spacing’s new book, Packaged Toronto: A Collection of the City’s Historic Design. Bradburn presented an eclectic collection of packaging from Toronto’s past, including Harry Horn’s Double Cream Custard Powder, long a standard ingredient for Canada’s iconic Nanaimo Bars; an excursion into McLaughlin’s Canada Dry Ginger Ale—with a satisfying demonstration of how to properly open a Canada Dry bottle—and a somewhat hilarious look at Mulveney’s B’Well Tonic, among other historic relics.

Visuals, as expected from a presentation about design, were fascinating, and Bradburn was able to delve deeper on some topics than the format of the book itself allowed. A lively question-and-answer session followed. Subscribers to the event were given a coupon for a discount on the book, and our thanks to Matthew Blackett of Spacing for that.

For Our Facebook Friends

Since the CHC Facebook page now reaches over 4,300 members, with more joining daily, we thought it was time to post some forum guidelines. We reproduce them here for those of you who may not have visited the site lately.

The Culinary Historians of Canada is a membership-based, volunteer-driven not-for-profit organization. Its mission is to inspire appreciation and advance knowledge of Canada’s food history. The CHC researches, interprets, preserves and celebrates Canada’s culinary heritage, which has been shaped by the food traditions of Indigenous peoples and generations of immigrants from all parts of the world. We welcome new members, wherever they live. We embrace:

DIVERSITY by exploring all the culinary histories of Canada.
LEARNING by producing innovative and engaging programs.
COLLABORATION by nurturing fertile partnerships among members and the culinary history community.
AUTHENTICITY by valuing accurate research while remaining open to fresh interpretations of the past.
PRESERVATION by supporting the promulgation of Canadian culinary history.
INTEGRITY by demonstrating responsible stewardship.

Thank you for becoming part of our online community! When you post or comment, please observe the following rules:

1. CONDUCT AND LANGUAGE
We strive to maintain an environment that promotes learning and discussion while being safe and inclusive for participants of diverse backgrounds, life choices and beliefs. Therefore:

Participants are required to be mindful of the language they use in posts and comments; racist or demeaning comments and personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Vulgarity or profanity should be avoided.

2. APPROPRIATE CONTENT

Only posts and comments related to Canadian culinary history are permitted; off-topic content will be removed.
Although we celebrate the accomplishments of CHC members in good standing (such as publications and events), we do not allow promotion of commercial goods for sale. (Feel free, however, to refer group members to a book or event you think they will be interested in.)

Those who do not comply with these guidelines will be removed from the forum. If you are in doubt about the content you wish to share, or if you would like to report a post that does not seem to conform to these guidelines, please message the group administrators directly or email info@culinaryhistorians.ca.

July Cooking Challenge: Berries
Since rhubarb evoked so much excitement in May and June, we're issuing a similar challenge for July. As they come into season across the country, show us your best-loved recipes for Canadian berries! And much as we love the classics—like raspberries, strawberries and blueberries—we’re also eager to hear about the lesser-known regional berries. We’re thinking bearberries, bunchberries, cloudberries, salmonberries, Saskatoon berries, thimbleberries and juniper berries (gin & tonic, anyone?).

If you post pictures and comments to our Facebook page before midnight on Friday, July 23, we’ll feature you in our next newsletter.

Rhubarb Cooking Challenge Participants
We called for rhubarb pictures in May for our June newsletter, but Facebook friends from the cooler regions of the country begged for more time for their crops to ripen, so we extended the deadline into June, and boy, did you respond!

Beverly Kouhi Soloway (both photos, above): “Finally got to harvest my little patch of rhubarb today ... ended up with six pounds (almost 3 kg). Made a Rhubarb Crisp from Mom's recipe, and of course Stewed Rhubarb for breakfast. The rest is in the freezer for future consideration.” 🙂

Lorraine Fuller: “First harvest of the season: a strawberry-rhubarb galette à la Complete Canadian Living Cookbook.”

Marie Polski: “My entry for May’s cooking challenge is Springtime Roly-Poly from the 1966 Robin Hood Flour / Calendar of Festive Recipes cookbook. The recipe, which prominently includes this month’s required ingredient of rhubarb, is featured in the cookbook’s month of April. I basically followed all the recipe’s instructions, except I substituted one ingredient; instead of all-purpose flour, I used Red Fife whole wheat flour.

“For those who are unfamiliar with Red Fife wheat, according to various internet articles, it ‘is derived from the Keremeos strain that was brought to Canada from Scotland 170 years ago’ and ‘ruled the Canadian prairie for 40 years, until new varieties were introduced at the end of the 19th century.’ I had fun making this recipe for the challenge. I loved the taste of the finished product; but, it wasn’t much of a ‘looker.’ The Red Fife wheat, with its ‘red’ colour, lent a rather brown-coloured dessert.”

Lorraine Fuller: “A family favourite: rhubarb cake ... sometimes it’s a cake; other times it’s a loaf. Either way it is yummy. I don’t know where it originated. I just have the recipe card my mother-in-law wrote out years ago for me.”

Kristin Howard: “Sharing this seasonal favourite today: rhubarb walnut bread! Recipe from our museum cookbook John R. Park Homestead. Enjoy!” (See our Facebook page for the full recipe.)

Jennifer Meyer: “We always had rhubarb in the garden growing up and now living in a condo, I rely on finding it at the grocery shops. Today was a double-trouble rhubarb day. I picked up a bundle of rhubarb at Farm Boy (about five cups total), and there was more than enough to make Lunar Rhubarb cake by Elizabeth Baird, found in the book Feast. I made two versions of the cake—one with the brown sugar topping on the top and the other with it on the bottom, as I used a floral loaf pan.”

Pauline Meyer Warren (in response to Jennifer’s post, above): “Jennifer, thanks for the intel on lunar cake!” (In response to “To Dinner with Julie”): “I used your method, it tastes even better than the butter and sugar aromas that were coming from the oven. I’m over the moon. 🤣”

Elvira Regier Smid: “I know I am way too late for the May rhubarb challenge. [Not so!—ed.] But that is the way it is when you live right up against the mountains. Everything is just a little later. So this is my entry into everything rhubarb. This is what we call Platz, this time made with rhubarb, but any fruit filling will work. Platz is a Germanization of a Ukrainian word meaning ‘low flat cake.’ The crust is between a baking powder biscuit and a pie crust. This works for dessert and for breakfast.”

Elizabeth Lyons Morrison: “This rhubarb (not custard) pie is from a well used family favourite cookbook called A Guide to Good Cooking, a publication of Five Roses Flour.”

Randal Oulton: “Canning stewed rhubarb. We have our rhubarb patches at the Leslie Street allotment gardens in Toronto. I used the Tattler re-usable canning lids on the jars. Tested canning directions are at the National Center for Home Food Preservation.”

Lyle Beaugard: “She’s not a member here, so I’m posting a picture of my wife’s delicious rhubarb custard pie on her behalf. The rhubarb came from her dad’s patch. Check out the colour of that custard from the free-range farm eggs we buy! It has an oatmeal crust, and the balance between the tart rhubarb and rich sweet custard is amazing!”

Sherry Murphy: “Two rhubarb and cherry pies! One for my son-in-law Greg, and one for my hubby! Very tart pie!”

Sarah Hood: “Since my beloved local café closed, I’ve been on a scones binge this year, mainly using variations on the cheese scones recipe from Charmian Christie’s book The Messy Baker. When my rhubarb came up, of course I switched from craisins and currants to rhubarb. So tart-sweet and yummy!”