Culinary Historians of Canada newsletter, January 2022

Index

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

1. CHC News and Upcoming Events

Salt Rising Bread Workshop!

Start the year with a new culinary skill! On Saturday, January 15, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. EST, Salt Rising Bread author and researcher Genevieve Bardwell will lead us in a workshop on making this unique bread. (Lots of history, too!)

Salt rising bread is a uniquely North American bread that originated in the Appalachian region during the 1700s. This bread tradition was passed down orally through the centuries and shared across West Virginia and Western New York—and right up into Canada, where Catherine Parr Traill made it in Ontario—as well as Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.

In addition to a workshop showcasing how this unusual bread is made, Bardwell will share theories about how the bread got its name: from coddling a "starter" in heated salt to the use of chemical salts (potash, baking soda, table salt) that establish a unique alkaline fermentation, enabling the bread to rise. Stories reveal a heritage rich in folklore as well as baking skills. Often a salt rising bread starter was passed among neighbours, while recipes were handed down through the generations. Comparisons with similar Indigenous breads from other world regions will be discussed. Q&A will be ongoing during the workshop.

Genevieve "Jenny" Bardwell lives in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, USA, an Appalachian community where salt rising bread has been a part of life for over 200 years. In her quest to understand this beloved heritage bread, Bardwell and her colleague Susan Ray Brown spent decades extensively researching its history, lore and science. This quest has taken her to bread museums, bakeries and science laboratories across the United States, Europe and the Middle East, as well as into the kitchens of many elderly salt rising bread bakers.

Bardwell started Rising Creek Bakery in 2010 in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, which continues to specialize in salt rising bread, shipping hundreds of loaves weekly throughout the US. With Brown, she co-authored the only book on this bread: Salt Rising Bread: Recipes and Heartfelt Stories of a Nearly Lost Appalachian Tradition (2016. St. Lynn's Press, Pittsburgh). She graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and earned a Master’s in Plant Pathology from the University of Massachusetts. She continues to conduct research on wild fermented breads and teach classes about salt rising bread.

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

Hearth Warming Holidays Report

By Sylvia Lovegren

Over two consecutive Sundays (December 5 and 12), the remarkable and always zesty author and CHC member John Ota spoke to Canadians from six different provinces about their winter holiday memories and traditions.

In Episode One, chef, comedian, CBC contributor and author of Salt Beef Buckets Andie Bulman talked to us from St. John's about holiday fare in Newfoundland, tantalizing us with talk of “slush” (her recipe involves Cool Whip, fruit juices and syrups), salt beef and the revelries on Tibb's Eve, the 23rd of December.

Food historian and CHC member Kat Romanow and activist, mother and lawyer Sydney Warshaw, founders of the Montreal-based Jewish food history group The Wandering Chew, talked about Hanukkah traditions, including some fascinating details about the origins of latkes—the potato pancakes now so associated with the holiday, which replaced the dairy-based ricotta pancakes that had been the standard fare. Finally, Edmonton native, Nanaimo resident, cook, and cookbook collector Charlie Galan talked about the rise of Indigenous cookery among the Coast Salish of Vancouver Island, the allure of candied salmon, and the always popular Nanaimo bar.

Episode Two brought us CHC member Kesia Kvill, a PhD candidate in WWI foodways at University of Guelph, who talked about holiday food in Norwegian Alberta, with mouth-watering memories of krumkake (a crisp waffle cookie) and the Norwegian potato bread known as lefse. CHC member Lisette Mallet, president of the Société d'histoire de Toronto (Toronto Historical Association) explained the interweaving of German and French culinary threads in Acadian Christmas in New Brunswick, showed off some spectacularly large gingerbread cookies and talked about Acadian meat pies, which are emphatically not tourtière!

Finally, Kristin Olafson-Jenkyns, author of The Culinary Saga of New Iceland: Recipes From the Shores of Lake Winnipeg (2020), described the foods of New Iceland in Manitoba, including smoked lamb, prairie chicken Icelandic style (you can substitute quail), rullupylsa (a spiced, preserved boneless lamb) and vínarterta, a traditional stacked cake quite different from the similarly named dessert found in Scandinavia. After both episodes, the speakers fielded questions from the audience.

Mark Your Calendar!

A collection of ceramic tableware on view in Toronto’s Gardiner Museum depicts idealized scenes of 19th-century Canadian life. Manufactured in England, these objects and others like them participated in the colonial project by imagining and asserting both national and colonial identities. In this lecture and gallery tour, Sequoia Miller, Chief Curator at the Gardiner, will discuss how seemingly decorative objects engage complex questions around colonialism, political economy and cultural authority. Dr. Miller will also consider the role of museums in offering new and critical interpretive strategies for thinking through problematic historical objects. Look for details of time and date on the CHC website soon.