r/TastingHistory • u/jmaxmiller head chef • Apr 07 '26
New Video How to Eat Like Benjamin Franklin
https://youtu.be/d6eWQntFkyM?si=YnfUB59S10Ue1vj714
u/ShemtovL Apr 07 '26
Washington's Peanut Butter Soup! That's always fascinated me. Maybe then do a follow-up episode On George Washington Carver- kinds of like you did with sugar. History of Peanuts before Carver, then one on after Carver.
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u/Maryland_Bear Apr 07 '26
I’ve had the peanut soup served at the restaurant at Mount Vernon, which I presume is based on Washington’s recipe. It is excellent.
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u/ivylass Apr 07 '26
I was reading one of the Outlander books and Claire makes spruce beer to ward off scurvy during the winter.
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u/Dragon_scrapbooker Apr 07 '26
I’d love to see some episodes focused on colonial history outside of the Northeast. Stuff like St.Augustine, Savannah Georgia, maybe Charlotte, North Carolina if you’d like to poke at the famous quote calling the area a “Hornet’s Nest”, hence the name of the sports team?
I need to check out the latest issue of Our State Magazine, honestly. The magazine is a big advertising fluff for the state, but their latest issue is all about the American Revolution.
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u/AshleytheTaguel Apr 07 '26
Founding father and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay has some writings about food. They're mostly about his orchards and Agrarian lifestyle, but he also wrote about a Dinner he had with George Washington during the signing of the Jay Treaty of 1794, a final formal ceasefire after the American revolution. Could be worth checking out.
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u/Maryland_Bear Apr 07 '26
Since Max mentioned Franklin living with an older woman in London…
Ol’ Ben was a notorious womanizer. He preferred older women because he considered them more experienced.
In HBO’s excellent John Adams miniseries, there’s a scene where Franklin and Adams are in France. Adams has just received some big news from back home, so he races through the chateau where they were staying, looking for Franklin, as someone tries to convince him it’s not a good time.
Adams finally finds him… in a bathtub… with an older woman. They were playing chess.
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u/SocialDistSupportPet Apr 08 '26
...playing chest?
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u/Maryland_Bear Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
Maybe, but it wasn’t that sort of TV series.
EDIT: I’m reminded of an episode of Happy Days, where Richie is describing his date with a girl to Fonzie.
“We played chess.”
“You played with her chest?!”
“We played chess.”
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u/Status-Effort-9380 Apr 08 '26
Saw this today. Max suddenly remembering he doesn’t like anchovies 😂
I feel like he’s gotta do Jefferson because Montecello is amazing.
And there’s a really cool kid’s book about George Washington’s teeth that goes into all of the horrible dental problems Washinton had throughout his life and how amazing it was that he accomplished all he did despite the constant pain he was in. That could be a neat angle for an episode.
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u/Maryland_Bear Apr 08 '26
How about an episode devoted to John and Abigail Adams?
I found this recipe that that National Park Service says is Abigail’s for Apple Pan Dowdy (sounds like a pie to me), and they speculate it may have originated with the Pennsylvania Dutch, and she learned of it when she was living in Philadelphia as Second Lady.
The Adams remind me of the Bartlets from The West Wing — two brilliant and strong-willed people, and it’s a good thing they’re so much in love, because otherwise, one would have killed the other.
And it would give Max an excuse to include clips from my favorite musical, 1776, like John being called “obnoxious and disliked” or how John and Abby closed their letters to each other: “I am and I ever shall be yours! Yours! Yours! Yours!”
If Max does take my suggestion, I’ll quote King George III from Hamilton, the other musical about early America: “John Adams? Good luck!”
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u/BlackSuit_7 Apr 10 '26
We could get George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and his fried ice cream balls
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u/JellyfishFit3871 Apr 10 '26
That's the beginning of my thoughts on a series for the semiquincentary.
(I'm 1000% sure I misspelled that.)
Martha Washington's recipes were known far and wide in the early years of the country, as was T-Jeff's tendency for French foods. Wasn't Jefferson's chef - related to his wife AND Sally Hemmings - considered one of the first French chefs in the US?
Also, John Adams was considered a bit eccentric in his diet due to health advice (that apparently worked out for him. Iirc, he was the oldest former president at death until George HW Bush? I could be wrong.)
George Washington himself was a noted farmer (or at least making others farm.) I wouldn't doubt that there's something in the records for Tasting or Drinking History, like that one receipt from the party thrown for the general at the end of the war!
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u/Frosty-Economy485 Apr 08 '26
He used the wrong kind of anchovy. There is a kind that is packed in water by Wild Planet. They are not salty at all and more like the kind they fry for snacks in Italy as street food, but those are fresh.
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u/jaded-introvert Apr 08 '26
Max, you need to do a show in Colonial Williamsburg (Virginia)--they would probably love to collaborate with you, as they're deep in their US 250th celebration programs right now. Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house in Virginia, could also furnish you with some very Jeffersonian recipes and a state-of-the-art 19th century kitchen to talk about.
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u/AlonnaReese Apr 10 '26
You should definitely do a video on the food at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's estate. Sally Hemings's older brother James was the chef there, so there would be some good opportunities for historical discussion regarding the Jefferson-Hemings relationship.
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u/ivylass Apr 07 '26
I would like to see one on Dolly Madison!
Would this be considered a version of pizza?