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The Mystic Seaport Cookbook: 350 Years of New England Cooking
The Mystic Seaport Cookbook 350 Years of New England Cooking Author:Lillian Langseth-Christensen Mystic Seaport, on the Mystic River in Connecticut, is a port of memories with the authentic air of nineteenth-century shipbuilding town. Each year many thousands of visitors tread the paths of imagination as well as the byways of the sea-port, with its restored homes, its one-room school-house, its lovely chapel and meeting house, its tav... more »ern, and the Charles W. Morgan, last of the great wooden whalers and foremost among the historic vessels on exhibit.
The Mystic Seaport Cookbook is like the seaport itself: completely authentic in its background and presentation, yet put into excellent order for modern-day use. The book concentrates on one of the most interesting aspects of Mystic's 350-year history its cooking, which evolved out of recipes brought over by the early settlers, out of natural foods they found here, out of Indian cooking, but, above all, out of the sea.
As a result of shipbuilding and the growth of trade, the people of Mystic and other New England seaports often possessed treasures that Europeans could acquire only over Medieval trade routes. Many a housewife hoarded a precious jar or two of ginger, stored dried vanilla beans and cinnamon bark on her kitchen shelves, and had rum to flavor her apple pudding. Food in and near the seaports began to taste delightfully different. Mystic pies could contain tropical fruits and spices; native berries found their way into breads and puddings; and fresh fish and milk were combined to make chowders. The early settlers were provident: they dried their vegetables, made jams and preserves, pickles and relishes, and stocked their pork barrels and root cellars. Such an eclectic cuisine is reflected in The Mystic Seaport Cookbook.
Many of the 375 recipes in the book, once used in day-to-day cooking but now treasured heirlooms, were gathered from old New England family collections. Much of the research and many of the recipes originated in Mystic; other recipes were contributed by members of The Marine Historical Association, Inc., which operates Mystic Seaport today. All the recipes have been revised where necessary for use in twentieth-century American kitchens.« less