History Department Publishes Online Historical Cookbook
Last year’s History Cook Off: Stinging nettles, traditionally seen as a weed in gardens or dangerous plants to come across on a hike, can be difficult to handle. If you would touch the barbed stems, it would seriously burn and sting your skin in excruciating pain upon contact. And the best way to be rid of them? Make pancakes!
For the second semester in a row, the famous History Cook Off has been cancelled. Last fall, it was cancelled due to the mumps outbreak, and this semester it has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fortunately, the history department did not let this hurdle stop them from sharing their students’ hard work with the school.
Dr. Sandra Bardsley, Dr. Jamie Paxton, and Dr. Sandra Aguilar worked together to create an online cookbook that includes the recipes of the three classes that would have participated had the event been held. The book can be viewed here.
Every semester, a handful of 100-level history classes (and occasionally others) come together to cook time-period appropriate recipes for students, staff, and faculty.
Each participating class breaks into a number of groups to cook different dishes related to their subject matter. According to the website, the cookout has “dishes [that are] created typically range from those made in the Paleolithic era to those from the 20th century.”
Each recipe is grouped by class, allowing you to search different time periods. This semester, the themes include
- Modern Latin America (HIST 111)
- England to 1603 (HIST 117)
- U.S. to 1877 (HIST 113)
Each recipe in the cookbook includes not only the ingredients and instructions, but contextual and historical information as well. You can learn about history while enjoying a delicious snack!
Go find your favorite history topic, then make a fun and unique dish to learn something new during quarantine.
