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Historical Food Fortnightly #1: Protose
Jun. 11th, 2014 08:48 amAll right!!! My first Historical Food Fortnightly challenge! The first theme is Literary: “Make a dish that has been mentioned in a work of literature, based on historical documentation about that food item.”
I posted a little intro about this last week, and yesterday I went for it.
The Challenge: Literary Foods: 1. Literary Foods June 1 - June 14
Food is described in great detail in much of the literature of the past. Make a dish that has been mentioned in a work of literature, based on historical documentation about that food item.
A meal from the Battle Creek Sanitarium, as described in the novel The Road to Wellville by T. Coraghessan Boyle.
The whole belief system of the Health Food craze at the time was what inspired the meal, not just one recipe. The elimination of meat, not necessarily for ethical reasons, but to remove toxins from the diet; the focus on beneficial intestinal bacteria; the idea that the body could be purified and kept in a state of perfect health based on diet alone.
I find it so funny/annoying that while the early 1900s health food movement was so much about grains – whole grains! – now we have a complete backlash and everyone thinks grains make you fat, gluten is the devil, meat is awesome again, everyone’s doing Paleo diet, bacon is still a fad, etc.
Okay, moving on.
The Recipe(s): Protose, bran and graham biscuits, stewed tomatoes, and orange yogurt
A bit of intro on the Protose. This was a product manufactured by Kellogg. It was not meant to be made at home, so no recipes exist for it. There are LOTS of recipes telling you what to do with it, but it assumes you are buying it. Apparently this product was manufactured until the 1990s. I found the ingredient list from the 1990s-era version as well as several recipes for reverse-engineering the product.
Its main ingredient is gluten. Gluten in the form of seitan is a common food at my house, so I wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the concept. I have also experimented with making whole food “meat substitutes” off and on for years.
We tend to think of these weird fake meat foods as a very modern thing, so I love the idea of making a historic meat substitute.
The sides to round out the meal were from The New Cookery, A Book of Recipes, Most of which are in Use at the Battle Creek Sanitarium on google books. Details below.
All the dishes were part of the menu appearing in the Road to Wellville.
( How I made it with LOTS of pictures )
I had so much fun with this and I’m excited for the next one!
I posted a little intro about this last week, and yesterday I went for it.
The Challenge: Literary Foods: 1. Literary Foods June 1 - June 14
Food is described in great detail in much of the literature of the past. Make a dish that has been mentioned in a work of literature, based on historical documentation about that food item.
A meal from the Battle Creek Sanitarium, as described in the novel The Road to Wellville by T. Coraghessan Boyle.
The whole belief system of the Health Food craze at the time was what inspired the meal, not just one recipe. The elimination of meat, not necessarily for ethical reasons, but to remove toxins from the diet; the focus on beneficial intestinal bacteria; the idea that the body could be purified and kept in a state of perfect health based on diet alone.
I find it so funny/annoying that while the early 1900s health food movement was so much about grains – whole grains! – now we have a complete backlash and everyone thinks grains make you fat, gluten is the devil, meat is awesome again, everyone’s doing Paleo diet, bacon is still a fad, etc.
Okay, moving on.
The Recipe(s): Protose, bran and graham biscuits, stewed tomatoes, and orange yogurt
A bit of intro on the Protose. This was a product manufactured by Kellogg. It was not meant to be made at home, so no recipes exist for it. There are LOTS of recipes telling you what to do with it, but it assumes you are buying it. Apparently this product was manufactured until the 1990s. I found the ingredient list from the 1990s-era version as well as several recipes for reverse-engineering the product.
Its main ingredient is gluten. Gluten in the form of seitan is a common food at my house, so I wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the concept. I have also experimented with making whole food “meat substitutes” off and on for years.
We tend to think of these weird fake meat foods as a very modern thing, so I love the idea of making a historic meat substitute.
The sides to round out the meal were from The New Cookery, A Book of Recipes, Most of which are in Use at the Battle Creek Sanitarium on google books. Details below.
All the dishes were part of the menu appearing in the Road to Wellville.
( How I made it with LOTS of pictures )
I had so much fun with this and I’m excited for the next one!
