Heat Retention Cooking What would you do if the utility grid went down? How would you cook the food that might be spoiling in your freezer? What if you’re out camping and the propane bottle is almost empty? Cooking food by regular means, whether on an open fire or any other heat source – is […]
Archive | Innovations and Inventions in Food History
Soda Water
By M. Gale Smith on April 8, 2020 in BC food businesses, Heritage foods and recipes, Innovations and Inventions in Food History
Soda Water in BC As food history researchers we never know what might pique our interest. Recently I was looking at the collection of food images in the BC Archives Royal BC Museum website[i]. When I came across an advertisement for Thorpe’s Soda, I immediately wanted to know what it was all about. It turns out that […]
Seville Oranges and Dundee Marmalade
By Mary Leah de Zwart on March 10, 2020 in Food Preservation, Heritage foods and recipes, Innovations and Inventions in Food History
Seville Oranges and Dundee Marmalade Oranges do not have to be from Seville and marmalade doesn’t have to be made in Dundee, Scotland. Yet, marmalade that’s not made with bitter oranges runs the risk of being just “orange jam”. And Dundee marmalade began in 1790 when a Dundonian, James Keiller, bought rotting Spanish oranges (either […]
Love that chocolate…
By Linda Peterat on February 9, 2020 in BC food businesses, Innovations and Inventions in Food History
Love That Chocolate… Love that chocolate? Here we are in February also known as a chocolate month and the month of love. How did this association happen and what should we know about the widespread current passion for chocolate? These are some of the questions I’ll explore in February’s blogs and re-visit some writings on […]
Automatic Toasters
By M. Gale Smith on February 5, 2020 in Innovations and Inventions in Food History, Kitchen Appliances
Automatic Toasters Automatic toasters ensured more people ate toast for breakfast. A recent survey found that one out of four Canadians currently make toast their breakfast food[i]. In British Columbia this practice may be partly attributed to marketing campaigns by BC Electric Railway (later BC Electric, now BC Hydro). “ In June 1923 B.C. Electric […]
Food Grinders
By M. Gale Smith on January 5, 2020 in Innovations and Inventions in Food History, Kitchen Appliances
Food Grinders An image of a Home Food Grinder recently surfaced on the internet, with the caption, “Do you know what this is?” I have kept my mother’s Home Food Grinder in my cupboard for years, mostly for sentimental reasons. My mother would hook it up to the kitchen table and my brother and sister […]
Cook Stoves for BC: Albion Iron Works of Victoria
Cook Stoves for BC: Albion Iron Works of Victoria In the period between 1858 when the gold rush and early settlement began in British Columbia and 1887 when the first train reached Vancouver, most settlers were dependent on local manufacture for their heating and cooking stoves. In Victoria, Albion Iron Works began in 1862, founded […]
First Patent Granted to Woman Inventor for Cook Stove
First Patent Granted to Woman Inventor for Cook Stove Our blogs usually focus on British Columbia food history but the fact that the first patent granted to a woman in Canada was for a cook stove is worthy of a blog post. The patent was granted pre-Canada, pre-Confederation in what was Upper Canada or Ontario […]
Cook Stove Revolution of the 1800s
Cook Stove Revolution of the 1800s Recently I bought a new cook stove or “range” as they are now known, when I moved into my new apartment. It displays all the latest technological, in this case digital, innovations of the current day. When a surface element is turned on, a fan blows air forward and upward […]
Milk Separators
By Mary Leah de Zwart on April 4, 2018 in BC agriculture, Innovations and Inventions in Food History
Milk Separators The milk separator helped create a source of income for farm wives and the establishment of the dairy industry in Canada. Nowadays the milk separator is an object of mild curiosity in museums and at antique auctions. There’s one at the Greater Vernon Museum and Archives; when I heard a parent tell her […]