From Fraise to Fricassee: Seventeenth Century Cooking in Commonwealth Kitchens

Bakemeat, Fricassee, Frais, Rye Pie, Oat Cake – These were once common terms in the vocabulary of the early Pennsylvania house­wife. Indeed, her cookery would seem very strange to us today, quite as remote and curious as that of the Middle Ages. Traditional cooking underwent many changes in the second half of the eighteenth century and industrialization in the nineteenth century altered it...
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Gardens Change with Time

William Penn’s wish that Philadelphia, the capital of his colony, should be a “Greene Country Towne” never was to come to fruition. The town’s settlers really preferred a re-creation of London in miniature. However, gardens and gardening have been an important aspect of the Pennsyl­vania heritage. Gardening has been practiced as a fine art and as a necessity based upon...
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