The Feast

Cuccagna Arch of Bread, Cheese, and Suckling Pigs on the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, Naples 1630. Courtesy of the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Photo by Mike Portt Forget Hansel & Gretel's candy cottage, Naples was building fortresses of food in the 18th century! This week, we're investigating the Neapolitan tradition of cuccagna- a festival celebrating a mythical land of food, where roast chicken rained from the skies and wine flowed in rivers. Learn how early modern Neapolitans built giant edible monuments to celebrate birthdays, weddings, and holidays, complete with fortresses of ham, bell towers made of cheese, and lakes of beer! Was it all in good gluttonous fun or did the festival have a deeper political purpose? We'll also speak with Dr. Alan Darr at the Detroit Institute of Arts, where you can see relics of these early modern feasts at the Edible Monuments Exhibition, on until April 16th. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt Click here for show notes, episode soundtrack, pictures, & more sources on the cuccagna. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The meat served at the 1951 Explorers Club Annual Dinner. Division of Vertebrate Zoology, YPM HERR 19475. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Pass the mastodon, would you? This week we're talking about the famous Explorers Club Dinner of 1951, where woolly mammoth (or was it ancient giant sloth?) was a featured appetizer. We'll find out how a Connecticut museum ended up with the leftovers of this crazy meal & how it took over 60 years to finally figure out what was really for dinner that night. Join us for a great discussion with Jessica Glass & Dr. Matt Davis, the two scientists who discovered the identity of the most famous mystery meat in history. We'll talk about the curious tendency for scientists to nibble on their specimens, including Darwin's regrettable dinner of owl, and how food might have a major role in the future of conservation. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt Click here for more info, show notes, and episode soundtrack Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Photo by Mike Portt This week, we're headed to the land of bean trees & cholla buds: the Sonoran Desert. Home to UNESCO's new capital of gastronomy, Tucson, we'll trace the desert's diverse culinary history, from the cornfields of the Hohokam to the mission gardens of the German Jesuits. Why did 18th century missionaries bring fruit trees to Sonora? Could heritage wheat be the solution to sustainable farming in southern Arizona? We'll look at several projects revitalizing the ancient foodways of the desert, including exclusive interviews with Jesús Garcia, co-founder of the Kino Heritage Fruit Trees Project, and Sonya Norman, public programs coordinator at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt Quotations from Father Pfeffercorn's Sonora: A Description of the Province (Southwest Center Series) (Trans. Theodore E. Treutlein) Click here for show notes, including information about the mission gardens, Sonoran recipes, and more! Find on iTunes | Find on Stitcher | RSS Link for Other Podcast Apps Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, take the escalator to menswear and turn left at home goods. We're heading to the glory days of department store dining with a trip back to old Toronto. Learn how Eaton's and Simpson's battled for the hearts and dollars of Torontonians through their opulent in-store restaurants. We'll explore why these stores are remembered more for their chicken pot pies than for their sales! We'll enjoy a nostalgic dinner at the historic Arcadian Court, a survivor of the golden age of department stores, & we'll put two stores' pot pie recipes to the test, settling a 100-year-old company rivalry once and for all! Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt For more on Eaton's & Simpson's & the epic battle of chicken pot pies, click here. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, The Feast is bringing you a very special Canadian episode dedicated to Chinese New Year! We're exploring an opulent Han Dynasty banquet from the second century CE as the basis for our own Chinese New Year celebrations in Toronto. Join us as we search for the origins of tofu, find out the proper way to make a baijiu cocktail, & recite some foodie poetry from ancient China. All this & more rooster puns than you can shake a tail feather at on this week's episode of The Feast. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt Find all the images mentioned in the episode, plus delicious recipes here. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feeling punchy this inauguration season? Take a note from Andrew Jackson & join the wildest party the White House has ever seen! In our first episode of 2017, we’re heading to 1829 when 10,000 people crashed Jackson’s Inauguration Reception for a bit of cake and barrels of free punch. But was this party as wild as rumors have suggested? Did Jackson plan the whole thing? And where did all those punch barrels come from? We’ll learn the history of the popular tipple & why it’s been the drink of American politicians for over two hundred years. We’ll even throw in some great punch recipes straight from the history books for you to make at home. All this and more on a very punchy inauguration special of The Feast. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt Find more punchy recipes, info on Old Hickory and the episode soundtrack here. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sitting down to the traditional holiday ham this season? This week on The Feast, we're celebrating the unofficial animal of winter: the pig! Find out why a boar's head is the center of holiday traditions from London to Louisville. We'll learn a porcine Christmas carol, some tips on how to buy off the mayor of medieval London, & why an Oxford college still celebrates an epic 14th century battle of student vs. pig. Discover the distant & unexpected roots of the spiral-cut holiday ham this week on a very special porky holiday episode. Written and Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt Episode Music featuring Jahzzar: "Gramaphone" & "Where It Goes" A huge thanks to the community at St. Paul's Methodist Church for their help with this episode. For more information, including videos of the many Boar's Head Festivals around the world, click here. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moose milk. Powdered eggs. Coffee a la Yukon. This week, The Feast is heading to the Canadian wilderness- where 10,000 US soldiers helped to build the Alaskan Highway in 1942. But how do you feed an army in the middle of nowhere? We'll look at how these soldiers survived arctic winters & mosquito-plagued summers with the latest in military food technology, including dehydrated foods and the rise of the dreaded C-Ration, the meal for the soldier on the go. With nothing but powdered milk and tinned food to eat for up to six months at a time, soldiers got creative with the local wildlife. Bear steak, anyone? Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt Find out more about food on the Alaskan Highway here. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Photo by Rocio Carvajal, www.passthechipotle.com Struggling to decide what to have for lunch today? Take a tip from history & pack a pie! This week, The Feast explores how the pastry pie was the original grab & go lunch option, from the Ottoman börek to the Cornish pasty to the Hot Pocket. Although the Cornish pasty may be an icon of English cuisine, learn how a small town in the mountains of Mexico made this traditional mining meal their own. Plus, all the EU pastry laws you can handle on this week’s special collaboration episode featuring Rocio Carvajal & PassTheChipotle.com Co-written by Rocio Carvajal & Laura Carlson Produced by Laura Carlson Technical direction by Mike Portt Click here for recipes, photos, episode soundtrack, and more. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s that time of gruyère: it’s the Feast’s election episode! And we’re dedicating a whole show to some great White House food traditions. What do you get the President that has everything? A giant cheese, of course! Not just for fans of “The West Wing” anymore, we’re looking into the weird and wacky world of White House cheeses, going back to one of the founding fathers himself, Thomas Jefferson. Find out how a 1200-pound cheese ended up on the president’s doorstep one cold January morning in 1802. Learn what Jefferson did with all that cheese, and how a White House room earned its name from a dairy product. All this and all the cheese puns you can handle on this week’s episode of The Feast. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt For all the cheese info you can handle, plus more information about early American elections, cheese-making, cakes, and more, click here. Episode Soundtrack Available Here Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Image via Flickr/Chris (CC BY-ND 2.0) We’re back with a whole new season of feasting! Join us for a very special Halloween episode that takes us back to February in ancient Rome. Tag along with a Roman family as they prepare for the annual festival of Parentalia, where the best parties in town are happening down at the graveyard. Find out how to appease an angry Roman ghost with a lovely bouquet of roses and some…black beans? See how the Romans engineered their tombs to be homes away from home, complete with dining tables, bars, even kitchens. Grab a seat at an epic feast, held in the finest tomb money could buy. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt Episode Soundtrack Available Here More information on Roman funerary feasts, including pictures, maps, and more. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Situla found at the Gordion tomb, circa 700 BCE. Photo courtesy of Carole Raddato/Flickr No fables here! We’re travelling back 2700 years to uncover the case of King Midas’ lost funeral feast. Join us as we explore how an ancient civilization sent people off to the afterlife with a rocking good party. We’ll also learn how modern technology is revealing the diets of ancient civilizations as well as the recipe for the oldest cocktail in the world. Find out how historical tastes are making a comeback with a little help from the craft brewing industry. All this and more on this week’s episode of The Feast. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction by Mike Portt Click here for more goodies about King Midas, including some ancient recipes from his funeral feast. Episode Soundtrack can be found here. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grab your ration books, The Feast is heading back to 1945! Find out how the US and Canada got patriotic with its cooking during World War II. This week we'll see how both radio and radar transformed North American food. What did Betty Crocker have to do with the war department? How do you bake a cake without eggs? And why did the Canadian government want people to drink more milk? From war brides to washing machines, get ready for a kitchen revolution on this week's episode. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Research Assistance by Meghan Kirby Technical Direction by Mike Portt Click here for lots of great information on Betty Crocker, the war brides of WWII, and all the 1940s radio you can handle, as well as this week's episode soundtrack. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Parkinson's Ice Cream Shop, courtesy of the Historical Society of Philadelphia Dog days of summer getting you down? Why not treat yourself to a story about one of the first families of ice cream in 19th century Philadelphia? Learn how a modest ice cream shop went head to head with New York’s famous Delmonico’s to become one of the finest restaurants in America. A special feature from The Feast this week, in collaboration with Becky Diamond, author of “The Thousand Dollar Dinner”, we’ll cool you down with some scandalous vanilla ice cream and take you behind the scenes of one of America’s first great cookery challenges. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Director: Mike Portt Special thanks to Becky Diamond, author of "The Thousand Dollar Feast: America's First Great Cookery Challenge". Available in paperback September, 2016. www.beckyldiamond.com All the ice cream recipes, stories of the scandalous vanilla bean, great music from the episode & more can be found here. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does ketchup have to do with medieval politics? Find out this week, when we travel back to 10th century Constantinople to dine at the emperor’s table. We’ll follow in the footsteps of a picky Italian ambassador who can’t find a thing to eat in the largest city in the medieval world! We’ll learn some ancient tricks for making wine & how a few lines of poetry can cure a nasty hangover. Discover how the fall of the Roman Empire profoundly changed the eating and drinking habits of western Europe & how an ancient salty fish sauce may be lurking in your kitchen cabinet. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Research Assistant: Megan Kirby Technical Direction/Olympic Commentary: Michael Portt Click here for more information on the episode, including recipes, featured songs and resources. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can you imagine Italian food without pasta? This week, we journey back to the 1920s & 1930s when an artistic movement declared war on noodles, one of the most beloved Italian culinary traditions. Find out how the golden age of the airplane inspired an entirely new way of thinking about eating; when restaurants resembled aircraft hangers, chicken tasted of steel, and your dinner soundtrack was an airplane engine! Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Resident PunMaster & Technical Direction by Mike Portt Recipes, Resources, & Episode Soundtrack available here Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Illustrated London News, January 7 1854, Add MS 50150, f. 225 Ever dream of dining with a T.Rex? Join us for a New Year's Eve dinner in 1853 at London's famous Crystal Palace where you can meet the man who coined the term dinosaur itself, Sir Richard Owen. And dinosaurs won't just be the talk of the table, they'll be the table itself! Discover how one Victorian dinner helped to launch the dino-mania of today, from The Flintstones to Jurassic Park. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technical Direction: Mike Portt Research Assistant: Megan Kirby Soundtrack, resources, & recipes available here Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Queen Christina & Pope Clement IX; Drawing by P.P. Sevin Deposed queens, papal politics, sugar sculptures, & Bernini- a combination that could only happen at a Baroque feast! Join us this week as we explore the politics of feasting in the 1650s when Pope Alexander VII did the unthinkable & invited a woman to dinner! Learn about sugar sculptures that cost more than a car & how the design of an armchair had the potential to make or break Bernini's career. After all, no one throws a feast like the Romans! Written & Produced by Laura Carlson For more information on Queen Christina, Baroque feasting, and the episode soundtrack, please see here. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where can a medieval pilgrim expect to find a good meal on the Camino de Santiago? Learn how to survive your pilgrimage with Roman tips on how to make your bread last longer as well as where to find safe water while travelling in the countryside. We'll also sample some of the local diverse treats of medieval Spanish cuisine including the Persian-inspired dish of escabeche and miraculous pastries from a town where chickens are sacred. See you on the Camino! Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Find delicious medieval recipes, resources, and soundtrack information here. Cover Image: "Saint James as a Pilgrim with a Purse and a Staff" (Paris, 1440), courtesy of Getty Images Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Image courtesy of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper via the Louisiana State Museum Join us for an opulent night at America's most famous hotel, the St. Charles in December, 1846. Located in the heart of New Orleans, we'll watch the golden age of Louisiana unfold before us. Joining some of the most prominent members of American society and politics, we'll dine in the finest French fashion on mock turtle soup, lobster salad, stuffed rooster, roasted bear, and more. See how meals were served in the 19th century & take part in one of the richest culinary traditions in America. Don't forget to down a cocktail or two, the latest drinking trend sweeping the nation. See you at the table! Written and produced by Laura CarlsonAdditional audio help by Mike Portt (aka Oakey Hall)Find more information about 19th century New Orleans as well as historical recipes and music featured in the episode here. Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Travel back with us to Munich in 1896 to witness the origins of some of the most famous Oktoberfest traditions. We'll visit some of the earliest beer halls, sample some of the newest brews Munich has to offer, and eat all the German pretzels you can handle. How was Napoleon responsible for Bavarian beer? What do horse races have to do with a wedding feast? And just how do you roast an ox using a steam locomotive? Find out all this and more on this episode of The Feast. Researched, written, and produced by Laura CarlsonFind recipes, the episode soundtrack, and more on the history of Munich's Oktoberfest here. Comic by Henry Albrech, Das Oktoberfest in München (1895) courtesy of Bayerische StaatsBiblibliothek Find on iTunes | Other Players Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices