It Happened This Day In Food History
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Information donated by Janet Clarkson

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Mock Turtle Soup  |  Corned Beef and Cabbage |  Blackberry Pie

Mock Turtle Soup

Apparently Abe Lincoln asked for the Mock Turtle Soup maybe because he was thrifty and would have been more use to that dish instead of real turtle soup because of the price of turtle meat then.

I have always wondered why Turtle Soup? Was it made because it was plentiful? Did it taste unique and different ? It was just one of those food curios that has been very interesting to me. Also what is a "mock"? A mock recipe means that it tastes similar to, but doesn't contain the main ingredients. So a mock turtle soup would contain something other than the turtle.

The obvious choice for a source for mock Turtle Soup would be Mary Randolph's Virginia Housewife. It was first printed in 1824, and this recipe comes from the 1860 edition

This recipe and more on Turtle soup and Mock turtle soup

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Corned Beef and Cabbage

Corned Beef may have been a natural choice back then because it was traditional to have in Spring. People would put meat in brine to cure in fall. It was then brought out and prepared for occasions like Easter dinner and St. Patrick's day. Parsley potatoes have always gone well with corned beef and so has cabbage.

More on The History of Corned Beef and How to prepare it

why they call it "corned" when there is no corn in it.

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Blackberry Pie

Blackberries are indigenous to the United States and they are plentiful in the northern regions.

From several sources that I have read the term "pie" most likely got its name from the fact that a Magpie is black and white. This became a term or things that had this and that , or a mixture.

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Links

More on President Lincoln's Inauguration Day

On Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management

The Virginia Housewife, Jeffersonian Dinners

About Mary Randolph

The Virginia Housewife

Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household...

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