From the Creation Story, the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) were given the corn, beans, and squash, which are referred to as the Three Sisters and teach one that “all plant life is relatives and living beings.”1 Here is the Haudenosaunee Creation Story: “High above in the heavens, was a place called Karonhia:ke or The Sky World. In the…
Let’s Talk about Pemmican
Even if it’s not the usual item on a restaurant’s menu, pemmican played an important role in history of Canada. Pemmican is a ‘survival’ food that became known in the west through the fur traders (coureur des bois) in North America. It’s a high – energy food made out of meat, fat, and berries.1 Europeans learned…
A morsel of Bannock, anyone?
Can Bannock represent Canadian national food? Perhaps. It originally came from Europe, specifically Scotland (Gaelic bannach, means morsel)1, and became adopted by most Indigenous nations of Canada.2 The reason why this style of bread was not common in this part of the world is because indigenous ingredients for bread did not include wheat flour and bannock…
Wines, Beers, and all those Berries
The cookbooks mentioned in the previous post consist of plethora of recipes for wines and beers, too. It seems that European settlers really liked to share a cup of cold one, and had an exquisite skills on making drinks out of pants we rarely use today. It is unfortunate that North America went on ‘dry’…
Remember the oranges?
It is odd to start with oranges as a part of Canadian food history, isn’t it? Well, Upper Canadian’s should not think so. They were quite fond of this colourful fruit. Manuscript cookbooks from the nineteen century are full with recipes for orange sweets. Most of the recipes include preserves, marmalade, jellies, puddings, tarts, even an…
Greetings, everyone.
Let’s explore the history of Canadian food, shall we?
Canadian Food Histories 