Tag Archives: Columbian exchange

Labat’s Plantain Pie – Second Experiment

Posted on 18 September 2023 by carlton_bach

A quick note before I go off to work: I returned to Jean Baptiste Labat‘s suggestion for a banana pie which he states can also be made with cooking bananas. Since I already know it works with sweet bananas, I … Continue reading →

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Immature Fish in Orange Herb Sauce

Posted on 11 September 2023 by carlton_bach

A second experiment from the weekend was a sauce for titiri, immature fish that Jean-Baptiste Labat describes as follows: The abundance and delicacy of this fish causes everyone to eat it, and it does not require much effort to give … Continue reading →

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Hans Staden on Cassava

Posted on 3 September 2023 by carlton_bach

Another piece from my ongoing research into buccaneer cuisine. This is from the account of the German landsknecht Hans Staden who served the Portuguese crown in Brazil in the 1550s. He spent a considerable time as a captive of the … Continue reading →

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A Seventeenth-Century Survival Bro

Posted on 29 August 2023 by carlton_bach

This is another story that I came across reading Jean-Baptiste Labat’s account of life in the French Antilles in the late seventeenth century. Honestly, if it wasn’t in the book, I would not believe it. Labat recalls meeting a hunter … Continue reading →

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Candied Ginger and the Spice Gap

Posted on 28 August 2023 by carlton_bach

Not a medieval recipe, another piece from Jean-Baptiste Labat as part of my buccaneer cuisine project. This time, the reverend father writes about treating the ginger they grew on Gouadeloupe: “Spicers mix the ginger with pepper, a little cloves, and … Continue reading →

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A Caribbean Feast according to Labat

Posted on 5 July 2023 by carlton_bach

Another interruption of our regular 15th-century diet for a source I dug up in the course of researching buccaneer food. Dominican friar and polymath Jean Baptiste Labat describes a Native American feast: When the fish over the fire are cooked … Continue reading →

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Foods of the Welser Conquista

Posted on 1 July 2023 by carlton_bach

A while ago, I came across a publication of letters written by Philipp von Hutten, an employee of the Welser banking family who was governing Klein-Venedig, the American territory in modern Venezuela that Emperor Charles V had leased to them … Continue reading →

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Lionel Wafer describes Native American Cooking

Posted on 1 June 2023 by carlton_bach

Another tidbit thrown up by my research into buccaneer cooking. The English privateer surgeon Lionel Wafer published his recollections of the Panama raid in the 1695 New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America. Wafer was a keen obvserver … Continue reading →

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Père Labat’s Banana Pastilles

Posted on 6 May 2023 by carlton_bach

I was about to finally get down to post about the culinary event in Düsseldorf, but I got sidetracked by my current book project on buccaneer cuisine again and instead, I want to share this gem from Jean Baptiste Labat’s … Continue reading →

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More Buccaneer Cooking Experiments

Posted on 25 April 2023 by carlton_bach

I had last weekend off, and aside from spending significant time pursuing sloth, I took the opportunity to make some more culinary experiments for my current writing project, the buccaneer cookbook. The focus this time was another staple, cassava. Cassava … Continue reading →

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