I actually started a beef stew (technically a roast) just *before* this video went up! Now at least I can savour the flavours of the 18th century just a little more! I just have to sneak in some nutmeg without anyone noticing...
I don't think the people writing these recipes ever imagined 200 years later, people would still be reading their recipes and making them for millions of people to see. It really is wonderful
Not for millions of people to see, but they most likely imagined the reading. Times didn't really change back then. Life was pretty much the same for many hundreds of years, so they probably thought it will stay the same.
"Ragoût" is really just the french word for stew. "Daube" is also a type of french stew (daube provençale) and is related to the hispanic/Portuguese word "adobo", like the Filipino "chicken adobo", which is essentially a chicken stew. The modern word "stew" comes from the french "étuver", which in old french was spelled "estuver" (heat in trapped steam/smoke) and you have the basis "-stuv-" right there, which became "stew" and also "stove" in english
Interesting! Our word "soup" is also French "soupe" - *sop* : broth poured on slices of bread. (Hence our use of the phrase 'sopping up gravy or the last of a soup pr stew with bread'.
My Maw(grandma) always called any stew made from "anything left in the pantry" a ragu. I never knew the 18th century folks did the same. My family is way more old school than I thought.
Stews seem to be one of those dishes that has been around since the beginning of time, is in pretty much every culture in some form, and despite little differences between cultures is still mostly recognizable.
In my family (French Canada), we call that a Touski. It stands for "Tout c'qui reste dans l'garde-manger", which is the French Canadian way of saying anything left in the pantry.
My Maw Maw ( Grandma ) also would make beef ragu, but she'd add a bunch of salt, pepper and other spices to it and always call my brothers and I into the kitchen and be like " Taste that and tell me what it needs. I'm old. My tastebuds don't work as well. " - in truth it was because she was cooking it for us. She's the reason I will eat mushrooms and onions like apples. Early on got me hooked on stuffed mushrooms and stewed mushrooms and onions stewed in beef stock fortified with two day old pan drippings from oven roasted flanks.
@@Khornecussion My Paw git me into eating chives/wild onions like that. He used to wait for the bus with me and we'd pick all the ones in the yard. Cut the roots off, peel the first layer that had dirt on it,and eat em. Then, to make sure I didn't have onion breath, he'd pull out a handful of life savers and I'd eat like 3 of them on the bus ride to school and give away the rest. I miss my Maw and Paw every day.
This channel reminds me of my grandfather, whom I lost in 2022. It also reminds me of the bakery he ran for nearly 70 years. God bless all of you who work on every single one of these videos.
@@paigelauryn4328 here in India our older gen Parsi Zoroastrians had made it kind of our niche that others have copied over the decades and centuries that we've been here... they're fondly called "Irani bakeries"😅 So in my granddad's bakery we used to bake and craft a bit of everything (wooden oven and everything!): cakes, pastries, puffs and patties, breads, cookies and biscuits, other typical "high tea" foods (toasts, macarons etc etc)😁
Also in Maine! Great video for a winters day, love this channel long time viewer. Hello to all the Maine folks and the rest of you from around the world.
We still eat salt beef and salt fish here in Newfoundland. Still prepared the same way it was prepared in the late 1700`s. We also, still eat mainly root vegetables. Jiggs Dinner is the ultimate Newfoundland dish still prepared and eaten the same way it was centuries ago. It's salt beef boiled with these root vegetables - cabbage, potato, carrot and turnip. Yum!
@@rnupnorthbrrrsm6123 Yes, they are both soaked in water for hours to remove a lot of the salt. I personally don't like salt fish, I would rather fresh. But salt beef is addicting :)
RYAN, RYAN! It is fine to see you again...and bearing a fine winter recipe as well. In Western New York State, people used pearl onions, carrots and potatoes, and a bit of celery in beef stew. I suspect that in 'your' time, milking breeds were also slaughtered as beef. The animals selected may have been a bit 'long in the hoof' and therefore, tough. In any case, we get to 'larding' (forcing fat into slits in the cut) or 'barding' (wrapping a layer of fat over the cut.) Larding uses a special kind of 'needle' with a trough in the center and a plunger on one end to inject a long sliver of fat.
Looks like a good old fashioned pot roast. Looks fantastic and I fully agree that after the day's tasks, to come in to the full house of the scent and finally getting to enjoy the meal. Perfect.
I like how you mention, coming in from working outside and smelling the food. I do that on PURPOSE a lot of times when I am making beef stew or pot roast. I will get it started in the slow cooker and try to find work to do outside, be it in the yard or garage, or a long day of hiking, so that I will have an amazing appetite when the food is done and it tastes as good as it smells. Another great video!
There's a reason people say hunger is the best spice. When you trigger your appetite with labor or exercise, it really does enhance your next meal no matter what it is.
Nowadays, my partner and I like following her dad's tradition of making a giant pot of stew in October and freezing it. Beef, potato, carrots, onions, turnips, beans, thickened with pureed pumpkin, squash and beans. Perfect for when you get home from work, it's cold and dark, and don't want to cook anything.
Ooh, thickened with pumpkin/squash - I’m going to try that with my next stew! Thanks!! (I don’t love beans in a stew, but I’ll save that note as well :) )
I'm 50, as a boy I learned to cook from my mom who was born in 1934, she learned from her mom who was born pre 1900's. This time period style of cooking was basically what I experienced growing up, and I'm thankful I've retained at least some of that cooking knowledge
Same here, well kinda. I'm 35 this January and I was taught to cook by my grandmother who adopted and raised me, and she learned to cook from both her mother and grandmothers on both sides of the family, one of whom was a full blooded Cherokee whose husband was a sheriff, which I know is not relevant to cooking, but still fascinates me to know what rich history my family has
I know they've hosted many videos before but I just wanna say, excellent host. Townsends is not the only host on this channel and It's worth applauding a performance matching that high standard Townsends sets.
My cast iron humidifier and dutch oven don't leave my stove top in the winter... those old cook books were merely suggestions on how to assemble a meal with what you may have on hand and that's pretty close to how i cook today ...thanks for bringing your suggestions for us to watch.
In Ohio, we had cool houses to store meat. An actual building, usually insulated with saw dust, straw, or hay. These had very thick walls, roof and one door. They were usually not very big(one room size, though my grandma's was in her garage and was roughly 10 foot long by 5 foot wide). Many of these had running water through them and that produced a very cool room along with the insulation. Stepping into one, in a hot summer day, was like walking into an air conditioned room.
Maybe it’s in the south but they were called a spring house, they dug out around a spring and built a little “house” half in the ground half out. They would build a trough inside that the water flowed through. It was a water source and a refrigerator ! Would be so cool to have one !
I think the best roast I have ever made was made with a cut of rump meat from an Elk I killed. It was like the finest beef you could buy. Now because of my health I doubt I will ever make it back to the mountains to hunt Elk ever again. But I can dream.
I was actually already planning on making beef stew tonight. It's easy, it's warm and hearty, and you can use the cheapest cut of meat you can find and still have it come out tasty. For flavor I like to add cumin, cinnamon, paprika, and rosemary. I also like to throw in a few spoonfuls of unsweetened cocoa powder; it adds a richness and warmth that complements all the savory flavors.
One of my favorite spice combos is equal parts toasted cumin, coriander and allspice. I keep some in a pepper grinder at all times for use on beef and pork dishes. Just make sure if you use a pepper grinder, toast the allspice separately, then break the berries before combining them with the other spices and putting them in the pepper grinder, as most grinders can't grip a whole allspice berry (they're too big).
Thanks for sharing the recipe and the journey into OUR history. To really get to know a people from any time or place, learn what they ate. This channel continues to be my favorite guide to time travel.
I have an interesting recipe regarding beef stew. In Belgium we have an old beef stew recipe with brown beer or Trappist that is basically unchanged since then. “Stoofvlees” or “Flemish stew”. It was first mentioned in a cookbook by Cauderlier called “De Spaerzame Keukenmeid” 1861, but it is way way older than that. They know about it and make it in the Netherlands too. If the book is in Dutch, I can translate it.
Here in Newfoundland, root vegetables are very common because shipping in greens or other more warm climate vegetables is expensive! Plus lettuice and spinach is at least a few days old before it arrives at the store. Our summers are short and winters are very harsh, so growing root vegetables is more common here.
My mother used to make what she called a "New England Boiled Dinner" . Brown a chuck roast on all sides. Add some salt and pepper and water to cover. Boil for 2 -3 hours until the meat is very tender. Add course cut onions, potatoes, and carrots. Cover with water and "boil" until the vegetables are done. It was not thickened with anything. Warm and Hearty but the broth was thin and could be eaten as a soup if you cut up the meat and vegetables. It did make the house smell great.
Isolation in winter, in a northern state, is still an issue. I live at the southern end of a state that borders Canada, at the end of a mile of dirt road. On many days, I go nowhere outside of the boundaries of my own property. And, I often make dinners that look like the one shown, but I call it a pot roast. I love it served over a bed of pearled barley.
Take note…. Maybe we should all get prepared to live like this,like our forefathers did.. seems like they could survive almost anything and still live comfortably. I absolutely love the Townsends and wish I could live that life everyday .
This is one of the best channels on YT. I look here every day to see if they have posted something new. I like watching Ryan cook and like his delivery when he narrates his video. Thanks guys. And yes, I have subscribed. I have learned many cooking tricks and methods.
Not only could we all probably use a bowl of this stuff right (especially me tonight), I'm amazed how contemporary it is to the 21st century: an economical, nourishing one-pot meal made from sustainable, healthy, organic ingredients! Why, it's downright *fashionable* in today's world!
I'd love to come up to Indiana and share and learn knowledge. You guys are fantastic! My family, even before the revolutionary war, were farmers and millers. One of my grandfather's followed the continental Army and supplied beef to them. He was one of the few that were paid during that war. The other grandfather was a miller that left the moravian church in present day Forsyth county NC, to fight against the british.
Grew up in Indiana, started in Indianapolis, then moved to Marietta and finally Franklin. Have a lot of fond memories of my mother and Nana's recipes for beef stew and have been to Connor Prairie a fair few times over my 26 years on this Earth, so a video like this is a wonderful complement to my own experiences. Appreciate it Ryan, looking forward to making this next time I have a good roast ready.
This guy is such a great story teller, took me back to what they did, felt, and even smelled :) Those meat preservation techniques were great reminders never heard of the "pot pie" preservation method before. Would love to see what methods they used to keep rodents and bugs away from their winter food stash back then. Great video thank you!
I would imagine a lot of meat was either salted or smoked, and fruits and veggies were kept in a root cellar. Root cellars can get rather cold, so it would probably discourage any animals from entering, especially at a time when most would be hibernating.
@@elburropeligroso4689 I'm subcribed to a homesteader's magazine and there was an article that described a root cellar that ended up having mice. They solved it by creating boxes that they lined with wire with the small holes. Curious if there's any record of how they dealt with similar problems back in the day. I see someone mentioned cats, that could be another way they solved problems like that...I'm not really an indoor animal person. Exploring any and all other ideas though for my own personal food storage in the basement of a hundred year old house :)
Merely hearing the recipe could make one's mouth water-and the appearance of fried morels as an ingredient is a delightful surprise! This is so marvelous, looking forward to tackling this hearty goodness come autumn. Thank you Ryan!
For me, stew is such a delicious, hardy, cold weather meal. It definitely warms your heart and body right up! I’m adding this to my dinner plan this week. It’s been so cold here in southwest Missouri.
Love watching your videos and merchandise. Makes me think of my patriot ancestor that that was in the flying camp militia 1776 to 1779 Levin Hayes, thank you all !!!
Same for me :) I generally purposely hibernate in the winter, so I tend to think I would do well. A family would likely fare better than a completely single person though. Remember they had no phones or internet for alternative "social" options.
Hey friend, thanks for the recipe! In Québec, we have ''ragoût de pattes de cochon'" AKA pork shank stew. The first mention of it in print was in 1825, it's traditionally eaten in the holiday season. People used to raise a pig in the backyard and slaughter it came winter to cook this in bulk. I wish I had more info about it, like if you guys had something similar in the US.
“Kitchen Pepper” is mentioned in Mason’s book, as is the phrase “Mixed Spices” in Mrs. Frazer’s 1795 book, “The Practice of Cookery.” There were many spice blends which used some of the more common seasonings. Frazer’s blend includes allspice, pepper, nutmeg, and clove, while Mason’s blend primarily includes salt, pepper, ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon for flavoring meats and stews. These spices were expensive to purchase. Where or how did settlers on the midwest frontier get these spices and how were they able to afford them before the onset of winter? Some of the recipes have numerous spices in the recipe and I wonder how many settlers in the back country of 18th century Indiana living in the woods actually had access to these food flavoring spices considering many were poor settlers were just barely making it through the winter. In Ryan's recipe .... where did the poor settlers get beer and lemon peel for this stew out on the frontier ??
Ladies and gentlemen of note would have acquired ingredients such as pepper and lemon peel...along with oning cookbooks for their staff to prepare meals. Some trading ports would have had better access to spices.
Man the production quality of these videos are top tier. The camera angles, the music, the explanation of the recipes, and the historical knowledge comes together beautifully like a fine beef stew 😋
I've been making all these winter meals and I cant stop! so simple and delicious. Please keep making more of these videos, they are simply fantastic and also very educational :)
It would be interesting to see how the people who lived in the southern states during this time period got through the summers (like how the northern states got through the winters). It seems like the heat and humidity would present its own challenges, especially around food preservation.
My great grandmother had a separate room I always thought was storage. It turns out it was a separate kitchen, so during the summer, they didn't heat the house while cooking! This was Virginia.
@@DeadlyBacon my parents house in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia is from the early 1800s. It had a detached kitchen/wash house that used to have a stream run through it for fresh water to serve a massive cauldron for cooking and cleaning. My dad converted it into a woodworking shop about twenty years ago.
I cooked homemade meatballs out of onion, garlic and pig and cow ground beef along with the video and due to the end they were ready, the pleasure of tasting your own handmade meat at the same time with you was immesurable, thank you very much for the video.
I wasn't a fan of parsnips in my stews and soups until my Gran taught me to cube them up and par-boil them in water with a spoon of sugar added. Amazing difference in taste, and not 'sugary sweet' at all...
We had beef stew loads in winter growing up in the UK in tge 70/80/90's. My gran from ireland, made it loads, as did my parents. We had bread slices and butter with it.
I would hazard to guess maybe the reason they did a ragu on the side to pour over, is with tougher cuts of meat that need longer to cook to breakdown the connective tissue, if you add the carrots, shallots, potatoes, etc. in at the start you end up with a mushier soup-like consistency to those vegetables. I have also noticed, especially with longer cook times (8-10 hrs) you lose or change the flavor of the spices and vegetables. I have been cooking a fair amount of game meat recently, and as I check on the crock pot throughout the day, there is big difference between how it starts out, how it tastes mid-way through, and how it tastes at the end. Alternatively one could add the spices and vegetables towards the end of the cook, however, then one doesn't have the browning chemistry that comes from cooking them in a pan.
Not only are these videos an amazing time capsule to how our human race survived for THOUSANDS of years, but they are super cheap and healthy meals. All natural fresh ingredients, cheap, and will help a poor family survive. It’s amazing what you can do with potatoes, some spices, and a cheap hunk of meat.
Man. I finished off my last years stores of salt pork. New batch coming up. I had stew during the cold snap. Nothing better than some hot stew with some old bread made from the ol starter dough. Amazing how these tried and true recipes have evolved across the world over the years and regions. Same dish with different names. I still find it better using the older recipes. Using my 18th and early 19th century pots adds a flavor you can't get with modern cookware. I still call my 18th century cast iron pot a bake kettle. Nice to see people giving new life to the past as best they can.
There is a brittish saying... "never trust a skinny chef, or a fat friar". I LOVE Your food!!! And I am really fond of this guy (I dont know his name). This channel makes proper, original food, that is still used today. I love to see the "origins" of food, and how it has developed into a new recipe, and into the food we eat today. And funny enough, most of the food we still eat today, in this day and age, is the same food, with a little differences... ... My point being... Before, today and beyond, ALWAYS trust a cook, that has a belly!!! Then you KNOW the food he makes is great!!!
These guys are so good at descriptive speaking I will sometimes just listen while doing something else. Listening to this guy is like listening to a Dr Steve Brule from the 18th century, love it
One reason to cook the meat and veg separately is for portioning. If you ladle a combined stew onto plates, inevitably you'll give a larger meat portion to some people, or perhaps even run out of significant meat chunks by the time you get to the end of the pot. Cooked separately, you can arrange any number of plates with equal meat and then add equal veg ragout.
God love you Ryan, outstanding as always. My son and I like to visit old homesteads in Colorado. Those folks were tough - a woodstove to cook and heat and no insulation in the walls - I bet beef stew would be awesome.
Bread n dripping is still something I enjoy on a weekly basis. Delicious with some salt and pepper and a great way of getting calories and fat in during winter seasons. I always buy the high fat ground beef for this reason ... so delicious! 1 Pound of ground beef is enough to provide drippings for at least 2 lunches of deliciousness! Our ancestors knew what they were doing. Dripping is even better if you strain the pan scrapple in with the leftover fat and let it sink to the bottom... Delectable! Yum!
Did corn beef hash which is a traditionally British dish ever make it over to the colonies? Cornedbeef mashed into potato and served with beans, a great winter dish.
Yes. It was quite popular here in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Same as you. Corned beef is not a specifically British thing. It's actually pretty trans-Atlantic. Was being popularized, at the same time, on both sides of the pond. Though it arguably had more staying power in Britain. It's still around in America, but not very popular anymore.
》In a previous video, your partner has explained to us that the real secret to making a nice, tender beef is to leave it boiling as long as needed, no matter its sort (type, quality) or, as we usually say here in Brazil, its "corte" (cut). During chilly winter, it wouldn't be a problem at all!
In the Netherlands ragout is really something else. You first put a fairly large amount of butter with flour in the pan and stir and heat it until it's this thing the French call 'roux'. Seperately from this you cook some meat, and then you mix the broth with the 'roux'. You should get quick a thick sauce, and then in this you stew all your ingredients. Usually we put this kind of stuff on bread these days, it's quite thick.
I can still remember the best beef stew I ever ate. Was a supper for the Indians at a pow wow. Was cooked in a 25gal. Cast iron kettle over an open fire. A true beef stew it was from a time past.
And just like that, Townsend's channel inspired everyone to make beef stew for dinner tonight
Ha ha true! I had chicken bones going in a crock pot for broth so it will end up being a variation on a theme :)
I'm having it next week lol
The onion stew did the same! lol
I have learned a lot of cooking techniques from this channel-yummy!
I actually started a beef stew (technically a roast) just *before* this video went up! Now at least I can savour the flavours of the 18th century just a little more!
I just have to sneak in some nutmeg without anyone noticing...
I don't think the people writing these recipes ever imagined 200 years later, people would still be reading their recipes and making them for millions of people to see. It really is wonderful
I completely agree!
@@Jetsumo70 Of course, they would be more shocked at how rude and dickish people are today.
@@Jetsumo70 Hey, that's not nice. Be kind to others.
@@obsidianjane4413 lol
Not for millions of people to see, but they most likely imagined the reading. Times didn't really change back then. Life was pretty much the same for many hundreds of years, so they probably thought it will stay the same.
"Ragoût" is really just the french word for stew. "Daube" is also a type of french stew (daube provençale) and is related to the hispanic/Portuguese word "adobo", like the Filipino "chicken adobo", which is essentially a chicken stew. The modern word "stew" comes from the french "étuver", which in old french was spelled "estuver" (heat in trapped steam/smoke) and you have the basis "-stuv-" right there, which became "stew" and also "stove" in english
Thank you for the info!
Interesting!
Our word "soup" is also French "soupe" - *sop* : broth poured on slices of bread. (Hence our use of the phrase 'sopping up gravy or the last of a soup pr stew with bread'.
@@snazzlecat Knew about soup/soupe but I didn't know about "sopping up", that a new one for me! Cheers!
It's like those French people speak a whole other language
@@noahboucher125 😄
My Maw(grandma) always called any stew made from "anything left in the pantry" a ragu. I never knew the 18th century folks did the same. My family is way more old school than I thought.
I hear Ragu I think of Ginny Sac
Stews seem to be one of those dishes that has been around since the beginning of time, is in pretty much every culture in some form, and despite little differences between cultures is still mostly recognizable.
In my family (French Canada), we call that a Touski. It stands for "Tout c'qui reste dans l'garde-manger", which is the French Canadian way of saying anything left in the pantry.
My Maw Maw ( Grandma ) also would make beef ragu, but she'd add a bunch of salt, pepper and other spices to it and always call my brothers and I into the kitchen and be like " Taste that and tell me what it needs. I'm old. My tastebuds don't work as well. " - in truth it was because she was cooking it for us. She's the reason I will eat mushrooms and onions like apples. Early on got me hooked on stuffed mushrooms and stewed mushrooms and onions stewed in beef stock fortified with two day old pan drippings from oven roasted flanks.
@@Khornecussion My Paw git me into eating chives/wild onions like that. He used to wait for the bus with me and we'd pick all the ones in the yard. Cut the roots off, peel the first layer that had dirt on it,and eat em. Then, to make sure I didn't have onion breath, he'd pull out a handful of life savers and I'd eat like 3 of them on the bus ride to school and give away the rest. I miss my Maw and Paw every day.
This channel reminds me of my grandfather, whom I lost in 2022. It also reminds me of the bakery he ran for nearly 70 years.
God bless all of you who work on every single one of these videos.
Wow, 70 years! Amazing. Thank God for people like that. I am sorry for your loss.
@@Yesica1993 thank you🙌🏻
amazing, what typw of bakery? i just started an apprenticeship in french patisserie, in Australia :), im interested..
@@paigelauryn4328 here in India our older gen Parsi Zoroastrians had made it kind of our niche that others have copied over the decades and centuries that we've been here... they're fondly called "Irani bakeries"😅 So in my granddad's bakery we used to bake and craft a bit of everything (wooden oven and everything!): cakes, pastries, puffs and patties, breads, cookies and biscuits, other typical "high tea" foods (toasts, macarons etc etc)😁
@@paigelauryn4328 would love to try your creations someday! Bonne chance!🍷😁
Perfect video to watch on a cold Maine winter day. I have my coffee, and now it’s time to sit down and enjoy this video. Happy Sunday.
You got that right! I'm in the crown of Maine, and it has been cold!
My guy way out in Maine drinking coffee, I’m on my couch in Canada
Hot coffee or beef stew on a cold day. That sounds wonderful
Also in Maine! Great video for a winters day, love this channel long time viewer. Hello to all the Maine folks and the rest of you from around the world.
207 Gang in tha house!
We still eat salt beef and salt fish here in Newfoundland. Still prepared the same way it was prepared in the late 1700`s. We also, still eat mainly root vegetables. Jiggs Dinner is the ultimate Newfoundland dish still prepared and eaten the same way it was centuries ago. It's salt beef boiled with these root vegetables - cabbage, potato, carrot and turnip. Yum!
Bonita's Kitchen!
^ fellow newfie! Felt wrong having chili for supper tonight and not cooked dinner 😅
Sounds good to me!
Is the beef or fish soaked in water to remove some of the salt ?
Thanks
@@rnupnorthbrrrsm6123 Yes, they are both soaked in water for hours to remove a lot of the salt. I personally don't like salt fish, I would rather fresh. But salt beef is addicting :)
RYAN, RYAN! It is fine to see you again...and bearing a fine winter recipe as well. In Western New York State, people used pearl onions, carrots and potatoes, and a bit of celery in beef stew. I suspect that in 'your' time, milking breeds were also slaughtered as beef. The animals selected may have been a bit 'long in the hoof' and therefore, tough. In any case, we get to 'larding' (forcing fat into slits in the cut) or 'barding' (wrapping a layer of fat over the cut.) Larding uses a special kind of 'needle' with a trough in the center and a plunger on one end to inject a long sliver of fat.
Looks like a good old fashioned pot roast. Looks fantastic and I fully agree that after the day's tasks, to come in to the full house of the scent and finally getting to enjoy the meal. Perfect.
Probably had fresh bread too !!! I could live on it !
@@rnupnorthbrrrsm6123
Nothing like fresh sourdough and butter. Yum.
I like how you mention, coming in from working outside and smelling the food. I do that on PURPOSE a lot of times when I am making beef stew or pot roast. I will get it started in the slow cooker and try to find work to do outside, be it in the yard or garage, or a long day of hiking, so that I will have an amazing appetite when the food is done and it tastes as good as it smells. Another great video!
There's a reason people say hunger is the best spice. When you trigger your appetite with labor or exercise, it really does enhance your next meal no matter what it is.
A good beef stew is definitely a great comfort food. Add biscuits for dipping into the stew, and it's heavenly. Cheers!
Or fresh French bread with butter
@@Shawn-94or suet dumplings
@@Shawn-94 Agreed. Cheers!
@@RS-xq6je That's good too. Cheers!
@@dwaynewladyka577 made me hungry now
Nowadays, my partner and I like following her dad's tradition of making a giant pot of stew in October and freezing it. Beef, potato, carrots, onions, turnips, beans, thickened with pureed pumpkin, squash and beans. Perfect for when you get home from work, it's cold and dark, and don't want to cook anything.
Ooh, thickened with pumpkin/squash - I’m going to try that with my next stew! Thanks!! (I don’t love beans in a stew, but I’ll save that note as well :) )
Seems like it tastes better after being frozen too.
I literally used pumpkin puree to thicken up a chile today! Did it on a whim and it was great! It's one of my new tricks
I love how authentic you are and true to yourself you are! Your personality is wonderful!
I'm 50, as a boy I learned to cook from my mom who was born in 1934, she learned from her mom who was born pre 1900's. This time period style of cooking was basically what I experienced growing up, and I'm thankful I've retained at least some of that cooking knowledge
Same here, well kinda. I'm 35 this January and I was taught to cook by my grandmother who adopted and raised me, and she learned to cook from both her mother and grandmothers on both sides of the family, one of whom was a full blooded Cherokee whose husband was a sheriff, which I know is not relevant to cooking, but still fascinates me to know what rich history my family has
Always a pleasure to watch, glad to see Ryan once again.
I know they've hosted many videos before but I just wanna say, excellent host. Townsends is not the only host on this channel and It's worth applauding a performance matching that high standard Townsends sets.
My cast iron humidifier and dutch oven don't leave my stove top in the winter... those old cook books were merely suggestions on how to assemble a meal with what you may have on hand and that's pretty close to how i cook today ...thanks for bringing your suggestions for us to watch.
These videos always come out on late evening in Australia, making me crave all sorts of food just before bed 😂
In Ohio, we had cool houses to store meat. An actual building, usually insulated with saw dust, straw, or hay. These had very thick walls, roof and one door. They were usually not very big(one room size, though my grandma's was in her garage and was roughly 10 foot long by 5 foot wide). Many of these had running water through them and that produced a very cool room along with the insulation. Stepping into one, in a hot summer day, was like walking into an air conditioned room.
Maybe it’s in the south but they were called a spring house, they dug out around a spring and built a little “house” half in the ground half out. They would build a trough inside that the water flowed through. It was a water source and a refrigerator ! Would be so cool to have one !
I picked up a small package of bison meat from the grocery store. Now I know exactly what I'm going to make with it. Thank you once again, Townsends!
I would also imagine that wild game, such as bison, elk, deer, moose, or rabbit, have been used in stews, during the time period. Cheers!
Bingo.
I think the best roast I have ever made was made with a cut of rump meat from an Elk I killed. It was like the finest beef you could buy. Now because of my health I doubt I will ever make it back to the mountains to hunt Elk ever again. But I can dream.
If it moved and bled it was "fair game" for a stew.
Also squirrel, duck, goose. Maybe even raccoon(?).
Venison stew is peak.
My mother always added flour and water dumplings. Hello from the UK!
I was actually already planning on making beef stew tonight. It's easy, it's warm and hearty, and you can use the cheapest cut of meat you can find and still have it come out tasty.
For flavor I like to add cumin, cinnamon, paprika, and rosemary. I also like to throw in a few spoonfuls of unsweetened cocoa powder; it adds a richness and warmth that complements all the savory flavors.
I would have never thought of that spice combo, I’m kind of chicken to try it because I don’t want to ruin a roast.
One of my favorite spice combos is equal parts toasted cumin, coriander and allspice. I keep some in a pepper grinder at all times for use on beef and pork dishes. Just make sure if you use a pepper grinder, toast the allspice separately, then break the berries before combining them with the other spices and putting them in the pepper grinder, as most grinders can't grip a whole allspice berry (they're too big).
Thanks for sharing the recipe and the journey into OUR history. To really get to know a people from any time or place, learn what they ate. This channel continues to be my favorite guide to time travel.
I love seeing you passionate folks doing... anything. Literally. It's amazing. Thank you.
I have an interesting recipe regarding beef stew. In Belgium we have an old beef stew recipe with brown beer or Trappist that is basically unchanged since then. “Stoofvlees” or “Flemish stew”. It was first mentioned in a cookbook by Cauderlier called “De Spaerzame Keukenmeid” 1861, but it is way way older than that. They know about it and make it in the Netherlands too. If the book is in Dutch, I can translate it.
The beers for this dish were being brewed in the 17th century or earlier. Leffe is from 1240
This is exactly how we do it still today here in Sweden (except for the larding), really tasty! Root vegetables are used way too seldom today...
Here in Newfoundland, root vegetables are very common because shipping in greens or other more warm climate vegetables is expensive! Plus lettuice and spinach is at least a few days old before it arrives at the store. Our summers are short and winters are very harsh, so growing root vegetables is more common here.
@@applegal3058 I'm originally from a very large farm in Alberta. The vegetables from the garden were so good. Cheers!
@@dwaynewladyka577 oh wow, then you know all about cold!
cheers to you! Take care 🙂
I'm really liking the winter survival food series. Keep these coming!
My mother used to make what she called a "New England Boiled Dinner" . Brown a chuck roast on all sides. Add some salt and pepper and water to cover. Boil for 2 -3 hours until the meat is very tender. Add course cut onions, potatoes, and carrots. Cover with water and "boil" until the vegetables are done. It was not thickened with anything. Warm and Hearty but the broth was thin and could be eaten as a soup if you cut up the meat and vegetables. It did make the house smell great.
Our neighbors came over yesterday to share some beef & cabbage stew. How appropriate that this video came out the same day.
Isolation in winter, in a northern state, is still an issue. I live at the southern end of a state that borders Canada, at the end of a mile of dirt road. On many days, I go nowhere outside of the boundaries of my own property.
And, I often make dinners that look like the one shown, but I call it a pot roast. I love it served over a bed of pearled barley.
Best kind of dish. One pot, meat and veggies. Rich, hearty and nutritious - just what you need in winter.
Take note…. Maybe we should all get prepared to live like this,like our forefathers did.. seems like they could survive almost anything and still live comfortably. I absolutely love the Townsends and wish I could live that life everyday .
This is one of the best channels on YT. I look here every day to see if they have posted something new. I like watching Ryan cook and like his delivery when he narrates his video. Thanks guys. And yes, I have subscribed. I have learned many cooking tricks and methods.
Not only could we all probably use a bowl of this stuff right (especially me tonight), I'm amazed how contemporary it is to the 21st century: an economical, nourishing one-pot meal made from sustainable, healthy, organic ingredients! Why, it's downright *fashionable* in today's world!
Simple food is simple food.
Also the current meat industry is absolutely not sustainable
I'd love to come up to Indiana and share and learn knowledge. You guys are fantastic! My family, even before the revolutionary war, were farmers and millers. One of my grandfather's followed the continental Army and supplied beef to them. He was one of the few that were paid during that war. The other grandfather was a miller that left the moravian church in present day Forsyth county NC, to fight against the british.
Grew up in Indiana, started in Indianapolis, then moved to Marietta and finally Franklin. Have a lot of fond memories of my mother and Nana's recipes for beef stew and have been to Connor Prairie a fair few times over my 26 years on this Earth, so a video like this is a wonderful complement to my own experiences. Appreciate it Ryan, looking forward to making this next time I have a good roast ready.
This guy is such a great story teller, took me back to what they did, felt, and even smelled :)
Those meat preservation techniques were great reminders never heard of the "pot pie" preservation method before.
Would love to see what methods they used to keep rodents and bugs away from their winter food stash back then.
Great video thank you!
Ryan is a national treasure.
I would imagine a lot of meat was either salted or smoked, and fruits and veggies were kept in a root cellar. Root cellars can get rather cold, so it would probably discourage any animals from entering, especially at a time when most would be hibernating.
Cats...lots of cats.
@@elburropeligroso4689 I'm subcribed to a homesteader's magazine and there was an article that described a root cellar that ended up having mice. They solved it by creating boxes that they lined with wire with the small holes.
Curious if there's any record of how they dealt with similar problems back in the day. I see someone mentioned cats, that could be another way they solved problems like that...I'm not really an indoor animal person. Exploring any and all other ideas though for my own personal food storage in the basement of a hundred year old house :)
That was another wonderful cooking episode, Ryan, now if we could get you back in the tavern every once in a while! Thanks to the Townsends crew!!!
Merely hearing the recipe could make one's mouth water-and the appearance of fried morels as an ingredient is a delightful surprise! This is so marvelous, looking forward to tackling this hearty goodness come autumn. Thank you Ryan!
It's cold with freezing rain mixed with snow. This looks perfect 🥰
For me, stew is such a delicious, hardy, cold weather meal. It definitely warms your heart and body right up! I’m adding this to my dinner plan this week. It’s been so cold here in southwest Missouri.
I just made some beef stew a couple of weeks ago, really fascinating to see the roots of the modern recipes for it.
Love watching your videos and merchandise. Makes me think of my patriot ancestor that that was in the flying camp militia 1776 to 1779 Levin Hayes, thank you all !!!
Very informative. Especially now when more folks are making kitchen gardens. Thanks so much for the insight and efforts 😊
I'm new to the channel but i freaking love Ryan what an amazing historian and chief!
A long winter isolation from people for months on end sounds pretty great
Same for me :)
I generally purposely hibernate in the winter, so I tend to think I would do well.
A family would likely fare better than a completely single person though. Remember they had no phones or internet for alternative "social" options.
Did you miss 2020? It was horrific.
Lots of vacancy in northern Canada, come on up! 🌨☃️
You could def make it through the winter easily
You can’t get any Heartier than Beef Stew!!!!!!🤗🤗🤗
Hey friend, thanks for the recipe!
In Québec, we have ''ragoût de pattes de cochon'" AKA pork shank stew. The first mention of it in print was in 1825, it's traditionally eaten in the holiday season. People used to raise a pig in the backyard and slaughter it came winter to cook this in bulk. I wish I had more info about it, like if you guys had something similar in the US.
Nothing warms the heart more than a great stew in the fall/winter.
“Kitchen Pepper” is mentioned in Mason’s book, as is the phrase “Mixed Spices” in Mrs. Frazer’s 1795 book, “The Practice of Cookery.” There were many spice blends which used some of the more common seasonings. Frazer’s blend includes allspice, pepper, nutmeg, and clove, while Mason’s blend primarily includes salt, pepper, ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon for flavoring meats and stews. These spices were expensive to purchase. Where or how did settlers on the midwest frontier get these spices and how were they able to afford them before the onset of winter? Some of the recipes have numerous spices in the recipe and I wonder how many settlers in the back country of 18th century Indiana living in the woods actually had access to these food flavoring spices considering many were poor settlers were just barely making it through the winter. In Ryan's recipe .... where did the poor settlers get beer and lemon peel for this stew out on the frontier ??
Ladies and gentlemen of note would have acquired ingredients such as pepper and lemon peel...along with oning cookbooks for their staff to prepare meals. Some trading ports would have had better access to spices.
Man the production quality of these videos are top tier. The camera angles, the music, the explanation of the recipes, and the historical knowledge comes together beautifully like a fine beef stew 😋
Beef stew has been a staple for as long as I can remember on the farm. This goes through my family back to Colonial America.
SOOO happy to see my buddy Ryan back!!!
This almost looks like a potroast, not that I'm complaining because it looks really good!
I've been making all these winter meals and I cant stop! so simple and delicious. Please keep making more of these videos, they are simply fantastic and also very educational :)
It would be interesting to see how the people who lived in the southern states during this time period got through the summers (like how the northern states got through the winters). It seems like the heat and humidity would present its own challenges, especially around food preservation.
My great grandmother had a separate room I always thought was storage. It turns out it was a separate kitchen, so during the summer, they didn't heat the house while cooking! This was Virginia.
@@DeadlyBacon Like a room not connected to the house?
@@terminallumbago6465 Exactly!!! The kitchen was totally separate from the main house.
@@DeadlyBacon my parents house in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia is from the early 1800s. It had a detached kitchen/wash house that used to have a stream run through it for fresh water to serve a massive cauldron for cooking and cleaning. My dad converted it into a woodworking shop about twenty years ago.
there's something so satisfying about stew beef, even used in other things like chili or making pulled beef out of it for taco or bbq uses.
I love this dude, the combination of history, humor, and just an all around great attitude, his videos are always a treat
In my area of NH we would call that a Pot Roast dinner! Delicious
As a man that takes pride in his beef stew I gotta say this looks like a great recipe.
I cooked homemade meatballs out of onion, garlic and pig and cow ground beef along with the video and due to the end they were ready, the pleasure of tasting your own handmade meat at the same time with you was immesurable, thank you very much for the video.
I wasn't a fan of parsnips in my stews and soups until my Gran taught me to cube them up and par-boil them in water with a spoon of sugar added. Amazing difference in taste, and not 'sugary sweet' at all...
We had beef stew loads in winter growing up in the UK in tge 70/80/90's. My gran from ireland, made it loads, as did my parents. We had bread slices and butter with it.
Really enjoy Ryan's recipe videos. Great job, keep it up!
Glad to see you in the kitchen. Also miss you in the live tavern videos.
Oh boy, I kbow what I am making tomorrow. I just had the snow melt, and freeze into a solid sheet of ice with tonight's rain.
I’d trust this man to cook me anything
About 2 weeks ago we had
45 degrees Below Zero Fahrenheit. Best Wishes from Montana! M.H
I never knew Gaben love old school food, and tell old story.
I would hazard to guess maybe the reason they did a ragu on the side to pour over, is with tougher cuts of meat that need longer to cook to breakdown the connective tissue, if you add the carrots, shallots, potatoes, etc. in at the start you end up with a mushier soup-like consistency to those vegetables. I have also noticed, especially with longer cook times (8-10 hrs) you lose or change the flavor of the spices and vegetables. I have been cooking a fair amount of game meat recently, and as I check on the crock pot throughout the day, there is big difference between how it starts out, how it tastes mid-way through, and how it tastes at the end. Alternatively one could add the spices and vegetables towards the end of the cook, however, then one doesn't have the browning chemistry that comes from cooking them in a pan.
This is my favorite food series of all time! Love these episodes.
Really loving Ryan doing these videos now. He's doing a great job.
Not only are these videos an amazing time capsule to how our human race survived for THOUSANDS of years, but they are super cheap and healthy meals. All natural fresh ingredients, cheap, and will help a poor family survive. It’s amazing what you can do with potatoes, some spices, and a cheap hunk of meat.
I thank you for this - I've been looking for stews and I love history so its right up my alley
tallow and marrow are great ways for thick thicker stew without flour. The potatoes will help along with that.
Nothing better on a cold winter day than a steaming bowl of beef stew, accompanied by homemade bread to sop up the gravy. Turkey stew is also great.
Valparaiso IN subscriber here. For just over a year. Great job guys!
Man. I finished off my last years stores of salt pork. New batch coming up. I had stew during the cold snap. Nothing better than some hot stew with some old bread made from the ol starter dough. Amazing how these tried and true recipes have evolved across the world over the years and regions. Same dish with different names. I still find it better using the older recipes. Using my 18th and early 19th century pots adds a flavor you can't get with modern cookware. I still call my 18th century cast iron pot a bake kettle. Nice to see people giving new life to the past as best they can.
There is a brittish saying... "never trust a skinny chef, or a fat friar". I LOVE Your food!!! And I am really fond of this guy (I dont know his name). This channel makes proper, original food, that is still used today. I love to see the "origins" of food, and how it has developed into a new recipe, and into the food we eat today. And funny enough, most of the food we still eat today, in this day and age, is the same food, with a little differences... ... My point being... Before, today and beyond, ALWAYS trust a cook, that has a belly!!! Then you KNOW the food he makes is great!!!
Still have that once a week in England. Great video. Thanks
i would love to see more of the time period food preservation videos in the future. you guys are great
They've done a series of them a few years ago. Searching the channel may bring them up.
These guys are so good at descriptive speaking I will sometimes just listen while doing something else. Listening to this guy is like listening to a Dr Steve Brule from the 18th century, love it
One reason to cook the meat and veg separately is for portioning. If you ladle a combined stew onto plates, inevitably you'll give a larger meat portion to some people, or perhaps even run out of significant meat chunks by the time you get to the end of the pot. Cooked separately, you can arrange any number of plates with equal meat and then add equal veg ragout.
God love you Ryan, outstanding as always. My son and I like to visit old homesteads in Colorado. Those folks were tough - a woodstove to cook and heat and no insulation in the walls - I bet beef stew would be awesome.
Bread n dripping is still something I enjoy on a weekly basis. Delicious with some salt and pepper and a great way of getting calories and fat in during winter seasons. I always buy the high fat ground beef for this reason ... so delicious! 1 Pound of ground beef is enough to provide drippings for at least 2 lunches of deliciousness! Our ancestors knew what they were doing. Dripping is even better if you strain the pan scrapple in with the leftover fat and let it sink to the bottom... Delectable! Yum!
Did corn beef hash which is a traditionally British dish ever make it over to the colonies? Cornedbeef mashed into potato and served with beans, a great winter dish.
Yes. It was quite popular here in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Same as you. Corned beef is not a specifically British thing. It's actually pretty trans-Atlantic. Was being popularized, at the same time, on both sides of the pond. Though it arguably had more staying power in Britain. It's still around in America, but not very popular anymore.
I love this channel! What a well done video. I’m a loyal fan. Keep it up you all! I love it.
yay good to spend a sunday with ya fellas
Love Ryan's cooking videos. More More More.
The music, environment, the clothes... I love this channel
》In a previous video, your partner has explained to us that the real secret to making a nice, tender beef is to leave it boiling as long as needed, no matter its sort (type, quality) or, as we usually say here in Brazil, its "corte" (cut). During chilly winter, it wouldn't be a problem at all!
In the Netherlands ragout is really something else.
You first put a fairly large amount of butter with flour in the pan and stir and heat it until it's this thing the French call 'roux'.
Seperately from this you cook some meat, and then you mix the broth with the 'roux'. You should get quick a thick sauce,
and then in this you stew all your ingredients.
Usually we put this kind of stuff on bread these days, it's quite thick.
I can still remember the best beef stew I ever ate. Was a supper for the Indians at a pow wow. Was cooked in a 25gal. Cast iron kettle over an open fire. A true beef stew it was from a time past.
Just watching him make the beef stew made me feel like I was in a nice and homey place, looks delicious!
He is a Gentle Giant. He is a blessing to this channel
This is the best most relaxing thing to watch while you're eating something yourself.. such warm fuzzies.
I don't recall having been told your name, but I thoroughly enjoy your content on the channel. Thank you.
Beef stew... Easily my favorite meal... Simple, often cheap, very filling, and perfect with freshly baked bread.