Turnspit and Table

An anti-miserabilist approach to historical cooking

bowl of dried apples soaked in red wine so they are blood red in colour, and studded with cinnamon sticks and cloves
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About

This is how it all started…

In 2012 I started doing medieval re-enactment and became obsessed with making medieval food. Since then, I’ve done a PhD on the archaeology of nineteenth-century Australian food and dining (and you can read more about my professional work on my personal website). I don’t update this blog as often as I used to, but I still love making historical recipes and put them here when I can or you can see more regular posts on Instagram.

Kimberley Connor

historical archaeologist and food historian

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@turnspitandtable

Another talk I'm giving in a few weeks, on digital mapping and Hyde Park Barracks! And this one is online! I loved seeing these footprints modelled on the ones left by a child at Lake Mungo 20,000 years ago at the @australianmuseum. It shows how long it's been since I've been to the museum! I've been looking forward to visiting @yam.coffs and wasn't disappointed! Great to see some local food history on display, including this 1930s recipe book by Jessie Tulk. How do you get from a partial embossment to identifying a company/product/date etc for archaeological glass? Short blog post up on marketstreet.stanford.edu today about this example from a Lash's Kidney and Liver Bitters bottle Another for the series of hot, filling puddings is this huckleberry pudding made from an unusual narrative cookbook published in 1915 and full of Pennsylvanian recipes. More details on the blog! As we come back into stone fruit season, I've just uploaded a recipe for Mrs Newton's steamed damson pudding that I made last year. It was my first time cooking with damsons and even though they're hard to find they're definitely worth the effort for that sweet, tangy flavor. After so many years reading about Eastern State Penitentiary for my work on institutional food, it was very moving to see the original model for the Pennsylvania System. I was really impressed by the interpretation of the site, and the way they've integrated art installations and commentary on contemporary incarceration - it's a real model for other heritage sites to follow. For the final day of #2024NAW I was in San Francisco Chinatown doing public outreach about Chinese American historical archaeology (and eating custard buns and watching lion dances obviously). Thanks to @carefulvp and Jocelyn for organizing and inviting me! Thursday at @stanfordarchaeologycenter means the coffee social and this week we also did some colouring with one of the new activity sheets I made for teachers and archaeology lovers. For colouring, word searches, and a bonus difficult crossword for archaeologists have a look at the Resources available on kimberleyconnor.com!

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