A reader sent me this message yesterday:
Hello, Tom!
I had a great find at the used bookstore today. It was an old copy of the White House Cook Book, which was copyrighted in 1887! It’s not in the best condition, but it includes photos of the first ladies as well as rooms in the White House. I perused some of the recipes and as expected, they have lots of fat – heavy cream, lard, you name it!
She also informed me that the book is available online courtesy of Project Guttenberg. So I perused the text, and while there are recipes for breads and cakes and other sweet or starchy goodies, there is indeed a heavy emphasis on meats, butter, lard, suet, etc. Here’s a quote from a section on proper frying:
Many French cooks prefer beef fat or suet to lard for frying purposes, considering it more wholesome and digestible, does not impart as much flavor, or adhere or soak into the article cooked as pork fat.
What, no soybean oil? No Crisco? No canola oil? Of course not. Nobody cooked with that garbage back then. The technology required to extract garbage oils hadn’t been invented yet.
Since this book was written before refrigerators were common, there’s also a section on preserving eggs:
There are several recipes for preserving eggs and we give first one which we know to be effectual, keeping them fresh from August until Spring. Take a piece of quick-lime as large as a good-sized lemon and two teacupfuls of salt; put it into a large vessel and slack it with a gallon of boiling water. It will boil and bubble until thick as cream; when it is cold, pour off the top, which will be perfectly clear. Drain off this liquor, and pour it over your eggs; see that the liquor more than covers them. A stone jar is the most convenient—one that holds about six quarts.
Eggs can be kept for some time by smearing the shells with butter or lard; then packed in plenty of bran or sawdust, the eggs not allowed to touch one another; or coat the eggs with melted paraffine.
Butter and lard again. Who even keeps lard in the house these days? (Besides me, I mean.)
The book includes a brief section on how to handle common ailments: figs for constipation, alum and brown sugar for whooping cough, and so forth. But my favorite was the treatment for asthma:
Sufferers from asthma should get a muskrat skin and wear it over their lungs with the fur side next to the body. It will bring certain relief.
I was diagnosed with mild asthma some years ago, but it disappeared when I stopped eating wheat. If only I’d known about muskrat skins …
Amusement value aside, clearly people back then weren’t worried about butter, eggs and lard clogging their arteries and giving them heart disease. And why should they have been worried? Heart disease was rare. Yes, some heart attacks probably went undiagnosed, since the EKG wasn’t commonly used until the 1920s. But even after doctors could properly diagnose heart attacks, the rate of heart-attack deaths didn’t take a sharp rise until the 1940s – when consumption of butter and lard was dropping.
When I’ve pointed that out in previous posts, I’ve heard from lipophobes who insist that the only reason few people died of heart disease back in our lard-powered past is that they didn’t live long enough to die from a heart attack. “Of course people weren’t dying of heart disease!” they tell me. “Most people died before they turned 40!”
What they apparently believe is that most adults died sometime around age 40. That’s simply not true. They’re citing (without understanding) the average life expectancy in the 1800s. Before antibiotics were developed, lots of children and teens died of infections, which dragged down the average. But the people who survived into adulthood had a very good chance of living to a ripe old age, despite the lack of drugs and surgeries available today. You can get a clear sense of how dramatically childhood deaths affected the statistics by visiting this site, which shows not just average lifespan, but average lifespan starting from different ages. For example:
In 1850, the average lifespan from birth for boys was only 38 years. But for boys who had already reached age 5 in 1850, the average lifespan was 55 years. For young men who were already age 20, the average was lifespan was 58 years, and for men who were already 40, the average was 66 years. Keep in mind those figures would include violent deaths, not just deaths from diseases.
By contrast, the average lifespan for a boy born in 1950 is listed at 65, but for a young man who was already 20 in 1950, it’s listed at 68 — just a few years older. In other words, by 1950 antibiotics were saving a helluva lot of kids who otherwise would have died from some disease. That’s why the average life expectancy shot up, not because adults went from routinely dying at around age 40 to dying at around age 70. There have been 70-year-olds in human societies for a long, long time. Even in the Bible — hardly a modern work — there’s a reference to our lifespan being three score and ten years.
I recently finished reading Killing Lincoln (which I enjoyed immensely) and was reminded again of how common childhood deaths were in the 1800s. Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln had four sons. Eddie Lincoln died at age four. Willie Lincoln died at age 11. Thomas “Tad” Lincoln died at age 18. But Robert Lincoln lived to be 82. The average lifespan of the four Lincoln sons: 28 years. But Robert, the only son to survive into adulthood, certainly lived long enough to develop heart disease – as did most people who saw their 20th birthday.
When answering the “people died before they turned 40!” crowd, I’ve occasionally pointed out the longevity of some of the country’s founders: Thomas Jefferson died at 83. John Adams died at age 90. Benjamin Franklin died at 84. (One of Franklin’s legitimate children died at age 4. The other died at age 65. Average lifespan of his legitimate children: 34.5.)
Curious if I was cherry-picking the few old-guy founders who came to mind, I looked up brief biographies of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence. This was not a group of old men — their average age in 1776 was 46. I excluded one who died in a duel and another who disappeared at sea when he was 30. Of the remaining 54, the average age at death was 68 – old enough to develop heart disease.
But again, that’s just an average. Of the 54 remaining men who told King George to stuff it, 43% lived past the age of 70, and 26% lived past the age of 80. In other words, there were plenty of very old Americans back in the day and therefore plenty of potential candidates for a heart attack. But heart disease was rare.
So here’s the history lesson: Cook like your great-great-great-grandma and don’t be afraid of meat, eggs, butter and lard. Follow the recipes in the White House Cook Book of 1887.
I predict you’ll like the squirrel soup in particular.
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It’s not biochemically possible for bread to be as good as lard. Per carbon atom, fatty acids produces more ATP than glucose.
Hi Tom,
I’ll see your 1867 White House Cook Book and raise you a copy of Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management – still in print since 1861. It’s a compendium of advice and recipes on how to run a Victorian household. Full of nose-to-tail cooking and a go-to source such things as making gelatine from calf’s hooves and every type of offal, there are download and web versions all over the Internet.
I keep hearing the “but they ate lots of bread” meme, and am wondering if that is true. Bread takes time. Who has time when you are cooking and skinning your squirrel and muskrat? I know my dad’s family ate very little bread and plenty of potatoes, because potatoes were easier to grow, and cheap to purchase if you ever ran out. So that means potatoes fried in bacon fat for breakfast, boiled potatoes for lunch, baked potatoes with butter for dinner, and like the Wurtman’s a potato snack before bed if you needed one.
Even if they did eat bread, their diet wouldn’t have consisted of donuts, croissants, sodas, Little Debbie Snack Cakes, ice cream, burritos, hamburger buns, etc.
And while we’re talking about longevity: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/the-island-where-people-forget-to-die.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Published in the New York Times and yesterday republished in the International Herald Tribune for us here in Asia. Great read about Ikaria island in Greece (yes there is more news than just bancruptcy in Greece) where islanders live to the age of 90 (!) at 2.5 times the rate than in the US… 🙂 Note the livestyle including the naps, red wine and maybe most of all activity and socializing daily.
Stefan
Sounds like a pleasant lifestyle.
It’s always interesting to look at old death certificates and see at what age people died of senility/old age — or as one English death certificate called it, “senile decay.” One woman died in 1915 at age 64. The newspaper heading read, “Aged lady dies. . .”
Why on earth would they have to preserve eggs that way? From August to spring? Why not just keep a few chickens around?
I suppose preserving eggs was useful for city-dwellers. Chickens also produce fewer eggs in winter.
The “people died younger back then” pushback is the most common response I get when talking paleo with skeptics. I’ll have an even better counterargument to that nonsense now, thanks to this post. On another note, others have mentioned that heart disease was likely present in the 19th century. Maybe in trace amounts. That era certainly didn’t have the monstrous proportions of obesity and type 2 diabetes, both of which correlate closely with heart disease. As such, it seems quite the leap of faith to assert that heart disease was prevalent without providing any evidence supporting that notion.
Agreed. Doctors surely would have noted in their records if large numbers of people were dying after complaining of chest pains, even without the benefit of EKGs.
I am in Russia right now. General crowd looks unbelievably thin, but most people are with gray, worn-out faces. I know that the cardio-vascular statistics here doesn’t look good, life expectancy is lower than in US. Many people smoke, drink, don’t practise preventive care. My husband just went in May to his univercity reunion after 30 years of graduation. There are already news that one guy from that group got a massive stroke, and one woman was diagnosed with breast canser in adwansed stage. My native country still lives on the old-fashion wariety of wheat (Eighorn), sour-dough rye bread is more popular than wheat bread, people still cook in absolute magority households. There are enough complains in press about not efficient agriculture due to the lack of use of fertilisers and intence methods of agriculture.
Hi Tom,
I’ll see your 1867 White House Cook Book and raise you a copy of Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management – still in print since 1861. It’s a compendium of advice and recipes on how to run a Victorian household. Full of nose-to-tail cooking and a go-to source such things as making gelatine from calf’s hooves and every type of offal, there are download and web versions all over the Internet.
I keep hearing the “but they ate lots of bread” meme, and am wondering if that is true. Bread takes time. Who has time when you are cooking and skinning your squirrel and muskrat? I know my dad’s family ate very little bread and plenty of potatoes, because potatoes were easier to grow, and cheap to purchase if you ever ran out. So that means potatoes fried in bacon fat for breakfast, boiled potatoes for lunch, baked potatoes with butter for dinner, and like the Wurtman’s a potato snack before bed if you needed one.
Even if they did eat bread, their diet wouldn’t have consisted of donuts, croissants, sodas, Little Debbie Snack Cakes, ice cream, burritos, hamburger buns, etc.
Most people back then died in accidents or from infection in a wound. I remember reading about an ancestor that died at the age of 36 after he fell from the rafters in a barn. It wasn’t bad eating that caused death back then it was poor medical care or no medical care
I am in Russia right now. General crowd looks unbelievably thin, but most people are with gray, worn-out faces. I know that the cardio-vascular statistics here doesn’t look good, life expectancy is lower than in US. Many people smoke, drink, don’t practise preventive care. My husband just went in May to his univercity reunion after 30 years of graduation. There are already news that one guy from that group got a massive stroke, and one woman was diagnosed with breast canser in adwansed stage. My native country still lives on the old-fashion wariety of wheat (Eighorn), sour-dough rye bread is more popular than wheat bread, people still cook in absolute magority households. There are enough complains in press about not efficient agriculture due to the lack of use of fertilisers and intence methods of agriculture.
If “most people died at 40” back in “olden times,” then why did the writers of the US Constitution set the MINIMUM age for the Presidency at 35? Wouldn’t 35 have been the equivalent of like 72 today?
Apparently they hoped their presidents would die in office.
Most people back then died in accidents or from infection in a wound. I remember reading about an ancestor that died at the age of 36 after he fell from the rafters in a barn. It wasn’t bad eating that caused death back then it was poor medical care or no medical care
Anyone who has dabbled in genealogy knows that plenty of people lived to admirably old age throughout history–even without benefit of antibiotics. The decidedly portly Benjamin Franklin lived to be 84. My great-grandfather died at 90 while working on his land, still vigorous by all accounts.
If “most people died at 40” back in “olden times,” then why did the writers of the US Constitution set the MINIMUM age for the Presidency at 35? Wouldn’t 35 have been the equivalent of like 72 today?
Apparently they hoped their presidents would die in office.
Heart disease was also common in ancient Egypt.
http://www.livescience.com/14194-egyptian-mummy-heart-disease.html
Yup, too much honey and bread:
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/04/14/honey-my-mummy-had-heart-disease/
Anyone who has dabbled in genealogy knows that plenty of people lived to admirably old age throughout history–even without benefit of antibiotics. The decidedly portly Benjamin Franklin lived to be 84. My great-grandfather died at 90 while working on his land, still vigorous by all accounts.
Heart disease was also common in ancient Egypt.
http://www.livescience.com/14194-egyptian-mummy-heart-disease.html
Yup, too much honey and bread:
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/04/14/honey-my-mummy-had-heart-disease/
I am curious what my great-great grandma ate like. When I was 12, she died at like age 98 I think and so I actually got a chance to meet her while she was around. Her daughter (great grandma) is currently still alive and living in her late 80s and could push 90 in the next year. Maybe since they are from an older generation, they could have been using butter and lard. They were raised in south Texas and so I am sure Mexican or Americanized Mexican was what was around before Americanized Mexican food turned to using refined flour or corn tortillas, rice, beans, and vegetable oils.
My great-grandfather lived to be 101, and if any well-meaning doctors had tried to take away his bacon, eggs, butter or chicken fried in lard, he would have swatted them.
I am curious what my great-great grandma ate like. When I was 12, she died at like age 98 I think and so I actually got a chance to meet her while she was around. Her daughter (great grandma) is currently still alive and living in her late 80s and could push 90 in the next year. Maybe since they are from an older generation, they could have been using butter and lard. They were raised in south Texas and so I am sure Mexican or Americanized Mexican was what was around before Americanized Mexican food turned to using refined flour or corn tortillas, rice, beans, and vegetable oils.
My great-grandfather lived to be 101, and if any well-meaning doctors had tried to take away his bacon, eggs, butter or chicken fried in lard, he would have swatted them.
Farside wrote “Heart disease was also common in ancient Egypt.”
And you know what the scary thing is? The Egyptians were eating a far, far less harmful form of wheat back then.
True, although I think the amount of honey consumed by wealthy Egyptians didn’t help any either.
Farside wrote “Heart disease was also common in ancient Egypt.”
And you know what the scary thing is? The Egyptians were eating a far, far less harmful form of wheat back then.
True, although I think the amount of honey consumed by wealthy Egyptians didn’t help any either.
I ordered some almond butter (Artisana) and had my wife make the low-carb bread during Hurricane Sandy. Luckily we did not lose power during the storm. The bread turned out just as your photo advertised – so thank you very much! Add a little Kerrygold butter, and it’s the perfect snack or desert. Very filling and satisfying due to the high fat content. If only they knew about the recipe in the 1800’s… Great stuff!
I watch the History Channel a lot, so I’m convinced most ancient Egyptians died of foul play. ;-D
As do most Americans, judging by the primetime cop shows.
I ordered some almond butter (Artisana) and had my wife make the low-carb bread during Hurricane Sandy. Luckily we did not lose power during the storm. The bread turned out just as your photo advertised – so thank you very much! Add a little Kerrygold butter, and it’s the perfect snack or desert. Very filling and satisfying due to the high fat content. If only they knew about the recipe in the 1800’s… Great stuff!
Hello Tom,
Great post again, as always. I had a quick question for you — my wife and I watched Fat Head again last night, and I noticed one of the songs has been very catchy to me every time I’ve watched it. Do you by chance know where I can find the song/sound byte that has the “Somethin’ here just-a doesn’t add up. Somethin’ here just doesn’t go down’. It’s the song that plays right when you start to discuss Spurlock’s logic in calculating how many times he ‘claims’ to have eaten over 5000 calories.
That’s just a snippet of a song that my composer friend Tom Monahan created specifically for the film. He wrote several of those for Fat Head along with the theme and most of the incidental music. I wrote the song for the closing credits.
We started working on an album project together that would include expanded versions of the song snippets and some other original songs, then both got sidetracked. I hope we finish it someday. I’ve always liked Tom’s songs very much.
I watch the History Channel a lot, so I’m convinced most ancient Egyptians died of foul play. ;-D
As do most Americans, judging by the primetime cop shows.
Hello Tom,
Great post again, as always. I had a quick question for you — my wife and I watched Fat Head again last night, and I noticed one of the songs has been very catchy to me every time I’ve watched it. Do you by chance know where I can find the song/sound byte that has the “Somethin’ here just-a doesn’t add up. Somethin’ here just doesn’t go down’. It’s the song that plays right when you start to discuss Spurlock’s logic in calculating how many times he ‘claims’ to have eaten over 5000 calories.
That’s just a snippet of a song that my composer friend Tom Monahan created specifically for the film. He wrote several of those for Fat Head along with the theme and most of the incidental music. I wrote the song for the closing credits.
We started working on an album project together that would include expanded versions of the song snippets and some other original songs, then both got sidetracked. I hope we finish it someday. I’ve always liked Tom’s songs very much.
The other problem with the stupid argument that people 200 years ago didn’t live long enough to develop these diseases, is the fact that we are now seeing record numbers of obesity and type 2 diabetes in children. Why weren’t the children 200 years ago more obese and diabetic than modern children with all that animal fat they consumed?
The really odd thing is that I had just released a new article on the same subject. If anyone wants to read more facts concerning this ridiculous argument that everyone died at the age of 40: http://roarofwolverine.com/archives/3442
Keep exposing those lies Tom!
Well done.
The other problem with the stupid argument that people 200 years ago didn’t live long enough to develop these diseases, is the fact that we are now seeing record numbers of obesity and type 2 diabetes in children. Why weren’t the children 200 years ago more obese and diabetic than modern children with all that animal fat they consumed?
The really odd thing is that I had just released a new article on the same subject. If anyone wants to read more facts concerning this ridiculous argument that everyone died at the age of 40: http://roarofwolverine.com/archives/3442
Keep exposing those lies Tom!
Well done.
Totally just went and bought that book as a gift for the mother-in-law. Got one for me too! Even has the cure to hiccups! hahahaahha
Why is Jimmy Moore getting fat again?
When I go to his website I still see a picture of him when he was skinny.
Your disc golf video on YouTube from 3 months ago shows him as a pretty, plump, sweaty man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPtlNnPkEAI
Looks like low-carb isn’t always sustainable on the human body over the long term.
Apparently you haven’t been following the story. Jimmy learned that his hyper-insulin response can be triggered by excess protein. He lowered his protein intake and increased his fat intake to get into nutritional ketosis. Now he’s lost more than 50 pounds since May.
He was sweaty because were playing in 102-degree weather. I’m pretty sure even a skinny little vegan would sweat under those conditions.
Totally just went and bought that book as a gift for the mother-in-law. Got one for me too! Even has the cure to hiccups! hahahaahha
Why is Jimmy Moore getting fat again?
When I go to his website I still see a picture of him when he was skinny.
Your disc golf video on YouTube from 3 months ago shows him as a pretty, plump, sweaty man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPtlNnPkEAI
Looks like low-carb isn’t always sustainable on the human body over the long term.
Apparently you haven’t been following the story. Jimmy learned that his hyper-insulin response can be triggered by excess protein. He lowered his protein intake and increased his fat intake to get into nutritional ketosis. Now he’s lost more than 50 pounds since May.
He was sweaty because were playing in 102-degree weather. I’m pretty sure even a skinny little vegan would sweat under those conditions.
Hey Tom,
Fuck you and your animal killing and your huge carbon footprint you’re making j your farm. I hope you end up getting fat again and your knee gives out so you can’t play any more disc golf. Piss off.
-a dedicated vegan for life
Always nice to hear from the vegan intellectuals out there.
Hey Tom,
Fuck you and your animal killing and your huge carbon footprint you’re making j your farm. I hope you end up getting fat again and your knee gives out so you can’t play any more disc golf. Piss off.
-a dedicated vegan for life
Always nice to hear from the vegan intellectuals out there.
Apparently you haven’t been following the story. Jimmy learned that his hyper-insulin response can be triggered by excess protein. He lowered his protein intake and increased his fat intake to get into nutritional ketosis. Now he’s lost more than 50 pounds since May.
Just a thought – but someone that gains and loses 50 pounds on a whim is not healthy. He might want to get checked out as to why protein is causing an insulin response. He’s probably close to being a diabetic. Just sayin’.
It wasn’t on a whim. Like many people with damaged metabolisms, Jimmy found that even calorie-controlled meals didn’t prevent him from regaining. So he sought advice from the many researchers he knows. The advice that worked was to cut back on protein and up the fat content in order to get into nutritional ketosis. That worked. He doesn’t need to get checked out to learn why protein causes an insulin response. Protein causes an insulin response because 1) insulin is required to transport amino acids into cells and 2) protein that isn’t required for rebuilding tissue can be converted into glucose.
Meanwhile, he’s been monitoring his health for years and is, despite regaining weight, healthy.
Apparently you haven’t been following the story. Jimmy learned that his hyper-insulin response can be triggered by excess protein. He lowered his protein intake and increased his fat intake to get into nutritional ketosis. Now he’s lost more than 50 pounds since May.
Just a thought – but someone that gains and loses 50 pounds on a whim is not healthy. He might want to get checked out as to why protein is causing an insulin response. He’s probably close to being a diabetic. Just sayin’.
It wasn’t on a whim. Like many people with damaged metabolisms, Jimmy found that even calorie-controlled meals didn’t prevent him from regaining. So he sought advice from the many researchers he knows. The advice that worked was to cut back on protein and up the fat content in order to get into nutritional ketosis. That worked. He doesn’t need to get checked out to learn why protein causes an insulin response. Protein causes an insulin response because 1) insulin is required to transport amino acids into cells and 2) protein that isn’t required for rebuilding tissue can be converted into glucose.
Meanwhile, he’s been monitoring his health for years and is, despite regaining weight, healthy.
Here’s another family that keeps lard in the house at all times. My wife is Mexican-American and will only make refried beans using lard.
Also, we were recently in a Ukrainian restaurant and tried “salo”, which is similar to lardo. My wife, who usually looks down on my high-fat endeavors, surprisingly loved it!
Here’s another family that keeps lard in the house at all times. My wife is Mexican-American and will only make refried beans using lard.
Also, we were recently in a Ukrainian restaurant and tried “salo”, which is similar to lardo. My wife, who usually looks down on my high-fat endeavors, surprisingly loved it!
So the “all cavemen died early deaths” doesn’t have much credence as well? If they lived past childhood then they also had a pretty good chance of living a long life. Just like the people living in the 1800’s.
I want a copy of that cookbook for my collection. I will get rid of the Betty Crocker 1985 version in trade. Now, where can I get some lard?
Chareva found lard at our local Kroger.
So the “all cavemen died early deaths” doesn’t have much credence as well? If they lived past childhood then they also had a pretty good chance of living a long life. Just like the people living in the 1800’s.
I want a copy of that cookbook for my collection. I will get rid of the Betty Crocker 1985 version in trade. Now, where can I get some lard?
Chareva found lard at our local Kroger.
I keep lard in my house! I had to go out of town to find a butcher who made his own non-hydrogenated lard but I found him. In fact I’m rendering my own next weekend to freeze for paleo fried chicken and the occasional sweet-potato fries. Hope Warsaw can have her Crisco, thank you very much!
I keep lard in my house! I had to go out of town to find a butcher who made his own non-hydrogenated lard but I found him. In fact I’m rendering my own next weekend to freeze for paleo fried chicken and the occasional sweet-potato fries. Hope Warsaw can have her Crisco, thank you very much!