Podcast Episode 090: The Hamilton Cookbook – Laura Kumin

“Anyone and everyone can cook! Learning to cook is often trial and error – even the best cooks make mistakes. There is no right or wrong way to make most dishes, and taste is personal. Keeping it fun, setting your expectations at a reasonable level, and enjoying food with others are what cooking is all about.” – Laura Kumin

Laura Kumin

If you love food, cooking, and a little bit of history or a little bit of Broadway, I’d like to introduce you to today’s guest, Hamilton Cookbook author and food blogger Laura Kumin. 

Laura is the author of The Hamilton Cookbook, a blogger at Mother Would Know, a teacher, and a food coach who helps people get comfortable in the kitchen and have fun cooking. Laura’s book takes readers into Hamilton’s home and to his table, with historical information, recipes, and tips on how you can prepare food and serve the food that our founding fathers enjoyed in their day.

Laura talks us through all the wonderful lessons there are to be learned from how people used to cook centuries ago. She has adapted these old recipes for our modern diets and enlightens as to how our diets and cooking habits have changed since the days of our founding fathers. If you are a Hamilton fan, history buff, or a foodie, then this episode is especially for you.

Laura Kumin book signing at the Smithsonian Museum of American History

Laura Kumin in the kitchen

Melissa and her family seeing Hamilton in Chicago

Melissa with Beef a la Mode

Ingredients for Lemon Syllabub

It turns out that the library of congress is an amazing treasure trove. The librarians turned me onto digitized copies of 18th century cookbooks.

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• How Laura was inspired by Hamilton as a historical figure.
• Why you shouldn’t be afraid to fail during culinary exploration.
• How mealtimes have evolved throughout history.
• The way Laura invokes history throughout her work.
• How food blogging manifested even during the revolution.
• Why Laura feels it’s necessary to blog about even the simple things like boiling water.
• Our look at a few recipes featured in The Hamilton Cookbook.
• The importance of checking labels and educating yourself on scary-sounding ingredients.
• Laura’s tip to Do MORE With Dinner that she practices at home.

Listen to the Full Episode:

Featured on the Show:

• The Hamilton Cookbook by Laura Kumin
• Laura’s website/blog: MotherWouldKnow
• Laura on Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | G+
• A Historian’s Take on Food and Food Politics – with Rachel Laudan – Sound Bites Podcast Episode 017 
• The Library of Congress

Sound Bites is collaborating with Today’s Dietitian! Stay tuned for updates on the podcast, blog and newsletter!

The Today’s Dietitian 2018 Spring Symposium is in Austin, TX on May 20-23. Register now! I’d love to see you there!

Music by Dave Birk

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