Eating like a Lighthouse Keeper from the 1800s

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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @worldagainstjose

#tastinghistory #chowder #lighthouse

[TastingHistory]

Huzzah, we made it to #41 on Trending Videos. Thanks for watching and sharing.

[stephenmead]

Thank you. My dad was a light house keeper here in New Zealand back in the late 1940s until the mid 50s. They were very self-sufficient, from gardening, raising a milking cow, sheep gardening, fishing and now and then home brewing beer. Mum made butter, baking, bread. One of mums favourite recipes was what we called whales tail. It was a fruit scone mix cooked in a syrup of golden syrup, baked in the coal heated stove. Even to this day when our mum who is 95 year old she still makes it when we ask for it. She was very skilled at making clothing and keeping an eye on us children. Dad did as was required
when it came to maintain the light etc, fishing and smoking the catch. I still remember loving smoked blue cod poached in fresh cows milk with lots of parsley.

[AeSyrNation]

I've worked as a modern-day lighthouse keeper and can honestly say that the voices really liked this video!👍

[DariusBaktash]

As much as mercury is certainly an issue for neurological damage, I can only say that I've never been closer to a breakdown in sanity than being a new parent waking up every few hours. Chronic sleeplessness at the level you described would absolutely drive people over the edge. Combine that with a grueling work schedule, isolation, and consequences for failure, and I've no doubt the average keeper was barely alive day to day.

[vespelian]

British lighthouses had two keepers until 1818, when one died and the other went mad, and from then on it was three.

[beter]

Max: *For which you need:*
- 3 cups of sweet corn
- 4-5 cups of Yukon gold potatoes
- 3 Tablespoons of fatty salty pork
- 1 onion diced
- 1L of whole milk
- 3 Table spoons of butter
- 2 Teaspoons of salt
- 3/4 teaspoon of pepper
- 8 crackers
And 200ml of mercury

[justageekboy]

FYI, scalding milk in this recipe is a holdover from a time before pasteurization was widely available, so consider it optional. In some recipes scalding is used to infuse the milk with herbs and spices, but that's not the case here.

[konpeitocalico]

I'm a subtitle user since I have auditory processing issues, and I have to say thank you for typing them in yourself! Automatically generated subtitles on YouTube can be a nightmare. I always laugh when you do funny emoticons like at 6:29, and I can tell that you put so much passion into every step of the video making process - including writing your own subtitles, which are only noticed by folk like me. You're one of my favorite youtubers, and history has always not been one of my strong suits, but pairing it with cooking/baking (things I love to do) makes it so much easier for me to stay interested + learn about the history behind the foods. Thank you for doing all that you do, and sharing your love of history/cooking/humor/stuffed plushies with us! I love seeing what Pokémon plush + other items you'll use in the background of each video. •ᴗ•

[rebeccablueheart]

It's a mistake, in my opinion, to not use the water in which you boiled the potatoes in the chowder. It has the starch, some of the nutrition, and a LOT of the flavor of the potato in it. The starch will help thicken the finished soup. I also mash a bit of the potatoes to thicken it a bit more. I also remove the bacon or salt pork solids after they are rendered and add them back to the finished chowder before serving. Just some chowder tips I find helpful, use them or not. 😊

[andimproud]

Max, you have ruined me. I was watching Cooks Country the other day, and a lady mentioned hard tack, and I immediately put a goofy smile on my face and clanged my hands together. You have Pavlov dogged me. ❤

[MichaelWDean]

Here in Alaska, pilot bread is very popular. I teach at an Alaskan native school, and it is a staple for us and in native villages as well as rural Alaska in general. The brand you are using for this recipe is the one we have available here, and I have heard that Alaska accounts for the lion’s share of Interbake foods’ pilot bread sales. I grew up eating it, and to me, it is delicious. I realize it is kind of bland, but there are times that there is nothing I want more than a couple pilot bread crackers. We put smoked salmon and cream cheese on them, peanut butter and jelly, eat them with moose soup, or use them for just about anything you would use bread for.

[chelseajacques_]

My grandfather was a lighthouse keeper from the the 1950's to the 80's, based at quite a number of lighthouses on the South African coastline, including one on a island on the west coast. At the time if they had stock up with supplies, an air force helicopter brought in food and other supplies once a week. Luxuries such as eating out at restaurants were non-existent because of the locations of the lighthouses.

[dropkickpiper]

I’m a born and raised Mainer, we still make our chowder basically exactly like this. We usually also include cream, but otherwise this is pretty much exactly what you’d get here today, at least in my house.

[Jewelsmith]

Hey, Max (and Jose!), I just made this today and it was delicious! One thing I changed, though, because you mentioned at 21:00 that it's not very thick: I drained most of the water from the potatoes before adding the milk, butter, corn etc. You strained them once at 7:15 before boiling them with the bacon fat, but you didn't drain them again at 7:30 and I did. My soup turned out wonderfully thick and creamy. Thank you for the recipe!

[nieldoe]

If she makes you a Boston Corn Chowder like that, she's a Keeper

[CaptainRiterraSmith]

I knew where it was going as you described pilot bread. The few seconds of anticipation for the *clack clack* just made the payoff so much better. 😂

[MrFairbanksak]

Hey there! I'm from central Alaska, born and raised, and pilot bread is commonly eaten here, though nowadays more often in the many small villages around the state. Many times in the past have I eaten pilot bread smeared with butter, or with peanut butter and jelly, or with some oily salmon strips (the kind handmade and smoked by locals are much better than those you can find in the store, and those made from king salmon are the best). Some nice oily king salmon strips with pilot bread are delicious.

[geraldinesmall]

I home schooled for a few years. Once, we were reading one of the American Girl books and came across a breakfast food called Saratoga chips. My girls insisted that I make them for breakfast. The chips were a big hit, mostly because they got to eat potato chips for breakfast. After that, we started looking for more historical foods to make. Even today we research, make, and recommend historical recipes. This is why I love this channel so much.

[CliffordtheOrangeCat]

The phrase "try out" in the original recipe caught my eye. Back when whaling was a major New England industry, boiling the whale blubber to obtain the oil was referred to as "trying out" a whale, with the pots used for the purpose called "try pots".

[SarafinaSummers]

My husband introduced me to corn chowder. The version his family makes is a thin corn soup. The version I make is a thick, stick to every bone in your body corn soup that is a proper goddamned chowder made with a beef stock base. His family's is closer to the original, apparently. Who knew? Thank you so much for these episodes, Max. I sent this one to my friend who adores lighthouses, and it put a smile on her face.