People have long turned to food to maintain health and cure ailments; this was certainly the case in medieval and Renaissance Europe. Not only did diet play a critical role in regulating one's health, but many foods and recipes now consumed for pleasure, like sugar, chocolate, spiced wine, and distilled spirits, were prepared as foods specifically for healing. Recipes for items which skirted the line between food and health, as well as more traditional medicines, were found side-by-side with culinary recipes in printed cookbooks and household recipe books. These books spanned a broad range of genres, including dietaries, herbals, and guides to the natural and humoral properties of new ingredients found in the recently-discovered New World. Through an examination of historical recipes, literature, accounts, and images, especially from the Newberry's collections, participants will examine the close relationship between health, food, and recipes in medieval and Renaissance Europe.

Contemporary cooking is driven by engaging recipes, but for students and scholars, historical recipes can provide valuable insight into the past, as these texts have been recorded for thousands of years to document ways to feed, preserve, heal, and transform. Drawing upon examples from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, we will explore how recipes—whether culinary, household, medical, or alchemical—can be used in classroom settings. Teaching with recipes can reveal new ways to consider themes as diverse as scientific experimentation, premodern communication, health and medicine, the environment, and the cultural transmission of marginalized groups. Participants will examine recipes from the Newberry’s collections, explore digital resources featuring recipe content from American and European institutions, and consider classroom activities based on historical recipe sources.

Can you imagine the American Midwest without wheat fields, Italy without marinara sauce, or Spain without gazpacho? Wheat, tomatoes, chili peppers, and many other foods were transferred between the Old and New Worlds following Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas in 1492. This transfer of foods, as well as other plants, animals, humans, and diseases, is now known as the Columbian Exchange. Contact between Europe and the Americas resulted in a fantastic array of foods available globally. With the discovery of the New World, Europe secured enormous tracts of fertile land suited for the cultivation of popular crops such as sugar, coffee, oranges, and bananas. Upon introduction of these crops, the Americas quickly became the main suppliers of these foods to most of the world. In an effort to produce new ingredients for their markets, European empires laid claim to land in the New World, impacting the culture, language, religion, and politics in the Americas for centuries. Furthermore, the desire to grow valuable crops, procure prized resources, and transport them globally resulted in the rapid spread and transportation of enslaved populations from Africa to the Americas. Through the evaluation of sources from early modern books, art, maps, and recipes, many found within the Newberry Library’s own collections, we will examine foods of the Columbian Exchange and their lasting impact.

*ONLINE* Despite sugar’s ubiquity in the modern Western diet, it was once reserved as a medicinal ingredient for the wealthiest consumers. From the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, sugar transformed from a rare luxury item to a commonplace ingredient, shaped by dramatic shifts in health, trade, and politics. Sugar became increasingly desirable in the early modern period as its consumption became essential in several new, caffeinated drinks: coffee, tea, and chocolate. The rise of sugar was also encouraged by the popularity of molasses, a byproduct of sugar processing, and rum, the distilled spirit made from it. Colonial structures and the exploitation of enslaved people facilitated the remarkable increase in sugar production and popularity. Through evaluation of sources pulled from literature, art, economic and political texts, maps, material goods, and recipes, many found within the Newberry Library’s own collections, we will delve into the history of sugar (c. 1100 to 1900), focusing on the connections between sugar consumption and production with social, economic, and political power.

*ONLINE* Contemporary cooking is driven by engaging recipes, but for students and scholars, historical recipes can provide valuable insight into the past, as these texts have been recorded for thousands of years to document ways to feed, preserve, heal, and transform. Drawing upon examples from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, we will explore how recipes—whether culinary, household, medical, or alchemical—can be used in classroom settings. Teaching with recipes can reveal new ways to consider themes as diverse as scientific experimentation, premodern communication, health and medicine, the environment, and the cultural transmission of marginalized groups. Participants will be provided with a guide to digital resources featuring recipe content from American and European institutions and examples of remote and in-person classroom activities based on historical recipe sources.

In the modern Western world, coffee, tea, and chocolate are viewed as daily necessities, found everywhere from convenience stores to chain restaurants to artisanal markets. These three caffeinated foodstuffs—all originally consumed as beverages—first made their way to Europe in the sixteenth century, awakening a continent accustomed to alcohol. Europeans adopted exotic drinks from faraway lands (Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas), assimilating foreign flavors into their daily diets. Over the course of three centuries, these drinks became popular in different pockets of Europe; geography, religion, class, gender, and politics highly influenced these preferences. Furthermore, these beverage preferences became entangled in the perilous economics of colonialism and slavery. Many contemporary texts and material goods were devoted to the consumption of coffee, tea, and chocolate. These included books and tracts by physicians, explorers, and theologians; recipes for the perfect cup of chocolate in manuscript recipe books and printed cookbooks; and dishware and tools for preparing and serving all three drinks. Through the evaluation of these and other sources pulled from early modern literature, art, economic records, maps, material goods, recipes, and more, many found within the Newberry Library’s own collections, we will examine the rise of coffee, tea, and chocolate in early modern Europe and the consequences of their popularity.