That link is the colonial tavern.
Cups and Spoons
If you’ve ever done any cooking, you’ve probably measured out ingredients. Did you know the use of measuring cups and spoons came from tavern owners and innkeepers? In Europe, measurements were made with scales. But like Americans today, 18th-century British Colonialists were in a hurry and wanted their food fast. Because using scales took longer than measuring with cups and spoons, colonial cooks ditched the weights for the faster method.
And their choice of measurement is still used today.
Apples
My niece may have been right when she said Johnny Appleseed chopped down the cherry tree. But truth be told, George Washington was probably right there with him.
You see, both men would have spent a lot of time in taverns, and tavern meals were served with alcohol. The better the brew, the better the tavern’s reputation. Did you know what didn’t make it into the schoolbooks is that apples were used, mainly, for making cider? (Which, if you didn’t know, is “an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples.”) Apples wouldn’t keep through the winter, but cider would. Stored in barrels, cider could also be bought, sold, and transported easily throughout the land.
Apples may have kept the doctors away, but tavern owners knew good apple cider brought the customers in.
Dogs
Who doesn’t want a batch of golden-brown hush puppies with their plate of fried catfish? Mmm, my mouth waters just thinking about it. But did you know how hush puppies got their name? According to Williamsburg Colonial Private Tours by John Sutton, “To quiet the hungry barking puppy dogs when frying up the cornbread, some would be tossed to them along with the verbal admonishment ‘hush puppy.’”
Obviously, colonial tavern dogs were smarter than tavern cats. Otherwise, instead of hush puppies and fried fish, we might have hush puppies and quiet kitties.