A little foray into the research rabbit hole and I find sporks. Who would have guessed? In my travels following ice cream down the research rabbit hole, I found special cups for serving ice cream, and special vessels for serving it at the table. I even found a rare 18th century ice bell often mistaken for an ice cream serving vessel. In Jane Austen’s day, entire sets of silverware were devoted to serving and eating … Continue reading →
So what is an Ice Bell and what does it (or doesn’t it) have to do with ice cream? The answer is at the bottom of the Research Rabbit Hole. So, most of you have been chillingly aware (ok, I know low hanging fruit and I’m sorry but I couldn’t help myself) that I have been researching ice cream in the Georgian era over the past couple months. It was utterly inevitable that I end up in … Continue reading →
Luxury foods demand the luxury treatment! Take a look at the ice cream cups and other special serving vessels for ice cream. If you’ve been reading Random Bits of Fascination for a while, then you may remember talking about specialized china for luxury dishes before. If not, you might want to check out these posts on Chocolate Pots vs. Coffee Pots, and Chocolate cups vs. Tea cups. Since ice cream was (during Austen’s day) a … Continue reading →
What makes a chocolate pot different from a teapot or coffee pot? Because anything induced by chocolate MUST be a good idea, its time for another chocolate-induced dive down the research rabbit hole! Just to refresh your memory a bit, during the regency era, there were three particular luxury drinks: tea, coffee and chocolate. (I talked about tea recently, you can find that HERE. The first chocolate article is HERE.) They were in high demand, but expensive … Continue reading →
What makes chocolate cups different from teacups or coffee cups? It’s been a rough month around here. My father’s had a major health crisis that resulted in three hospitalizations in as many weeks. He had surgery, then had complications and his complications had complications, literally. How does one cope with such things? Chocolate. In frequent, therapeutic doses. It can’t possibly surprise you that somehow chocolate lead me on a trip down the research rabbit hole … Continue reading →
