Townsends - Food for 18th Century Nerds

Okay, so if you go to the official Townsends website they say they are:

"Townsends is dedicated to exploring the 18th century living, cooking, clothing, and much more."

Frankly the "and much more" covers a lot of territory. They aren't limiting themselves to just the 18th century either, but rather the 18th century and any of centuries during the colonial period and sometimes the rare recipe dating from before then.

If you are the type of person is into recreating 16th century, 17th century and 18th century clothing, food and the lifestyle then Townsends is certainly up your alley.

Speaking for myself, I mostly just watch the Townsends YouTube channel, which has over 822,000 subscribers, and covers topics like how to make your own ale/beer, recipes for fried chicken, and what kind of rations soldiers, sailors and other people got to eat during the time period.

Here are a few videos as examples:

18th Century Fried Chicken Recipe



18th Century Brewery



18th Century Sailor Rations, Burgoo


So a few things...

#1. High production value. Townsends, as a cooking show goes, is on par with any television cooking show.

#2. Yes, they will try to sell you on the recipe books and other products they sell, but frankly buying the recipe books is unnecessary as they tell you everything you need to know during the episode anyway.

#3. The costumes. Really adds to the authentic experience of watching the videos.

#4. I could see someone making a themed restaurant based off of this, where all the waiters and the decor is done in the 18th century, and all the recipes are period recipes.



Post Updated - April 2019.