I glanced at the preview with asparagus standing in a loaf of bread and my first thought was - "Happy Birthday!"

We live near Andrew Jackson's home, the Hermitage. It is a super nice house, but it has a lot of construction fakery, such as wood columns painted with a sand mixture to look like stone. They also painted plain wood with grain lines to make it look like expensive wood.

18th century: Salmon is much cheaper than chicken. 21st century: Chicken is much cheaper than salmon.

"Purges by urine." - That might be my favorite description of asparagus ever.

You know when you're REALLY rich? When the food isn't edible anymore. When you're just supposed to appreciate it as an art piece.

It's so fascinating that the more complex dish isn't even considered the main dish, it's just a side. Crazy how different people were eating

This kind of video is why I love you guys. I mean, "just" focusing on the recipes themselves is interesting enough already, but I really love connecting bits and pieces of knowledge together, trying to get a more holistic view of things, and like you said, reading in between the lines and drawing cultural conclusions etc from the context -- absolutely fascinating, thanks so much.

The quality of content and production in these videos is phenomenal. Don’t ever change, thank you for doing what you do

Our man Ryan once again wowing us with his knowledge. Another great video.

I absolutely did not expect a crash course on "Diplomatic posturing", if one may forgive the term... And how the dining table was (and frankly is in many parts of the world) the place where you conduct diplomacy... Even if it's as simple as bonding a person to person relationship, or as grand as geopolitical correspondence. The inner, basic but fulfilling desire for food is such a strong force that it's really baffling that something as simple as "Making foods presentable" can forge the fate of Nations

Ryan's solo videos are just getting better and better. Love it!

Early Americans were really leaning into the "fake it til you make it" strategy. But in the end, we never lost the cultural impetus to obtain and maintain the appearance of wealth (or, more likely, what we *think* wealth looks like) regardless of our actual circumstances. Also...now I'm craving asparagus. 😆

This vaguely reminds me of green bean casserole, taking a humble green veggie and elevating it to something remarkable.

My favorite Sunday morning activity! A leisurely cuppa and Townsends.

A side dish of a second course for one, the whole dish (meal?) for the other. Says a lot. This was an excellent video for sure.

I wish you had tasted the bread with each. That seems an important ingredient.

A history class with a cooking show mixed in....or do I have that backwards. As always, love the channel!

This is the only channel recipe I've ever made myself. Loved it.

I love this presenter, he has an air of tranquility around him. Lovely video, thank you

Food showing class and social hierarchy is a very interesting subject, both abundance, type of dishes, ingredients, cooking method and utensils all play into it.

Thanks for all the awesome content and great videos!

We have asparagus growing in our garden this year. Come winter it should have been growing long enough to start harvesting crowns. I want to try this recipe. Most of my veggies I cook in butter, but this looks and sounds really good.

You really cheered me up with this analitic explanation. Wonderful.

Always love these videos!

Fascinating, thank you for shareing.

As always, I really like Ryan's topics and presentations. Keep em coming.

Always love your insight talking about the why behind these things.

Thanks for interesting and valuable video as always ❤❤❤

Thanks Ryan...the way you explain the history of each dish makes me want to try them all the more. I also like asparagus and going to add this to my recipes.

It looks like john has almost entirely handed the cooking over to you, good job Ryan🤠👍👍

Thanks for sharing with us. We use to get our asparagus the same way in Colorado along side the roads. Thanks Ryan for showing the differences between the haves and the have nots. Stay safe and keep up the great videos. Fred.

Coat asparagus in some olive oil, finely chopped garlic and sea salt. Let it sit for maybe a half hour and then grill it. Cooks fast and it is so good. Once I tasted it at a restaurant I never boiled again.

Love Ryan as a presenter! Same with the sourdough video. 10/10

Excellent research and presentation. Thank you very much. 👍💯🏆

For the love of asparagus! The fancy one does look divine, but I'd love the simple one just as much. Interesting video. I'd like to see more like this.

Great stuff as always!

Excellent enjoyable video - I love the interesting history and comparison of the two food groups...

Mmm, you guys find the best recipes! Thanks for another top notch video. ❤

Am I the only one tempted to mix those two piles of asparagus together to make it buttter, cream and egg asparagus?

I love it. Thanks for the great video. I'm going to have to make a variation on the "rich" variation this weekend, and I truly appreciate the modern options we have in part because of educational material just like this.

great video guys, really enjoyed this on

Your version of 'Asparagus Forced in a French Roll' as it was being prepared appeared more pleasing to my eye than the one that Jon Townsend did a few years back... but the way he sliced his open for consumption was more tastefully done than the way you excavated the innards of yours with a spoon... however, I'm sure that they both tasted just as good as one another! 😁

Very nice episode. Thanks!

Thanks Ryan for the history lesson. Amazing 👏

Really like this format

Really love your cooking videos

You are a very good communicator, sir.

Thank you for a great history lesson and entertaining video. Carry On Sir.

Thanks for an informative video. I’m gonna try both recipes with my family.

Everything looked very good, enjoyed - thanks Ryan...

Showing this to my students. Thanks Townsends!

Asparagus was cultivated in California by Chinese immigrants when the San Juaquin Delta was turned into agricultural lands. Stockton even has a festival for it. Filipinos and Vietnamese immigrants were also used for growing/harvesting the crop.

Silent Bob is a great teacher. I find the history of how people dined fascinating!

Great video! Love the poor food series. Thanks!

I grew up in a single parent family. So I learned to appreciate what food we got. I know one thing for sure. My mother made us always good meals. Christmas birthdays etc was always great. We didn't have what all the other kids had. But I was a strong as hell athlete when I reached my early teens and into my high school years / adulthood

amazing stuff!

I love these videos!

A recipe with nutmeg and Jon's not around. I hope that doesn't mean he had to go to nutmeg rehab. 😉This looks like such a lovely recipe - thanks for sharing Ryan and @Townsends!

I know i said this before, but AMAZING VIDEO. It's cool you are on this channel, because you have what it takes to have your own channel, and I would hope in the future this channel expand if it can attract other talents of the same pedigree, because it is cool to have multiple talents under one roof/channel, covering the same topics in their own unique entertaining way.

6:12 I am utterly amazed that you found an old script font that includes the long s that looks like an f

That asparagus coming out of that thing looks like a 7 year olds first attempt at creating a dish.

Awesome video man! Asparagus is one of my absolute favorite veggies!!

Hope we see more of this guy!

The narrative contains a lot of great observations between the poor and the well-to-do, all worth remembering and keeping in mind when reading about the past.

great presentation.

Great video, loved it! Also, he looks a bit like Penn Jillette?

Good one Ryan!

Excellent video.

Thank you, Ryan.

Bruh! Love your videos

In Wyoming along the irrigation canals asparagus grows wild and you can cut bags of it in the spring ❤.

My dad grew asparagus. We were the only two in the family that liked it. I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world.

Thanks for the video it was fun and very interesting

Thanks for sharing the novel recipe and the history behind it. I do believe that to know any people, learn what they eat and try it.

I think that I will try to cook the wealthy family's version of the asparagus recipe! I meant several times to try some of your recipes. I love asparagus so you must succeed with such a simple recipe!

The more things change, the more things stay the same. Three centuries later that does not change so much. Quite remarkable!

Another great episode! The asparagus in custard looks delicious. QUESTION: When all of those dishes were laid out on the table, did the guests pass them around hand to hand, or did a servant bring them around the table and then leave them in the appropriate spot?

This guy narrates amazing videos

It's funny how some things do not change even in 2024. It's important to understand what people of the day were thinking and what society was like in order to even understand the time period. Even through the Civil War

What a blessing Father is always right on time thank you fir your obedience to post about asparagus right now we just harvested some from the garden looking forward to trying these recipes. May YAH bless you and keep you and your families

I was searching for a recipe for green aspargus (white is more common here). Guess I've found not one, but two!

That Asparagus loaf is very similar to Green Bean Casserole that we make for Christmas time. Perhaps they share a similar origin.

Oh yes! We still know where the wild asparagus is in our neighborhood, and still pull over in these spots, even though we have asparagus beds in our yard.

One thing do notice different between those earlier cookbooks and now.(a side from not assuming you know things) Is I don't remember ever seeing urine mentioned anywhere. 🤔 Nope I sure don't. 🤷🏼‍♀️😉😅 Thanks Ryan and Crew another wonderful video. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🌹

RYAN! RYAN! I miss you behind the bar in Thompson's videos, even as engaging as Jon's daughter is. You also do as fine a job of unpacking a historical recipe as Jon does. We just need to see your take and your presence in these videos.

love this video; love his glasses. i have big old thick pop bottle lens so probably wouldn't work with my prescription lol

A very nice looking dish using asparagus. Can you do a video on what dishes were served at banquets in the 18th century, in North America? Cheers!

My father had an asparagus patch that was about 8x8. It took very little work, and during the spring it was woefully productive. (Did I mention that I don’t like asparagus?) You harvested the stems multiple times, until it got late enough in the season that it didn’t taste good any longer. After that you let it grow unhindered into an unbroken patch of fluffy green, decorated with little red berries. Because it’s a perennial, that piece of ground is permanently occupied by asparagus. That would be a problem in a tiny English country garden, but Americans had more space to spare. So I’m not entirely sure why asparagus became a “fancy” food, unless the attraction is having asparagus out of season.

It always tickles me when one of the recipes featured is still something I make routinely. Asparagus cooked/ fried in butter is decidedly the best!

The chart of dishes.. fascinating

This episode reminds me of reading Alexis Soyer's works, and he weirdly differentiated between asparagus, and something called sprue grass which I could only assume is wild asparagus.

This is so interesting I love it

Proud subscriber for 5 years!

I would love to see a video on the history of the Chef during this time frame , was they well respected? considered a servant? where they "peasants" and wht sorta foods would you find in a freestanding restaurant/tavern of the time

I haven't kept up too much with the channel and i'm not sure who this chap is, but i like him . 🍻

Pretty amazing how you can taste and experience something that can transport you a couple hundred years back in history.

I had wild asparagus in the field once.

Nice video ❤

i'd like to see you guys prepare a whole dinner with several courses that a rich person would have back then.

I assumed that the custard in the rich dish was going to set up and that the roll would then be sliced like a meatloaf with the asparagus in the middle. So both were served hot and the rolls were just coffin that many guests wouldn't bother to eat?