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(#4) Oyster Ice Cream, Dolley Madison's Dessert Of Choice
By the second half of the 18th century, ice cream was becoming a beloved - if decadent - dessert. Without modern freezers, however, it was difficult to prepare and keep ice cream, though many notable early Americans did. It just took a massive ice house and a large enough staff to keep large chunks of frozen water around to maintain it. Thomas Jefferson and the Washingtons famously loved ice cream.
Some liked to experiment with different ice cream flavors. One such flavor: ice cream flavored with oysters, which Dolley Madison supposedly favored. She would churn up the "small, sweet" ones from the nearby Potomac River into a... unique after-dinner sweet.
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(#7) Stewed Swan, A Beloved Transatlantic Dish
Colonial men and women enjoyed a wide variety of specialty meats that have since fallen off the American menu. Take the swan, for example. Today, eating what many consider to be the graceful, elegant swan would probably create an outrage.
But Colonial Americans didn't think that way. Stewed swan was one of many dishes that Colonists actually copied from England.
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(#15) Scrapple, Pork Scraps And Cornmeal Formed Into A Loaf
Scrapple: its very name suggests what it is. Found mainly in the Pennsylvania Dutch country and other regions of the mid-Atlantic Colonies, scrapple consisted of scraps of pork that were cooked with cornmeal to form a loaf. Usually, scrapple used parts of meat that would otherwise go to waste, like the heart and liver.
Some Amish and Mennonite communities continue to eat scrapple today.
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(#10) Lobster, A Dish Best Served To Poor People, Slaves, And Prisoners
Though some foods have remained constant over the centuries, the meanings and associations of those foods have changed dramatically. For most contemporary Americans, lobster connotes an expensive, splurge-worthy meal. Not so for early Americans. The British North American Colonies clung to the Atlantic seaboard, making seafood common. There was no more common food - in all senses of the word - than the then-lowly lobster.
In fact, lobster as a meal was associated with the vulgar lower classes of Colonial America.
Lobsters were so cheap, in fact, that they were used to feed slaves and prisoners.
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(#14) Posset, A Drinkable Curdled Custard
Posset was a rich, creamy 18th-century dessert. Made with cream, eggs, and flour, posset at first sounds like a delicious custard. The catch? Add some ale, and it becomes drinkable custard, as the ale curdled the cream.
In Colonial days, posset was a popular drink to serve at weddings and was sometimes served in specialty pots.
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(#3) Calf's Foot Jelly, A Special Treat You Could Get Just From Boiling A Hoof
Molded gelatins and jellies were all the rage on both sides of the Atlantic in the 18th century. Calf's foot jelly, in particular, was a well known dish. And it's exactly what it sounds like: a gelatin that emerges while boiling the hoof of a calf.
Early Americans believed calf's foot jelly was even good for the sick.
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People may think some food unpalatable just because they are strange or disgusting, which may be caused by cultural differences. But these 18th-century American foods are really disgusting and few people have the courage to try them. With the development, people have no chance to eat many American ancient foods. American food in the 18th century was complex, not as refined and delicious as the European countries of the time.
Here are 15 disgusting foods that people really ate in 18th century America, the collection is at random and you could refresh it to get another group of items.
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