Dine We Must: Repasts and Receipts from Fort Nisqually Living History Museum

Historical interpreters and volunteers at Fort Nisqually know that visitors enjoy the tastes, smells, sights, and sounds of food being prepared in the site’s Period Kitchen. Stoking the fire in the wood stove and preparing fresh vegetables from the garden, the cooks stir up more than delicious 19th century recipes – they make memories and whet appetites for both history and historic dishes.

Now visitors can take home dozens of recipes that might have been prepared at the Hudson’s Bay Company fort in a new cookbook: Dine We Must. The publication follows the seasons and celebrates the museum’s special events, while featuring fare from English and Scottish cookbooks of the mid 19th century. All of the soups, main dishes, salads, special occasion dishes, cakes and cookies were taste-tested and modified for modern kitchens by Fort Nisqually Historical Interpreter and compiler of Dine We Must, Gwendolyn Rice. "I've gotten to try so many new foods and new ingredient combinations since starting this project. It's a treat to bring some of these 19^th century recipes back to the table!" - Gwendolyn Rice