Long before Poh’s Kitchen and Food Safari, migrants to South Australia brought and shared recipes, foodstuffs and ideas about cooking and eating.

Next Thursday, 20 May, you have the chance to see, feel and taste food from the past during Transported, an historical and archaeological exploration of 170 years of food preparation and consumption in SA.

Presented by Flinders University’s Department of Archaeology and the South Australian Maritime Museum as part of National Archaeology Week, Transported explores the maritime foodways of early colonials and migrants.

Flinders Maritime Archaeology lecturer Emily Jateff said the evening includes an exhibit of artefacts related to the preparation and consumption of food at sea.

“Foodways, or the study of the ideas around food preparation and consumption, can tell us a lot about our past and early settlers,” Ms Jateff said.

“They reflect not only where people came from and how they got here – but also how they lived and how their cultural habits were maintained or modified in their new country,” she said.

“Food that nourished the body and soul was critical to thousands of people who made the often difficult journey across the seas to Australia.”

Visitors to Transported will be able to sample finger food and drinks based on menus from the 1850s (mock turtle soup, ship’s biscuit, mini plum duff), 1910s (including oysters Kilpatrick) and 1950s (fruit stick with glace cherries, vegetable vol-au-vent) and hear short lectures and a performance by the a cappella group Nobody’s Fault but Mine.