Beyond the Butcher’s Block: Culinary Choices and Meat Utility in a Late Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia Residence

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Late 19th-century Philadelphia was a landscape of urbanization and industrial growth. Feature 89, a large pit in the rear of a dwelling in central Philadelphia, offers a glimpse into the city’s complex foodways during this transformative time. Faunal remains recovered from Feature 89 represented the discards of pig, cattle, chicken, turkey, sheep, and goose. Analysis of the pig and cattle remains showed that the meat had been prepared by professional butchers and had been cooked by roasting, boiling, or stewing. By employing a Standardized Food Utility Index (SFUI) modified for pigs, this study examines the specifics of butchery and culinary choice at Feature 89. As an SFUI assesses the nutritional value of different body parts, it can clarify the economic factors and cultural preferences influencing meat selection and discard. Diverse portion sizes for various meat cuts also hint at the culinary patterns at the household level in a changing neighborhood. These findings not only illuminate the dietary habits of Philadelphia’s residents during this period but also contribute to broader discussions on urban foodways and the integration of zooarchaeological methods with historical data to reconstruct past human behavior.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52758