Eat like a lifer during Prison Food Weekend at Eastern State Penitentiary

HAVE YOU ever been hungry and thought, "Man, I could really go for some beef and mush"?

Well, then you're in luck. This weekend, Eastern State Penitentiary visitors will be able to sample historic prison delicacies during "Prison Food Weekend."

The event highlights meals that inmates ate during the prison's 142-year history and offers a chance to sample three from different eras: salted and broiled beef with "Indian Mush" (cornmeal and salt), from the 1830s; hamburger steak with brown gravy and Harvard beets, from the 1950s; and, finally, Nutraloaf, a bland, tasteless brick that's served in today's prisons as a more nutritious equivalent to bread and water for punishment.

"It's one thing to talk about how the food changed over time. It's another to sample it," said Sean Kelley, senior vice president and director of public programing and public relations at Eastern State Penitentiary.

The beef and mush was so delicious, Kelley said he even brought it to lunch after trying it. The Nutraloaf, on the other hand, was flavorless, though it didn't taste bad.

Among other facts, visitors will learn that before the 1950s, chefs cooked relatively tasty food at Eastern State. Then the prison started mass-producing bland and processed food as inmate populations swelled.

Visitors also will see old photographs, such as those of isolated inmates receiving their food through small holes in cell doors, and the official recipe for Nutraloaf.

Eastern State opened in 1829 as one of the world's first "penitentiaries," a prison that aimed to make inmates reflect on their wrongdoings by keeping them isolated in their cells.

In the 19th century, solitary confinement became an instrument of punishment instead of a tool for redemption. The prison was closed in 1971 and sat empty until the Pennsylvania Prison Society, a nonprofit that advocates for the humane treatment of prisoners, opened it again for tours in 1994.