When we think of food in the past, it is often images of Henry VIII with a table groaning with meat dishes that springs to mind. But in fact our ancestors knew more about the health benefits of eating salads—normally thought of as a cold dish of herbs or vegetables—than we might think. By looking…
From Cure to Confection: The Surprising Medicinal History of Marshmallows
You’re undoubtedly familiar with marshmallows—the puffy, sweet confections that you might toast over a campfire in the summertime or drop into a mug of hot chocolate in winter. They’re sweet, above all else, with little nutritional value save for a few grams of protein that come from gelatin and egg white. It’s these two components…
Revolutionary Broth: The Birth of the Restaurant and the Invention of French Gastronomy
From the rise of click and collect to the advent of dark kitchens, the very concept of the restaurant is undergoing major changes. Even before the pandemic hit, consumers were moving away from the physical location of the restaurant, a transformation that has only been accelerated by coronavirus. These new ways of eating question the…
Getting to the Root of Potato Salad
Potato salad has always been a German thing to me. But the origin of the main ingredient was South America, and represents one of the earlier cultivated crops on earth. Europe didn’t see them until Spanish conquistadores took them from the Inca Empire, but soon after, they became rooted in European culinary traditions. Irish potato…
Making Ice Cream Memories, the Old-Fashioned Way
I have fond childhood memories of family reunions on Pine Lake in Eldora, Iowa. Coming together from several central Iowa counties, my mother’s side of the family got together each summer to reconnect. As the adults caught up with each other’s busy lives on the farm, the kids ran up and down a sandy bluff…
Cooking Like a Colonist With Frank Clark
As a young kitchen apprentice at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, Frank Clark faced a challenging task. To demonstrate his skills, he had to prepare a three-course meal for eight guests at the Governor’s Palace. On the menu: onion soup, roasted leg of lamb, house-salted and -smoked Virginia ham, salmon with shrimp sauce, savory cheesecake, battered and…
Agnolotti, Bucatini, and the Innovative New Cascatelli: A Brief History of Pasta Shapes
There are at least 350 shapes of pasta you can buy. Food blogger Dan Pashman apparently thought we could use one more. Enter cascatelli—which means “waterfall” in Italian—the world’s newest pasta shape. Pashman developed the shape to hold a lot of sauce and be easily stabbed with a fork. To me, a food historian and…
From Chocolate to Chicken Nuggets, a Bite-Size History of Favorite Kid Foods
Legend: Genghis Khan came up with an early concept for hamburgers that involved tenderizing meat scraps under the saddles of horses as his Golden Horde ransacked its way to China back in the 13th century. Fact: Nobody knows for sure who first came up with putting beef patties between bread. Such bite-size anecdotes are among…
Regula Ysewijn: Preserving the Pride and History of British Baking
Most of us can look at our lives and careers and point to something that shaped their trajectory: important, eye-opening moments, special events, influential people. For Regula Ysewijn, it was a nursery rhyme: White swans, black swans, Will you sail to England with me? England is locked The key is broken And there is no…
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