#food-history

#food-history

Not unlike pot roast, another Boomer generation classic, beef stroganoff transforms an unglamorous combination of stew meat and mushrooms into an elevated, rich, stick-to-your-ribs, Russian culinary institution. In fact, beef stroganoff's old-school, vintage feel was already centuries old by the time it became a Boomer favorite. The dish is named for the eponymous Stroganov family, nobility tracing back to 15th-century Imperial Russia who served as the viceroys of Siberia as contemporaries of the heralded Romanov family ("Anastasia" Broadway musical fans, rise up).

In New England, the official dipping buddy for creamy clam chowder is called a common cracker, and it's different than any other cracker in almost every possible way. For starters, it's larger (about the size of a Ritz cracker), rougher, and looks unmistakably old-school. The common cracker's flavor is also deliberately restrained. Wheaty, crunchy, and very hearty - these unleavened crackers swell slightly in creamy New England clam chowder. This makes them take on a dumpling-like quality, and it's not accidental.

A simple joy to make in your air fryer at home and a delight with all kinds of sauces from sweet and sour to barbecue to ketchup, if you're so inclined. Whether you like them with a potato chip crust, made from all breast meat, or shaped like dinosaurs, kids and adults have been addicted to these things for years.

As well-known as New York might be for its hot dogs, there is one other city in America that may rival it: Chicago. Chicago is famous for its hot dogs, and the people there take them extremely seriously. Don't ever let anyone in Chicago catch you putting ketchup on a hot dog. While there is surely some disagreement among locals about who makes the best dog,

Some Brits like theirs thick and meaty, using the Yorkshire Pudding as a vessel. But others are convinced that gravy should be thin and broth-like, poured all over the plate. To settle the debate once and for all, Asda surveyed 2,000 Brits about the 'correct' shade and consistency of gravy. Their results revealed that the ultimate gravy should be medium brown and just thick enough to coat a spoon.

For folks in need of a memory jog, these treats comprised popcorn shaped into apple-sized balls and adhered together with molasses and butter. Other preparations replace the molasses with sweet, sticky elements like corn syrup or simple sugar syrup. Whatever the adhesive ingredient, it's all about the gooey balls of stuck-together popcorn and thick sugary syrup, creating a craveable, salty-sweet flavor profile.

Prized for its presentation, this fancy French potato dish, Duchess potatoes, dates back to the 1700s, when it was created and given its aristocratic name to help elevate the reputation of the humble tuber in France, where it had yet to be widely embraced by home cooks. These are my squiggly duchess potatoes. For a new take on mashed potatoes, we're looking back on a classic French potato dish.

If you tried to order a hamburger in ancient Rome, it wouldn't come with fries. No ketchup either: Tomatoes and potatoes wouldn't reach European shores until the sixteenth century. Five thousand miles away in what is now called the Pacific Northwest, there'd have been no lettuce, mustard, or sesame seeds for the bun. Cows and pigs aren't native to the Americas, so elk or bison would have to sup for an all-beef patty.

At the advent of the 1990s diet culture, fast food companies were looking for new ways to market their food to people concerned with calorie counting. Fajita wraps were marketed as a low-calorie alternative to burgers and fries. The fajita wrap was a food that most people thought was healthy, as it featured grilled rather than breaded and fried meat, and a low-calorie tortilla instead of a thick bun.

They can often be the backbone of food culture and cuisines, but as culture evolves, so too do our condiments. Some condiments are made with new techniques or recipes, or incorporate new ingredients, while others disappear completely. Either way, a look back at some of the condiments we don't see everywhere anymore, including the ones we grew up with or that our parents remember, can offer a fascinating glimpse into this evolution.

While both spaghetti and meatballs are quintessential Italian dishes, they aren't traditionally served together in Italy. The combination of meatballs, called polpette, with tomato sauce and spaghetti stems from an influx of Italians immigrating to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s, where they found meat to be much more affordable and began to use it more liberally in their cooking.

On a cold fall or winter's day, nothing warms up your insides like a hot bowl of soup or stew, served with lots of crusty bread and plenty of butter. For some, only chicken noodle soup will do, while others prefer minestrone, Italian sausage, or French onion. But it would be very unlikely that today, anyone would reach for, say, a steaming-hot bowl of turtle soup or a dish of Hoover stew.

How vitamin C and oranges became synonymous is part biology, part history, and part marketing. Sailors in the age of exploration carried citrus to ward off scurvy, vitamin C deficiency often decimated crews on board. Centuries later, American orange growers in the early 20th century faced mountains of surplus fruit and turned to advertising, positioning orange juice as the modern breakfast drink. That campaign, paired with the discovery of vitamins, cemented oranges as the cultural symbol for staying well.

Maple syrup is a sweetener made from the sap of maple trees, primarily sugar maples, by boiling the sap to concentrate the sugar. According to the Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Native Americans are generally thought to have been the first to tap maple trees and to turn the sap into syrup. The sap is less than 3% sugar; 32 to 40 gallons of sap boil down to just one gallon of syrup.

When Americans think of British food, they may think of fish and chips, shepherd's pie, or the full English breakfast. These are indeed classics, but the depth of British cuisine goes much further. As a Brit, I've grown up with these foods being a part of everyday life. It's easy to forget that dishes commonly known to you can be barely known anywhere else. This is why I wanted to create a list of U.K. dishes that fly under the radar.

My 18-month-old grandson doesn't have the biggest vocabulary, but like most toddlers, he makes what he wants known pretty clearly. That's especially true when it comes to his favorite foods, which these days is pretty much anything he can stuff into his mouth unassisted. His most practiced phrase is "Eat, eat!" followed by a gesture he learned at daycare - tapping his thumbs and fingers together in a flat "O" to make the American Sign Language sign for "more."

When you think of treats from Japan, you may think of a few different snacks, such as matcha, dango, and mochi ice cream. Surprisingly, however, the latter does not trace its roots back to Japan. While mochi is from Japan and can be traced back to ancient times, mochi ice cream is a different treat with a much more recent date of origin, only being introduced to the American public in the 1990s.

Stracciatella gelato, invented by Enrico Panattoni in 1961, features fine strips of hardened chocolate and is loved for its crunchy yet smooth texture.

Grape-Nuts ice cream is a nostalgic favorite in certain regions of the United States, originating as a unique blend of cereal and ice cream from a chef in 1919.

In 1937, Kraft boxed macaroni and cheese was born, marketed as an affordable meal option during the Great Depression. Each box cost nineteen cents.

Tomato aspic, a savory Jell-O mold made from tomato juice and gelatin, was a popular mid-century dish served as a salad or side at various gatherings.

Fig Newtons are soft-baked cookies with a filling of fig jam, providing a less sweet but satisfying snack. While divisive in opinion, they have been enjoyed for over a century.

Dr. John Cook Bennett changed public perception of tomatoes in the 1830s by promoting them as medicine and selling 'tomato pills' that contained little actual tomato.

Egg wine and diseased animals were part of the Victorian diet, often due to necessity, but dishes like treacle tart and cucumber sandwiches remain popular today.

Order a cod double-header at this date-night Portuguese spot, dunking the former (fritters) into saffron mayonnaise before diving into the main course, plated with a crispy potato cake in a flavorful chouriço-studded caldo verde.

The middle of the century was not kind to American cooking, or at least, we haven't been kind looking back on these old-school dishes. The popular dishes of the '50s and '60s now mostly have a bad reputation, usually for embracing modern canned, powdered, and frozen ingredients that forewent freshness and flavor for affordability and convenience.

"A sardine fork is used to neatly remove tinned fish from the can and put it on the plate. No more shredding the fragile fish before it makes it out of the packaging."

The Philly cheesesteak started as a pile of chopped steak, salt, pepper and onions on a roll until Cocky Joe added cheese, starting a distinct sandwich culture.