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Happy National Soufflé Day

Here are today’s five things to know about Chocolate Souffle:

Supposedly, the first recipe for soufflé appeared in Vincent La Chapelle’s Le Cuisinier Moderne (1742).

 The word soufflé first appeared in English in Louis Ude’s The French Cook, 1813.

 By 1845 the soufflé was so commonly accepted that in Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery (1845) a recipe for soufflé was included as just another recipe.

Due to soufflés’ tendency to collapse quickly upon removal from the oven, the media frequently depicts the dessert in sitcoms, cartoons, children’s programs and movies as a source of humor.

 Another kind of dish entirely is soufflé potatoes, which are puffed-up sautéed potato slices, traditionally served with a chateaubriand steak.

Today’s Food History
◦ 1553 Michel de Montaigne was born. French essayist. There are a few of his quotes about food and dining listed on the Food Reference website. (“A man should not so much respect what he eats, as with whom he eats.”)
◦ 1935 At the DuPont Corporation, Dr. Wallce Hume Carothers invented nylon. A patent was issued in 1937, and nylon stockings soon followed.
◦ 1979‘Mr. Ed’, the talking horse, died. This was not the horse who actually starred on the TV show, but another horse who did publicity work as Mr. Ed. The original Mr. Ed (Bamboo Harvester) died in 1970.
◦ 2006 Chicago’s oldest restaurant, the 107 year old Berghoff Restaurant closed today.
◦ 2009 Reduced demand for butter & cheese and falling milk prices are forcing dairy farmers in the U.S. to sell hundreds of thousands of dairy cows to be slaughtered for meat. Estimates are that more than 15% of the 9.3 million dairy cows may be sold for meat.

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