Posts from the “Food Holidays” Category

Here are today’s five food facts about Taffy:

Salt water taffy was “invented” in Atlantic City in 1883.

Modern technology allows confectioners to produce 1,000 pieces of taffy a minute.

In one hour enough pieces of taffy are made to cover one third of the length of Atlantic City (about 1.3 miles).

The three most popular taffy flavors sold by Sweet Candy Company are peppermint, cinnamon and chocolate.
America celebrates National Taffy Day May 23rd.

Today’s Food History

1774 Residents of Chestertown, Maryland react to news of the Boston Tea Party by staging a similar protest, dumping a shipment of tea into the Chester River.
1868 R.I.P. Kit Carson, American frontiersman. His last words were supposedly “Wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili.”
1922 Thomas Edison patented a method for making metal foils.
1960 R.I.P. Georges Claude. A French engineer, he invented the neon light, commonly used for signs.
1968‘Yummy, Yummy, Yummy’ by the Ohio Express is #1 on the charts.

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Food in May, May Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: food holidays, may food holidays, National Food Holiday, national taffy day, taffy

May 22nd is National Vanilla Pudding Day!

Here are today’s five food facts about Pudding:

The Fortress hotel in Galle, Sri Lanka, is charging $14,500 a serving of the world’s most expensive pudding, which is called “The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence”.
Hasty pudding, originally a British dish, this pudding could be made on very short notice. Ingredients vary, but it was basically a sweetened porridge made from flour, tapioca or oatmeal and milk. The term originated in the late 16th century.

In Colonial America cornmeal was cheaper and more readily available, so here, Hasty Pudding was a cornmeal mush (cornmeal added to boiling water and cooked) with molasses, honey, brown sugar or maple syrup and milk.
There are both savory and dessert versions of this dish.
Meat pudding would be a savory example of a pudding dish.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1859 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born. Creator of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes would go for days without food while working on a case.
1892 Dr. Washington Sheffeld invented the collapsible metal toothpaste tube.
1894 African American inventor S. Newson patented an “oil heater or cooker.”
1931 Canned rattlesnake goes on sale. Packed by George K. End of Arcadia, Florida. Not quite as big a hit as Spam.
1934 R.I.P.David Wesson. An American chemist who developed a method to make cotton seed oil edible. Cotton seed oil has almost no taste, so it allows the flavors of other foods to come through. It is used in the manufacture of margarine, salad dressings, in commercially fried foods, and of course, Wesson Oil.
1946 The Culinary Institute of America is founded.

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Food in May, May Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: Food Holiday, may food holiday, National Food Holiday, national vanilla pudding day, vanilla pudding

May 21st is National Strawberries & Cream Day!

Here are today’s five food finds about Strawberries:

Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.

The ancient Romans believed that strawberries alleviated symptoms of melancholy, fainting, all inflammations, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, bad breath, attacks of gout, and diseases of the blood, liver and spleen.

Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.

Over 53 percent of seven to nine-year-olds picked strawberries as their favorite fruit.

Strawberries Dessert Red Fruits Gluttony Fruit

In a test, subjects who ate nitrate rich foods like strawberries, before exercising burned 100 more calories than those who did not.

Cold Strawberries Ice Sweet Dish Strawberry Cream

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1923 Delmonico’s Restaurant closed its doors, a victim of Prohibition. (Some sources list October 4, 1918).

1987 Archie Fairley Carr died. An American biologist and authority on turtles. His extensive studies and conservation efforts helped to increase turtle populations around the world.

2009 After months of numerous mechanical failures, a new recycling system was activated on the international space station. The new system recycles astronauts urine and sweat into drinking water.

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Food in May, May Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: Food Holiday, may food holiday, National Food Holiday, national strawberries and cream day, strawberries and cream

May 20th is National Quiche Lorraine Day!

Happy National Quiche Lorraine!

Here are today’s five food finds about Quiche:

Quiche is a savoury , custard pie usually filled with cheese, meat, seafood or vegetables.
The word “quiche” come from French, which originally borrowed the word from Lorraine Franconian “Küeche” (meaning “cake”).

mini_mushroom_and_cheddar_quiches2c_2007

Quiche originated in Germany, although today it is known as a classic French dish.

The original recipe for quiche lorraine was an open pie with a filling of custard with smoked bacon or lardons and cheese was not added till later .
The world largest quiche was made by Chef Alain Marcotullio. It based for over 18 hours and fed more than 125 people.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1506 Christopher Columbus, explorer, died.

1799 Honore de Balzac Born. French author. Balzac would lock himself away during creative bursts, drinking coffee and eating only fruit and eggs. When he finally took a break, he was known to consume huge quantities of food. One report recalls that at the Véry restaurant he ate “a hundred Ostend oysters, twelve cutlets of salt-meadow mutton, a duck with turnips, two partridges and a Normandy sole,” not to mention the desserts, fruit and liqueurs he also consumed.

1810 On this day Dolly Madison, wife of president James Madison, supposedly served the first ice cream at the White House, for a reception.

1862 President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law. It opened millions of acres Western land to settlers.

1874 Jeans with copper rivets are patented by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis.

1875 The International Bureau of Weights and Measures was created.

1884 L. Blue patented a hand corn sheller.

1892 George Sampson received a patent for a clothes dryer.

1913 William Hewlett was born. Founder with David Packard of Hewlett Packard Company. Before they became famous for computers and printers etc., some of their early inventions were an automatic urinal flusher and a weight loss shock machine!

1961 The record Jewfish weighed 680 pounds and was caught in Fernandina Beach, Florida.

1993 The last episode of ‘Cheers’ aired on TV.

2005 Governor Jeb Bush signed a bill making the orange the official State Fruit of Florida. The orange blossom and orange juice have been previously declared the official state flower and official state beverage.

2009Hot Dog Wars: Sara Lee (Ball Park Franks) sued Kraft Foods (Oscar Mayer Jumbo Beef Franks) over claims that Oscar Mayer franks are better than Ball Park Franks.

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Food in May, May Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: food holidays, may food holidays, National Food Holiday, National Quiche Day, quiche

May 19th National Devil’s Food Cake Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Posted on May 19, 2018

National Devil’s Food Cake Day 🍫 + 🍰 = 😈😂

Here are today’s five food finds about Devil’s Food Cake:

Devil’s food cake is considered a counterpart to the white or yellow angel food cake.
Devil’s food cake is generally more moist and airy than other chocolate cakes, and often uses cocoa as opposed to chocolate for the flavor as well as coffee.

Devil’s food cake was introduced in the United States in the early 20th century with the recipe in print as early as 1905.

A similar cake, the red velvet cake, is closely linked to a devil’s food cake, and in some turn of the century cookbooks the two names may have been interchangeable.
Devil’s food cake incorporates butter (or a substitute), egg whites, flour (while some chocolate cakes are flourless) and less egg than other chocolate cakes.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1834 Catharine Furbish was born. An American botanist, she spent almost 40 years traveling and painting watercolors of the flora of the state of Maine.

1910 The Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet and nothing happened. There had been dire predictions that everyone would die, and many hucksters sold ‘comet pills’ to counter the effects of the ‘comet gas.’

1962 Marilyn Monroe sings ‘Happy Birthday’ at a birthday salute to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden.

2006 Nicole Belinda Franzen Reese was chosen as the 59th ‘Alice in Dairyland’ by the Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. She will be the spokesperson for the states agriculture industry.

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Food in May, May Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: devil's food cake, food holidays, may food holidays, national devil's food cake day, National Food Holiday

May 18th is National Cheese Souffle Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Posted on May 18, 2018

Happy National Cheese Soufflé Day!

Here are today’s five food finds about Soufflé:

A souffle is essentially a simple white sauce enriched with egg yolk. Stiff egg whites are folded right into the mixture. At this point, you can add whatever flavor you like: cheese, vegetables, chocolate or fruit.

The secret to a great souffle is to beat the egg whites into stiff white peak consistency and to fold them carefully into the sauce to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.

Savory souffles are often too light for a main course, but the addition of chicken and spinach here bolsters this into a substantial main course. When you break into it with your fork, the seductive aroma of cheese, chicken and spinach pours out. It’s elegant, airy and fluffy.

The secret to success is making sure your timing is just right. So plan ahead carefully; figure out what you will be serving first — such as a salad or soup — and time the souffle to go into the oven as you sit down for your first course.

You can wait for a souffle, but a souffle waits for no one. You don’t want to serve a deflated souffle.

640px-classic_cheese_soufflc3a9s_in_individual_ramekins_4of4_28873516500929

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1808 Elijah Craig died. A Baptist minister in Kentucky, he is an important figure in the invention of Bourbon Whiskey. He ran a paper mill and started a distillery in 1789. Legend credits him with being the first to use new charred oak barrels to age corn whiskey, which is a key step in making bourbon.

1935 Allan Burns was born. Screenwriter and producer, co-creator of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda. He also created the character Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch for Quaker Oats ‘Cap’n Crunch’ breakfast cereal.

1955 Chow Yun-Fat was born. Internationally famous Hong Kong actor.

1995 Elisha Cook Jr. died. A well known character actor in films and TV. I remember him mainly in his role as Wilmer, in the ‘Maltese Falcon’.

2001 Hong Kong ordered more than 1 million chickens and other poultry killed to halt the spread of another bird flu epidemic.

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Food in May, May Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: cheese souffle, Food Holiday, may food holiday, national cheese souffle day, National Food Holiday

May 17th is National Cherry Cobbler Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

Posted on May 17, 2018

National Cherry Cobbler Day 🍒 + 🥧 = 💃🏼🕺🏼

Five Food Finds about Cobbler

A cobbler is a deep dish (casserole or soufflé dish) fruit pie (peach is most common) with only a top biscuit dough crust.
Fruit cobblers can be made with almost any fruit, singly or in combination.
The cobbler takes its name from the biscuit dough crust on top – it is rough looking or ‘cobbled.’ It originated in the U.S. sometime in the early to mid 19th century.
A Cobbler is also a drink, which probably predates the fruit cobbler pie.
A cobbler usually consisted of whiskey or rum with fruit juice and/or sugar, garnished with mint and/or citrus.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1733 England passes the Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the colonies from anyplace other than Britain and its possessions.

1803 John Hawkins & Richard French patent a Reaping Machine.

1838 Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord died. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, known simply as Talleyrand, French statesman, diplomat and grand gourmet, called the ‘first fork of France.’ He served at the top levels of French governments for almost 50 years. During this time his chefs included Bouchee, Careme, and Avice. Many culinary preparations have been created or named for him.

1886 John Deere died. Inventor and manufacturer, he developed the first steel plow in the 1830s, and founded John Deere & Company in 1868.

1967 Tennessee repealed its 1925 law making it illegal to teach evolution in public schools.

1985 The largest salmon, a Chinook salmon, caught with rod and reel weighed over 97 pounds and was caught in Alaska.

1986‘Chicken Song’ by Spitting Image hit #1 in UK.

1992 Lawrence Welk, champagne music-maker, died.

Categories: Food Holidays, May Food Holidays

Tagged: cherry cobbler, facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, life, national cherry cobbler day, national food holidays, todays food history

Posts from the “Food Holidays” Category

May 23rd is National Taffy Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Posted on May 23, 2018

Here are today’s five food facts about Taffy:

Today’s Food History

May 22nd is National Vanilla Pudding Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Posted on May 22, 2018

Here are today’s five food facts about Pudding:

Today’s Food History

May 21st is National Strawberries & Cream Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Posted on May 21, 2018

Here are today’s five food finds about Strawberries:

Today’s Food History

May 20th is National Quiche Lorraine Day!