Foodimentary - National Food Holidays
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Posts from the “Food in May” Category

May 31st is National Macaroon Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy Macaroon Day!

Here are today’s five food facts about Macaroons:

 

  •  The original macaroon was a “small sweet cake consisting largely of ground almonds” similar to Italian amaretti.

 

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  • The English word macaroon and French macaron come from the Italian maccarone or maccherone.

 

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  • Most recipes call for egg whites (usually whipped to stiff peaks), with ground or powdered seeds, generally almonds or nuts.

 

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  • The Scottish macaroon is a sweet confection with a thick velvety centre covered in chocolate and topped with roasted coconut.

 

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  • In North America, the coconut macaroon is the better known variety.
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Today’s Food History

  • 1744 Richard Lovell Edgeworth died. An Anglo-Irish inventor, among his many inventions and innovations were a turnip cutter, various improvements in agricultural machines, and a velocipede.
  • 1790 The first U.S. copyright law was signed by George Washington.
  • 1836 The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel opened in New York City.
  • 1884 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg applied for a patent for ‘flaked cereal’ (corn flakes). It was his brother Will Keith Kellogg who became rich & famous by marketing the new cereal commercially. 1892 Lea & Perrins label was trademarked.
  • 1974 Adelle Davis died.  Nutritionist, and author of ‘Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit.’ She promoted many theories that have been labeled as unfounded and dangerous by the medical community.
  • 1980 Cook’s magazine begins publication. Christopher Kimball is the publisher.
  • 1983 Jack Dempsey died. Regarded as one of the greatest boxers, he held the world heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926. He then became a successful restaurateur in New York City.

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

Tagged: Food Holiday, macaroon, may food holiday, National Food Holiday, national macaroon day

May 30th is National Mint Julep Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy National Mint Julep Day!🥃🌱

Here are today’s five facts about Mint Juleps: 

  • A mint julep is traditionally made with four ingredients: mint leaf, bourbon, sugar, and water.

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  • Traditionally, spearmint is the mint of choice used in Southern states, and in Kentucky in particular.
  • In the use of sugar and mint, it is similar to the mojito.

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  • Proper preparation of the cocktail is commonly debated, as methods may vary considerably from one bartender to another.

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  • The mint julep may be considered as one of a loosely associated family of drinks called “smashes” (the brandy smash is another example, as well as the mojito), in which fresh mint and other ingredients are muddled or crushed in preparation for flavoring the finished drink.

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Today’s Food History

  • 1783 The first daily American newspaper was published in Philadelphia, ‘The Pennsylvania Evening Post’
  • 1848 William Young of Baltimore, Maryland received the first U.S. patent for an ice cream freezer.
  • 1899 George Cook patented an automatic fishing device.
  • 1908 Mel Blanc (Melvin Jerome Blanc) was born. Blanc was a voice actor for Warner Bros. (and other) cartoon characters. Some of the characters he ‘voiced’ include Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Sylvester the Cat.
  • 1994 Baron Marcel Bich died. French inventor of the Bic Pen in 1949. (Pens are needed to write recipes and menus).

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

Tagged: food holidays, may food holiday, mint julep, National Food Holiday, national mint julep day

May 28th is National Brisket Day #MemorialDay

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy National Brisket Day!

Here are today’s five food finds about Brisket:

 

  • Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal.

 

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  • The beef brisket is one of the eight beef primal cuts.

 

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  • The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectorals.

 

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  • As cattle do not have collar bones, these muscles support about 60% of the body weight of standing/moving cattle.

 

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  • This requires a significant amount of connective tissue, so the resulting meat must be cooked correctly to tenderize the connective tissue.
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Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1892 The Sierra Club is formed in San Francisco for nature conservation.

1897 Jell-O was introduced.

1910 T-Bone Walker, blues guitarist, was born in Linden, Texas.

1944 Gladys Knight was born. (Gladys Knight & the Pips) A ‘Pip’ is the small seed of a fruit, like those in an apple.

1999 After 22 years of controversial restoration, Leonardo de Vinci’s masterpiece ‘The Last Supper’ is returned to public display.

2003 The first cloned horse was born in a natural delivery. Cloned horses are currently banned from racing.

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

Tagged: brisket, food holidays, may food holiday, national brisket day, National Food Holiday

May 27th is National Grape Popsicle Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy National Gras Popsicle Day!

Here are five facts about Popsicles:

  • Popsicles were originally marketed as “a frozen drink on a stick”.
  • Popsicles originally came in seven flavors thought to be root beer, cherry, lemon, orange, banana, grape, and watermelon, but there is no official record of Epperson’s original flavors.
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  • The most popular Popsicle flavor is Cherry.
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  • More than two billion Popsicles are sold each year.
  • The dual Popsicle featuring two sticks and one Popsicle that could be split in half was introduced during the Great Depression as a way to split the treat across two children for the same cost.
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Today’s Food History

  • 1901 Conrad Arnold Elvehjem Born. American biochemist who identified nicotinic acid as a vitamin (one of the B vitamins), and that a deficiency on nicotinic acid resulted in the disease pellagra.
  • 1907 Rachel Louise Carson was born; author of ‘Silent Spring.’ An American biologist, the book was concerned with the dangers of environmental pollution, especially DDT
  • 1930 Richard G. Drew of St. Paul, Minnesota patented transparent cellophane adhesive tape. He worked out a deal with 3M to market this ‘Scotch’ tape. What did we ever do without it?
  • 1933 The first automatic soda fountain dispenser is introduced by Coca-Cola.
  • 1975 British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was born. Known as the ‘Naked Chef,’ on his BBC TV cooking shows (the name refers to simplicity, not nudity). He has had several TV shows, ‘The Naked Chef,’ ‘Return of the Naked Chef,’ ‘Happy Days with the Naked Chef,’ ‘Jamie’s Kitchen,’ ‘Return to Jamie’s Kitchen,’ and ‘Oliver’s Twist.’ He has also written several cookbooks.

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

Tagged: Food Holiday, Grape Popsicle, may food holiday, National Food Holiday, national grape popsicle day

May 26th National Blueberry Cheesecake Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food facts about Cheesecake:

 

  • Cheesecake is a dessert formed of a topping made with soft, fresh cheese upon a base made from biscuit, pastry or sponge. The topping is frequently sweetened with sugar and flavored or topped with a puree or compote of fruit.
  • Savory cheesecakes also exist, served sometimes as hors d’oeuvre or with accompanying salads. Despite their name, cheesecakes are technically tarts; the word ‘cake’ was formerly applied to a much broader category of foods than it is today.

 

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  • Cato the Elder’s De Agri Cultura includes recipes for two cakes for religious uses: libum and placenta. Of the two placenta is most like modern cheesecakes having a crust that is separately prepared and baked.

 

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  • Cheesecakes can be broadly categorised into two basic types – baked and unbaked – and each comes in a variety of styles determined by region.
  • Japanese-style cheesecake relies upon the emulsification of cornstarch and eggs to make a smooth flan-like texture and almost plasticine appearance.
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Today’s Food History

 

  • 1923 James Arness was born. Best known as Marshal Matt Dillon on the TV series ‘Gunsmoke,’ he also played the creature in the 1951 movie ‘The Thing from Another World.’ The creature was a vegetable based alien life form, a “super intellectual carrot.”
  • 1955 Morimoto Masaharu was born in Hiroshima, Japan. Masaharu is a well known Japanese Chef, and was the last Japanese Iron Chef on the TV show, Iron Chef (late 1990s).  He now has his own restaurant, Morimoto in Philadelphia.
  • 1971 Don Maclean recorded ‘American Pie’.
  • 1979‘Reunited’ by Peaches & Herb is #1 on the charts
  • 1999 R.I.P.  Waldo Lonsbury Semon. Semon was an American Inventor who is credited with the invention of Vinyl. Vinyl is the 2nd most used plastic in the world.  Semon held over 100 patents.

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

Tagged: blueberry cheesecake, Food Holiday, may food holiday, national blueberry cheesecake day, National Food Holiday

May 25th is National Wine Day! #NationalWineDay

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food facts about Wine: 

 

  • The longest recorded champagne cork flight was 177 feet and 9 inches, four feet from level ground at Woodbury Vineyards in New York State.

 

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  • Thomas Jefferson helped stock the wine cellars of the first five U.S. presidents and was very partial to fine Bordeaux and Madeira.

 

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  • Chilling tones down the sweetness of wine. If a red wine becomes too warm, it may lose some of its fruity flavor.

 

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  • The Irish believe that fairies are extremely fond of good wine.

 

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  • Foot treading of grapes is still used in producing a small quantity of the best port wines.
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Today’s Food History

 

  • 1789 R.I.P. Anders Dahl. A renowned Swedish botanist, the Dahlia flower was named for him.
  • 1877 Minnesota’s $1.00 per bushel bounty on grasshopper eggs expires. The state had experienced a 4 year grasshopper (locust) plague.
  • 1882 The first frozen mutton from New Zealand arrived in Britain
  • 1973 Wrexham Asda supermarket opened in the U.K.
  • 1986 Six million Americans participate in ‘Hand Across America’ by holding hands and singing across 4,150 miles of road in support of the hungry and homeless.
  • 2007 Coca Cola created a 3,000 gallon, 15 foot high ice cream float with Vanilla Coke and ice cream, and set a new world record for the largest ice cream float.  The float was certified as drinkable by health inspectors, but it was disposed of by a garbage company.  Coke also held the previous record from 1998 with a 2,085 gallon float.

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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 wine day, wine

May 24th is National Escargot Day !

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food facts about Escargot:

 

  • Escargot – French – An edible snail, especially one prepared as an appetizer or entree.

 

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  • The French consume 40,000 metric tons of snails each year.

 

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  • Heliculture is the science of growing snails for food.

 

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  • Snails have been eaten as food since at least ancient Roman times. Apicius, the author of the oldest surviving cookbook (1st century B.C – 2 century A.D.) has a recipe for snails in his cookbook.

 

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  • Restaurants serve about 1 billion snails annually.
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Today’s Food History

 

  • 1686 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was born. He developed the Fahrenheit temperature scale, and invented the mercury thermometer.
  • 1883 R.I.P. Gabriel Gustav Valentin. This German-Swiss physiologist was the first to discover the digestive activity of pancreatic juice. (Oh Boy!).
  • 1883 The Brooklyn Bridge opened. It took 14 years to build at a cost of $18 million, and was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time.
  • 1893 The Anti-Saloon League was founded by Howard H. Russell at Oberlin, Ohio.
  • 1929 The first Marx Brothers film, ‘Cocoanuts’ premiered.
  • 1941 Robert Allen Zimmerman was born.
  • 1945 The first Food-O-Mat was installed in a Grand Union Company store in New Jersey
  • 1976 In Paris, two California wines won top honors at a blind wine tasting by the best of France’s wine experts. The French were shocked, and the wine world was changed forever.
  • 2007 R.I.P. Kelly Jo Dowd. She was one of the original ‘Hooters’ Girls’ at the first Hooters’ restaurant which opened in 1983 in Clearwater Florida.

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

Tagged: escargot, food holidays, may food holiday, national escargot day, National Food Holiday

May 23rd is National Taffy Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food facts about Taffy: 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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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!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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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.

 

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  • 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.
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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.

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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!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food finds about Strawberries:

 

  • Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.

 

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  • 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.

 

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  • Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.

 

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

 

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

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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!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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 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”).

 

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

 

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  • 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.
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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.

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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

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 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.

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

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  • 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.

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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.

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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

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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.

 

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  • 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.

 

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  • 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.

 

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  • 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.

 

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

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

May 15th is National Chocolate Chip Day ! #NationalChocolateChipDay

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy National Chocolate Chip Day!

Here are today’s five food finds about Chocolate Chips:

 

  • Originally, chocolate chips were made of semi-sweet chocolate.

 

bowl_of_chocolate_chips

 

  • Chocolate chips were invented in 1933 when Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in the town of Whitman, Massachusetts added cut-up chunks of a semi-sweet Nestlé chocolate bar to a cookie recipe.

 

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  • The cookies were a huge success, and Wakefield reached an agreement with Nestlé to add her recipe to the chocolate bar’s packaging in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate.
  • Initially, Nestlé included a small chopping tool with the chocolate bars, but in 1939 they started selling the chocolate in chip (or “morsel”) form.

 

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  • The Nestlé brand Toll House cookies is named for the inn.

 

1280px-mixing_chocolate_chips_into_cookie_batter

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

  • 1923 Listerine was registered as a trademark.
  • 1930 Mrs. Ellen Church, a registered nurse, became the world’s first airline stewardess (flight attendant). The 11 passengers were flying on a United Airlines tri-motor Boeing 80A from San Francisco to Cheyenne, Wyoming. The meal was chicken, fruit salad and rolls.
  • 1940 Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the U.S. in Wilmington, Delaware.
  • 1989 Hershey’s reduces the size of the Hershey bar to 1.55 ounces. The price remains 40 cents.
  • 1991 The famous Paris cooking school, L’Ecole de Cordon Bleu, opens a branch in Tokyo, Japan.
  • 2007 Karen Hess, culinary historian, died. Some of her books were ‘The Taste of America‘ (1977) and ‘Carolina Rice Kitchen: The African Connection‘ (1992). She also annotated Mary Randolph’s ‘Virginia Housewife‘ (1983).

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Tagged: chocolate chips, Food Holiday, may food holiday, national chocolate chip day, National Food Holiday

May 13th is National Apple Pie Day!🍎+🥧=😋

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food finds about Apple Pie:

  • The first printed reference to apple pie was in 1589 by Robert Greene in ‘Arcadia’: “Thy breath is like the steame of apple-pyes.”

apple_pie

  • Tradition has it that Yale College served apple pie at every supper for more than 100 years

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  • There is an old saying: ‘Apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze.’

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  • Americas favorite dessert, so much so that some things are said to be as American as apple pie.

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  • McDonald’s added an apple pie dessert to its menu in 1968.

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Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1637 I am not totally confident with the month and day, but supposedly, Cardinal Richelieu ‘created’ the table knife when he had the points rounded on all knives to be used at his table. Presumably so no one could stab him.

1884 Cyrus Hall McCormick died. He is generally credited with the development of the mechanical reaper

1958 Velcro was trademarked.

1993 The Red Hot Chili Peppers play on the Simpsons TV show.

2008 Robert Mondavi died at age 94. A leading Napa Valley vintner who helped establish California wines among the best in the world.

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Who’s in? May 11th is National “Eat What You Want” Day !🍌🥦🥑🥓🍔🌮🍕🍨🎂

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy National “Eat What You Want” Day !

According to Forbes, the hot food trends are:

1. Vegetarian Comfort Food
2. Artisan Butcher Shops with Restuarants
3. Breakfast
4. No more kale!
5. Food Bowls
pigout

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1838 Thomas Andrew Knight died. British horticulturist and botanist who experimented with geotropism, phototropism and heliotropism.

1886 W. Marshall patented a ‘grain binder.’

1934 The Dust Bowl.  One of the worst dust storms ever to hit the Great Plains occurred. It lasted 2 days and the area lost massive amounts of top soil.

1946 The first CARE packages for survivors of WW II in Europe arrive at Le Havre, France. (Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe).

1947 B.F. Goodrich announced the development of the tubeless tire.

2002 Joseph Bonanno, a former Mafia boss known as ‘Joe Bananas,’ died in Tucson, Arizona at age 97.

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Yum! May 10th National Liver and Onions Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy National Liver & Onions Day!

Here are today’s five food finds about Liver and Onions:

 

  •  Liver and onions is a favorite in the UK and in Germany, where it is usually eaten along with boiled or mashed potatoes.
  •  Lamb’s liver is the usual choice in the UK and is often accompanied by fried bacon.

 

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  • In the French traditional recipe the liver is fried with butter and lard.
  • In Catalan cuisine olive oil is used, instead of butter, and fried garlic is added to the mixture.

 

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  • In the USA, liver and onions as a dish once enjoyed widespread popularity and could usually be found at family diners and American home-style restaurants. This meal is currently more common to the cuisines of the southern and upper mid-western style foods.

 

liver_with_onions_from_poznan

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1566 Leonhard Fuchs died. He was a German botanist who compiled the first modern, organized listing of plants and botanical terms, ‘Historia Stirpium’ in 1542. The plant and the color fuchsia were named for him.

1818 Paul Revere died. A silversmith and American Revolutionary folk hero, he also made surgical instruments and false teeth.

1850 Sir Thomas Johnston Lipton, grocer and tea merchant, was born.

1898 The first vending machine law was passed in Omaha, Nebraska.

1920 John Wesley Hyatt died. He developed the process for making celluloid, the first synthetic plastic. He also invented a water purifying system and a sugar cane mill. 2010 A 10 year-old 3rd grade student in Texas was given 1 week’s detention for being in possession of a candy bar at lunch time. The candy bar was also confiscated.

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May 9th is National Shrimp Day !🍤🍤

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food finds about Shrimp:

  • The pistol shrimp can deliver an explosive attack hotter than the surface of the sun and loud enough to rupture a human ear drum.

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  • Every shrimp is actually born male, and some develop into females.

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  • Some shrimp are actually capable of glowing in the dark.

de-camaron

  • Shrimp can vary in size from 1/2 inch to 12 inches.

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  • In some areas, shrimp served with the head still attached is considered a delicacy.

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Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1785 The beer-pump handle was patented by Joseph Bramah.

1845 Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval was born. A Swedish scientist and inventor. Among his inventions was the centrifugal cream separator and a vacuum milking machine.

1914 C. W. Post (Charles William) died. He founded the Postum Cereal Co. in 1895 (renamed General Foods Corp. in 1922) to manufacture Postum cereal beverage; 1897 Grape Nuts, 1904 Post Toasties (originally called Elijah’s Mana).

1992 The record brown trout weighed over 40 pounds and was caught in Arkansas.

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Tagged: food holidays, may food holiday, National Food Holiday, national shrimp day, shrimp

May 8th is National Coconut Cream Pie Day!🥥

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food finds about Coconuts:

  • The coconut is not a nut.  In fact, it isn’t a fruit either.  It is a seed!

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  • Coconut oils accelerate the metabolism.  Of course, if you put them in pie you may not notice the effect.

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  • The sailors aboard Vasco de Gama’s ships gave the coconut its name.  They called it “Coco”, named after a grimacing face or hobgoblin.

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  • The water from the coconut has traditionally been used when commercial IV solutions of plasma have not been available.

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  • Coconut oils also contain four growth hormones, called cytokinins, and three sets of chromosomes – or triploids – that help the development of many organisms.

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Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1842 Emil Christian Hansen was born. He was a Danish botanist who developed new methods to culture yeast. He revolutionized the beer industry, and proved that there are different species of yeast. He refused to patent the method, but instead made it available for free to other brewers.

1855 John Gates was born. Gates was an inventor, promoter and barbed wire manufacturer.

1886 Coca Cola is first sold to the public at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia.

1968 Laurence M. Klauber died. Klauber was an American herpetologist and inventor who was a rattlesnake expert. If you want to know anything or everything about rattlesnakes, see his book “Rattlesnakes: Their Habits, Life Histories and Influence on Mankind.”

 

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Tagged: coconut cream pie, food holidays, may food holidays, national coconut cream pie day, National Food Holiday

May 7th is National Lamb Day!🐑

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy National Lamb Day!

Here are today’s five food facts about Lamb:

  • Lamb, mutton, and hogget (UK, New Zealand and Australia) are the meat of domestic sheep.  The meat of a sheep in its first year is lamb; that of a juvenile sheep older than 1 year is hogget; and the meat of an adult sheep is mutton.

raw_lamb_cutlets_with_shredded_ginger_and_rosemary

  • On average, a three ounce serving of lamb has only 175 calories and meets the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) definition for lean. According to FDA guidelines, lean meat has less than 10 grams of fat, less than 4.5 grams of saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol per 100 grams or 3.5 ounces.

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  • The meat of a lamb is taken from the animal between one month and one year old, with a carcase (carcass in American English) weight of between 5.5 and 30 kilograms (12 and 65 lbs).
  • This meat generally is more tender than that from older sheep and appears more often on tables in some Western countries.
  • Lamb should be stored in the refrigerator or freezer immediately after purchasing. Refrigerate fresh lamb at 40 degrees or below.

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Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1660 Isaack B. Fubine of The Hague received a patent for macaroni.
(This fact is reported on many sites on the internet. No one has any further information listed, and I am in doubt as to its accuracy).

1873 Salmon Portland Chase died. He was Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln, and later Chief Justice.

1947 The ‘Kraft Television Theater’ premiered on NBC TV

1953 The world record swordfish was caught in Chile: 1,182 pounds.

1987 Shelly Long, who played Diane Chambers, makes her final appearance as a regular on ‘Cheers.’

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Tagged: food holidays, lamb, may food holidays, National Food Holiday, National Lamb Day

May 6th is National Crepe Suzette Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy National Suzette Day!

Here are today’s five food finds about Crepe Suzette:

 

  • The most common way to make Crêpe Suzette is to pour liqueur (usually Grand Marnier) over a freshly-cooked crêpe with sugar and light it.
  • This will make the alcohol in the liqueur evaporate, resulting in a fairly thick, caramelised sauce. In a restaurant, a Crêpe Suzette is often prepared in a chafing dish in full view of the guests.

 

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  • The origin of the dish and its name is somewhat disputed. One claim is that the dish was created out of a mistake made by a fourteen year-old assistant waiter Henri Charpentier in 1895 at the Maitre at Monte Carlo’s Café de Paris. He was preparing a dessert for the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, whose guests included a beautiful French girl named Suzette.

 

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  • Different sources (like the Larousse Gastronomique) however doubt that Charpentier was serving the prince instead of the head waiter because he would have been too young.
  • The other claim states Crêpes Suzette was named in honor of French actress Suzanne Reichenberg (1853–1924), who worked professionally under the name Suzette.

 

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Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1806 Chapin Aaron Harris was born. He was cofounder of the first dental school in the world, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery.

1833 John Deere developed the first steel plow.

1851 John Gorrie patented an ice making machine, the first U.S. patent for a mechanical refrigerator.

1862 Henry David Thoreau Died. American author, philosopher, and naturalist. Author of ‘Walden; or, Life in the Woods.’

1898 Daniel Gerber of baby food fame was born.

1905 Toots Shor, restaurateur was born.

1940 John Steinbeck receives the Pulitzer Prize for his novel ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’

1959 Icelandic gunboats fired on British trawlers during their ‘Cod War’ over fishing rights

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Tagged: crepe suzette, food holidays, may food holidays, National Crepe Suzette Day, National Food Holiday

Olé! May 5th is National Enchilada Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy National Enchilada Day!

Here are today’s five interesting food finds about Enchiladas:

  • The enchilada is one of the dishes mentioned in Mexico’s first cookbook in 1831.

 

800px-enchilada_rice_beans

 

  • Enchilada is the past participle of Spanish enchilar, “to add chile pepper to”, literally to “season (or decorate) with chile.”
  • Enchiladas originated in Mexico, where the practice of rolling tortillas around other food dates back at least to Mayan times.

 

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  • Writing at the time of the Spanish conquistadors, Bernal Díaz del Castillo documented a feast enjoyed by Europeans hosted by Hernán Cortés in Coyoacán, which included foods served in corn tortillas.
  • In the 19th century, as Mexican cuisine was being memorialized, enchiladas were mentioned in the first Mexican cookbook, El cocinero mexicano (“The Mexican Chef”), published in 1831, and in Mariano Galvan Rivera’s Diccionario de Cocina, published in 1845.

 

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Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1865 Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Jane Cochran) was born. In 1889 Bly successfully completed an attempt to beat the record of Jules Verne’s fictional Phileas Fogg to go ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’. Bly was a U.S. newspaper reporter and completed the journey in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds.

1903 James Beard, culinary expert and cookbook author was born. Quote: “The kitchen, reasonably enough, was the scene of my first gastronomic adventure. I was on all fours. I crawled into the vegetable bin, settled on a giant onion and ate it, skin and all. It must have marked me for life, for I have never ceased to love the hearty flavor of raw onions”.

1925 John T. Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in a Tennessee public school.

1926 Ann B. Davis was born. She played the role of Alice the housekeeper and cook on the TV show ‘The Brady Bunch’ (1969-1974).

1936 A patent was granted for the first bottle with a screw cap to Edward Ravenscroft of Glencoe, Illinois.

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Tagged: enchilada, food holidays, may food holiday, National Enchilada Day, National Food Holiday

Who’s in? May 3rd is National Chocolate Custard Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Happy National Chocolate Custard Day!

Here are today’s five food finds about Chocolate Custard:

 

  • Due to the fact that it is a very fine organic powder, custard powder is EXPLOSIVE!
  • Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk.

 

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  • Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce (crème anglaise), to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs.
  • The most common custards are used as desserts or dessert sauces and typically include sugar and vanilla.
  • Custard bases may also be used for quiches and other savory foods.

 

chocolatecustard


Today’s Food History

on this day in…

  • 1654 A bridge in Rowley, Massachusetts began charging a toll for animals. People passed for free.
  • 1913 William Motter Inge was born. An American playwright, he was the author of ‘Picnic’ which was also filmed in 1956.
  • 1937 Francis Stephen Castelluccio was born. Better known as Frankie Valli of ‘The Four Seasons’ singing group.
  • 1939 The Andrew Sisters recorded ‘Beer Barrel Polka.’
  • 1944 Most wartime meat rationing ended in the United States.
  • 1947 Sylvester tried to have Tweety Bird for lunch for the first time in a Warner Brothers cartoon. 1959 Passing through the newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway (see April 25) the British freighter ‘Ramon de Larrinaga’ becomes the first deep draft ocean ship to enter the Duluth, Minnesota harbor.
  • 2007 Jamison Stone, 11 years old, bagged a ‘wild hog’ that weighed in at over 1050 pounds. He was hunting on a commercial huntng preserve with his father and several guides in eastern Alabama.  The animal measured 9 feet 4 inches long, nose to tail.

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Tagged: chocolate custard, food holidays, may food holidays, National Chocolate Custard Day, National Food Holiday

May 31st is National Macaroon Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food facts about Macaroons:

 

  •  The original macaroon was a “small sweet cake consisting largely of ground almonds” similar to Italian amaretti.

 

macarons-732021_1920

 

  • The English word macaroon and French macaron come from the Italian maccarone or maccherone.

 

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  • Most recipes call for egg whites (usually whipped to stiff peaks), with ground or powdered seeds, generally almonds or nuts.

 

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  • The Scottish macaroon is a sweet confection with a thick velvety centre covered in chocolate and topped with roasted coconut.

 

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  • In North America, the coconut macaroon is the better known variety.
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Today’s Food History

  • 1744 Richard Lovell Edgeworth died. An Anglo-Irish inventor, among his many inventions and innovations were a turnip cutter, various improvements in agricultural machines, and a velocipede.
  • 1790 The first U.S. copyright law was signed by George Washington.
  • 1836 The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel opened in New York City.
  • 1884 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg applied for a patent for ‘flaked cereal’ (corn flakes). It was his brother Will Keith Kellogg who became rich & famous by marketing the new cereal commercially. 1892 Lea & Perrins label was trademarked.
  • 1974 Adelle Davis died.  Nutritionist, and author of ‘Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit.’ She promoted many theories that have been labeled as unfounded and dangerous by the medical community.
  • 1980 Cook’s magazine begins publication. Christopher Kimball is the publisher.
  • 1983 Jack Dempsey died. Regarded as one of the greatest boxers, he held the world heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926. He then became a successful restaurateur in New York City.

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Tagged: Food Holiday, macaroon, may food holiday, National Food Holiday, national macaroon day

May 30th is National Mint Julep Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five facts about Mint Juleps: 

 

  • A mint julep is traditionally made with four ingredients: mint leaf, bourbon, sugar, and water.

 

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  • Traditionally, spearmint is the mint of choice used in Southern states, and in Kentucky in particular.
  • In the use of sugar and mint, it is similar to the mojito.

 

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  • Proper preparation of the cocktail is commonly debated, as methods may vary considerably from one bartender to another.

 

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  • The mint julep may be considered as one of a loosely associated family of drinks called “smashes” (the brandy smash is another example, as well as the mojito), in which fresh mint and other ingredients are muddled or crushed in preparation for flavoring the finished drink.
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Today’s Food History

  • 1783 The first daily American newspaper was published in Philadelphia, ‘The Pennsylvania Evening Post’
  • 1848 William Young of Baltimore, Maryland received the first U.S. patent for an ice cream freezer.
  • 1899 George Cook patented an automatic fishing device.
  • 1908 Mel Blanc (Melvin Jerome Blanc) was born. Blanc was a voice actor for Warner Bros. (and other) cartoon characters. Some of the characters he ‘voiced’ include Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Sylvester the Cat.
  • 1994 Baron Marcel Bich died. French inventor of the Bic Pen in 1949. (Pens are needed to write recipes and menus).

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Tagged: food holidays, may food holiday, mint julep, National Food Holiday, national mint julep day

May 29th National Biscuit Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food finds about Biscuits:

 

  • In the United Kingdom, the word “biscuit” is used to refer to what we in the United States would call a “cookie”.
  • White flour, commonly used to bake biscuits, is almost instantly metabolized into sugar.  Biscuits will quickly spike your blood-sugar level.

 

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  • Mustard is a common condiment to use on biscuits in the south, especially to accompany ham.
  • Most biscuit recipes call for a healthy dose of butter in the baking process.  Despite this, many people butter their biscuits after they are served as well.
  • The main difference between biscuits and rolls is the leavening agent.  Biscuits use baking soda.  Rolls use yeast.
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Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1630 Charles II, king of England was born. The ‘Merry Monarch,’ tea was introduced to England during his reign. On December 23, 1675, he issued a proclamation suppressing Coffee Houses. The public response was so negative that he revoked it on January 8, 1676.

1716 Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton was born. A French naturalist and pioneer in several fields including plant physiology. He also conducted agricultural experiments and introduced Merino sheep to France. First director of the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

1886 Coca-Cola, invented by pharmacist John Styth Pemberton in 1885, was advertised for the first time in the Atlanta Daily on this day. 1919 Charles Strite of Stillwater, Minnesota applied for a pop-up toaster patent.

1971 ‘Brown Sugar’ by the Rolling Stones hits number 1 on the charts.

2004 Tens of millions of pounds of almonds were recalled by one of the world’s largest almond producers, located in California due to a salmonella outbreak. At least 25 people were sickened in states from Alaska to Michigan.

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

Tagged: biscuit, Food Holiday, may food holiday, national biscuit day, National Food Holiday

May 28th is National Brisket Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food finds about Brisket:

 

  • Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal.

 

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  • The beef brisket is one of the eight beef primal cuts.

 

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  • The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectorals.

 

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  • As cattle do not have collar bones, these muscles support about 60% of the body weight of standing/moving cattle.

 

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  • This requires a significant amount of connective tissue, so the resulting meat must be cooked correctly to tenderize the connective tissue.
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Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1892 The Sierra Club is formed in San Francisco for nature conservation.

1897 Jell-O was introduced.

1910 T-Bone Walker, blues guitarist, was born in Linden, Texas.

1944 Gladys Knight was born. (Gladys Knight & the Pips) A ‘Pip’ is the small seed of a fruit, like those in an apple.

1999 After 22 years of controversial restoration, Leonardo de Vinci’s masterpiece ‘The Last Supper’ is returned to public display.

2003 The first cloned horse was born in a natural delivery. Cloned horses are currently banned from racing.

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Tagged: brisket, food holidays, may food holiday, national brisket day, National Food Holiday

May 27th is National Grape Popsicle Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food facts about Popsicles:

 

  • Popsicles were originally marketed as “a frozen drink on a stick”.
  • Popsicles originally came in seven flavors thought to be root beer, cherry, lemon, orange, banana, grape, and watermelon, but there is no official record of Epperson’s original flavors.

 

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  • The most popular Popsicle flavor is Cherry.

 

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  • More than two billion Popsicles are sold each year.
  • The dual Popsicle featuring two sticks and one Popsicle that could be split in half was introduced during the Great Depression as a way to split the treat across two children for the same cost.
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Today’s Food History

 

  • 1901 Conrad Arnold Elvehjem Born. American biochemist who identified nicotinic acid as a vitamin (one of the B vitamins), and that a deficiency on nicotinic acid resulted in the disease pellagra.
  • 1907 Rachel Louise Carson was born; author of ‘Silent Spring.’ An American biologist, the book was concerned with the dangers of environmental pollution, especially DDT
  • 1930 Richard G. Drew of St. Paul, Minnesota patented transparent cellophane adhesive tape. He worked out a deal with 3M to market this ‘Scotch’ tape. What did we ever do without it?
  • 1933 The first automatic soda fountain dispenser is introduced by Coca-Cola.
  • 1975 British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was born. Known as the ‘Naked Chef,’ on his BBC TV cooking shows (the name refers to simplicity, not nudity). He has had several TV shows, ‘The Naked Chef,’ ‘Return of the Naked Chef,’ ‘Happy Days with the Naked Chef,’ ‘Jamie’s Kitchen,’ ‘Return to Jamie’s Kitchen,’ and ‘Oliver’s Twist.’ He has also written several cookbooks.

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Tagged: Food Holiday, Grape Popsicle, may food holiday, National Food Holiday, national grape popsicle day

May 26th National Blueberry Cheesecake Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food facts about Cheesecake:

 

  • Cheesecake is a dessert formed of a topping made with soft, fresh cheese upon a base made from biscuit, pastry or sponge. The topping is frequently sweetened with sugar and flavored or topped with a puree or compote of fruit.
  • Savory cheesecakes also exist, served sometimes as hors d’oeuvre or with accompanying salads. Despite their name, cheesecakes are technically tarts; the word ‘cake’ was formerly applied to a much broader category of foods than it is today.

 

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  • Cato the Elder’s De Agri Cultura includes recipes for two cakes for religious uses: libum and placenta. Of the two placenta is most like modern cheesecakes having a crust that is separately prepared and baked.

 

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  • Cheesecakes can be broadly categorised into two basic types – baked and unbaked – and each comes in a variety of styles determined by region.
  • Japanese-style cheesecake relies upon the emulsification of cornstarch and eggs to make a smooth flan-like texture and almost plasticine appearance.
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Today’s Food History

 

  • 1923 James Arness was born. Best known as Marshal Matt Dillon on the TV series ‘Gunsmoke,’ he also played the creature in the 1951 movie ‘The Thing from Another World.’ The creature was a vegetable based alien life form, a “super intellectual carrot.”
  • 1955 Morimoto Masaharu was born in Hiroshima, Japan. Masaharu is a well known Japanese Chef, and was the last Japanese Iron Chef on the TV show, Iron Chef (late 1990s).  He now has his own restaurant, Morimoto in Philadelphia.
  • 1971 Don Maclean recorded ‘American Pie’.
  • 1979‘Reunited’ by Peaches & Herb is #1 on the charts
  • 1999 R.I.P.  Waldo Lonsbury Semon. Semon was an American Inventor who is credited with the invention of Vinyl. Vinyl is the 2nd most used plastic in the world.  Semon held over 100 patents.

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Tagged: blueberry cheesecake, Food Holiday, may food holiday, national blueberry cheesecake day, National Food Holiday

May 25th is National Wine Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food facts about Wine: 

 

  • The longest recorded champagne cork flight was 177 feet and 9 inches, four feet from level ground at Woodbury Vineyards in New York State.

 

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  • Thomas Jefferson helped stock the wine cellars of the first five U.S. presidents and was very partial to fine Bordeaux and Madeira.

 

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  • Chilling tones down the sweetness of wine. If a red wine becomes too warm, it may lose some of its fruity flavor.

 

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  • The Irish believe that fairies are extremely fond of good wine.

 

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  • Foot treading of grapes is still used in producing a small quantity of the best port wines.
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Today’s Food History

 

  • 1789 R.I.P. Anders Dahl. A renowned Swedish botanist, the Dahlia flower was named for him.
  • 1877 Minnesota’s $1.00 per bushel bounty on grasshopper eggs expires. The state had experienced a 4 year grasshopper (locust) plague.
  • 1882 The first frozen mutton from New Zealand arrived in Britain
  • 1973 Wrexham Asda supermarket opened in the U.K.
  • 1986 Six million Americans participate in ‘Hand Across America’ by holding hands and singing across 4,150 miles of road in support of the hungry and homeless.
  • 2007 Coca Cola created a 3,000 gallon, 15 foot high ice cream float with Vanilla Coke and ice cream, and set a new world record for the largest ice cream float.  The float was certified as drinkable by health inspectors, but it was disposed of by a garbage company.  Coke also held the previous record from 1998 with a 2,085 gallon float.

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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 wine day, wine

May 24th is National Escargot Day !

John-Bryan Hopkins

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Here are today’s five food facts about Escargot:

 

  • Escargot – French – An edible snail, especially one prepared as an appetizer or entree.

 

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  • The French consume 40,000 metric tons of snails each year.

 

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  • Heliculture is the science of growing snails for food.

 

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  • Snails have been eaten as food since at least ancient Roman times. Apicius, the author of the oldest surviving cookbook (1st century B.C – 2 century A.D.) has a recipe for snails in his cookbook.

 

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  • Restaurants serve about 1 billion snails annually.
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Today’s Food History

 

  • 1686 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was born. He developed the Fahrenheit temperature scale, and invented the mercury thermometer.
  • 1883 R.I.P. Gabriel Gustav Valentin. This German-Swiss physiologist was the first to discover the digestive activity of pancreatic juice. (Oh Boy!).
  • 1883 The Brooklyn Bridge opened. It took 14 years to build at a cost of $18 million, and was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time.
  • 1893 The Anti-Saloon League was founded by Howard H. Russell at Oberlin, Ohio.
  • 1929 The first Marx Brothers film, ‘Cocoanuts’ premiered.
  • 1941 Robert Allen Zimmerman was born.
  • 1945 The first Food-O-Mat was installed in a Grand Union Company store in New Jersey
  • 1976 In Paris, two California wines won top honors at a blind wine tasting by the best of France’s wine experts. The French were shocked, and the wine world was changed forever.
  • 2007 R.I.P. Kelly Jo Dowd. She was one of the original ‘Hooters’ Girls’ at the first Hooters’ restaurant which opened in 1983 in Clearwater Florida.

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Tagged: escargot, food holidays, may food holiday, national escargot day, National Food Holiday

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