Posts tagged “african american inventor”

National Kitchen Klutzes of America Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

Kitchen Klutzes of America Day

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1789 Mrs. Alexander Hamilton served a new dessert treat for General George Washington. The highlight of the dinner party was ice cream! And all this time you thought Dolley Madison was responsible.
1817 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.
1893 African American inventor T.W. Stewart received a patent for a mop.
2010 Jimmy Dean died at age 81. A country music singer he also founded Jimmy Dean Meat Co. in 1969, well known for its Jimmy Dean Sausage brand.

Categories: Food Holidays, June Food Holidays

Tagged: african american inventor, country music singer, dolley madison, facts, food, foodimentary, fun, jimmy dean sausage, kitchen klutz, kitchen klutzes of america day, life, national kitchen klutzes of america day, today's food history, todays food history

National Eggs Benedict Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

National Eggs Benedict Day

Five Food Finds about Eggs Benedict

There are conflicting accounts as to the origin of Eggs Benedict. Here are some.

In an interview recorded in the “Talk of the Town” column of The New Yorker in 1942, the year before his death,[1] Lemuel Benedict, a retired Wall Street stock broker, claimed that he had wandered into the Waldorf Hotel in 1894 and, hoping to find a cure for his morning hangover, ordered “buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of hollandaise.” Oscar Tschirky, the famed maître d’hôtel, was so impressed with the dish that he put it on the breakfast and luncheon menus but substituted ham for the bacon and a toasted English muffin for the toast.

Craig Claiborne, in September 1967, wrote a column in The New York Times Magazine about a letter he had received from Edward P. Montgomery, an American then residing in France. In it, Montgomery related that the dish was created by Commodore E. C. Benedict, a banker and yachtsman, who died in 1920 at the age of 86. Montgomery also included a recipe for eggs Benedict, stating that the recipe had been given to him by his mother, who had received it from her brother, who was a friend of the Commodore.

Mr. and Mrs. Benedict, when they lived in New York around the turn of the century, dined every Saturday at Delmonico’s. One day Mrs. Benedict said to the maitre d’hotel, “Haven’t you anything new or different to suggest?” On his reply that he would like to hear something from her, she suggested poached eggs on toasted English muffins with a thin slice of ham, hollandaise sauce and a truffle on top.

Eggs Provençal replaces the Hollandaise sauce with Béarnaise Sauce.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1845 Hatch’s sowing machine for wheat, oats and other grasses was first demonstrated.

1872 Robert Chesebrough of New York patented a method for making Vaseline.

1895 African American inventor Joseph Lee patented a machine for “bread crumbing.” It was intended for use by restaurants to crumb large quantities of bread scraps.

1907 The automatic washer & dryer are introduced.

1936 Sylvan Goldman ran a successful chain of grocery stores, where customers could carry hand baskets while they shopped. In 1936, when he was a major owner of the Piggly-Wiggly supermarket chain, he invented the shopping cart. He got the idea from a wooden folding chair. He designed the cart by putting a basket on the seat, another below and wheels on the legs. He and a mechanic, Fred Young put one together with a metal frame, and wire baskets. The frames could be folded up and the baskets stacked, which took up less storage room. Customers were reluctant to use this new contraption, so Goldman hired fake shoppers to wheel the carts around pretending to shop so people could see how useful the cart could be!
They became a hit, and he formed a new company to manufacture the carts. It is hard to imagine a supermarket or discount store without shopping carts today.

1970 At the 43rd National Spelling Bee, Libby Childress wins spelling the word ‘croissant.’

1974 The Cleveland Indians were playing bad, and fewer and fewer fans came to watch them play. They had a ‘Ten Cent Beer Night’ to bring out the fans. Only 22,000 fans turned out in a stadium that could seat 60,000, but they made up for the low numbers by becoming so drunk and unruly, going on the field and disrupting the game, that the Indians had to forfeit the game to the Texas Rangers.

1980 Earle McAusland, publisher/editor of Gourmet magazine died at age 89.

2007 Vincent Sardi Jr. died. He operated the famous Broadway restaurant, ‘Sardi’s’ for 50 years. He retired in 1997.

Categories: Food Holidays, June Food Holidays

Tagged: african american inventor, craig claiborne, eggs benedict, facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, life, luncheon menus, maitre d hotel, national food holidays, robert chesebrough, todays food history, wall street stock

National Vanilla Pudding Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

National Vanilla Pudding Day

Five Food Finds 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.