April 13th is National Peach Cobbler Day!

Happy National Peach Cobbler Day!

*Created in the 1950’s to sell Canned Peaches for Spring Celebrations.

Here are today’s interesting five food facts to know about Peach Cobbler:

Peach Cobblers are an American deep-dish fruit dessert or pie with a thick crust (usually a biscuit crust) and peach filling.

Peach Cobbler day was created by the Georgia Peach Council in the 1950’s to sell canned peaches.
The rough look of the pie gives the dish its name. It looks “cobbled” together.

There are 419 calories in 1 cup of Peach Cobbler.
Peach cobbler was invented by early American settlers.

Today’s Food History

1748 Joseph Bramah was born. An English engineer, among his many inventions was a beer engine, used to deliver beer from keg to glass without artificial carbonation being added.
1796 The first elephant to be brought to the U.S. arrived from Bengal, India. It was exhibited in New York, and its diet was described as: “thirty pounds of rice besides hay and straw…. all kinds of wine and spiritous liquors….and every kind of vegetable; it will also draw a cork from a bottle in its trunk.”
1883 Alfred Packer was convicted of cannibalism in Colorado. (Actually he was convicted of murder, since cannibalism was not against the law). He was sentenced to death, but was retried in 1886 and sentenced to 40 years. He was paroled in 1901, and died in 1907.
1902 Baron Philippe de Rothschild was born. (Wine producer).
1909 Mervyn Hugh Cowie was born. Cowie was a British wildlife conservationist, founder and director of Kenya’s Royal National Parks.
1916 Funk Brothers Seed Company sold the first U.S. shipment of hybrid seed corn to Samuel Ramsay of Jacobsburg, Ohio. Todayinsci.com
1916 Edna Lewis was born, southern chef and author of ‘The Taste of Southern Cooking’ (1976).
1917 James Buchanan (‘Diamond Jim’) Brady died. An American financier and philanthropist, Diamond Jim was known for his diamond jewelry and his huge appetite.
1944 Jack Casady of the music group ‘Hot Tuna’ was born.
1976 The $2 bill is reintroduced by the U.S. Treasury.
2008 The National Meats Institute in Uruguay organized a record Largest BBQ, grilling about over 26,000 pounds of beef on a mile long bbq grill using 6 tonnes of charcoal.

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Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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April 12th is National Grilled Cheese Day!

Here are today’s five interesting food facts about Grilled Cheese:

Grilled cheese sandwiches originally showed up in America during the roaring 20’s.

It is said that grilled cheese was first served as an open-face sandwich.

A grilled cheese sandwich is often accompanied by tomato soup, a southern delicacy!

grilled_cheese_sandwich_with_tomato_soup

Grilled cheese sandwiches can be served with bacon , tomato, and various other additions. It makes the meal much more filling.

April is national grilled cheese sandwich month. Be sure to celebrate heartily!

Today’s Food History

1748 Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu was born. A French botanist whose ideas formed the foundation of a natural plant classification system.
1985 The four ‘unicorns’ of Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus were declared to be only goats with surgically implanted horns by federal inspectors. The circus was ordered to stop advertising them as unicorns
1988 The first U.S. patent on an animal life form was issued to Harvard scientists for a genetically engineered mouse.
1989 The USSR issued ration cards for sugar due to a shortage
2001 Maryland banned the farming of genetically modified fish in any waters linked to other bodies of water.

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Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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April 9th is National Chinese Almond Cookie Day!

Happy National Chinese Almond Cookie Day!

The Cookie of Good Luck.

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Chinese Almond Cookies:

In Mandarin Chinese, these are more literally called “Almond Cakes.”
The Chinese Almond Cookie is native to southern and southeast China.
There is no record of these cookies before the 1900’s.

The Chinese commonly prepared Almond milk and Almond tea.
An American variation exists using pecans.

Fun Fact:

Typical to southern and southeastern China, these almond cookies are usually enjoyed around Chinese New Year, and are given as gifts to family and friends.

In some Chinese restaurants, they are served to cleanse the palate after several courses, rather than being regarded as a dessert.

Yuan-Shan Chi declared these cookies “as Chinese as blueberry pie.”

Today’s Food History

o 1626 R.I.P. Sir Francis Bacon. An English statesman, philosopher and author of ‘Novum Organum’, a work on scientific inquiry. Some also claim he wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare. He died after having stuffed a dressed chicken with snow to see how long the flesh could be preserved by the extreme cold. He caught cold and died from complications about a month later.

o 1682 Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle discovered the mouth of the Mississippi River and claimed the whole Mississippi Basin for France. He named it Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV of France.

o 1770 Capt. James Cook discovered Botany Bay on the Australian continent.

o 1850 R.I.P William Prout. An English chemist, he was the first to classify food components into 3 main divisions – carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

o 1872 Samuel R. Percy of New York received a patent for dried milk.

o 1965 The entire cast of the comic strip ‘Peanuts’ was featured on the cover of TIME magazine

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April 8th is National Empanada Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Empanada Day!

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Empanadas:

The Spanish word for bread is “pan”. “Empanar” is a verb form that means “to bread”. Emapanada is the past-participle, “breaded”.

It’s basically a single-serving turnover. It can be filled with sweet foods like fruits, sugars, and syrups, or savory foods like meats, cheeses, and oils.

They originated in northwest Spain, in a region known as Galicia.
Today they are most popular in Spanish-speaking countries across Europe and South America.

Restaurant Empanadas Latin Food Mexican Food Food

Originally they were made with bread dough, but now they are made with pastries as well.

Today’s Food History

o 1513 Ponce de Leon landed in Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth. He thought it was just another island of the Bahamas.

o 1862 John D. Lynde of Philadelphia patented the first aerosol dispenser.

o 1873 Alfred Paraf received a patent for the first commercially viable margarine manufacturing process.

o 1879 The Echo Farms Dairy of New York began selling milk in glass bottles, the first in the U.S.

o 1946 ‘Catfish’ Hunter, baseball pitcher, was born.

o 1992 R.I.P. Benjamin Eisenstadt. He invented the artificial sweetener, ‘Sweet ‘n Low’ (granulated saccharin and dextrose).

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April 7th is National Coffee Cake Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy Coffee Cake Day

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Coffee Cake:

Coffee cake was not invented, rather it evolved from a variety of different types of cakes.
Cakes in their various forms have been around since biblical times, the simplest varieties made from honey or dates and other fruits.

The Danish came up with the earliest versions of coffee cake. Around the 17th century in Europe, it became the custom to enjoy a delicious sweet and yeasty type of bread when drinking coffee beverages.
There are many available combinations, everything from blueberry coffee cakes to cinnamon walnut coffee cake and more.

The hole in the center of most coffee cakes is a relatively recent innovation—it became popular in the 1950’s. This “bundt pan” was invented to allowed heavier batters to get cooked all the way through without any dough left unbaked in the center.

Fun Fact:

The first coffee cakes are thought to have originated in Germany. These were more like sweet breads than cakes.

Today’s Food History

o 1727 Michel Adanson was born. Adanson was a French botanist who developed a system of plant classification based on physical characteristics. His system was opposed by Carolus Linnaeus, and was not widely used.

o 1857 A cold front barrels over the U.S. and snow falls in every state in the country.

o 1860 Will Kieth Kellogg was born. Founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. (later the W.K. Kellogg Company) to manufacture cereals (cornflakes were the first) developed by his brother John Harvey Kellogg.

o 1869 David Grandison Fairchild was born. An American botanist and agriculturalist, he was responsible for introducing many useful plants to the U.S. Author of ‘The World Was My Garden,’ and ‘Exploring for Plants’.

o 1933 The beginning of the end of Prohibition. On this day 3.2 percent beer sales were allowed in advance of Prohibition’s ratification.

o 1943 Mick Abrahams of the music group ‘Jethro Tull’ was born.

o 1948 The World Health Organization (WHO) was established.

o 1967 ‘Happy Together’ by Turtles is #1 on the charts.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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April 6th is National New Beer’s Eve !

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five thing to know about Beer:

Germany serves beer ice cream in popsicle form. Its alcoholic content is less than that found in “classic” beer.
In 1962, Iron City beer was the brand used to test-market the concept of tab opening aluminum cans. By 1970, over 90% of all beer cans were self-opening.

Prohibition, beginning on January 16, 1920, lasted 13 years, 10 months, 19 days, 17 hours, and 32-1/2 minutes, and was rescinded on December 5, 1933, at 3:32 p.m.
Centuries ago in England, pub visitors used a novel innovation that enabled them to get their beer served quickly. They used mugs with a whistle baked into the rim, the whistle being used to summon the barmaid. It has been suggested this practice gave birth to the phrase “wet your whistle.”
A beer lover or enthusiast is called a cerevisaphile.

Today’s Food History

o 1859 Massachusetts created the first Inspector of Milk position in the U.S.

o 1869 John Wesley Hyatt patented celluloid, the first synthetic plastic.

o 1896 Opening day of the first modern Olympic games. The last Olympics were held 1,500 years ago.

o 1930 ‘Twinkies’ go on sale for the first time.

o 1932 C. Glen King, at the University of Pittsburgh, isolated vitamin C from lemon juice.

o 1938 Roy J. Plunkett accidentally discovered Teflon.

o 1947 John Ratzenberger, actor, was born. He played ‘Cliff Clavin, Jr.’ on the TV series ‘Cheers.’

o 1954 TV dinners are introduced. C.A. Swanson & Sons introduced the first TV dinner: roast turkey with stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes and peas. It sold for 98 cents and came in an aluminum tray, so you could just open the box and heat the dinner in the oven. (No microwave ovens back then).

o Supposedly executive Gerald Thomas came up with the idea when the company had tons of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving (Didn’t we all?). The idea for the aluminum trays came from the trays used for airline food. They were an immediate success, and Turkey dinners are still the most popular Swanson frozen dinner. Swanson stopped calling them TV dinners in 1962.

o 1988 McDonald’s opened its 10,000th restaurant in Dale City, Virginia.

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Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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April 5th is National Caramel Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food facts about Caramel Candy:

The word “caramel” comes from the late latin root “calamellus” meaning “sugar cane.”

While the origin is unknown, it’s speculated that American setllers in 1650 were making hard toffee candies in kettles.

In 1960, Vito Raimondi, with the help of his uncle William Raimondi, invented and patented the first caramel apple machine.

Toffee, or in the US “caramel candy”, is a soft, dense, chewy candy made by boiling a mixture of milk or cream, sugar(s), glucose, butter, and vanilla (or vanilla flavoring).

Caramel coloring, a dark, bitter-tasting liquid, is the highly concentrated product of near total caramelization, bottled for commercial use. It is used as food coloring and in beverages, such as cola.

Today’s Food History

o 1764 The Sugar Act passed in Britain, placing new restrictions on the import of molasses to America.

o 1806 Isaac Quintard patented the apple cider mill.

o 1858 W. Atlee Burpee was born. Founder of the world’s largest mail-order seed company in 1876.

o 1881 Edwing Houston and Elihu Thomson patented a centrifugal separator, which could be used in separating milk.

o 1981 Bob Hite died. Singer with Canned Heat.

o 1994 Andre Tchelistcheff died. Tchelistcheff was a Russian-born U.S. enologist, was a pivotal figure in the revitalization of the California wine industry following Prohibition (1919-33) and used his Paris training in viticulture and wine making to pioneer such techniques as cold fermentation and the use of American oak barrels for aging. He was also an authority on the types of soil suitable for growing various grape varieties.

o Encyclopedia Brittanica (CD-2002)

o 1998 The Spice Girls first U.K. concert in Glasgow

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Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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April 4th is National Cordon Bleu Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Cordon Bleu:

The phrase “Cordon Bleu” means “Blue Ribbon” when referring to the dish.
Another use of the phrase “Cordon Bleu” comes from a distinguished order of sixteenth-century French knights, who apparently wore blue sashes and were therefore popularly referred to as the “Cordon-bleus.”

Cordon Bleu is a thinly pounded piece of meat (most often chicken, but also veal or pork) stuffed with ham and cheese, then breaded and fried.

Chicken Cordon Bleu is a relatively recent American creation, first found mentioned in the written word in 1967.
Common variations on this recipe include baking instead of frying, skipping the breading, and switching the order of the meats.

Today’s Food History

o 1828 Casparus van Wooden of Amsterdam, patented chocolate milk powder.

o 1871 Mary Florence Potts of Ottumwa, Iowa patented the ‘Mrs. Potts’ pressing iron. It had a detachable handle so several iron bodies could be heated and used in turn as one cooled down.

o 1883 Peter Cooper died. American inventor and founder of the ‘Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.’ He also obtained the first American patent for the manufacture of gelatin. In 1895, a cough syrup manufacturer, Pearl B. Wait purchased the patent and developed a packaged gelatin dessert. Wait’s wife, May David Wait named it Jell-O.

o 1884 Adolphe Duglere died. A pupil of Careme, head chef of the Rothschild family, and head chef of the famous 19th century Paris restaurant, the Cafe Anglais.

o 1887 William Cumming Rose was born. An American biochemist, he researched amino acids, and established the importance of the 8 essential amino acids in human nutrition.

o 1893 Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle died. A Swiss botanist, author of ‘Origin of Cultivated Plants.’

o 1899Benjamin F. Jackson patented a gas burner.

o 1932 Vitamin C is first isolated by C.G. King at the University of Pittsburgh.

o 1998 A locust plague in Ethiopia was reported that covered almost 4,000 acres

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Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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April 1st is National Sourdough Bread Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food finds about Sourdough Bread:

The liquid alcohol layer referred to as ‘hooch’ comes from an Native American tribe called Hoochinoo. The Hoochinoo used to trade supplies with Alaskan gold miners for the ‘hooch’ off the top of their sourdough starters.

Barm is the English term for sourdough starter. It is derived from the term ‘barmy’ which means tipsy, or ditzy. This is because of the alcohol!

Sourdough likely originated in Ancient Egyptian times around 1500 BC and was likely the first form of leavening available to bakers.

Baker’s yeast is not useful as sourdough starter for leavening rye bread, as rye does not contain enough gluten.

Most bread is leavened with yeast, but sourdough is leavened with the Lactobacillus bacterium.

Today in food history…

1582 France adopted the new Gregorian calendar. Prior to that, the new year was celebrated on April 1. (The new year actually started on March 25, which fell during Holy Week – so the celebrations were delayed until the first day of April). One explanation of the origin of ‘April Fools Day’ is that those who failed to accept the new start of the year on January 1 became the object of practical jokes. (Pope Gregory XIII introduced the new Gregorian Calendar in 1582. It is possible that Charles IX of France may have changed the start of the New Year to January in 1564).
1755 Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin was born. A French politician and author of the 8 volume Physiologie du goût, ou Méditation de gastronomie transcendante, ouvrage théorique, historique et à l’ordre du jour (“The Physiology of Taste, or Meditation on Transcendent Gastronomy, a Work Theoretical, Historical, and Programmed”) published in 1825. It treats dining as an art form and contains many delightful and witty observations on the pleasures of the table.
1893 The first dishwashing machine became an award winning success at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, which used Josephine Garis Cochran’s hand operated, mechanical dishwashers in its kitchens. (She patented her original version on December 28, 1886.) Her company eventually evolved into KitchenAid.
1911 Seaman Asahel Knapp died. An American agriculturist, he began the system which evolved into the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service.
1932 Actor Gordon Jump was born. The ‘Maytag Repairman’ in commercials, also Arthur Carlson on ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’.
1960 Tiros I, the first weather observation satellite was launched from Cape Kennedy.
1976 Jimmy Buffet’s ‘Margaritaville’ was released.
1976 R.I.P. Carl Peter Henrik Dam. Dam was a Danish biochemist who discovered vitamin K in 1939.
1996 The Taco Bell fast food chain played an April Food joke on the American public by claiming to have bought the Liberty Bell to help pay down the national debt.
1999 The first minimum wage goes into effect in Britain, £3.60 an hour for adults and £3.00 an hour for those under 22 years old.
1999 In April 1999, Restaurant Nora in Washington DC became America’s first certified organic restaurant. This means that 95% or more of everything that you eat at the restaurant has been produced by certified organic growers and farmers.

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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March 31st is National Oysters on the Half Shell Day !

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Oysters on The Half Shell Day!

Here are today’s five interesting food facts about Oysters:

An oyster has a lifespan of over 100 years.

The oyster has no head, no biting mouth parts and no arms or legs.

An oyster’s two or three inches in diameter would probably be three to five years old.

It takes about 25 to 28 months for oyster larvae to reach market size.

oysters_with_mignonette_sauce_and_cocktail_sauce

Oysters feed year-round, though they feed less in winter because they need less energy.

Today’s Food History

1814 John Lineback patented the cottonseed hulling machine.
1848 William Waldorf Astor was born. William Waldorf Astor was a cousin of John Jacob Astor IV, the great grandson of John Jacob Astor. He built the Waldorf section (1893) of what would become the Waldorf Astoria (1897). The Empire State Building (1929) now stands on the site of the former hotel.
1918 Daylight Savings Time went into effect in the U.S. for the first time.
1989 Chefs from Japanese restaurants in New York have finally persuaded the FDA to allow them to import and serve fogu. The first shipment of Japanese blowfish (tora fugu) arrived today. The chefs had to attend special classes to protect their customers from poisoning.
1946 G. Allan Nichol of the music group ‘The Turtles’ was born.
2005 Frank Perdue president of Perdue Farms died today. He was the son of the company’s founder Arthur Perdue. Perdue is the 3rd largest poultry company in the U.S.

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Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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March 30th is National Hot Chicken Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy Hot Chicken Day!

Here are today’s interesting food facts about Hot Chicken:

Hot Chicken is a hot and spicy Fried Chicken that is a local specialty of Nashville, Tennessee also known as Nashville Hot Chicken

The originator of hot chicken is the family of Andre Prince Jeffries, owner of Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack.

Created by a scorned woman, Thornton Prince’s girlfriend cooked him a supper spicy fried chicken breakfast after he was out all night with another girl. Turns out helped the chicken so much he soon opens a chicken shack in the 1930’s.

Hot chicken is going National and even global! Even KFC offers Hot Chicken.

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Categories: Daily Food History, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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March 29th is National Chiffon Cake Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy NATIONAL CHIFFON Cake Day!

Just listen.. This is a great cake…

Here are today’s interesting facts about Chiffon Cake:

Many believe Chiffon cake is the ‘original’ wedding cake filling. A chiffon cake is a very light cake made with vegetable oil, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, and flavorings.

The lack of butter means that chiffon cakes lack much of the rich flavor of butter cakes, and hence they are typically served accompanied with flavorful sauces or other accompaniments, such as chocolate or fruit fillings.

It is a combination of both batter and foam type cakes.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1886 Coca-Cola was created by Dr. John Pemberton.
1900 Charles Elton was born. Elton was an English biologist who first developed the idea of a ‘food chain.’
1848 A huge upstream ice jam stopped almost all water flow over Niagara Falls (both American Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls) for several hours. You could actually walk out into the riverbed below the falls.
1903 R.I.P. Gustavus Franklin Swift. Founder of the meat-packing business Swift & Co., the inventor of the refrigerated railway car, and the first to ship ‘dressed’ beef to eastern markets instead of live animals.
1980 R.I.P. Walter H. Deubener. He owned the S.S. Kresge grocery store in St. Paul, Minnesota and invented the handled grocery bag.

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Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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March 28th is National Black Forest Cake Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Black Forest Cake Day!

Here are today’s interesting food facts about Black Forest Cake:

Typically, Black Forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherries between each layer.
In some European traditions sour cherries are used both between the layers and for decorating the top.

Traditionally, Kirschwasser (a clear liquor distilled from tart cherries) is added to the cake, although other liquors are also used.
The cake is named not directly after the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) mountain range in southwestern Germany. The forests in “Hansel and Gretel”, “Snow White”, and “Rapunzel” are based on the Black Forest.
The record for the world’s largest authentic black forest cake, weighing 3000 kg, was set at Europa Park, Germany on 16 July 2006, by K&D Bakery.

Today’s Food History

1797 The first U.S. patent for a ‘washing machine’ was issued (possibly to Nathaniel Briggs). It was called a scrub board or wash board.
1819 Sir Joseph William Bazalgette was born. A British civil engineer, he designed the main sewer system for London.
1897 Victor Mills was born. He was a chemical engineer who worked for Proctor & Gamble. He improved Duncan Hines cake mixes, improved Jif peanut butter, and invented Pampers disposable diapers.
1968 ‘Whiskey On A Sunday’ was recorded by the Irish Rovers.
1996 John Leonard submitted an order form along with ‘Pepsi Points’ and a check to Pepsi for a Harrier Jump Jet. The Harrier had been featured in a Pepsi commercial as one of the items that could be redeemed for ‘points,’ or a combination of cash and points. Pepsi subsequently refused to send Leonard the Harrier Jump Jet (actual cost: $23 million). Leonard then sued, and finally a judge ruled that the Harrier Jump Jet had obviously been mentioned in the promotion as a joke.

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Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #marchfoodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, blackforestcake, nationalblackforestcakeday

March 26th is National Nougat Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Nougat Day!

Here are today’s interesting food facts about Nougat:

3 Musketeer bars originally consisted of three flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. During WWII rationing, they were limited to vanilla flavoring, & they remain this way today.
Nougat is commonly found in candy bars; Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, Snickers, Polar, etc.

Today’s nougat is a mixture of sucrose and corn syrup with a whipping agent to create its fluffy texture.
Nougat was put in candy bars to resemble the texture and flavor of ice cream. This is why early candy bars with nougat were commonly served frozen.
The word nougat comes from Occitan (a southern French dialect) pan nogat, from nux gatum, which means nutbread.

Today’s Food History

1753 Benjamin Thompson, Count von Rumford was born. American physician who invented the percolator, a pressure cooker and a kitchen stove. He is frequently credited with creating the dessert, Baked Alaska.
1937 The cities of Dilley, Texas, and Crystal City, Texas each erected a statue of Popeye, the cartoon character.
1996 David Packard died. Founder with William Hewlett 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!

Categories: Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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March 24th is National Cake Pop Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy National Cake Pop Day!

Here are today’s five food facts about Cake Pops:

A cake pop is cake baked in an circular shape, hand dipped in frosting, and on a stick to be eaten as candy.

various_cake_pops_with_heart-shape_and_other_sprinkles2c_march_2011

While there is no recorded date for the creation of cake pops most people say that Bakerella helped make then a “pop” phenomenon.

In 2011, cake pops were considered the newest and most popular confectionery food trends

Dessert Chocolate Candies Sweet Cake Pops Food

Other variations of cake pops are cake balls, cakesicles, cupcake pops, and cake-on-a-stick.

Cake pops in recent years have become ubiquitous to Starbucks coffee shops.

* Bakerella celebrates National Cake Pop Day on Feb 1

Today’s Food History

1765 The British Parliament passed the Quartering Act, which required American colonists to provide temporary quarters, food, drink, etc. to British troops stationed in their towns.
1896 Clement Hardy received a patent for the rotary disk plow.
1989 The worst oil spill in U.S. history (up to that point) occurred as the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, and eventually leaked 11 million gallons of crude oil. The effects on wildlife and fish was devastating.
1990 R.I.P. Cookbook author Jane Grigson, age 61.

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Categories: Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

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March 20th is World Whisky Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Happy World Whisky Day!!

Here are today’s five interesting food facts about Whisky:

Whisky and whiskey are actually the same liquor. In American-English and Irish-English, it is spelled “whiskey”. In British-English, it is spelled “whisky”.
A whisky stops maturing after it is bottled.

The dark color of whisky comes from the wooden barrels in which it is aged. The wood expands and contracts with the change in temperature, making the movie in and out of the wood. The compounds from wood give whisky its dark color.
There are more than 5000 types of Single Malt Whisky.

The barrels made from American White Oak have been claimed to produce the tastiest whisky.

Today’s Food History

1860 M.L. Byrn patented a new and improved corkscrew.
1901 Carl Barks was born. He worked for Disney Studios and illustrated Donald Duck comics.
1923 R.I.P. Sir James Dewar. He invented the ‘Dewar Flask,’ the original ‘thermos bottle’.
1958 Sheb Wooley recorded ‘Purple People Eater’ on this day.
2001 China reported that its population is now 1.26 Billion.

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Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #marchfoodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, #WorldWhiskyDay, whiskey

April 13th is National Peach Cobbler Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s interesting five food facts to know about Peach Cobbler:

Peach Cobblers are an American deep-dish fruit dessert or pie with a thick crust (usually a biscuit crust) and peach filling.

Peach Cobbler day was created by the Georgia Peach Council in the 1950’s to sell canned peaches.
The rough look of the pie gives the dish its name. It looks “cobbled” together.

There are 419 calories in 1 cup of Peach Cobbler.
Peach cobbler was invented by early American settlers.

Today’s Food History

1748 Joseph Bramah was born. An English engineer, among his many inventions was a beer engine, used to deliver beer from keg to glass without artificial carbonation being added.
1796 The first elephant to be brought to the U.S. arrived from Bengal, India. It was exhibited in New York, and its diet was described as: “thirty pounds of rice besides hay and straw…. all kinds of wine and spiritous liquors….and every kind of vegetable; it will also draw a cork from a bottle in its trunk.”
1883 Alfred Packer was convicted of cannibalism in Colorado. (Actually he was convicted of murder, since cannibalism was not against the law). He was sentenced to death, but was retried in 1886 and sentenced to 40 years. He was paroled in 1901, and died in 1907.
1902 Baron Philippe de Rothschild was born. (Wine producer).
1909 Mervyn Hugh Cowie was born. Cowie was a British wildlife conservationist, founder and director of Kenya’s Royal National Parks.
1916 Funk Brothers Seed Company sold the first U.S. shipment of hybrid seed corn to Samuel Ramsay of Jacobsburg, Ohio. Todayinsci.com
1916 Edna Lewis was born, southern chef and author of ‘The Taste of Southern Cooking’ (1976).
1917 James Buchanan (‘Diamond Jim’) Brady died. An American financier and philanthropist, Diamond Jim was known for his diamond jewelry and his huge appetite.
1944 Jack Casady of the music group ‘Hot Tuna’ was born.
1976 The $2 bill is reintroduced by the U.S. Treasury.
2008 The National Meats Institute in Uruguay organized a record Largest BBQ, grilling about over 26,000 pounds of beef on a mile long bbq grill using 6 tonnes of charcoal.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, nationalpeachcobblerday, peachcobbler

April 12th is National Grilled Cheese Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five interesting food facts about Grilled Cheese:

Grilled cheese sandwiches originally showed up in America during the roaring 20’s.

It is said that grilled cheese was first served as an open-face sandwich.

A grilled cheese sandwich is often accompanied by tomato soup, a southern delicacy!

Grilled cheese sandwiches can be served with bacon , tomato, and various other additions. It makes the meal much more filling.

April is national grilled cheese sandwich month. Be sure to celebrate heartily!

Today’s Food History

1748 Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu was born. A French botanist whose ideas formed the foundation of a natural plant classification system.
1985 The four ‘unicorns’ of Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus were declared to be only goats with surgically implanted horns by federal inspectors. The circus was ordered to stop advertising them as unicorns
1988 The first U.S. patent on an animal life form was issued to Harvard scientists for a genetically engineered mouse.
1989 The USSR issued ration cards for sugar due to a shortage
2001 Maryland banned the farming of genetically modified fish in any waters linked to other bodies of water.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, grilledcheese, nationalgrilledcheeseday

April 12th is National Licorice Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five interesting food facts about Licorice:

The botanical name for licorice translates to “sweet root.”
The licorice plant is actually a member of the pea family.

Licorice gets its flavor from glycyrrhizic acid, a chemical 50x sweeter than sugar!

This flavor is used in many products other than licorice candy, such as alcohol, tobacco, and of course food.
Carbenoxolone, a compound derived from licorice root, may help slow the effects of aging on the brain.

Today’s Food History

1748 Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu was born. A French botanist whose ideas formed the foundation of a natural plant classification system.
1985 The four ‘unicorns’ of Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus were declared to be only goats with surgically implanted horns by federal inspectors. The circus was ordered to stop advertising them as unicorns
1988 The first U.S. patent on an animal life form was issued to Harvard scientists for a genetically engineered mouse.
1989 The USSR issued ration cards for sugar due to a shortage
2001 Maryland banned the farming of genetically modified fish in any waters linked to other bodies of water.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, licorice, nationallicoriceday

April 10th is National Cinnamon Crescent Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Interesting Food Facts about Cinnamon Crescents:

True cinnamon, or Ceylon cinnamon, is native to Sri Lanka.

In Ancient Egypt cinnamon was used in the embalming process.

Two teaspoons of cinnamon has about 12 calories.

Cinnamon has many health benefits. It has shown promise in the treatment of diabetes, arthritis, high cholesterol, memory function, and even leukemia and lymphoma.

In the Middle Ages, cinnamon was only affordable by the wealthy elite of society. A person’s social rank could be determined by the number of spices they could afford.

Today’s Food History

1633 Bananas were supposedly displayed in the shop window of merchant Thomas Johnson. This was the first time the banana had ever been seen in Great Britain. It would be more than 200 years before they were regularly imported. In 1999 remains of a banana were found at a Tudor archaeological site on the banks of the Thames River. This would seem to date it 150 years earlier than Thomas Johnson’s banana. A classic food mystery!
1752 William Cheselden died. An English surgeon and teacher, he was one of the first to describe the role of saliva in digestion.
1766 Sir John Leslie was born. A Scottish physicist and mathematician, he was the first to freeze water artificially (create ice artificially). He used an air pump apparatus.
1849 Walter Hunt of New York patented the safety pin. However, safety pins existed prior to this patent.
1872 The first Arbor Day was observed in Nebraska. It was proposed by J. Sterling Morton and publicized by the State Board of Agriculture as a tree-planting holiday. Nebraska at that time was a treeless plain, with nothing to break the wind other than the normal digestive functions of mammals. Trees were also needed for fuel, shade, building houses, etc. Estimates are that more than one million trees were planted in Nebraska on that first Arbor Day. It was proclaimed an official state day in 1874. Other states have since adopted the idea, and several U.S. presidents have declared national Arbor Days, usually the last Friday in April. The idea has also spread to other countries. The National Arbor Day Foundation
1894 African American inventor G. W. Murray received 2 patents for a Furrow Opener & Stalk Knocker and a Cultivator & Marker.
1944 Synthetic quinine was made for the first time at Harvard University.
1982 Saturday Night Live had viewers vote whether to boil ‘Larry the Lobster’ or not. The audience voted to free him.
1991 The last remaining Horn & Hardart Automat closed its doors. It was located at Third Avenue and 42nd Street in New York City. Frank Hardart and Joe Horn opened the first Automat on June 9, 1902 at 818 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. The birth date of modern fast food.
1995 A smoking ban in New York for restaurants with more than 35 seats began today.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Food Holidays, Uncategorized

Tagged: #foodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, cinnamon, cinnamon crescent, National Food Holiday, nationalcinnamoncrescentday

April 9th is National Chinese Almond Cookie Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Chinese Almond Cookies:

In Mandarin Chinese, these are more literally called “Almond Cakes.”
The Chinese Almond Cookie is native to southern and southeast China.
There is no record of these cookies before the 1900’s.

The Chinese commonly prepared Almond milk and Almond tea.
An American variation exists using pecans.

Fun Fact:

Typical to southern and southeastern China, these almond cookies are usually enjoyed around Chinese New Year, and are given as gifts to family and friends.

In some Chinese restaurants, they are served to cleanse the palate after several courses, rather than being regarded as a dessert.

Yuan-Shan Chi declared these cookies “as Chinese as blueberry pie.”

Today’s Food History

o 1770 Capt. James Cook discovered Botany Bay on the Australian continent.

o 1850 R.I.P William Prout. An English chemist, he was the first to classify food components into 3 main divisions – carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

o 1872 Samuel R. Percy of New York received a patent for dried milk.

o 1965 The entire cast of the comic strip ‘Peanuts’ was featured on the cover of TIME magazine

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, ChineseAlmondCookieDay, ChomeseAlmondcookie

April 8th is National Empanada Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Empanadas:

The Spanish word for bread is “pan”. “Empanar” is a verb form that means “to bread”. Emapanada is the past-participle, “breaded”.

It’s basically a single-serving turnover. It can be filled with sweet foods like fruits, sugars, and syrups, or savory foods like meats, cheeses, and oils.

They originated in northwest Spain, in a region known as Galicia.
Today they are most popular in Spanish-speaking countries across Europe and South America.

Originally they were made with bread dough, but now they are made with pastries as well.

Today’s Food History

o 1513 Ponce de Leon landed in Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth. He thought it was just another island of the Bahamas.

o 1862 John D. Lynde of Philadelphia patented the first aerosol dispenser.

o 1873 Alfred Paraf received a patent for the first commercially viable margarine manufacturing process.

o 1879 The Echo Farms Dairy of New York began selling milk in glass bottles, the first in the U.S.

o 1946 ‘Catfish’ Hunter, baseball pitcher, was born.

o 1992 R.I.P. Benjamin Eisenstadt. He invented the artificial sweetener, ‘Sweet ‘n Low’ (granulated saccharin and dextrose).

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #NationalEmpanadaDay, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, empanadas

April 7th is National Beer Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food facts about Beer:

The bittering agent in beer, Hops, is closely related to marijuana.
Brown bottles are designed to keep beer fresh.

The average American consumes nearly 23 gallons of beer annually.
According to broadcasting regulations, American beer commercials are not allowed to show anyone consuming alcohol.

Obama is the first American President to brew his own beer.

Get ready for Foodimentary at the Bacon & Beer Classic! Tickets are still available! April 29th – 30th at Citi Field:

Today’s Food History

o 1857 A cold front barrels over the U.S. and snow falls in every state in the country.

o 1933 The beginning of the end of Prohibition. On this day 3.2 percent beer sales were allowed in advance of Prohibition’s ratification.

o 1943 Mick Abrahams of the music group ‘Jethro Tull’ was born.

o 1948 The World Health Organization (WHO) was established.

o 1967 ‘Happy Together’ by Turtles is #1 on the charts.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, beer, NationalBeerDay

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April 7th is National Coffee Cake Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Coffee Cake:

Coffee cake was not invented, rather it evolved from a variety of different types of cakes.
Cakes in their various forms have been around since biblical times, the simplest varieties made from honey or dates and other fruits.

The Danish came up with the earliest versions of coffee cake. Around the 17th century in Europe, it became the custom to enjoy a delicious sweet and yeasty type of bread when drinking coffee beverages.
There are many available combinations, everything from blueberry coffee cakes to cinnamon walnut coffee cake and more.

The hole in the center of most coffee cakes is a relatively recent innovation—it became popular in the 1950’s. This “bundt pan” was invented to allowed heavier batters to get cooked all the way through without any dough left unbaked in the center.

Fun Fact:

The first coffee cakes are thought to have originated in Germany. These were more like sweet breads than cakes.

Today’s Food History

o 1857 A cold front barrels over the U.S. and snow falls in every state in the country.

o 1933 The beginning of the end of Prohibition. On this day 3.2 percent beer sales were allowed in advance of Prohibition’s ratification.

o 1943 Mick Abrahams of the music group ‘Jethro Tull’ was born.

o 1948 The World Health Organization (WHO) was established.

o 1967 ‘Happy Together’ by Turtles is #1 on the charts.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, coffeecake, Coffeecakeday

April 6th is National New Beer’s Eve !

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five thing to know about Beer:

Germany serves beer ice cream in popsicle form. Its alcoholic content is less than that found in “classic” beer.
In 1962, Iron City beer was the brand used to test-market the concept of tab opening aluminum cans. By 1970, over 90% of all beer cans were self-opening.

Prohibition, beginning on January 16, 1920, lasted 13 years, 10 months, 19 days, 17 hours, and 32-1/2 minutes, and was rescinded on December 5, 1933, at 3:32 p.m.
Centuries ago in England, pub visitors used a novel innovation that enabled them to get their beer served quickly. They used mugs with a whistle baked into the rim, the whistle being used to summon the barmaid. It has been suggested this practice gave birth to the phrase “wet your whistle.”
A beer lover or enthusiast is called a cerevisaphile.

Today’s Food History

o 1859 Massachusetts created the first Inspector of Milk position in the U.S.

o 1869 John Wesley Hyatt patented celluloid, the first synthetic plastic.

o 1896 Opening day of the first modern Olympic games. The last Olympics were held 1,500 years ago.

o 1930 ‘Twinkies’ go on sale for the first time.

o 1932 C. Glen King, at the University of Pittsburgh, isolated vitamin C from lemon juice.

o 1938 Roy J. Plunkett accidentally discovered Teflon.

o 1947 John Ratzenberger, actor, was born. He played ‘Cliff Clavin, Jr.’ on the TV series ‘Cheers.’

o 1988 McDonald’s opened its 10,000th restaurant in Dale City, Virginia.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, beer, NewBeersEve

April 6th is National Caramel Popcorn Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Caramel Popcorn:

Popcorn is made by boiling the water inside the corn kernel. As the liquid water becomes gaseous, it occupies much more volume and therefore causes incredible pressure in the kernel that causes it to explode into being inside-out.

Unpopped popcorn kernels are called “old maids.”
Americans consume 17 billion quarts of popped popcorn annually, or 54 quarts per man, woman and child.

United States citizens consume more popcorn than any other country’s.
Being corn, popcorn that is unsalted, unbuttered, and otherwise unaltered is a very healthy snack.

Today’s Food History

o 1859 Massachusetts created the first Inspector of Milk position in the U.S.

o 1869 John Wesley Hyatt patented celluloid, the first synthetic plastic.

o 1896 Opening day of the first modern Olympic games. The last Olympics were held 1,500 years ago.

o 1930 ‘Twinkies’ go on sale for the first time.

o 1932 C. Glen King, at the University of Pittsburgh, isolated vitamin C from lemon juice.

o 1938 Roy J. Plunkett accidentally discovered Teflon.

o 1947 John Ratzenberger, actor, was born. He played ‘Cliff Clavin, Jr.’ on the TV series ‘Cheers.’

o 1988 McDonald’s opened its 10,000th restaurant in Dale City, Virginia.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, caramelpopcorn, CaramelPopcornDay

April 5th is National Caramel Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food facts about Caramel Candy:

The word “caramel” comes from the late latin root “calamellus” meaning “sugar cane.”

While the origin is unknown, it’s speculated that American setllers in 1650 were making hard toffee candies in kettles.

In 1960, Vito Raimondi, with the help of his uncle William Raimondi, invented and patented the first caramel apple machine.

Toffee, or in the US “caramel candy”, is a soft, dense, chewy candy made by boiling a mixture of milk or cream, sugar(s), glucose, butter, and vanilla (or vanilla flavoring).

Caramel coloring, a dark, bitter-tasting liquid, is the highly concentrated product of near total caramelization, bottled for commercial use. It is used as food coloring and in beverages, such as cola.

Today’s Food History

o 1764 The Sugar Act passed in Britain, placing new restrictions on the import of molasses to America.

o 1806 Isaac Quintard patented the apple cider mill.

o 1858 W. Atlee Burpee was born. Founder of the world’s largest mail-order seed company in 1876.

o 1881 Edwing Houston and Elihu Thomson patented a centrifugal separator, which could be used in separating milk.

o 1981 Bob Hite died. Singer with Canned Heat.

o Encyclopedia Brittanica (CD-2002)

o 1998 The Spice Girls first U.K. concert in Glasgow

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, caramel, nationalcaramelday

April 4th is National Cordon Bleu Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Cordon Bleu:

The phrase “Cordon Bleu” means “Blue Ribbon” when referring to the dish.
Another use of the phrase “Cordon Bleu” comes from a distinguished order of sixteenth-century French knights, who apparently wore blue sashes and were therefore popularly referred to as the “Cordon-bleus.”

Cordon Bleu is a thinly pounded piece of meat (most often chicken, but also veal or pork) stuffed with ham and cheese, then breaded and fried.

Chicken Cordon Bleu is a relatively recent American creation, first found mentioned in the written word in 1967.
Common variations on this recipe include baking instead of frying, skipping the breading, and switching the order of the meats.

Today’s Food History

o 1828 Casparus van Wooden of Amsterdam, patented chocolate milk powder.

o 1871 Mary Florence Potts of Ottumwa, Iowa patented the ‘Mrs. Potts’ pressing iron. It had a detachable handle so several iron bodies could be heated and used in turn as one cooled down.

o 1884 Adolphe Duglere died. A pupil of Careme, head chef of the Rothschild family, and head chef of the famous 19th century Paris restaurant, the Cafe Anglais.

o 1887 William Cumming Rose was born. An American biochemist, he researched amino acids, and established the importance of the 8 essential amino acids in human nutrition.

o 1893 Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle died. A Swiss botanist, author of ‘Origin of Cultivated Plants.’

o 1899Benjamin F. Jackson patented a gas burner.

o 1932 Vitamin C is first isolated by C.G. King at the University of Pittsburgh.

o 1998 A locust plague in Ethiopia was reported that covered almost 4,000 acres

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #marchfoodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, chickencordonbleu, Cordonbleu, NationalCordonBleuDay

April 3rd is National Chocolate Mousse Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

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

The word mousse is French and translates as “froth” or “foam.”

Cold dessert mousses are often poured into decorative glasses and garnished with fruit, sweet sauces, or whipped cream.

Savory mousses can be made from fish, shellfish, meat, foie gras, etcc

Photo By: Chef Johan Halsberghe

There are three key constituents to a mousse: base, binder, and aerator.

They may be hot or cold and are often squeezed through a piping bag onto some kind of platform to be used as hors d’oeuvres.

Fun Fact:

The first written record of chocolate mousse in the United States comes from a Food Exposition held at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1892.

Today’s Food History

o 1829 James Carrington of Connecticut patented a coffee mill.

o 1845 William James Farrer was born. An Australian agriculturist, he developed several new cultivars of wheat.

o 1860 The first Pony Express mail delivery service by horse and rider between St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California began. The 1,800 mile run took 10 days.

o 1956 Elvis Presley sings ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ on the ‘Milton Berle Show.’ An estimated 25% of the American population tuned in to hear him.

o 1959 The Coasters song ‘Charlie Brown’ is banned by the BBC because it refers to “throwin’ spitballs.” The ban only lasted 2 weeks.

o 1974 The Super Tornado Outbreak. 148 tornadoes in 13 states in 26 hours. The world’s largest tornado outbreak in recorded history. It included six F5 tornadoes and 30 F4 tornadoes. The first tornado hit at 1 p.m. and the final tornado hit at 2 a.m. the following morning.

o 1982 The temperature in Lamberton, Minnesota dropped from 78 degrees F to 7 degrees F in 24 hours. The 71 degree drop in temperature is a Minnesota record.

o 1985 The Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood, California closed after 57 years. Robert Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby, created the Cobb Salad there in 1936.

o 2010 Students at a Utah high school created a replica of Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ using 2 tons of Malt-O-Meal cereal.

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #marchfoodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, ChocolateMousse, NationalChocolateMousseDay

National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day !

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five interesting food facts about Peanut Butter and Jelly:

Studies show that there is a 75% chance that if you drop a slice of peanut buttered bread, it will fall face down.
50 percent of all the peanuts grown around the world are used to make peanut butter.

It is estimated that the average American school child will have munched through 1500 Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches before graduation.
An 18 ounce jar of peanut butter will contain about 850 peanuts.

The largest recorded peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the world was lovingly crafted in Peanut, Pennsylvania in 1993. It was 40 ft long and contained 150lbs of peanut butter and 50lbs of jelly.

Fun Fact:

By law, any product labeled “peanut butter” in the United States must be at least 90 percent peanuts.

Peanut butter was first introduced to the USA in 1904 at the Universal Exposition in St. Louis by C.H. Sumner, who sold $705.11 of the “new treat” at his concession stand.

A 2002 survey showed the average American will have eaten 2,500 of these sandwiches before graduating from high school.

Categories: April Food Holidays, Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, Aprilfoodholidays, nationalpeanutbutterandjellyday, PeanutButterandJellyDay

April 1st is National Sourdough Bread Day!

John-Bryan Hopkins

Here are today’s five food finds about Sourdough Bread:

The liquid alcohol layer referred to as ‘hooch’ comes from an Native American tribe called Hoochinoo. The Hoochinoo used to trade supplies with Alaskan gold miners for the ‘hooch’ off the top of their sourdough starters.

Barm is the English term for sourdough starter. It is derived from the term ‘barmy’ which means tipsy, or ditzy. This is because of the alcohol!

Sourdough likely originated in Ancient Egyptian times around 1500 BC and was likely the first form of leavening available to bakers.

Baker’s yeast is not useful as sourdough starter for leavening rye bread, as rye does not contain enough gluten.

Most bread is leavened with yeast, but sourdough is leavened with the Lactobacillus bacterium.

Today in food history…

1582 France adopted the new Gregorian calendar. Prior to that, the new year was celebrated on April 1. (The new year actually started on March 25, which fell during Holy Week – so the celebrations were delayed until the first day of April). One explanation of the origin of ‘April Fools Day’ is that those who failed to accept the new start of the year on January 1 became the object of practical jokes. (Pope Gregory XIII introduced the new Gregorian Calendar in 1582. It is possible that Charles IX of France may have changed the start of the New Year to January in 1564).
1755 Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin was born. A French politician and author of the 8 volume Physiologie du goût, ou Méditation de gastronomie transcendante, ouvrage théorique, historique et à l’ordre du jour (“The Physiology of Taste, or Meditation on Transcendent Gastronomy, a Work Theoretical, Historical, and Programmed”) published in 1825. It treats dining as an art form and contains many delightful and witty observations on the pleasures of the table.
1893 The first dishwashing machine became an award winning success at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, which used Josephine Garis Cochran’s hand operated, mechanical dishwashers in its kitchens. (She patented her original version on December 28, 1886.) Her company eventually evolved into KitchenAid.
1911 Seaman Asahel Knapp died. An American agriculturist, he began the system which evolved into the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service.
1932 Actor Gordon Jump was born. The ‘Maytag Repairman’ in commercials, also Arthur Carlson on ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’.
1960 Tiros I, the first weather observation satellite was launched from Cape Kennedy.
1976 Jimmy Buffet’s ‘Margaritaville’ was released.
1976 R.I.P. Carl Peter Henrik Dam. Dam was a Danish biochemist who discovered vitamin K in 1939.
1996 The Taco Bell fast food chain played an April Food joke on the American public by claiming to have bought the Liberty Bell to help pay down the national debt.
1999 The first minimum wage goes into effect in Britain, £3.60 an hour for adults and £3.00 an hour for those under 22 years old.
1999 In April 1999, Restaurant Nora in Washington DC became America’s first certified organic restaurant. This means that 95% or more of everything that you eat at the restaurant has been produced by certified organic growers and farmers.

Categories: Daily Food History, Food Facts, Food Holidays, March Food Holidays, Today's Food History

Tagged: #foodholidays, #marchfoodholidays, #nationalfoodholidays, nationalsourdoughbreadday, SourdoughBreadDay

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Happy National Peach Cobbler Day!

Here are today’s interesting five food facts to know about Peach Cobbler:

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Happy National Chinese Almond Cookie Day!

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Chinese Almond Cookies:

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Happy National Empanada Day!

Here are today’s five food facts to know about Empanadas:

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Happy Coffee Cake Day

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Happy Hot Chicken Day!

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Happy National Black Forest Cake Day!

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Happy National Nougat Day!

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Happy National Cake Pop Day!

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Happy World Whisky Day!!

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