Some personalities are born, while others are cooked up.
The latter was the case with Betty Crocker.
In October 1921, the Washburn-Crosby Co. (which would later evolve into General Mills) advertised a contest giveaway in the back of The Saturday Evening Post.
Baking a no-frills pumpkin pie with canned pumpkin and a premade crust takes about an hour today, though pie-making wasn’t always so simple.
Before the ease of cracking open a can of pumpkin, cooks had to stew their own mixture, cooking pumpkins for hours just to create a custardy pie filling.
Selecting the right pumpkin was paramount to a proper pie, not every pumpkin was a prize pick for the pastry.
The world knows him as the jovial-looking fellow whose face has graced untold numbers of ravioli cans.
But to those who knew him in life, he was Ettore “Hector” Boiardi which is to say, Chef Boyardee was a real person.
While names like Hershey’s and 3 Musketeers (which originally included three bars) are fairly straightforward, some candy bar monikers are more elusive.
Case in point: what, exactly, is a Snickers? Well, it’s actually a “who” — and not a human “who” at that.
After a woman has had a bun in the oven for nine months, presenting her with a bagel might seem like a strange choice.
But some of the earliest writings on bagels relate to the idea of giving them as gifts to women after labor.
If you’re planning to throw a party, you might need to rent extra tables or chairs, perhaps even a tent or a tux.
But in the 1700s, party hosts and guests looking to make a statement were in the rental market for an entirely different accessory: pineapples.
Berry classification is a confusing business.
People began referring to some fruits as “berries” thousands of years before scientists established their own definitions, some of which are still debated.
Today, little effort is made to teach the public about what botanically constitutes a berry, so here is a bit of help.
Ruth Wakefield was no cookie-cutter baker. In fact, she is widely credited with developing the world’s first recipe for chocolate chip cookies.
In 1937, Wakefield and her husband, Kenneth, owned the popular Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.
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However, when the pair invented the crispy potato composites in the 1950s, they didn’t set out to change snack food history.
Instead, their potato creation came from a quest to reduce the amount of food waste produced at their frozen foods plant.
The brothers behind your favorite frozen waffles took a while to iron out the details of their signature product.
Working in their parents’ basement in San Jose, California, in the early 1930s, Frank, Anthony, and Sam Dorsa first whipped up their own brand of mayonnaise.
Pumpkin itself is native to North America and was first cultivated around 5500 BCE.
The winter squash was almost certainly introduced to European settlers by the Wampanoag people of Massachusetts, who helped the newly arrived colonists at Plymouth survive their first winter.
Foods tend to get their names from their appearance or ingredients, though not all are so clear-cut.
Take, for instance, the egg cream, a beverage that has delighted the taste buds of New Yorkers (and other diner patrons) since the 1890s. But if you’ve never sipped on the cool, fizzy drink known for its chocolate flavor and foamy top, you should know: There are no eggs or cream in a traditional egg cream drink.
Both growing up on Long Island, New York, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield became friends in seventh grade, back in 1963. Originally, they set their sights on being a doctor (Greenfield) and an artist (Cohen).
But once they reached their 20s — a rejected medical school applicant and a potter who dropped out of college — they decided to enter the food industry instead. The duo came close to becoming bagel makers, but realized that producing ice cream was cheaper (bagel-making equipment can be pretty pricey).
Brunch has a hold on Americans — after all, who can pass up the opportunity to enjoy a delicious smattering of sweet and savory plates (alongside good company, of course)?
Apparently, Americans of the past couldn’t say no either, gathering to share food and fun at so-called “waffle frolics.”
These waffle-eating get-togethers were most popular during the Colonial era, eventually petering out by the mid-20th century. At their peak, they were elaborate, multicourse meals that showcased freshly ironed waffles as the main course.
But if it wasn’t, you might have to watch out for flying kernels, since popcorn can pop as high as 3 feet while it transforms from kernel to puff.
However, the tiny grains don’t just fly straight skyward as they expand; high-speed recordings of popcorn as it cooks show that the kernels actually flip like a high-flying gymnast, thanks to starches that push off a cooking surface and propel the corn into the air.
These easily shipped and stored concoctions — known in different dialects as “ge-thcup,” “koe-cheup,” “kêtsiap,” or “kicap” — were shared along Southeast Asian trade routes. By the early 18th century, they had become popular with British traders.
What Is a Food Recall?
Food recalls sound pretty straightforward. Food gets contaminated during some stage of the production process, the FDA steps in, and the items are removed from shelves to keep people safe, right? But the food recall process can actually get a bit murky for shoppers due to two terms: “voluntary” and “mandatory.”
