Ambrosia

Did you know ambrosia has two meanings? It is the food of the gods and a popular 20th century American dessert. Some history on both:

FOOD OF THE GODS

"Ambrosia. The food of the gods in classical mythology. The term may mean food in the narrow sense of eatables, in which case it is the counterpart of nectar, the drink of the gods; or it may mean food in the wider sense of sustenance, when it embraces drink also. What the gods were actually supposed to eat is a matter of conjecture. In the English language any especially delicious food may be called ambrosia; but this usage has become uncommon."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 14)

"Nectar and ambrosia, in the myths, were the foods of the gods, foods that preserved their immortality and that flowed miraculously in some mythical paradise. Oftentimes, world trees grew in paradise and produced these divine foods. The supernatural Tree of Buddha, the haoma tree (a sacred vine of the Zoroastrians), and the Tree of Life in many lands all produced immortal sustenance. People in many early cultures believed that their deities ate special foods unknown to humans: The gods were immortal, and they must have consumed something that made them so...Some writers described nectar as a drink made of honey and fruit, and ambrosia as a kind of porridge made from honey, fruit, olive oil, cheese, barley, and water. Others described ambrosia as an herb that grew on earth (some identified it as parsley or wild sage), an herb they believed prolonged human life just as the ambrosia of the gods preserved their immortality. But it was generally believed that mortals would suffer deadly consequences if they ate the gods' ambrosia or drank the gods' nectar, whatever those divine foods might be..."
---Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews [ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara] 2000 (p. 158)
[NOTE: this book contains far more information than can be paraphrased. Your librarian can help you find a copy]

"Ambrosia and nectar, food, drink and other supplies of the gods. In the Iliad the gods use ambrosia as soap and perfume, and fed their horses ambrosia eidar ambrosial (or perhaps immortal) food'. It is by means of nektar and desired ambrosia', distilled into his breast, that Achilles is protected from exhaustion by Athene, at Zeus's urging. It is with ambrosia and red nektar that Patroclus' and Achilles' bodies are preserved from decay after their death. According to Hesiod the gods eat nektar and ambrosia. Sappho tells of the gods' mixing-bowl, krater, filled with ambrosia to drink. Other early poets, too, seem to regard ambrosia as the liquid or nektar as the solid or simply do not specify."
---Food in the Ancient World From A to Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 7)

AMERICAN DESSERT

"Ambrosia. A dessert made from fruits, sugar and grated coconut, most popular in the South.."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 5)

Culinary evidence confirms three points:

1. Recipes specifically titled ambrosia begin to appear in American cookbooks in the last quarter of the 19th century.
2. Prior to this time there were several recipes that would produce somewhat similar results, listed under different names: iced oranges. The key ingredient that separates these from "true" ambrosia is cocoanut. Mariani tells us that dried coconut meats were known to American cooks at least since 1830 and that in the early part of the twentieth century they were extremely popular.
3. There are many variations of the recipe for ambrosia.

The classic American recipe for ants on a log calls for celery, peanut butter and raisins: Ants on a log (& other "buggy" recipes). Some recipe variations substitute cream cheese or some a commercial cheese spread for the peanut butter.

Who invented "Ants on a log" and when? Excellent questions!
Celery and raisins were eaten (but not necessarily together!) by people living in ancient times. Peanut butter was invented at the very end of the 19th century. Each of these foods [alone or combined] are considered healthy.

Celery, raisin, and nut salads were brought to our country from Germany. These were very popular in the late 19th century (the famous Waldorf Salad). They were mixed with mayonnaise. Small, bite-sized stuffed vegetables became very popular in America at the same time. Stuffing was usually some type of cheese, but could also be anchovy paste and other *exotic* fillings. You will find more details in The American Century Cookbook, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 17). Dr. George Washington Carver combined peanuts and celery in the 1940s, though his recipes were limited to soup & salad
---use your browser's "find" feature to locate recipes that include celery

Historic American cookbooks confirm the American practice of stuffing celery began in the early 20th century. It remained popular through the 1960s. Most of these celery stuffings were soft cheese (cream cheese, soft cheddar) topped with spices (paprika, curry). Some old recipes include nuts and raisins, though none quite describe the finished "ants on a log" we know today. Peanutbutter fillings surface in the early 1960s.

According to the old cookbooks, stuffed celery was served as an appetizer (or hors d'oeuvre) at the beginning of a meal. People of all ages enjoyed this food at dinner parties, family get togethers, and holiday meals. Stuffed celery was also served as to children as snacks. Why? It was healthy and easy to prepare.

Where does ants on a log fit in? Truth is, we don't exactly know. Some magazine and newspaper articles from the 1980s attribute this food to the Girl Scouts, but they don't give a year or publication. Dozens of Web sites confirm this recipe is popular with Girl Scouts, but provide no history. We asked the Girl Scouts of America to confirm. This is what they said:

" That recipe is indeed found in Girl Scout cookbooks as far back as 1946. However, there is no mention of raisins in any of the cookbooks. The recipe is called "celery sticks." I found no mention of it being called "Ants on a Log."

Need more information? Ants on a Log/Barry Popik.

A SURVEY OF STUFFED AMERICAN CELERY RECIPES

[1911]
"Celery with Roquefort.
Select short tender stalks of celery, leaving on leaves, wash and chill thoroughly. Work three-fourths tablespoon butter until creamy and add one and one-half tablepoons Roquefort cheese. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika and spread on inside of celery stalks. Serve on crushed ice."
---Catering for Special Occasions with Menus and Recipes, Fannie Merritt Farmer [David McKay:Philadelphia] 1911 (p. 179)

[1944]
"Stuffed Celery Stalks
Select crisp celery stalks about 2 1/2" to 3" long and stuff them with any of the following mixtures:
1. Blend 1 3 oz pkg. cream cheese with 1/4 c. Canned crushed pineapple and 1 tablesp. Canned pimiento.
2. Lay seedless raisins end to end in celery stalks. Fill with a mixture made by blending 1 3 oz pkg. Cream cheese with 1 tablsp. Top milk, spec pepper, and 1/8 teasp. Paprika [EDITORS NOTE: THIS US "UPSIDE DOWN" ANTS ON A LOG!]
3. Blend 1 3 oz pkg. Cream cheese with 1 tablesp. minced onion and 1 tablesp. Top milk. Partially fill each stalk with this mixture. Then arrange a path of caviar lengthwise through the center of each stalk.
4. Blend 1 3 oz pkg. Cream cheese with 1 teasp. Each of bottled horseradish and minced chives, and 1/4 teasp. Lemon juice.
5. To 3 oz of blue cheese mixed with 3 oz cream cheese, add 1 tablesp. Minced onion and 1/4 c. Top milk or cream.
6. Combine 1 c. Flaked canned salmon with 2 tablsp. Each of chopped ripe olives and green olives, 3 tablsp. Mayonnaise, 1/8 teasp. salt and a speck pepper.
7. Or any one of the canape spreads, p. 107-111, may be used as a filling for celery stalks."
---Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Completely Revised Edition [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944 (p. 115-6)

[1960]
"Celery Sticks.
2 bunches celery
2 oz 3 (8 oz) pkgs soft yellow cheese.
This may be varied by stuffing stalks with peanut butter."
---Cooking Out-of-Doors, Girl Scouts of America [GSA:New York] 1960 (p. 35)

[1963]
"Stuffed Celery Plus.
For a special treat, stuff chilled crisp celery stalks with one of the following:
1. Combine 2 cup creamed cottage cheese with 1 tablespoon chopped stuffed olives. Makes 1 cup.
2. Combine 1 (3-oz) package soft cream cheese with 2 tablespoons drained crushed pineapple. Makes 1/2 cup.
3. Mix 1/2 cup creamed cottage cheese with 1/4 cup grated raw carrot and 2 tablespoons seedless raisins. Makes 2/3 cup.
4. Blend 1/2 cup pasteurized process cheese spread with 2 teaspoons drained sweet-pickle relish. Makes 1/2 cup.
5. Or use crunch-style peanut butter."
---McCall's Cook Book [McCalls:New York] 1963 (p. 625)

[1964]
"How to make 'ants on a log' will be one of the things that Girl Scout leaders will learn at the day camp leadership training session Thursday at McIntosh Woods State Park. ...'Ants on a log' is a salad concoction of celery stuffed with cheese topped with raisins."
---"Scout leaders to sample 'ants on log'." Mason City Gazette [IA] May 26, 1964 (p. 7)

Food historians tell us sauces made with apples and related recipes [stewed apples, apple pudding] were made by medieval European cooks. These sauces could be made from tart to sweet and were served as accompaniments to a variety of foods. In early times, they were called by different names, often with regards to its use as sauce for meat. The applesauce recipe in Elizabeth Raffald's Experienced English Housekeeper (London:1769) is titled "To make Sauce for a Goose." (See below for recipe). The Oxford English Dictionary traces the first use of the word applesause in print to Eliza Smith's Compleat Housewife, 9th edition, [London:1739]. Many 18th century British and American cookbooks contain recipes for applesause, confirming its popularity.

Why combine pork & applesauce?
The practice of combining pork and apples dates back to ancient times. Hannah Glasse, an 18th century English cook book author, instructs her readers to serve roast pork with "some good apple-sauce." The pairing of lamb and mint sauce/jelly follows the same principle.

"Most of the dishes made with apples that we know today are of early origin. For example, to cook apples with fatty meats, so that their sharpness offsets the fat, is a practice which dates back at least as far as classical times when Apicius gave a recipe for a dish of diced pork with apples...the versatility of apples was already being exploited in medieval times; the Forme of Cury and the Menagier de Paris (14th century cook books) give a range of recipes for apple sauce, fritters, rissoles, and drinks."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 30-31)

"Apicius' [Roman, 1st century AD] recipe for 'minutal matianum', a ragout of pork, contains apples...this is a kind of dish still made and eaten, particularly in Northern and Central Europe. The acidity of apples helps the digestion of fat meat such as pork."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble Books:New York] 1992 (p. 629) If you would like to learn more about apples in cookery we recommend Apples: History, Folklore, Horticultures, and Gastronomy by Peter Wynne. This book also contains historic recipes, some for applesauce.

Apple sause recipes through time:

[1390]
"Hot Applesauce (Appulmose) for Meat and Fish.
Nym appelyn and seth hem and lat hem kele and make hem throw a cloth and on flesch dayes kast therto god fat breyt of Bef and god wyte grees and sugar and safronn and almonde mylke of fische dayes, oyle de olyve and gode powdres and serve it forthe.

"This Middle Engish recipe might read something like this in modern English:

"Take apples and poach them. And let them cool and put them through a strainer. And on flesh days, add good, rich beef broth and good white grease and sugar and saffron. On fish days, add almond milk, olive oil and ground spices. And serve it forth."
---From The Forme of Cury (circa 1390), edited by Samuel Pegge, [London:1780], as reprinted and translated in Apples:History, Folklore, Horticulture, and Gastronomy, Peter Wynne [Hawthorne Books:New York] 1975 (p. 201)

[1475]
"Amplummus
Pour faire un amplummus: prenez pommes pelleez et copez par morceaulx, puis mis bouiller en belle esve fresce; et quant il sont bien cuis, purez l'esve hors nettement, puis les suffrisiez en beau bure fres; ayez cresme douce et moyeulx d'oels bien batus, saffren et sel egalment; et au dreschier canelle et chucquere largement pardessus.

"To make an Apple Sauce. Get peeled apples, cut into pieces, then set to boil in puer fresh water. When they are thoroughly cooked, drain off all of the water and sautee them in good fresh butter; get fresh cream and well beaten egg yolks, and saffron, and salt judiciously. On dishing it up, cinnamon and sugar generously over top."
---The Vivendier, A Fifteenth-Century French Cookery Manuscript, A Critical Edition with English Translation by Terence Scully [Prospect Books:Devon] 1997 (p. 46)
[NOTE: editor's comments following this recipe refererence several variations, including the use of cream and egg yolks. He also conjects this recipe might have been appropriate for sick people based on its placement in the book. Similar recipes from other period European texts are cited. Mr. Scully tells us the name "amplummus" is probably a combination of the words "apple" and "mush" derived from Old German.]

[1769]
"To make Sauce for a Goose.
Pare, core, and slice your apples. Put them in a saucepan with as much water as will keep them from burning. Set them over a very slow fire, keep them close covered till they are of a pulp, then put in a lump of butter, and sugar to your taste. Beat them well and send them to the table in a china basin."
---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, With an Introduction by Roy Shipperbottom, facsimile 1769 edition [Southover Press:EastSussex] 1997 (p. 29)

[1803]
To make Apple Sauce
---Carter, Susannah. The Frugal Housewife: Or, Complete Woman Cook; Wherein the Art of Dressing All Sorts of Viands is Explained in Upwards of Five Hundred Approved Receipts... New York, Printed and sold by G. & R. Waite, no. 64, Maidenlane, 1803

[1877]
Dried Apple Sauce & Boiled Cider Apple Sauce
---Wilcox, Estelle Woods. Buckeye Cookery, and Practical Housekeeping: Compiled from Original Recipes. Minneapolis, Minn.: Buckeye Pub. Co., 1877.

ABOUT APPLE BUTTER
Food historians generally credit people of German descent (particularly the Pennsylvania Dutch and Moravians) for introducing fruit butters to our country. In addition to southeastern Pennsylvania, it is traditionally associated with the Appalachian region, especially West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. According to the Dictionary of Americanisms, the first mention of the phrase "apple butter" in print (which often lags several decades behind the actual use of the term) is 1774: "We often make apple butter." This recipe is also known as boiled cider applesauce.

"Apple butter, A Pennsylvania-Dutch cooked fruit puree, dating at least to 1765, made by cooking and pureeing apples with cider."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 10)

"While most Pennsylvania Dutch pickles were designe to humor the meat, preserves were generally intended for some type of Heemgebackenes (homemade baked good), eaten with the meal as a fruit substitute. Among these, the principal "sweet" condiment (if it had sugar in it at all) was apple butter, called Lattwaerrick in Pennsylvania Dutch. Lattwaerick is derived from the German Latwerge, which in turn stems from the Latin electuarium. Lattwaerrick is bound up wtih old medical connotations, for electuarium comes from the Greek eleigma, and internal medicine. During the Middle Ages, and even into the sevententh century, preserves cooked to a paste consistency and containing sugar were considered medicines in Germany. Thus, they were the province of the apothecary shop, as amply demonstrated in the old Sauer herbal. On the vernacular level, this attitude lingered in rural Pennsylvania into the early nineteenth century. Blackberrry jam, for example, was a standard medicine for gallstones."
---Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania Dutch Foods & Foodways, William Woys Weaver [Stackpole Books:Mechanicsburg PA] 2nd edition, 2002 (p. 152)

"And while apples came from England, there's no doubt that the German Rhinelanders (and Moravians) who came south into the Blue Ridge and Cumberland country in the 1700s really honed apple butter-making to a deliciously fine art."
---Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking, Joseph E. Dabney [Cumberland House:Nashville TN]1998 (p. 398)
[NOTE: This book has more information and two recipes]

The earliest recipe we have for apple butter comes from The Kentucky Housewife, Lettice Bryan, 1839:

Apple butter.
Cider for apple butter must be perfectly new form the press, and the sweeter and mellower the apples are of which it is made, the better will the apple butter be. Boil the cider till recuded to one half its original quantity, and skim it well. Do not use for this purpose an iron kettle, or the butter will be very dark, and if you use a brass or copper kettle, it must be scoured as clean and bright as possible, before you put the cider into it, and you must not suffer the butter to remain in it a minute longer than is actually necessary to prepare it, or it will imbibe a copperish taste, that will render it not only unpleasant, but really unhealthy. It is best to prepare it lage in the fall, when the apples are quite mellow. Select those that have a fine flavor, and will cook tender; pare and quarter them from the cores, and boil them in the cider till perfectly soft, having plenty of cider to cover them well. If you wish to make it on a small scale, do not remove the apples from the cider when they get soft, but continue to boil them gently in it, till the apples and cider form a thick smooth marmalade, which you must stir almost constantly towards the last. A few minutes before you take it from the fire, flavor it highly with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, and when the seasonings are wll intermixed, put it up in jars, tie folded paper over them, and keep them in a cool place. If made in a proper manner, it will keep a good more than a year, and will be found very convenient, being always in readiness. Many people who are in the habit of making apple butter, take it from the fire before it is boiled near enough. Both to keep it well, and taste well, it should be boiled long after the apples have become soft, and towards the last, simmered over coals till it gets almost thick enough to slice. If you wish to make it on a large scale, after you have boiled the first kettle full of apples soft, remove them from the cider, draining them with a perforated ladle, that the cider may fall again to the kettle, and put them into a clean tub. Fill up the kettle with fresh apples, having them pared and sliced from the cores, and having ready a kettle of boiling cider, that is reduced to at least half its original quantity; fill up the kettle of apples with it as often as is necessary. When you have boiled in this manner as many apples as you wish, put the whole of them in a large kettle, or kettles, with the cider, and simmer it over a bed of coals till it is so thick, that it is with some difficulty you can stir it: it should be stirred almost constantly, with a wooden spaddle, or paddle, or it will be certain to scorch at the bottom or sides of the kettle. Shortly before you take it from the fire, season it as before directed, and then put it up in jars."
---(p. 375-77)

Other fruits butters...Peach butter & German Prune Butter

Related foods? Applesauce, Apple crisp & Apple pie.

Food historians confirm artichokes descended from their wild cousins cardoons. While the wild variety was consumed in ancient times, modern artichokes, as we know them today, first surface during the Medieval ages. These "Old World" vegetables were introduced to America by European settlers. Jerusalem artichokes, a "New World" food related to sunflowers, are a completely unrelated vegetable.

What are artichokes and how long have we been eating them?
"Although at least three vegetables are called artichokes the globe or French artichoke...has little relationship to either the Jerusalem artichoke or the Chinese artichoke. This is fortunate, because there is confusion enough created by the numerous varities of the globe artichoke grown around the world. ..The artichoke appears to have originated in North Africa (where it still exists in a wild state). It subsequently became a wild thistle in Sicily, where its bitter leaves as well as its flower heads were gathered for food. The Greeks and Romans began its cultivation."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume Two (p. 1722)

"Artichoke [Cynara scolymus], a member of the thistle family. The cultivated globe artichoke is an improved form of the wild cardoon...which is a native of the Mediterranean region with a flower head intermediate in size and appearance between artichoke and common thistle. The true artichoke may have evolved originally in N. Africa, although some have suggested Sicily as its birthplace. It is first mentioned as being brought from Naples to Florence in 1466...In Italy, the very young wholly edible buds have long been eaten just as those of the cardoon were in classical times. They may be deep fried (Carciofini alla Giudea) or pickled. At a slightly later stage, but before they bracts become really tough, the heads may be stuffed; this is a popular dish in Arabic cuisine, which strongly favors the stuffing of vegetables. Sometimes the young stems and leaf midribs are cooked and served like any other stem vegetable. After the artichoke became established, it enjoyed a vogue in European courts, and had a reputation as an aphrodisiac. In modern times it has become more commonplace, and is relatively cheap in S. Europe, where it thrives...The British do note eat artichokes much. Nor are they generally popular in the USA, although they are grown in California and commonly eaten wherever French influence persists, as in Louisiana. In France...Gros Vert de Laon...enjoyed a high reputation until the latter part of the 20th century..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 36)

"Known to the Romans as carduus, the plant of the time was a slight improvement by the Greeks on the kaktos, the wild thistle of Sicily. In antiquity, its bitter leaves as well as its flower-heads were eaten. The plant seems to have reached Sicily from North Africa, where it is still found in the wild state. Poor people there pick the thistle they call korchef to enrich the sauce for their couscous. This kind of thistle was also the ancestor of the cardoon, a specialty of Provence and part of the traditional Christmas supper there...The Italians make an apertif from artichokes which is good for bile, but the principal use resides in the bitter leaves, from which a medicament is also extracted."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble Books:New York] 1992 (p. 706-7)

Symbolism & legends:
"Thousands of years ago, wild artichokes grew on the hills of Greece, Egypt, and parts of Asia. Some scholars have identified these as globe artichokes, the vegetable familiar to people today; others as cardoons, the artichokes' predecessor. Cardoons are wild thistles with sharp prickles on the ends of the leaves. Ancient people familiar with these plants consumed the last flower buds in salads, stews, and soups. Artichokes are one of the world's oldest cultivated vegetables, grown extensively in Greece and Rome. They were highly esteemed in Tudor Englnad, and the British exported them to other parts of Europe. Yet, however edible these wild "thistles" may have been, the ancients certainly recognized the symbolic implications of the sharp leaves. When the Bible's Job contrasted prosperity and usefulness with cruel suffering, he did so by metaphorically contrasting thorns and weeds with wheat and barley--in other words, thistles, which caused pain and suffering, with grain, which brought happiness and prosperity...In one myth, a beautiful young girl named Cinara angered a god, who turned her into an artichoke. Although the gods often changed humans into plants to honor them and reward them with immortality, the transformation of Cinara was clearly a punishment."
---Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews [ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara CA] 2000 (p. 11)

Artichokes in America Credit for introducing artichokes, and their wild cousins cardoons, to the new world is generally given to the French. Spanish evidence also exists. The Italians, however, get the credit for making them popular. While California is famous for cultivating artichokes, evidence exists that Florida might possibly predate introduction.

"The Spanish introduced the artichoke to California, but it was almost unknown to most Americans until well into the twentieth century, when its cultivation in the South and, principally, in California...gave the vegetable a popularity that today is equaled only in France and Italy."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 12)

"The globe artichoke...originated in the Mediterranean basin...were eaten by ancient Greeks and Romans...North African Arabs improved the artichoke during Europe's Dark Ages and introduced the new version into Muslim-controlled parts of southern Italy. During the Renaissance, the improved artichoke became highly prized, first in Italian and later in French cookery. Artichokes were also introduced into England at this time...Globe artichokes, also called French artichokes or green artichokes, were grown in Virginia as early as the 1720s and in New England around the time of the Revolutionary War, when they may have been introduced by allied French soldiers. Instructions for growing artichokes regularly appeared in gardening books beginning in 1806...Before the Civil War, artichokes often appeared on the tables of wealthy Virginia planters...Artichokes were grown in California and Louisiana in the eighteenth century but were not a successful commerical crop. In the 1890s, Italian farmers in northern California's Half Moon Bay planted the crop, and beginning in 1904 boxcar loads of artichokes were sent east from California to supply the needs of artichoke lovers on the East Coast--at that point, mainly Italian immigrants...In 1922, Italian farmers began cultivating artichokes in the Salinas Valley of California."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith, editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 50)

"The artichoke, though grown in Virginia as early as the 1720s, came late to New England. A few years before the War of Independence a Boston resident said she had never seen one. They probably arrived with America's French allies, for a few years after the war a French traveler claimed that artichokes grew well in Massachusetts but only as a 'curiosity' for no one eats them. In time they would be called French artichokes."
---Food and Drink in America: A History, Richard J. Hooker [Bobbs-Merrill Company:Indianapolis] 1981(p. 51)

Our print food history sources generally agree "old world" artichokes were introduced to American colonial soil by the French in the early 18th century. BUT we also find evidence of the Spanish cultivating "wild artichokes" (aka cardoons) in 16th century Florida. These foods are related both genetically and in appearance. Notes below:

Florida artichokes
"Attempts were made to introduce cherished Old World crops...Vegetables they attempted to raise included...cardoon..."
---Reconstructing Historic Subsistence with an Example from Sixteenth-Century Spanish Florida, Elizabeth J. Reitz and C. Margaret Scarry, Society for Historical Archaeology, Special Publication Series, Number 3 1985 (p. 47)
[NOTE: This scholarly publication offers several footnotes crediting sources for this information.] ?

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink In America/Andrew F. Smith states there were Italians living in New Smyrna, Florida in 1768. The culinary connection between Italians and cardoons/artichokes is well documented. Possibly the vegetable was grown in this location as well.

California artichokes
Neither artichokes nor cardoons appear to have a place in California Mission Cookery (c. 18th century). The Italians are credited for "introducing" these vegetables to California in the late 19th-early 20th centuries.

"The globe artichoke is actually the bud of a giant thistle. The plant itself is a decorative one, as anyone who has seen the acres of them along the coast around Half Moon Bay knows full well. Almost all commercially grown, artichokes come from this region, and from there they are shipped to all parts of the country. Artichokes, when first introduced to California, were a flop, too many people being of the opinion that they were more trouble than they were worth. The Italians, of course, knew better, but only because they knew so well how to cook them. Finally the Palace Hotel, in San Francisco, started to feature artichokes, and they immediately became very much the mode. Today they are standard fare, from Seattle to San Diego."
---West Coast Cook Book, Helen Brown [Cookbook Collectors Library] 1952 (p. 357)

"Mrs. Helen Evans Brown, authority on Golden State cookery, tells us that artichokes were slow to catch on widely when they were first cultivated in California. Italian-Americans, whose forefathers were eating artichokes in 1400 AD, persevered in growing them in the one district in the United States ideally suited to them--the foggy area south of Fan Francisto along Half Moon Bay. The famous Palace Hotel in San Francisco had a hand finally in popularizing artichokes, at leasta on the West Coast. Mrs. Brown says that the vegetable long has been served there, appearing on a menu as early as 1879 as 'artichokes barigoule.' That term puzzles home cooks, for a thousand and one recipes for artichokes barigoule exist, each a bit different one from the other. The Larousse Gastronomique, French dictionary of the table, explains that a la barigoule may be applied to any stuffed artichoke. The word may derive, some think from brigoule or bourigoule, a mushroom of the Midi, used in stuffing artichokes in that region. Mrs. Evans' daptation of the Palace's artichokes bsarigoule, circa 1880, follows. The recipe provides a pleasing first course at dinner or a nice lunch or supper dish.

Artichokes Barigoule
4 medium artichokes
4 slices bacon
1/4 cup minced shallots or white onions
1/2 cup minced mushrooms
1 tablespoon minced parsley
Salt, pepper, nutmeg
4 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup stock or white wine or half 'n' half.
1. Trim and boil the artichokes for five minutes in salted, boilking water. Drain, remove chokes and soak in acidulated water (a tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar to a quart of water).
2. 'Half-fry' the bacon, drain and mince. Combine with the shallots, mushrooms, parsley and seasonings to taste.
3. Drain the artichokes upside down, then stuff them with bacon mixture. Tie a string around each.
4. Heat the oil in a flame-proof baking dish. Brown artichokes in it. Add stock, cover and bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) till artichokes are tender when the bottoms pierce easily with a fork. Remove strings.
Yield: Four portions."
---"Food: The First Artichokes," Jane Nickerson, New York Times, October 4, 1955 (p. 32)

"Cardoon, Cynara cardunculus, a member of the thistle family, a native of the Mediterranean region with a flower head intermediate in size and appearance between artichoke and the common thistle. Long before the artichoke was developed, the ancient Greeks and Romans regarded the cardoon as a great delicacy. It was first described in the 4th century BC by the Greek writer Theophrastus, who stated that it was a native of Sicily. (Probably it was originally introduced from N. Africa.) Not only the flowering heads but also the stems and the midribs of the main leaves were eaten. Young buds were pickled in vinegar or brine with silphium and cumin. The cardoon remained popular through the Middle Ages and continued to appear in English cookery books through the 18th and into the 19th century, but in recent times cultivation and consumption have been greater in N. Africa and S. Europe than in W. Europe."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 137)

"The cardoon is, like its close relative the globe artichoke, a member of the thistle family. It is cultivated for its leaves, and particularly for their (fairly) succulent stalks, which are blanched by earthing up in much the same way as celery. English acquired the word from French cardon, which is a derivative of French carde, meaning edible part of an artichoke'. This in turn came ultimately from Latin cardus or carduus, thistle, artichoke'...English word chard comes from the same source. First mention of cardoons in English comes in Randle Cotgrave's Dictionary of the French and English Tongues (1611)..."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 58)

"Cardoon, cardo, gobbo...is a cultivated version of the wild cardoon...from which cultivated artichokes also derive. With the fleshy leaf stems, spines, and strings removed, cardoons can be eaten raw, with various sauces, or cooked in different ways. In the past, raw cardoon were held to make a healthy end to the meal, dipped in salt and pepper, freshening the mouth and improving the taste of wine, as well has having aphrodisiac properties. Seasoned with the Bagna Cauda of Piedmont, they would nowadays be eaten raw at the beginning of a meal. Their mild bitterness can be enhanced with butter and parmesan, or olive oil, after parboiling in water, or the prepared stems can be stewed in stock."
---Oxford Companion to Italian Food, Gillian Riley [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2007 (p. 102-3)

"One of the edible thistles, the cardoon...is a relative of the globe artichoke It is celery-like in appearance, with silver gray stalks. The plant is native to the Mediterranean region, where it has been cultivated since the days of the Romans and where it remains a popular vegetables in Spain, France, and Italy. Cardoons were cultivated for a time in the United States but were never much appreciated save by Italian-Americans, in whose markets the vegetables can still be found...They are frequently eaten raw in a sauce of olive oil, anchovies, and garlic; when cooked (usually blanched) the stalks taste bittersweet--something like celery and something like artichokes."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Krimehild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume Two (p. 1745-6)

Our survey of 19th century American cookbooks confirms the inclusion of aspic recipes. They also sometimes include recipes for tomato jelly. The earliest recipe we find for tomato aspic is from Fanny Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cookbook, circa 1896. You can view additional historic aspic recipes with Michigan State University's Feeding America digitized cookbooks.

[1846]
Arm & Hammer Baking Soda & How baking soda works

Soda Ash or Trona, Mineral Information Institute

The history of modern baking powder begins in the late 18th century:

Pearlash
"Pearl ash--This was a popular name for potassium carbonate, a refined form of potash, in turn an alkaline substance obtained by leaching ashes of wood or other plants (pot ashes). The use of wood ash in meat curing is ancient. And lye, the leaching water, has long been used from cleansing and making of soap. But the use of these alkaline substances as leavening appears to be American in origin. Study of Indian lore is frustrating because of early contamination, but it does seem that Indians employed ash as seasoning becasue of its salt content, and as a foaming agent in their breads. With corn meal, even using purer forms, the effect is largely a change in texture; with wheat flour, the leavening is specatular and virtually instantaneous, particularly when sparked by the acidity of sour milk, for example. This usage is first recorded, it seems, in 1796 by Amelia Simmons in a recipe for gingerbread; molasses supplies the requisite acidity. But the practice clearly was widespread and already of long standing as shown by a recipe for Handy-cake or Bread in Essays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs by J. B. Bordley (1801): "The good people of Long Island call this pot-ash or handy-cake;...wheat flour 2 lbs; sugar 1/2 lb, have added to them a tea spoonful of salt of tartar heaped, or any other form of pot or pearl ash."...Gradually, saleratus and other baking sodas replaced pearl ash...Eventually, acid and alkali were combined in one baking powder'."
---The Virginia House-Wife, Mary Randolph, with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p.281-282/notes from Ms. Hess)

"The alkaline component of baking powder is usually Bicarbonate of Soda, also known as baking soda. The first type, invented in the USA in 1790 was pearl ash', potassium carbonate prepared from wood ash. This provided only the alkali; the acid had come from some other ingredients, for example sour mlk. Pearl ash reacted with fats in the food, forming soap which gave an unpleasant taste. Soon it was replaced by bicarbonate of soda, which still reacts in this was but to a much smaller extent. An American name used for either of these alkali-only agents was saleratus.

True baking powder, containing both bicarbonate of soda and an acid, was introduced around 1850. The acid was cream of tartar or tartaric acid, both of which conveniently form crystals. This was mixed with a little starch to take up moisture and so keep the other components dry, so that they did not react prematurely. A disadvantage of this mixture was that is sprang into rapid action as soon as it was wetted, so that the dough had to mixed quickly and put straight into the oven before the reaction stopped.

Modern baking powder still uses these substances, but some of the cream of tartar (or tartaric acid) is replaced with a slower acting substance such as acid sodium pyrophosphate. This hardly reacts at all at room temperature, but speeds up when heated, so that bread and cakes rise well in the oven."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] (p. 50)

What was saleratus?
Good question. We find several definitions of this compound chemical leavener:

"Saleratus.
An early-nineteenth-century form of baking powder (1830). Used as a leavening agent, it was an improvement over pearlash (used in the eighteenth century) and predated baking soda, which came along in the 1870s. Saleratus (which in Latin means "aerated salt") was first made from potassium bicarbonate, then sodium bicarbonate, and it imparted an undesirable bitterness. One may still hear of old-fashioned saleratus bread and biscuits, although one will no longer find saleratus in a grocery store."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 280)

"A score of years before the Civil War, the American breadmaker received help in the form of a new leavening agent called saleratus, which changed its name later to baking soda. It was convenient to use, but required the help of an acid to perform its work; cream of tartar was the one usually chosen. In 1856, baking powder was devised; this provided the cream of tartar, or some equivalent, already mixed with the baking soda."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 225)

"In order to make their bread and cakes rise the emigrants [westward-bound pioneers] carefully packed saleratus. Saleratus, from the Latin salaeratus (aerated salt), is potassium or sodium bicarbonate, a chalklike substance. It was a commercial leavening product that, like its predecessor pearlash, allowed cooks to bake bread without yeast and cakes without large quantities of beaten eggs. Saleratus had to be mixed with an acidic food or chemical, such as cream of tartar, to activate the leavening process. Unlike our present-day baking soda, which must adhere to a standard formula, the leavening action of saleratus depended on the brand. Manufacturers in that era varied the amounts of chemicals added according to what they thought was the best formula. As a rule, saleratus was stronger than today's baking soda. Saleratus was first processed by adding carbonic acid to pearlash and changing potassium carbonate to bicarbonate. Later the product was made from the reamins of marine plants and sea salt, a fortunate discovery because pearlash was derived from the ashes of trees. Large forests had been stripped to meet the demand for this new product. Saleratus became available commercially in 1840 and was packaged in paper envelopes with recipes. Catherine Beecher, considered an authority on domestic matters, advised the "when Pearlash or Saleratus becomes damp, dissolve it in as much water as will just entirely dissolve it, and no more. A tablespoonful of this equals a teaspoonful of solid. Keep it cored in a junk bottle." Saleratus worked best when added to dough that would bake quickly over a high heat. Cast-iron utensils placed over the intense heat of an outdoor fireplace served perfectly. Cooking over hot coals had many disadvantages but it did produce heat quickly. If the supply of saleratus brought from home was depleted, the emigrants supplemented it from natural soda springs found near Sweetwater River...Besides using saleratus as a leavening agets in baked goods...[emigrants] used it to hull corn."
---Wagon Wheel Kitchens: Food on the Oregon Trail, Jaqueline Williams [University Press of Kansas:Lawrence] 1993 (p. 9-11)

"Saleratus: the monopotamic or monosodic carbonate. The potassium salt was formerly used in baking, but it has been generally displaced by bi-carbonate of sodium, which is preferable as a culinary ingredient and more easily assimilated by the system."
---The Grocer's Encyclopedia, Artemas Ward [New York] 1911 (p. 538)

Baking powder
"Baking powder: A combination of sodium bicarbonate and acid salt salt that became popular in the 1850s as a leavening agent in baking what came to be called quick bread, lightnin' bread, or aerated bread. By 1854 Americans had self-rising flour, which was baking powder mixed with flour. In 1867 James A. Church introduced Arm & Hammer "baking soda," a new term for the earlier used but less desirable potassium or sodium bicarbonate, also called saleratus" (an American variant of the Latin sal [salt] "+aeratus" [aerated]). In 1889 William M. Wright developed a double-acting baking powder whose leavening action began in the dough and repeated in the oven. Wright and his partner, chemist George C. Rew, marketed the product under the name Calumet Baking Powder."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 17)

Baking soda, muriatic acid, cream of tartar, Boston Cooking School Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln [1884]

"Few realize that the first type, the cream of tartar baking powder, has practically disappeared from the market. Combination baking powder now dominates the field. It contains phosphates and aluminum as do our natural foods. The essential facts regarding this efficient and wholesome product are told clearly in this book."
---Modern Baking Powder, Juanita E. Darrah, published by Comonwealth Press [Chicago, IL] in 1927.

Most food history books place the invention of baking powder in the "1850s." Some say 1856. The earliest reference we find to a product called baking powder is dated 1852. This evidence suggests baking powder was used several years before Rumford introduced its famous product in 1859.

[1852]
"Durkee's Baking Powder. Housewives are advised to try the above article and they will find a cessation of complaints from husbands and other about sour or heavy bread, biscuits, pastry, &c, and on the contrary, will hear accompanied by smiles "What nice biscuits you have made, my dear," &c &c. Grocers and other can be supplied by calling at or sending orders through Penny Post to the principal depot, No. 139 Water St."
---New York Times, April 7, 1852 (p.2)

[1855]
"Dissolution. The copartnership heretofore existing under the firm of Rogers & Lockwood, manufacturers of Judd's Baking Powder, is this day dissolved. New York, June 13, 1855."
---New York Times, June 14, 1855 (p. 8)

[1856]
"Baking powder is introduced commercially for the first time in the United States."
---The Food Chronology, James Trager [Henry Holt:New York] 1995 (p. 254)
[NOTE: No company, place, or person credited.]

Yeast
Leavener history, from the Hulman Company
How baking powder works, chemical reactions
About ammonium carbonate and ammonia cookies

Records filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office confirm "broccolini" was introduced to the American public Feburary 18, 1998:

Word Mark BROCCOLINI Goods and Services IC 031. US 001 046. G & S: Fresh Vegetables. FIRST USE: 19980218. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19980218 Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 75446875 Filing Date March 9, 1998 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Published for Opposition April 18, 2000 Registration Number 2365625 Registration Date July 11, 2000 Owner (REGISTRANT) Mann Packing Co., Inc. CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 1333 Shilling Place Salinas CALIFORNIA 93101 Attorney of Record Tracy P. Marshall Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20100619. Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 20100619 Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

Word Mark BROCCOLINI Goods and Services (ABANDONED) IC 031. US 001 046. G & S: VEGETABLES; NAMELY, BROCCOLI AND CHINESE BROCCOLI (GAI-LAN). FIRST USE: 19980310. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19980310 Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 75465045 Filing Date April 9, 1998 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Owner (APPLICANT) Agricultural Innovation and Trade, Inc. dba Underwood Ranches, CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 3241 Somis Road Somis CALIFORNIA 93066 Attorney of Record JOHN E KELLY Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Live/Dead Indicator DEAD Abandonment Date February 19, 1999

Additional broccolini notes from Washington State University Extension Service.

Very few foods are "invented." They evolve over time according to product availability and local taste. Recipes for all sorts of chocolate cakes, cookies, frostings, and candy (esp. fudge) proliferated during the last quarter of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. This was due, in a part, to chocolate manufacturers who agressively marketed their products to the American public. Mass production meant chocolate was no longer a food of the rich. It could be enjoyed by everybody. Company cookbooks, promotions, and advertisements give us our glimpse of where the idea for brownies might have originated.

Food historians have several theories about the history & origin of brownies:

"Chocolate, made from native American cocoa beans, was first consumed as a bitter beverage like coffee, soon afterwards sweetened with sugar, which itself was very expensive until the mid-18th century. By 1780 John Hanan had opened the first chocolate factory under the financing of Dr. James Baker (therein the origin of "Baker's Chocolate," a product still made by General Mills, Inc.). Cocoa powder didn't come along until 1828, and the first chocolate bar, made by the Cadbury Company of England, didn't came along until 1842. Chocolate cakes, therefore, were a rarity, and it was most probably an American baker who baked the first of them, and the brownie, which would be made with unsweetened or dark chocolate, was among the first. Its texture, somewhat chewy rather than cake-like, gives the brownie its appeal, and there are those who prefer it more like fudge than cake, which further sets it apart from traditional cakes. Last but not least, brownies should not be tall, but only an inch or so high, which also increases their density of texture and flavor."
---"Brownies Are Back," John Mariani, Restaurant Hospitality, Feb 99, (p. 54)

"Brownie...the name comes from the deep brown color of the confection, and it has been an American favorite since the nineteenth century first appearing in print in 1906 in the "Boston Cooking-School Cook Book," (Earlier references to "brownies" include Sears, Roebuck Catalog for 1897, although the reference is to mail order chocolate candies named after cartoon elves created by author Palmer Cox in a series that began with "The Brownies: Their Book" [1887], and in the 1896 edition of the "Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" for a browned molasses confection containing no chocolate.)"
---The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p.44)

"The two earliest recipes I could find for chocolate brownies appear in the 1906 edition of The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (with 2 squares Baker's Chocolate, melted) and in Lowney's Cook Book, written by Maria Willet Howard and published by the Walter M. Lowney Company of Boston in 1907...A note in Betty Crocker's Baking Classics (1979) says that Bangor Brownies are probably the original chocolate brownies. Legend has it that a Bangor, Maine, housewife was baking chocolate cake one day and it fell. Instead of pitching it out, this frugal cook cut the collapsed cake into bars and served it, apparently with high marks. Was that the beginning of brownies as we know them today? New York food historian Meryle Evans doubts it, believing this story, like so many others, to be apocryphal. Some say brownies were invented by a woman named Brownie. Others that brownies are an Americanization of Scottish cocoa scones...The real story isn't known...Whatever their true origin, brownies didn't become popular until the 1920's."
---The American Century Cookbook, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 492)
[NOTE: The Scottish connection might be Broonie, aka Orkney oatmeal gingerbread. F. Marian McNeill's The Scots Kitchen contains a recipe for this item on page 191. Ingredients: oatmeal, brown sugar, butter, ground ginger, baking soda, treacle, egg and buttermilk. Except for the oatmeal, it is similar to Fannie Farmer's 1896 recipe (see below).]

"The original brownies had no leavening, except for an egg or two, and little flour, but were so rich with butter and melted chocolate that they baked up softer than other cookies...Fannie Merrit Farmer's first brownie recipe, published in 1896, produced a confection that was colored and flavored with molasses. Each brownie had a nut placed at its center. All early brownies contained chopped nuts as well...The first chocolate brownie recipe was...published by Fannie Farmer in her 1905 revision of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. The proportions are similar to her 1896 chocolate cookie recipe, except that she radically reduced the amount of the flour. In the chocolate recipe she specified a "7-inch square pan."...[Maria Willett] Howard, who had been trained by Fannie Farmer, was then employed by the Walter Lowney chocolate company. She enriched Farmer's chocolate brownie recipe with an extra egg, creating Lowney's Brownies. She then varied the recipe by adding an extra square of chocolate and named the Bangor Brownies. This last recipe apparently started the idea that brownies were invented by housewives in Bangor, Maine. The leading advocate ot the Bangor theory of brownie origin was Mildred Brown Schrumpf, aptly nicknamed "Brownie," born in Bangor in 1903. Unfortunately, Mrs. Schrumpf's best piece of evidence was a Girl's Welfare Cook Book publsihed there in 1912. This is not only seven years post-Farmer, but the recipe contributed by Marion Oliver for Chocolate Brownies to that cookbook is almost exactly the same as the two-egg recipe for Lowney's Brownies, not Bangor Brownies. Oliver also contributed a recipe for Molasses Brownies evidently taken from the Farmer cookbook...Maria Howard may have considered the Bangor Brownies, which were to be baked in a cake pan (unlike her Lowney's Brownies), to be descended from a recipe for Bangor Cake in Maria Parloa's Appledore Cook Book (1872), which was a white sheet cake...In fact, the two-egg Lowney's Brownies was the recipe most often reprinted in new England community cookbooks before 1912."
---The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 136-7)

Who was Mildred Brown Schrumpf?
"Mildred Brown Schrumpf--Orono, Maine As Home Economist, "Good Samaritan," Nutritionist, Newspaper Columnist, Food Judge, Author and Cook, Mildred "Brownie" Schrumpf can truly be called "First Cook" of the State of Maine. " (no mention of chocolate brownies)

early Brownie recipes:

[1896] Brownies, Fannie Merritt Farmer (molasses, not chocolate)

[1912] "Lowney's Brownies
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 squares Lowney's Premium Chocolate
2 eggs
1/2 cup nut meats
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream butter, add remaining ingredients, spread on buttered sheets, and bake ten to fifteen minutes. Cut in squares as soon as taken from oven."
---Lowney's Cook Book Illustrated, Maria Willett Howard, Revised Edition [Walter M. Lowney Co.:Boston] 1912 (p. 278)

[1912] "Bangor Brownies"
1/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3 squares chocolate
1/2 to 3/4 cup flour
1 cup nut meats
1/4 teaspoon salt
Put all ingredients in bowl and beat until well mixed. Spread evenly in buttered baking pan. Bake and cut in strips."
---ibid (p. 273)
[NOTE: The Lowney company was manufacturer of chocolate and cocoa. It published many books and brochures to promote its products to the public.]

[1918]
Brownies, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer [1918] (scroll down towards the bottom of the page)

[1933]
"Brownies
3 tablespoons shortening (melted)
1 cup sugar
1 egg, unbeaten
2 squares chocolate
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 salt
1/2 cup nuts
1. Melt the shortening, add the sugar and egg.
2. Add the melted chocolate, milk, and vanilla.
3. Sift the dry ingredients and add them to the chocolate mixture. Flour the nutmeats and add to the mixture.
4. Grease a shallow baking tin and pour in the brownie mixture, spreading it over the bottom of the pan so that it is about one-fourth inch thick.
5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350 degrees F."
---Girl Scout Handbook [Girl Scouts of America:New York] 1933 (p. 419)

Blondies

Food historians generally agree that recipes named "brownies" and chocolate brownies [as we know them today] were first introduced in the beginning of the 20th century. This coincides with the mass production [availability & affordability] of chocolate and cocoa. Here are our notes on the history of [chocolate] brownies.

According to old cookbooks, blonde brownies (also known as "Blondies") predated chocolate brownies, though under different names. The primary ingredients of blondies (brown sugar/molasses and butter) compose butterscotch, a candy that was popular in America in the mid-19th century. Some 19th century American cookbooks contain recipes that combined traditional butterscotch ingredients with flour and a leavening agent (baking powder or soda). Presumably, these recipes would have produced something similar to the blonde brownies we enjoy today.

Is this the beginning of the "brownie/blondie" recipe? Most likely not.

Enter--the gingerbread factor.
European Medieval and Renaissance cookbooks contain recipes for soft, chewey cakes and cookies that used treacle (a precursor to brown sugar) as an ingredient. It was called gingerbread. Cooks were often instructed to cook gingerbread in shallow pans and add nuts, just as many traditional brownie recipes do today. Notes on gingerbread history from Alice Ross.

Before gingerbread? Ancient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian cooks made soft cakes with honey, flour, spices and nuts.

"By the 1950s, butterscotch or vanilla brownies were described as "blonde brownies," underscoring the primacy of chocolate."
---The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 137)

A sampling of ingredients listed in historic blondie-type recipes:

[1747]--To make Ginger-Bread Cakes
flour, sugar, butter, ginger, nutmeg, treakle, cream, nuts
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse (p. 139)

[1828]--Common Gingerbread
molasses, brown sugar, butter, flour, milk, pearl-ash (leavener), ginger
---Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats, by a Lady of Philadelphia [Eliza Leslie] (p. 66)

[1896]--Brownies
butter, sugar, molasses, egg, bread flour, pecans
---Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer (p. 424)

[1946]--Pecan Brownies
egg whites, brown sugar, maple flavoring, pecans, dry bread crumbs
---Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook, Ruth Berolzheimer (p. 239)

Additional notes, modern varieties/growing instructions & pictures.

Related food? Soba noodles (Japan)

The word casserole has two meanings: a recipe for a combination of foods cooked together in a slow over and the dish/pot used for cooking it. Casserole, as a cooking method, seems to have derived from the ancient practice of slowly stewing meat in earthenware containers. Medieval pies are also related, in that pastry was used as a receptacle for slowly cooking sweet and savory fillings. Early 18th century casserole recipes [the word entered the English language in 1708] typically employed rice which was pounded and pressed (similar to the pastry used for pies) to encase fillings. Like their Medieval ancestors, they were both savory and sweet. The casseroles we know today are a relatively modern invention. Casserole cookery is known in other cultures and cuisines as well: the tagines of Morocco and the mud-encrusted Beggar's Chicken of China are two examples. Tuna noodle and Green bean casseroles have become iconic American family dishes of the twentieth century. New World casseroles were enjoyed by ancient Aztec peoples.

Some brief notes on history:

"Casserole....The word has a complicated history, starting with a classical Greek term for a cup (kuathos), progressing to a Latin word (cattia), which could mean both ladle and pan, then becoming an Old French word (casse...), which then became casserole...Historically, casserole cookery has been especially popular in rural homes, where a fire is in any case burning all day and every day...Although casserole is a western term, the use of cooking pots which would be called casseroles in Europe or Americas is almost universal in Asia."
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] (p. 143)

"Casserole...perhaps the most remarkable aspect of its history is the complete and sudden change in the dish it refers to that has taken place within the past hundred years. When English took it over from French at the beginning of the eighteenth century it meant a dish of cooked rice moulded into the shape of a casserole cooking pot and then filled with a savoury mixture, say of chicken or sweetbreads. It was also applied by extension to a border of rice, or even of mashed potato, round some such dish as fricasee or curry...Then some time around the 1870s this sense of casserole seems to have slipped inperceptibly by swiftly into a dish of meat, vegetable, and stock or other liquid, cooked slowly in the oven in a closed pot', its current sense...The word seems not to have been used as a verb in English until after the First World War: It seemed a shame to casserole [the chicken], for it would ave roasted beautiful' (Dorothy Sayers, Strong Poison, 1930)."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 60-1)

"Casserole: A dish or pot made from a material such as glass, cast iron, aluminum, or earthenware in which food is baked and, often, served. The word, which may also refer to the food itself...is from the French and was first printed in English in 1708....Cooking in such dishes has always been a part of most nation's gastronomy, but the idea of casserole cooking as a one-dish meal became popular in America in the twentieth century, especially in the 1950s when new forms of lightweight metal and glassware appeared on the market. The virtues of easy-to-prepare meals were increasingly promoted in the women's magazines of the era, thereby supposedly freeing the housewife from the lengthy drudgery of the kitchen....By the 1970s casserole cookery took on a less-than sophisticated image..."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p.59)

"Casserole cookery has been around since prehistoric times, when it was discovered that cooking food slowly in a tightly covered clay vessel softened fibrous meats and blended succulent juices...With the addition or subtractions of leftovers or inexpensive cuts of meat, the casserole is flexible and economical in terms of both ingredients and effort. The classic casserole, a French dish, was originally made with a mound of cooked rice. Fannie Meritt Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book (1896) had one casserole recipe, for Casserole of Rice and Meat, to be steamed for forty-five minutes and served with tomato sauce. In the twentieth century, casseroles took on a distinctive American identity. During the depression of the 1890s, the economic casserole provided a welcome way to stretch meat, fish, and poultry. Certain items were also scarce during World War I and leftovers were turned into casserole meals. The same was true during the Great Depression of the 1930s."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 194)

A brief survey of casserole recipes through time:

[1747] "To dres[s] Rabbits in Casserole.
Divide the Rabbits into Quarters, you may lard them or let them alone just as you please, shake some Flour over them, and fry them with Lard or Butter, then put them into an earthen Pipkin with a Quart of good Broth, a Glass of White Wine, a little Pepper, and Salt if wanted, a Bunch of Sweet Herbs, and a Piece of Butter as big as a Walnut rolled in Flour; cover them close and let them stew Half an Hour, then dish them up and our the Sauce over them. Garnish with Seville Orange cut into thin Slices and notched, the Peel that is cut out lay prettily between the Slices."
---The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, [London] (p. 51)

[1869] "Rice Casserole with Lamb Sweetbreads
Wash 2 pounds of rice in water, twice; drain, and put it in a stewpan with doule its quantiti of water; season with salt and pepper, and put it on the fire; when the water boils, cover the rice with some thin slices of fat bacon, and put it on a slow fire with some live coals on the cover of the stewpan; When the rice is cooked, pount it in a morter; then gather it up in a ball; put it on a baking-sheet, and mould it with the hands to the shape of a casserole; Brush the casserole over with a brush dipped in clarified butter, and put it in the oven until it asumes a nice yellow colour; Trim and remove some of the rice from the inside, and fill the casserole with a blanquette of lamb sweetbreads...place a circle of larded and glazed lamb sweetbreads round the top, and finish with some cock's combs in the centre; and serve."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated to English by Alphonse Gouffe [London] (p. 450)

[1880s] "Casserole of Rice (English method)
Wash a pound of the best rice in two or three waters, a boil it very gently until it is quite tender by whole. Drain it and beat it well. If for a sweet casserole, use mik, sugar, a little butter, and lemon or other flavouring. If intended for meat or fish, stew the rice with water and fat, and season it with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. When quite cool, put a bordering about three inches high and three wide round the edge of a shallow dish, brush it over with egg or clarified butter, and set it in the oven to brown. Then place in the middle of the stew, curry or sweets which are prepared for it. Time to boil the rice, three-quarters of an hour...Sufficient for five or six persions."

Casserole of Rice (French method)
Wash one pound of the best Carolina rice in two or three waters. Drain it, and put it into a stewpan with a quart of water, a large onion, a tea-spoonful of salt, and two ounces of fat. The skimmings of saucepans will answer for this purpose, or fat bacon, but if these are not at hand, use butter. Simmer very gently till the rice is quite soft but whole. Then drain it, and pound it to a paste. Well butter a baking dish or casserole mould, and press the paste into it. Mark the top a cover, making the mark rather deep. Pour a little butter over the whole, let it get cold, then turn it out of the mould, and bake it in a very hot oven till it is brightly browned, but not hard. The oven can scarcely be too hot for it. Take off the marked cover about a inch in depth. Scoop out the middle, and fill it with whatever is prepared for it. This may consist of mincemeat, Irish stew, rechauffed curries, hashes, or macaroni. Pour it a suitable sauce, replace the cover, and before service return it to the oven for a few minutes. Time to boil the rice, about three quarters of an hour...Sufficient for six persons."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Modern Cookery, London (p. 110-1)

[1884] Casserole of rice and meat, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln

[1912] About casseroles:
"There is no doubt that the fashion of cooking in casseroles or eathenware dishes has come to stay in this country; and it is hardly a matter of surprise when the advantages of this form of cookery are really understoood, whether it be actual casserole cookery, so called, or cookery in fireproof utensils. Cooking "en casserole" is a term which signifies dishes cooked and served in the same eartheware pot or utensil, though, as every one knows, the original French word is the generic name for a stewpan or a saucepan. The old idea of a caserole was some preparation of chopped fish, or vegetables enveloped in a crust of cooked rice, macaroni, or potato. Properly speaking, however, a casserole is a dish, the material for which in many instances is first prepared in the saute or frying pan and then transferred to the earthenware pan to finish cooking by a long, slow process which develops the true flavors of the food being cooked. The sooner the casserole utensil becomes an indispensable part of our everyday kitchen outfit the better...When casserole cookery is thoroughly understood, many combinations of food and many inexpensive viands will be put to use and very palatable results obtained."
---How to Cook Casserole Dishes, Marion H. McNeil [David McKay:Philadelphia] (p. vii-viii)

[1924] "Casserole cookery
The expression en casserole is frequently misunderstood, for the reason that the word casserole is used in two quite different ways by writers on domestic subjects. Properly speaking, a casserole is the coarse clay saucepan so common in France in which meats and vegetables are not only cooked, but served on the table. The other usage of the word casserole is intended to describe a case or mold, either of potato, rice or fried bread, inside of which is placed some preparation of meat or vegetables. The word casserole in this case really signified a border or croustade and is therefore more or less misleading. This latter form of casserole will be found in the chapter on entrees. The casserole should be chosen with consideration for the needs of the home. There are casseroles of every size, from the individual ramekin up to the largest size, which will hold a couple of chickens; and of very shape--small ones with long handles, oval and round, shallow and deep ones; in many colors--blue, green, brown, yellow and mixtures; of a variety of materials--glass, vitrified china, earthenware, iron and aluminum....The casserole saves washing dishes, for the food is brought to the table in the dish in which it is cooked. Frequently, also, it contains a one dish meal which eliminates all but the one cooking and serving dish. It makes possible the use of left-overs in attractive, palatable, and appetizing ways, the cooking tender of tough meat, and an unlimited variety in the ways of preparing vegetables. ..Food cooked in this way requires little watching, and is not likely to burn..."
---The New Butterick Cook Book, Flora Rose (p. 622-623)

Recipes from this book include Pigeons en Casserole, Chopped Beef in Casserole, Casserole of Rice and Liver, Bananas en Casserole & Tamale Pie.

"Pork Chops en Casserole:
6 pork chops
6 sweet potatoes
salt & pepper
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 to 2 cups milk

Place a layer of sweet potatoes, sliced crosswise, in a greased casserole, dust with salt, pepper, and a little brown sugar; continue the layers until the casserole is aobut two-thirds full. Heat the milk and pour it over the potatoes; it should just cover them. Place the pork chops on top of the potatoes, cover and bake for an hour, then remove the cover and season with salt and pepper. Leave the cover off and cook until the chops are tender and niceley browed on top." (p. 626)

[1929]
Mrs. Allen on Cooking, Menus Service Ida C. Baily Allen has recipes for Browned Casserole (made with beef, veal or lamb) and White Casserole (made with chicken, lamb or veal).

[1940]
"Casserole and oven cookery.
The expression "en casserole" is sometimes misunderstood because the word "casserole" is used in two quite different ways by writers on domestic subjects. Properly speaking, a casserole is the coarse clay saucepan, so common in France, in which meats and vegetables are not only cooked but served on the tabel. In its other usage the word is applied to a case or mold of potato, rice or fried bread, inside of which is placed some preparation of meat or vegetables. The word in this case really signifies a border or croustade. Directions for using this second form of casserole will be found in the chapter on entrees.
Varieties of Casseroles
Casseroles of different sizes, shapes and materials, are convenient additions to the cooking equipment, and should be chosen with consideration for the needs of the family. They come in many sizes from the individual ramekin up to one that will hold two chickens. They may be had in various shapes--oval and round, shallow and deep. They are made in a variety of materials--glass, vitrified china, earthenware, iron and aluminum--and in a color-range that allows one to choose according to personal preferences--brown, yellow, green, blue and mixtures.
Care of Casseroles
Casseroles will last indefinately if properly treated. It is wise to avoid a sudden and great change in temperature, such as occurs when a casserole is taken from a hot oven and placed in a wet sink. It is not advisable to set a glass or earthenware casserole over a high flame without an asbestos mat under it. A new casserole may be tempered and made more tough by pouring cold water into it and about it, and bringing it gradually to the boiling point.
Advantages of Cooking in a Casserole
THE CASSEROLE SAVES DISH-WASHING, because it makes it possible to bring food to the table in the dish in which it was cooked. Frequently, also, it contains a "one-dish meal" which eliminates all but the one cooking dish. THE CASEROLE MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO USE LEFT-OVERS in attractive, palatable combinations, to cook tough meats tender, and to preapare vegetables in an almost unlimited variety of ways. Any vegetable may be boiled, steamed, baked, scalloped or creamed, and cabbage, cucumbers, eggplant, onions, peppers, potatoes or tomatoes may be stuffed and cooked in the casserole. FOOD COOKED IN THIS WAY NEED LITTLE WATCHING, it may be kept warm and still attractive if the meal is delayed, and there is no loss of vegetable or meat juices. These juices contain a valuable part of the food which is often thrown away, especially in the case of vegetables that are boiled. A WHOLE MEAL MAY BE COOKING IN THE OVEN in the casserole while the oven is being used for some other purpose, such as baking cookies. The cover of the casserole should fit well into the dish, so that it is practically aritight, a fact that should be borne in mind when the casserole is purchased. If the oven must be kept very hot for something else, set the casserole in a pan of water so that the food within will simmer, not boil. As the water becomes hot, take out part of it and add cool water to keep it at the desired temperature."
---The American Women's Cook Book, Edited and Revised by Ruth Berolzheimer [Consolidated Book Publishers:Chicago] 1940 (p. 701-2)
[NOTE: This book offers the following casserole recipes: Chicken en Casserole, Pigeons en Casserole, Steak en Casserole, Chopped Beef en Casserole, Tamale Pie en Casserole, Turbans of Fish en Casserole, Hungarian Goulash en Casserole, Lamb en Casserole, Pork Chops en Casserole, Calf's Liver en Casserole, Casserole of Rice and Liver, Rice en Casserole (p. 707-707). If you would like any of these recipes let us know.]

Did you know? Tuna noodle casserole was very popular in the 1940s.

[1955] The Good Housekeeping Cook Book, edited by Dorothy B. Marsh is the penultimate casserole cookery guide. The introduction to the chapter on casserole dinners reads "When you're planning a casserole as the main dish, why not have an oven meal? Choose a vegetable, bread, and/or dessert that bakes at the same temperature as the casserole. Then, with the aid of a minute timer, slide each dish into the oven at its correct time." (p. 556)

Casserole recipes are grouped by protein sources:

Fish & shellfish

--Topsy-Turvy Tuna-Lemon Pie, Piquant Crab Casserole, Susan's Scalloped Oysters

Eggs

Egg-Salad Casserole, Man-Style Baked Eggs, Deviled-Egg Casserole

Meat

Meat-Ball Stew in Casserole, Frank-Curry Bake, Ham & Noodle Casserole

Cheese

Toasted Cheese Casserole, Wonder Cheese Custard, Cheese-Onion Pie

Poultry

Indian Chicken Pudding, Turkey-Cashew Casserole, Casserole-Barbequed Chicken

Rice, macaroni & dried beans

Elena's Macaroni Bake, Macaroni-Tuna Bake, Martha's Company Casserole

Here is the recipe for Martha's Company Casserole:
"1/2 lb noodles (4 cups)
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 lb chuck, ground
1 8 oz cans tomato sauce
1/2 lb cottage cheese (1 cup)
1 8 oz pkg. soft cream cheese
1/4 cup commercial sour cream
1/3 cup snipped scallions
1 tablespoon minced green pepper
2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine

Start heating oven to 375 degrees. Cook noodles as label directs; drain. Meanwhile, in 1 tablespoon hot butter in skillet, saute beef until browned. Stir in tomato sauce. Remove from heat. Combine cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, scallions, green pepper. In 2 quart casserole, spread half of noodles; cover with cheese mixture; then cover with rest of noodles. Pour on melted butter, then meat mixture. Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes. Makes 6 servings."
---(p. 239)

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Casserole, as we Americans know it today, is an economical meal. Food historians confirm *modern* casseroles were known in the 19th century. They became popular in the 1930s when the Great Depression forced cooks to seek economical solutions to family meals. This cooking genre was continued in the 1940s (economic reasons) and 1950s-1970s (convenience reasons). About casseroles . Forerunners of tuna noodle casseroles have been composed for hundreds of years. In 19th century America, the meat of choice was typically the same as for salad-sandwiches: chicken, turkey, and lobster. Recipes for creamy casseroles composed of white sauce and meat and noodles/rice also appear at this time.

Tuna was first commercially canned in 1903. It took much corporate promotion to convince home cooks to substitute this canned product for *traditional* protein sources. If tuna salad sandwiches can be used as a "food barometer," this product was not readily accepted until the 1950s. About tuna

So when did tuna noodle casserole debut? Some food historians credit the Campbell Soup Company [Camden NJ] for setting the table. This company's Cream of Mushroom Soup was actively promoted to American consumers in the 1930s as an quick and economical alternative to homemade sauces. Corporate advertisements, cooking brochures and cookbooks promoted casserole dishes. Tuna noodle casserole was among them. No, the company did not invent the recipe. It did, however, make it famous. The oldest Campbell's TNC recipe we have on file is c. 1941.

1920s casseroles were promoted as economical meals because they used cheaper cuts of meat and lots of filler. These casseroles required hours of baking. Tuna noodle casserole, on the other hand, was a quick meal assembled in short order from canned foods. Voila! Dinner is served.

ABOUT CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP
Soup is ancient. So are mushrooms. A survey of historic cookbooks confirms creamy mushroom soups were cultivated by several cultures and cuisines, mostly Northern European. "Cream of Mushroom Soup," as we Americans know it today, traces its roots to these "Old World" traditions. Many early 20th century American cookbooks contain recipes for Cream of Mushroom Soup. Period articles published in the New York Times confirm the popularity of creamy mushroom soups served at the beginning of a meal. The practice of using manufactured soups (Campbell's Cream of Mushroom was introduced in 1934) as "culinary substitutes" took hold in the 1930s. The Great Depression was all about saving money. Canned "Cream of Mushroom" happened to be in the right place at the right time.

"For most of its early history, the [Campbell] company's list of soups remained remarkably stable...In the mid-thirties, however, the manufacture of six soups of the original twenty-one soups was discontinued. Not surprisingly, these were, to the taste of the average American, some of the more exotic: Julienne, Printanier, Mulligatawny, Mutton, Tomato Okra, and Vermicelli-Tomato. Taking the place of these soups were, among others, Chicken Noodle, Cream of Mushroom, Bean with Bacon, and Vegetarian. Of them, Cream of Mushroom was the most significant in terms of the changing state of the Campbell company. Shortly after the introduction of the initial lines of Campbell's condensed soups, it was suggested that, because of their extreme concentration, a single can of undiluted soup could double as a sauce or stock. "Many times," the booklet Helps for the Hostess stated, "unattractive left-overs are thrown away when, by using a can of Campbell's Soup, they could have been made into an attractive, appetizing dish." The booklet gave them what Escoffier would have termed the "culinary operation" to be followed:

"The general rule for making Campbell's sauces is:
1 cup Campbell's Soup
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour.
Melt butter, add flour, blend, and pour in soup. Then add chopped leftovers and serve in one of various ways. Use on toast with rice; with pastry shell or vol-au-vent, or bake and scallop in oven for a few minutes; or pour over macaroni or noodles.

[1924]
"Meat Cooked en Casserole
Any meat may be cooked en casserole. This type of cooking is especially adaptable to the cheaper cuts, which need long, slow cooking to make them tender. A casserole may be described as a baked stew. The time of cookery varies with the type of meat--the cheaper cuts need from three to four hours, more tender meats one and one half to two hours. Vegetables, rice, macaroni, or spaghetti are added to meats in casserole cooking, extending them so that it is really a one-dish meal. Meats suitable for casserole are: Beef neck, flank, top and bottom round, Veal neck, shoulder, breast, flank, sticking piece, Lamb neck, shoulder, breast, shin, flank...

"White Casserole
(For chicken, lamb or veal)
3 pounds meat
2 green peppers, minced
1 1/2 cupfuls spaghetti, broken
2 onions, minced
2 teaspoonfuls salt
1/2 teaspoonful pepper
1 tablespoonful minced parsley
Boiling water
1/2 cupful undiluted evaporated milk (optional)
If using chicken, prepare as for fricasee. Combine the ingredients in a casserole, pour in the water, cover, and bake slowly in an oven at 325 to 350 degrees F. The add the evaporated milk or use cream."
---Mrs. Allen on Cooking, Menus, Service, Ida C. Bailey Allen [Doubleday, Doran & Company:Garden City NY] 1929 (p. 384-5)

[1931]
"Tuna en Casserole
1 medium size can white meat tuna
2 medium size onions
1 medium size bottle stuffed olives
1 medium size white sauce
Peel and fry onions intil a golden brown. Line a casserole with the onions, then a layer of mushrooms, then a layer of stuffed olives, cut up. Place the tuna on the top layer and pour over this mixture the white sauce. Allow the entire mixture to stand for two hours. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top and bake in a medium oven for forty minutes. This will serve four to six persons."
---Fashions in Foods in Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills Woman's Club [Beverly Hills Citizen:CA] 1931 (p. 16)

[1935]
"Tuna-Noodle Casserole
1 seven-ounce can tuna
2 cups cooked noodles
2 hard-boiled eggs
2 cups cream sauce
1 tablespoon diced onions
Salt and pepper.
Butter bottom of baking dish. Put in one layer noodles, then one layer tuna and eggs. Cover with noodles and pour over the mixture the rich cream sauce with the onions in it. Bake in oven for thirty minutes."
---"Let Can Opener Care for Unexpected Guests," Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1935 (p. B12)

[1941]
"Casserole dishes.
Learn how to use Campbell's Soups in your casserole dishes. Discover what zestful flavor they give--what quick and easy substituted for cream sauce some of them are--the precious minutes they save you in preparation--they make meals so attractive! The following recipes are sure to become family favorites (p. 14)...

Company Casserole.
1 package (6 oz) egg noodles
1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 cup milk
1/4 pound pimiento cheese, sliced
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 can (7 oz) tuna fish
6 tablespoons flaked cereal crumbs, buttered.
Cook the noodles in boiling salted water until tender. Empty the soup into a pan and stir well, then add milk and heat. Add the pimineto cheese and stir until the cheese melts. Combine noodles, eggs and tuna fish with the sauce. Put into a buttered casserole, sprinkle buttered flaked cereal crumbs over the top and bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) For 25-30 minutes. Serves 8."
---Easy Ways to Good Meals: 99 Delicious Dishes Made With Campbell's Soups, Campbell Soup Company [Campbell Soup Company:Camden NJ] 1941 (p. 16)

[1946] "Tuna, Noodle and Mushroom Soup Casserole
An excellent emergency dish.
Cook until tender: 2 cups Noodles
Drain them in colander. Pour 3 cups of cold water over them. Drain them again. Drain the contents of 1 (7 oz) can tuna fish Separate it with a fork into large flakes. Be careful not to mince it as that isn't nearly as good. Grease an oven-proof dish. Arrange a layer of noodles, then sprinkle it with fish and so on. Have noodles on top. Combine and pour over this mixture the contents of 1 (16 oz) can condensed mushroom soup 1/4 cup water Cover the top with Buttered cornflakes or cracker crumbs Bake the dish in a hot oven 450 degrees until the top is brown..." ---Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer [Bobbs-Merrill:Indianapolis] 1946 (p. 120)

[1952]
Casserole of Noodles and Tuna Fish (for 25)
"Uncooked egg noodles, 1 lb.
Boiling water, 2 1/4 gal.
Salt, 3 tbsp
Tuna fish, 6 cups
Chopped pimiento, 3/4 cup
Drained cooked peas, 6 cups
This white sauce, 1 recipe
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Buttered bread crumbs or Wheaties, 1 cup
Baking pans, 13X9X2-in. Oblong, two
Cook noodles in boiling salted water until tender. Drain. Place a layer of cooked noodles in bottoms of greased pans, then layers of tuna, pimiento, peas and Thin White Sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Repeat until all ingredients are used. Sprinkle tops with buttered crumbs or Wheaties. Bake 1 hour in moderate oven (350 degrees F.)"
---So You're Serving Crowd, Betty Crocker [General Mills:New York] 1952 (p. 33)

Green Bean Casserole (aka Green Bean Bake)
According to the food historians, the "classic" green bean casserole recipe many Americans remember was a mid-'50s brainchild of the Campbell Soup Company (Camden, NJ). It was a perfect marriage of product promotion (condensed mushroom soup, frozen/canned vegetables), extant culinary traditions (many housewives already served green beans in sauce), economic reality (inexpensive, belly-filling, easily assembled foods) and social craving (creamy, rich comfort dishes).

Campbell's didn't "invent" green bean casserole. They capitalized on it. Score another hit for Cream of Mushroom Soup.

Culinary evidence confirms vegetables served with cream sauce were consumed in Medieval Europe. Recipes evolved according to local taste and custom. They were introduced to our country by the people who settled here and adapted according to technological advancement and public sentiment. American cookbooks printed in the 19th/early 20th centuries often contained recipes combining green beans and other vegetables (fresh, canned, frozen) with creamy sauces (sour cream, heavy cream, grated cheese, salad dressings, soups). Some were baked (en casserole). Many included other vegetables (mushrooms, onions, peppers) and were topped with crisped carbohydrates (breadcrumbs, toasted onions).

Modern American green bean casserole is a lesson in heritage and enterprise. Stir the collective melting pot and sample what bubbles up.

ABOUT "CLASSIC" GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
"Campbell's Soup home economists created this recipe in 1955, and it's been popular ever since. For many reasons, explains the headnote accompanying the recipe in Campbell's Best-Every Recipes, 125 Anniversary Edition (1994): "It's delicious and easy to make, easy to remember and leaves room for creativity." I include the original recipe...from Campbell.

"1 (10 3/4 -ounce ) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon soy sauce
Pinch black pepper
2 (9-ounce) packages frozen green beans, cooked and drained, or 2 (1-pound) cans green beans, drained.
1 (2.8-ounce) caned French fried onions.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lighly butter 1 1/2-quart casserole.
2. Mix soup, milk, soy sauce, and pepper in casserole. Stir in bens and half the onions.
3. Bake, uncovered , 25 minutes until bubbling; stir well.
4. Top with remaining onions, bake 5 minutes more, and serve."
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 162)

[1968]
Party-Size Green Bean Casserole
3 cans (10 1/2 ounces each) condensed cream of mushroom soup<
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon pepper
9 cups cooked French style breen beans (or six 9-ounce packages frozen, or six 1-pound cans, drained)
3 cans (3 1/2 ounces each) French fried onions
Combine soup, milk, soy sauce, pepper; stir until smooth. Mix in beans, 1 1/2 cans onions. Spoon into two 1 1/2 quart casseroles. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes or until bubbling. Top with remaining onions. Bake 5 minutes more. 20 servings, 1/2 cup each."
---Easy Ways to Delicious Meals, Campbell Company [Campbell:Camden NJ] rewvised edition, 1968 (p. 186)

Related food? Philly Cheese Steak.

"Cherries come from any of several trees that belong to the genus Prunus and are part of the rose family...The cherry originated in temperate Europe and Asia, and doubtless wild cherries played a role in the human diet eons before the invention of agriculture and the beginning of recorded history. Our Neolithic ancestors extracted -and presumably fermented-cherry juice before it was discovered how to make wine from grapes."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume Two (p. 1751)

"True cherries, of which there are several species, belong to the genus Prunus which also includes plums, peaches, apricots, and almonds, all in the rose family. Cultivated cherries are descended from two wild species: Prunus avium, ancestor fo the sweet varieties; and P. Cerasus, from which sour cherries come. Both are native to Western Asia."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 163)

"The cherry was first cultivated in the Near East, and the word for it in the Akkadian language of Mesopotamia was karsu. When the fruit reached Greece, it brought its name with it, and the form kerasos, cherry-tree', and in due course this passed into Latin as cerasus."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 69)

"The cultivated sweet cherry, which had reached Italy from the Black Sea region, was transferred to Britain soon after the Roman conquest (p. 325)...cherry-tree slips...were planted in the royal garden at Westminster at various times during the thirteenth century. (P. 331)...plums, damsons, cherries and grapes were admitted at rich men's tables provided they were eaten at the beginning of the meal as appetizers to open the stomach. ...Ordinary folk ate fruit as and when they could get it. The poor people in Piers Plowman sought to poison hunger with baked apples and ripe cherries many'...and cherry-feasts or cherry-fairs were held in the orchards when the crop was ripe. I London both strawberries and cherries were hawked in the streets in their seasons." (P. 333-4)
---Food & Drink in Britain From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991

"Sweet Cherry
P. avium originated in the area between the Black and Caspian seas of Asia Minor. Birds may have carried it to Europe prior to human civilization. Cultivation probably began with Greeks, and was perpetuated by Romans, where it was believed to be an essential part of the Legionnaire's diet (this lead to the spread throughout Europe). Trees were planted along roadsides and were valued for their timber as well as their fruit. Sweet cherries came to the USA with English Colonists in 1629, and later were introduced to California by Spanish Missionaries. In the 1800's sweet cherries were moved west by pioneers and fur traders to their major sites of production in Washington, Oregon, and California. Cultivars selected at that time still form the base of the industry today."
---SOURCE: Univeristy of Georgia

MEDIEVAL CHERRIES

"In the Middle Ages cherries were grown commercially, but also in many a monastic or lay garden for private preserves, tarts, and a cherry beverage that, in Germany at least, was reserved for high-ranking officials. Because of their cold and moist nature, cherries were considered bad for the stomach by the medical community. Cooking the fruit and adding wine were two ways suggested to reduce their harmful effects on the body."
---Food in Medieval Times, Melitta Weiss Adamson [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2004 (p. 21

"The food of the villager was supplemented by fruit grown in the garden. Cherries, apples...and pears were commonly eaten, plums perhaps slightly less so."
---Food and Feast in Medievel England, P.W. Hammond [Wren's Park:Gloucestershire] 1993 (p. 36)

NEW WORLD CHERRIES

"Wild forms of both the sweet cherry (Prunus avium) and the sour cherry (P. cerasus) grow along the eastern Mediterranean, especially in southeastern Europe and Asia Minor, the regions of origin for both species. The species name for sweet cherry, aviium, refers to birds, the agents largely responsible for the distribution of the seed and therefore the spread of both species...The sweet cherry apparently was first domesticated in ancient Greece. Although it has been cultivated for more than two thousand years, for much of that time it remained a plant for the home garden, not one cultivated for the market. Both sweet and sour cherries were introduced to America by early settlers in the Northeast and later were distributed into states such as Virginia and Carolina and then expanded into the Midwest and, finally, to the Pacific Coast. There, in Oregon, the Lewelling family introduced the Bing cherry. This popular, firm-fleshed variety, together with improvements in transportation and the advent of refrigeration, helped establish the modern sweet cherry industry by making it possible to ship fresh cherries to distant markets...Sweet cherries are primarily sold for fresh consumption, but they are also used in cherries jubilee, a classic dessert made of saucy cherry flambe poured over ice cream."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 219)

About George Washington & cherries

About Michigan cherries.

Notes from Artemas Ward, c. 1911.

Modern American maraschino cherries
Dr. Ernest Wiegand, founder of OSU's food science department is credited for manufacturing maraschino (type) cherries in 1928 to solve a surplus problem. There is no claim to his having "invented them." He does, however, deserve credit for initiating the modern maraschino food process (he developed a new brining method), thus launching the industry in the United States.

"Retired Oregon State food scientist Robert Cain, an expert on preserved cherries, has a book on his desk, printed in Michigan circa 1912, that describes how to make Maraschinos. Even then, they were soaked in a bisulfite-based solution, he notes. Unfortunately, this briny bath robs cherries of their color and most of their taste, so processors must season the treated fruit with almond oil and dye them with commercial colorants. Those early Maraschinos were an unreliable lot, notes Carl Payne of the Oregon Cherry Growers in Salem, a major producer of preserved cherries. The recipes didn't always yield a tasty product -- which is where Ernest Wiegand, founder of Oregon State's food science department, enters the picture. Some 70 years ago, Wiegand was looking for a way to salvage surplus cherries, a major cash crop in the Willamette Valley."
---SOURCE: Science News

"In 1919, a horticultural products processing program, the first of its kind in the nation, was begun at Oregon Agricultural College by Ernest H. Wiegand. The modern maraschino cherry was developed by the program in the 1920s."
---SOURCE: OSU.

Green maraschinos?
We are finding several references to green maraschino cherries dating back as far as the 1970s. Articles providing recipes indicate they were used in holiday foods, such as fruitcake. The oldest reference we have in print is a recipe for Ann Mattiso's Fruitcake, "An Appetizing--and Classic-Gift for Holidays," Jean Hewett, New York Times, December 13, 1970 (p. 90).

Creating the perfect maraschino/Oregon Cherry Growers.

Why to we decorate ice cream with cherries on top?

"64. Cherry Sauce A La Victoria.
Put a small pot of red currant-jelly into a stewpan, together with a dozen cloves, a stick of cinnamon, the rind of two oranges, a piece of glaze, and a large gravy-spoonful of reduced brown sauce; moisten with a half a pint of Burgundy wine, boil gently on the fire for twenty minutes; pass the sauce through a tammy into a bain-marie, add the juice of the two oranges, and before sending to table boil the sauce. This sauce is especially appropriate with red deer or roebuck, when prepared in a marinade and larded."
---Francatelli's Modern Cook, Charles Elme Francatelli [David McKay:Philadelphia] 1890s? (p. 48) [RECIPE NOTE: Interesting juxtaposition in both ingredients and method to Escoffier'sSteak Diane.

Of course, dishes are not invented, they evolve. A survey of 19th century cookbooks confirms both cherry compote and cherries preserved in brandy were popular items. Towards the end of the century, elaborate chafing dish and flambe recipes (Baked Alaska, for a dessert example) became the hallmark of the best chefs and finest menus. Given this context, it was probably only a matter of time before someone decided to set sweetened, liqueur-covered cherries "on fire." The vanilla ice cream base was introduced later, probably inspired by the popular appeal of Baked Alaska. In America, Cherries Jubilee quickly became a standard dessert item in the finest continental restaurants. The recipe was quickly adopted/adapted by American home cooks who wanted to impress their dinner guests. Cookbooks in the 1950s & 1960s almost always contain a simplified recipe for this particular item. In the United States, flamboyant flambe dishes climaxed during the Kennedy years.

"Cherries Jubilee were created in honor of Queen Victoria. Then, as now, the British public delighted in every detail of the Royal Family's life and everyone know that cherries were the queen's favorite fruit...The whole nation celebrated at her Golden Jubilee in 1887 and again at her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It was during the earlier celebration that Cherries Jubilee first appeared. Curiously, the original dish did not call for ice cream at all. Sweet cherries poached in a simple syrup that was slightly thickened, were poured into fireproof dishes, then warmed brandy was added and set on flame at the moment of serving. Soon, however, Escoffier was serving vanilla ice cream accompagnie de Cerises Jubile to many dignitaries..."
---Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [Ohio University Press:Athens OH] 1998 (p. 215)

"Cherries Jubilee: A dessert made with black cherries flambeed with kirsch or brandy, then spooned over vanilla ice cream. The dish [was]...especially fashionable from the 1930s through the 1960s in deluxe restaurants, and also a popular dinner-party dish of the same period. The origins of the dish are unknown."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 69)

Compare these recipes:

[1869] "Compote of Cherries
Take 1 lb of May-Duke or Kentish cherries; cut off all but 3/4 inch of the stalks; Put 1/2 lb. Of lump sugar in a copper sugar boiler, with 2 quarts of water; boil for three minutes; put the cherries in this syrup; cover the pan, and simmer for five minutes; drain the cherries on a sieve; dish them up in a compte dish, the stalks upwards; reduce the syrup to 30 degrees; let it cool; pour it over the cherries; and serve."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe [Samson Low:London] 1869 (p. 207)

[1903] "Recipe 4523: Cerises Jubilee
Remove the stone from some nice large cherries then poach the cherries in syrup; remove and place them in small silver timbales. Reduce the syrup and thicken it with diluted arrowroot using 1/2 tablespoons per 3dl (1/2 pint or 2 1/2 U.S. cups) syrup. Instead of the syrup, redcurrant jelly many be used. Coat the cherries with the sauce, pour 1/2 tablespoon of warmed Kirsch into each timbale and set alight when bringing them to the table."
--Le Guide Culinaire, August Escoffier, 1903, translated into English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann [Wiley:New York] 1981 (p. 538)
[NOTE: the similarities between Francatelli's Victoria recipe (referenced above) and this.]

[1954] "Cherries Jubilee
Few things are easier than this dessert with a cosmopolitan air. You simply drain the juice from a No. 2 can of pitted black cherries--the big ones--and reserve about one-fourth. Put the cherries and the juice in a chafing dish. Bring just to the simmering point and keep there for about a minute, agitating with a spoon (I really mean "agitating" instead of "stirring"). The pour on about a half a cup of warmed brandy, mix with the cherries, and ignite. While they are flaming, ladle them over individual dishes of vanilla ice cream, which are ready and waiting. (You'll need a quart). And this dessert is bound to bring words of admiration."
---Martha Deane's Cooking for Compliments, Marian Young Taylor [M. Barrows:New York] 1954 (p. 241)
[NOTE: Martha Deane was a radio personality on New York's WOR station]

• Additional information, courtesy of the Nat'l Assn of Chewing Gum Manufacturers.
• History of chewing gum, Wrigley Company
• The Great American Chewing Gum Book / Robert Hendrickson.
• "The sticky history of chewing gum." American History, Oct. 98, Vol. 33 Issue 4, p. 30 (8 pages)

This very popular dessert has surprisingly little documented history. Food historians tell us savoury mousse (finely whipped foods achievieving a "foam-like" texture) was an 18th century phenomenon. Dessert mousses begin to appear in the second half of the 19th century. These were generally fruit mousses. Early recipes for dessert mousses in English and American cookbooks are classified with ice creams. Sarah Tyson Rorer [1902] states they are the same as parfait. Indeed, the method and flavors are similar. Coincidentally? Chocolate mousse was promoted in the USA about the same time as chocolate pudding mixes.

Food historians generally agree the French first began consuming and cooking with chocolate in the early 1600s. Chocolate: An Illustrated History, Marcia & Frederic Morton (page 15) states that "chocolate was introduced to the French by the Spanish princess Anne of Austria, upon her marriage to Louis XIII in 1615." About chocolate.

According to The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] (p. 516) "Mousse, a French term meaning foam, is applied to dishes with foamy texture, usually cold and often sweet but also savoury and sometimes hot. The terms was in common use in France by the 18th century. Menon (1758) has recipes for frozen mousses...Chocolate mousse is well known internationally. Other mousses, such as those incorporating ham...or fish or asparagus, are more likely to be found in a French context."

"A Mousse is a light frothy dish, usually eaten cold, consisting of a sweet or savoury puree whipped up and set in a mould with beaten egg whites, cream, or gelatine. English took the term over from French as recently as the 1890s. There, it originally meant 'moss', and indeed moss and mousse probably share a common prehistoric source (whos ancestral sense was probably bog'). The possible etymological connections with applemose, a now obsolete term for a dish made from stewed pulped apples, are not clear; the semantic similarities are striking, but the likelier explanation is perhaps that the element -mose comes from a primitive Germanic word for soft food' (represented also in muesli)."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 218)

The oldest print reference we find for "chocolate mousse" in an American source dates to 1892:
"There were 8,000 persons at the Food Exposition at Madison Square Garden yesterday, and the attendance at the great show grows day by day as popular interest increases. People go there to see the attractive displays of food products...Miss Parloa lectured in the afternoon on "Lobster a la Newberg," Welsh rarebit, and chocolate mousse."
---"The Food Show," New York Times, October 7, 1892 (p. 5)

[1894]
"Mousses.--These are a go-between souffles and ordinary iced creams. They are lighter and more spongy than the latter, on which account they are often better liked. They have the further advantage of needing no freezing betore they are moulded. The mixture is first thickened over the fire like a custard, then put in the mould and set in an ice cave until firm enough to turn out. A cave is a necessisty for the proper concoction of these dishes. To ensure success they need great care in the preparation."
---Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book, Lizzie Heritage [Cassell and Company:London] 1894 (p. 966-7)

[1896]
About mousse & mousse recipes (no chocolate)
---Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer

[1897]
"Chocolate Mousse
Take four strips of chocolate, 1 quart of milk, 6 eggs and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, dissolve the chocolate in a little warm milk, put the quart of milk on to boil and stir in the chocolate gradually. Set the saucepan where it will cook slowly. Beat the eggs well, mix in the cornstarch and add to the milk and chocolate. Sweeten to taste and boil gently until smooth and thick, stirring until done. Flavor with vanilla and pour into a glass dish. Serve cold with sweetened whipped cream heaped upon it."
---"Housekeepers' Column," Boston Daily Globe, March 16, 1897 (p. 8)

[1899]
"Chocolate Mousse
--Melt 1 1/2 squares chocolate, add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, gradually 1 cup cream. Stir over the fire until boiling point is reached, the add 3/4 teaspoon gelatine dissolved in 2 tablspoons boiling water, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Combine mixtures, strain into a bowl placed in pan of ice water and stir constantly until mixture begins to thicken. Fold in the whip from 1 quart thin cream. Mould, pack in salt and ice and let stand four hours."
---"Ladies' Luncheon for Twelve," Boston Daily Globe, February 24, 1899 (p. 4)

[1907]
"Mousses Glaces--Iced Mousses. These Mousses can be made either from Creme Anglaise mixture or from a syrup. The syrup method is most suitable for making iced fruit Mousses...4902. Iced Cream Mousse Mixture. Make a Creme Anglaise (4337) using 16 egg yolks, 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) caster sugar and 5 dl (18 fl oz or 2 1/4 U.S. cups) milk. Allow to cool, stirring occasionally and when very cold mix in 5 dl (18 fl oz or 2 1/4 U.S. cups) unwhipped cream 20 g (2/3 oz) gum tragacanth in powder form and the selected flavouring...Place mixture on ice and whisk until it becomes light and frothy then fill into moulds lined with greaseproof paper. Seal hermetically and freeze thoroughly for 2-3 hours according to the size of the mould...4903: Various Iced Mousses. Using the same methods as given above, Mousses can be made in the following flavours. Mousse Glacee a l'Anisetted, au Cafe, au Chocolat, au Kirsch, au Marasquin, au Rhum, au The, a l'Abricot, aux Fraises, aux Oranges, aux Mandarines, aux Noix Fraiches, aux Peches, a la Vanille, aux Violettes, etc."
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Escoffier, translated by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann [John Wiley & Sons:New York] 1997 (p. 574)

[1918]
Chocolate mousse
---Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer [1918]

What about white chocolate mousse?
"White Chocolate Mousse Tart...White chocolate was an 80's obsession, especially white chocolate mousse..." (p. 386) When white chocolate became the chocolate choice in the 80s, food companies scrambled to devise new ways of using it in tandem with their own products. One of the most uccessful recipes is this walnut fudge from Kraft Foods, Inc..." (p. 506)
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997

"White chocolate mousse. A dessert made from white chocolate, cream, egg whites, and sugar. It was created by chef Michael Fitoussi in 1977 on the occasion of the second anniversary of the Palace Restaurant in New York City and quickly became popular in other restaurants around the United States; it also began an interest in white chocolate (actually a form of flavored cocoa butter) as a confectionery ingredient."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Freidman:New York] 1997 (p. 347)

"And then there was white chocolate. After chef Michel Fitoussi created a white chocolate mousse in New York City in 1977, we couldn't get enough. Mousse was perhaps the most popular of the white chocolate desserts, but whit chocolate was soon finding its way into truffles, brownies...dessert sauces, cakes, paves, tortes, tarts, cheesecakes, ice cream, and which chocolate chip cookies. Pastry chefs appreciated white chocolate's malleability and, as they had done with dark chocolate, were soon molding it into fantastic flowers, ribbons, butterflies, and leaves to decorate cakes that had already been wrapped in sheets of the stuff."
--- "Food from the 80s," Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovgren [Macmillan:New York] 1997 (p. 394)

About white chocolate.

Corn bread was not invented. It was a product of cultural exchange and practical necessity. Corn [aka maize] is a new world food. Native Americans were cooking with ground corn long before the European explorers set foot on New World soil. The food we know today as "corn bread" has a northern European (English, Dutch, etc.) culinary heritage. Why? Because the new settlers often had to "make do" with local ingredients [corn meal] when their traditional ingredients [finely ground wheat] were in short supply. When colonial American recipes carried the name "Indian" in their title (Indian bread, Indian pudding) it was because one of the ingredients was cornmeal.

About corn & maize

This is what the food historians have to say:

"Native Americans roasted their corn and ground it into meal to make cakes, breads, and porridges...The new cereal was precious and helped the early settlers to survive those first harsh years. ..Before long uniquely American dishes were being developed on the basis of this new grain, including an Indian bread called pone' or corn pone' (from the Algonquin word apan,' [meaning] baked) made of cornmeal, salt and water. This was later called corn bread' and has been a staple of American cooking to this day...Once the [corn] crops took hold throughout the colonies, cornmeal foods were everyday fare..."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 96)

"Once the corn was ground to meal, the question was what to do with it. For wheat eaters, corn was a punishement...In frontier America, as in colonial America, any form of bread made with corn instead of wheat was a sad paste of despair. How sad is reflected in the lowliness of the names--pone, ashcakes, hoe-cakes, journey-cakes, johnny-cakes, slapjacks, spoonbreads, dodgers--all improvised in the scramble to translate one culture's tongue and palate into another's. Names got muddled by region and recipe as much as samp, hominy and grits and for the same reason: the desperate attempt of a wheat culture to order by its own canon the enourmous variety of pastes, batters and doughs cooked by native grinders of corn.

From the start, colonist put interchangeable labels on the generic native ash-cake, baked in an open fire, which seemed to the people of iron griddles and pots and appalling reversion to Stonehenge. Words slithered in the mud of translation, Narragansett nokechick' becoming no-cake and hoe-cake; journeying cake Shawnee cake or every John's no-cake becoming jonny or johnnycake. At the same time, these Anglicizations of hoe-cake and johnny-cake took hold early and hung on late a symbols...of rebel identity...For those who actully cooked the stuff, cornmeal was hard going. Not only was corn obdurately hard to pound even to coarse meal, but the meal refused to respond to yeast. No matter how they cooked it, in iron or on bark or stone, corn paste lay flat as mud pies...Heaviness was a constant colonial complaint, which cooks sought to remedy by mixing cornmeal with the more finely ground flours of rye or wheat-when they could get them..."
---The Story of Corn, Betty Fussell [Knopf:New York] 1992 (p.220-1)
[this books contains much more information on your topic...ask your librarian to help you find a copy]

"[In the] large stretches of the South, Indian pone was the more usually name for cornmeal cakes while johnny cake was customarily made of rice...The earliest recipe that I find for Johny cake, or Hoe Cake is in American Cookery (1796) by Amelia Simmons. It calls for Indian meal, as do all New England recipes, and is baked before the fire, presumably spread on a propped up hoe, plank, or stone...as the colonists had been doing all along. It must be understood that among the scores of johnny cakes, pones, ash cakes, hoe cakes, bannocks, and even various fried cakes, differentiation was not rigorous. Each colony, each community, had its own versions and names, a tradition that faded as the iron kitchen range made all hearth cakes virtually obsolete..."
---The Virginia House-wife, Mary Randolph [1824], historical notes and commentaties by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 [the quoted passage is from Ms. Hess]

ABOUT EASTERN WOODLAND CORNBREAD

"Boiled corn bread. After the corn has been hulled and washed...it is placed in the mortar and pounded to a meal or flour. As the pounding progresses the fine sifting basket is frequently brought into requisition...The hand is used to dip the meal out of the mortar into the sifter. The large bread pan is often set on top of the mortar and the sifter shaken in both hands. The coarser particles are thrown into a second bowl or tray and are finally dumped back into the mortar to be repounded. A hollow is next made in the flour and enough boiling water poured into it to make a stiff paste. Usage differs somewhat in this respect, cold water being used by some for mixing. The stirring paddle is often employed at first, after which the paste is kneaded with the hands. Dried huckleberries, blackberries, elderberries, strawberries, or beans may be incorporated in the mixture, beans apparently enjoying the greatest favour. The latter are previously cooked just so that they will remain while or nearly so. Currants or raisins are sometimes used at present. Formerly the kernels of walnuts and butternuts were employed in the same way. A lump of paste is next broken off, or about a double handful. This is tossed in the hands, which are kept moistened with cold water, until it BECOMES rounded in form; the surplus material forms a core at one side, usually the right, and is finally broken off. The lump is now slapped back and forth between the palms, though resting rather more on the left hand; and is at the same time given a rotary motion until a disk is formed about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches thick and about 7 inches in diameter. Boiling water for mixing is stated to make the cakes frimer and better to handle. No salt nor other such ingredients are used. The loaves are immedately slid into a pot of boiling water from the paddle or from between the hands and are supported on edge by placing the paddle against them until all are in. The bread paddle, or sometimes a special circular turning paddle, is used to rotate the cakes a little when partly done, so as to cook all parts alike. An hour is usually required for cooking...Boiled corn bread, while not light in the ordinary sense, is decidedly tasty when newly made. It may be sliced and eaten either hot or cold with butter, gravy, or maple syrup...Loaves of corn bread were frequently carried along while travelling, though parched corn flour sweetened with maple sugar was a more popular material. The use of corn bread for this pupose is indicated in the word "johnny-cake" from "journey cake." The ash-cake, hoe-cake, and pone are other European adoptions. Boiled bread...was frequently used as wedding bread. A girl cooked twenty cakes of corn bread with berries in them. These were taken to the house of the young man, where they were cut up and given to friends and relatives who were assembled. Bread was sometimes made from other materials, such as beans and acorns...Baked Corn Bread...The name signifies "under the ashes cooked," and is applied to bread baked in the embers, or on flat stones placed over the fire. This seems to have been formerly in much favour. Its disuse is probably owing to the abandonment of the open fireplace and to the general adoption of European foods. The mixture used was practically the same as for boiled bread. About three-quarters of an hour was required for cooking. As the loaves bake somewhat more quickly on top, they were turned over to be evenly done. To tell when they were finished, the cakes were tapped with the finger, if not sufficently cooked, they felt heavy to the touch, and when done, felt lighter and more spongy. The last part of the operation was to wash them in cold water to free them from ashes or cinders."
---Iroquois Food and Food Preparation, F.W. Waugh, reprint fo 1913 edition [University Press of the Pacific:Honolulu HI ]2003 (p. 80-3)

Anglo-American recipes through time
[1790] Hoe cakes, Nellie Custis, Mt. Vernon VA
[1796] Indian Slapjack & Johny Cake or Hoe Cake, American Cookery, Amelia Simmons, Hartford CT
[1798] A Nice Indian Pudding, Amelia Simmons, Hartford
[1830] Corn Bread, Mrs. Isaac Cocks, Long Island NY
[1857] Corn meal batter cakes & corn meal mush, Great Western Cook Book, Ann Maria Collins, New York
[1884] Corn meal recipes, hoe cakes etc., Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln

During the Civil War corn bread was very popular in both regions because of its economy and versatility. It could be used in yeast loaves or fried up for quick serving. The differences between Northern and Southern corn bread were the type of corn meal used (North used flint yellow, South used Boone County white and flavoring: North generally preferred sweets, added molasses; South preferred salts, often frying bread with cracklins [bacon fat].

About soldier's rations:
Civil War Food
Union Army

These adapted cornbread recipes come from the American Heritage Cookbook, American Heritage [magazine] editors, Volume 2: Menus and Recipes

"Cracklin' Bread (South) (cracklin' is the fat rendered after cooking bacon)
3/4 cup finely diced salt pork
2 cups corn meal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons salt-pork drippings

Fry salt pork over a low heat until nicely browned. Drain fat, saving both drippings and cracklings. Sift together corn meal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine eggs, buttermilk, and drippings. Stir into corn-meal mixture, together with cracklings. Spread dough in a greased 11 X 7 X 1 1/2 inch baking pan and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes." ---(p. 450)
(note: if you can't get salt pork you can fry up some bacon, about 4-6 slices. It will create the same effect of taste/amount of cooking fat.)

Compare with: recipe c. 1930:

"Crackling Bread
2 eggs
3 cups water-ground corn-meal
Big pinch of soda
1 cup cracklings
1 cup sour milk
Pinch of salt
2 cups boiling water
Sift the meal and pour over it the boiling water, mix smooth and add the eggs, beating them im. Mix the soda in a little cold water and add this, the salt, the sour milk and the last of all the cracklings. The batter should be the consistency of cake batter if you want to cook it in a baking pan and cut the bread into squares. If you what to make it into pones (and it is best this way) the batter should be much thicker. Either way it should be baked in the oven and have a thick brown crust. Do not try to make it unless you can get good cracklings. It is always served hot."
---Old Southern Receipts, Mary D. Pretow [Robert M. McBride:New York] 1930 (p. 89)

c. 1941:
"Cracklin' Bread
2 cups meal (sifted first)
1 cup cracklings
1 teaspoon salt
Water to mix
Mash or break the cracklings into small pieces, over them pour half cup of hot water, pour into meal and add sufficitent cold water to mix into a dough, add salt. Let stand five minutes and if too stiff add little more water. Shape into small loaves, place on hot pan, in hot oven until slightly browned on top, reduce heat to medium, bake from 30 to 45 minutes, according to size of pone. During first part of baking place near top of oven, then lower and allow cook."
---Southern Cooking, Mrs. S. R. Dull [Grosset & Dunlap:New York] 1941 (p. 163)

"Spider Corncake (North)
1 1/2cups corn meal
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter

Start your oven at 450 degrees and put in a 12-inch iron skillet or spider to heat. Sift together corn meal, sugar, salt, and baking soda into a bowl Combine eggs and buttermilk and stir into corn-meal mixture, keeping it smooth. Last of all, stir in butter. Pour into the hot spider [iron frying pan with legs], well greased, and bake (at the same high temperature) for 30 minutes." ---(p. 451)
(note: if your local supermarket sells both white and yellow corn meal, use white for South, yellow for North. If you can only get one kind that's okay too. Cooking is all about improvising and " making do.")

About Johnnycakes/Journeycakes
"Johnnycake. Also jonnycake' and jonny cake." A form of pancake traditionally made with Rhode Island ground flint ("Indian"). The name has been in print at least as early as 1739, but its derivation is very much clouded in speculation. Same authorities believe it may derive from an Indian word for flat cornmeal cakes, joniken. Others think it a derivative of "Shawnee cake," after the tribe of the Tennessee Valley. It is also possible that johnnycake is a form of the Dutch pannekoeken, for a j could easily be interchanged for the p, and the world is often spelled "johnnycake," without the j. Most Rhode Island afficionados of the johnnycake--especially those who belong to the Propagation of the Jonnycake Tradition--insist that the word is from "journey cake" (1754), because it might be carried on a long trip, and the word "journey" is commonly pronounced ias "jonny" in that part of New England. The traditional thinness and brittleness of johnnycakes seem hardly substantial or durable enough, however, to pack in saddlebags for a long trek through the New England wilderness. The society also states that a true johnnycake must be made with an obsolete strain of Indian corn called "whitecap flint corn."...In Newport County Rhode Island, johnnycakes are made commonly with cornmeal, salt, and cold milk; in South County they are made with cornmeal, salt and boiling water, resulting in smaller, thicker, johnnycakes than those in the north...The johnnycake became part of New England folklore with the publication of a series of articles from 1879-1880 in The Providence Journal entitled The Jonny-Cake Papers of "Shepherd Tom" by Thomas Robinson Hazard..."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 172)

"Phillis was 'Sheperd Tom's' grandfather's never-to-be-forgotten, unsurpassed, now sainted cook. In searching the birht records of the early 1700's, we find that Sheperd Tom's real name was Thomas Robinson Hazard, author, among other works, of Jonny-Cake Papers, in which the superiority of Phillis as a cook is fully set forth. She was beyond question the finest...The following is Shepherd Tom's description of how Phillis made a jonny cake:

'Phillis, after taking from the chest her modicum of meal, proceeded to bolt it through her finest sieve, reserving the first teacupful for the special purpose of powedering fish before being fried. After sifting the meal, she proceeded to carefully knead it in a wooden tray, hsaving first scalded it with boiling water, and added sufficient fluid, sometimes new milk, at other times pure water, to make it a proper consistency. It was then placed on a jonny-cake board about three-quarters of an inch in thickness, and well dressed on the surface with rich sweet cream to keep it from blistering when placed before the fire. The cake was next placed upright on the hearth before a bright, green hardwook fire supported by a heart-shaped flat-iron. First the flat's front smooth surface was placed immediately against the back of the jonny-cake board to hold it in a perpendicular position before the fire until the main part of the cake was sufficiently baked, then a slanting side of the flat-iron was turned so as to support the board in a reclining position until the bottom and top extremities of the cake were in turn baked, and lastly the board was slewed round and rested partly against thehandle of the flat-iron. After a time it was discovered that the flat-iron, first invented as a jonny-cake holder, was a convenient thing to iron clothes with, and has since been used for that purpose very extensively. When the jonny cake was sufficiently done on the first side, a knife was passed between it and the board, and it was dextrously turned and anointed, as before, with sweet, golden-tinged cream, previous to being again placed before the fire. Such as I have described was the process of making and baking the best article of farinaceous food that was every partaken of by mortal man, tow it, an old-fashioned jonny cake made of white Rhode Island cornmeal, carefully and slowly ground with Rhode Island fine-grained granite stones, and baked and consceintiously turned before glowing coals of quick greeen hardwood fire, on a red-oak barrelhead supported by a flat-iron.'

'From the latter part of this description, we find an important requisite in the grinding of the cornmeal...The millers of Rhode Island took great pride in the product of their mills...This historical rivaly has come down the ages, and it was not many years ago that in the Rhode Island General Assembly the best part of the day was given up to a debate between a miller from South County and one from Newport County as to the relative merits of their meal and methods of baking jonny cakes."
---Newport Cookbook, Ceil Dyer [Foremost Publishers:Little Compton RI] 1972 (p. 43-47) [NOTE: Recipe for Scalded Milk Jonny Cakes (South County) and Milk Jonny Cakes (Newport County) here.]

"Every Rhode Island cook has her own receipt for Jonnycakes. An old Newport receipt uses milk instead of water and calls for 1 teaspoon of sugar in the batter. A South County receipt adds 1 tablespoon of molasses and 1 tablespoon of butter to the basic cornmeal batter. Means of cooking the Johnnycakes vary also. Visitors to Smith's Castle, Cocumscussoc, where Roger Williams once traded with the Narragansett Indians, will see a long, narrow hardwood board onto which Jonnycakes were poured and then set before the fire to bake in a reflected heat."
---The Thirteen Colonies Cookbook, Mary Donovan, Amy Hatrak, Frances Mills & Elizabeth Shull [Montclair Historical Society:Montclair NJ] 1975 (p. 52)

[1796] Indian Slapjack & Johnny Cake or Hoe Cake, American Cookery, Amelia Simmons, Hartford CT

About hominy, grits & sofki

"Another versitale corn product is hominy, which is whole-grain, dried corn, traditionally soaked in a lye solution made from wood ashes to rid it of its outer husk. The kernels may be prepared as a starchy vegetable. Canned hominy is found in grocery stores all over the South...Grits are ground dried corn or hominy, and they must be cooked slowly for a long time."
---Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie, Bill Neal [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1996 (p. 7)

"Hominy. Dried, hulled corn kernels cooked in a variety of ways in breads, puddings, and other preparations. It was one of the first foods European settlers readily accepted from the Native Americans, and the word, from one or another Algonquin words, such as rockamoninie ("parched corn") or tackhummin ("hulled corn"), was used as early as 1620. Different terms describe hominy that has been treated or ground in different ways. "Great hominy," also called "whole hominy," "pearl hominy" (from its pearly appearance), and "samp" (from the Narraganset nasaump, "corn mush"), in coarsely ground and prepared by scalding shelled corn in water and wood ash to separate the hulls, called the "eyes."...If the corn is gorund more finely, or ground twice, the result is called "hominy grits" or, as is usual in the South, just grits. Further grinding results in cornmeal...."Hogs and hominy" is an old southern dish of hominy and fried pork."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 156)

"Eastern settlers hulled corn by both methods after cracking and pounding their corn in the hollowed log mortars and wooden pestles they called interchangeagly "hominy blocks" and "samp mills." But throughout the nineteenth century, American cooks north and south labored valiantly, and hopelessly, to squeeze the rich nomenclature of native corn dishes into the narrow confines of hominy, samp and --worst of all--grits. Anglo-Saxon grytt from bran and greot for ground had melded into "grist," which colonists applied generically to dried, ground and hulled grain. The New Orleans Picayune only confused matters when it called hominy "the older sister of grits," since it was the Indians who taught Creoles to thresh the hulls from dried yellow corn until the grains were white. Grits might be yellow if the hull was left on, the Picayune specified, but "the daintier preparpation" was white with the hull off. Plain hulled corn was "big hominy"; grits ground superfine were "small hominy"...In the North, samp (from the Narragansett nasaump, or unparched corn, beaten and boiled) came to be indentified with coarsley ground corn however it was hulled...Grits for many reasons became strongly identified, as they are today, with the South."
---The Story of Corn, Betty Fussell [North Point Press:New York] 1002 (p. 197-8)

"Whole hominy or great hominy is the result of the alkaline (lye) process of removing the hull form the kernel. But the word "hominy" refers to dried and hulled corn kernels, coarsely ground and prepared for used in puddings and breads, in particular. The term "grits," or "hominy grits," especially in southern states, refers to finely ground hominy. Hominy grits, usually of white corn, have been called "the potatoes of the South," so heavily have they been relied upon for starch in that region. Hot hominy is simmered over a slow heat for hours with butter, perhaps cream, and salt or sugar to taste. Grits for breakfast, served with eggs and ham or as a side dish, is a long-established dish of the South."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 344)

• Grits, Betty Fussell
• Samp, Alice Ross

Sofki
Sofki (variant spellings) is hominy. The name derives from the Creek (Indian) language. Our research confirms this dish held special meaning for this people. About hominy.

Sofki
"Sofki, Sofkey. A thin sour corn gruel prepared by the Creek and other Indians formerly of the Gulf region, from corn, water, and lye. There are three kings of the liquid: plain, sour and white. The corn is pounded into a coarse meal, which is fanned in order remove the broken grains and husks. Two quarts of the meal are put into a gallon pot of hot water, which is placed over a fire and allowed to boil. A perforated vessel is filled with clean wood ashes, on which water is poured to form a lye. The lye as it percolates through the ashes drops into the meal and water and turns the mixture yellow. Water is kept on the sofki for hours a time, and, finally, after the mixture has become very thick, it is removed and allowed to cool. A half-dozen 'blue dumplings' (a very palatable cornmeal preparation) are almost a necessary accompaniment of a mug of sofki. Pounded hickory-nuts are frequently added to the mixture, and marrow too, to improve the flavor. The vessel which is used expressly for preparing the meal is called a 'sofki dish.' The Yuchi name fro sofki is tsoshi. The word is derived from the Creek dialect of the Mushogean language. The Cherokee know it as Kanahena."
---Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: N-Z, Frederick Webb Hodge editor [US Government Printing Office:Washington DC] 1910 (p. 613)

"Corn was the year-round staple for the Indians, no corn was referred to so often as hominy, nor so confusingly. Each Indian tribe called it by a different name, or by several names: what was rockahomonie and sagamite to the Algonquin was atole to the Mexica, sofki to the Creek, tanlubo and tafala to the Chocktaw. English colonists muddled words and meaning when they lumped under the single word 'hominy' and number of preparations made from the fully mature kernels of any late-ripe corns but principally of the thick-skinned flints that Northern tribes called 'hommony corn.'...Anthropologist Alanson Skinner took 'Notes of the Florida Seminole' (1913) 'The meal [once taken from the mortar] is first sifted through an open mesh basket and then winnowed by being tossed into the air, the breeze carrying away the chaff, while the heavier, edible portion of the corn falls back into the flat receiving basket. In this condition the meal is mixed with water and boiled to make sofki.'"
---The Story of Corn, Betty Fussell [North Point Press:New York] 1992 (p. 196-197)

"Fermentation was sometimes used as a food preparation method. Sofki, a symbolically important food to the Creek, began as a watery maize gruel made of water, crushed flint corn and ashes, simmered for several hours until thick, then allowed to sour for three days. This dish allegedly had a sharp, bitter taste and a strong vinegary, beerlike odor. It was eaten from bowls at every meal and given to anyone who was hungry. The Creek believed that no meal was complete without sofki."
---American Indian Food, Linda Murray Berzok [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2005 (p. 115-116)

? "Sofkee or Safki or various spellings, is a traditional Southeastern Native dish made from hominy and meat. The eating of sofkee upon entering a house is essentially a method of saying both you're welcome in the house and you're glad to be there."
---Source. [NOTE: web site includes photos of special spoons used to eat this dish.]

About shortening bread
There is some confusion regarding exactly which food is referenced in the old African-American folksong "Shortnin' bread." Some food historians think the song was referencing classic Scottish shortbread. Others suggest the recipe was probably a simple quick bread (non-yeast) composed of flour (possibly cornmeal) and fat (probably lard). Which is correct? If the song was referencing food typically eaten by 18th and 19th century African-Americans, it is unlikely the recipe was for Scottish-type shortbread. Fine white sugar, pure creamery butter, and white flour were expensive.

What is shortening (shortnin')?
Flour cut with fat. This creates a paste that is different in taste and texture from traditional bread products. Scottish shortbread, pie crust, biscuits (including shortcakes) and cakes and cookies all call for some kind of shortening. The greater proportion of shortening to flour, the flakier the product. The type of flour and fat used depended upon how much money the cook had and what products were available. Popular fats used by American cooks through time have been lard (hog fat), butter, Cottolene, Crisco and margarine.

"Shortening. A North American expression for any fat or oil used in baking to make the finished item short (tender) in texture. The type of fat used as shortening depends on the individual recipes, and the term has the advantage of being neutral and non-specific. In the past butter and lard where the most important..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 721)

Which recipe was used to make the shortening (shortnin') bread referenced in the song?
We checked dozens of 18th and 19th century historic American cookbooks looking for a recipe for "traditional" shortening bread. We found no such item. There were plenty of recipes for quick (non-yeast) breads of many types combining flour (cornmeal, wheat) and fat (lard, butter), under various names. Many of these recipes also employed eggs, milk, and molasses/sugar. Texture, cooking method, and final product varied greatly.

According to the Dictionary of American Regional English, Joan Houston Hall editor, Volume IV [Belknap Press:Cambridge MA] 2002 etymological evidence strongly suggests shortening bread was "corn bread made with cooking fat, esp. lard," also known as crackling bread (p. 926). This book traces the term shortening bread/shortnin' bread as printed in a variety of scholarly journals, linguistic studies, and regional folkways sources. This book also notes that in the context of the American south, the terms shortcake' and shortbread' also sometimes meant a combination of cornmeal and grease.

Given this information, it is easy to understand why some people think the song is talking about Scottish shortbread. Unless you grew up in the South or studied historic southern foodways, it is unlikely you would have any reason to think differently. The lesson here? Accurate food history research sometimes requires a careful study of social context and regional linguistics.

About spoonbread
"By the turn of the century, an improved understanding of the chemistry of foods eliminated yeast for corn and demonstrated why cornmeal was better suited to quick-acting acid-soda mixtures and to small forms like biscuits and muffins...Until baking powders were readily available and understood, housewives and especially Southern ones leavened their corn batters primarily with eggs. Just as they turned green-corn puddings into fritters and souffles, so they turned puddings and breads into spoonbreads. Mrs. Bliss of Boston offered what we now call spoonbread in her Practical Cook Book (1850) under the name "Indian puffs." Her proportion of one quart of milk to eight tablespoons of meal and six eggs, "beaten as light as possible," suggests how much more easily Americans turned their corn in the direction of British puddings than British breads."
---The Story of Corn, Betty Fussell [Knopf:New York] 1992 (p. 228)

"The dish [spoonbread] existed long before it was in print. It is a soft often soufflelike startchy pudding made of cornmeal. One traditional Carolina Low County version is Awendaw (or Owendaw), named for an Indian settlement outside of Charleston and assuredly of the native cuisine. Sarah Rutledge published the first recipe for it in her 1847 collection. She also gave directions for a "Corn Spoonbread," but the spoon refers to the technique."
---Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie, Bill Neal [Knopf:New York] 1990 (p. 28)

Here is Sarah Rutledge's orginial 1847 recipe:

"Corn spoon bread
One pint of corn flour; boil half to a mush; add, when nearly cold, two eggs, a table-spoonful of butter and a gill of milk, and then the remaining half of flour. Bake on a griddle, or grease a pan and drop in spoonfuls."
---Carolina Housewife, Sarah Rutledge [1847] (p. 28)

About corn pudding
Food historians confirm Native Americans sometimes mixed maize (whole or ground) with other foods (vegetables, fruit, nuts). These compositions took many forms, depending upon the consistency of the ingredients and method of cookery. These included breadstuffs (fried, steamed, baked), porridges of varying thicknesses (samp), and simple combinations (succotash). Corn pudding, as we Americans know it today, descends from European vegetable puddings. Old World recipe meets New World ingredients.

There are many types of corn of corn pudding. Colonial cooks made "Indian pudding" ("Indian" meant using cornmeal instead of wheat flour) for dessert. They also made corn pudding (with real corn) as a vegetable. This type of corn pudding was very similar to spoonbread, except the liquid ingredients were sometimes increased and the product was baked in the oven (or Dutch oven) rather than on the griddle.

Amelia Simmons' [1798] Nice Indian Pudding [aka Corn Pudding] is closer to a Medieval English dish than anything vaguely Native American. Note: Ms. Simmons' recipe calls for eggs, spices, raisins, sugar, and butter. None of these ingredcients were used by indigenous cooks in their pre-European dishes. Compare Ms. Simmon's corn pudding with this 1747 English Carrot Pudding recipe.

A modernized recipe for Indian pudding:

"1 2/3 cups milk
5 tablespoons cornmeal
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup dark molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.
Scald 1 cup of the milk in the top part of a double boiler over boiling water. Add cornmeal and butter, then remove from heat to let cool for 25 minutes. Meanwhile beat eggs and add to molasses with salt, cinnamon and ginger. Mix thoroughly with the cooled milk and meal mixture. Pour into a buttered deep 1 quart dish and our remaining 2/3 cup cold milk over it. Bake in 350 degree F. Oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Allow pudding to sit for 20 minutes before serving, for liquid to be partially reabsorbed. Adding the 2/3 cup of milk at the end will result in having an inch of clear liquid at the bottom of the dish. "
---A Cooking Legacy: Over 200 Recipes Inspired by Early American Cooks, Virginia T. Elverson and mary Ann McLanahan [Walker & Company:New York] 1975 (p. 137-8) [NOTE: you will need to double the recipe to serve 10 people]

Corn pudding could also be made with real corn (as opposed to corn meal). Modernized recipe here

"Fresh Corn Pudding
3 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
Cornkernels scraped from 9 large ears, uncooked
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon sugar.
Beat egg yolks, add milk, and beat again. Add corn and seasonings, fold in stiffened egg whites. Put in a greased casserole and bake at 350 degrees F. For about 40 minutes. Serves 6."
---The Thirteeen Colonies Cookbook, Mary Donovan et al [Montclair Historic Society:Montclair NJ] 1982 (p. 166)
[NOTE: you will need to double the recipe to serve 10 people]

Were "hoe cakes" really cooked on hoes?
Early American cookbooks/food history reference books mention "hoe cakes." The earliest specimens do not comment on the hoe as a cooking implement. Presumably, these cooks did not need that particular instruction. Later books do, however, reference the hoe. Some imply this item might have been the common garden tool. Others intimate the "hoe" might have been the name of a faddish cooking implement, perhaps shaped like the garden tool.

Where does this appelation come from? A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historic Principles (Mitford M. Mathews editor, University of Chicago Press:Chicago, 1951, p. 813) and the Dictionary of American Regional English (Frederick G. Cassidy, chief editor, Belknap Press:Cambridge MA, 1991, Volume II, p. 1032) both cite the same primary source. It is not a cookbook, but a journal of observations recorded by a traveler:

"Hoe-cake is Indian corn ground into meal, kneaded into a dough, and baked before a fire, but as the negroes bake it on the hoes that they work with, they have the appelation of hoe-cakes."
SOURCE: Travels Through the Interior Parts of America, Thomas Anburey, London, 1789, II, 335.

[1852]
"Hoe Cake.--Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, and sift into a pan a quart of wheat flour, adding a saltspoon of salt. Make a hole in the middle, and mix in the white of egg so as to form a thick batter, and then add two table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Cover it, and let it stand all night. In the morning, take a hoe-iron (such as are made purposely for cakes) and prop it before the fire till it is well heated. Then flour a tea-saucer, and filing it with batter, shake it about, and clap it to the how, (which must be previoulsy greased,) and the batter will adhere till it is baked. Repeat this with each cake. keep them hot, and eat them with butter."
---Miss Leslie's Complete Cookery. Directons For Cookery in its Various Branches, Miss [Eliza] Leslie [Henry Carey Baird:Philadelphia] 1852 (p. 445-446)
[NOTE: This recipe is included under the index heading "New Recipes." It is not found in the 1849 edition of Leslie's book.]

[1853]
"A Virginia Hoe Cake. Pour warm water on a quart of Indian meal; stir in a spoonful of lard or butter, some salt, make it stiff, and work it for ten minutes; have a board about the size of a barrel head, (r the middle piece of the head will answer,) wet the board with water, and spread on the dough with your hand; place it before the fire; prop it aslant wiht a flat-iron, bake it slowly; when one side is nicely brown, take it up and turn it, by running a thread between the cake and the board, then put it back, and let the other side brown. These cakes used to be baked in Virginia on a large iron hoe, from whence they derive their name."A Quaker Woman's Cookbook: The Domestic Cookery of Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, facsimile 1853 reprint, revised edition, William Woys Weaver [Stackpole Books:Mechanicsburg PA] 2004 (p. 81)

Linda Campbell Franklin comments: "How downs & ups.--Looking at a modern hoe it is not easy to imagine propping one up as such a slant in front of the fire that a corn cake could actually be slapped on it and baked. But the 19th century had a variety of hoes, for purposes such as weeding or grubbing, with shank sockets set at different angles, and blades of different dimensions. Hopes varied from region to region too. I have not yet seen a perfect description of a hoe suitable for hoe cakes."---300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles, 5ht edition [Krause Publcations:Iola WI] 2003 (p. 579)

What about hotcakes?
Our survey of historic American cookbooks and newspaper articles does not reveal a distinct definition or recipe for the term "hotcakes" (one word or two). These sources contained several entries for pancakes, griddle cakes, flapjacks, hoe cakes, buckwheat cakes, indian cakes, johnny/journey cakes, batter cakes, and flannel cakes. Food historians generally agree popular names for pancake-type foods are regional in origin. 20th century newspaper articles appear to use the term "hotcake" interchangeably with the foods listed above. The term is particularly used by companies to denote low-cost packaged baking mixes in the 1930s-1940s. Presumably, these mixes could be used as base for any kind of hot cake-type recipe.

[1937]
"Honey, Don't you know Aunt Jemima's Hotcakes make scrumptious eatin' and ony cost you pennies?...Aunt Jemima hotcakes made according to easy directions on the package."
---Display ad, Albuquerque Journal [NM], December 4, 1937 (p. 7)

[1943] ---Display ad, Los Angeles Times, October 10, 1943 (p. E7)

[1944]
"This reporter recently had the pleasure of visiting the big, airy mixing rooms of a local firm to watch the blending of ingredients for a popular brand of hotcake and waffle mix. They are boxed separately. Our first impression upon entering this factory was its gleaming cleanliness...The workers scoop dried egg yolks and whites from separate huge barrels; measure flour, sugar, dried milk and other ingredients on big scales. Each item is acccurately weighed before it goes into the enormous bowls where the blending is done by machine...The man who perfected the recipes for this particualr brand of hotcake mix, waffle mix, and cake mixes, is a perfectionist of the first water. He firmly believes that separate formulas make better waffles and hotcakes than a combination blend that can be used for either. We can recommend all of the mixes and they're best sellers in almost all grocery stores in the Southland today. It's abusurdly to make perfect pancakes every time with product. And there's no better way to tease foks to the breakfast table for a hearty, nutritious morning meal than with pancakes, hot from the griddle."
---"Separate Mix Formulas Get Fine Results," Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, September 19, 1944 (p. A6)
[NOTE: the name of the brand/company is not revealed in this article. Ms. Manners invites readers to phone or write to the paper for this information.]

Which makes us wonder? Perhaps the term "hotcake" an uber-description for this general class of food. All of these items are served hot straight from the griddle. That might also explain why this term was selected for popular 20th century phrase "selling like hotcakes." "Selling like flapjacks" does not broadcast the same universal message. Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book [revised and enlarged, 1956] offers several pancake recipes headed thusly: Pancakes QUICK BREADS Griddle Cakes...Wheat Cakes...Pancakes...Flapjacks...Hot Cakes...Flannel Cakes. (p. 86-87). All of her recipes are titled pancakes.

This 1970 article lumps hotcakes, pancakes and griddle cakes as one item:
"Can't choose between pancakes and waffles? The master a super version of either one for Sunday breakfasts and brunches...As an alternative, there are oatmeal hotcakes which are different and popular among teen-agers and others with hearty appetites...[recipe provided for] Oatmeal Griddle Cakes."
---Hotcakes or Waffles for Brunch," Los Angeles Times, August 27, 1970 (p. F20)

The Oxford English Dictionary defines "hot cakes" this way:
"1. N. Amer. Any of various types of cake which are baked on a griddle or fried; spec. a griddle cake, a pancake made with a raising agent. 1683 W. PENN Let. Free Soc. Traders 6 Their Entertainment was..twenty Bucks, with hot Cakes of new Corn. 1791 W. BARTRAM Trav. N. & S. Carolina 241 Fine Corn flour..being fried in the fresh bear's oil makes very good hot cakes or fritters. 1817 M. BIRKBECK Notes Journey Amer. (1818) 64 Waffles (a soft hot cake of German extraction, covered with butter). 1875 J. S. LE FANU Willing to Die i. 12 Sometimes we..made a hot cake, and baked it on the griddle. 1891 J. S. FARMER Slang II. 18/2 s.v. Cake, Buckwheat and other hot cakes form a staple dish at many American tables. 1925 J. GREGORY Bab of Backwoods xi. 141 So they got the blaze going, bacon sizzling, the frying-pan balanced on the fire, hot-cakes mixed and coffee set to boil. 1966 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1964 XLII. 16 Flapjacks, the commonest name for pancakes. Batter (or batty) cakes, flitters (or flitter cakes), fritters, griddle cakes, hot cakes are all known. 1993 T. CLANCY Without Remorse (1994) xxvi. 504 It didn't stop Doris from attacking the pile of hotcakes." The only print recipe we specifically found titled hotcakes is this: "Buckwheat Hotcakes. Sift together one and one-half cupfuls of buckwheat flour, one-half a cupful of white flour, one-half teaspoonful of soda, and one teaspoonful of salt. Add one cupful of sour milk and two tablespoonfuls of melted shorteneing or butter, then add enough more sour milk to make a batter the same as for other hot cakes. Pour by spoonfuls on to a hot oiled griddle, and bake until well browned on both sides."---"Chef Wyman's Recipes," Los Angeles Times, October 21, 1930 (p. A7)

Polenta
Modern polenta descends from ancient pulse pottage. Recipes varied according to place, period & people; ranging from thin soup to coarse bread-type items. The earliest ingredients (barley,spelt, peas, beans, etc.) were indigenous. Maize (aka corn) was introduced as a result of the Columbian Exchange. This particular commodity was easy to grow & readily adaptable. In all cases, polenta-type foods were inexpensive and easy to cook. As such, they were consumed by the poorest classes of society. Hasty Pudding & Pease Porridge are related foods.

General history notes here:

"Polenta is a sort of thick porridge made from maize that is the staple carbohydrate dish of norther Italy. Its prehistoric ancestor or inspiration must have been made from barley (the Italian word comes from Latin polenta, 'pearly barley'...the main ingredient of the verison made by the northern Italians, living amongst hills dotted with chestnut trees, was originally chestnut flour. Then when maize was introduced from America, cornflour took its place."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 261)

"The food of Italy is a function of the history of Italy. A major component of that history is the record of the successive arrivals, over a period of 3,000 years, of wave after wave of invading peoples. Some of them went away again, others stayed. Each new race brought with it its own customs, its own traditions and its own eating habits. Three of them in particular laid the foundation for the Italian cooking of today. They were the Etruscans, the Greeks and the Saracens...Each of the three left behind a specific trademark. That of the Etruscans was a sort of mush made from grain which at times had the consistnecy of porridge and at others that of crumbly cake. It does not sound like particularly inspiring food, but on it the Roman Legions conquered the world. When the Romans took it over from the Etruscans, they called it puls, and later pulmentum. It is polenta today, and it is eaten throughout northern Italy, on the territory once occupied by the Etruscans."
---The Food of Italy, Waverly Root [Vintage Books:New York] 1971 (p. 4-5)

"The Roman Empire had indeed performed one important service for Etruscan cooking. It distributed it widely. The most conspicuous example is that of the first universal basic dish which Eturia gave Rome, pulmentum, which the Legions carried as far as York, England...Its modern descendant, polenta (now made with corn flour) is not important in the cooking of Lasio today, nor of Tuscany either, but flourishes instead in what was once the northern fringe of Etruscan conquest, Piedmont, Lombardy and the Venetias..."
---ibid (p. 75)

"...in tracing the history of Italy's resources and gastronomic products, we must not overlook the fact that throughout much of this history grains played a consistent role in the nourishment of the poor, offering them an essential weapon in their daily struggle for survival. In this sense, we must point out that the use of polenta, comre than any other food, reveals the continuity of Italian cooking, going back long before the Middle Ages, to the customs of the ancient Italic people who inhabited the peninsula in antiquity. This was an important dish in the diet of the peasants since Roman times, when it was called puls and prepared with spelt flour. Over time, spelt was used side by side with wheat flour, from which bread was eventually made, and with various other, less valuable grains and seeds, such as barley, millet, foxtail, and sorghum, some of which were native pants and some of which had been imported from other parts of the Mediterranean shore. Given their lack of suitability for bread making, these grains functioned mainly to transmit and diversify the primordial culture of polenta...Legumes were normally associated with the inferior grains, partly because they were cultivated alongside them in the fields, and partly because they had similar nutritional uses. After legumes had been set aside to dry for a period of time, their floury substance could be mixed with grains to bake bread or more oftne to make polenta or soup. A pulmentario, or gruel, of broad beans and foxtail millet...appears in a document issued in Lucca in the year 765, referring to the food distributed three times a week as alms to the poor. Similar use was made of chestnuts...Polenta and soup are foods of the poor. Yest even these 'poor' dishes, intended mainly to appease the pangs of hunger and guarantee basic survivla, left significatn traces in the cooking manuals addressed to the upper classes. The dish of 'broken broad beans' recommended by the Neapolitan writer of the Liber de coquina at the beginning of the fourteenth century is really a type of polenta made with beans, similar to the dish known as macco, widely documented as typical of the diet of the peasants. The initial recipe is quite basic and straightfoward..."
---Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History, Alberto Capatti & Massimo Montanari [Columbia University Press:New York] 2003 (p. 44-45)

"The word polenta derives from puls, a kind of porridge, of the Romans who originally made it with various grains such as barley and millet. Once maize was introduced from the New World to northern Italy, shortly after 1500, it replaced panic (foxtail millet), milled, and sorghum in the Veneto and polenta evolved into what we know it as today. On story attributes the arrival of maize in Italy to the diplomat Pietry Martire d'Angera who, in 1494, had brough a few seeds, given to him as a gift in Madrid, straight from Columbus, by the Milanese Cardinal Ascanio Sforza. Whatever the story, we do know that maize, popularly known as corn, was first known as maizium...and that it was being cultivated in Polesina di Rovigo and Basso Veronese in 1554, probably as a result of the suggestion of the Cremonese scientist Giovanni Lamo, who proposed its cultivation...The first cornmeal in the Padua plain must have been an exciting phenomenon. Here was this food that could be a startling yellow, looking fresher than any bread the peasants would see. Some people believe that polenta is a northern Italian specialty, but polenta is as popular in southern Italy, especially around Benevento and Avellino, where polenta and sausages is a favorite dish."
---A Mediterranean Feast, Clifford A Wright, William Morrow:New York] 1999 (p. 615)

"Polenta, a kind of thick maize porridge, solid when cold, which is a staple dish in N. Italy. Its history as a maize dish dates back to when maize was introduced to the region by the Venetians from America in the mid-17th century. However, it is thought that even before then polenta was being made with chestnut flour, and that in this form it goes back to antiquity. Moreover, since polenta in classical Rome meant pearl barley, a barley version is probably lurking in the background...Closely similar dishes exist in Balkan countries where maize was adopted as a staple food. The Romanian mamaliga is the best-known example."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 616)

THE ITALIAN/AMERICAN CONNECTION
Polenta was called cornmeal mush by 19th century American cooks. Like its Italian counterpart, this was the food of the poorer & working classes.

"The other way [American] colonists conferred dignity on mush was to call it polenta. Mary Randolph's directions in her Virginia Housewife (1824) "To Make Polenta" were similar to the Pocumtu's "hasty pudding," except that Randolph sliced the cooked mush when cold, layered it with butter and cheese in a deep dish and baked it in a quick oven--Italian style. We know that she thought of it as Italian because she follows it with recipes for "macaroni" and "vermicelli."...At the turn of the century Celestine Eustice outlined four polenta recipes, including "alla Toscana," which initiated les puavres in the polenta mystique taught today to rich Americans by expensive Italian cooking teachers. Here was the ritual of pouring of the meal in a slow trickle into boiling water, the constant stirring, then the holding of the saucepan over the hottest part of the fire until the meal was detached from the bottom so that it would turn out easily onto a board, then the cutting of it into slices with a wire or string. Eustis's pauvres may not have the cachet of Italian peasants in the American imagination, but he mush is the same. So is the cornmeal, for there are even fewer stone-ground mills in Italy than in the United States...A good reason for the polenta mystique, apart from the chic of copper pots and peasant cooking, is that Italians during four hundred years developed a fine corn cuisine of their own. When Columbus first brought corn to the continent, Italy was as suspicious as France or England of the grain they called granoturco. But since it was the cheapest of all grains to grow, they soon called it corn by the ancient Roman name for pottage, puls, or pulmentum, and thus polenta. By the eighteenth century, corn had become a hedge against famine for the peasants of the northern provinces and, for the nobility, a version of pastoral. Among the Palladian villas a "polenta cult" developed, the subject of songs, poems...Lombardy became the province of polenta...It was Veneto, however, which took polenta to new culinary heights in polenta pastizzada, layering of mush with minced veal, mushrooms and cockscombs in a sine-tomato-butter sauce seasoned with salt pork...The pride of the Veneto...was its famed polenta con osei--"fresh polenta, migratory birds, wine from the cellar and joyful folk," in the words of an ancient proverb."
---The Story of Corn, Betty Fussell [North Point Press:New York] 1992 (p. 232-4)
[NOTE: This book contains much more information than can be paraphrased here. If you need more details ask your librarian to help you get a copy.]

Mary Randolph's Polenta recipe:

"To Make Polenta
Put a large spoonful of butter in a quart of water, wet your corn meal with cold water in a bowl, add some salt, and make it quite smooth, then put it in the buttered water when it is hot, let it boil, sirring it continually till done; as soon as you can handle it, make it into a ball and let it stand till quite cold, then cut it in thin slices, lay them in the bottom of a deep dish so as to cover it, put on it slices of cheese, and on that a few bits of butter, then mush, cheese, and butter, until the dish is full, put on the top thin slices of cheese, put the dish in a quick oven; twenty or thirty minutes will bake it."
---The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph, facsimile first edition, 1824 with historica notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University Of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 100)

Historic notes on foods made with corn:

• History of maize, Iowa State University
• Corn cooking (historic survey)
• Atole & posole
• Cornmeal mush
• Corn chips
• Nachos
• Popcorn

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Corn starch

Food historians tell us starches of many kinds have been employed by cooks throughout time. These were made from many natural foods such as wheat (flour), tapioca (cassava), arrowroot (same) and corn (maize). While Native Americans appreciated the thickening properties of ground maize (corn), the scientific ability to isolate/extract the starch from this plant did not occur until the mid-19th century. Alfred Bird's custard powder [1837] employed cornflour as thickening agent. We do not, however, find print evidence crediting him with the scientific discovery of extracting starch from the flour. This credit generally goes to Thomas Kingsford, 1842.

[1837] Alfred Bird
"What is abundantly clear is the importance in all this of the invention of custard powder. This product is not a dried form of real custard. It consists mainly of cornflour and sugar, coloured and flavoured, to which hot milk is added to make a sauce. It was invented by Alfred Bird, who opened a shop in Birmingham in 1837 under the sign 'Alfred Bird F.C.S., Experimental Chemist...'it was not the pursuit of scientific knowledge which prompted him to devise a new custard based on cornflour rather than eggs, but rather his concern to find a compromise betwen his wife's partiality to custard and her allergy to eggs.'... Demand for Bird's prdouct increased steadily during the second half of the 19th century. Competitors, using formulae whose ingredients included arrowroot, sago flour, or potato starch, coloured with tumeric or chrome yellow, and flavoured with cassia or bittered almonds, also entered the market. Bird's, however, promoted their prdouct with skilful salesmanship, and became so closely identified with custard powder that few competitors survived. The principal factor in the success of custard powder was that, as it did not contain eggs, there was no longer any risk of the sauce curdling in unskilled hands."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 237-238)

[1840] Orlando Jones
"Starch for all kinds of purposes had been leached from wheat and rice by the simplest water solution from the time of ancient Egypt and China. In the sixteenth century, American colonists imported wheat starch in some quantity to powder their wigs and starch their collars, until they developed wheat- and later potato-starch factories of their own. Not until the nineteenth century was there any major change in starch extraction, when in 1840 the Englishman Orlando Jones patented a method which used an alkaline as catalyst. Within four years, Colgate & Company had applied the patent to corn in its wheat-starch factory in Jersey City. An employee, Thomas Kingsford, was so struck by the results that he set up a cornstarch factory of his own in Oswego New York. This extracted cornstarch was first sold culinarily as a flour, superior to finely ground wheat flour for the baking of cakes. The fact that starch did not have the same properties as flour presented problems for the manufacturer in promoting his product. A recipe pamphlet of 1877 explained to the housewife why some of the recipes called for a little wheat flour to be added to the cornstarch: "This is done because the Oswego Corn Starch is so rich in all its parts, whtat it will not hold together in cakes, biscuits, etc., without the aid of flour..."...Wright Duryea, who had worked as a millwright, opened his own starch factory in 1854, coining the word Maizena for his starch. By 1892 he had the largest starch factory in the country, grinding up several thousand bushels of corn a day."
---The Story of Corn, Betty Fussell [North Point Press:New York] 1992 (p. 266-7)

[1842] Thomas Kingsford
"Cornstarch. Also called "corn flour." A flour made from corn and used as a thickener in gravies and sauces. The process was invented in 1842 by Thomas Kingsford, who eventually merged with the Argo Manufacturing Company of Nebraska and others to form the United Starch Company."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 129)

"Naturalized Britisher Thomas Kingsford is the first to isolate starch from kernels of corn using technology he learned from a wheat starch plant in Jersey City, NJ. He successfully perfected the process, making a pure laundry starch from corn."
---Argo company web

[1883]
"Starch.--This substance forms a large part of our cereals and vegetables--wheat, rice, corn, peas and beans, sago, horse-chest-nuts and potatoes. In the starch of commerce there are only two known descriptions--those used for food and those employed for manufacturing and laundry purposes. The starch in our markets is largely manufactured from the potato. The Corn-starch, which enters so largely into the food for invalids and infants, and various products of confectionery and the domestic panty, is prepared from Indian corn--two large factories alone furnishing more thatn 40,000,000 pounds of starch annually, and consuming in its production upwards of 2,000,000 bushels of corn. Its manufacture, as now conducted by the new chemical process, is so superior in quality and flavor as not only to have superseded and dreinven out the foreign brands, which formerly found a ready sale in the United States, but it has created for itself a large export demand to Europe and other parts of the world, which is rapidly and constantly increasing. The new process of which we speak, entirely obviates the process of souring the grain, formerly resorted to, the gluten being separated from the corn by the action of acids and alkalies. The food-starches, of which maize, the sago-palm and manioc forms the basis, are the arrow-root and corn-starch, and consequently far less acid than the laundry and manufacturing article, which is made from rice, wheat and potatoes."
---The Grocer's Companion, New England Grocer Office [Benjamin Johnson publisher:Boston] 1883(p. 142-143)

[1911] Grocers's Encyclopedia
"Corn starch, used in the manufacture of puddings, etc., is made from the raw starch of corn by breaking it up, washing and siphoning repeatedly, running over refining sieves of fine silk which remove any particles of fibre still adhereing, putting through various refiningh processes, drying until the content of water has been reduced to only about 10% and finally pulverizing."
---Grocer's Encyclopedia, Artemas Ward [National Grocer:New York] 1911 (p. 195)

How was corn starched used in 19th century American recipes? Search Michigan State University's Feeding America cookbooks (ingredient: cornstarch, corn starch and maizena) returns dozens of examples.

Paper of cornstarch?
How big (volume/weight) was a "paper of cornstarch" in the 19th century? We have no clue. We've checked our historic cookbooks, domestic science texts, historic newspapers (ads) and grocer's encyclopedias from the early 19th century to the 1920s. We explored spelling variations and trade synonyms (cornstarch, corn-starch, corn starch, Maizena). The single quantifying reference we found was furnished by Miss Leslie, c. 1851. Her description leads us to believe the "paper" might have referred to the original packaging of the product. But? Similar starchy items (custard powder, gelatine, sago) were not sold paper. They were packaged in air-tight tins and thick waxed boxes for protection against moisture. "Paper" might also have been a popular synonym for "sheet," possibly referring to the sheets of dried cornstarch produced in the manufacturing process. Ms. Leslie's reference does not gel because her product was "flour." Flour is generally defined as ground grain in powder form. Hmmm....

Curiously? The phrase "paper of cornstarch" is generally published in cook books containing other cornstarch recipes employing standard kitchen measures (cups, teaspoons, etc.). We are confused! If you know the answer to this riddle, please share.

Historic American references to "a paper of cornstarch:"

[1851]
"Corn-Starch Blancmange.
Buy at one of the best grocer's a half-pound paper of corn-starch flour..."
---Miss Leslie's Complete Cookery, 1851, accessed online via GoogleBooks.

[1858]
"Corn Starch Cake.
To one paper of corn starch take one pound of white sugar, half pound of butter; and six eggs. Mix the butter and sugar well together with the yolks of the eggs, and add in the whites while stirring in the starch. Beat all well together, for only a few minutes." ---Peterson's Magazine, 1858 accessed online via GoogleBooks.

[1883]
"Chocolate Blanc Mange.
One-fourth cup chocolate grated, and one pint water and teacup sugar; let it simmer till chocolate is dissolved, and a quart of milk and cup-third paper of cornstarch mixed in cold water. When milk begins to boil five minutes, flavor with vanilla and pour into molds." ---Newport Mercury [newspaper], Rhode Island, March 17, 1883 (p. 6)

[1908]
"Corn-starch-cake
One paper of corn-starch, three-quarters of a pound of butter, one pound of sugar, six eggs beaten separately, half a teacup of milk, half a teaspoon of soda, a teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, beat half the corn-starch in the yolks of eggs and add them, beating well, mix the cream of tartar in the other half of the corn-starch, stir it in with the sugar, &c., then the whites of the eggs, and last the milk and soda. Flavor to your taste, and bake in shallow pans or in a Turk's head. Best when first baked."
---Economical Cook Book of Every Day Meals, Mrs. Sara T. Paul [John C. Winston Company:Chicago] 1908 (p. 230-231)

Related foods? Corn syrup & custard powder.

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Cracker Jack

"During the 1870s the German immigrants Frederick and Louis Rueckheim sold popcorn on the streets of Chicago. They began to experiment with combining popcorn with several other products. When the Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago in 1893, they sold a confection composed of popcorn, molasses, and peanuts, which they prepared in a small factory. After the exposition, orders for the confection rose. The Rueckheims increased production, repackaged the product so that it would stay fresh, named it Cracker Jack, and promoted it nationwide. Conflicting stories as to how "Cracker Jack" acquired its name have surfaced. The most commonly told story goes as follows. While sampling and tasting the new confection, John Berg, a company salesman, purportedly exclaimed: "That's crackerjack." Frederick Rueckehim looked at him and said, "Why not call it by that name?" Berg responded, "I see no objection," Rueckehim's decisive reply was "That settles it then." The story is probably apocryphal as, at that time, the term "cracker jack" was commonly used slang that meant "first-rate" or "excellent." Cracker Jack was soon sold in snack bars at circuses, fairs, and sporting events. In 1908, the lyricist Jack Norworth and the composer Albert von Tilzer immortalized Cracker Jack in their song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"...Unlike other fad foods, Cracker Jack survived. Throughout the early twentieth century the company expanded, opening operations in Canada and the United Kingdom. By 1913 Cracker Jack was the world's largest-selling commercial confection. A major reason for its longevity was extensive national advertising, specifically focused at children. In 1912 a small toy was included in every package. The little sailor boy and his dog were first used in advertisements in 1916, and three years later they appeared on the Cracker Jack box...In 1970 Cracker Jack was enjoyed in 24,689,000 homes, or 41 percent of all American households. Then other companies began manufacturing Cracker Jack-like snacks, and Cracker Jack sales declined." ---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 352-3)

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Creamed onions

Onions played an important role in European cuisine from very ancient days forward. Easily transported, readily raised, historically appreciated, and perfectly paired. Onions are equally comfortable playing star or supporting roles.

How were early American onions prepared?
New England's colonial cooks prepared onions in several different ways, using recipes they brought from home. Culinary evidence confirms onions were: boiled & served with butter, salt, and pepper, fried, stewed, pickled, featured in pies, soups and "made" dishes, and served as "sauce." Onion sauce contained cream and, according to early recipes, was served as both side dish or poured over fowl. Early 19th century recipes sometimes add milk and flour to whole onions, the primary components of a the standard white sauce used for contemporary creamed onions. Recipes specifically titled "creamed onions" appear in American cook books at the tail end of the 19th century. They proliferate in the 20th century.

Evolutionary survey of creamed onion recipes:

[1595] "To Boil Onions.
"Take a good many onions and cut them in four quarters. Set them on the fore in as much water as you think will boil them tender. When they be clean skimmed, put in a good many small raisins, half a spoonful of gross pepper, a good piece of sugar, and a little salt. When the onions be thoroughly boiled, beat the yolk of an egg with verjuice, and put into your pot. So serve it upon sops. If you will, poach eggs and lay upon them."
---The Good Housewife's Jewell, Thomas Dawson, reprint 1595 edition, introduction by Maggie Black [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1996 (p. 32)
[NOTES: verjuice is the tart juice of grapes; sops are thick, dried pieces of bread. As is characteristic of Renaissance-era recipes, this one features sugar and Medieval spices/ingredients.]

[1621] According to the food notes supplied by Edward Winslow of Plimoth, onions were available in the fall of that year. While he does not specifically state onions were served, or supply recipes, it is reasonable to assume onions graced the table in some form. These notes regarding the first Thanksgiving dinner from Plimoth Plantation state our menu traditions for this meal were created in the 19th century. Coincidentally? So were recipes for creamed onions.

[1685] "To butter Onions.
Being peeled, put them into boiling liquor, and when they are boil'd, drain them in a cullnder, and butter them whole with some boil'd currans, butter, sugar, and beaton cinnamon, serve them on fine sippets, scrape on ssugar, and run them over with beaten butter."
---The Accomplist Cook, Rober May, facsimile 1685 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 2000 (p. 426)
[NOTES: liquor means water; currans are currants (like raisins); sippets are finer grade sops.]

[1747]
"A Ragoo of Onions.
Take a pint of little young Onions, peel them, and take four large ones, peal them, and uct them very small; put a Qaurter of a Pound of good Butter into a Stew-pan, when it is melted and done making a Noise,throw in your Onions, and fry them till they begin to look a little brown; then shake in a little Flour, and shake them round till they are thick; throw in a little Salt, and a little beaten Pepper, and a Quarter of a Pint of good Gravy, and a Tea Spponful of Mustard. Stir all together, and when it is well tasted, and of a good Thickness, pour into your Dish, and garnish it with fry'd Crumbs of Bread or Raspings. They make a pretty little Dish, and are very good. You may strew fine Raspings in the room of Flour, if you please."
--- Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 56) [NOTE: Raspings are bread crumbs.]

[1769]
"To make Onion Sauce.
Boil eight or ten large onions, change the water two or three times while they are boiling. Whe enough, chop them on a board to keep them from going bad in colour. Put them in a saucepan with a quarter of a pound of butter, two spoonfuls of thick cream, boil it a little and pour it over the ducks."
---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, reprint 1769 edition, introduction by Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 29)

[1803] "To Make Onion Sauce," American Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter

[1832]
"It is a good plan to boil onions in milk and water; it diminishes the strong taste of that vegetable. It is an excellent way of serving up onions, to chop them after they are boiled, and put them in a stewpan, with a little milk, butter, salt, and pepper, and let them stew about fifteen minutes. This gives them a fine flavor, and they can be served up very hot.
---The American Frugal Housewife, Mrs. Child, facsimile reprint 1832 edition, Old Sturbridge Village [Applewood Books:Boston](p. 36)

[1877] White Onion Sauce, Buckeye Cookery, Estelle Woods Wilcox

[1896] "Boiled Onions with Cream.
Peel twelve medium-sized onions, pare the roots without cutting them, place in a saucepan, cover with salted butter, add a bunch of parsley, and boil for forty-five minutes. Take them frwm the saucepan, place them on a dish, cover with two gills of cream sauce mixed with two tablespoonfuls of the broth the onions were cooke in, garnish, and serve."
---The Cookbook by "Oscar" of the Waldorf, Oscar Tschirky [Saalfield Publishing:Chicago] 1896 (p. 463-4)

[1913]
"Creamed Onions
Peel one quart of medium-sized onions, place them in a saucepan, cover with boiling water; ad one teaspoonful of sugar, and boil until nearly done; add one teaspoonful salt; boil a few minutes longer, then drain in a colander. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter, add half a tablespoonful of flour. Stir and cook two inutes; add one cupful of hot milk and cook two minutes longer, and season with whole pepper and salt. Put the onions in a hot dish and pour the sauce over them."
---The American Home Cook Book, Grace E. Denison [Barse & Hopkins:New York] 1913 (p. 158)

[1940]
"Creamed Onions
In peeling the onions remove all of the green leaves, for they should be as white as milk when served. Drop then into boiling water and boil uncovered for ten minutes. Drain, add freshly boiling water and contiute cooking until tender (30-60 minutes). Just before cooking is completed, add salt. Drain thoroughly, place in a serving-dish and pour medium white sauce over them. If hte onions are large they may be quartered before they are cooked."
---The American Woman's Cook Book, Ruth Berolzheimer editor [Culinary Arts Institute:Chicago] 1940 (p. 403)

[1956]
"Easy Creamed Onions
Pour enough cream to almost cover canned small onions in baking dish. Dot with butter. Season with salt, pepper, dash of sugar. Bake covered in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) 15-20 min., or until cream is bubbly."
---Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, Revised and Enlarged, 2nd Edition [McGraw-Hill Book Company:new York] 1956 (p. 438)

[1963]
"Company Creamed Onions
2 cans (15 1/2-oz size) small white onions
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon mace
dash pepper
2 tablespoons packaged dry bread crumbs.

1. Drain onions, reserving 1/2 cup liquid.
2. Melt butter in medium saucepan; remove from heat. Stir in flour until smooth.
3. Gradually add reserved onion liquid and milk; bring mixture to boiling point, stirring; boil gently 1 minute.
4. Add onions, salt, mace, and pepper; heat thoroughly; turn into 1-quart casserole.
5. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, and run under broiler about 2 minutes, just to brown the top."
---McCalls Cook [Random House:New York] 1963 (p. 587)

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About these notes: Food history can be a complicated topic. These notes are not meant to be a comprehensive treatment of the subject, but a summary of salient points supported with culinary evidence. If you need more information we suggest you start by asking your librarian to help you find the books and articles cited in these notes. Article databases are good for locating current recipes, consumer trends, and new products.
Have questions? Ask!

About culinary research & about copyright.
Research conducted by Lynne Olver, editor The Food Timeline. About this site.

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© Lynne Olver 2000
2 February 2012