Algae
Algae, seaweed, nori, kaiso, agar agar, miuk, carrageen, Irish moss, spirulina, tecuilatl: vitamin rich edible gifts from the sea. Consumed from prehistoric times forward, culinary applications depend upon place/period/people. Algae as human food deserves special consideration because it serves both ends of the human culinary spectrum: starvation food and culinary art. Fascinating!

"The earliest archaeological evidence for the consumption of algae found thus far was discovered in ancient middens along the coast of Peru. Kelp was found in middens at Pampa, dated to circa 2500B.C...In Africa, another species of cyoanbacteriium, Spirulina platensis, grows abundantly in Lake Chad and is collected, dried, and made into sauce. It is widely consumed by the Kanembu people...In China, the earliest reference to algae as food occurs in the Book of Poetry (800-600B.C)...The Greeks and Romans apparently disliked algae and, seemingly, made no use of them as human food, although they were used as emergency food for livestock...The seaweed Rhyodymenia palmata was eaten in Iceland as early as A.D. 960, according to the Egil Saga...In Japan, the eating of algae is also an ancient practice. Seaweed was apparently eaten by the early inhabitants of Japan, as it had been found with shells and fish bones at human sites in the Jomon period (10,500-300 B.C.) and the Yayoi period (200 B.C. to A.D. 200). In AD 701, the emperor established the Law of Taiho in which seaweed...were among the marine products paid to the court as a tax. The blue-green bacterium Nostoc verrucosum, currently known as ashitsuki nori, was mentioned in Man Yo Shu by Yakomichi Otomi in the oldest anthology of 31-syllable odes dating to A.D. 748."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas, Volume One (p. 231-233)

[Japanese nori & kaiso]
"The Japanese liking for nori can be traced back as far as the 8th century AD; and by the 17th century it was being cultivated in some of the inlets and estuaries which abound on the Japanese coasts..."
---Oxford Compantion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 539)

"To make the naori-maki the core material is placed on a bed of rice which is then rolled up in nori seaweed. It was created around 1820, though there had been a few kinds of rolled sushi prior to that. It probably appeared first in the elegant vegetarian cooking associated with Zen temples. Nori-wrapped sushi may have simply been an improvisation, or it may have been made for the meals served after Buddhist wakes and funerals, when no fish was eaten."
---The Book of Sushi, Kinjiro Omae and Yuzuru Tachiban, forward by Jean-Pierre Rampal [Kodansha International:Tokyo] 1981 (p. 50)

"Nori. Laver Porphyra...The red algae asakusa nori (Porfyra tenera) is the best-known species. When it is gathered, it is dried into sheets of a standard size....which are packed in bundles of ten. This nori is toasted and used as wrapping for normimaki. The sheets are also further cut up and packed in different sizes, often in cellophone envelopes of five toasted sheets suitable for wrapping around mouthfuls of rice at breakfast. This is called yakinori, or ajitusuke nori, when the small pieces are caoted with spicy flavouring. Another nori is green laver, anonori...which is dried and sold in small flakes to sprinkle on food. It grows on rocks in dark areas lapped by the tide. Hiteogusa has a better flavor than aonori, and is made into tsukaduani, sold as tsukadani of nori or amanori...Aonori is one of the traditional ingredients of schichimi togarashi, but the cheaper aosa...sea lettuce, is often used as a commercial subsitute."
---A Dictionary of Japanese Food, Richard Hosking [Charles E. Tuttle:Rutland VT] 1996 (p. 110-111)

"Kaiso (Seaweed) Found throughout the country, although Tokushima's is considered the best, wakame (a type of seaweed) is harvested May to June. Fresh, it is used in sunomono (vinegared food), suimono (clear soup), and in dashi (stock). Dried wakame is also commonly used, inluding ran-boshi, dried unpretentiously on the nearest beach; shio-boshi-wakame, washed in salt water and dried; or shio-nuki-wakame, washed only in plain water (with no salt) and dried. Nori (sea laver) is best known in its dried and toasted form as the outer layer of nori-maki (sushi wrapped in nori). Small sheets are used to scoop up rice mixed with raw egg in a typical ryokan breakfast. It is often added to soba and ramen dishes (mainly in Kanto), mixed with salt and sesame for use in furikake (a savoury topping sprinkled on plain white rice), and is an ingredient in shichimi-togarashi (seven spice mix). The role of konbu/kobu (kelp) in Japanese cooking cannot be underestimated, as it is a key ingredient in dashi. Ma-konbu, growing to almost 2m in length is harvested from Hokkaido's Uchiura Bay, where it is also known as yamadashi-konbu. From the northern island of Rebun, rishiri-konbu is excellent for dashi, while that from Shakotan peninsula is not as aromatic so is used mainly in tsukudani (fish and vegetables simmered in shoyu and mirin). Hijiki is a black, spiky looking, but soft, seaweed. It is good sauteed in shoyu with soy beans, a dish called hijiki-mame."
---World Food: Japan, John Ashburne and Yokshi Abe [Lonely Planet:Victoria] 2002 (p. 75)

Recommended reading: The History and Culture of Japanese Food/Naomichi Isinge

[Chinese seaweed]
Recommended reading: Food in China: A Cultural and Historical Inquiry/Frederick J. Simoons, chapter 6: "Seaweeds and Other Algae" (p. 179-190)

[Korean miuk]
"Miuk-Kuk. Seaweed Soup. In Korea, for three weeks after the birth of her baby, the mother is made to drink this soup four or five times a day. The seaweed is supposed to be good for recover--it cleans the blood, makes the hair glossy and black and is full of calcium and iodine. But often young mothers become tired of this before the three-week period is over and I have seen many a grandmother scolding and trying to force a young mother to drink this soup. This soup is often served on birthdays, perhaps to remind one of the day he was born. When this is served, someone often asks, 'Whose birthday is it today?"
(5-6 servings)
6 oz. seaweed (miuk)
6-2/3 oz. lean beef
1 green onion (cut into thread-like strips)
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon gound sesame seed
1 1/2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
1/3 teaspoon pepper
Chemical seasoning
1) Wash and soak seaweed in water, drain and cut into 1-2/3 in. lengths.
2) Cut beef in thin and narrow strips, mix with garlic, ground sesame seed, 1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil, pepper, cook over fire until meat changes colour. Then add seaweed and 1/2 tablespoon of sesame seed oil and cook for five minutes.
3) Whe the seaweed is cooked, add 6 cups of water and bring to boil. Add green onion and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes. When the seaweed becomes tender add soy sauce, and chemical seasoning. Bring to boil again and remove from fire.
* When using fresh seaweed, do not cook with the meat but add to the soup after it is brought to boil.
* Clams may be substituted for beef with very satsifying results."
---Art of Korean Cookery, Cho Coong-Ok, [Shibata Publishing:Tokyo Japan] 1963 (p. 98-99)

[Irish carrageen] "Carrageen (Chondrus crispus), also inown as Iberian moss, Irish moss, pearl moss, or sea moss, this green or purplish mucilaginous, edible seaweed is common on many coasts of northern Europe and the U.S. In Ireland it is dried, bleached, and used as a vegetable, as a jellifying agent, and for the making of moulds and aspics, It has a very high vitamin content, and is processed and marketed commercially in Irleand, as well as being exported."
---The Food of the Western World: An Encyclopedia of Food from North America and Europe, Theodora Fitzgibbon [Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co.:New York] 1976 (p. 81)
[NOTE: recipe for carrageen jelly is included. Happy to scan/send if you want.]

"Carrageen moss, found on the rock at low tide, was much used along the coast. Boiled in milk it made delicious jellies and blancmanges. It was said to be very nutritious and a folk cure for colds and chest ailments, as it contained iron. In lean times in Donegal the freshly gathered carrageen was washed and boiled in water and given to calves to supplement their food."
---Land of Milk and HOney: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink, Brid Mahon [Mercier Press:Boulder CO] 1991 (p. 48)

New World edible algae

[Aztec spirulina]
"Perhaps the most famous lake produce used and widely traded by the Aztecs was the edible algae (Spirulina geitleri). Tecuilatl, which is very much like mud or slime, grows in certain places in the lake basin of Mexico on the surface where it is collected or swept up by nets, or heaped up by spades. Once taken up and dried a bit in the sun, the Indians shape it into small cakes and put it out in the sun on fresh green leaves so that is becomes perfectly dry. It is then kept like cheese...It is eaten when necessary with toasted maize or with the ordinary tortillas of the Indians. Each source of the slime has its owner, some of whom were as much as a thousand gold escudos a year. It tastes like cheese, and that is what the Spaniards call it, but less pleasing and with a certain taste of mud. When new it is green or blue, when old it is mud color, green verging to black, edible only in very small quantities, in place of salt or as a condiment to maize. As for the tortillas which are made of it they are a rustic food, which is proved by the fact that the Spaniards, who avoided nothing that would please the palate in these countries, have never brought themselves to eat it. (Hernandez 1959, 2: 408-9)'"
---America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe [University Of Texas Press:Austin TX] 1994 (p. 100-1)

[Inca poryphra]
"The mention of edible algae...leads us to another resource that was fully exploited. Seaweeds were harvested and eaten fresh on the coast or dried into sheets or blocks and traded into the highlands. This cochayuyo consisted of many different genera: Poryphyra in the south of Peru, Gigartina Ulva lactuca, Durvillea antarctica, and others in the north. Fresh-water algae were also consumed, blue-green algae of the genus Nostoc being eaten raw or processed for storage. In postconquest times Nostoc was made into a dessert by being boiled with sugar."
---America's First Cuisines (p. 186)

[USA: seaweed]
"Seaweed. In popular American belief, fish is the only form of food that the ocean offers us, but it is also rich with a great number of edible Algae or seaweeds and the future will in all probability see a vastly increased use of the yet immeasurable food supply of deep sea waters. The most prominent of the varieties of present commercial importance are Carragheen, Dulse, Kanten, Kelp and Laver, which are described elsewhere in their alphabetical positions."
---Grocer's Encyclopedia, Artemas Ward [National Grocer:New York] 1911 (p. 561)

[Agar Agar]
"Called Agar-agar' in the past, agar is a gelatin obtained from seaweed-especially seaweeds belonging to the genera Euchema and Gelidium. It has reportedly been used in China since A.D. 300, and perhaps somewhat later in Japan (where it is called kanten). Many kinds of jellied sweets that are sold in tropical Asia retain their firmness because of agar, which is employed to thicken other foods as well. Agar also finds its way into vegetable dishes and salads and, in addition, has a number of medical uses."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume Two (p. 1715)

"Agar-agar, the Malay name for a gum which was discovered in Japan. The name originally applied to a mucilage extracted from a red seaweed...Agar-agar is the most powerful gel-former of all gums, owing to the unusual length of its carbohydrate molecules. Agar-agar gels are unique in withstanding temperatures near boiling point. They are thus ideal for making jellied sweet dishes in tropical climates, without the risk of their melting or sagging, and for aspic coatings...The method of purifying kanten by freezing and thawing is said to have been discovered accidentally by a Japanese innkeeper during frosty weather in 1658. Since then the product has gained widespread popularity in Japanese cuisine not only for making jellies by also as a general thickener for soups and auces...During the 19th century agar-agar was imported by western countries for making desserts."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2007, 2nd edition (p. 6-7)

Allspice
Allspice is a "New World" berry with "Old World" flavor. Why the name? Allspice tastes like a combination of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg. It is not a commercial spice mix invented as a shortcut.

"Unlike most spices (which are indigenous to the tropics of southern China, southern India and the East Indies), allspice (Pimenta dioica) is a berry of the New World, native to the West Indies and Central America. A member of the myrtle family, allspice was used ty the Taino and Carib Indians (and quite possibly also by those of the Mesoamerican mainland) long before the Europeans reached the Americas. The small, aromatic, tropical tree and its berries were among the many early 'discoveries' of Spanish explorers, who mistook the pea-sized berries for peppercorns. In fact, even today the Spanish word pimenta refers to allspice. The Spaniards introduced the spice into Europe in the sixteenth century, and in both whole and ground forms it has subsequently become a part of the cuisines of many peoples across the globe. Allspice, which begins as a purple berry but turns brown when sun-dried, acquired its English language name because of its versatility: Its taste is like a combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove. It is best in sweet and savory dishes and is used frequently in mulled wines and for pickling, not to mention in fruitcakes and spice cakes."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F, Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume Two (p. 1716-1717)

"Allspice. Named from the supposed resemblance of its hot aromatic smell and taste to the combined savours of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, allspice is the dried, unripened berrry of a West Indian tree, Pimenta dioica, of the eucaplytus family (a discovery of Christopher Columbus). It was first mentioned in English by Robert Burton... (1621), and it became a popular spice in succeeding centuries, easily imported from Britain's Caribbean colonies. The berries can be used either whole or ground, and it is equally at home in sweet or savour dishes. It has gone by other names in its time. Jamaica pepper dates from the mid-seventeenth century, but is no longer heard. More confusingly, it has also been called the pimento (in reference to its Latin name), although it has no connection at all with the red capsicum to which the term pimento is now generally applied."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 4)

"The English name allspice was given to the spice because its flavour resembles a mixture of other spices, especially cloves and black pepper...The allspice tree belongs to the myrtle family...when Spanish explorers encountered the plant in Jamaica at the beginning of the 16th century, they thought that the berries resembled those of the pepper and gave them names such as 'Jamaica pepper' and 'pimento' (from pimienta, the Spanish word for peppercorn)...The popularity of allspice varies considerably by region. It is used extensively in N. America; and much more in N. than S. Europe."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 12)

Carolina Allspice?
"Calycanthus floridus...North America. The aromatic bark is said to be used as a substitute for cinnamon."
---Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants, edited by U.P. Hedrick, report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II [J.B. Lyon:Albany NY] 1919 (p. 127)

Compare with Five Spice.

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.

[1877]
"Six sweet oranges, peeled and sliced (seeds and as much of the core as possible taken out), one pine-apple peeled and sliced (the canned is equally good), and one large cocoa-nut grated; alternate the layers of orange and pine-apple with grated cocoa-nut, and sprinkle pulverized sugar over each layer. Or, use six oranges, six lemons and two cocoa-nuts, or only oranges and cocoa-nuts, prepared as above."
---Buckeye Cookery, Estelle Wood Wilcox [Buckeye Publishing:Minneapolis] 1877 (p. 135)

[1904]
"Oranges, bananas, cocoanut, pineapple, Malaga grapes, dates, nuts. Slice bananas and cut in small pieces the other fruits, removing the seeds from grapes. Put a layer of each until the dish is filled. Then cover the top well with grated cocoanut, and a few nut meats."
---Uncooked Foods, Eugene Christian (p. 185)
[NOTE: this author was a major health food proponent in his day]

[1905]
"Peel and slice a dozen tart oranges, and grate cocoanut; put a layer of oranges in the bottom of a large glass dish, sprinkle thickly with powdererd sugar, then scatter a layer of cocoanut, another layer of oranges, sugar and cocoanut until your dish is full; cover the top with cocoanut, ornament the dish by putting leaf-shaped sections of the peel round the edge; put them on before the last layer of the orange so that they will be held in their place, and let them curl over the side of the dish; sprinkly a little sugar over the top layer of cocoanut."
---Economical Cook Book, Sara T. Paul (p. 262)

[1913]
"One pineapple chopped quite fine, one-half box strawberries, six bananas sliced and the slices quartered, six oranges sliced and the slices quartered; one lemon cut fine; sweeten to taste. Add one wineglassful sherry and set away until cold."
---American Home Cook Book, Grace E. Denison [Barse & Hopkins::New York](p. 229)

[1930]
"Ambrosia. Equal quantities of fresh grated cocoanut and sliced oranges. You must not use canned cocoanut, and the oranges must be carefully peeled and cut across, not up and down. Sweeten to taste."
---Old Southern Recipes, Mary D. Pretlow [Robert M. McBride & Co.:New York] 1930 (p. 135)

[1941]
"Ambrosia
6 large oranges
1 large cocoanut
2/4 cup sugar (more or less to suit the taste
Remove the brown skin and put the cocoanut through the food chopper or grate. Remove the orange sections from tehskin, being careful to remove all of the skin. Mix orange, cocoanut and sugar. Put in a cool place for one hour, and it is ready to serve. 1/2 cup sherry may be added. To get the cocoanut out easily remove the milk and place in a hot oven unti the shell is quite hot to the hand. With a hammer tap over the nut, then give a hard knock to crack the shell, which will break and come from the nut meat."Southern Cooking, Mrs. SS.R. Dull [Grosset & Dunlap:New York] 1941 (p. 221)

[1949]
"Ambrosia. Combine sliced oranges segments with sugar to taste and grated coconut. The moist canned coconut is the best for this."
---Fireside Cook Book, James Beard [Simone & Schuster:New York] (p. 213)

Compare with: Heavenly Hash.

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."

A survey of American stuffed 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)

Compare with: stuffed dates.

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.

Related fruit? Peach.

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)

What was isinglass?
"Isinglass consists of collagen, which, when heated with water, yields a pure form of gelatin. Isinglass is obtained from the swimming bladder (also known as sound') of certain fish, especially the sturgeon (from which the Russian 'isinglass' is obtained), but also a large catfis of S. America (yielding Brazilian isinglass'), some species of Asian waters, and (in N. American waters) hake and cod. The sounds, once removed form the fish and cleaned, are dried, and treated to acquire various shapes...A main use of isinglass has been for clarifying liquids, including wines and beers. Its fibrous structure apparently gives it this capability, which is not possessed by ordinary gelatin. Isinglass used to be equally important for culinary purposes, especially confectionery and desserts such as fruit jelly and blancmange; but its cost by comparison with competing products has virtually ended this practice."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 401)

When was isinglass first employed?
"In recipes of the mid-fifteenth century the liquor was based upon fresh pike, and if it would not jell, 'sounds' [swimming bladders] of watered stockfish' were added, precurors of the later isinglass...The sounds of stockfish helped to set jelly in the fifteenth century; but a hundred years later were ousted by isinglass, devived from sturgeons' sounds and brought by Dutch traders from Russia to Britian."
---Food and Drink in Britain From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 p. 43,45)

17th century notes
An Account of the Discovery of the Manner of Making Isinglass in Russia; With a Particular Description of Its Manufacture in England, from the Produce of British Fisheries. In a Letter from Humphrey Jackson, Esq; F. R. S. to William Watson, M. D. F. R. S. Humphrey Jackson, Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775), Vol. 63, 1773 - 1774 (1773 - 1774), pp. 1-15 (ask your librarian for access).

19th century observations:
"ISINGLASS OR GELATINE JELLY. (Substitutes for Calf’s Feet.)
1413. INGREDIENTS.—3 oz. of isinglass or gelatine, 2 quarts of water.
Mode.—Put the isinglass or gelatine into a saucepan with the above proportion of cold water; bring it quickly to boil, and let it boil very fast, until the liquor is reduced one-half. Carefully remove the scum as it rises, then strain it through a jelly-bag, and it will be ready for use. If not required very clear, it may be merely strained through a fine sieve, instead of being run through a bag. Rather more than 1/2 oz. of isinglass is about the proper quantity to use for a quart of strong calf’s-feet stock, and rather more than 2 oz. for the same quantity of fruit juice. As isinglass varies so much in quality and strength, it is difficult to give the exact proportions. The larger the mould, the stiffer should be the jelly; and where there is no ice, more isinglass must be used than if the mixture were frozen. This forms a stock for all kinds of jellies, which may be flavoured in many ways. Time.—1–1/2 hour.
Sufficient, with wine, syrup, fruit, &c., to fill two moderate-sized moulds. Seasonable at any time.
Note.—The above, when boiled, should be perfectly clear, and may be mixed warm with wine, flavourings, fruits, &c., and then run through the bag. ISINGLASS.—The best isinglass is brought from Russia; some of an inferior kind is brought from North and South America and the East Indies: the several varieties may be had from the wholesale dealers in isinglass in London. In choosing isinglass for domestic use, select that which is whitest, has no unpleasant odour, and which dissolves most readily in water. The inferior kinds are used for fining beer, and similar purposes. Isinglass is much adulterated: to test its purity, take a few threads of the substance, drop some into boiling water, some into cold water, and some into vinegar. In the boiling water the isinglass will dissolve, in cold water it will become white and “cloudy,” and in vinegar it will swell and become jelly-like. If the isinglass is adulterated with gelatine (that is to say, the commoner sorts of gelatine,—for isinglass is classed amongst gelatines, of all which varieties it is the very purest and best), in boiling water the gelatine will not so completely dissolve as the isinglass; in cold water it becomes clear and jelly-like; and in vinegar it will harden." SOURCE: Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management [1861],

"Isinglass...is more delicate than gelatine. It is the best simple means at our command for giving firmness to liquids. It is made from the sound or siwim-bladder of various fishes, but chiefly the sturgeon, which yields the best; and the mode of drying it has given rise to a number of confusing names--as purse, pipe and lump isinglass, leaf, honeycomb, staple and book insinglass. All depends on whether the sound is opened or unopened before being dried, ane whether, being opened, it is folded again, left unfolded, or rolled out."
---Kettner's Book of the Table, E.S. Dallas, facsimile 1877 edition [Centaur Press:London] 1968 (p. 156)

Early 20th century notes:
"Isinglass: is, properly, gelatine prepared from the air or swim bladder of the sturgeon, cod or similar fish, Russia, Brazil and the United States furnishing the bulk of the worlds' supply. It is employed in finding liquors and the manufacture of fish glue, etc., and in the household in the preparation of jellies, blanc-mange and similar desserts. Gelatine from animal tissue has, however, largely supplanted it in cookery on account of its lower price (see: Gelatine). Japanese Isinglass or Gelatine is prepared from a seaweed (see Kanten)."
---The Grocer's Encyclopedia, Artemas Ward [Artemas Ward:New York] 1911 (p. 314)

Modern equivalents (for redaction):
"Isinglass is a form of leaf gelatin made form the bladder of the sturgeon; it may have been less concentrated than modern gelatin. I suggest one package (1/4 ounce) of ordinary granulated gelatine, flouting authenticity."
---Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery, transcribed by Karen Kess [Columbia Unviersity Press:New York] 1981(p. 144)

Related items: Irish carageen & commercial gelatine.

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.]

Related dish? Hopping John, an African-American New Year tradition.

"Some years ago an observant gentleman came into my office to discuss the origin of sprouting broccoli. He insisted firmly that it must be the result of a cross between cabbage and asparagus, because it had the flavor of cabbage and the fleshy stem of asparagus!Apparently this gentleman had never seen cabbage plants push up their flower stalks, else he would have realized that the developing flower stalk of cabbage and of sprouting broccoli are botanically the same thing. Neither did he realize that cabbage and asparagus are much too distantly related to hybridize."
---National Geographic, August 1949

"The first clear description of broccoli occurs in the 1724 edition of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, where it was described as a stranger in England until within these five years' and was called 'sprout colli-flower' or 'Italian asparagus.' It seems to be generally accepted that the broccoli thus introduced to England, and no doubt to other European countries at about the same time, came from Italy. Broccoli is an Italian word meaning 'little arms' or 'little shoots'."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Univeresity Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 108)

Broccoli in the New World
"Beginning in 1767, Jefferson routinely notes plantings of several varieties of broccoli and it is sold in the Washington market during his years of presidency...None of this is arcane, yet food writers regularly place its introduction to the American food scene in the 1920s. Broccoli is Brassica oleracea var. botrytis; the stalky type mentioned by Mrs. Randolph may be broccoli di rapa, variety of Brassica Napus with breen florets, to be found in Italian neighborhoods."
---The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph, facsimile 1824 edition with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1984 (p. 261-262)

American re-introduction??
Cook books and newspapers confirm broccoli took a hiatus from mainstream American tables from the late 19th century to the 1920s. Oscar Tschirky (Waldorf) offers recipes for cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. No mention of broccoli. Charles Ranhofer (Delmonico's) followed suit. Why? We can only suppose these were culinary signs of the times. Possibly? Americans were feeling uneasy about the surging influx of southern European immigrants. The 1920s was a time of culinary experimentation. The 1930s accepted make-do ingredients. Broccoli came back, only now? It was decidedly an Italian food. No mention of Anglo/Colonial American heritage. Interesting, yes?

How to prepare broccoli?

[1653]
"Potage of Brocolis, they are young sprouts of Coleworts. Seeth them in water, salt, peas broth, butter, onion sticked, and a little pepper. Stove your crust, garnish it with your Brocolis, and fill your dish with it, then serve. The same broth may be made with milk and garnished alike. The potage hops is made the same way as that of Brocolis, and is garnished alike."
---The French Cook, Francoise Pierre, La Varenne, translated into English in 1653 by I.D.G., facsimile 1653 edition with and introduction by Philip and Mary Hyman [Southover Press:Wast Sussex] 2001 (p. 227-228)

[1747]
"To dress Brockala.,br> Strip all the little Branches off till you come to the top one, then with a Knife peel off all the hard outside Skin which is on the Stalks and little Branches, and throw them away into Water. Have a Stew-panof Water with some Salt in it: When it boils put in the Brockala, and when the Stalks are tender it is enough, then send it to Table with Butter in a Cup. The French eat Oil and Vinegar with it." (p. 11)

"Brockely and Eggs
Boil your Brockely tender, saving the large Bunch for the Middle, and siz or eight little thick Spriggs to stick round. Take a Tast half an Inch thick, toast it brown, as big as you would have it in your Dish or Buttering-plate; butter some Eggs thus: Take six Eggs more or less, as you have Occasion, beat themwell, put them into a Sauce-pan,with a good Piece of Butter,a little Salt, keep beating them with a Spoon, til they are thick enough, them pour them on the Toast. Set the biggest Bunch of Brockely in the Middle, and the other little Pieces rounce and about, and garnish the Dish round with little Spriggs of Brockely. This is a pretty Side-dish, or a Corner-plate." (p. 98)

"Brockely in Sallad.
Brockely is a pretty Dish, by way of Sallad in the Middle of a Table. Boil it like Asparagus...lay it in your Dish, and beat up Oil and Vinegar, and a lttle Salt. Farnish round with Stertion-buds. Or boil it, and have plain Butter in a Cup. --or farce Fecnh Roles with it, and buttered Eggs together for Change..." (p. 98)
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 edition with introductory essays by Jennifer Stead and Pricilla Bain and a glossary by Alan Davidson [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995

[1792]
"Broccoli.
Take a dozen heads of broccoli, strip off all the sprigs up to the heads, and with a knife cut off all the hard outside skin and sprigs and throw the into cold water; have a stew-pan of spring water boiling, put in some salt, then the broccoli, and when the stalks are tender the broccoli is done; put a piece of toasted bread in a dish soaked in the water the broccoli was boiled in, put the broccoli on it, and send melted butter in a boat."
---The New Art of Cookery According to Present Practice, Richard Briggs [W. Spotswood, R. Campbell, and B. Johnson:Philadelphia] 1792 (p. 270)

[1824]
"Brocoli.
The kind which bears flowers around the joints of the stalks, must be cut into convenient lenghts for the dish, scrape the skin from the stalk, and pick out any leaves or flowers that require to be removed; tie it up in bunches, and boil it as asapragus; serve it up hot with melted butter poured over it. The brocoli that heads at the top like cauliflowers, must be dressed in the same manner as the cauliflower."
---The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph, facsimile 1824 edition with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1984 (p. 127)

[1832]
"Broccoli.
Set a pan of clean cold water on the table, and a saucepan on the fire with plenty of water, and a handful of salt in it.Broccoli is prepared by stripping off all the side shoots, leaving the top; peel off the skin of the stalk with a knife; cut it close off at the bottom, and put it into the pan of cold water. When the water in the stewpan boils, and the broccoli is ready, put it in; let it boil briskly till the stalks feel tender, from ten to twnety minutes; take it up with a slice, that you may not break it; let it drain, and serve up.If some of the heads of broccoli are much bigger than the others, put them on to boil first, so that they may get all done together. Obs.--a nice supper-dish served upon a toast, like asparagus. It is a very delicate vegetable, and you must take ut up the moment it is done, and send it to table hot."
---The Cook's Own Book, Mrs. N. K. M. Lee, facsimile 1832 edition [Arno Press:New York] 1972 (p. 27)

[1839]
"Brocoli. Trim off the loose leaves, peel the end of the stalk, that should be suffered to remain on it, split the head in two, and soak the in water for an hour or two; then tie them together to prevent them coming to pieces in boiling, put it in a pot of hot water, with a handful of salt, and merely let it simmer till the stalk is tender; then drain, and send it up warm with a boat of melted butter.

"Another Kind of Brocoli.--This kind of brocoli does not head as the other, but grows up in stalks, bearing flowers round the joints; cut them of an equal length, scraping them nicely, tie them up in bundles with tape, put them in boiling water, throwing in a handful of salt, and boil them briskly till tender, skimming them well, then drain and chop them small, pour over melted butter, and send them warm to table."
---The Kentucky Housewife, Lettice Bryan, facsimile 1839 edition [Image Graphics:Paducah KY] undated (p. 206)

[1845]
"Broccoli.
This is boiled, and served in the same manner as cauliflowers when the heads are large; the stems of the branching broccoli are peeled, and the vegetable, tied in bunches, is dressed and served, like asparagus, upon a toast. 10 to 20 minutes."
---Modern Cookery of Private Families, Eliza Acton, facsimile 1845 edition with an introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993, 2004 (p. 280)

[1857]
"Broccoli.--Is drest in the same manner [as cauliflowers]. It is very good with toast under, though inferior to cauliflower." (p. 359)

"Broccoli and Eggs.--Take several heads of broccoli and cut the stalks short, paring off from the stalks the tough outside skin. Trim off the small outside shoots or blossoms, and the them together in bunches. After all the broccoli has been washed, and lain half an hour or more in a pan of fresh cold water, put the large heads, with a salt-spoonful of salt, into a pot of boiling water, and let them boil till thoroughly done, and the stalk perfectly tender. When the large heads have boiled about a quarter of an hour, put in the small tufts, which of course requre less time to cook. In the meanwhile have ready six beaten eggs. Put a quarter of a pound of butter ito a sauce-pan, and stir it over the fire till it is all melted; then add gradually the beaten eggs, stir the mixture, or shake it over the fire till it becomes very thick. Toast sufficient bread to cover entirely the bottom of a deep dish, cutting it to fit exactly, having removed the crust. Dip the toast for a minute in hot water. Pour the egg and butter over the hot toast. Then place upon it the broccoli; the largest and finest head in the middle, the lesser ones round it, and hving untied the small sprigs, lay them in a circle close to the edge."(p. 361-362)
---Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book, Eliza LeslieT.B. Peterson:Philadelphia PA] 1857

[1862]
"279. Boiled Brocoli
Ingredients.--To each 1/2 gallon of water allow 1 heaped tablespoonful of salt; brocoli.
Mode.--Strip off the dead outside leaves, and the inside ones cut off level with the flower; cut off the stalk close at the bottom, and [put the brocoli into the cold salt and water, with the heads downwards. When they have remained in this for about 3/4 hour, and they are pefectly free from insects, put them into a saucepan of boiling water, saltd in the above proportion, and keep them boiling quickly over a brisk fire, with the saucepan uncovered. Take them up with a slice of moment they are done; drain them well, and serve with a tureen of melted butter, a lillte of which should be poured over the brocoli. If left in the water after it is done, it will break, its colour will be spoiled, and its crispness gone. Time, small brocoli, 10 to 15 minutes; large one, 20 to 25 minutes. Average cost, 3d. each. Sufficient, 2 for 4 or 5 persons. Seasnoable from Octover to March; plentiful in February and March."
---The Englishwoman's Cookery Book, Mrs. Isabella Beeton [Ward, Lock, and Tyler:London] 1862 (p. 137)

[1875]
"Brocoli, To Pickle.
Choose the finest, whitest, and closest vegetables before they are quite ripe. Pare off all green leaves and the outsides of the stalks. Parboil them in well-salted water. When drained and dry, pull of the branches in convenient-sized pieces, and put them into a jar of pickle prepared as for onions. Time to parboil, for or five minutes. Probably cost, from 2d. to 6d."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrastions [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1875 (p. 81)

[1886]
"Broccoli. One of the varieties of the common cabbage which has been produced by cultivation. It is very similar to the Cauliflower, but more highly colored and also more hardy, which characteristic gives it it's chief importance, as it can be obtained at seasons when there is no cauliflower in the open field."
---The Grocers' Hand-Book and Directory for 1886, compiled by Artemas Ward [Philadelphia Grocer Publishing Co.:Philadelphia] 1886 (p. 29)

[1926]
"The Italians in America have introduced recently a vegetable that belongs to the cauilfower family. Some find it a little sweeter and tenderer than cauliflower. Unlike its relative, it is green. It was first grownn by Italian truck gardeners in New Jersey. They cultivated large fields of turnips and sold their blossoms, wwhich are not unlike broccoli. Then finding that they had created a market, they enture to send to town the broccoli which they hd grown for their own use. As demand increased seeds were obtained from Italy and experiments were made to grow the new vegetable in the Carolinas and Virginia. Last season brought the first shipments form the Far West. Broccoli formerly cost little in the Italian quarters of New York, but now that housewives generally have begun to ask for it, the price has risen."
---"New Vegetables Vary Our Menus," New York Times, February 28, 1926 (p. X18)

[1931]
"Broccoli
Trim off and discard the leaves and tough lower portion of the stalks of vroccoli. Thoroughly was the remaining center stalks with flower heads attached, and cut lengthwise into strips. Drop into lighly salted boiling water, leave the kettle uncovered, and cook for 15 to 25 minutes. As soon as the broccoli is tender and while the color is still fresh green, drain, season with salt and pepper to taste, and add melted butter or other fat, or serve with Hollandaise sauce."
---Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes Revised, Bureau of Home Economics, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture [U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington DC] 1931 p. 43)

[1944]
"Parmesan Broccoli
1 bunch broccoli
3 1/4 teasp. salt
2 tablesp. minced onion
2 tablesp. melted butter, margarine, fat or salad oil
3 tbsp. parmesan cheese
Prepare broccoli and cook with 3 teasp. of the salt as in Time Table p. 459. Remove from heat, drain; then add onion and butter and simmer, covered for 5 min. Remove to hot platter, and sprinkle grated parmesan cheese and remaining 1/4 teasp. of salt on top. Seves 4."
---Good Housekeeping Cook Book, completely revised editon [Farrar & Rinhart, Inc.:New York] 1944 (p. 409-410)
[NOTE: Recipe for Buttered Broccoli & Broccoli au Gratin are also offered.]

[1950]
"Broccoli Roman Style
1 small bunch broccoli
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
Trim broccoli of tough leaves and stems, cut into small flowerlets, wash well and drain. Place olive oil and garlic in large skillet and brown garlic. Add broccoli, salt and pepper and cook 5 minutes. Add wine, cover skillet and cook over very low flame 20 minutes, or until broccoli is tender, stirring gently so as not to break flowerets. Serves 4.

"Broccoli Sicilian Style
1 camll bunch brocolli
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
10 black olives, pitted and cut into pieces
4 anchoy filets, cut into pieces
1/4 pound provolone chiese, diced fine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper 1 cup dry red wine
Clean broccoli and cut into very thin slices. Pour 1 tablespoon olive oil on bottom of pan, place thin layer of sliced onions, come olives, some anchovies and 1 layer sliced broccoli in pan. Add a sprinkling of cheese, some salt and pepper and sprinkle with olive oil. Repeat procedure until ingredients are all used. Pour remaning olive oil over top and add wine. Cover pan and cook over very low flame about 30 minutes, or until broccoli is tender. Do not stir. Serves 4."
---The Talisman Italian Cook Book, Ada Boni, translated and augemented by Matilde Pei [Crown Publishers:New York] 1950, 1955 (p. 175)
[NOTE: This book also offers recipes for Broccoli Sour and Broccoli with Prosciutto.]

[1961]
"Boiled Broccoli (serves 4)
2 pounds of broccoli
Water
Salt and pepper
4 to 6 tablespoons of butter
Cut off the lower tough portion of the brocoli stalks and them peel the remaining stalks up an inch or so. Trim off any wildted leaves. If the bunches are not of uniform size, split the larger ones lengthwise so that all stalks will be the same thickness. Soak in cold water and a teaspoon of salt for 15 to 20 minutes to coax out any tiny insects. In a kettle, put enough water to cover the broccoli and bring it to a boil. Add the vegetagble and cook gently, uncovered. After 5 minutes add a teaspoon of salt and continue cooking until the stalks are tender when pierced with a fork. Total cooking time should be about 10 to 15 minutes. Be careful not to overcook. The tender buds will turn mushy, the broccoli will lose its color and the flavor will be too strong. As with asparagus, the buds cook more quickly than the stalks. If you wish to be sure that they will not be overdone, prop the broccoli up in the kettle with the heads out of the water (or tie the stalks in bunches as you do asparagus) and over the pan. Cook gently until just tender--about 10 to 15 minutes. Drain the broccoli, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with melted butter. You may also serve the brocoli with lemon butter (add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each 4 tabelspoons of melted butter), Hollandaise Sauce, Buttered Bread Crumbs or sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese and then glazed under the broiler flame."
---James Beard Cookbook, in collaboration with Isabel E. Callvert [E.P. Dutton & Co.::New York] 1961 (p. 443-444)
[NOTE: Mr. Beard also offers recipes for Italian Style Broccoli, Pureed Broccoli and Cold Broccoli Vinaigrette.]

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.

Why call them Brownies?
Excellent question with more than one possible answer:
1. "Some say brownies were invented by a woman named Brownie."
---The American Century Cookbook, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 492)
2. John Mariani theorizes the name was possibly borrowed from Palmer Cox's popular "Brownies" cartoon elves, circa 1887
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 44)
3. The name is an Americanized form of broonie, a Scottish confection.

Chocolate Brownies
Food historians generally agree the first published recipe for Chocolate Brownies, as we know them today, appeared in the 1906 edition of Fannie Merritt Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book. This coincides with the mass production and active promotion of chocolate products by USA food companies. Thanks to one of our readers, we submit for your examinination a possible progenitor, circa 1899.

"The first chocolate brownie recipe was...published by Fannie Farmer in her 1906 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 of 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 published 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)

"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. ...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)

Early Chocolate Brownie recipes:

[1899]
"Brownie's Food
First Part: 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sweet milk, 3/4 cup grated chocolate; boil and set away to cool.
Second Part: 1/2 cup butter (scant), 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup milk, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoonful soda in flour, add the first part and 1 teaspoonful vanilla. Bake in layers.
Cream Frosting For Above. 1/2 cup good, sweet cream, 1 pound confectioners' sugar.--Marie Kelly, Whitewater, Wis."
---Machias Cook Book, Compiled by Mrs. Willis H. Allen and presented to The Ladies' Social Circle [C.O. Furbush:Machias ME] 1899 (p. 23)
[NOTES: (1) This recipe was identified and submitted by Rachel Moran, curator of the The Kierkegaard Cook Book project. Thank you! (2) Machias is approximately 85 miles from Bangor/Orono area. (3) As Ms. Moran points out, what makes this recipe curious is the contribution via Whitewater Wisconsin to a local Maine community cookbook. Ms. Moran has furnished print proof Miss Marie Kelly, a librarian, lived in Whitewater in 1910. Questions: Was Ms. Kelly visiting Machias relatives when she contributed this recipe? Where did she learn this recipe? Ms. Moran is exploring these new research trajectories.]

[1905]
"Chocolate Brownies, at 12 cents Pound."
---display ad, Washington Post, December 17, 1905 (p. 10)
[NOTE: No description is provided for this item. Other items include chocolate fudge and vanilla fudge suggesting brownies were different.]

[1906]
"Brownies
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg, unbeaten 2 squares Baker's chocolate, melted
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup walnut meats, cut in pieces Mix ingredients in order given. Line a seven-inch square pan with paraffine paper. Spread mixture evenly in pan and bake in a slow oven. As soon as taken from oven turn from pan, remove paper, and cut cake in strips, using a sharp knife. If these directions are not followed paper will cling to cake, and it will be impossible to cut in shapely pieces."
---Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer, facsimile 1906 edition (p. 495)
[NOTE: The other Brownie recipe in this book (p. 511) is exactly the same as the 1896 recipe above.]

[1908] "Chocolate Brownies Stir one-fourth cup of melted butter into one cup of sugar; break in an egg and beat the whole together; add two squares (or ounces) of chocolate, melted over hot water, and beat again; add a teaspoonful of vanilla, half a cup of sifted flour and half a cup of walnut meats, and beat until well mixed. Line a pan about seven inches square with paraffine paper, spread the mixture over the paper, evenly, and bake in a slow oven. Turn from the pan as soon as baked and peel off the paper, then cut the cake into strips with a sharp knife. When the cake is hot the paper is easily removed and the cake is cut in regular-shaped pieces."
---"Queries and Answers," The Boston Cooking School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economies, December 1, 1908; 134, 5; American Periodicals (p. 255)

[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.]

[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)

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).

Related foods? Chocolate cake & fudge.

Blondies
Blondies (aka Vanilla Brownies, Butterscotch Brownies, Golden Bars, Molasses Squares, Butterscotch Squares, Blonde Brownies) descend from medieval gingerbread. Identifying recipes requires careful examination of ingredients and method. Textures and presentations transcend confections, cookies, and bars. Butterscotch flavor predominates. Our research suggests Blondies, originally called Brownies, predate the chocolate version by about 10 years. The name "Blondie" surfaces in the 1980s.

Why call them "Blondies?"
Most folks today assume they were named for Blondie (Dagwood's wife) in Chic Young's famous comic strip, circa 1930s+. What most folks don't know is Chic Young authored a cook book: Blondie's Soups, Salads, Sandwiches [Bell Publishing Company:Drexel Hill PA], 1947. Here you will find only one dessert item: Gingerbread (p. 138). The recipe is a true gingerbread, employing milk. It would not produce what a "Blondie."

[1896]
"Brownies
1/3 cup butter.
1/3 cup powdered sugar.
1/3 cup Porto Rico molasses.
1 egg well beaten.
7/8 cup bread flour.
1 cup pecan meat cut in pieces.
Mix ingredients in order given. Bake in small, shallow fancy cake tins, garnishing top of each cake with one-half pecan."
---Boston Cooking School Cook Book , Fannie Merritt Farmer

[1929]
"Broonie* (Orkney Oatmeal Gingerbread)
Oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, butter, ground ginger, baking-soda, treacle, egg, buttermilk. Mi in a basin six ounces of oatmeal and six of flour. Rub in two ounces of butter. Add a teaspoonful of ground ginger and barely three-quarters of a teaspoonful of baking-soda, free from lumps. Melt two tablespoonfuls of treacle, and add, together with a beaten egg and enough buttermilk to make the mixture sufficiently soft to drop from the spoon. Mix thoroughly. Turn into a buttered tin and bake for from one to one and a half hours in a moderate oven till well risen and firm in the center." * Correctly, Bruni, a thick bannock (Orkney and Shetland)."
---The Scot's Kitchen, F. Marian McNeill, 1929 facsimile edition [Mercat Press:Edinburgh] 1993, 2004 (p. 191)

[1908]
"Vanilla Brownies, the crisp kind, 11 1/2 cents/lb."
---display ad, New York Times, January 24, 1903 (p. 3)

[1938]
"Lunch: Peach salad filled with Whipped Cream Cheese, Assorted Sandwiches, Butterscotch Brownies."
---"Menus for Today," Jean Green, Washington Post, May 10, 1938 (p. X9)

[1944]
"Golden Bars
2/3 c. shortening
2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs, well-beaten
1 teasp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. chopped walnuts
1 1/2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
2 teasp. baking powder
1/4 teasp. salt
Melt the shortening in the saucepan in which batter is to be mixed. Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients, first sifting flour, baking powder, and salt together. Spread in a shallow pan about 12" X 8" X 1" which has been greased or oiled and lined with waxed paper. Bake in a moderate oven of 350 degrees F. for 30-35 min., or until the surface will spring back when pressed lightly. Cool; cut into bars about 1" X 3 1/2". Makes about 28 bars."
---Good Housekeeping Cook Book, completely Revised edition [Rinehart & Company:New York] 1942, 1944 (p. 759)

[1950]
"Butterscotch Brownies
Melt....1/4 cup butter or other shortening
Remove from heat
Blend in...1 cup light brown sugar (packed in a cup)
Cool.
Stir in...1 egg
Sift together and stir in...1/2 cup sifted Gold Medal 'Kitchen tested' Flour, 1 tsp.double-action baking powder, 1/8 tsp. salt
Stir in...1/2 tsp. vanilla
And...1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts. Spread in well greased and floured square pan, 8X8X2. Bake 20 to 25 minutes in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) They'll look soft when removed from oven; interior should be soft.) While warm, cut into squares. makes 18 squares (about 1X2 1/2-inch)."
---display ad, "From Betty Crocker's Kitchen," Chicago Tribune, January 17, 1950 (p. A3)
[NOTE: This recipe was reprinted (with same name) in BC's iconic Cooky Book c. 1963.]

[1955]
"Molasses Squares
1 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg, well beaten
Mix and sift flour and salt. Add shortening to molasses and stir over low heat for 2 minutes, until shortening is melted. Add soda and sugar, stirring well until sugar is dissolved. Cool. Add well-beaten eggs and sifted dry ingredients. Mix well. Bake in 2 greased 9-inch square pans in a moderate oven (350 degree F.) about 30 minutes. Cut in 2-inch squares.
Yield: about 30 squares.
Note: For a rich molasses square, 1/2 cup chopped nut meats may be added with the dry ingredients."
---Silver Jubilee Super Market Cook Book, Edith Barber [Super Market Publishing Co.:New York] 1955 (p. 186)

[1962]
"Butterscotch Brownies
1 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts of pecans
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon hot water
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup caramel or chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Stir in the nuts. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat; mix in the brown sugar and water until dissolved. Cool. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until smooth. Pour into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the caramel chips on top. Bake 20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cook on a cake rack. Cut into 2-inch squares.

"Butterscotch Squares
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 1 /3 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square pan and dust lightly with flour. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Cream the butter; sift in the flour mixture. Beat in the brown sugar; add the milk and vanilla, beating very well. Beat in the eggs for 1 minute. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake 35 minutes or until a cake tester out clean. Cool on a cake rack for 10 minutes. Turn out and cool completely before frosting with Caramel Frosting. Cut into squares."
---Myra Waldo's Dessert Cookbook, Myra Waldo [Crowell-Collier Publishing:New York] 1962 (p. 78-79)

[1963]
"Blond Brownies
1 cup sifted all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
1/2 cup teaspoon chopped nuts
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces, if desired.
Oven 350 degrees F. Yield: 24
Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Melt butter in large saucepan; remove from heat. Add brown sugar, stirring until dissolved. Cool. Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract; beat well. Stir in sifted dry ingredients and nuts; mix well. Spread batter in greased 9-inch square pan. Sprinkle chocolate pieces over batter, if desired. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool. Cut into bars. Serve plain or coated with confectioners' sugar."
---Pillsbury Family Cook Book [Pillsbury Company:Minneapolis MN] 1963, loose leaf bound (p. 217)

[1980]
"...The Well-Bred Loaf has built its reputation on its moist, nut-studded brownies, among the first of the items the Caccavos began baking and selling...'blondies' (best described as a chocolate chip cookie version of a brownie) --make up the 'Munchies' line, the most popular of the homey, old-fashioned-style products..."
---"A Chip Off the Old Cookie Store," Florence Fabricant, New York Times, March 9, 1980 (p. L11)
[Editors personal sidebar: I was a neighbor of the Caccavo's in the 1960s. I went to school with the daughter and we were friends. It was at her house I was first introduced to the "blonde brownie." I can't remember exactly what the family called it, but I do remembers my friend was either allergic or didn't like chocolate and this was her favorite dessert.]

Cream cheese brownies
The earliest print reference we find for combining cream cheese with chocolate brownies is from the early 1960s. General Foods promoted the recipe to sell its Bakers German Chocolate product. Of course, it is possible the recipe predates the national promotion, under different names. Recipes for cream cheese cookies also surface about this time. We find it interesting that period Kraft Philadelphia brand cream cheese promotions do not include brownies. Our survey of historic newspapers confirm recipes titled "Cream cheese brownies" flourished in the 1980s and 1990s. Recipes titled "Cheese cake brownies" were popular in the 1970s & 1990s.

[1962]
"Cream Cheese Brownies
1 bar (4 ounces) Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate
5 tablespoons butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (unsifted) flour 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Calumet Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cups coarsely chopped nuts
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Melt chocolate and 3 tablespoons butter over very low heat, stirring constantly. Cool. Cream remaining butter with the cream cheese until softened. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, creaming until light and fluffy. Stir in 1 egg, 1 tablespoon flour, the lemon juice, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Beat remaining eggs until fluffy and light in color. Gradually add remaining 3/4 cup sugar, beating until thickened. Fold in baking powder, salt, and remaining /12 cup flour. Blend in cooled chocolate mixture. Stir in nuts, almond extract, and remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla. Measure 1 cup chocolate batter and set aside. Spread remaining chocolate batter in a greased 9-inch square pan. Pour cheese mixture over the top. Drop measured chocolate batter from tablespoon onto the cheese mixture; swirl the mixtures together with a spatula just to marble. Bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) 10 to 12 minutes. Cool. Cut in bars or squares. Cover and store in the refrigerator. Makes about 20 brownies.”
---Baker’s Chocolate and Coconut Favorites, [General Foods:New York] 1962 (p. 31)

[1964]
“New bake these new cream cheese brownies without this bold, full-flavored German’s bar. Never expect real, rich, chocolate-y flavor in a brownie unless you bake them with German’s Sweet Chocolate by Baker’s. Only Bakers blends the world’s costliest chocolates in to German’s original 1852 formula. The only formula that has character enough to keep its deep chocolate flavor in cooking. Bold enough to make these beautiful brownies a recipe to remember> Cream Cheese Brownies
1 pkg. (4 oz.) Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate, 5 tbs. butter, 1 pkg. (3 oz.) cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, 3 eggs, 1 tablespoon plus ½ cup unsifted flour, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla, ½ teaspoon Calumet baking Powder, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ cup chopped nuts, ¼ teaspoon almond extract.
Melt the German’s Sweet Chocolate and 3 tablespoons butter over very low heat. Stir. Then let mixture cool. Cream 2 tablespoons of butter with cheese. Gradually add ¼ cups sugar, creaming until fluffy. Blend in 1 egg, 1 tablespoon flour, and ½ teaspoon vanilla. Set aside. Beat 2 eggs until light colored. Slowly beat in remaining ¾ cup sugar until mixture thickens. Add baking powder, salt and ½ cup flour. Blend in the chocolate mixture, 1 teaspoon vanilla, nuts and almond extract. Spread half of the chocolate batter in greased 8- or 9-inch square pan. Top with cream cheese mixture. Spoon remaining chocolate batter over top. The zigzag knife through batter to obtain marble effect. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F.) for 35 for 40 minutes. Let cool. Cut into 20 bars or 16 squares.”
---full page display ad, General Foods, Jefferson City [MO] News and Tribune, February 16, 1964 (p. 46)

Related food? Soba noodles (Japan)

What about almonds & pecans?

What is cassava?
"The name 'manioc'...comes from the Brazilian Indian word mandioca, but the plant is also cinow as cassava, yuca, and the tapioca-plant. A Brazilian native, it is a perennial shrub with long, narrow, starchy tubers. Manioc traveled in canoes with South American Indians migrating northward into the Caribbean and, later, in Portuguese ships from Brazil to Africa. Its advantages are that it requires little labor to cultivate yet produces more calories per acre than any other food plant, and it keeps in the ground until needed. A disadvantage is that save for carbohydrates, it has little to offer in the way of nutrients. Another is that although sweet manioc varieties pose no threat, the roots of most varieties are bitter and can contain enough cyanide to be toxic. The poison must first be removed by pounding, scraping, and cooking. The vegetable is then boiled or baked like a potato, made into a flour for breads, and employed to thicken soup. The meal or flour is sprinkled onto most any dish. Tapioca is a kind of manioc flour."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Krimehild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] Volume Two, 2000 (p. 1810)

Origin
"Although scholars agree that manioc was domesticated in the Americas, there is doubt about the exact location, even though the largest variety of species survive in Brazil. Possible areas of origin include Central America, the Amazon region, and the northeast of Brazil. Milton de Albuquerque, a specialist on manioc in Amazonia, reported that the most primitive form of the plant is found in central Brazil in the state of Goias,...but he believes that the backlands of the state of Bahia are its most probably point of origin. The oldest archaeological records in Brazil..come from the Amazon region, where ceramic griddles used in manioc preparation have been found in pre-Columbian sites. Of much grater antiquity, however, are remains of the manioc plant that have been discovered in South American excavations in an near the Casma Valley of northern Peru. These have been dated to 1785 B.C....In Mexico, cassava leaves that are 2.500 years old have been found, along with cassava starch in human coprolites that are 2,100 to 2,800 years old...Preclassic Pacific coast archaeological sites in Mesoamerica have yielded evidence of manioc, which was a staple of the Mayan civilization...The quality of the evidence for manioc in Mesoamerica has led some authors to believe that manioc was first domesticated in Central America rather than Brazil...Another possibility might be that bitter manioc was domesticated in northern South America, whereas sweet cassava was domesticated in Central America. Archaeological evidence for ancient manioc usage also exists in the Caribbean...manioc griddles have been found in archaeological excavations in the Lesser Antilles...Both the Arawaks and Caribs utilized them, and as they migrated to the islands form South America, they undoubtedly carried with them manioc and the technological knowledge necessary to propagate, cultivate, and process it."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Krimehild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] Volume One, 2000 (p. 182)

"It used to be thought that there were two species of manioc, the bitter or poisonous one, Manihot utilissima, which contains enough hydrocyanic acid to make it deadly if consumed without processing, and the innocuous sweet species, Manihot dulcis. Because these two intergrated, they have now been combined to form one variable species knows as Manihot esculenta...It is mostly used in humid lowland tropics, which means that the archaelogical record is sparse, but it may have been domesticated in northeastern Brazil, where there are still many wild species. There is a secondary cluster of wild species in Mexico, and some think the sweet variety was domesticated there and the bitter one in Brazil. Since it is so far unfortunately impossible to distinguish sweet from bitter manioc in vegetable matter found archaeologically, one must rely on finding artifacts such as the stone chips for graters, which are associated with the processing of bitter manioc, to know which of the two was being cultivated. Using this sort of evidence we can say that bitter manioc was apparently being grown in the lowlands of Venezuela and Colombia by about 3000 B.C., and sweet manioc was probably being planted on the coast of Peru by about 2000 B.C."
---America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe [University of Texas Press:Austin TX] 1994, 1999 (p. 16-17)

European "discovery" & diffusion
"When the Spanish reached the Caribbean and Central America, they discovered the indigenous population cultivating manioc, a plant they termed yuca...the earliest European description of manioc dates from 1494...The Portuguese encountered manioc after 1500 on the coast of Brazil (p. 182-183)...From Brazil, the Portuguese carried manioc to their stations in the Upper Guinea coast in West Africa and to the Kingdom of Kongo in northern Angola (p.183)...Europeans also transported the American crop to Asia, although Polynesians may have also introduced it into the Pacific via Easter Island. The first Asian region to receive manioc from the Europeans was the Philippines...It is likely that the Portuguese brought it to Goa (India) in the early eighteenth century...By 1800, manioc cultivation in tropical Asia stretched from Ceylon to the Philippines. (p. 185)"
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Krimehild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] Volume One, 2000

"[Manioc] was taken to Africa by the Portuguese along with maize and westward across the Pacific by the Spaniards, who introduced it into the Philippines, whence it spread into Southeast Asia. Today Thailand produces a large crop of manioc, most of which goes into the only manioc product with which those of us who live in northern climes are familiar--tapioca."
---America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe [University of Texas Press:Austin TX] 1994, 1999 (p. 18)

Cassava in the USA
"In 1847 a few dozen plants were introduced to this country and distributed from New York City and in 1870 some were growing on conservatories in Washington."
---Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants, edited by U.P. Hedrick, Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II [J.B. Lyon Company: Albany NY] 1919 (p. 354)

How is cassava prepared & what kinds of food are made?
"As a food, manioc is very verstatile because it can be boiled in a mush, roasted, baked, and even consumed as a pudding (tapioca) or alcoholic beverage...William Jones has observed that modern methods for processing manioc roots derive from Indian methods. In order to consume the bitter varieties, they had to detoxify the plant by grating and soaking it to remove the toxic chemicals...To prepare the coarse meal, known as farinha de mandioca (also farinha de pau) in Brazil, women, who traditionally process manioc in Amerindian societies, have to wash, peel, and scrape the roots. Some prehistoric populations on South America and the Caribbean even used their upper front teeth in processing manioc. Using a flat piece of wood studded with small pointed stones as a grater, women convert the roots into a snowy white mass, which is then placed in a tipiti, a long cylindrical basket press similar to a Chinese "finger trap." The two ends of the tipiti are pulled apart, with one end tied to the ground and the other to the branch of a tree. After the excess liquid has been squeezed out, the pulpy mass is removed, put though a sieve, and then placed on a flat ceramic griddle or metal basin where it is toasted over a low fire. The farinha can be kept for months and then eaten dry or mixed with water as a gruel."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume One (p. 182)

"How, we wonder, did an India happen to suspect that a member of this group of plants possessed edible roots? But even more remarkable and more puzzling is how the aborigines ever discovered that the roots were edible, for in their natural state they are very poisonous, often deadly, owning to the hydrocyanic or prussic acid they contain. While there are two well recognized types of the plant known as the 'sweet' and the 'bitter', both are poisonous in their raw state, although the sweet varieties contain far less of the poison......we can only marvel how the primitive Indians ever discovered how to eliminate the deadly acid and transform the roots into a wholesome nutritious food. Surely it could not have been by experimenting, for the experimenters would have died long before they had discovered they had discovered the secret. Very probably the discover was made by chance or by accident just as so many other great discoveries have been made by both primitive and civilized men. But it must have been made countless centuries ago for the secret to have spread throughout the length and breadth of Tropical America until it was known to every tribe...In preparing the bitter or more poisonous varieties of manioc or yuca, the Indian women first carefully wash and pare the roots, thus eliminating a large part of the poison...The next step in the process is to grate the roots...Some tribes chop or pound the roots, others grind them between rough stones...When a sufficient number of the roots have been grated, the damp soggy white mass is packed into a device known as the metapee. This consists of a basket work cylinder so woven that its diameter increases or diminishes when the ends are pressed together or drawn apart... thus producing a coarse granular meal, which is cooked or baked on hot stones or on a sheet of iron placed over a slow fire. Sometimes the meal is kept stirred while being baked, thus producing a dry crisp meal known as farine while at other times the sifter root is slightly moistened and is baked in the form of huge thin disks or cakes known as cassava bread. But in either case the baking serves to drive off the last remaining traces of the poison...cassava cakes...if kept dry will keep almost indefinitely. This starch, prepared manioc meal is the source of the well known tapioca of commerce, so widely used on our own tables...Excellent starch is another product of the manioc or cassava root, while finally there is the paiwari, and alcoholic intoxicating drink made by the Indians form the scorched farine or cakes...Like the peacepipe of the North American tribes the calabash of paiwari is the symbol of friendship...Unlike the bitter manioc...the sweet manioc or yuca as it is more generally called, is eaten mainly as a vegetable. Sometimes it is made into a soup, at other times it is boiled and eaten the carrots or other root vegetables... A paste made of the raw roots is also widely used in the West Indies, as well as by the South American Indians, as a healing ointment."
---Foods America Gave the World, A. Hyatt Verrill [L.C. Page & Company:Boston MA] 1937 (p. 60-66)

"Sweet manioc, which was always a crop of secondary importance, was mainy grown as an adjunct to maize. it was easy to prepare: All you needed to to was take a fresh root, harvested that same day, and put it either in the embers of the fire or on a rack of green sticks, a barbacoa, over them. You turned the root from time to time, and when it emitted a strong and agreeable odor, you removed it, peeled it, and ate it. It was far harder to convert the bitter manioc into something edible. The root had to be grated, either on a grater painstakingly constructed out of stone chips or perhaps on a sharkskin....The dry matter left in the tube was almost pure starch. it could be baked into great cakes on a flat clay griddle over the fire, the thickness of the cakes ranging from collision mats two fingers thick, made of coarsely grated manioc for the commoners, to exquisite thin white cakes made of super finely grated manioc for the top people. The Europeans quickly discovered the virtues of this bread. The plants were easy to grow, it was cheap and simple to prepare in large quantites, and, best of all, it would keep, dry, for several years, making it ideal for military andnaval rations...once dry manioc bread was dipped into chile sauce, broth, or water, it again became soft and palatable... It was berated as being as tasteless as sawdust by the Europeans, but it played amajor role in the conquest of the New World by the military and the religious. Juan de Santa Gertrudis Serra, an eighteenth-century Francisan missionary, gives us a description of his first encounter with manioc bread in Cartagena, Colombia, where it was called cazaage, a word related to cassava, the British colonial term for manioc...Father Serra may have had a low opinion of it, but manioc continues to be a major source of calories."
---America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe [University of Texas Press:Austin TX] 1994, 1999 (p. 17-18)

"Prominent among Maya produce were the root crops...There was no need for time-consuming grating and squeezing, for only sweet manioc was grown in the Maya area. Nor are there any specific recipes for manioc. Most authors speak in general terms of cooking roots on the coals, in the pib, or by boiling."
---America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe [University of Texas Press:Austin TX] 1994, 1999 (p. 162)

"[Aztec diet] Sweet potatoes and manioc were minor players."
---America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe [University of Texas Press:Austin TX] 1994, 1999 (p. 93)

Related foods? Sago & tapioca.

What is cassareep?
A thickened syrup made from cassava. It features proiminently in the West Indian Pepper Pot. "Cassareep is the staple condiment of West Indian cooking. It is a syrupy liquid made by boiling down and seasoning the bitter juice of the cassava root. Its name is an alteration of an earlier casserepo, which comes from a local Cariban language; it is related to kaseripu on the Galibi language of French Giana."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 60)

"Cassareep is the boiled down juice squeezed from grated cassava root, and when flavored with cinnamon, cloves and brown sugar is the essential ingredient in Pepperpot, and Amerincian stew originating in Guyana and popular in Trinidad, Barbados and other isalnds. Cassareep may be brought bottled in West Indian markets."Complete Book of Caribbean Cooking, Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz [M. Evans and Company:New York] 1973 (p. 426)

"The poisonous juice, pressed from the grated roots in the metapee is saved and boiled down into a thick, brown sirupy material known as cassareep which is also edible, the poison being driven off by boiling. It is this cassareep which is the basis of the famous Worcestershire and other sauces and is used in making the famous pepper-pot of Guiana."
---Foods America Gave the World, A. Hyatt Verrill [L.C. Page & Company:Boston MA] 1937 (p. 63)

Related starches? Sago & taro.

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.

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)
Culinary evidence confirms vegetables served with cream sauce were consumed in Medieval Europe. Think: creamed onion. 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).

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.

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

"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)

Johnny Marzetti
Food historians confirm baked dishes composed of pasta, sauce, meat, and spices have been enjoyed since ancient Rome. Recipes and ingredients vary according to local taste and period. Many of these dishes were introduced to America via France and Italy. Some of these dishes were "Americanized" in the 20th century. Such is probably the case with Johnny Mazetti (aka baked spaghetti or spaghetti casserole). Classic Italian cookbooks generally serve thin pasta products (spaghetti, cappelini) with sauce on top. Thicker, sturdy pasta shapes (ziti, shells, cannelloni, ravioli, lasagne) are sometimes stuffed and generally baked. Ricotta and mozzarella, and pecorino romano are the classic cheeses of choice.

Mainstream American cookbooks disregard these traditions, directing cooks to bake all shapes with whatever cheese they on hand. The most Americanized Marzetti-style recipes call for processed cheese, ground hamburger, and canned soup.

Our survey of American cookbooks and newspapers reveal this "Italian inspired" casserole appealed to 20th century home cooks from the Great Depression through the 1970s. Baked spaghtetti casseroles are found under a variety of creative names including "Roman Holiday" and "Baked Spaghetti en Casserole" (Frenchifying it?). The earliest Marzetti moniker we found (Mazetti, actually) was published in a syndicated column distributed to local American newspapers in 1940. While print evidence confirms Johnny Marzetti" remains the most popular title, it has been know by several "sounds like" aliases: Mazetti, Mousseti, Mozzeti, and Johnnie, and JM. Ingredients and method reflect local taste and standard feature on school lunch menus, church dinners, "blue plate" restaurants and pot lucks. We can confirm a strong Ohio connection but have not yet found anyone claiming credit for creation.

Who was Johnny Marzetti?
One food historian states:
"Johnny Marzetti. Also "Johnny Mazetti." A baked dish of ground meat, tomato, and macaroni. It was created at the Marzetti Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1920s, and named after the owner's brother, Johnny."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 173)
[NOTES: (1) The Ancestry.com genealogy database returns several people with this name; some in Columbus OH area. (2) Marzetti company, est. 1896, still exists in Columbus. There is no claim to origination on their Web site.]

We wonder. Is it possible the dish was named after the maracroni shape? World War II era corporate cooking brochures reveal the names of different macaroni shapes to American consumers. Some provide Italian names (La Rosa); others the Americanized equivalents (Muellers). The 1942 editon of 101 Ways to Prepare Macaroni, La Rosa offers two names that are strikingly similar to "Marzetti." They are: Mezzani (macaroni) and Maruzzelli (shells) (p. 7). This book offers a recipe for "Left-Over Meat Sauce," a baked meat & tomato casserole, featuring Maruzelli (p. 29).

[1928]
"Italian Spaghetti en Casserole
Fru together until thoroughly brown, one pound ground meat, one-half pound finely-chopped bacon, one finely-chopped onion and one-half green pepper. Pour this over one pacakge of spaghetti, which has been cooked and drained. Add one small can chopped mushrooms which have been drained and well brwoned. Season with paprika, salt and pepper to taste. Cook slowly for one hour. Place in casserole and cover with grated cheese. Bake one-half hour in slow oven." ---"Household Hints, Mrs. Mary Morton, Evening Independent [OH], October 3, 1928 (p. 6)
[NOTE: This syndicated column/recipe was also published in Charleston WV, Davenport IA and Oshkosh WI.]

[1936]
"Neapolitan Spaghetti (4 servings)
1/4 pound spaghetti, boiled
4 slices bacon, cut in pieces
1 small onion, sliced
1 clove garlic (if you like)
1/2 green pepper, shredded
4 to 6 mushrooms (if you have them)
2 cups canned tomatoes
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Put the bacon, onion, garlic, green pepper, and sliced mushrooms in a heavy saucepan or frying pan; cook over low heat until the onion is yellow. Remove the garlic; add salt and pepper. Arrange the spaghetti, seasonings, and tomatoes in layers in a buttered baking dish. bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees F.) until the tomato juice has been partially absorved by the spaghetti or about 30 minutes. Additional slices ofr broiled bacon my be served on top of the spaghetti."
---Good Cooking, Marjorie Heseltine and Ula M. Dow, new edition, revised and enlarged [Houghton Mifflin:Boston] 1936 (p. 261)

[1938]
Roman Holiday
"Mrs. Frank P. Palmer, 4126 New Hampshire avenue northwest--"For a long time I have been preparing a one-dish company dinner which I had believed to be my own. The title: "Roman Holiday."...The other day I came across the same entree which bore the title "Roman Holiday." I felt a trifle deflated at not being the originator, I was gratified to realize that it was a tested recipe of high repute. "Roman Holiday" is so appetizing and easy to prepare that it will probably give Forum readers a mental holiday when they start planning for an unexpected dinner crowd from the office. "Parboil one package of spaghetti, drain, and place half in the bottom of a greased baking dish, then sprinkle on it one-half package of sharp American cheese; add one medium-sized can of bulk tomatoes, then add any left-over meat as the next layer. Alternate a layer of the remaining spaghetti with the other half of packaged cheese. Season to taste and pour small can of tomato juice over all. This creates enough rich liquid to mix the ingredients while cooking. I bake this casserole just long enough to produce a thoroughly blended flavor. The formal recipe for "Roman Holiday" calls for an addition of bacon drippings, onions, and about a pound of hamburger rather than left-over meat, but my friends and I like my original way best."
---"Food Forum: What to Serve Unexpected Guests is Answered in Suggestions for Hurry-Up Dishes; 'Roman Holiday' is One Proposal," Washington Post, August 19, 1938 (p. 13)

[1940]
"Johnny Mazetti
Ingredients: One and one-half pounds lean shoulder of pork, cubed; one eight-ounce package noodles, cooked; one can tomato soup, one can water, three small onions, one-half cup diced green pepper, one tablespoon molasses, one can mushrooms and juice, two teaspoons salt, one-half teaspoon pepper, two tablespoons parsley (may be omitted). Brow pork in three tablespoons fat; add onions, parsley, celery, mushrooms, tomato soup and water, then seasoning. Pour half noodles in buttered baking dish, cover in buttered baking dish, cover with meat mixture, add remaining noodles and bake one and one-half hours at 350 degrees F. Serve hot."
---"Today's Menu," Betsy Newman, Greenville Record Argus [PA], February 22, 1940 (p. 4)

[1942]
Baked Spaghetti with Sauce: Combine sauce with cooked spaghetti (may be made in advance if desired). Turn the spaghetti and sauce mixture into a greased casserole. Sprinkle top with buttered crumbs. Bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) about 30 minutes. Sprinkle top with 3/4 cup grated cheese and bake a few minutes longer or until cheese is melted and slightly browned."
---Woman's Home Companion Cook Book, Willa Roberts editor [P.F. Collier & Son:New York] 1942 (p. 213)

[1940s]
"Macaroni with Left-over Meat
1-8 oz. or 1/2-1-lb package Mueller's Ready-Cut Macaroni
2 tbsps. butter
1 onion, chopped
1 cup left-over meat, ground
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 No. 2 can tomatoes(2 1/4 cups)
1 tsp. sugar
Saute onion in butter until lightly browned and add meat, seasonings and tomatoes. Cook ready-cut maracroni to package directions. Arrange alternate layers of ready-cut macaroni and meat mixture in a baking dish and brown in an oven (375 degrees F.) oven for 30 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings."
---Delicious Recipes with Mueller's Macaroni Products, [C.F. Mueller Co.:Jersey Vity 6, N.J.] undated, probably 1940s (p. 8)

[1955]
"Savory Baked Spaghetti
3 tablesp. bacon fat or salad oil
2 coarsely chopped medium onions
1 clove garlic (optional)
1/2 lb chuck, ground
1 1/2 teasp. salt
1/8 teasp. pepper
1 No. 2 1/2 can tomatoes (3 1/2 cups)
1 teasp. chili powder
1 cup water
1/2 lb. spaghetti
1 cup grated process American cheese (1.4 lb).
In fat in large skillet, slowly cook onions and garlic 5 min. Add beef; cook, stirring occasionally, until meat loses red color. Stir in salt, pepper, tomatoes. Simmer, covered 30 mins.; discard garlic. Add chili, water. Start heating oven to 325 degrees F. Break half of uncooked spaghetti into greased 2-qt. casserole; pour on half of sauce; sprinkle with half of cheese. Break in rest of spaghetti; add rest of sauce and cheese. Bake, covered, 35 min. Uncover; bake 15 min. longer, or until brown. make 6 servings."
---Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Dorothy B. Marsh [Good Housekeeping:New York] 1955 (p. 241)

[1955]
"Quite a boy, this Johnny Marzetti. (Alias, Mazetti, Mozetti, Monzetti.) He's the guy who has lent his name to a dish favored down Panama way...and consisting of ground beef, noodles, olives and other good things. Next time you're entertaining a crowd for dinner do as the Panamanians do and whip up a batch of "J.M." PANAMA FAVORITE This goes by several near sounding names, and is said to have originated in the last 10 or 11 years. The number of canned ingredients indicates that an American Canal Zone resident was responsible for its invention. If so, hat off to him (or her!) It is a marvelous one-dish casserole meal for large gatherings and is extremely popular wherever it appears.
Johnny Marzetti
1 pound ground meat
2 tablespoons fat
1 pound green peppers
1 stalk celery, cut up
2 cans mushrooms
1 pound onions, grated or sliced
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
1 can Arturo sauce
1 bottle stuffed olives, sliced or whole
1/2 pound grated nippy or Parmesan cheese
2 packages wide egg noodles, cooked.
Brown meat in fat, then add rest of ingredients and bake in a slow oven one hour. Serves 12 to 16. This recipe is from "Tropical Cooking." The joy of this dish is that you can add to or take away from--and it is still good. I prefer more meat and celery."
---"Anne's Trading Post: Johnny's Quite a Recipe," Washington Post and Times Herald, February 17, 1955 (p. 55) [NOTE: Arturo sauce was a commercial product consisting of tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, onions, condiments and spices. It as introduced by Leggett & Company June 15, 1932. The product is no longer being made.]

[1962]
"Two recipes, Johnny Mousetti and Chicken Tetrazzini, are in crowd-size proportions because they are such popular party dishes. The Johnny Mousetti is a favorite covered dish supper item and the tetrazzini, popular for buffet suppers....
Johnny Mousetti
2 tablespoons oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 8-oz. can cream style corn
1 can tomato soup
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup grated American cheese
Heat oil. Add onion and garlic and cook until tender but not browned. Add meat and cook until it loses its red color, breaking up with fork now and then. Cook noodles in boiling, salted water until tender and drain. Mix noodles with corn, tomato soup and tomato sauce. Add meat mixture, salt and pepper and toss to blend. Turn into 3-qt. casserole. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake at 350 deg. 1 hour. Makes 10 to 12 servings."
---"Variety Spices Macaroni," Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, January 4, 1962 (p. A1)

[1967]
"It's called Johnny Mousetti, Johnnie Morselle, Johnnie Marsette or Jo Marssoti. It's popular everywhere--from Massachusetts to Kentucky --and is always showing up in regional cookbooks. By any name it's a great ground beef dish that satisfies both a budget and hearty appetites. Recipes for Johnny M casserole vary....
"Johnny M Casserole
1 pound ground chicken or round beef
1 package (1 1/2 ounces) sloppy joe seasoning mix
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1 1/4 cups water
2 cups elbow or shell macaroni
1 can (1 pound) whole kernel corn, drained
2 cups grated charp cheddar cheese
In a medium saucepan over moderate heat, cook the ground beef, stirring constantly with a fork to crumble, until meat loses its red color. Stir in seasoning mix, then tomato paste and water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile cook macaroni in boiling salted water, according to package directions, until just tender (al dente); drain. Stir in meat mixture, corn and one cup of the cheese. Turn into a buttered 2-quart casserole; sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven until thoroughly hot--about 45 minutes. makes 6 to 8 servings, through 4 to 5 people have been known to do away with this casserole at one sitting."
---"Hamburger Dish Satisfies Budget, Hearty Appetites," Cecily Brownstone, Jacksonville Courier [FL], December 22, 1967 (p. 22)

"The cauliflower (Brassica oleracea car. Botrytis), another-and many would say the most elegant-member of the sprawling cabbage family, is a direct descendant of the original wild cabbage and a close relative of broccoli. The kind of cauliflower usually found in vegetable hors d'oeuvres has a white head, achieved by growers who cover the flower head in its outer leaves so as to block sunlight and, thus, prevent the formation of chlorophyll...The cauliflower (the name is probably from the Italian caolifliori, meaning "cabbage flowers") was apparently known in much of Europe during the Middle Ages, but then disappeared and had to be reintroduced to the rest of the Continent in the sixteenth century. This was accomplished by the Italians, probably from Cyprus, where the plant had reached from Asia."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2001, Volume Two (p. 1747-8)

"...prototypes of the cauliflower may have originated spontaneiously in different places. Selective breeding would then have produced the present forms...the origin of the cauliflower and its relatives is obscure. It is thought that they were first grown in the Near East, but no is sure when. The belief of Cypriots that the cauliflower originated in Cyprus derives tenuous suppoert from the old French name for it, chou de Chypre (Cyprus cabbage)."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 1999 (P. 147)

"Cauliflower. England was introduced to the cauliflower towards the end of the sixteenth century. It seems originally to have been developed by the Arabs, and had not actually arrived in main and Europe until earlier in the same century. This accounts for its lack of an ancient, 'ancestral' name. The words for it in most European languages are variations on the notion flowering cabbage': German blumenkohl, for instance, Spanish clifolor. The Italian version is cavolfiore (cavolo is Italian for cabbage', and is related to English kale and cole); this seems to have been adapted in French to chou floeuri, and passed on to English, where the native cole, 'cabbage' replaced chou...In the seventeenth century the unfamiliar element florie was changed to flower, producing in due course cauliflower."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 62)

"In the time of Henri IV, Oliver de Serres mentioned the cauliflower reintroduced into France by the Genoese at the end of the Renaissance, but the vegetable did not become popular until the time of Louis XIV, who liked it cooked in stock, seasoned with nutmeg, and served with fresh butter."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translated by Anthea Bell [Barnes & Noble Books:New York] 1992 (p. 694)

"Cauliflower...is one of the cultivated varieties of the cabbage plant. The vegetable is picked in the bud stage, before it blossoms, and only the florets are consumed...Caulflower may have originated in the Middle East, and it has been growing in Italy since the fifteenth century. It was subsequently distributed to other parts fo Europe and was cultivated in North America by the late 1600s. By the eighteenth century, recipes were published in American cookbooks for boiling, frying, or stewing cauliflower; early recipes were also offered for pickling, and pickled cauliflower was served when fresh vegetables were unavailable and as a condiment. In the nineteenth century, cauliflower cookery expanded. Sometimes boiled in milk to gentle its flavor, cauliflower was sauced, usually with a butter or white sauce, and served as a side dish with meats; it was also sieved to make creamy soups."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 195)

Orange cauliflower?
"On the plate!...It's a carrot. It's a sweet potato...No, it's orange cauliflower! That's the cry that may be heard someday in American households already trying to deal with purple broccoli, yellow peppers and red bananas. No joke. It's not a gimmick. It's something Michael Dickson, a plant breeder at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station has spent eight years developing. 'I think people are always interested in something that's different or a new color,' said Dickson, who has been growing orange cauliflower for several years. The orange comes from a high concentration of carotene, the hydrocarbon that gives carots their color and is converted into vitamin A by the body. 'It's not as high as a carrot or tomato, but it has 300 times the amount of carotene in white cauliflower, says Dickson, a native of England who grew purple broccoli in his family garden as a boy in London. There's a growing interest from consumers to try exotic and unusual fruits and vegetables, said Carol Bowman-Williams, a spokeswoman for Frieda's Finest, of Los Angeles, which claims to be the country's largest seller of specialty produce...The new cauliflower, which looks like it has been drenched in cheddar cheese sauce, is easier to grow, has a longer shelf life and is more nutritious. It tastes just like white cauliflower, Dickson says. So far, the orange cauliflower has only been grown as an experimental crop at the agricultural station, although Dickson did take several hundred to a market two years ago to see how they would sell. 'It sold out pretty quickly'...Dickson started working on the orange cauliflower resarch after getting some seed for a weak hybrid plant from the National Vegetable Research Institute in England. The original orange parent, a freak f nature, was found in 1976 by a Canadian farmer in a field just north of Toronto. The farmer took the plant to Canadian scientists and eventually some seed found its way to England. A mutated gene caused the orange color, Dickson said. After he got the seed, Dickson returned to Geneva to cross the small, weak plant with a hardier, normal-sized caulflower and has had a great deal of success."
---"Orange Cauliflower! Not just a gimmick, hybrid could save farmers costly task of tying off leaves," Randolph Picht, Chicago Tribune, October 20, 1988 (p. F8)

What is chayote?
"Chayote...A member of the gourd family (Curcurbitacaea), this well-traveled, spiny vegetable (Sechium edule) originated in the American tropics. Called chayotli in Nahuatl, it was domesticated in what is now Mexico, was spread throughout South America after the Spanish conquest, and is now found in places as diverse and distant as North Africa and Indonesia. Such peregrinations doubtless account for its myriad names, a few of which are vegetable pear, mirliton, pepinella, xuxu, christophene, choco, custard marrow, and sousous. The taste of this usually green, pear-shaped, vine-growing vegetable resembles that of other curcurbits such as zucchini and the summer squashes; unlike these, however, the chayote must usually have it skin removed before cooking. Most of the parts of the plant are edible, and the leaves and vine tips are eaten as vegetables. The tuberous roots, similar to Jerusalem artichoke, are an imprtant source of starch. The fruit is used like a squash. It is boiled, baked, fried, steamed, stuffed, pureed in soups, and made into desserts; many consider the seed a delicacy as well."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2001, Volume Two (p. 1750)

Global diffusion
"Chayote...is a fruit of the gourd family which is peculiar in having one large seed...The chayote originated in Mesoamerica, and was cultivated by the Aztecs. Its name comes from the Nahuatl word chaytl...After the conquest of Mexico the chayote was taken into cultivation elsewhere and has become popular in Spain, N. America, SE Asia, China, and Australasia."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 157)

Culinary applications
"Sechium edule--Chayote, Vegetable Pear, Mirliton, Christopine, Choco [PL]. Fruits are eaten raw, pickled, sauteed, baked, steamed, stuffed, or made into fritters, sauces, tarts, puddings, sweetmeats, etc. In tropical areas, they are mixed with lime juice and used as a substitute for apples in pies and tarts.The mature, protruding seeds, which might be called vegetable scallops, are the best part. Briefly sauteed in butter they have a delicious nutty flavor. When deep-fried, they taste remarkably like french-fried potatoes. Young shoots, leaves, and tendrils are eaten like asparagus. The roots, known as chinchayote or chinta, are eaten boiled, baked, fried, or candied in syrup. Also the source of a starch. Tropical America, cultivated."
---Cornucopia II: A Source Book of Edible Plants, Stephen Facciola [Kampong Publications:Vista CA] 1998 (p. 88)

Chayote n the USA
Researching chayote in the USA starts with identifying and exploring the variant names and spellings: chayote, chayota, choko, cho-cho, mirliton, vegetable pear, vegetable scallops. Our survey of historic newspapers confirms this versatile vegetable was known in the southern regions from the 19th century forwards. We wonder: why does every generation "discover" chayote for the first time?

[1847]
"You recollect, while we were traveling in Alabama last spring, you gave me a vetetable pear (or Militon), at the same time receiving my promise to communicate to you my success in propagating it. It was given to one of my daughters, who, I fear, nursed it to death. It never vegetated at all."
---"The Green Twig Peach," The Monthly Journal of Agriculture, Containing the Best Current Porduction in Promotion of Agriculture, March 1847; 2, 9; America Periodicals (p. 412)

[1888]
"The Sechium edule, which is also called the chayota, vegetable pear and mango, is an annual belonging to the natural order or curcurbitacia...It is a native of Central America and the West Indies, wehre it is extensively grown. Many years ago it was commonly grown as far north as Charleston, S.C. and kept on sale in the markets, but it uncaccountably passed out of cultivation, now to meet with renewed attention."
..."The Choko," The American Garden: A Monthly Illustrated Journal Devoted to Garden Art, March 1, 1888; 9, 3; American Periodicals, (p. 89)

[1901]
"Vegetable Pear.
Mirliton The Vegetable Pear, or 'Mirliton,' as the Creoles have named this vegetable, belongs to the gourd family. It is known to botanists by th nbame of the 'One-Seeded Cucumber.' Like almost all the gourds, the plant is a vine, and is trained by the Creoles upon trellis, fences or arbors around their homes. It is not only a ery ornamental vine, but an abundant bearer. The fruit, if properly prepared, as the Creoles know so well how to prepare it, is a delightful dish, and is of a v ery much finer flavor than eggplants, squashes or pumpkins. It may be cooked in a half dozen different ways, stuffed and stewed and fried, as the eggplant...or stewed or baked, like the pumpkin, squash or cashaw. It is particularly fine when prepared like stewed cashaw...It may also be made int fritters, like eggplants, or baked cakes. In any way that it is served it is delicious, and is a freat favorite with the Creoles, especially the little children."
---The Picayune's Creole Cook Book, facsimile second edition 1901 [Dover Publications:New York] 1971 (p. 247)
[NOTE: French recipes titled "Mirliton" produce a cookie-type dessert.]

[1906]
"A book from Jamaica on cookery peculiar to the island....[with] local names of strange fruits and gegetables were puzzling, as no pictures accompanied them and no botanical names were given in parenthesis. It held many recipes for chochos, but what was a cho-cho? Had the word 'mirliton' been used, that would have been a Rosetta stone for the solving of the mystery. Soon information came on this point. The cho-cho is no other than the chayote of the early Spanish explorers. The original name was doubtless the Aztec chayotl, which has been changed repeatedly in the many tropical lands to which the plant has been carried. It is grown in warm countries around the globe, and to a limited extent in our Southern States. As soon as there is an assured demand for the fruits they will be supplied to our markets from Porto Rico, where the plant grows in abundance...Were the statements as to its many edible and useful products not made by our government authorities and corroborated by the reports of other scientists and the experiences of many nations, what is said of the chayote would seem like the claims of a promoter, or like some plant Marco Polo heard of in far Cathay, or Alice saw in Wonderland...In Louisiana the chayote is generally called vegetable pear, and is cooked very much as it is in Jamaica. It may also be cooked a la Creole by parboiling, then cutting in half. Scoop out the inner part, and mix it with shrimp or crab meat, egg, and bread crumbs, seasoned with fine chopped onion, salt, and pepper. Mix this thorougly, heat a littl fat or oil, or butter, in a large frying pan and turn the mixture in. Stir constanty until it is partly fried. Remove from the fire, and fill each skin with the farci, sprnkle with crumbs, brown in the oven, and serve..."
---"The Chayote," Julia Davis Chandler, The Boston Cooking School Magazine of Culinary Scince and Domestic Ecnomics, March 1, 1906; 10,8; American Periodicals (p. 395)

[1913]
"Cooking the Chayote. As a preliminary preparation, always peel and cut the chayote in two, take the seeds out, and cook in boiling salted water for an hour and a quarter. For baking, cut the vegetable thus prepared into slices, mix with a cream sauce, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and sprinkle the top with grated cheese, fresh bread crumbs and butter. Bake for ten minutes in a hot oven. Stuffed choytes are found on the tables of many New Orleans families. The housewife seeking something new and delicate should try them. Stuff the halves of the prepared chayote with some duxelle. Sprinkle with fresh bread crumbs and some butter, seasoning to taste, then bake in the oven for fifteen minutes and serve with tomato sauce. Duxelle is prepared by chopping fine one onion and two shallots, stew in butter until slightly brown, add some fresh chopped mushrooms, and let the whole simmer until the moisture of the mushrooms has been thrown out; season with salt, pepper, and a little chopped parsley. The chayote makes a delightful salad with a most unusual taste. After being well cooked it should be allowed to cool then split into four pieces. These in turn should be sliced to a thickness of about a quarter of an inch. Place in a serving dish with lettuce and cover with mayonnaise or French dressing."
---"Foreign Fuits and Native Weeds Reduce Cost of Living," Mary Hamilton Talbott, New York Times, January 12, 1913 (p. X12)

[1922]
"A notable fruit tree of Central and South America which is receiving attention fron growers of Southern California and State and Federal horticulturalists is the chayote, a member of the squash family. The chayote has long been known in California among growers of semitropical plants, but its value as a food has been largely overlooked. Interest in the cultivation of this plant has been increased through the finding of improved types by Wilson Popenoe, agricultural explorer, on his recent trip to Central and South American countries...At the present time, the chayote is one of the staple vegetables of Porto Rico, where thousands of them are consumed annually. It is well known in the other islands of the West Indies. In Brazil where it is knwon as the Chuchu, it is a common article of diet, as it is also in Mexico...In the United States, it is grown commercially to a limited extent in Louisiana, the Creoles being especially fond of it. It is also grown in Texas, and in a small way in Florida. In Californa, the chayote is not infrequently seen on the market but most of the fruit is sold by nurserymen for seed, the fruit bringing for this purpose from 15 to 25 cents each."
---"Good Qualities of the Chayote Have Been Largely Overlooked," Ryerson Knowles, Agricultural Extension Service, Los Angeles Times, September 10, 1922 (p. X3)

[1931]
"What vegetable for tonight?...if you're an exploring epicure over at the government's home economic bureau here in Washington, you brighten up and say something like this: 'What about dasheens? Or some nice chayote?...For they are eternlly busy at the bureau arranging debuts for foods that have hitherdo hidden themselves in the soil of faraway lands. These foods enter this country through a sort of gastonomical Ellis Island where officials of the Department of Agriculture give them various tests. Once welcomed to these shore they are first grown under special supervision. Presently they are sent to the home economics bureau where calorie conscious ladies with Ph.D. degrees boil the products and bake them, and evolve reicpes that may be sent to the housewives of the nation...[one] Americanized alien is the chayote, pronounces chi-o-ty. It is a cousin to the cucumber and a kin of the climbing squash. Only it retains shape much better than the squash does when cooked, and so can be stuffed with great artistic effectiveness. Some chayote gourmets say it taste like stewed oysters. It is a native of Mexico and Central America, and it is also popular in Paris and Tokio.

Chayote Baked With Cheese--Pare and slice the chayotes and place in a saucepan with a piece of salt pork. Cook until tender in just enough water to cook them. Season with paprika and salt. When tender remove the slices with a skimmer and place in a baking dish. Prepare a white sauce, using water in whcih the chaytes were cooked and some milk. Pour this over the chayotes. Cover with grated cheese and bread crumbs; add bits of butter. Bake to a golden brown."
---"Alien Vegetables, Dasheens and Chayotes, Find Place on U.S. Tables," Genevieve Forbes Herrick, Chicago Daily Tribune, , June 26, 1931 (p. 19)

[1959]
"Although the average New Yorker is unaware of it, this city also is the site of one of the world's most extensive markets specializing in Puerto Rican produce. Situated in the middle of Park Avenue, the public shopping place stretches from 111th to 116th Streets. There, customers may purchase unaccustomed fresh foods, such as cilantro leaves, cassavas and a pumpkin-like squash called calabaza...Not all the merchandise sold at the market comes form Puerto Rico. Much of it comes from Cuba, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. And Florida contributes its share...At this season of the year, shoppers at the market will find an abundance of plantains, pigeon peas and chayotes...Chaytes are small, pear-shaped squash that vary in color from yellow to pale green. Deeply ridged and sometimes marked with spines, their flavor is similar to summer-squash. They are generally served in a sauce or fried. Cooked and chilled, they make an interesting contribution to salads."
---"Puerto Rican Food Market Flourishing Here," Craig Claiborne, New York Times, January 8, 1959 (p. 23)
[NOTES: (1) This article offers a recipe for Chayote and Bean Salad. (2) Compare with Mr. Claiborne's notes from 1982.]

[1977]
"This Mexican member of the squash family is one of the least appreciated vegetables of our time. It literally grows like a weed, spreading as much as 50 feet, and it can bear 500 fruit on a single plant. But ask your neighbor about the chayote and you'll likely get a blank stare. Its rampant growth and tenderness to frost have limited its usefulness to many home gardeners, but most have simply never heard of it. In Latin America the chayote (pronounced cha-YOH-teh) is amost as common as the potato. Its scientific name is Sechium edule, and the common name we use comes from the Nahuatl term. The Spanihs foud the Aztecs growing it and carried it throughout the hemisphere. Some of the other names are nuisquil, chuchu, Christophine, cahiota, vegetable pear and mirliton. The ast name is widely used in Louisiana. There are five known varieties, with skins that are smooth, furowed or prily and of a size that can range from a few ounces to 2 pounds. The color ranges from white to pale green and dark green. But the one we most often see in our markets--and now is when it begins to appear--is pear-shaped and weighs from a half-pound to a pound. The color is lime green through the entire fruit, and its texture is crisp and fiberless. In the center is a large, almond-shaped seed that is usually left there and cooked with the fruit. It has a delicate, nutty flavor. What to do with it? Well, the chayote can be eaten out of hand like an apple, straight from the vine. But it can be creamed, French-fried, marinated in salads or pureed with lime juice and cinnamon. Young leaves can be cooked like spinach. And the tubers can be cooked like yams. We'll bive you some serving ideas later. Is chayote fattening? No. One 3 1/2-ounce serving, wtihout butter, has 28 calories."
---"Do You Know the Chayote?" Teddy Colbert, , August 14, 1977 (p. P36)

[1982]
"Over the years I'd heard of the vegetable chayote, a member of the squash family. And I knew it is to be found almost all year long in the markets along Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. But through some curious circumstance, I never sampled it until a recent visit to the Caribbean isalnd of St. Barthelemy. As a Southerner, I am even more amused by this, for chayote enjoys a considerable popualrity on the tables of Louisiana in genenral and New Orleans specifically. They are listed on menus and in cookbooks there as mirlitons. On St. Bart's I was served chayote stuffed, potato fashion, with its own pulp plus langoustine in a light cream sauce. I was astonished at its goodness and the overall delicate nature of the dish. When I returned home I visited Ninth Avenue to load a shopping bag with the vegetable so that Pierre Franey and I could expreriment with it. What we discovered was that the cayote...is infinitely variable in its uses. It is tender yet crisp when briefly cooked and used in salads and can be filled with any of a number of savory fillings and baked. It can be fried, stewed or simply baked after being split like an acorn squash and seasoned with butter, herbs or spices...Some we stuffed with cheeese filling (Muenster is one of the best), other with a curry of beef and still others with shrimp in imitation of that langouste dish..."
---"A Belated Discovery: The Versatile Chayote," Craig Claiborne, New York Times, January 20, 1982 (p. C6)
[NOTE: Recipes for Mirlitons Farcis Aux Crevettes (Choyotes stuffed with shrim), Ensalata de Chayote (Chayote salad), Chaytes Rellenos al Cari (Stuffed chayotes with curried beef) and Chayotes Rellenos al Queso (Chaytes stuffed with cheese) included.]

Choko in Australia
"In spite of the predominance of boiling and overcooking, there were some cooks, like Mina Rawson [late 19th century] , who treated vegetables with more respect...Pumpkin along with other cucurbits, flourished in the Australian climate and quickly became a favourite with gush and city cooks alike. Sweet potatoes and chokoes were adopted from South America. The tender young shoots of pumpkin, sweet potatoes and choko vines were found to make excellent greens and pawpaw and bananas made good vegetables in cooked unripe."
---How to Cook a Galah: Celebrating Australia's Culinary Heritage, Laurel Evelyn Dyson [Lothian Books:Victoria] 2002 (p. 121)
[NOTE: This book contains a recipe for "Choko Cheese" (p. 129-131)]

Australian Choko recipes

[1903]
"453. Fried Choko
1 or 2 chokos
1 egg
Bread Crumbs
Frying Fat
Mode.--Peel and boil the chokos in salted water; when just soft enough to cut, take out and cut in slices; dip in egg, and then roll in bread crumbs and fry in boiling fat; drain on kitchen paper for a minute, pile high on a hot vegetable dish; garnish with fresh or fried parsle, and serve."
---Mrs. Maclurcan's Cookery Book, H. Maclurcan, 5th edition [George Robertson & Company:Melbourne] 1903(p. 187-188)

[1909]
"Choko, To Boil (Australian Dish).
Ingredients.--Choco, salt, white sauce, or melted butter. Method.--Peel the choko, let it remain in salt and cold water for about 1 hour, then drain well. Place in a saucepan containing salted boiling water, boil from 1 to 1 1/4 hours, and serve with the sauce poured over. Time.--2 « hours."
---Mrs. Beeton's Everyday Cookery, New Edition [Ward, Lock & Co.:London] 1909 (p. 286)

[1956]
"Chokos-1
Chokos are best unskinned, cut in half or quarters, and steamed quickly till tender, served as under.

"Chokos-2
Place in a casserole or saucepan with 4 tablespoons of water and 1 tablespoon of butter, salt and pepper, cover and cook very slowly in oven or on top of stove till tender.

"Baked Chokos
Chokos may be cut in quarters or halves and baked with joints as other roast vegetables.

"Chokos with Sauce
Peel 3 chokos under water. Then cut into halves or quarters. Place small quantity in boiling salted water with lid on. Cook till tender, about 30 minutes. Drain thoroughly. Serve with melted butter, White or Parsley Sauce. If young, cook by steaming in skin.

"Stuffed Chocos
Wash, halve, young chokos, remove centres, drain, simmer in a little boiling water 10 minutes, fill with savoury filling. Savoury Filling.--Fry 1 tablespoon of minced onion with 2 tablespoons of minced bacon, add enough breadcrumbs to makes slightly moist mixture. Spread filled chokos lightly with a little dripping, sprinkle tops with finely-grated cheese. Lightly stand in a greased pie-dish with 1 inch water, bake in a moderate oven till cooked and top lightly browned."
---Schauer Cookery Book, 11th edition [W.R. Smith & Paterson:Queensland] 1956 (p. 699)

[1970s] CORNIES
According to the US Patent & Trademark Office, Cornies brand cheese flavored corn puffs were introduced to the American public February, 1978 by NYC based Culbro Inc [dba Snack Time Company]. We find newspaper advertisments for this product prior to the "official" introduction date. "Cornies Cheese Curls," Waterloo Courier[IA}, July 17, 1974 (p. 33) confirming Iowa origin and suggesting this product was enjoyed locally before going national.

Cornies mark is currently listed as "dead," indicating the product is not currently in production. Word Mark CORNIES Goods and Services (CANCELLED) IC 030. US 046. G & S: BAKED CRISPY CHEESE FLAVOR CORN PUFFS AND CRUNCHY CRISPY CHEESE FLAVOR CORN PUFFS. FIRST USE: 19780200. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19780200 Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 73527656 Filing Date March 14, 1985 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Published for Opposition September 3, 1985 Registration Number 1370426 Registration Date November 12, 1985 Owner (REGISTRANT) CULBRO SNACK FOODS, INC. DBA SNACK TIME COMPANY CORPORATION DELAWARE 605 THIRD AVENUE NEW YORK NEW YORK 10158 (LAST LISTED OWNER) TRION VENTURES I, L.P. LIMITED PARTNERSHIP TEXAS 5910 N. CENTRAL EXPRESSWAY, SUITE 1660 ATTN: MIKE HOGAN DALLAS TEXAS 75206 Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED Attorney of Record SCOTT E. THOMPSON Prior Registrations 0747942 Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). Live/Dead Indicator DEAD Cancellation Date August 19, 2006

Cornies brand corn chips were also made by Culbro, 1950-2004: Word Mark CORNIES Goods and Services (CANCELLED) IC 030. US 046. G & S: Corn Chips. FIRST USE: 19500510. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19500510 Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 72133142 Filing Date December 1, 1961 Current Filing Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Registration Number 0747942 Registration Date April 9, 1963 Owner (REGISTRANT) Fairmont Foods Company CORPORATION DELAWARE Omaha NEBRASKA (LAST LISTED OWNER) Culbro Snack Foods, Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE New York NEW YORK Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 19830510 Live/Dead Indicator DEAD Cancellation Date January 10, 2004

According to the records of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Cheez Whiz brand product was introduced to the American public October 24, 1952: "Word Mark CHEEZ WHIZ Goods and Services IC 029. US 046. G & S: PROCESSED CHEESE SPREAD. FIRST USE: 19521024. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19521024 Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 72185065 Filing Date January 21, 1964 Current Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Registration Number 0795650 Registration Date September 7, 1965 Owner (REGISTRANT) NATIONAL DAIRY PRODUCTS CORPORATION CORPORATION DELAWARE 500 PESHTIGO COURT CHICAGO ILLINOIS (LAST LISTED OWNER) KRAFT FOODS GROUP BRANDS LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY DELAWARE THREE LAKES DRIVE NORTHFIELD ILLINOIS 60093 Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED Prior Registrations 0554869;0564548 Disclaimer THE WORD "CHEEZ" IS DISCLAIMED APART FROM THE MARK "CHEEZ WHIZ." Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECTION 8(10-YR) 20060317. Renewal 2ND RENEWAL 20060317 Live/Dead Indicator LIVE"

How much did Cheez Whiz cost when it was introduced?
"New! Right Out of the Kraft Kitchen, Cheez Whiz, 59 cents/16 oz. jar. For fast cheese dishes. Smooth! Creamy-thick! Rich! It's absolutely different from any cheese product you've ever had before."
---dislpay ad, Washington Post, May 15, 1953 (p. 12)

American icon?
"One thing about which we Americans are proudest and also most embarrased is our talent for making synthentic pleasures. Movies, theme parks, televisions: all provide amazing imitations of natural experiences. When it comes to food, no other country on earth has devised so many wonderful and elaborage methods for altering, emulating, and improving upon basic ingredients. From TV dinners to Fizzies (tables that make water into soda pop), spray-on cheese to Pop Tarts, our kitchen shelves are a bonanza of things designed to improve upon nature. Of all these products, few are as beloved, or as emblematic of American ingenuity, as Cheez Whiz. In fact, Cheez Whiz was specifically created to eliminate the defects of ordinary cheese. The problem faced by Kraft laboratory technicians when they began working on a pasteurized, emulsified, homogenized cheese food product in 1951 was that cheese clumps. When it melts, it can separate; it can disintegrate into gluey, oily wads of dairyfat glop that no one wants to eat. Welsh rarebit was still a popular dish at the time, and it required melting cheese, so Kraft's men in white coats determined to design a perpetually stable cheese for the rarebit trade. What they invented was something greater than rarebit fodder. They created Cheez Whiz, a solution for everything from old-fashioned rarebit to modern quickie nachos grandes. As of July 1, 1953, the day Cheez Whiz went on sale across the nation, the clumping problem was history. In the tradition of Velveeta, which Kraft had introduced int he 1930s as a new product better than plain cheese (because "nutritive value" was added by scientists), Whiz improves on anything a cow and dairy farmer could produce. So long as the cap is on the jar, it can be stored endlessly; it melts on contact with hot food, thus eliminating the need for grating; and it is as smooth as a baby's bottom. Instead of being just one monotonous kind of cheese, it is "cheese food," containing American mozzarella, Muenster, and Gouda as well as the tastes of mustard, salt, and Worcestershire sauce, the preservative powers of sorbic acid, and the distintive school-bus-orange use of food dye #A001M. When it was test-marketed in 1952, housewives reported 1,304 uses for it, including spooning it into hot macaroni, mixing it with vegetables (as a way of getting children to eat broccoli), dolloping it on frankfurters, and spreading it on crackers. They also liked the glass jar it came in (eight- or sixteen-ounce size), which could be reused for jelly or even as an emergency drinking glass. Microwave ovens have made Cheez Whiz even more convenient. Bombarded by electromagnetic energy for a few minutes, the stuff in the jar slackens into a fluid custard usuable as hot cheese sauce--without a single pot or pan getting soiled. Gourmets despise it (the don't like any processed cheese); but there are certain junk foods that cannot properly be made without it. For instance, cheese fries to accompany a Philadelphia steak sandwich demand the silky -smooth texture if warm, runny Cheez Whiz. For pouring in a baked potato (as served in mall food courts), it is de rigeur. And Louis Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut, were the hamburger was invetned nearly a hundred years ago and where the finicky kitchen allows no ketchup on the premisis, uses only Cheez Whiz, smeared on white toast, to make its cheesburgers."
---Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jane & Michael Stern [Harper Perennial:New York] 1992 (p. 92-3)

Related foods? Kraft Swankyswig cheese products & Philly Cheese Steak.

Where did cherries originate?
"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

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)

Cherry symbolism & lore

"In Japan, the cherry tree has long been a symbol of beauty as well as courtsey, gentility, and even virginity...In parts of northern Europe, evil spirits were believed to inhabit cherry trees. But most European myths about cherries stressed their connection with fortune and fertility...The story behind the German festival called Feast of the Cherries reveals the cherry's connection to good fortune. In 1432, the Hussites threatened to destroy Hamburg, so the Gernans sent their children out in the streets carrying cherries. This touched the Hussite leader deeply and he spared the city and feasted on cherries with the children. In Lithuanian legend, Kirnis was both the guardian of cherry trees and the spirit of the cherry tree itself. The Japanese continue to believe today that blossiming trees are inhabited by a spirit, or kami, that exists throughout the natural world...the cherry tree entered into the Buddhist myth of Maya and the birth of Buddha."
---Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology, Tamra Andrews [ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara CA] 2000 (p. 59-60)

Christmas cherries
"Legend, song, and custom link the cherry tree to the Christmas season. In all three the cherry tree performs unusual feats in response to the power of God or the magic of the season. Legends. An old Christian legend, first recorded in the apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, makes the cherry tree the subject of one of the infant Jesus' first miracles. The original Latin text containing the tale dates back to the eighth or ninth century. This version of the story tells of an event that occurred shortly after Jesus' birth. Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus were traveling in the desert. The couple spied a palm tree and went to rest under its shadow. Joseph worried aobut how they were going to find water. Mary expressed a wish for the dates she saw hanging high above them. Joseph scolded his wife for asking for something so far out of his reach. Then the baby Jesus spoke to the tree, ordereing it to bend down so his mother could gather the fruit. The tree obeyed...As the tale passed from one teller to another, many variations occurred. In later version so the story the incident takes place before Jesus is born. Moreover, as the tale became popular in Europe, the tree which Jesus commands to bow down changes to species more familiar to Europeans. In Britain, the newer versions of the story ferature a cherry tree...The earliest recorded version of this story in the English language appeared in a fiftheenth-century miracle play...Eventually this popular tale was set to music in the Christmas song known as 'The Cherry Tree Carol.'...In medieval Europe a miracle play concerning the expulsion of Adam and Eve for the Garden of Eden was often performed around Christmas time...some...added cherries as a symbol of Mary. According to an old custom, Germans, Czechs, Austrians, Poles and other central and eastern Europeans begin Barbara branches on December 4, St. Barbara's Day. A branch is broken off a cherry tree and kept in a pot of water near the stove. This premature warmth encourages the branch to blossom. Old folklore suggests that if the buds blossom on Christmas Eve, the girl who tended the branch will find a good husband within a year. Others interpret the Christmas flowers as signs that good fortune will visit the household in the coming year."
---Encyclopedia of Christmas and New Year's Celebrations, Tanya Gulevich, 2nd edition [Omnigraphics:Detroit MI] 2003 (p. 106-107)

"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]

About sapodilla
"Sapodilla, sapotilla,...sopota, zapote, chico sapote...are all names for the fruit of Manikara Zapota, a medium-sized evergreen tree native to Mexico and C. America. The Aztec name xapot gave rise to the whole group of names such as zapote and sapodilla, the wide use of which can be confusing...The tree, which also produces the gum chicle, from which chewing gum is made, was cultivated in the region long before the arrival of the Spaniards." ---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition 2006 (p. 693)

First chewers?
"...chew gum, the Mayans did; their habit can be traced back at least to the second century, when...they rolled up hunks of chicle and wrapped them in wild banana leaves for an edible package...The chicle was the same used today in many gums (the thick and creamy latex of the Achras sapota, more commonly known as the sapodilla), and was likely discovered centuries ago by a Mayan gatherer unintentionally injuring a sapodilla tree while climbing it to collect some fruit...Perhaps the first Mayan gatherer popped the sapodilla latex into his mouth as soon as th stuf thickend into a gummy mass when exposed to air; more likely time to find a use for the gum was to be measured in centuries. At any rate, when the Spanish conquerors of the New World descended...they found descendants of the Mayans and many other Indian tribes stoically popping their chicle gum...The Conquistadores even ascribed the gleaming teeth of Aztec maidens to their chewing gum habit....The Mayans found...that cultivated sapodilla trees did not produce as much latex...[the] gathered most of their chicle from the jungles. Tapping the sapodilla bark, they coagulated the milky latex by boiling, chewing the velvety, smooth and almost tasteless gum that resulted. The tree they named the ya, an obsolete name today, but their word tsictle became our chicle. When tapped from the tree, the latex was simply called itz, yet after being prepared it was dubbed cha...'Chicle, or cha, was well known to the ancient Mayas...being chewed to quench the thirst and also as and accompaniment of meals and to relieve excaustion.'"
---Great American Chewing Gum Book, Robert Hendrickson [Stein and Day:New York] 1976 (p. 56-57)

"The chico zapote, the fruit of the Manilkara zapota, the tree that produces the sap that used to be made into chewing gum, was a delicious morsel, although we have no evidence that the Maya chewed the gum the way the Aztecs did."
---America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe [University of Texas Press:Austin] 1994 (p. 166)

About modern chewing gum
"Chewing gum...a confection of sugar flavouring, and an insoluble base which eventually is eventually spat out and discarded by the user. Originally it was made from chicle, the latex of the tree Manilkara zapota, which is native to Central and South America. A sweet based on a mixture of chicle, sugar, and a flavouring (licorice or sassafras) was patented in 1871. By the end of the 19th century, several entrepreneurs were making handsome profits from the manufacture of such items as Chiclets, Gumballs, and Spearmint Gum. The foremost of these, William Wrigley, made clever used of marketing techniques and expanded the market considerably. The sweet became popular in Europe after soldiers from the USA brought it in their ration packs during the Frist World War."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford]2nd edition (p. 167)

"The United States chews more gum per capita than any other country in the world; Canada is second. After them come the Latin American countries. Gum chewing is thus concentrated in countries inhabited originally by American Indians; and it was indeed from the Indians that the Anglo-Saxon colonists of North America and the Latin colonists of South and Central America inherited the habit of chewing gum. In New England, the Indians masticated the resin of the black spruce and taught the Pilgrims to do the same; in Central America, the Mayans masticated chicle (from the Nahuatl chichtli), the coagulated latex of the sapodilla tree, and taught the Spaniards to do the same. The first chewing gum produced commercially seems to have been that made about 1850 in the state of Maine, which, following the Indian example, was based on spruce resin....About 1890 the United States, which had been importing chicle as a rubber substitute, suddenly noticed that South American Indians chewed it, and decided to try it out in gum..."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 435)

Bubble gum was invented in 1928 by Walter Diemer. He was employed by the Fleer Corporation.

"...it was an early-August morning in 1928 , and a young cost accountant named Walter Diemer did the trick. The age of bubble gum rose like a shimmering pink sun on the horizon. Inspired by his employer's search for a large, dry bubble that wouldn't explode and stick so fast to young faces that parents would forbid it in the house, the 23-year-old Diemer was experimenting with a new batch of bubble gum mix. He had no knowledge of chemistry; for more than a year he'd been working by simple trial and error."
---"Since 1928 it's been boom and bust with bubble gum," Robert Hendrickson, Smithsonian [magazine], July, 1990 (p. 74-82)

Recommended reading

• 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)

Fruit Stripe Gum
Yikes! Stripes! Fruit Stripe Gum! This Baby Boomer-era chewing gum was novel because the traditional flat oblong sticks presented in colorful stripes. Tangy flavors appealed to children, as did the brightly colored packaging. The famous zebra spokescharacter was introduced eight years after product launch. Is this item still on the market? Yes. Here's what the pack looks like in 2013.

When was Fruit Stripe chewing gum introduced?
According to the records of the US Patent & Trademark Office, Fruit Stripe brand chewing gum was introduced to the American public September 22, 1960 by Beech-Nut. "Word Mark FRUIT STRIPE Goods and Services IC 030. US 046. G & S: Chewing Gum. FIRST USE: 19600922. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19600922 Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 73238813 Filing Date November 13, 1979." [NOTE: In 2013, Fruit Stripe trademark is owned by Farley's & Sathers Candy Co., MN.]

What were the original flavors?
Orange, lime, lemon, and cherry (see below). Some online sources mention "mixed fruit" as a fifth flavor. To date, we have not verified that information. In 1996, Cherry, Orange, Lemon, Wet 'n Wild Melon, and Peach Smash flavors were introduced. These are still sold in 2013. Bubble gum version was launched in 1996 with these flavors: "Assorted Cherry, Cotton Candy, Mixed Fruit, Grape, Wacky Watermelon; Assorted Cherry, Grape, Lemon, Mixed Fruit, Cotton Candy; Limited Edition Chewing Gum - Assorted Cherry, Orange, Lemon, Wet 'n Wild Melon, Peach Smash MANUFACTURER: LifeSavers Inc. CATEGORY: Chewing Gum." ."---"Fruit Stripe Limited Edition Bubble Gum," Product Alert, February 12, 1996 (Vol. 26, NO. 3, ISSN: 070-3801]

[1960s] Early slogan & plush toy promotions
For an advertisting campaign, each Fruit Stripe color was assigned an animal character nicknamed "Stripes." Lemon was the Elephant, Orange was the Mouse, Cherry was the Horse and Lime was the Tiger. These animals were promoted as plush toys, $1.50 and 6 outer wrappers from the product package. "Yipes! Stripes! What fun! They're all stuffed and sturdy, plump and plush...each a full 12 inches high!...The kids'll be wild about them! (Just as they are about the five flavors of Beech-Nut Fruit Stripe Gum!)."
---display ad, Chicago Tribune, November 15, 1964 (p. M8)
[NOTE: This ad specifically states the product comes in 5 flavors, as does the product photo. We are not told what that flavor is.]

[1990s] Reintroduction as "nostalgia candy"
"Yipes, Stripes" Joining the list of television commercial comebacks is Yipes, the Fruit Stripe Gum spokeszebra, back on the air this spring after 23 years. Although Fruit Stripe Gum never left the market, its commercials last ran in 1968. Unadvertised, the product maintained a small but loyal following. Then, in 1988, the brand was relaunched based on its strong sales per point of distribution performance. "Though unsupported and in limited distribution, Fruit Stripe was one of the fastest turning gums in the category," said Michael Terry, product manager for Fruit Stripe. "Its appeal was based on the gum's uniqueness and the wild, fun personality of the Yipes character." To help evaluate the product's positioning and its potential for growth, the company conducted focus group research with children. The research confirmed that children liked the gum because it was unique and different from other gums. Children also kept mentioning the same three specific things when asked what they liked about the product: it had four flavors in each pack, it had colorful stripes, and it had Yipes, the zebra on the front of the package. "When children were asked to group products by character, Fruit Stripe always ended up in a little area all its own," Terry said. "That told us that our concept of the product as unique was carrying through to our target audience." The first step in the program was to increase distribution. The company's sales force used the sales per point of distribution story with the trade to build the brand's distribution base, with gratifying results: shipments increased 110 percent in 1989 and 1990. By 1990, Fruit Stripe had become the fastest-growing sugared gum in the highly competitive U.S. chewing gum market. ..."I've been asked, `is this just another nostalgia product?'" said Joe Collerd, director of marketing/confections for Planters LifeSavers Company, which manufactures and markets Fruit Stripe. "No. Fruit Stripe is successful because it appeals to kids -- the kids of the 1990s as well as the kids of the 1960s. We had indications that the brand had potential for growth that was going untapped. This was an existing brand with a great deal of equity, which is worth its weight in gold." And what of the first generation of Fruit Strip fans? One, Janice Wood, now works as an advertising copywriter at Michelin Tire Corporation in Greenville, S.C. When Wood heard Fruit Stripe was back on the air with a new commercial, she spontaneously sang, in its entirety, the original jingle last broadcast when she was "very, very young."
---"Yipes, the Fruit Stripe Zebra, Returns to TV--and the Zoo," PR Newswire, May 7, 1991

[1995] Word Wildlife Federation partnership & tatoo promotions
"The LifeSavers Company is adding a new twist to an old favorite -- rub-on temporary tattoos of endangered animals on the stick wrappers of its Fruit Stripe(R) gum brand. With each pack purchased the company will donate five cents, up to $100,000, to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for the preservation of endangered animals and their habitats. The limited edition product will be available nationwide by mid- March in grocery, drug, convenience and mass merchandiser stores and will remain on shelves through February of 1997 or until supplies last. The endangered animal tattoos will replace the current tattoos that include butterflies, soccer balls and other items aimed at Fruit Stripe's(R) target consumers, kids ages 6 to 11. Nine endangered animals are featured in the tattoos including: Black Rhinoceros Blue Whale Hawaiian Monk Seal Jaguar Mountain Zebra Peregrine Falcon Orangutan Siberian Tiger Tasmanian Forest Kangaroo Fun facts on each animal accompany the tattoos. Packages of Fruit Stripe(R) will be specially marked with the WWF panda logo and a message from Yipes!, the color striped zebra that serves as the spokes-character for the brand. "Kids are excited about this promotion because not only are they helping the environment monetarily, but they have a visual to wear that signifies their support," said Cathy Snow, group promotion manager with the LifeSavers Company. Eleven promotional ideas for Fruit Stripe(R) were tested among kids ages 6 to 12. From them, the "Save the Environment" concept rose to the top as the "best liked" idea. "This promotion is a wonderful vehicle for inspiring the next generation of keepers of our natural world," said Ginette Hemley, WWF's director of international policy. Introduced in 1961, Fruit Stripe(R) is the only "flavor-striped" gum on the market and is a favorite among kids. Since the introduction of temporary tattoos in early 1995, retail sales of Fruit Stripe(R) were up 10 percent in the first half compared to a year ago as awareness and usage of the product have climbed to two-year highs among target consumers. WWF, a non-profit organization that works in more than 100 countries worldwide to preserve the abundance and diversity of life on earth, collaborated with the LifeSavers Company on the special endangered animal tattoos. The funds raised through the Fruit Stripe(R) promotion will go to save species in their natural habitats."
---"Fruit Stripe Gum Goes Wild For Endangered Animals," PR Newswire, March 12, 1996

How much did it cost?
[1967] "Fruit Stripe Beechnut Gum, 6-ct. pkg. 27 cents."---display ad, Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1967 (p. C6)
[1972] "Fruit Stripe Beech-Nut gum, 8-pack, 7 cents each."---display ad, Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1972, part VI (p. 7)
[1993] "Fruit Stripe Gum Jumbo Pack, 17 stuicks per pack, assorted flavors, 89 cents."---display ad, Washington Post, June 20, 1993 (p. O51D) [1996] "Each combination is available in 5-stick packs, 17-stick packs and variety multi-stick packs. Suggested retails are 25 cents, 79 cents and 99 cents, respectively. With each pack purchased, LifeSavers will donate 5 cents, up to $100,000, to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for the preservation of endangered animals and their habitats."---"Fruit Stripe Limited Edition Bubble Gum," Product Alert, February 12, 1996 (Vol. 26, NO. 3, ISSN: 070-3801]

Another iconic 1950s corporate kitchen recipe? California dip.

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.

What is chia?
"Chia, an American plant of the same genus as the common European herb sage, was grown for its seeds by the Aztecs in ancient Mexico, who used them as a cereal. The main species grown was Salvia columbariae, golden chia, the seeds of which were roasted and ground, to form a meal called pinole, then mixed with water so that the meal swelled into a glutinous mushy mess. This was eaten as a porridge or made into cakes. The name 'chia' is also applied to S. hispanica, Mexican chia, the uses of which are admirable summarized by Facciola (1990). 'When soaked in water, the seeds form a gelatinous mass which is flavored with fruit juices and consumed as a cooling drink. The shelled seeds can also be prepared as a gruel or pudding. Sprouted seeds are eaten in salads, sandwiches, soups, stews etc. Due to their mucilaginous properties, they are sprouted on clay or other porous materials, and clay animals or 'chia pets' are sold commercially for this purpose. The seeds are ground into meal and made into breads, biscuits, muffins and cakes."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2007 (p. 167)

"Chia--a species of sage that produces pods filled with tiny seeds, chia...long provided Native Americans of southwestern North America with a grain substitute. In addition, the Aztecs, farther south, used these seeds and those of a Mexican chia...to make a refreshing drink. The seeds are gathered much like grain and are then parched and ground into meal for baking flat breads and making porridges. Chia seeds were also often stored for future use."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume Two (p. 1752)

"The third tribute grain is chia (Salvia hispanica). Nowadays it is used to make a refreshing drink by mixing the small black seeds with water and then sweetening to taste. Every seed puts out a sort of mucilaginous coating, so that it resembles a very small frog's egg. This property of the seed is apparently an adaptation to growing in unstable soils, anchoring the seed until it has time to put down roots. The Aztec used the seeds to make some of the nourishing gruels that were part of their diet. Oil expressed from one kind of chia was supposed to be excellent for mixing with paint and using as a varnish, as well as protecting the legs and feet of hunters and fishermen who had to wade into the lake to make their living. As with all vegetable oil in the New World, one must always question how much of such use was pre-Columbian."
---America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe [University of Texas Press:Austin] 1994 (p. 90)

"Salvia columbariae...Chia..Southern and central California. The seeds are collected, roasted, ground by the Indians and used as a food by mixing with water and enough sugar to suit their taste. This mixture soon develops into a copious, mucilaginous mass several times the original bulk. The taste for it is soon acquired, and it is then found very palatable and nutritious."
---Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants, edited by U.P. Hedrick, Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the year 1919 II [J.B. Lyon Company:Albany NY] 1919 (p. 520)

"Salvia hispanica-Mexican chia. Wheb soaked in water, the seeds from a gelatinous mass which is flavored with lemon juice and cinnamon and consumed as a cooling drink known as agua de chia in Mexico. The gelled seeds can also be prepared as a gruel or pudding. Sprouted seeds and eaten in salads, sandwiches, soups, stews, etc. Due to their mucilaginous properties, they are sprouted on clay or other pourous materials, and clay animals, or chia pets, are sold commercially for this purpose. The seeds are ground into meal and made into breads, biscuits, muffins, and cakes. They also yield an oil recommended as a nutritional oil dute to its high content of lineleic and alpha-linolenic acids. Central America cultivated."
---Cornucolia II: A Source Book of Edible Plants, Stephen Facciola [Kampong Publicatons:Vista CA] 1998 (p. 134)

Superfood chia
In the 21st century Chia is one of several "rediscovered" commodities in the rebranded "superfood" category. Quinoa follows suit. Contemporary products are formulated to suit modern American tastes and priced to fit informed middle/upper class budgets. How to prepare? Some cookbooks suggest adding chia to sweetened lime juice, producing a thickened beverage with healthful properties. Others suggest sprinkling chia on standard recipes (salads, soups, entrees) to enhance nutritive properties. Recipes employing chia are found in some modern, but not traditional, Mexican/Latin American cookbooks. They are also published in current magazines, newspapers and online courtesy of product manufacturers, health food stores and vegan organizations.

How does the "Chia Pet" fit in?
According to the records of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Chia Pets were introduced to the American public by Joseph Enterprises, Inc. on September 8, 1977. The seeds/sprouts are edible tbut they are marketed for noveltly gift purposes:
"Word Mark CHIA PET Goods and Services IC 021. US 002 013 023 029 030 033 040 050. G & S: clay animals used as planters. FIRST USE: 19770908. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19770908 Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 75584901 Filing Date November 6, 1998 Current Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Published for Opposition October 12, 1999 Registration Number 2306061 Registration Date January 4, 2000 Owner (REGISTRANT) JOSEPH ENTERPRISES, INC. CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 425 California Street, Suite 300 San Francisco CALIFORNIA 94104 Attorney of Record Marc M. Gorelnik Prior Registrations 1605619;1763853;1823950;1859361;2076769;2090156 Disclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE "CHIA" APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN Type of Mark TRADEMARK Register PRINCIPAL Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20100116. Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 20100116 Live/Dead Indicator LIVE IC 021. US 002 013 023 029 030 033 040 050. G & S: clay animals used as planters. FIRST USE: 19770908. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19770908 (1) TYPED DRAWING 75584901 November 6, 1998 1A 1A October 12, 1999 2306061 January 4, 2000 (REGISTRANT) JOSEPH ENTERPRISES, INC. CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 425 California Street, Suite 300 San Francisco CALIFORNIA 94104 Marc M. Gorelnik 1605619;1763853;1823950; 1859361;2076769;2090156 NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE "CHIA" APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN TRADEMARK PRINCIPAL SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20100116. 1ST RENEWAL 20100116 LIVE"

How much did Chia Pets cost when they were first introduced?
"Chia Pet, reg. $6.99, 4.45."
---display ad, Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1977 (p. O37)

How did coconuts get to colonial America?
Excellent question! A survey of early American cookbooks confirms coconuts were available in whole, fresh form. Not tinned or pre-packaged. Most likely, they were shipped from the West Indies region. Food historians generally agree coconuts were not indigenous to the West Indies/Caribbean region. They introduced to this area after Columbus by European settlers. By the 19th century coconuts, were growing in this area and were shipped north to the United States. In the late 18th/early 19th centuries fresh fruits from tropical regions did not fare well on long journeys. This may account for the traditional popularity/proliferation of coconut in the Southern recipes. Pineapples follow a similar pattern.

"Columbus took vegetable seeds, wheat, chick-peas, and sugar cane to the Caribbean on his later voyages; Columbia's second governor introduced the first cows that had ever been seen there; settlers took bananas, rice and citrus fruits; yams and cowpeas crossed the Atlantic with the slaves. Coconuts were introduced to the Bahamas, breadfruit to the Caribbean, and coffee to Brazil."
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three River Press:New York] 1988 (p.220)

"Just when the coconut palm appeared on American shores is open to debate, but some accounts tell that on southern plantations coconut meat was used for making the holiday dessert, ambrosia."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 265)

"There are coconuts in Florida today, but there were none then [1519], and even those we have now are the result of an accident: the schooner Providence, carrying coconuts from the West Indies, was wrecked off the coast of Florida in 1879; the nuts floated ashore and took root. Though the Providence's coconuts came from the West Indies, it is almost certain that Columbus never saw any there. The Spaniards reported fully on new foods enountered in the Caribbean area and in Mexico, but none of them ever mentioned the coconut. There were coconuts in America before Columbus, for they are pictured in pre-Columbian pottery, but they were on the wrong side of America to be found by Columbus, on the coasts of Chile and Peru, suggesting that the coconut, a great floater, had drifted across from the Pacific Islands."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [William Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 44)

"By the 1850s ships from Florida were delivering fruits and vegetables there twice a month; and by the middle of the century pineapples and coconuts were arriving from Cuba, from other West Indian islands, and even from Central America."
---ibid (p. 154)

A BRIEF SURVEY OF EARLY AMERICAN COCONUT RECIPES

[1770]
"Cocoa Nut Puffs
Take a Cocoa Nut and dry it well before the fire, then grate it and add to it a good spoonfull of Butter, sugar to your tast, six Eggs with half the whites and 2 spoonfulls of rose water. Mix them all together and they muste be well beat before they are put in the Oven."
---The Receipt Book of Harriott Pickney Horry, 1770, editoed with an Introduction by Richard J. Hooker [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1984 (p. 71)

[1824]
"Cocoa-nut Cream,
Take the nut from its shell, pare it, and grate it very fine; mix it with a quart of cream, sweeten and freeze it. If the nut be a small one, it will require one and a half to flavour a quart of cream."
---The Virginia House-Wife, Mary Randolph [originally published in 1824] with Historical Notes and Commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1984 (p. 175)

[1828]
"Cocoa-Nut Pudding.
A quarter of a pound of cocoa-nut, grated.
A quarter of a pound powdered white sugar.
Three ounces and a half of fresh butter.
The whites only of six eggs.
Half a glass of wine and brandy mixed.
Half a tea-spoonful of rose-water.
Break up the cocoa-nut, and take the thin brown skin carefully off, with a knife. Wash all the pieces in cold water, and then wipe them dry, with a clean towel. Weigh a quarter of a pound of cocoa-nut, and grate it very fine, into a soup-plate. Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, and add the liquor and rose-water gradually to them. Beat the whites only of six eggs, till they stand alone on the rods; and then stir the beaten white of egg gradually into the butter and sugar. Afterwards sprinkle it, by degrees, the grated cocoanut, stirring hard all the time. Then stir all very well at the last. Have ready a puff-paste sufficient to cover the bottom, sides, and edges of a soup-plate. Put in the mixture, and bake it in a moderate oven, about half an hour. Grate loaf-sugar over it, when cool."
---Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, by a Lady of Philadelphia [aka Eliza Leslie], facsimile 1828 edition [Applewood Books:Chester CT] (p. 17-18)

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.)

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.'

"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

Hominy, grits, sofki & cornmeal mush

What's the difference between hominy & grits?
"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) "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)

The Southern USA connection
"When dried hominy is ground more finely than cracked hominy by not as fine as masa harina, the result is grits, also known as hominy grits. The word has been used since colonial times and probably comes from the Old English, grytt, meaning bran, or greot, meaning ground. Grits are also called grist or pearly hominy in some older cookbooks, probalby becasue they were ground at what was known as a grist mill. Up until the early twentieth century, grits were purchased in bulk and could be procured in fine, medium, or coarse grind. These early grits had to be washed in several changes of water, soaked over nigvht or for several hours, then boiled in a much shorter time. Regular grits cook in about thirty minutes. More finely ground grits, so-called 'quick grits,' are ready in about five minutes. Instant grits are ready to eat as soon as they are stirred with boiling water. Like cornmeal, the best-tasting grits--whether white or yellow--are stone-ground because the germ is in tact. Grits are still daily fare for much of the South (they were on the breakfast table every day of my childhood) and remain one of the region's most characteristic foods. Grits are usually swerved as a breakfast side dis, often with a pool of red-eye gravy in the center. In South Carolina and Georgia, grits are oftn served for supper to accompany shrimp. Like hominy, grist left over from breakfast were often added to a batter and baked on a griddle. IN The Virginia Housewife (1824), there is a Johnny cake recipe calling for 'small hominy' (grits) as well as one for 'an excellent and cheap pudding.' This so-called pudding is actually a griddle cake of cooked grits, cornmeal, eggs, milk and butter. They were baked on a hot griddle and eaten with butter and molasses."
---Around the Southern Table, Sarah Belk [Galahad Books:New York] 1991(p. 263)

"In addition to the use of corn a meal, southerners converted it into hominy and grits. Bthe were made form corn but the grains went through a soaking process which removed the husk (not the shuck) from the grain. Hominiy consisted of whole grain corn boiled and eaten as a vegetable. When hominy grans were dried, ground into a coarse meal, and boled, the dish was called grits. The preparaiton of grits varied depending upon personal preference, both hominy and grits were subjected to further refinement by immersion in hot grease and fried. Contrary to popular opinion, neither grits nor hominy ever came close to being universally used in the area prior to the Civil War. Both were common but, compared to the other uses to which corn was put, they were certainly subordinate. IN the twentieth century grits has come to be a common complementary dish to ham, sausage, or bacon and eggs for breakfast, but there is a little evidence that grits were used nearly as much as corn bread during the antebellum period."
---Hog Meat and Hoecake: Food Supply in the Old South 1840-1860, Sam Bowers Hilliard [Southern Illinois University Press: Carbondale IL] 1972 (p. 50-51)

[1824]
"An Excellent and Cheap Pudding
Wash a pint of small homony very clean, and boil it tender, add an equal quantity of corn meal, make it into a batter with eggs, milk, and a piece of butter; bake it like batter cakes on a griddle, and eat it with butter and molasses." (p. 153)

"Batter Cakes
Boil two cups of small hominy very soft, add an equal quantity of corn meal with a little salt, and a large spoonful of butter; make it in a thin batter with three eggs, and a sufficient quantity of milk, beat all together some time, and bake them on a griddle or in waffle irons. When eggs cannot be corpcured, yeast makes a good substitute; put a spoonful in the batter, and let it stand an hour to rise."(p. 171)
---The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph, facsimile 1824 edition with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1984

[1847]
"Grits Bread
Beat up the yolk of only one egg, with a large breakfast cup of cold hommony, mashed up with a spoonful of butter, and a little light salt, to which add a pint of fine, washed, raw grits, well drained from the water. Make it into a loaf, and bake about half an hour."
---The Carolina Housewife, Sarah Rutledge, facsimile 1847 edition introduced by Anna Wells Rutledge [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1979 (p. 22)

[1930]
"Fine Hominy.
Called fine hominy because it is in small grains. Soak over night and boil in plenty of water. It has to be stirred constantly to prevent burning, Add salt while cooking--it should be done in about an hour and a half. Drain off some of the water when it is almost done if the hominy is too thin. It should be thick enough not to run on the plate when served as a vegetable. It is delicious with pork cooked in any way with sausage, for dinner or for breakfast."
---Old Southern Receipts, Mary D. Pretlow [Rovert M. McBride & Company:New York] 1930 (p. 39)
[NOTE: This book also offers recipes for Hominy with Cheese (p. 38-39), Hominy Corn Bread (p. 89), and Hominy Egg Bread (p. 90).]

[1941]
"Hominy
1 cup of hominy (grits)
4 cups of boiling water
2 teaspoons of salt
Pour the hominy into the boiling water and stir until it comes to a good boil. Lower the fire or pull to a slow boiling point on range. Cover and boil slowly for one hour, stir frequently. When ready to serve, put a small lump of butter into the hominy and beat well for several minutes. The beating whitens and makes the hominy much lighter. Half a cup of hot milk or thin cream in place of butter can be used. An asbestos mat is a good thing to place under the hominy pot to prevent burning. To grease the pot with a small pioece of lard or cooking oil will prevent scorching or sticking. Hominy to be the best must be stirred often while cooking."
---Southern Cooking, Mrs. S.R. Dull [Grosset & Dunlap:New York] 1928, 1941 (p. 296)
[NOTE: This book offers additional recipes: To Fry Hominy, Baked Hominy & Lye Hominy (p. 296)& two recipes for making Lye Hominy (p. 99).]

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.]

Cornmeal mush
This simple concoction of corn (aka Indian) meal and water is is a smoother verion of hominy & grits and aimpler version of Hasty Pudding.

[1845]
"238. Indian Gruel.
One quart of boiling water thickened with three tablespoonfuls of Indian meal, one tea-spoonful of salt; boil it and skim it till it is clear; add a little loaf sugar and nutmeg."
---New England Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book, Mrs. E. A. Howland [E.P. Walton and Sons:Montpelier VT] 1845 (p. 63)

[1899]
"Cornmeal mush
Have a kettle of fresh boiling water. Sift one cup of meal into a sauce pan, add 1 teaspoonful of salt, and cold water enough to moisten. Pour in a little hot water, stir till smooth, set on the stove and pour in about a quart of boiling water. Stir constantly till it boils, then cover and set back where it will cook moderately until well done. If necessary, pour in a little more boiling water. Don't scorch. Serve with milk or butter."
---The Capitol Cook Book, facsimile 1899 Austin TX edition [State House Press:Austin TX] 1995 (p. 7)

[1918]
"Cornmeal Mush
Mix together one cup of cornmeal and one teaspoon of salt, and add one cup cold water gradually, stirring until smooth. Pour this mixture into two cups of boiling water in a double boiler and cook from three to five hours. Serve hot with cream and sugar." ---Jewish Cook Book, Florence Kreisler Greenbaum [Block Publishing Co.:New York] 1919, 1931 ninth printing (p. 188)

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')?
Fat: animal (lard, butter) vegetable & fruit (corn, cottononseed, coconut), compound (margarine).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.

"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)

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]

Related food? Corn chowder. 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)

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 and Cornmeal Mush are related foods.

"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 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.]

[1824]
"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 historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University Of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 100)

[1845]
"Semoulina and Polenta a L'Italienne. (Good.)
To serve instead of Maccaroni.
Throw into a quart of milk, when it is fast boiling, half a teaspoonful of salt, and then shake lightly into it five ounces of the best semoulina; stir the milk as this is added, and continue to do so from eight to ten minutes, letting the mixture boil gently during this time. It should be very thick, and great care must be take to prevent its sticking to the saucepan, which should be placed over a clear fire on a bar or trivet, but not upon the coals. Pour the semoulina, when it is done, into a basin, or a plain mould which it will not fill by an inch or two, and let it remain some hours in a cool place, that it may become perfectly cold; it will then turn out quirte solid, and like a pudding in appearance. Cut it with a large, sharp, carving-knife, or a bit of thin wire, into half-inch slices; wash the basin into which it was poured at first, and butter it well; grate from six to eight ounces of good cheese (Parmesan, or any other), and mix with it a half-teaspoonful of cayenne, and twice as much pounded mace; clairy from two to three ounces of fresh butter, and put a small quantity into the basin, strew in a little of the cheese, moisten it with some drops of butter, and plce the second slice upon it; then more cheese and butter, and continue this until all the semoulina is replaced with the basin; put plenty of cheese upon the top, add the remainder of the clarified butter, and bake the mixture for about half an hour in a gentle oven. It should be of a fine golden colour when served. Turn it carefully into a dish, and send it instantly to table. A little rich brown gravy poured round might, to some tastes, improve it, but it is excellent without, and may be substituted for maccaroni, which it much resembles in flavour. It may be enriched by addding butter to the milk or by mixing with it a portion of creamn; and it may be browned in a Dutch oven, when no other is in use. In Italy the flour of Indian corn, which is much grown there, and eaten by all ranks of people, is used for this dish; but semoulina is perhaps rather better suited to English taste and habits of diet, from being somewhat lighter and more delicate. The maize-flour imported from Italy is sold at the foreign warehouses here under the name of polenta, though that properly speaking is, we believe, a boiled or stewed preparation of it, which forms the most common food of the poorer classes of the inhabitants of many of the Italian states. It seems to us superior in quality to the Indian corn flour grown in America.
New Milk (or milk mixed with cream), 1 quart; salt, 1/2 teaspoonful; semoulina, 5 oz.: 10 minutes. Grated Cheese, 6 to 8 oz. cayenne, 1/2 teaspoonful; mace, 1 small teaspoonful; butter, 2 to 3 oz. baked 1/2 hour, gentle oven. Obs.--A plain mould can be used instead of a basin."
---Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton, facsimile 1845 edition with an Introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1993 (p. 332-333)

[1891]
"233. Pasticcio di Polenta (Polenta Casserole)
Prepare a firm polenta of cornmeal cooked in milk. Salt as you are about to remove it from the fire and pour out on a pasty board, leveling it to the thickness of about two fingers. Once cooled, cut into losenge shapes 1/2 a cenitimeter wide (about 1/5 of an inch), while you will arrange as follows in a preheated metal or porcelain baking dish. Prepare a sauce like that for macaroni Bolognese style in recipe 87, and prepare a little bechamel as in recipe 137. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on the bottom of the platter and spread a layer of polenta on top of the cheese. Add more Parmesan, some sauce and bechamel; place a second layer of polenta on top of the first and season as before; repeat the operation until you run out of ingredients. It is not a bad idea to add small pats of butter here and there. However, do not put too much if you do not want the dish to turn out too heavy from too many condiments. Once you have prepared the platter as I have described, put it in a Dutch oven until the polenta browns and serve hot as an entremets for a full-coruse autumn or winter meal. Provided it turns out well, this dish will be praised for its delicate flavor. During the hunting season, a skillful chef may cook it in a mold, stuffing it with stewed birds."
---Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, Pellegrino Artusi, 1891 edition translated by Murtha Baca and Stephen Saratelli [Marsilio Publishers:New York] 1997 (p. 185-186) [NOTE: This book also offers recipes for Frittele di polenta alla lodigniana (Polenta Fritters) and Sgonfiotto di farina gialla (Polenta Souffle).]

[1912]
"Polenta (Indian Meal)
3/4 of a cup of yellow
3 cups of water
"Polenta 'alla Toscana'
2 cups of Indian Meal
3 pints of cold water
Put the water on, and when it boils add salt. Then add the Indian meal, little by little, stiring all the time. Allow it to boil over a moderate fire for one-half hour, stirring constatnly. When the meal has become quite stiff, take a wooden spoon and dip it into hot water, and with it detach the Indian meal from the side of the saucepan, then hold the saucepan for a moment over the hottest part of the fire, until the Indian meal has become detached from the bottom. Then turn it out onto the bread-board; it should come out whole in the mold. Let it stand a few moments to cool. Then with a wire cut it into slices about the thickness of a finger. Place these slices on a hot platter in a layer; pour over them a good meat gravy and grated cheese; then put on another layer of the polenta, and add more gravy and cheese, and so on, until your polenta is used up."
---Simple Italian Cookery, Antonia Isola [Harper & Brothers:New York] 1912 (p. 23)
[NOTE: This book also offers recipes for Polenta Fritters, Polenta with Chopped Sausages, Chicken with Polenta, Polenta Pasticciata (with milk and meat sauce) and Polenta Cake (Migliaccio di Farina Gialla)]

[1919]
Polenta
"Place one cup of yellow cornmeal and three cups of cold water in a double boiler, add one teaspoon of salt, one-half teaspoon of pepper and cook for forty minutes. While still hot add one and one-half cups of grated cheese to the mixture and heat until it melts. Turn the mixture into a greaased bowl and allow it to set. The meal may be sliced an inch thick or cut with a biscuti cutter and then fried in hot vegetable oil. Serve with white or tomato sauce if desired."
---Jewish Cook Book, Florence Kreisler Greenbaum [Block Publishing Co.:New York] 1919, 1931 ninth printing (p. 189)

[1926]
"Italian Polenta
1 cup coarse cornmeal or fine hominy
6 ounces grated cheese
1 ounce butter
1 teaspoon salt
Cook the cornmeal in boiling salted water in a double boiler for two hours. Just before serving add the butter and the cheese. Serve with tomato or mushroom sauce. Or bake in the oven with the sauce poured over the top."
---Physical Culture Cook Book, Bernarr MacFadden [Macfadden Publications:New York] 1926 (p. 219)
[NOTE: Mr. MacFadden was an advocate of healthy eating for improving mind and body.]

[1935]
"Polenta (Yellow maize flour)
Extensive use is made in Italy of this yellow maize flour which, when cooked, is not only served as a separate dish but also accompanies various dishes of meat and fish. In certain parts of Italy polenta is eaten instead of bread. Ingredients: 1/4 lb. of fine Italian yellow maize flour, 2 or 3 tablespoons of butter, 1 1/3 cups of grated Parmesan cheese, a little over 2 cups of water, salt, and pepper.Method: Put the water in a saucepan, add a good pinch of salt and, when boiling, stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Stir till it thickens, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring constantly so that it is perfectly smooth. When done, add the butter and grated cheese, season with salt and pepper, mixing thoroughly, and serve very hot."
---Recipes of All Nations, compiled and edited by Countess Morphy [Wm. H. Wise & Company:New York] 1935 (p. 138-139) [NOTE: This book also offers recipes for Polenta e Esei (Bergamo, Polenta with small birds), Polenta al Forno (venezia Tridentina, Baked Polenta) and Sardinian style Polenta (adding garlic, onion, tomato, parsley, & sweet basil p. 780).]

[1945]
"Polenta of Yellow Flour and Sausages
Prepare a rather soft polenta of corn flour, spread it on a board, in a thickness of 1/2 inch, and cut it into almond-like pieces. Set a pot containing a few pieces of sausage and a little water on the fire; allow the sausage to stew well and remove the skin. Cut the sausage into small bits and add either tomato sauce or tomato paste. Place the polenta pieces in layers into a pie dish. On each layer spread some Parmesan cheese, sausage, and here and there a piece of butter. Place the polenta in the oven, let it heat and serve it while hot. This is an appropriate dish for lunch."
---Italian Cook Book: Adopted from the Italian of Pellegrino Artusi, Olga Ragusa [S.F. Vanni:New York] 1945 (p 95)
[NOTE: This book also offers are cipe for Seasoned Polenta(Pasticciata).]

"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 adhering, 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.

What was a "Paper of cornstarch?"
Miss Leslie tells us to use a "half-pound" paper of cornstarch to make blancmange c. 1851. What was "a paper of cornstarch" and how big (volume) was it in 19th century USA? Miss Leslie and her contemporaries assume her readers are familiar with this product. Competing commercial starches (sago, custard powder) were sold in air-tight tins and measured by spoons/cups or weight. Miss Leslie's description leads us to believe the "paper" might have referred to the finished product, not a container. We also find "paper of isinglass" and "sheets of gelatine." Curiously? The phrase "paper of cornstarch" is generally published in cook books containing other cornstarch recipes employing standard kitchen measures (cups, teaspoons, etc.).

Miss Leslie's reference here:
"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.

The argument for "paper" as a food container container cannot be summarily dismissed. Civil-war era diaries often mention "papers" of food items. "Curtis Burke's Civil War Journal," edited by Pamela J. Bennett, contributed by Richard A. Misselhorn, Indiana Magazine of History, December 1970, mentions "paper of corn starch," "paper of dried cherries," (p. 344), "paper of ten [tea?]," "paper of white sugar," and "paper of prunes." (p. 343).

One of our readers (Aryn Long) deduced: "From the above bit of information, we learn that a paper of cornstarch was a half-pound. The conversion factor that we need to know is how much cornstarch weighs and we know from doing a little research that a half a pound of cornstarch is 1 1/2 cups cornstarch (.05 lb= 1.5 cups). I guess that means that a paper of cornstarch was 1.5 cups of cornstarch." This assumes cornstarch has a constant weight through time. Leslie's description also leaves room that there might have been different sizes of "paper."

Because cooking depends upon chemistry and ratios, comparing proportions in similar recipes may also provide clues:

[1857]
"Corn Starch Pudding
Corn starch makes an excellent pudding. Boil the milk in a pan, over a kettle of boiling water. For each quart of milk take six tablespoons full of starch, rubbed smooth in a little milk and three well beaten eggs. Pour them into the boiling milk, adding a little salt, and stir constantly for three minutes, and then turn it out for the table, or mould it in teacups, to be eaten cold. Sweetened cream with nutmeg is the best sauce."
---Practical American Cookery and Domestic Economy, Elizabeth M. Hall [Miller, Orton & Co.:New York] 1857 (p. 178)

Historic American references to "a paper of cornstarch:"

[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.

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 from the saucepan, place them on a dish, cover with two gills of cream sauce mixed with two tablespoonfuls of the broth the onions were cooked 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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Research conducted by Lynne Olver, editor The Food Timeline. About this site.