ARE POLITICS IN YOUR PANCAKES?

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• What’s your fancy – brownie points, an old camera, or ugly mythical creatures that love to clean house at night? They’re all brownies but not the yummy chocolate treat we love today. Americans chow down 1.4 billion edible brownies a year in different flavors, shapes, and sizes. Where did it begin? In the case of brownies no one knows for sure. Fortunately, fiction is often more fun than fact. Which brings us to the question – were brownies a mistake, an accident, or a special treat for wealthy, turn-of-the-nineteenth-century ladies? Let’s start with a mistake and an accident. Chocolate was very popular in the nineteenth century. Many people believe that an absent-minded chef was mixing batter for a cake and mistakenly left out the flour. Oops. Others say a housewife was out of baking powder and accidently ended up with “flattened cakes” that her guests loved. In both cases, the results were delicious, unplanned fudgy confections. The most popular story comes from celebrated socialite Bertha Palmer (see below). Bertha was married to Potter Palmer, a business tycoon who, on their wedding day, gave her the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago (now a Hilton Hotel). Nice gift. In 1893 Bertha wanted to do something special for
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• “Traditional” potato salad probably goes back to the 1700s. Frederick the Great of Germany, ordered that potatoes should be cultivated. The wheat crop had failed and he needed to feed his army. It wasn’t long before kartoffel (potatoes) became kartoffelsalat (potato salad). The salad was made by boiling potatoes in wine or a mixture of vinegar and spices and served warm. Sometimes they added bacon and sugar. German immigrants brought the recipe to the New World, and the American, Amish, and other regional potato salads were born. The recipe was also adapted by French, Greek, Polish, Israeli, and Austrian cooks. Eventually Japan, Korea, Vietnam, China and others created their own versions. Today potato salad is an American icon. There are countless variations related to community, history, family, and location. Culinary historian and author, Michael Twitty, noted that “like a child raised to believe that my church is the only true one, I have had to suspend the idea that I or my culture owns the sole, true potato salad.” There are so many recipes that it fills hundreds of cookbooks, websites, and family ¬recipe boxes. There’s Amish style, drizzled sweet creamy dressing over potatoes, celery, boiled eggs, onion, and sweet pickle relish How about soul food where Rosalind Cummings-Yeates in The Takeout explained that southern cooks prefered mayonnaise and sweet relish while northerners prefered dill and sour cream. Dr. Jon Paul Higgins declared in The Kitchen that his mother’s potato salad was the best, calling it “pure black joy.” Mama used mustard, relish, Lawry’s seasoning salt, and mayonnaise. Doesn’t sound very fancy. That’s all before your grandma’s recipe is added to the mix – along with celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, Martha Stewart, and Pioneer Woman’s “perfect potato salad.” Then there are the infamous potato salads – the ones that get attention for things other than their recipes. Guinness World Records awarded the largest serving of potato salad to Spilva Ltd, Latvia. It used over 1,102 pounds of mayonnaise, 2,072 pounds of boiled potatoes, 749 pounds of sausage, 6,000 pounds of boiled eggs, 440 pounds of canned peas, 310 pickled cucumbers, and 33 pounds of salt. That’s quite a mouthful. Not to be outdone, Ohio native Zach “Danger” Brown tried to raise $10 on Kickstarter to make his potato salad. He got $5,500 instead. He used the extra money to throw a party called “Potato Stock” where hundreds of pounds of potatoes were served. Don’t forget Mr. Potato Head or gag books like Always Be Yourself Unless You Can
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