Whaddya Think, Doctor Fink

  They started out as scraps for cattle. Now 70 million pounds of tater tots are eaten every year by people. How did that happen? Let’s go back to mid twentieth century. Times were rough – the Great Depression had been followed by World War Two. There were shortages, rations, and struggles to make ends meet. Mormon brothers Nephi and Golden Grigg grew up during those tough times. They survived by growing potatoes and corn on their Idaho farms – like most of their neighbors. The brothers lived by the proverb, waste not, want not. By 1951 things changed. Prosperity returned. Frozen produce was in demand. Americans bought 800 million pounds of frozen foods in 1945-6 alone. The Grigg brothers wanted in. French fries ruled

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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

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What’s a hushpuppy? It’s not my noisy dog but a simple, deep-fried cornbread “cake” iconic in southern-style cooking. The name is almost as good as the food. According to author and editor Jorie Nicole McDonald, when it comes to hushpuppies “It’s all about fried food and a good story.” There are so many good stories that it’s nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction. Which only proves that this crispy cornbread fritter has delighted our taste buds and imaginations for a very long time. Let’s begin with Red Horse Bread. Would you eat that? There’s no red or horse in the bread – only Romeo Govan. Romeo Govan was a slave freed after the Civil War. He set up house on a small plot of

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  Welcome to potato chips. Brits call them crisps, Israelis munch on tapuchips, and Indonesians crunch keripik. Whatever name you use, potato chips are one of the most popular and adaptable snack foods in the world. The global market is worth over forty billion dollars! Where did it begin? In 1812, Charles Dickens wrote about “husky chips of potato” in A Tale of Two Cities. The first printed recipe was in Dr. William Kitchiner’s 1817 bestselling British cookbook, The Cook’s Oracle. According to Wikipedia, Kitchiner described “potatoes fried in slices and shavings . . . using lard or dripping.” On the other side of the pond there were the Specks. George “Crum” Speck was born in 1824, the son of an African American father and

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That is the question. After all, who wouldn’t want to take credit for 197 million birds eaten each day around the world? Fried chicken is everywhere. From popular restaurants, fast food, frozen, and homemade, it’s a global favorite. There are drumsticks, tenders, breasts, nuggets, sandwiches, and just about anything a creative chef can invent. Check out U.S. National Fried Chicken Day (July) or indulge in fried chicken like yangnyeom (Korea), karaage (Japan), pollo frito (Italy), and yassa (Senegal). The art of frying anything originated in ancient times. Many historians believe it goes back 4500 years when farmers and herders took over the lands of hunter-gatherers. Some argue that deep frying came from what is today modern Israel. Others maintain it originated in Egypt as a

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  In Cantonese (China) they’re called cloud swallows because they float like tiny clouds in soup. Sichuan cuisine calls them folded arms. In Mandarin they’re huntun. In English they’re wontons. What’s a wonton? It’s simple. Take thin dough, add filling, and fold them in a variety of styles. Cook or steam in broth, deep fry in oil, or bake. There are fried wontons, crab Rangoon (fried wontons filled with cream cheese and crab), wonton skin pizza, and strawberry Nutella wontons. The variations are as diverse as a chef’s creativity. If you ever wondered about those golden, crispy “noodles” served free at most Chinese restaurants – they’re usually deep-fried wonton skins. Wontons have a long and colorful history. Their greatest feature is the flexibility to adapt

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Food historians believe it dates back 8,700 years. A few years ago, Joey Chestnut, the champion of food eating contests, swallowed 32 servings of this snack in 8 minutes. A recent survey found that 92% of Americans can’t get enough of it, munching 17 billion quarts a year. Author Lexi Jacobs reports that it would fill the Empire State Building eighteen times. Have you figured it yet? It originally came from teosinte, a large wild grass native to Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. According to Science Daily, archeologists Anthony Ranere and Dolores Piperno found “rock shelters or caves where people lived thousands of years ago.” They discovered that forests had been cleared to make room for crops. Similar “ears” were found at the Bat Caves in

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In America we call it the humble grilled cheese sandwich. Bread has been a staple for a very long time – as far back as 8000 BC (over ten thousand years ago). Cheese is “newer” – dating back to 7200 BC or over nine thousand years. Bread making probably began when humans shifted from nomads to farmers. The oldest bread remains were found by Amaia Arranz-Otaegui, in an archeological site where she was collecting dinner remains from hunter-gatherers in Jordan. They were 14,000 years old! Making cheese was probably an accident that predates recorded history. Food historians believe it began by storing milk in the bladders of hoofed animals where rennet enzymes were plentiful. No one knows for sure, although it’s believed that both Greeks

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  Every year three billion fortune cookies are made. The largest, according to Guinness World Records, weighed over three pounds. The average sits in the palm of your hand. Whether dining at a fancy restaurant or munching from white-and-red takeout cartons, fortune cookies are the beloved “dessert” after a Chinese dinner. Chinese? Brace yourself. While Chinese fortune cookies have many different stories, one fact remains uncontested. Chinese fortune cookies are Japanese. Riddles, April fools’ jokes, and fake news aside, people who live in China don’t even eat fortune cookies. Years ago, the largest producer of fortune cookies, Wonton Foods, tried to introduce the cookies in China. Diners kept eating the fortunes. Eventually, Wonton Foods gave up. It began centuries ago in Kyoto, Japan. Their fortune

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Say what? In 1897 dentist William Morrison wanted to boost his income. He joined forces with candy maker John Wharton to invent a machine that made what was originally called spun sugar. Spun sugar had been around since the fifteenth century. Chefs melted sugar and used a fork to flick strands over a broom stick. It took a lot of time. Sugar was expensive – too costly for the masses. According to Harry Sherrin in HistoryHit, “spun sugar was by no means a popular treat.” Henry III of France was “no doubt well aware of this” when he went to Venice and was served “a platter of more than one thousand different items of spun sugar.” Centuries later, Tennessee partners Dr. Morrison and Wharton designed a

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