| Date |
Event |
Source |
| c450B.C. |
Pythagoras describes the fava bean, Vicia fava, the only
bean known in pre-Columbian Euroe (although they had chick-peas,
lentils, andpeas of all kinds), as unwholesome. Whether Pythagoras
had favism in mind or was merely referring to the general tendency
of beans to cause flatulence, we can only speculate. |
|
| c. 100A.D |
The four most priminent families in Rome bear the names of famous
legumes: Fabius (fava bean), Lentulus (lentil), Pisa (pea), and
Cicero (chickpea). |
|
| 1070: |
Roquefort cheese first made in France . (Some historians put the
date 200 years earlier and say that Roman emperor Charlemagne was
a fan) |
|
| 1493 |
Christopher Columbus finds papayas, tomatoes and pineapples,
cultivated for centuries from Paraguay to Panama in the West Indies.
|
|
| 1522 |
New World tomatoes make their way to the Italian table via the
Spanish, who rule Naples. |
|
| 1493 |
Columbus returns to Spain from New World bring the seeds of Phaseolus
vulgaris - the bean as we know it. |
|
| 1519 |
One of explorer Hernando Cortes' men reports that Aztec ruler
Montezuma drinks 50 cups of cocoa a day, and that it is believed
to be an aphrodisiac. |
|
| |
|
|
| 1532 |
A Franciscan friar writes the first full description of vanilla
in New Spain. The bean is the pod of an orchid and has been mixed
into cacao by the Aztecs. |
|
| c. 1600 |
Phaseolus beans reach Languedoc, in France, and cassoulet
is born. |
|
| 1607 |
Capt. John Smith of Jamestown VA, writes that there is such an
"abundance of fish, lying so thicke with their heads above the water,
as for want of nets... we attempted to catch them with frying pans."
American Salmon, much large than the European variety, swim up 30
North American rivers. |
|
| 1611 |
The English lexicographer, Randle Cotgrave, defines "Faseols"
as "Fasels, long Persons, Kidney Beanes, Sperage Beanes, French
Beanes, Romane Beanes, Garden Smilas" but now we know they all taste
the same. |
|
| 1662 |
Popcorn has been indicated by Andrew Smith to make its way up
from Mexico and Central America slowly. It is mentioned in a report
to London's Royal Society in 1662. It caught the eye of Benjamin
Franklin, a man always interested in the inner workings of things,
who in 1785 described popcorn this way: "Each Grain bursts and thows
out a white substance of twice its bigness." Smith, Andrew. Popped
Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America. (University of
South Carolina Press, $24.95). |
|
| 1698 |
A Benedictine cellar master, Dom Pierre Perignon, fine-tunes the
champagne-making process by corking the sparkling wine in heavy
bottles to allow for a second fermentation. The winched-in corks
allow for the manufacture of the bubbles that give champagne its
effervescence. |
|
| 1756 |
One account credits Duc de Richelieu with inventing mayonnasie
by combining two egg yolks with 200 grams of olive oil, the juice
of half a lemon and a bit of salt and pepper. |
|
| 1775 |
Diderot's Encyclopedie recommends the nourishing qualities of
the dried beans "to those who have a good stomach, and who are young
and robust, or who exercise heartily, but persons who are delicate...should
abstain from them, for they are windy, heavy on the stomach, and
hard to digest." |
|
| 1792 |
Culinary scholars trace America's first printed ice-cream recipe
to a 1792 Philadelphia cookbook. Advertisements touted the desserts
as early as 1800. A Philadelphia cookbook of 1851` celebrated the
city's obsession by publishing a record 34 ice-cream recipes. |
|
| 1886 |
In 1886, Mrs. Rorer's Philadelphia Cook Book got right
to the point:" " To make good Philadelphia ice cream, use only the
best materials. Avoid gelatine, arrowroot, or any other thickening
substance. Good, pure cream, ripe fruit, or the best canned in winter,
and granulated sugar, make a perfect ice cream." She then describes
16 recipes, all based on the no-custard method. Themost intriguing
begins with directions to wash a quart of spinach, "boil rapidly
three minutes and drain...pound rapidly three minutes and drain...pound
until reduced to a pulp." The result spinach juice is used to color
pistachio ice cream. ("If no spinach is at hand, clover, or lawn
grass may be used.")0 |
|
| 1891 |
Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book suggests that baked beans "afford
a nutritious and cheap food for people who labor in the open air. |
|
| |
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| |
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|
| 1900 |
Milton Hershey sells off his caramel candy business for a million
dollars and gets into chocolate. The Hershey chocolate bar is started.
|
1 |
| 1902 |
Animal Crackers are created. |
1 |
| 1902 |
The Fannie Farmer cooking school is established in Boston |
1 |
| 1903 |
James Beard is born in Portland |
1 |
| 1904 |
At the St. Louis World's Fair, the ice cream cone is created.
At the St. Louis World's Fair Quaker Oats Company shoots rice out
of Spanish Civil War cannons to promote its new "puffed rice" cereal.
Canned tuna became available
The first "tea bag" is marketed by Thomas Sullivan of New York City.
|
1 |
| 1907 |
The Oregon Agricultural College in Corvallis hired Dr. Margaret
Comstock Snell to be dean and sole professor of the School of Domestic
Science and Art
Pure Food and Drug Act is passed.
Hershey Kiss is born |
1 |
| 1910 |
Gas ranges find their way into the kitchen, slowly replacing coal,
wood, and petroleum stoves. |
1 |
| 1912 |
Julia Carolyn McWilliams Child is born in Pasadena CA
Nabisco introduces the Orego Cookie
Life Savers hit the stores
Morton develops a convenient form of table salt that's granulate
and free-flowing.
The "Whitman Sampler" box of chocolate appears. |
1 |
| 1913 |
The Standard Electric range, with its insulated warming pot and
an oven unit on top, is tempting home cooks, even though it has
only two burners.
Vitamin A is discovered by Dr. Elmer McCollum and his lab assistant,
Marguerite Davis.
Campbell's introduces cream of celery soup. |
1 |
| 1912 |
German-American delicatessen owner Richard Hellman begins packing
his mayonnaise into glass jars. By 1927, he has manufacturing plants
in Chicago; San Francisco; Atlanta; Tampa, Fla; and Dallas. |
|
| 1915 |
Frigidaire's self-contained electric and gas refrigerators have
been out for several years, but the tried-and-true iceboxes last
for another decade.
New York City deli-owner Richard Hellmann begins mass-marketing
his popular mayonnaise.
Corning introduces Pyrex baking dishes. |
1 |
| 1916 |
The first self-service market is opened by Clarence Saunders on
Jefferson Avenue in Memphis, Tenn.
Items for sale are pre-packaged, labeled, and priced, which is in
complete contrast to the existing service where most goods are sold
in bulk, priced according to weight or quantity and delivered. |
1 |
| 1917 |
New York Chef Louis Diat creates a startling new soup, vichyssoise,
at |
1 |
| 1930 |
Twinkies are created and sell two for a nickel. |
|
| 1940 |
J.I. Roale uses the term "organic" for the first time in a magazine
called Fact Digest. |
|
| 1940s |
World War II creates a banana shortage. Consequently the classic
banana-cream filling in twinkies is replaced with vanilla cream. |
|
| 1941 |
Lewis Browning, a mailman in Shelbyville, Ind., begins treating
himself to a Twinkie a day. By 1997 the Twinkie King had consumed
20,440 Twinkies. |
|
| c 1943 |
Beans are a staple in C-rations for U.S. troops in World War II(as
they have been for armies for centuries). Our army floated waterproof
bags of beans from ships to solidiers on beachheads. |
|
| 1950 |
Brown'n Serve produts introduced under technology donated by
General Mills. |
|
| 1952 |
Ray Kroc establishes McDonald's franchise. |
|
| 1953 |
Pizza gains popularity. |
|
| 1956 |
Congress authorizes 'soil bank' plan |
|
| 1957 |
First meat analogs from soy protein isolate. |
|
| 1958 |
congress provides for GRAS food additive review. |
|
| 1959 |
Bakers promote continuous mix bread. |
|
| 1959 |
The FDA sizes a fraction of the cranberry crop because of pesticide.
Although only a miuscule amount of contamination was found, consumers
avoided cranberries that Thanksgivvings. |
|
| 1966 |
Poppin' Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy, introduced. |
|
| 1980 |
Twinkies turn 50. Continental Baking celebrates with a 10-foot-long
Twinkie that weighs more than a ton and is the equivalent of 32,300
regular Twinkies. It takes five days and 100 hours to bake. |
|
| 1999 |
The Twinkie is chosen to be included in the nation's millennium
time capsule, representing "an object of enduring American symbolism." |
|
| 1999- 2000 |
On April 6, Hostess throws a birthday part at Chicago's Museum
of Science and Industry, and the world's tallest birthday cake is
constructed. |
|
| 2000 |
"Pinto Beans" appear in the NYTimes crossword pubble (Clue: "A
food Columbus introduced to Europe"), the very same week that the
Dreaded Broccoli tasting panel fails to distinguish one bean from
another. |
|
| |
|
|
1 Roberts-Dominguez, J. 1999March 12. Farewell to the 20th Century. Albany
(OR) Democrat-Herald. Corvallis (OR) Gazette-Times, p. 33.
Cato the Censory published the first pie recipe in Rome, according
to John Lendorff of the American Pie Council. It consisted of goat cheese,
honey and a rye crust.
The word pie originates from the magpie bird, known for its multi-colored
feathers and messy nest.
The average American will eat about one pound, or six to seven good-sized
pieces of commercially prepared pie, this year.
English trandition credits Queen Elizabeth I with making the first
cherry pie.