Hamburgers make up a big part of the fast food industry, and so they make up a big part of American dining in general, but it wasn’t always so. If you go back to the early twentieth century Americans had … Continue reading →

This story takes place in Indiana back in 1818, at a time when Indiana was just being settled by non-Native Americans. Late that year, husband and wife Thomas and Betsy Sparrow became sick with a relatively new disease that was … Continue reading →

At a conference a few months ago I heard a presentation on a popular kind of craft in Japan: making little sculptures of sweets from felt material. I had never heard of this before, but it’s quite popular. If you … Continue reading →

My family knows I’m into food history, so for Christmas I received Food and Life: Eat Right and Be Normal, a book from 1917. Food and Life is something of a cross between a cookbook and a book of menus. … Continue reading →

I recently made some stir fry, which made me start thinking about the history of Chinese food in this country. Joseph Conlin’s Bacon, Beans and Galantines is a book that looks at what gold miners ate back in the gold … Continue reading →