"FoodHistory" news and stories

Summarizing what Christmas celebrants used to serve at their festive dinners is no simpler than listing what eaters today consider requisite holiday foods: For various families on a single city block, it might not feel like Christmas without getting drunk on eggnog; slicing up a pannetone; gorging on baccala; tucking into a roasted goose; slurping down glogg or munching on stollen.

Americans' conception of Christmas dinner has always turned on such inalienable attributes as ethnic heritage and birthplace: A first-generation Vietnamese-American living in Louisiana probably doesn't set the same Christmas table as a fourth-generation Swedish-American with a home in northern Minnesota.

Still, it's possible to get some sense of what early Americans deemed standard Christmas fare by examining what they served their society's least fortunate members. Holiday menus from prisons provide a pretty good guide to which foods Americans thought of as so indispensable that even robbers, counterfeiters and killers deserved to enjoy them come Dec. 25.

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• Chives: indoor herb for the winter.
• The Toronto Reference Library hosts a look into the history of food.
• Gordon isn't the only Ramsay -- get the deets on Tana Ramsay.
• Should Ontario farm workers get unionized?
• Recipes: Freddie's Bang-Bang Chicken, Peanut Noodles, Chicken and Pork Stew with Plantains and Potatoes, Jamie Oliver's Lamb Tartare, and Tortilla Espanola
• Wine: Go green with biodynamic wine and Nouveau Beaujolais time in Toronto.
• Ever wanted to taste a Dead Guy of the ale variety?
• A guide to Yuletide cheer.

As you fire up the grill this Memorial Day, you may want to take a moment to pay homage to the people who first brought you the hamburger. There is a lengthy and fascinating article on the history of the hamburger on What's Cooking America. While there is some debate about who created the first hamburger, Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut has a strong claim to the title.

According to What's Cooking, "Louis ran a small lunch wagon selling steak sandwiches to local factory workers. A frugal business man, he didn't like to waste the excess beef from his daily lunch rush. It is said that he ground up some scraps of beef and served it as a sandwich, the sandwich was sold between pieces of toasted bread, to a customer who was in a hurry and wanted to eat on the run."

You can still get hamburgers today at Louis' Lunch. However, don't expect to get any ketchup. The Louis' Lunch website states that their hamburgers "have changed little from their historic prototype [and] are still the specialty of the house. Each one is made from beef ground fresh each day, broiled vertically in the original cast iron grill and served between two slices of toast. Cheese, tomato and onion are the only acceptable garnish -- no true connoisseur would consider corrupting the classic taste with mustard or ketchup."

Hungry is a new online food magazine written by four guys who are foodies. Not in the sometimes-elitist sense that we don't really approve of here at Slashfood, but the sense that they love good food and everything associated with it - even if it comes from a fast food joint. In other words, they’re our kind of guys. Though still in a relatively early stage, Hungry is off to a great start, with interesting chef interviews, available as podcasts, and other articles. Some of the features include food history, recipes and events. The magazine is based in Chicago, so though they have covered the likes of the McArabia Sandwich, much of the coverage will be based in the greater Chicago area. We look forward to seeing more from Hungry in the future.

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Since the beginning of the year, Eat Feed has hosted a podcast that "takes you back in time, across the country, around the world, and back to your own table." Think NPR’s “Fresh Air,” but with food. In recent months, the site has featured downloadable mp3 discussions such as “Ice Cream Through The Ages,” “At Shakespeare’s Table,” and “The French Flavors of Cinco De Mayo.”

Aside from programs like these, Eat Feed also features a great set of links to other sites dealing with food history, foodways, blogs and other food-related fun stuff online.

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