FOOD HISTORY

History of vitamin C

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Another name for vitamin C that derives from the Latin word ascorbic, which means ‘without scurvy’.

Discovery of vitamin C is one of the biggest achievements in biochemical area. It was discovered by novel prize winner Albert Szent-Gyorgyi in 1928.

In that year Szent-Gyorgyi isolated hexuronic acid as the factor that prevented browning of decaying fruit. In 1932 it was proved to be the agent which prevents scurvy.

Written records dating back to ancient Egypt containing the earliest reports of scurvy, a dreaded human disease caused by vitamin C deficiency. Scurvy has remained constant threat to humans, causing death and misery whenever dietary sources of vitamin C became scarce.

Aristotle in 450 BC described the symptoms of scurvy, which include muscle weakness, lethargy, extreme fatigue, joint pains, bleeding gums, depression and eventually death.

During the 17th and early 18th centuries, many cures for scurvy were suggested and there was some evidence that fresh fruit could help.

In 1747, Dr. James Lind discovered that adding citrus fruit to the diet will helped prevent scurvy.

The popularity do vitamin C as one of the most widely used and highly valued vitamin began when Dr. Linus Pauling proposed in 1970 that the daily intake of vitamin C needs to be much higher than the official recommended daily intake of 60mg per day. He published his book in vitamin C: Vitamin C and the Common Cold.

History of vitamin C

History of enzyme

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Enzymes are catalysts. They speed up the rates of reactions without themselves undergoing any permanent change. Early discovery of enzyme is primarily associated with the knowledge of alcoholic fermentation.

The earliest known references to enzymes are from ancient texts dealing with the manufacture of cheese, breads and alcoholics beverages and for the tenderizing meats.

The oldest known references to the commercial use of enzymes come from a description of wine making in the Codex of Hammurabi (2100 BC).

It was not until the 19th century AD, however, that scientists addressed the question of whether the entity responsible for processes such as fermentation was a living species or a chemical substance.

But in 1857 Louis Pasteur demonstrated that alcoholic fermentation was brought by the action of living yeast. This concept was later disputed by J. Liebig who proposed that fermentation could take place even in the absence of living cells.

The properties and reactions of enzyme catalysis were first recognized by G.S.S Kirchhoff in 1811.

The word catalyst was coined in 1836 by the great Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius. The term ‘enzyme’ is derived from the Greek which literally means ‘in yeast’ was coined by Freidrich Wilhelm Kuhne in 1876. At that time it was used to distinguish between ‘organized ferment’ and ‘unorganized ferments’.

The history of modern enzyme technology really began in 1874 when the Danish chemist Christian Hansen produced the first specimen of rennet by extracting dried claves’ stomach with saline solution.

In 1897 Eduard Buchner published the observation that cell-free extracts of yeast containing no living cells were able to carry out the fermentation of sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide.

In 1926, Sumner crystallized urease from jack bean meal and announced it to be a simple protein. In 1930 there were approximately 80 known enzymes.

In 1960 there were over 1300 known enzymes and the number is continually expanding as modern research discovers more enzymes.
History of enzyme

History of Sapodilla fruit

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The sapodilla plant is believed to have originated in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, northern Belize and northeast Guatemala.

Although the genus is cultivated widely for its fruit it is the taping of its trunk for the production of chicle for which the tree is most renowned.

Mesoamerican Indians used this latex for chewing gum, as did early manufacturers of chewing gum in the United States.

The ancient Maya used the timber of the sapodilla tree in the construction of their temples. Intact sapodilla timbers have been found as support beams in Mayan temple ruins. T

he plant was highly prized by the Aztecs, who called the fruit ‘tzapod’ from which the Spanish derived the name sapodilla.

American Indians ate the sweet, brown-colored fruits from tree produces.

The sapodilla was introduced into the Philippines by the Spanish. The Spanish prized it for its sweetness.

Linnaeus first published the species description in 1753 in Species Plantarum.
History of Sapodilla fruit

History of catnip

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From Europe to China, catnip has been used medicinally for at least 2000 years. It also has been used as a tea and tonic. The plant was familiar to Roman cooks and doctors.

Catnip was popular beverage tea in pre-Elizabeth England. In France the young leaves of this herb have been used as a seasoning.

During the Age of Exploration, catnip was replaced by the more stimulating Chinese herb that people call tea (Camellia sinensis sp)

Catnip came to America along with other necessities for pioneer living. America’s first geographer listed it in 1796 as a commercial crop.

It escaped cultivation and invaded the landscape. Early Americans believed that catnip roots made even the kindest person mean. Hangmen used to consume the roots before executions to get in the mood for their work.

It even worked its way into American literature appearing in the writings of Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthome, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Catnip was listed as a stomach soother in the US Pharmacopoeia, a standard drug reference, from 1842 to 1882 and in the National Formulary the pharmacists’ reverence from 1916 to 1950.
History of catnip

History of Pringles potato chips processing

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In the 1960s, Procter & Gamble introduced Pringles, which are made from dehydrated and reconstituted potatoes.

The Pringles story began when Vic Mills head of process development at the Miami Valley laboratory, and his colleague Ken Hawley brainstormed a way for Procter & Gamble to enter the potato chip industry.

Their researchers developed the basic Pringles formula of dehydrated potato flakes mixed with mono and di-glycerides and butylated hydroxyanisole and combined with starch and water that was beaten into dough. The dough was then rolled into a flat sheet molded into individual pieces and fried.

It was first advertised as a ‘new fangled’ potato chip and promoted as a technological marvel.

Unlike potato chips Pringles are a uniform size and shape, making possible their packaging in a long tube. Pringles uses a multilayered composite can structure with foil barrier.

Frederic J. Baur hold PhD in organic chemistry invented the Pringles potato chip can. He work many years in research and development at Procter and Gamble. He was the looking at alternative sources of raw materials and different processes for manufacturing and packaging.

The Pringles potato chips was designed to become a long distance and durable product and allowing it to sit on a shelf for a year without tasting stale.

As a result, the product could then be advertised nationally, creating a significant advantage.

History of Pringles potato chips processing

History of Mango in United States

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The cultivated mango originated in southeastern Asia, and was brought to England during colonization of India. Later in 1742 mangoes were found growing in the West Indies.

Mangoes have been grown in the United States since 1824, when Capt. John Meek brought then to Hawaii.

They first reach the continental US in 1833, when Henry Perrine introduced them in the Miami area.

The first recorded successful introduction of mango into Florida was made in 1861, where only a few varieties were grown.

Since their introduction to Florida, they have grown to become an important cash crop as well as an exceptionally popular backyard tree.

In 1889, the United States Department of Agriculture introduced a grafted variety from India called the ‘Mulgoa’ also known as ‘Mulgoba’ in the United States.

It was followed by the introduction of several hundred accessions in the 20th century from South-east Asia, India and from other mango areas of the word.

Asians and Hispanics living in the United States account for a significant percentage of sales.
History of Mango in United States

History of asafoetida

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The name asafoetida comes from the Persian aza, for mastic or resin, and the Latin foetidus, for stinking.

Asafoetida has been known since 4 BC, when it appeared in ancient Roman cooking, and was an essential component of Persian food.

It was known to early Persians as ‘the food of the Gods’ used it as a condiment, roasted the roots and ate the leaves as greens.

To the Romans it was called Persians sylphium. Asafoetida was exported from ancient Cyrenaica – modern Libya to ancient Greece and Rome, as a medicine, spice, and women’s contraceptive.

It was introduced to India in the Mughal Empire. During the Mughal Dynasty in India, the court singers would eat a spoonful of asafoetida with butter and practice on the banks of the river Yamuna.

Asafoetida was known to Arabian geographers and to travelers of the Middle East. It’s found its way into western European commerce during the Middle Ages through the trading cities of Italy.

In the 13th century the ‘Physician of Myddfai’ in Wakes considered asafoetida to be one of those substances which every physician ‘ought to known and use’.
History of asafoetida

History of olive oil

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It is believed that the cultivation of the olive oil tree began in the Eastern Mediterranean some 6000 years ago before recorded history.

The pressing of the olive to extract it precious commodity is generally believed to date back to about 3000 BC. As early as 3000 BC Semitic peoples in Syria cultivated the olive and traded in its oil.

The Minoans traded olive oil from Crete in about 2000 BC, with subsequent Greek and Phoenician seafarers continuing the trade carrying it as far west as Spain and today’s Morocco. The Minoans were probably responsible for the spread of olive culture to the early Greeks and Romans.

At first, the Greek used the expensive olive oil in cosmetics and for body anointment. Greek also used the oil as an important part of diet as well as for its external use.

From 750 BC the Greeks planted olive trees in their colonies in eastern Spain, southern France, Italy and Sicily; where the Greeks did not plant them, the Carthaginians and the Romans did.

According to Pliny, the olive oil was introduced to the Romans by the Greeks during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus.

Olive trees were planted throughout the entire Mediterranean basin during Roman rule. The Romans employed it widely in food and cookery, and the wealthy used it as an indispensible adjunct to grooming.

In the 5th century BC, Herodotus described Athens as a vast center of Greek olive culture, olive oil was a profitable export of that time as was the technology associated with olive culture and curing.

Egyptians drawing of about 1000 BC depict olive trees and the olive was placed alongside garlic and wine in tombs to provide sustenance in the hereafter. Their dead were adorned with olive branches and preserved in part with olive oil.
History of olive oil

Discovery of fatty acids

2013-03-05T23:19:00.000-08:00

Modern concept of fats are due to the French chemist, Michel Eugene Chevreul who investigated the chemistry of animal fats between 1810-23. His work Recherches chimiques sur les corps gras d’origine animale appeared in 1823.

Essential fatty acid was discovered by husband and wife team, George and Mildred Burr at the University of Minnesota. In 1930 they identified linoleic and linolenic acids as essential for growth and reproduction.

They reported that linolenic acids a fatty acid of exclusively plant origin, cured a diseases condition observed in rats.

They fed the rats fat free diets and found that they developed a whole range of symptoms, including skin lesions, decrease in body weight, and heart and kidney enlargement.

The invention of the gas chromatography by James and Martin in the 1950s was milestone for lipid chemistry. At that time it was used for the separation of normal carboxylic acids up to 12 carbon atoms in chain length.

A few years later James and Martin themselves developed the method of separating fatty acids as their methyl ester derivatives, thereby preparing the basis for modern fatty acid research.

The first gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of milk fatty acids was published by James and Martin in 1956.

In 1953 Cropper and Heywood extended the method to the separation of the methyl esters of even-numbered fatty acids up to behenic acid.

By 1960, may laboratories were using GLC for routine analysis of fatty acids.
Discovery of fatty acids

History of Calendula officinalis

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Although common in nearly every part of the word, calendula is believed to be native to Egypt.

Ancient Egyptian records from 5000 years ago mention it and hieroglyphics from the same period show stylized calendula flowers.

It was the ancient Romans who gave this plant it name calendula. They observed that flowers were in bloom on the first day, or calends, of every month and so named them.

The plant was known to ancient Indian and Arabic cultures, followed by the classical Greeks. The medical use of calendula can be traced back to ancient Greece where, as with many yellow flowered members of the Asteraceae family.

The Greek physician Diascorides, who used calendula to treat gallstone and diseases of the liver is the first to mention using the herb medicinally.

The French Pharmacopoeia from 1840 described five preparations from the leaves, seed and whole herb of calendula that were used to cure some cancers.

In the 16th century Europe, especially in Holland, grocers and spice-sellers had barrels filled with dried calendula petals, which they sold in large quantities for use in drinks, broths, and medicaments.
History of Calendula officinalis

History and origin of pomegranate

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Human use of pomegranate has a long history, with cultivation projected as early as 3000 BC.

The cultivation of the pomegranate began in the ancient culture of Northern India, particularly the Indus Valley, adjoining Persia and ancient Bactria.

The seeds have been a Hebrew symbol of fertility since biblical times, and the fruit once formed part of the decoration on the pillars of King Solomon’s temple. The Bible notes that King Solomon has large a planting of pomegranates.

The pomegranate was introduced to the Mediterranean as far west as Spain and Portugal from western Asia by ancient sailors and traders. It was introduced from Carthage to ancient Rome. The fruit is one of the symbols of the love goddess Aphrodite, is central to the Greek myth of Persephone.

In classical Latin, the fruit was known either as Malum punicum or Malum granatum.

In the 16th century, Spanish missionaries brought the plant to the New World. It is mainly grown in California and Arizona.
History and origin of pomegranate

Apricot in United States

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The apricot originally hails from China. Legend has it that it was brought to the west by Alexander the Great.

Early Spanish explorers are credited with introducing apricots to California.

In 1720 British explorers George Vancouver found that the apricot growing in Spanish mission gardens of Santa Clara.

Thomas Jefferson set out apricot trees in his orchard at Monticello as early as 1778. The first major production of apricots in the United States was recorded in California in 1792.

After the gold rush, the world’s largest apricot industry developed in areas relatively free of spring frosts, which is the limiting factors for commercial production east of the Rockies.

By 1920 apricot production was a major industry in California. California continues to be leading apricot producing state in the United States.

California produces about 90 percent of all apricots grown in the United States. Only 10 percent is sold fresh since the fruit does not hold up well after it is picked.
Apricot in United States

History and origin of Centella asiatica

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Gotu kola or more specially Hin-gotukola is the Sinhalese name for Centella asiatica. The origin of the genus name, Centella, is uncertain, it may derive from Greek kentron, ‘sharp point’. The name asiatica, denotes that the plant is native to Asia. The leaves resemble Chinese coins, hence the folk name pennywort.

Long time ago, the native Sinhalese of Ceylon noticed that elephants, renowned for their longevity, loved the rounded leaves of the diminutive gotu kola.

The herb gained a reputation as a longevity promoter and a Sinhalese proverb advised, ‘Two leaves a day keeps old age away’.’

Gotu Kola has been known to writers and used as medicine in the Ayurvedic tradition of India for thousands of years, It is listed in the historic Susruta Samhita, an ancient Hindu medical text.

It was considered useful as a remedy against leprosy in Greek medicine.

Gotu Kola is also prominently mentioned in the Shennong Herbal which was compiled in China over 2000 years.

Around the 1880s, the popularity of this powerful plant spread from Asian cultures to Europe where it has continued to be used for skin disorders, including the lumps and bumps of cellulite.
History and origin of Centella asiatica

Origin of rye

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The precise origin of rye domestication is unknown, but it was being cultivated at several locations in the Eastern Turkey and Armenia by 6000 BC.

The earliest sign of rye, associated with agriculture comes from central Anatolia. Rye is a typical ‘secondary crop’: it was primarily a weed in wheat and barley fields, later adopted as a crop.

Rye arrived in Europe through the Aegean Basin and the south Balkan as a cultivated crop by 4000 BC. Probably a cultivated crop in the Early Iron Age, is found in Roman Britain in both the highland and lowland zones, but not with great frequency.

Because of its tough constitution, it may have performed better than wheat and barley in the cooler, nutrient poor northern climates and therefore attracted human attraction.

It spread in the Roman Empire was a late phenomenon.

In Sweden, the cultivation of rye increased in the Middle Ages, partly because it was favored by the Church and the Crown. However, it was restricted to the provinces Lake Malaren and the adjoining regions to the south east.

In modern times, tetraploid and hexaploid wheat have been artificially hybridized with rye to form the new crop called Triticale.
Origin of rye

History of mustard

2013-01-04T01:32:00.000-08:00

Mustard seeds have been in culinary and medicinally use since at least the beginning of recorded history.

The French word appeared as mostarde in th 13th century. The Viandier, 100 years later describes a ‘mustard soup’ a broth of wine and water added to the oil in which eggs have been fried and flavored ‘with a little spiced mustard’.

Black mustard was used by the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks and Romans. The first record of using prepared mustard was by the Romans.

The Romans made great use of mustard seed in medicine and they thought it one of the best remedies for the complaints of the stomach and the lungs.

After the fall of Rome, prepared mustard disappeared from Europe and subsequently the seeds were crushed on dinner plates. By the 13th century, the practice of doing prepared mustard had begin to revive, particularly in France and Germany.

In the Middle Ages, a fixture on every table, made it possible to eat the eternal salt meat - salt pork and also salt beef, goat and mutton with more relish than would otherwise have been possible.

The 18th century saw the advent of mustard with capers, with anchovies, even with champagne – ‘for the ladies’.

In 1720, a Mrs. Clement of Tewkesbury, England successfully milled mustard seed into powder, In 1804, the miller Jeremiah Colman if Norwich concocted a blended mustard from white and black seed, turmeric and flour.

In the 1930s, condiments gained new attention in America and Europe. Advertisements in women’s magazines lauded prepared mustard and sauces as a w way of spicing up otherwise ordinary meals and pleasing bored husbands.
History of mustard

Cheesemaking during ancient times

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It is commonly believed that cheese to have originated in the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq some 8000 years ago, during the so-called Agricultural Revolution. At that time, when certain plants and animals were domesticated as sources of food.

The residents fed livestock and especially cows, whose milk their owners transformed into a number of cheeses, butter and other dairy products. Among them were cheeses flavored with honey, spices, fruits and herbs.

Most likely the first cheese were made by souring or ‘clabbering’ milk and then draining the whey from the curds in baskets. According to the legend, it is likely that some ancient traveler carrying milk in a pouch made from the lining of a sheep’s stomach discovered that the milk had coagulated into cheese along the way.

About twenty different types of cheese are described in ancient Sumerian writings from 3000 BC.

Archeologically, the oldest known cheese was found in an earthenware pot in the Egyptian tomb of King Horaha, dating back to 2300 BC.

Homer in 1184 BC wrote about cheese which was manufactured from sheep’s or goat’s milk in the caves by the ‘Cyclops Polyphemus’. The cheese may have been the ancestor of the Feta and Halloumi cheeses that are widely produced in Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria.

Cheese made from goat’s and ewe’s milk were common fare in ancient Roman times, an era which saw cheesemaking attain an unprecedented level of sophistication.

Knowledge of the art of cheesemaking spread throughout the empire and a number of firm cheeses were developed by the Romans, including Parmesan and Pecorino. The name Parmesan traces back to old Italian’s parmigiano – loosely translated, it means ‘in true Parma style’ or ‘in the ‘Parma tradition’.
Cheesemaking during ancient times

History of cayenne peppers

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The peppers can be traced their 7000 year history to Central and South America. In these region, cayenne peppers were used first as a decorative item and subsequently as a food stuff and medicine.

The dried chills were burned by the Inca to blind the invading Spaniards. Native Americans used to rub chill on the gums to relieve the pain of a toothache.

The Incas put cayenne in the lakes where they caught fish so that the fish were spiced before being caught and cooked.

During the fifteenth Christopher Columbus encountered these spicy plants while exploring the Caribbean Islands. Columbus seems to have been the first Westerner to take conscious note of food flavored with this pungent herb.

He brought then back to Europe where they served as a substitute for black pepper. The first appearance of cayenne in history books was in 1493, when Peter Martyn wrote of its arrival in Italy after Columbus’s voyage.

Later in sixteenth century, London herbalist, John Gerard reported its cultivation in Great Britain. John Gerard in 1597 described the cayenne as hot and dry and specifically noted a deobstruent action for dissolving the swelling’s of king’s evil.
History of cayenne peppers

History of marmalades

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The word marmalade derived from Portuguese name for the jam, marmelada, which took its name from the Portuguese word, marmelo, meaning quince, the fruit originally used in marmalade.

Marmalades were probably first made by the ancient Greeks, who slow-cooked quince with honey to make a thick, sweet-and-tart spread. The word marmalade first came from Greek word melimelon meaning ‘honey apple’.

According to the Dioscorides, the 1st century AD physician, quinces, peeled and with their pips removed, were wedged together as tightly as possible in honey. After a year they became as soft as ‘wine-honey’.

The ancient Romans learned from Greeks and added new wine to produce a particular Roman marmalade. Wine and honey were boiled together and reduced to a thick consistency.

English travelers became familiar with the delicacy and began importing it as a luxury. The English learned about marmalades from the French by the 15th century AD and in the 17th century, when England began to import a plentiful supply of citrus fruit, marmalade began to be made with oranges and lemons. The word marmalade appeared in English in 1524.

In 1524 Hull of Exeter presented a box of the delicacy to King Henry VIII.
History of marmalades

Bread during ancient Roman

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In the early days of Roman Republic, most people made their own bread from the grain they produce. Grains were significant part of the Roman diet, depending on where they lived, Romans might eat emmer, bread wheat, spelt, barley, oats, rye and millet, although emmer and bread wheat were preferred.

The woman of the household had to grind out flour. They did it very simply, by spreading wheat grains on a large flat or slightly concave stone and rubbing them over with a smaller stone which might either be round, or long and narrow like a roller.

The ancient Roman bread was a flat, hard cake called ‘libum’ which was baked in hot embers and ashes and which continued in favor even when wheat bread and leaven was introduced.

Roman’s people breakfast is usually simple bread dipped in watered-down wine. Sometimes a little honey is used, and perhaps a few dates or olives might be added. For lunch is a similar meal of bread, or leftover form the previous day’s main meal.

The professional baker appears around 174 BC. Barley bread was then only eaten by slave and gladiators, the coarse flans were soaped in milk before eating. Before the arrivals of professional bakers, Romans either ate porridge or made their own bread.

During the later Republic and throughout the Empire most middle and lower class Romans relied upon commercial bakeries for their bread.

Also Rome began to import grain from territories in its empire because Rome could not produce enough grain for its growing population.

The public bakeries were numerous, the majority of them being conducted in the reign of Augustus. In the 4th century, the regionary catalogues record around two hundred and fifty bakeries in Rome with an average of fifteen to twenty in each region.
Bread during ancient Roman

History of Toblerone chocolate

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In 1899, Jean Tobler and his son Theodor Tobler founded the ‘Fabrique de Chocolat de Berne, Tobler & Cie’.

Theodor Tobler and his cousin, Emil Baumann introduced Toblerone in 1908. They invented the Toblerone in Bern, Switzerland. It was an unusual triangular-shaped chocolate bar with almonds and honey nougat.

The name derives from Tobler (the name of the company and family) plus terrone, and Italian nougat specialty.

Tobler used the Matterhorn mountain, in the Swiss Alps to inspire the shape of his product. Fearing that a competitor would copy his concept, he applied for a patent on the manufacturing process in Bern. In 1909, Toblerone became the first chocolate product on the world to be patented.

In1970, the Tobler Company merged with the Jacobs Suchard Company of Switzerland, which to become the largest chocolate companies in the world.

Suchard established in 1824 famous for its Milka and Bittra chocolate bars and chocolate drinks. In 1990 Philip Morris acquires Jacobs Suchard, including Toblerone for $4.1 billion then incorporated it to Kraft Foods.
History of Toblerone chocolate

History of Sandwich

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The sandwich was invented by the notorious English gambler, John Montagu (1718-1792), the Fourth Earl of Sandwich. Sandwich was an area in Southeast England, during the 18th century.

He liked to gamble but heated to get up from the table to goo eat.

After a day-long round of dice and cards, it was said that Montagu the first person to order sliced meat placed between two pieces of bread, an event that reportedly occurred in 1762 at London’s Beef Steak Club situated above Covent Garden Theatre.

With a whole meal in a single hand, he could continue rolling the dice with his free hand.

From this efficient invention came nearly two and a half centuries of fast food, which freed drivers to continue a journey during mealtime and offered cooks great scope for inventiveness in combining foods and bread for picnic meals, travel food, impromptu dinners and school lunches.

The late nineteenth century United States produced two meat sandwiches of German origin, the frankfurter, aka hot dog, and the hamburger, both served in buns.

Jack in The Box, founded in 1951, was the first chain restaurant offered chicken sandwich in the western United States and the industry’s first breakfast sandwich.

In 1967, the first Big Mac sandwich debuted at Uniontown MacDonald franchise.. It was developed by Jim Delligatti’s. In 1968, MacDonald promoted the Big Mad nationwide eventually becoming the most recognized sandwich in the world.
History of Sandwich

History of bread during ancient Egypt

2012-11-05T06:19:00.002-08:00

In ancient Egypt, bread was made as flat cakes from toasted grains of barley, whet or millet. Before the discovery of yeast all breads were unleavened. This was a type for bread which dates back to Neolithic times, which began in approximately 8000 to 10000 BC.

Ancient Egypt is where bread really began to take shape as the yeasty food people enjoy today.

The wheat produced in abundance in Egypt was the staple food for most people. Bakers and servants turned ground wheat into 40 different types of bread, cakes, roils and pastries.

The dough was left overnight to sour and then baked into round, triangular, oval and other shapes. Some loaves were cone-shaped, made of slices placed vertically and used for presenting to the dead. Bread was considered an essential item to be buried with deceased for the afterlife.

Bread was also baked in clay pots or molds, some of which were greased and reused, whole others were crudely modeled around conical wooden forms and broken to free the loaf after baking.

Bread was consumed in great quantities throughout the country, from the lowest worker who might be paid in bread, to the pharaoh and his family.
History of bread during ancient Egypt

History of White Castle

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During the 1920s, several decades before the rose of McDonald’s and Burger King, White Castle herald the advent of fast food hamburger chains.

In May 1921, Walter Anderson and Edar Waldo “Billy” Ingram opened a hamburger restaurant in Wichita, Kansas, under the name of White Castle.

The name was chosen because ‘White’ signifies purity and cleanliness and ‘Castle’ stands for strength, permanence, and stability. Indeed, the hamburger sandwich rose from obscurity and disrepute to prominence in less than ten years.

They also reassured wary customers by packing the grill directly in front of them, so they could see the sanitary conditions under which their food was being prepared.

White Castle changed American culture dramatically. Hamburgers became one of America’s most important foods during the 1920’s.

Customer surveys indicated that they liked the taste of the hamburger, the low price, the quality of all the products served, the cleanliness of the outlets, and the convenience.

The first white Castle restaurant served hamburgers sandwiches, smothered with cooked onions, for a nickel apiece. White Castle was a true pioneer in fast food.

The company has to be given credit for starting or creating so many different things that are now standard in fast food restaurants. The White Castle System of Eating Houses, as the chain was called, expanded rapidly during the 1920s due in part to its innovative marketing strategies.

American soon began carving White Castle-style fast-food hamburgers, and by the end of the decade they were s staple of the American diet.

By 1931, White Castle was operating 115 restaurants across the Midwest and East Coast, all of which featured the same floor plan and distinctive medieval architecture that served as a sort of advertising for the chain.

As of 2011, there were more than four hundred under White Castle outlets, mainly in the Midwest, Tennessee and Ne w York.

History of White Castle

Early history of monosodium glutamate

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Japanese cooks extracted a flavor enhancer from seaweed and added it to various dishes long before a Japanese chemist isolated the chemical in 1908 and defined its flavor as umami, or savory.

Although glutamic acid was first isolated from wheat gluten and named after it by the German scientist Ritthausen in 1866, it was only in 1908 monosodium glutamate was discovered and isolated from hydrolyzed of ‘konbu’, seaweed by Dr. Kikunae Ikeda.

In 1913, investigations of the Japanese scientist Kodoma into dried bonito led to the discovery that inosinic acid, known since German scientist Justus von Liebig’s mid 19th century work on beef broth is another umami substance.

Ajinomoto as the first company to produce monosodium glutamate in an industrial scale by extraction from wheat hydrolyzates.

In 1950s, Japanese researchers a fermentation method using Corynebacterium glutamicum to produce glutamate directly from cheap sugar and ammonia.

Thereafter, many bacteria were identified as good glutamic acid producer and were used for monosodium glutamate production in Japanese industry.

American consumers first learned about MSG in 1947, when a Japanese manufacturer marketed the chemical in US as Ac’cent flavor enhancer.
Early history of monosodium glutamate

History of shallot

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Shallots serve a variety of cuisines and dishes, from Asian to Middle Eastern to French.

Their name indicates that they were found in abundance in Ascalon in Palestine and that region might be a center of origin.

The Romans called it caepa Ascalonia, Ascalonia onion or simply ascalonia for seaport, giving clue to it geographical origins.

The shallot was introduced into France by Crusaders returning from Palestine. It was said that shallot to have grown in 12th centre in France.

Shallot is associated particularly with the cuisine of Bordeaux, but its influence has spread throughout the northern part of France.

By 13th century, the shallot was well known. The shallot was introduced to England in 1548 according to Henry Phillips in History of Cultivated Vegetables published in 1822.

By the 18th century the shallot was well known by English gardeners.

The name of shallot never mentioned in United States before 1954 and it never appeared in the recipe.
History of shallot