Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Arts & Culture / Food

None

Pfizer’s Recipe for Pig Testicle Tacos

Corporate cookbooks occupy a unique place in the kitchen, and they exhibit corporate America’s attempt to establish societal norms

None

What Shredded Wheat Did for the Navy

The inventor of one of the first ready-to-eat breakfast cereals was also an accidental historian

Re-creation of a dessert from the Chez Panisse menu. (Total cost: $3.98)

And for Dessert: An Object Lesson on Simple Pleasure

How a disappointing dessert becomes an object lesson on simplicity and pleasure

Nouveau Pac Man Cuisine

Food and Video Games

Video games may be the art medium of the 21st century, but they’re also an advertising medium. Here are five notable games that promoted foods

Carleton E. Watkins, “Interior Chinese Restaurant, S.F.,” (ca. 1880)

Was Chop Suey the Greatest Culinary Joke Ever Played?

Have you heard the one about the crowd of hungry miners looking for a meal in Chinatown?

A thermal infrared image of orchard water levels

Drones: The Citrus Industry’s New Beauty Secret

In the future, farmers will use unmanned drones to improve the appearance of their crops

None

Underwood’s Deviled Ham: The Oldest Trademark Still in Use

The 1870 trademark was for “Deviled Entremets”—”Intended for Sandwiches, Luncheons, and Traveler’s Repasts”

Black Lobster and the Birth of Canning

The canning innovation left another lasting impression: Foods are safe only when sterilized

None

Why We Have Sliced Bread

“Here is a refinement that will receive a hearty and permanent welcome,” a reporter wrote of the best thing to hit grocery store shelves

None

Who Is Linda Tatersmith?

If flashy package design lure people into eating factory-extruded chemical slurries, why shouldn’t it work to trick food addicts into eating vegetables?

That’s Disgusting

While disgust originally protected us from potential poisons, it eventually gave rise to culturally defining flavors and odors, all tied to local microbes

Airships and Oranges: The Commercial Art of the Second Gold Rush

How citrus crate label design fueled a boom that caused the art form’s own demise

Diagram of Grado ship relic

How a Ship Full of Fish Helped Recreate an Ancient Fish Sauce

A 2,000-year-old shipwreck held ceramic vessels full of fish sauce, as well as a giant tank for transporting live fish

Simone Simon in Cat People, one of the 85 films cited by Martin Scorsese in a recent interview.

Martin Scorsese’s Film School vs. Roger Ebert’s Parakeets

Compiling and comparing movie lists

Organic red lentils

Five Ways to Eat Lentils

Tired of soup? Use them in cookies, pies or puddings—no, really

Fish Sauce, Ketchup and the Rewilding of Our Food

Fermented fish sauce has been a culinary staple since at least the 7th century B.C. What makes this seemingly disgusting condiment so popular?

Testing the Tango at the University of California Citrus Breeding Program

Design Specs for a Genetically Ideal Snack

How plant geneticists are growing convenience food on trees

None

Peeling Open the 1947 Chiquita Banana Cookbook

What do ham banana rolls with cheese sauce and salmon salad tropical have to say about politics?

Visualization of California's statewide citrus production volumes.

Designing the Perfect Fruit

How a tiny, seedless fruit becomes the iPhone of the produce aisle

Washington, D.C.

The 20 Best Food Trucks in the United States

The food truck revolution is in full force as mobile restaurants around the country dish out tacos, BBQ and other great eats

Page 41 of 81