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Food History

Trending Today

A German Grocery Chain Is Selling First-Of-Its-Kind “No-Kill” Eggs

Every year, billions of male chicks are euthanized by the egg and poultry industry, but new tech could end the chick culling

Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, is shown throwing three balls of gold through a window, providing the dowry of three poverty-stricken maidens in an altarpiece painted between 1433 and 1435 for a monastery in Florence. The design was based on an altarpiece by Gentile da Fabriano of 1425.

Why We Should Bring Back the Tradition of the Christmas Orange

The appeal of a last-minute stocking stuffer

A mini-loaf of homemade panettone

A Culinary History of Panettone, the Italian and South American Christmas Treat

The holiday pastry has been a multicultural phenomenon since the very beginning

Varieties of maize found near Cuscu and Machu Pichu at Salineras de Maras on the Inca Sacred Valley in Peru, June 2007.

Rethinking the Corny History of Maize

A new genetic study traces the movement of one of the world’s most vital crops from Mexico to South America

Dispatch from 2018

Chicken Bones May Be the Legacy of Our Time

A new study argues that the sheer abundance of chicken consumption, coupled with the strange skeletons of modern chickens, will leave a unique fingerprint

Cool Finds

Fruit Flies First Began Feeding on Our Fresh Produce About 10,000 Years Ago

It turns out the insects love marula fruit found in south-central Africa, which attracted them to human caves

The Stone Age chefs likely boiled carp roe eggs in water or fish broth

Stone Age Humans Feasted on Caviar

Researchers used advanced protein analysis to identify traces of carp roe eggs left on a 6,000-year-old clay plot

Cool Finds

Did These Ancient Juglets—Found in a Bronze Age Burial in Israel—Contain Vanilla?

The finding suggests vanilla was being used 2,500 years earlier and half a world from where we thought, but vanilla experts are skeptical on the findings

This creamy oyster pan roast pays homage to the offerings of oysterman-turned-restaurateur Thomas Downing, a household name in 19th-century New York.

Sweet! You Can Now Cook the Food From the African-American History Museum’s Award-Winning Café in Your Own Home

Smithsonian Books introduces the Sweet Home Café Cookbook, chock full of delicious riffs on classic African-American recipes

The Patents Behind Pumpkin Pie

This Thanksgiving, when you take a bite of the traditional pie, take a moment to think about the inventions that have gone into the making of it

It took thousands of years, but the pumpkin went from one squash among many to American icon.

How the Formerly Ubiquitous Pumpkin Became a Thanksgiving Treat

The history of Cucurbita pepo has a surprising connection to the abolitionist cause

The Ten Best Books About Food of 2018

These ten titles should satisfy readers hungry to learn more about the history and science of food

Dorcas Reilly preparing her famous green bean casserole at the Campbell Soup corporate kitchen in 2005.

The Woman Who Invented the Green Bean Casserole

Dorcas Reilly came up with the iconic American dish in the 1950s

When in Rome...

New Research

The Physics of a Perfect Pizza

It takes just the right amount of heat and conduction to turn dough into the perfect Roman Margherita pizza

Contemporary hot chocolate bears little resemblance to the bitter drink enjoyed by ancient South and Central American civilizations

Cool Finds

Cacao Was First Cultivated in South America, Not Mexico and Central America

New study pinpoints birth of chocolate to some 5,300 years ago, or nearly 1,500 years earlier than previously believed

Inside the Enoteca Regionale Emilia Romagna.

Taste Your Way Through Italy, One Ingredient-Specific Museum at a Time

The Emilia Romagna region has 25 food museums, each dedicated to a beloved food item – ranging from balsamic vinegar to Parmesan cheese

Rice terraces in Yunnan, China.

Trending Today

136,000 Varieties of Rice Are Now Protected in Perpetuity

An annual $1.4 million funding grant will allow the International Rice Research Institute to help develop drought, heat- and flood-resistant rice varieties

Pottery shards from Pulau Ay site

Ancient Precursor to Pumpkin Spice Latte? Archaeologists Uncover Earliest Human Use of Nutmeg

Shards of ancient ceramics on Pulau Ay reveal nutmeg’s early history

In the late 1800s, milk and dairy products could be teeming with dangerous bacteria, contaminated by worms, hair and even manure.

The 19th-Century Fight Against Bacteria-Ridden Milk Preserved With Embalming Fluid

In an unpublished excerpt from her new book The Poison Squad, Deborah Blum chronicles the public health campaign against tainted dairy products

Bompas & Parr say the prototype pops last “hours longer” than regular popsicles under the same temperature.

Inventing a Longer-Lasting Popsicle

A British design firm has used a half-forgotten World War II technique to create ice pops that don’t melt as fast as the ordinary ones

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