A Pinch of the Past: American Staples

The audio version of this Pinch of the Past was first shared in Episode 31: Guest Karen Barnett & a Review of Where the Road Bends by Rachel Fordman.

This Pinch of the Past was first share in Episode 31: You can access it here. The idea of this Pinch of the Past developed in a rather curious way yesterday when I was wrapping up the final tests of the year for my second graders. One reading passage was a nonfiction piece on the origins of Peanut Butter. Did you know the inventor and developer of this great nutty paste was also responsible for a famous cereal brand? He developed the supplement not as a snack food but as a health product?

Peanut Butter

• Peanuts originate to South America but their way to Europe and the Americas in the 1700s. Peanut farms developed in the 1700-1800s and prospered.
• A lack of cooking oils During the American Civil war brought the peanut into even grater popularity as peanut oil was used in cooking and snacks like roast peanut developed.
• Peanut butter it’s self-made its first appearance when John Harvey Kellogg filed a patent for a proto-peanut butter in 1895. He developed the peanut paste as a nutritional supplement for people who needed proteins but were unable to chew their food.

• According to Statista dot com “A recent consumer survey showed that the protein-rich food is consumed by over 299 million Americans. In 2019, peanut butter dollar sales in the U.S. amounted to approximately 2.3 billion U.S. dollars, with around 612.4 million units being sold.”

M & Ms

• M & Ms are a popular candy in America and often the story behind these candies are told referencing rations for soldiers in WW2 but did you know that their roots go further back?
• In 1932 Forrest Mars Sr. had a falling out with his dad and business partner and so he moved to England and began selling Mars Bars to the troops of the then Spanish Civil War. It was during his travels that he came across British volunteers eating chocolate beans covered in hard candy. at the time, chocolate sales plummeted during the summer months due to the lack of air conditioning and the inability to keep the desserts from melting. Thus the idea of the M & M was born.

Tater Tots

• Where did Tater Tots Originate?
• Just after the second WW, two brothers F. Nephi Grigg and Golden Grigg, owned a potato business in Ontario, Oregon. They had a large number of small chunks of potatoes that they didn’t know what to do with so they mixed flour and seasoning with them then sent them through a shredder to cut them into small pieces.
• These were first cooked and then frozen in 1953.
• For some time, the brothers didn’t know what to call them so they held a competition and a lady named Clora Lay Orton won. In 1956, they were official sold under the new name Tater Tots.
• Statistics show that in the U.S. alone, Americans consume 70 million pounds of tots each year. 

Cob Salad

• Where did Cob salad get its name. In 1937, Bob Cobb the owner of the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood was throwing together a salad in the early morning hours and went to the refrigerator. There he found lettuce and eggs. He smelled Bacon cooking nearby and threw some on the salad. He then share this dish with Sid Grauman (of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre fame) and the next day Sid came into the restaurant and ordered a Cobb Salad, thus a culinary specially and American staple was born.

Macaroni and cheese

• This dish was popularized by non-other than Thomas Jefferson. In 1789, William Short wrote Thomas Jefferson telling him that per Jefferson’s request, he had procured a “mould for making macaroni” in Naples, and was forwarding it to his mentor in Paris. The mould was made it included in a list of Jefferson’s belonging which were shipped to Philadelphia in 1790. 
• Some say Jefferson himself invented the dish macaroni and cheese; however, this is likely untrue. He was, however, a huge fan of the dish. 
• A copy of the recipe for Macaroni pasta is written in Jefferson’s hand; yet, it is likely that he transcribed the recipe from one of his African cooks or butlers. 

Work them together without water, and very well. Roll it then with a roller to a paper thickness. cut it into small pieces which roll again with the hand into long slips, & then cut them to a proper length. Put them into warm water a quarter of an hour. Drain them. dress them as maccaroni. But if they are intended for soups they are to be put in the soup & not into warm water.

It seems he introduced macaroni to Americans serving the dish with or without cheese.

Here is an account of one of Jefferson’s guests who tried his macaroni.

• 1802. “Dined at the President’s – … Dinner not as elegant as when we dined before. [Among other dishes] a pie called macaroni, which appeared to be a rich crust filled with the strillions of onions, or shallots, which I took it to be, tasted very strong, and not agreeable. Mr. Lewis told me there were none in it; it was an Italian dish, and what appeared like onions was made of flour and butter, with a particularly strong liquor mixed with them.”

Well, there you have it. A little history on a few of the American Staples we have developed over time. Whether you opt for the processed tater tots of your super market or a healthy Cobb salad this weekend, I hope you’ve gained a little enjoyment at discovering how these dishes developed in our young country.