Did you know... (about food)

[buckytom]

i was watching the history channel tonight, a bit about the history of the pepperidge farm company, and thought it might be a good thread if members shared their knowledge, facts as obscure as they may be, about food.

ok for example, i'll start.

did you know: the pepperidge farm company was started by a woman named margaret rudkin in the late '30's. one of her sons was allergic to white flour, so she decided to try baking him "the perfect loaf" of bread using top quality ingredients and whole grains. after perfecting her recipes, her son's pediatrician started to prescribe her breads for other allergic patients. eventually, she began selling her breads in local food stores in connecticut, which grew into a million loaves sold by their third year of operation. and it just kept expanding from there.
the next big break came years later, when margaret realized that if americans were willing to pay double for top quality breads, then they'd do the same for a high end cookie.

after a vacation to france, margaret worked out a deal with a famous chef for the recipes to his delicate european style cookies. shortly thereafter, the line of pepperidge farm distinctive cookies was born. to give them a classy feel, the cookies were named after european cities, like brussels, bordeaux, lido, and geneva.

the most popular cookie, the "milano", was originally called the "naples", and at first was an open cookie with chocolate on one side. unfortunately, when sold in warmer climes, the chocolate melted and all of the cookies in the bag fused. so they added a second cookie creatng a sandwhich, and changed the name to milano.

on a personal note: i don't think i've ever been on a camping trip that someone didn't bring milanos...


ok, so whaddya know?

 

[VeraBlue]

Hot dog rolls were born out of necessity. Sausages and frankfurters were originally sold from street vendor carts sans bun. Instead, the customer was given a white cotton glove to wear while eating the sausage. Unfortunately, many customers left with the glove. Also, the cost of laundering the gloves was prohibitive. A prominent sausage maker's (cannot recall his name..) brother-in-law was a baker and he commisioned him to make a bun approximately the size of the sausage.


Ice cream cones had a similar birth. The cone was replacing small glass bowls, often lost to theft or breakage. Only this time, it was the ice cream vendor's wife who baked a large cookie and curled it to a cone shape making the bowls unnecessary.

I had milano cookies and champagne in the recovery room almost 21 years ago, after my son was born.
Bucky, what are you doing up at 3:40am?

 

[cjs]

You two are just fonts of info...and what a nice way to start the day - Pepperidge farm cookies and hot dogs!!!

 

[GB]

Chocolate Malt was invented by a man (Sam Marshack ,sp?)whose young daughter hated to drink milk. She was dangerously under weight and the doctor really wanted her drinking as much milk as possible. He owned a candy shop which he lived above. Every night he would go down to the shop and experiment. Eventually he came up chocolate malt which he mixed in with milk. His daughter loved it and started gaining weight right away.

Sam Marshack was my mothers uncle.

Now this story was told to me many times by my mother and I have never found any corroborating proof so I am just going by what she said.

 

[urmaniac13]

The origin of the name of the famous Italian dessert, "Tiramisu".

Tiramisu really means "Tira mi su" = pick me up, in Italian.

This dessert was traditionally served at the very end of wedding dinners. (Italian wedding dinner is something huge, they keep on eating, and eating for hours on end...)

Tiramisu is not only extremely tasty, it is also extremely full of calories, which would give the eaters a whole lot of energy. Therefore, this particular name was given to this dessert, and this tradition was done to ensure one "energetic and eventful" honeymoon of the newlyweds!!

 

[PA Baker]

Sam Marshack was my mothers uncle.

Now this story was told to me many times by my mother and I have never found any corroborating proof so I am just going by what she said.

Whether or not it's true, it's a great story to have in the family, GB! Much better than being related to the inventor of some nasty-tasting-but-good-for-you vegetable dish!

Hershey Kisses are not originals created by the Hershey Co. Before that, the Wilbur Chocolate COmpany made similarly-shaped candies called Wilbur Buds. The company is still in operation in Central PA and its recipe for Wilbur Buds has not changed since 1893, nor has the mold for the unique design, by founder Henry Oscar Wilbur, for the sturdy little solid chocolate that looks like a budding flower. So first there was the chocolate Wilbur Bud, and then, afterwards, there was the Hershey Kiss, but Hershey wrapped its kiss in silver foil before Wilbur wrapped its bud.

 

[Alix]

Hey PA, Nestle's had a similar product in Canada. They were Maple Buds and oh so wonderful.

I have no obscure food trivia. I do know that Clodhoppers were made in Manitoba by a couple of brothers and if they ever hit your market those brothers will be rich beyond their wildest dreams. Dang those things are addictive.

 

[Robo410]

Wilbur Chocolate CO. Lititz, PA. Wilbur Buds, milk and dark, are awesome! And near Lititz is Akron, PA where the best pretzels come from!

 

[crewsk]

Kudzu, an extremely pesky weed around here, was introduced to the US by Japan in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in the Japanese Pavilion. It can be made into jelly, gum, quiche, tea, & many other things. Although Alton Brown was shown eating kudzu straight off the vine on the side of the road on his new show, Feasting On Asphalt, I wouldn't recommend doing that around here. Most of it has been sprayed with industrial strength weed killer.

 

[urmaniac13]

Yeah, we came across some info on Kudzu in the state of Georgia not long ago, some amazing facts and pictures, they were just covering up everything, cars, houses, other trees etc. Talk about "growing like weeds"!!

 

[marmar]

These are interesting. I never even noticed the names of peppridge farm cookies being the same as European cities.

Dippin' Dots was invented in Paducah, Kentucky by a guy who wanted creamier ice cream and was an inventor, so he messed around with the size and the shape of the ice cream until he managed to use liquid nitrogen to cryogenically freeze it before ice crystals could form.

There is more to it. It was in a newspaper article in the Chicago Tribune a couple weeks ago. My friend's mom picked it up at a rest area while we were driving home from Kentucky. We'd passed through Paducah an hour before... If only I had known then, I would have gone in search of a dippin' dots.