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History of Focaccia Bread

Focaccia is a style of bread made popular in Italy, and spreading around the world wherever Italian settlers and traders have formed communities. The bread is relatively flat, usually quite plain inside, but topped with olive oil and herbs, and occasionally with sliced olives on top. A range of varieties of focaccia exist, and in the 21st century new varieties have been created due to the versatility of the basic recipe.

Most historians believe Focaccia originated with either the Etruscans of North Central Italy prior to the Roman Empire forming, or in Ancient Greece at the beginning of the first millennium BC, though flat unleavened bread has been made throughout the Middle East and extending to Persia for this long as well so identifying a specific culture responsible for the first focaccia loaves is almost impossible. That said, focaccia is slightly different in that the loaf does rise slightly so is not a traditional unleavened bread, and the focaccia recipe is mostly unknown in the Middle East, yet has a history of being prepared in Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, and Spain.

Focaccia Bread Detail

Historically focaccia was unleavened, the recipe rises naturally in the right climate, and this gives a further clue to its origins, the further inland one goes the less dense the air becomes, and considering so much of the inland Mediterranean is quite mountainous we can speculate that it was inland people who first created focaccia. Contrast this with Phoenician people who originated in what is now coastal Lebanon and coastal Syria, and then spread throughout the Mediterranean by 1100 BC weren’t known to eat bread with the same properties as focaccia. In coastal areas a small amount of yeast need to be added to make the bread rise, otherwise a traditional flat bread is the result.

We do know that the name Focaccia is directly derived from the Roman words “panis focacius”. Panis simply means bread, and shouldn’t be confused with the modern English word pan, which whilst used to bake bread is actually derived from the Latin word patina meaning dish. Focacius is the Latin word for  center or fireplace. Linguists theorize that since the fireplace was in the center of the house that the word could be used interchangeably. Focaccia in Roman times was cooked in the ashes of a fire rather than on a tray above the fire, so the translation seems correct.

Romans would mix up a simple recipe of rough flour, olive oil, water, a very small quantity of yeast, and salt, and may have been seasoned with other herbs but in most cases was probably quite plain, this was then baked in the ‘focacius’. In Roman times focaccia was used as a dipping bread, usually being torn apart by hand and dipped into salty soups made quite simply from water, vinegar, and possibly olive oil. In today’s times this doesn’t sound very appetizing but for people accustomed to long hours of physical labor it provided nourishment and was a cheap and filling meal.

Focaccia Bread

During the Roman ceremony of Saturnalia, which many historians to be the ancient ancestor of modern Christmas celebrations, a pig was sacrificed to please the Roman gods. In the later years of the Roman Empire a Lord of Misrule was chosen instead who would be feted upon while all the time wearing the costume of a pig. The Lord of Misrule was always a young man who was expected to act the part of a clown. A focaccia bread would be baked that included a fava bean, and the lucky man to find the bean in his piece of bread became lord for the duration of the ceremony.

The basic recipe for focaccia spread with the Romans to France and Spain where it became a popular bread to bake primarily in less well off areas initially. In fact focaccia style breads were used extensively to feed slaves in the Roman Empire and a stigma still exists today in some countries. In Spain, pan de hogaza, the peasant’s staple bread which is made in a similar way to Roman panis focacius is also known as pan rustica, a homemade bread typically made in the countryside amongst the very poor.

In France focaccia style recipes such as fouaisse or foisse hat are made in Burgundy are considered a daily bread by a significant part of the population and in bakeries are still one of the most popular breads sold. Similarly in the Provence and Languedoc regions fogassa as it is known, focaccia breads are still very popular with bakeries and supermarkets all selling more fogassa than the French baguette, a bread considered typical for France.

In more recent times, at least since the medieval ages, the Catholic Church has used focaccia quite extensively during religious festivities, most often during the Eucharist, and the unleavened recipe of focaccia is most commonly used, primarily owing to Christ’s use of unleavened bread during The Last Supper. The tradition derives from the ready availability of focaccia bred and it’s simple, and some say pure recipe untainted with foreign ingredients, and thus coming to represent Christ’s flesh which of course is considered utterly pure and free of sin.

In the 20th century Italian immigrants to the United States brought with them recipes for pizza, bruschetta, grissini, and of course focaccia. Arguably focaccia is no longer strictly the preseve of Italian communities, nowadays it can be found in almost all bakeries and supermarkets. With a wide variety of seasonings, focaccia bread makes a very tasty sandwich bread, and is frequently served with cheese and ham fillings.

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History of Apple Fruit

The apple is a sweet round fruit with a central core containing seeds, whilst the bulk of the fruit is comprised of edible flesh, and covered in a thin skin which is also edible. A tremendous number of cultivated varieties of apple exist, as well as many wild varieties not usually picked for sale. The apple is the most popular fruit globally, having more trees in cultivation, and selling more fruit annually than any other fruit currently available. In addition, apples are also juiced and often used within recipes for many other products such as baked goods, preserves and jams, or in some cultures as a sweet additive for spicy foods such as curries.

Apples

The origins of the apple fruit tree are Asian, specifically in the region of the central west corresponding with modern day Kazakhstan, and archeological evidence locates the Tien Shan mountain forests as the probable origin of all known apple cultivators. Around 10,000 years ago the first human settlements started to form across the near east, India, and further east in China. The ancestor of modern domestic apples, from the tree ‘malus sieversii’, were already known to nomadic peoples from the region and as agriculture started to develop so too did the art of growing orchards, the apple tree being the first to be grown domestically (‘malus domestica’) from seed and studied.

We know that 8,500 years ago apples were being grown and eaten in ancient Jericho, a city in the west bank region of the Jordan River. Jericho is considered the oldest city and longest inhabited in the world, with parts of the city dating back 11,000 years making the discovery of apple seeds from 8,500 years ago quite authoritative and giving a clear indication that apples eaten for almost as long as humans have built settlements. We have no evidence that ancient Jericho had orchards as we understand them, and the presence of seeds may only mean that apples were eaten and the seeds spat out, although suggestions are that if apple seeds were being stored then probably apple trees were also being grown.

In some parts of the ancient world apples, or at least the best fruit with the sweetest taste and juiciest flesh could only be afforded by royalty and their court, and apples were a popular dessert from as long ago as 4,500 years ago. Hittite peoples were known to favor apples, and the oldest known name for the fruit, warawaras, comes from this time, and their royalty are believed to have enjoyed eating sliced apple as a dessert served on plates by their slaves. An Accadian lady by the name of Puabi, whose mummy was found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur along with the bodies of 5 guards and 13 ladies, was buried with many items of food for her journey to the afterlife, including a plate of sliced apple.

Despite these archaeological finds, the first written reference to apples only appears around 3,500 years ago in the Assyrian Kingdom when an orchard containing apples was sold by one Tupkitilla for the sum of three breeding sheep. Sadly the record doesn’t detail how large the orchard was, or how many trees it contained, but it does suggest apple orchards were common enough to be part of regular property transactions.

Apple Basket

The Book of Genesis, which many scholars believe was written in the time of Moses, around 3,600 years ago, specifically mentions a fruit that is widely believed to have been an apple, and which Satan encourages Eve to eat, thus cursing humanity and causing the expulsion of Adam, Eve, and their descendants from the Garden of Eden. The image of a juicy red apple in Eve’s hand whilst a serpent or cherub speaks to her from the apple tree is a common religious icon, with the tree representing the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

In Jewish religious thought, the tree was mot in fact an apple, instead being a grape or a fig. The Christian era translation of the tree being an apple is most likely an error based on the Roman word Malium which means evil and is very similar to the Roman word for apple, malus. Errors of translation like this are common in many historical documents and unfortunately means we cannot say for certain that the Book of Genesis is one of the oldest sources of apple history, although a similar Genesis story from Sumerian history exists, but the tree is not described, only the serpent.

Outside of Judeo Christian religious books, apples also appear as mystical fruits capable of providing eternal life to those who inhale its fragrance as they pass from the world of the living into heaven. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher is widely reported to have smelled an apple’s aroma only moments before his death, and the apple is credited with releasing his soul. In Islamic popular legend, the prophet Mohammed was himself offered an apple by an angel, and told that if he breathed the aroma of the apple he would be assured of eternal life in heaven. Moments later the prophet breathed his last breath.

In medieval times apples were common throughout Europe and available to all, though orchards that grew the best fruit only sold their apples to those who could afford them, or were owned by the nobility and church, so were never sold and theft of these was punishable by death or imprisonment. By all account the quality of fruit available varied considerably depending on he experience and skills of the orchardist. During these times it became a custom for nobility to give several baskets of apples to their villagers for the May time festivities, and it was during these times that apple bobbing became a popular activity at local fairs.

Apple Tree

The foundation of Switzerland in 1291 as an independent confederation is often attributed to an apple, or rather the legend of William Tell who was forced under punishment of death to shoot an apple with his crossbow, the apple being perched on his son’s head. The story goes that the Swiss cantons were invaded by Austrian troops and forced to swear allegiance to the Habsburg crown, something William Tell refused to do. After Tell successfully shot the apple his fame spread throughout Switzerland and resulted in an uprising the ejected the Austrians. Swiss people are even today still proud of William Tell’s exploits, but sadly no proof of his existence has ever materialized.

By the 15th century, and the first editions of many English dictionaries and encyclopedias apples, or appylls as they were then spelled, were considered to be not just a fruit for eating but also a medicinal fruit capable of helping cure nay number of ailments. Sniffing a very ripe sweet apple was particularly believed to have helped cure an illness known as the sweating sickness. William Shakespeare mentioned apples in many of his sonnets and plays, such as the invitation to Falstaff to eat ‘a pippin and a dish of caraway’. A pippin is a red and white variety of apple much favored in England during those early days of the reformation.

In the United States the most famous mention of apples in popular culture is the story of Johnny Appleseed, a Massachusetts born eccentric who travelled for forty years around the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio giving small bags of apple seeds to anyone he met who was traveling to the new west. Born John Chapmen, he was a devout man who considered it his duty to help spread the Lord’s message, and who believed passionately that if America was filled with apple trees then no man, woman, or child would ever be hungry again.

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History of Laffy Taffy

Laffy Taffy is a candy that is one of America’s most well known brands loved by children and available in a range of fruit flavors. The candy is a modern form of taffy (or toffee) and is chewy. Laffy Taffy is packaged in a variety of formats depending on the needs of the market, smaller pieces of individually wrapped Laffy Taffy packed in a jar, or larger 1.5oz candy bars.

Laffy Taffy Packets

Taffy, or toffee as it is known outside of the United States, is a sugar and butter mix boiled until it reaches a gooey consistency that can be stretched and pulled into shape, the stretching being most important as this prevents the taffy from becoming hard and more like rock candy. Nobody knows where taffy was invented, in England, Scotland, or France, we do know the first written record of taffy is found in the 1817 issue of the Oxford English Dictionary, though no mention is made if its origins.

Some historians believe taffy, or at least the recipe for basic taffy without the pulling and stretching may have been around since Roman times, sugar and butter being common cooking ingredients known to have been favored by Roman and medieval cooks. Indeed, the vary basic form of hard toffee has been a favorite in Scotland since at least the time of Robbie Burns (1759-1796), although in Scotland toffee is known as tablet and is too hard to be broken with teeth, so is often sold with a small metal hammer that can be used to break the tablet into smaller pieces.

The softer chewier candy we know as taffy was very popular in the mid to late 1800s and was a simple candy for local candy stores to make, and when wrapped in wax paper would keep well on candy store shelves. From the early 1800s social events that involved making taffy spread around the US, being known initially as candy pulling, and then taffy pulling by the 1870s. It was a popular pastime, especially liked by young men and women courting each other because it allowed close contact without stigma.

Many a young lady is believed to have blushed as she ‘accidentally’ brushed the hand of the young man she was pulling taffy with. Taffy pulling parties have lost favor in the United States, preserved only in some smaller towns or families who enjoy the tradition, but in parts of Wales, where taffy is made using a very similar recipe to the US, and where the candy as also still known as taffy, taffy pulling parties are still an important annual event.

Laffy Taffy Packs

A derivative of taffy, which is only sold in North America, salt water taffy, was originally invented completely by accident, and sounds like the sort of story that would have been written by Roald Dahl, just as modern Laffy Taffy might have been. An Atlantic City shopkeeper by the name of David Bradley was mopping up his store after a tidal wave had ruined all of his stock when a small girl came in asking for a bag of taffy.

Bradley wasn’t in a good mood and suggested she take a piece of his salt water taffy, well she did, and so enjoyed the taste that Bradley created a recipe for taffy that added a table spoon of salt instead of other flavors. This was back in 1883, ninety years before Laffy Taffy was first released to the market by Breaker Confections, a subsidiary company of the Quaker Oats Company when they created the Willy Wonka range of candies to complement the 1971 release of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” starring Gene Wilder.

The Willy Wonka range of candies were created to complement the story by Roald Dahl and were packaged with bright labeling and psychedelic colors, the Laffy Taffy being no different, although the Laffy Taffy candy bars also included a joke on each wrapper to reinforce the connection of the word Laffy with laughing.

After the successful launch of the Willy Wonka Brand, Breaker Confections invited children around the United States to send them their favorite jokes, the best of which would be printed on Laffy Taffy wrappers. The jokes were credited to the children who sent them in, and without exception were all based on puns and wordplay, examples include “What did the plate say to the other plate? Lunch is on me”, or “What did Delaware? A New Jersey”.

In 1980 Breaker Confections officially changed its corporate name to Willy Wonka Brands, and in 1988 after the company was sold to Sunmark (now a division of Nestlé) the name changed again to Willy Wonka Candy Company which is the name now appearing on all Willy Wonka branded candy in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, all countries where Roald Dahl’s books have become popular favorites.

A cartoon character of Willy Wonka showing off his factory featured in television advertising for all of the Willy Wonka branded candies produced by the Willy Wonker Candy Company. Each ad showed a fantastically elaborate production line and finished with Willy Wonka holding up the candy bar while an Oompa-Loompa says “What will he think of next?”. Roald Dahl’s catchphrase for Willy Wonka “It’s Scrumdidilyumptious!” appeared on product merchandising on store shelves, and also on posters and billboards for the movie.

Laffy Taffy has been a popular candy since its launch, though the release of the 2005 movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” starring Johnny Depp helped flagging sales of the candy bar and established a new generation of Laffy Taffy fans. At the same time Nestlé released a chocolate Wonka Bar some of which included a gold ticket as in the movie. Laffy Taffy candy wasn’t included in the golden ticket promotion.

In 2005 a new variant of Laffy Taffy, the long cord, arrived on store shelves to complement the smaller rectangles shaped bars. Flavors of Laffy Taffy include cherry, strawberry, grape, banana, blue raspberry, and sour apple.

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History of Twix Candy

The Twix candy bar is a butter cookie topped with a thick layer of caramel and the whole bar covered in dairy milk chocolate. Twix candy fingers are about four inches long, and half an inch thick, and two of these are packaged together in a single wrapper. The Twix brand is owned by Mars, Inc who are one of the largest confectionery manufacturers globally.

First created by Mars Limited in the UK in 1967 at the company’s Slough factory which is also where the current Mars Bar was invented by Forrest Mars Sr. in the 1930s. The Slough factory is also the home factory of the popular Starburst, Skittles, Snickers, and Topic brands also owned by Mars, Inc. In the years after its creation the Twix candy bar was released throughout Western Europe under the name Raider.

Twix Candy Bar split in 2

In 1979 the Twix candy bar was finally made available in the US sporting a gold colored wrapper and orange text, and was branded as the Twix Cookie Bar. Advertising for the Twix was always tastefully photographed with one of the bars snapped in two and the caramel from one piece curling slightly to show how soft and chewy the candy was. The first ads in the US adopted the slogan “Chocolate, Caramel and a Surprising Cookie Crunch!”

A period of continuing sales thru the early 1980s would have suggested Mars, Inc were happy with the performance of their Twix brand, in fact the candy bar wasn’t performing quite as well at retail and the hunt was on for a replacement or improvement which in 1983 came about with the peanut butter Twix. The caramel was removed and a soft peanut butter blend added. The market reacted very positively.

During 1991 Mars rebrand the Raider chocolate bar to Twix in line with their global branding but the the decision meets with public scorn. An advertising campaign with the slogan “Raider heißt jetzt Twix … sonst ändert sich nix” roughly translated as Raider is now Twix, nothing else changes. Public reaction saw the change as a cynical attempt to revive sales of an old product by rebranding it, so much so that the name Twix has become synonymous with cynical rebranding in both politics and the corporate world in Germany.

Bungled marketing as happened with the name change from Raider to Twix, or at least criticism of the Twix advertising campaigns continued thru most of the 1990s and into the new millennium over perceptions the Twix brand was being marketed at young teenage men with insatiable sexual appetites at the expense of women. Several womens movements described Twix advertisements as being similar to beer ads in that young men unlucky in the love stakes would be able to attract gorgeous women simply by eating a Twix candy bar. Slogans such as “Twix her!” and Let’s Twix it together”

Twix Candy Bar - Limited Edition

The 1990s were a period of great experimentation for Mars, Inc and the Twix brand in particular with several new varieties coming to market, some of which have remained in production, and helping to turn the Twix brand into one of the core chocolate confectionery brands of Mars, Inc globally. New flavors and varieties brought to market included cookies and cream, fudge, dark chocolate, white chocolate, mint slice, coffee, orange flavor, triple chocolate, and most recently Twix Java and Twix Cappuccino.

As part of the strengthening of the Twix brand and Mars, Inc’s overall product development Twix was chosen during the early 1990s as one of the brands that would be reworked to compete in the ice cream space with frozen Twix bars making their way into supermarket and mall ice cream vendor ice boxes. The individually wrapped bars were popular and lifted sales of Mars branded confectionery outside of their traditional markets.

The last major controversy surrounding the Twix brand occurred in 2007 when Mars, Inc in Europe started replacing the whey used in their candy bars with animal rennet leading to a large protests and negative press publicity against Mars, Inc by vegetarians who previously were loyal to Mars candy because it was vegetarian. In late 2007 Mars, Inc agreed to stop using animal rennet in their candy and revert to their old recipe but in 2008 a whistle blower confirmed that animal rennet was still being used despite assurances to the contrary.

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History of Cheerios

Cheerios are a breakfast cereal made from puffed oats in a distinctive ‘O’ shape that have been popular with children and adults alike since the 1940s. The Cheerios brand is owned by General Mills, a US based cereal company and are also marketed by Nestle in the UK and as many as 130 countries where Nestle operate. Cheerios are available in a wide range of flavors and styles, and are advertised as a healthy nutritious breakfast.

19th century breakfasts were typically made up of fried eggs, sausages, bacon, perhaps with toast as well. A healthy diet wasn’t yet considered very important yet a number of medical professionals working in sanitariums had noticed their patients responded better to bowel and urinary tract problems, even to mood swings, if they ate a more balanced diet filled with vegetables and cereals. Unfortunately, cereals proved difficult to make into convenient meals and a number of experiments were attempted that would produce bite-sized cereal nuggets.

Cheerios

It wasn’t until the 20th century and modern food presses and pressure cookers that cereals were able to be used as the main ingredient. The first breakfast cereals such as corn flakes and grape nuts were marketed around the turn of the century and sold surprisingly well encouraging other mills and sanitariums to develop their own cereal brands, amongst them being General Mills which first entered the breakfast cereal market with Wheaties.

Cheerios, made from puffed oats were first released in 1941, but nearly didn’t happen at all. The inventor of Cheerios, Lester Borchardt and a team of people at General Mills had tried to invent a machine they could use to create puffed cereal such as puffed wheat and after spending a great deal of money and time on the technique without result they were told by Borchardt’s boss to quit the project. Borchardt was a headstrong employee who knew the idea was sound and decided to keep developing the machine. Two months later they were rewarded with success and General Mills had a new product.

Cheerios were marketed quite aggressively as Cheeri Oats, but another company was already using the name and after a short dispute General Mills management agreed in 1945 to change the name to Cheerios, a name it has kept to the present day. Beginning in the early 1940s, around the time the Cheerios brand was being marketed the company created a cartoon character named Cheeri O’Leary as its brand mascot. Television hadn’t reached critical mass yet so the character was used in both animated form and printed form proving popular with children.

Competition with Kelloggs who had deep pockets and a loyal following required innovative thinking, and General Mills under the direction of the company owner James Bell were inspired to sponsor a radio show aimed at children yet with a moral story to every episode, and by a happy coincidence the creator of the Lone Ranger was in need of a sponsor to get the show syndicated throughout the United States beginning in 1949. The association with the Lone Ranger endured for 20 years and helped propel Cheerios into the top spot as the most popular breakfast cereal.

Cheerios Box

In the early 1950s Cheerios developed a new character to replace Cheery O’Leary who had become dated. Television viewing numbers were at a point that Cheerios could now be marketed on TV exclusively resulting in the Cheerios Kid and Sue hitting the airwaves. Typically the ads would show Sue getting into a difficult situation and calling for help from the Cheerios Kid who would use a combination of muscle and intelligence to come up with a solution to her problem and in so doing reinforcing the message that Cheerios were a healthy breakfast.

Further advertising innovations invented by General Mills were the idea that the packaging for Cheerios needn’t contain only the cereal. Through the late 1940s and 1950s General Mills marketing department successfully co-branded boxes of Cheerios with the Disney company to offer exclusive discounts on comic books, and then as advertising for the newly launched Mickey Mouse Club in 1956. By 1961 the association with the Lone Ranger offered an opportunity to increase sales of Cheerios cereal with a joint release of Lone Ranger and Silver action figures inside the cereal box, an innovation that took the cereal world by storm and revolutionized product marketing.

The Cheerios brand was also used to good effect in the mid 1960s when its packaging was chosen as the main vehicle to promote a new social and charitable endeavor started by General Mills known as Project Head Start. A small percentage of the earnings received from the sale of every box of Cheerios was donated to the foundation with the goal of providing education and healthcare services to disadvantaged families in the US.

Aware that Cheerios were facing competition from new cereal brands that were sweeter and more colorful, Honey Nut Cheerios are added to the supermarket shelves in 1979, and heralding the start f new research into alternative flavors and varieties of Cheerios which saw the introduction of the Apple Cinnamon flavor in 1988, MultiGrain Cheerios in 1992, Frosted Cheerios in 1995, Millenios in 2000, and Berry Burst Cheerios in 2003.

Healthwise Cheerios have been well received, starting with claims from General Mills that Cheerios provide all of the “essential nutritional values of oatmeal”, a claim proven in 1988 when studies prove oat bran helps in the fight against high cholesterol. By 1999, and after a rigorous evaluation of all breakfast cereals, Cheerios is declared the only cereal able to help reduce cholesterol in populations needing a low fat diet and is endorsed by the Heart Foundation as a recommended breakfast.

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History of Strawberries

A strawberry is a small fleshy red fruit favored in desserts or eaten on its own and is usually sold in small baskets known as punnets. Strawberries contain no fat, are very low on calories, and are a rich source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and fiber so are often included in dietary programs or given to children. The strawberry is part of the rose family of plants and is actually a herb, while the red fleshy part that we eat is actually part of the flower and isn’t a berry at all.

Strawberries are found growing natively in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and varieties have been successfully grown in Africa and Australasia as well. The fat and juicy red varieties commonly sold today are all descended from varieties cultivated after the discovery of strawberries in North America, and then bred with varieties discovered in South America to increase their size and improve taste.

Chandler Strawberries

Chandler Strawberries

During Roman times the fruit was known by it’s latin name Fragra meaning fragrance, although in modern Italian it is known as fragola, but the name used in England by the nobility was the French word fraise until the common English name gained popularity from the late middle ages. The word strawberry is believed to come from the old english words ‘streaw’ and ‘berige’ joined together and linguists believe the word straw came into use from the straw-like runners that grow from the plant.

Popular legend has it that the word actually derives from the practice of farmers placing straw under the plant to prevent the fruit from touching the ground and becoming spoiled. Strawberries weren’t considered a major crop so often children from London and other towns would be allowed to pick the fruit themselves which they would tie onto pieces of straw to sell in the town markets yelling “straws of berries” to get attention. Many of the children weren’t educated and would mispronounce their call as strawberries.

In traditional Chinese medicine, probably from as long ago as the time of the Yellow Emperor who is known to have ruled China for most of the 26th century BC, and whose court physicians would use the leaves of the strawberry plant to make a weak tea that is thought to detoxify the body and aid in reducing the effects of aging.

Naturalists and historians are not certain when strawberries were first eaten by humans, certainly the varieties available in Europe and Asia where civilization and the art of writing was developed were small and not terribly sweet tasting so are never mentioned as a delicacy until Roman times. Cato the Elder, a Roman senator and literary author who lived around 234-149BC wrote that strawberries were served in bowls with water at festivals.

Pliny the Elder, also known as Gaius Plinius Secundus who lived between 23 and 79 AD, mentions strawberries as one of the native fruits of the Italian peninsula in his seminal encyclopedia ‘Naturalis Historia’ first published in 77AD. The fruit are not believed to have been terribly popular but nevertheless Pliny states they were taken to other parts of the empire by Roman settlers and traders.

Strawberries - Plant

St Hildegard of Bingen who was a medieval seer and visionary, and also head of a monastery on the banks of the Rhine river who wrote an important tome on natural healing. Her advice was actively sought throughout medieval Europe by popes, kings, and bishops and it was because of St Hildegard that strawberries went out of favor. Seeing a snake amongst the strawberries in the monastery garden that had just eaten a toad St Hildegard declared that strawberries should not be eaten by people because they were too easily contaminated by undesirable animals and would poison the human body with mucus that would fill the lungs leading to eventual death.

North American native people in Massachusetts were not farmers and would hunt or forage for what was available, and strawberries which they named wuttahimneash, roughly translated as berry of the heart, would eat strawberries as a favored dessert. White settlers who came into contact with native people would trade items like blankets and guns for food which wasn’t accessible to them, and by a happy coincidence strawberries were amongst the fruits offered quickly becoming a firm favorite that would be requested time and again. It wasn’t long until Massachusetts settlers were growing strawberries themselves for sale in their own markets.

By the middle of the 1700s the North American strawberry had been cross bred with the traditional European varieties and was becoming popular on the social scene not just as a fruit, but also as an ingredient of small desserts. A number of new varieties were developed for the sweetness of the taste and perfect size and coloring. Strawberry preserves were also reinvented becoming the precursors of todays jelly and jams.

Charles Linnaeus, a Swedish botanish and doctor of the 1700s prescribed a diet of only strawberries believing that rheumatic gout could be cured if strawberries were eaten every day. According to Linnaeus the leaves of the strawberry could be dried served in tea and would help cleanse the bowel and relive acid buildup. Evidence using modern medicine suggests none of this is true, the strawberry is nothing more than a tasty treat.

Madam Thérésa Tallien, a wealthy socialite and owner of a salon that offered clothing and fashionable fragrances in Napoleanic France was known to prepare a bath with sliced strawberries scattered in the water, which she claimed helped to keep her skin looking fresh and blemish free. She was greatly admired in Paris at the time and enormously influential, so much so that a number of salons experimented with strawberry water as a fragrance

During the late 20th century strawberry flavored beauty products have become popular leading to a substantial increase in the cultivation of strawberries with many products such as facial cleansers, shampoos, soaps, and moisturizers requiring high quantities of strawberries in direct comparison with the number used for desserts.

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History of Chocolate

Chocolate is a sweet food derived from the cacao bean, itself a bitter tasting bean native to Central and Southern America. The cacao beans are ground and then used in beverages, medications, and food. The cacao bean has also been described as an aphrodisiac. In modern life chocolate is available in almost every society, and in every price range, and is also made for special occasions such as Easter.

Chocolate as we know it is a relatively new invention in the history of chocolate, but the cacao bean has been known to native people of South America for over 4,000 years and perhaps longer. It is believed the cacao bean originated in the Amazon basin in Peru or Ecuador where ancient Indian people would trade with coastal civilization but having few natural resources or access to meats and woven fabrics they traded what they could pick or forage for.

Melting Chocolate

The first recorded use of cocoa beans in written form go back to 1100BC to a settlement of pre-Mayan origins. Pottery dating from between 1400-1000BC were found at Puerto Escondido in Honduras and interestingly the dark centers of the cacao beans were not the only part used by these ancient people. The white husk of the bean was also pulped and used as the base for an alcoholic drink.

Despite its origins from the cacao bean, the word chocolate is not believed to be a corruption of cacao or its modern equivalent cocoa, with many linguists believing the word chocolate is derived from the ancient Nahuatl word for the drink xocolatl which was adopted by the Mayans and Aztecs many hundreds of years later. The word cacao (and cocoa) is believed to have come from the Aztec word cacahuatl.

The Aztecs believed that drinking the chocolate drink would give them special powers and wisdom since the bean had come from a mystical paradise world, of course now we know that paradise to have been the Amazon rain forest. Quetzalcoatl, the main Aztec god traveled to Earth on a beam of light and brought with him the cacao tree as a gift for his loyal believers.

According to Aztec legend Quetzalcoatl showed the priests how to roast and then grind the beans into a paste. Once this was added to water with spices they would drink it first as a religious accompaniment, then later whenever they felt the need since the drink was of course known to impart wisdom to the drinker.

Chocolate Drink - Honduras

500 Years Old Chocolate Drink Vase - Honduras

So valuable was the cacao bean that every household would own a tree and these were lovingly tended lest the tree suffer and the gods became angry. A family with a healthy tree or plantation were considered rich since cacao beans were also used as a source of currency, everything a family could ever wish to buy could be exchanged for chocolate.

In pre-columbian times chocolate was associated with the gods Tonacatecutli and Calchiuhtlucue who were the gods of food and water respectively. Every year at the beginning of the chocolate harvest the priests would offer sacrifices to ensure a good crop, a specially prepared drink of chocolate would be given to the prisoner about to be sacrificed.

Newly married couples would also be given chocolate to give them wisdom as they started their new lives together. The drink was considered an aphrodisiac and would help bless the couple with their first child, preferably a warrior son. By the time of the arrival of the Spanish in Central America Emperor Montezuma was reputedly drinking chocolate before he would choose which of his wives to sleep with.

Shortly after unifying Spain after hundreds of years of Moorish occupation, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella funded an expedition to the Americas led by Christopher Columbus, who returned with treasures including the cacao bean and helped propel Spain into Europe’s first true superpower. The cacao bean wasn’t considered terribly important at the time, the bounty of gold taking everyone’s attention.

Thirty years later another Spanish explorer, Hernando Cortez arrived at Montezuma’s court and was offered the chocolate drink prepared by the royal cooks. Cortez immediately recognized the potential for the new wonder drink and returned to Spain with several trees and the knowledge to roast and grind the beans, knowledge that Spain entrusted to its monasteries to be kept secret at all costs.

Nestle Chocolate Pieces

For nearly 100 years Spain enjoyed a monopoly on the production of chocolate with cacao trees being hidden in monasteries and plantations in far away parts of her overseas colonies, the secret of their existence protected under pain of death. The processed drink was exported all over Europe and sold only to those with the money to pay for it.

The collapse of the Spanish Empire brought about profound changes in the chocolate industry, the secret of its source, the cacao bean was finally let out and within a few short years traders from France, England, and the Netherlands had brought cacao trees back to Europe to be farmed. Not long later the price of chocolate had reached levels that made it affordable to all but the poorest from society.

Chocolate continued to be a popular beverage, often mixed with milk, sugar, vanilla, and other niceties to produce a rich sweet tasting drink that was served both hot and cold. The industrial revolution in England brought about further changes as new presses were able to remove even more of the cocoa butter and produce a smoother consistency, a development that directly led to a Swiss man Daniel Peter producing the first solid chocolate that could be eaten. He sold his recipe to Nestle.

Rodolph Lindt of Switzerland was so enchanted by Nestle’s new eating chocolate he set out to improve the recipe to make chocolate melt in the mouth instead of needing to be chewed and crunched. His great success produced the first Lindt chocolates in 1879, an innovation that was quickly copied by Nestle and Cadbury, and then by other chocolate manufacturers.

Another Swiss chocolate maker, Jules Sechaud, invented the first filled chocolate drop in 1913 heralding the start of another revolution in chocolate manufacturing. Filled chocolates were initially filled with praline, caramel or mint, yet it wasn’t until after the second world war that fruit and other exotic flavors made their way into boxed chocolates.

Swiss Chocolate

As a final nod to the success of chocolate in the world trading markets a dedicated exchange, the New York Cocoa Exchange was created in 1925 to bring sellers and buyers together in a single market with competitive pricing. In the 21st century West African nations have overtaken traditional South American nations as the world’s biggest suppliers of cocoa beans.

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History of Enchiladas

If you love Mexican food, you have probably come across the enchilada. Enchiladas today are not only available at purely Mexican food establishments, but can be found at restaurants that offer Tex-Mex specialties, diners and even many supermarkets sell either frozen enchiladas to make quickly- using your microwave or they sell a package of ingredients that can have you creating several enchiladas for an easy family meal.

What is an Enchilada?

An Enchilada is simply a corn tortilla that is rolled around meat and cheese. Many top it with a spicy chili sauce or top it with onions, cheese, sour cream, nacho cheese, beans, guacamole, etc. It is similar in regards to a taco, the enchilada can be created with a wide variety of ingredients, whether it is chicken, steak, fish, etc and a variety of cheeses, vegetables, beans, etc. It is an extremely versatile dish and most find it quite tasty.

Chicken Enchiladas

Chicken Enchiladas

Early History of the Enchilada

There is much evidence to suggest that enchiladas come from the Mayans. The dish was first associated with the region of Mexico by the Yucatan in pre-Columbian days. Corn tortillas were a staple of the Mayan people and there is evidence that the first enchiladas were tortillas that had fish rolled in it. The enchilada is similar to papadzules a traditional Mayan dish, which also comes from the Yucatan region. In this dish, corn tortillas are dipped in pumpkinseed and rolled around chopped boiled egg. It is then smothered in tomato sauce. This dish was primarily food for the nobles and was said to be served for special occasions.

When the Spanish Conquistadors made their way to the Western Hemisphere they documented the variety of foods the indigenous people ate. Tortillas, made from flattened corn bread were originally called tlaxcalli, however it was the Spanish conquistadors that named it the tortilla. Throughout the later centuries, the Mexican people continued to enjoy this dish and the enchilada can be found in a wide variety of cook books dating all the way back to the first Mexican cook book published in 1831 called El Cocinero Mexicano (The Mexican Chef).

Enchiladas

The Enchilada Today

Today with the internationalization of food, many chefs are always looking for the best foods of each culture to share with their friends and clients. It is no wonder that the enchilada has earned wide praise from many gourmands around the world, it is not only tasty, but nutritional and extremely versatile making it a great item to serve. In addition, over the years, many Mexicans immigrated to the US, bringing with them their culture that included their delicious foods. Today, the enchilada and other great Mexican foods are continuing to grow in popularity and with its easy to make ingredients and plenty of ways to prepare it, expect to continue to see the enchilada in your neighborhood served in its many forms.

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