Let’s Eat

 By Suzanne Norquist

People around America are planning Fourth of July festivities and other outdoor fun. Menus include hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, apple pie, and more. But are any of these foods really American? And what did the colonists eat to commemorate our country’s independence?

In 1776, the Founding Fathers celebrated at Philadelphia’s City Tavern. There wasn’t a hot dog in sight. Not a hamburger. Nor a watermelon. Legend has it that John Adams and his wife ate turtle soup, salmon, and peas.

The following year, in 1777, fireworks marked the first anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Revelers likely enjoyed these same foods, which became a tradition.

The soup remained on the menu for many years. However, with a decline in the turtle population, cooks switched to mock turtle soup (made with veal). However, this difficult-to-prepare dish didn’t taste the same.

In early July, the salmon run, and new peas are ready to harvest, making them a natural choice for the national celebration. Many New Englanders still serve the combination on Independence Day.

With wild pigs abundant in the south, barbequed pork joined the celebrations relatively early. It was an easy way to feed a large crowd. Other meats were barbequed as well. As settlers from the south moved west, they took the tradition with them.

Hot dogs didn’t come to America until the late 1800s. A German emigrant is believed to have sold the first hot dogs, called “dachshund sausages,” out of a food cart in New York. By 1893, they were a favorite at baseball games.

Hamburgers are also said to hail from Germany. However, a Danish restaurant owner claims to have cooked the first hamburger patty in 1900. Read the May 14th Heroes, Heroines, and History Blog for the whole story.

Another German dish to grace our tables is potato salad. It spread throughout Europe and came to the United States in the 1800s.

Dutch and German emigrants introduced apple pie. Which begs the question, why do we say, “As American as apple pie”? As the colonists distanced themselves from England, they left behind traditional English foods like scones and bread pudding and adopted new desserts. So, apple pie is considered American because it represents the break from the old kingdom.

Ice cream actually appeared in ancient Persia and made its way to ancient Greece and Rome. Later, it showed up in Europe and America. However, it wasn’t a treat for the masses until the invention of electric freezers.

Native Americans served baked beans before settlers arrived in the new land. The colonists adopted the dish—probably because it reminded them of pease porridge, a common English dish made from legumes.

We can also thank Native Americans for corn on the cob. They ate it before European settlers arrived. First cultivated by native people in Mexico, corn spread northward from there.

Ancient Egyptians harvested watermelon and selectively bred the unappetizing fruit until it tasted good. Over the years, it made its way around the world as a cherished treat in the dry seasons.

Americans came from many countries to create a unique culture. So, it is only fitting that we celebrate our heritage with a feast that blends many traditions. This melting-pot menu should be celebrated nearly as enthusiastically as our American heritage. Something to remember as you chow down and watch fireworks this year.

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”Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection

Four historical romances celebrating the arts of sewing and quilting.

Mending Sarah’s Heart by Suzanne Norquist

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah seeks a quiet life as a seamstress. She doesn’t need anyone, especially her dead husband’s partner. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers, and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband’s share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?

 

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas, “A Song for Rose” in A Bouquet of Brides Collection and “Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.

FOOD AT THE FAIR

Myths and Facts About Food at St. Louis Fair

by Martha Rogers


One of the things I love most about any fair or carnival is the food. Cotton candy, corn dogs, and funnel cakes being my favorite, and three foods that always remind me of the fun times on the midway at the Texas State Fair.

A lot of foods were said to have been introduced in St. Louis at the 1904 fair, and the stories embellished through the years. However, some of the stories are true or partly true.

The foods and beverages, whether new or simply little known, took off in popularity after the fair. According to some sources, the list includes hot dogs, ice cream cones, the hamburger, iced tea, peanut butter, and cotton candy.

Some of the stories are quite dramatic even if not completely true. For example, Anton Feuchtwanger gave out white gloves to his patrons to hold his steamed sausages. After too many patrons walked off with the gloves, he asked his brother-in-law to bake buns to hold the meat instead, there was born the hot dog.

Another one, equally dramatic, and closer to the truth, concerns the ice cream cone. Ernest Hamwi was a waffle concessionaire next to an ice cream vendor. When the ice cream man ran out serving dishes, Hamwi rolled up a thin waffle, scooped some cream into it, and voila, there was the ice cream cone.

Other stories like the ones for iced tea and the hamburger were easily proven to be untrue and are less dramatic.

Although Dr. Pepper had been in existence in Texas where it was bottled, it was not widely known. After being sold at the fair, it took off in popularity and became more than a Texas soft drink.

My favorite of the foods at the fair is how cotton candy was made. A vendor had a machine patented by Thomas Patton in 1900 and invented in 1897 by two candy makers from Nashville, Tennessee, John C. Wharton and William Morrison. The vendor poured the sugar into the center post of the spinning bowl, then the spinning motion spun the sugar into a light, fluffy mass of feather-like candy called Fairy Floss.

     

The sugar candy was boxed and sold for 25 cents each. Customers fascinated by the process and the confection bought 68,655 boxes. The term “cotton candy” came into play in 1920. Today you will find blue, pink, white and even green cotton candy sold at fairs, ball stadiums and carnivals all over the country.

Puffed rice, yellow mustard and peanut butter are among other foods became widely popular after those few months in St. Louis. George French introduced his yellow sauce that became a common staple of foods. A young man, Alexander Pierce Anderson was working in his laboratory when he stumbled on the process for “puffing” rice or other grain and quickly sold the idea to Quaker Oats, but they weren’t seeing much market potential for it. To win some hearts and minds, Anderson set up shop at the 1904 World’s Fair and managed to puff (and sell) more than 20,000 pounds of rice. Puffed cereal was born.

Along with the vendors of foods, restaurants offered the best food available in beautiful settings. One of those was the Luchow-Faust World’s Fair Restaurant in the Tyrolean Alps section of the Pike. Two men, August Luchow and Tony Faust combined their two restaurants into one high-class establishment. They offered crystal clear water that was supposed absolutely pure for the price of five cents a glass. That’s the equivalent of $1.20 today.

They gave fancy names to foods served in smaller restaurants and charged a higher price for them. The restaurant’s atmosphere and décor made up for the higher prices. Seating 5000 diners, it resembled a Tyrolean Alps chateau and featured costumed singers and wait staff. It also had an enormous beer hall.

No matter whether the stories are fact or fiction, these foods became even more popular after the fair. The real legacy of the fair is that, for a few brief months in the city of St. Louis, fairgoers were fascinated by an entire culture of eating that was being remade for the modern world.

What are your favorite foods at a fair or carnival? Answer in a comment below and be entered in a drawing for a copy of my book, MEET ME AT THE FAIR, set in St. Louis during the fair.

We didn't have enough entries last month for the drawing, so if you entered last month, you will be in this month and making another comment will give you another entry. Be sure to include your email address.

Laurel has a tragic past and the rejections of men who can’t see beyond her scars keep her from opening up to others and the scars well covered. The first time Trent sees her, he is smitten with her beauty and her delicious candy. When she goes to St. Louis to open her candy booth at the fair, Trent seizes the opportunity to learn more about her. He sees beyond the scars to the intelligent and talented businesswoman she is, but can she open her heart to find a love stronger and deeper than any physical scars.

Martha Rogers is a multi-published author and writes a weekly devotional for ACFW. Martha and her husband Rex live in Houston, Texas where they are active members of First Baptist Church. They are the parents of three sons and grandparents to eleven grandchildren and great-grandparents to four, soon to be five. Martha is a retired teacher with twenty-eight years teaching Home Economics and English at the secondary level and eight years at the college level supervising student teachers and teaching freshman English. She is the Director of the Texas Christian Writers Conference held in Houston in August each year, a member of ACFW, ACFW WOTS chapter in Houston, and a member of the writers’ group, Inspirational Writers Alive.

Find Martha at: www.marthawrogers.com