r/AskFoodHistorians

In the US, there was this window just before petrochemical fertilizers, where the peanut was cheap, because it allowed the rehabilitation of land depleted by big cash crops. So peanuts were cheap, almost a byproduct. So poor Americans jumped at a cheap protein and vegetable oil source. It isn’t as if we developed a lot of recipes for it, but a peanut butter sandwich certainly became a cultural staple.

Why didn’t it catch on in a similar fashion in Europe?

Would it have been gutted and cooked whole? Processed further into cuts? If the latter, what would these cuts have been at the time? What accoutrements and sides might it have been served with?

When I was a kid in the 70s/80s, my family used to eat a mastic-flavored spoon sweet (kind of like Greek "ypovrichio"/"submarine" — a thick white paste you dip on a spoon into a glass of ice water and lick off). I remember the jar or box had an illustration of a boy riding a flying/magic carpet on the label.

I've looked into brands like Saradis/Sarantis, Krinos, and Sultan, but none of the packaging I can find online matches what I remember. It might have been Greek, Turkish, or Middle Eastern — I'm not 100% sure of the origin, just that it was sold in the US at the time.

Does this ring a bell for anyone? Any help identifying the brand (or even just confirming what country it might be from) would be hugely appreciated!

So I live in New Jersey and it’s said we are home to the best examples of classic American diners still in operation. I have many memories of going to diners for breakfast or lunch and still often do.

Ive heard that this experience is very unique to New Jersey and that, especially outside of major cities, most other states don’t really have them anymore. So I have a 2 part question.

What caused classic style American diners to decline in the first place?

Is there any particular reason why they still “prosper” in NJ? The state takes a lot of pride in being home to a ton of diners and I’m curious if there was some kind of historical economic trend that led to that.

edit: I’m not trying to stir any kind of interstate diner competition and I’m sorry if this somehow comes off as ignorant or Jersey supremacists, not my intention. I spoken in the past with people in person, specifically a Californian, a Coloradan and Minnesotan and they all commented that, during their time in New Jersey they had never seen so many diners. I’ve also seen comments and conversations online that run the same ground. I’m aware this is all personal experience but there is a number of articles online including one by National Geographic declaring NJ the “Diner Capitol of America” based mostly on the sheer number of them in the state.

During the Columbian exchange, the “old world” was introduced to tomatoes, chilis, corn, potatoes and etc. While the “new world” was introduced to wheat, lemons, black pepper, cilantro, mangoes, etc. Nowadays tomatoes are very widely used even in the old world countries like India and Italy.

Did Australia have something similar to this when it was discovered ?

I want to be well versed in food history and how colonization has affected the foods we see now around the world.

Is there a book that someone recommends? I would like it to be written by a reliable non-bias source or just a person of culture.

I want to use it to help me conduct interviews with chefs.

I'm a big fan of knowing where our foods came from, and I love being able to pass this info along to my students. My current class is an intro one that will be focusing on rice, grains, and pasta for the next two weeks, but any interesting fact is most welcome!

I've been thinking about the history of fine dining. Cuisines from India, China, the Middle East, and parts of Africa have spent thousands of years mastering complex spice blends, fermentation, and layering intricate flavors. By comparison, traditional French haute cuisine relies heavily on fats like butter, cream, and stock reductions, often using very little spice beyond salt, pepper, and herbs. To an outside palate, it can even come across as a bit bland.Historically speaking, how did France manage to position its relatively mild, dairy-heavy food profile as the absolute global standard for luxury and sophistication over these highly advanced, flavor-dense culinary traditions? Was it purely political and colonial power, or was there something specific about how they codified their cooking that won the world over?

I remember as a kid in Canada back in the 1960s, every supper at home featured bread (and butter or margarine) on the table. Every restaurant, except burger places or the like, also put rolls or bread on the table automatically. That seems to have largely passed by the wayside. Is that the case in most countries?

But, going back further in time, I recall a museum exhibit showing a typical weekly food budget of the 1920s. I found the allotment for bread so large, eight loaves for a family of four. So, each person, including kids, consuming a loaf every three days or so. (As another unrelated observation, pork made up the substantial majority of meat consumed.)

Was bread used as an extender, to substitute lower cost food for higher cost? Or, have people over time reduced bread consumption due to blandness?

In these times of so many complaining about food price inflation, is this a good time to consider increasing reliance on bread to fill the gap?

Hi all, first time poster here. I’m really just curious about the whole beans on toast thing in England?
How did it start?
When did it happen?
Was it a war time rationing thing?

I’m so very confused.

genuinely curious(no judgement as I’m from Wisconsin),

Spencer

Hi,

Civilization has long been making wine, beer, and vinegar even before we discovered that this was done through fermentation by microbes. So if they didnt know what microbes were, how did people explain how grapes turned to wine, or vinegar? Did they look at it as magic, or did they explain it as spirits doing the work?

I’ve been going through medieval recipes from Britain, France, Germany and Italy and noticed that sour flavours seem to have been very popular. Recipes from around 14-15th century frequently use vinegar, verjus or both - in stews, sauces, on roasted meats. It got me thinking about citrus fruits, or lack of them. According to a quick google search, there are records of citrus fruits from that time, so they were around. What kind of citruses would be available? Were they uncommon, unpleasant or unpopular for another reason?

I'm seeing a lot more posts in here recently with huge swaths of deleted comments. Has there been a change in the rules to cause this, or are they just being more strictly enforced?

I noticed how many family traditions and comfort foods revolve around meat. At gatherings, people offered alternatives, but the original dish was usually the one tied to memories and stories. It made me realize food is often about culture and shared history, not just nutrition. Has anyone else noticed this after changing their diet?