Posted on 12/29/2014 11:42:27 AM PST by iowamark
In much the same way most American homes have different half-filled tubes of sunblock, off-sized batteries, and calculators that can't be thrown away, most American homes have the six following foods. We may not eat them often, or even like them, but we still keep them on hand. They're just part of what make a home a home — even if we forget why.
Here, the largely forgotten histories of six American staples.
1. Tuna fish
During the 20th century tuna fish was one America's most purchased proteins — but it didn't happen without a dash of ingenuity. In 1903, the California Fish Company figured out steaming tuna made it white and removed most of the oil that made it taste so "fishy." So sellers claimed it really did taste like chicken, and it was cheap! The government fed it to soldiers in WWI, and they continued to eat it when they got home. It was a cheap, shelf stable, inoffensive protein that could "beef up" almost any meal it was added to.
2. Ketchup
Ketchup has been around for hundreds of years; it was just never, ever made with tomatoes. Hailing from China where it was called ke-tchup, kôechiap or kê-tsiap, ketchup was any spicy sauce that resulted from a savory food being boiled down to goo and spiced. Popular in previous centuries were mushroom ketchup, oyster ketchup, walnut ketchup, and fish-innards ketchup.
Most Westerners thought tomatoes were poisonous until the 19th century. When they finally realized they weren't, tomatoes became wildly popular, and tomato ketchup was considered not just tasty, but a health food. Unfortunately food preservation in the late 19th century was quite the opposite of healthy: ketchup was filled with mold, rot, chemicals, and even tar to make it red. Enter Mr. Henry J Heinz. Heinz was obsessed with cleanliness and quality, which is why he started selling his ketchup in his trademarked clear bottle. Americans who were used to covert packaging were drawn to the tasty sauce they could be sure was safe, and soon ketchup had a place in nearly every cupboard in America.
3. Peanut butter
What first got Americans hooked on peanuts was war. When the Union cut off the Confederacy's supply routes, there was precious little else to eat in the South except the nut, which at the time was grown mostly for animal feed. Northern soldiers ate them too, and brought them back home. Crushing them into "butter" is an idea that seemed to occur to any society that used peanuts, dating all the way back to the ancient Incan empire. While George Washington Carver didn't create the first peanut butter, he did use in many of his peanut inventions — but again, it took a war to popularize it. Cheap, easily transportable, and high in protein, peanut butter was used liberally in soldier's rations in both World Wars.
4. Yogurt
For a long time, yogurt was considered a sour foreign food, eaten by immigrants and sometimes prescribed by doctors for stomach ailments. It took one Mr. Daniel Carasso to make it an American staple. His father had started a yogurt company in Greece, and named it "Danone," or "little Dan" after his son. When Little Dan grew up, he took his father's yogurt making business to France, where it became very successful. Until the Nazis invaded.
So Daniel moved to the United States and Americanized his company's name into "Dannon." He sold small glass jars of plain yogurt from a factory in Brooklyn. Americans weren't crazy about it until he added some strawberry jam to the bottom of each jar in 1947. That, coupled with the perceived health benefits and ease of purchase, turned yogurt into one of America's favorite healthy snacks. Carasso's himself might be considered the finest testament to the health benefits of yogurt; he died in 2009, age 103.
5. Saltines
Flat, dry bread has existed for as long as there have been grains with which to make it. Saltines themselves aren't even a culinary twist; they are just the first officially branded soda cracker, which Americans had been snacking on for years. The brand was bought by the National Biscuit Company (NaBisCo!) in the late 19th century. Nabisco eventually lost the brand name Saltine due to trademark erosion; the success of the product resulted in everyone calling any squared salted cracker a "saltine." Saltines might have been destined to be a home staple no matter what; snack-size in the time before snacks, cheap, and shelf-stable. But it was the Great Depression that really helped lock saltines in our larders. Diners would put saltines out for customers, allowing hungry people to buy something inexpensive like soup, and thicken it into something a little more filling.
6. Campbell's soup
With all the soup choices available to Americans now, from fancy imported butternut squash to stew made right in the store, it's amazing how many of us just don't feel right without some Campbell's in our cupboards. Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup isn't much compared to more modern brands. The noodles are broken and the chicken is a smattering of miniscule chunks, but it's what we love. It's what we remember. We owe the very name "Chicken Noodle Soup" to Campbell's, after a radio announcer in the 1940s misspoke its actual name "Campbell's Noodle with Chicken Soup." We all have Campbell's because they were the first to figure out the best process of condensation in 1897. If you removed the water from soup, you removed the bulk of its shipping cost, making it cheap for manufacturer and buyer alike. A warm and filling "meal" to crumble your saltines into, no matter how poor or far away from home you were.
Well, I like spam, do you have something with more spam?
The British LOVED Spam during WWII because it was the only meat they got and considered it a godsend from the Yanks.
I’ve known a few older Brits and they were all fonder of it than any Americans I knew ever were.
There is another mistake here; Colombo Yogurt from Methuen MA was the first commercial yogurt brand in US. It began in 1929.
The family name was Colombosian, which is Armenian. There are still many Armenian families living in the Merrimack valley. In my youth, along the fertile banks of the river, they were the farmers, and very successful. To this day, the crop farmers that remain are from Armenian decent.
Now Colombo yogurt is a General Mills company using the brand Yoplait.
When I was in college in the ‘70’s, there was a yogurt price war. There was Dannon, Colombo, and a few others that were ubiquitous. I think the regular price for 8-oz cups was about 6 for a buck but on occasion the price would be 8 or even 10 for a buck. Colombo was my favorite because they used whole milk, less sugar, and added milk solids for substance. Many people liked Dannon because of the sweetness though.
When I got out of college I answered a help wanted ad for an industrial engineer/supervisor so I replied and made a visit. The owner(s) were John Colombo and his CFO (they just sold to a French outfit for $millions). They hired me. It was a start-up plastics company.
During the time we were together I had many conversations with both of them and it was very interesting. John Colombo was the logistics manager, delivery guy, truck driver. (they had many drivers and trucks though as they filled up about 8 or ten a day making two runs a day to NY City area and beyond all the way to Chicago and Atlanta.)
The CFO said if they made yogurt like Dannon they would have made more money because low fat milk and sugar costs much less than whole milk and milk solids. Their brand was strong though. If I remember right, they were lucky to make a penny-and-a-half per serving net profit.
The origins of Ketchup are Chinese? I think its origins are found in India.
No kidding!
Survival foods: A boiled water soaked pack of Ramen noodles and spice packet in a bowl made for many a 25 cent “meal” for me in college and grad school. On weekends my friends and I would splurge on a cheap Mexican meal at La Perla in Glendale, AZ. Some of the best Mexican food I’ve ever had (90 percent of the clientele were Chicano).
There is one more historical fact that I thought might be interesting and certainly show how things were different 35 years ago.
The CFO I mentioned had very serious production/sales/delivery goals for each week. He had to sweat receiving the raw materials (trucks from VT dairies delivering at regular intervals) the cups and lids, and the other ingredients as they made and used much more than could be stored on-site each day. He had to sweat the cleanliness and working order of the dairy itself. The packing lines could not break down. He had to rely on the men and supervisors to maintain such a tight schedule.
He would on occasion, when all goals were met, send out a short truck to how many supermarkets was necessary to buy a case of beer for each employee. He would have it delivered about a half an hour before the end of the shift and they would drink until they punched out, taking the rest home with them (presumably drinking and driving; but in NH, it was not against the law then).
Can anyone imagine any successful company doing that today?
During those ‘lean’ years, I suddenly developed an interest in visiting the Hare Krishna group near Ohio State on High St. They had their Meditation Moment, and everybody was welcome to free food after that. Even as a young flexible man, I never could sit in that proper position, with both feet under my bottom. They didn’t care. I enjoyed the music, the incense, Oh, and the food! I told them I was examining different forms of worship.
College made me frugal and experimental as well.
Back before chicken wings were trendy, they were cheap. In the early 1980’s I was able to buy them for $.25 to $.50 a pound and they became my main source of protein. I would oven bake them with garlic powder and paprika and, just before I took them out of the oven, I would put thin slices of Velveeta cheese on them.
When I was REALLY poor, I made “pizza” out of English Muffins, ketchup, and Velveeta. Tasted better than it sounds.
Had a similar feeling of demonic evil at a TMI meeting a friend of mine had me go along with him to. He was heavily into it, to the point of attending the Maharishi Mahesh institute in Switzerland. They were promoting levitation as the next big stage in TMI development. There were several black suit guys at the meeting giving hard stares at anyone who questioned the whole premise.
Had a similar feeling of demonic evil at a TMI meeting a friend of mine had me go along with him to. He was heavily into it, to the point of attending the Maharishi Mahesh institute in Switzerland. They were promoting levitation as the next big stage in TMI development. There were several black suit guys at the meeting giving hard stares at anyone who questioned the whole premise.
You probably don’t want to know the story behind hot dogs.
Hunts has a separate “tangy” variety that is actually spicier than Heinz’. I like that one, it’s got a little bite to it.
Heh, you should look up some “depression recipes”, because what they made due with makes some of these “college recipes” sound kingly.
My grandma told us they made “Irish Spaghetti”, which was spaghetti noodles with ketchup for the sauce. They also made “poor man’s cake”, out of flour, raisins, and bacon drippings (because they couldn’t get butter). That actually tasted pretty good though, my mom still makes a variation of that recipe to this day.
I recall my “English Pizzas” too! Put into a toaster oven (pre-microwave), the ketchup developed a nice roasted flavor.
Heinz is owned by Teresa Heinz (S Africa) family, married to John Kerry, and I don’t care how good it tastes I will NOT support Muslims.
Nuk-mam.
Fig Newtons were very popular when I was growing up. Seemed that everybody had them in their lunch boxes at school. I think parents thought they were a health food because they had real fruit in them.
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