Seven Fun and Interesting Food and Kitchen Facts

           Would you pay $3,000 for a microwave oven?  That was the cost of The Radarange, the first microwave oven.  The year was 1947.  So much for things being cheaper in the olden days.

          We can credit Clarence Birdseye for starting the decline in home cooking.  In 1924, he developed quick-freezing technology.  Frozen dinners were born. 

          Did you think snack foods were relatively new?  I did until I learned that two brothers from Chicago started selling the first mass-produced packaged snack food in 1895.  It was molasses-covered peanuts and popcorn and they named it Cracker Jack.    

         The idea of organic is also older than you think.  It was 1942 when Jerome Rodale codified the fundamental principles of organic farming in his magazine Organic Gardening. 

         It wasn’t until 1896, upon the completion of the transcontinental railroad, that the east coast got its first taste of California produce. 

        Speaking of produce, do you like bananas?  They were introduced at a tropical-plant exhibit in 1876 in Philadelphia.  They were ten cents apiece which sounds like a lot of money for 1876.  My husband’s uncle was born in Italy.  He saw a banana for the first time when he arrived in America as an immigrant.  He didn’t know he was supposed to peel the fruit so the first time he tried it he ate it with its peel! 

        The gold rush of 1848 brought more than gold to Americans.  It also brought a wave of Chinese immigrants.  With that wave came the first Chinese restaurants.  But dining out had already become popular.  In 1827, the Delmonico brothers opened a café in New York City and for a time is was the most famous eatery in the country. 

       I guess everything new really is old. 

       All of these fun facts came from Saveur Magazine issue #124.  The editors got their information from Andrew Smith’s book Eating History: 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine.  Colombia University Press, August 2009.         

Cooking is easier than you think and you and your family are worth the time and effort it takes. 

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