What’s the Story Behind that Food in Your Mouth?

The origins of everyday foods we consume tell stories that are no less fascinating than when we peer into the histories of art, language, science or politics.

Who knew, for example, that ancient Egyptians grew watermelons? As evidenced by early drawings, they were grown throughout semi-arid sections of the African continent, serving as an important source of water during dry spells.

Or long before Jiffy Pop debuted those aluminum foil pans filled with corn kernels in 1959, which our grandparents shook vigorously on stoves to get them popping, the Aztecs were parching corn similarly. They used the “bursts” to camp up their ceremonial headdresses.

When it comes to the contentious battle over who invented pizza, most culinary historians credit the Greeks for rolling out the earliest forerunner of the dish when they occupied southern Italy between 730 and 130 B.C. They reportedly developed a flattened, round bread topped with herbs, onions, garlic, oil and cheese.

It’s said that modern pizza, consisting of red tomatoes, green basil, and white mozzarella cheese on a crust, was created in Naples in 1889 to represent the colors of the Italian flag. But when in Rome, some locals insist it was their ancestors who first created the dish, when in ancient times the region’s bakers made focaccia-type bread and ate it with garlic, onions and flamingo tongue. Yet veteran chefs say that counts as “pizza” about as much as something you’d get from Papa John’s.

In combing through the annals of culinary history, we’re reminded that the commercial foods we buy in nifty, modern-day packages can be as old as the hills.

The late 1800s, in particular, was a prolific time for processed inventions, when things like Tootsie Rolls, Aunt Jemima pancake mix, Coca-Cola, Fig Newtons, and Campbell’s Tomato Soup descended onto the mass market.

Then just past the century mark, Americans saw the emergence of peanut butter, A-1 Sauce, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, and the much celebrated ice cream cone, doled out at the 1904 World’s Fair in Saint Louis after the concessionaire ran out of paper cups. Facing long customer lines on a hot day, he reportedly turned to a nearby waffle vendor who supplied the waffles as a wrap for the ice cream.

Mayonnaise, which is now reviled by today’s healthy eaters, was actually considered a delicacy suited for the most elegant meals throughout Europe some 200 years ago. It wasn’t until 1912 that German immigrant Richard Hellman began packing and selling it in jars from his New York deli that mayonnaise would become a staple in salads and sandwiches—and not something reserved only for aristocrats.

Also once reserved for the upper classes was eggnog, referred to as “egg flip” throughout early 19th-century England. The concoction, made from eggs beaten with sugar, milk or cream, and some kind of spirit, traveled well to this side of the Atlantic and became significantly more affordable in the U.S., where egg and dairy farms were plentiful.

The recipe for chili remains steeped in dispute, although most culinary experts insist that it didn’t originate from Mexico, as many believed. According to an old Southwestern American Indian tale, since supported by various modern writers, the first recipe for chili con carne was put on paper in the 17th century by a beautiful nun, Sister Mary Agreda of Spain. She was known to the Indians of the Southwest as “La Dama de Azul,” or “the lady in blue.” But she didn’t live long enough to earn herself a blue ribbon from America’s popular chili cook-offs that began sprouting up throughout Texas in the early 1900s.

And finally there’s the inventor of canned food, a critical necessity that home cooks and professional chefs can’t do without. French brewer and confectioner Nicolas Appert supposedly spent 14 years experimenting with the process of canning fruits and vegetables safely in glass jars, which finally earned him a reward of 12,000 francs from Napoleon. The innovation became highly useful among the French Navy and then spread to other armed forces throughout Europe.

But it was an Englishman named Peter Durand who took Appert’s revolutionary achievement and obtained a patent for it in 1810. Shortly afterwards, Durand used tin coated steel canisters and soldered them shut to preserve all sorts of everyday edibles—food for thought the next time you succumb to a sad meal of spaghetti and meatballs by Chef Boyardee.