Explore the history behind American food, grocery staples, and the everyday foods that shaped how we eat and shop.
On October 6, 1961, President Kennedy went on national television and told Americans to prepare for nuclear war. Congress backed it up fast, voting $169 million that same year for a nationwide fallout shelter program. Families dug basements into bunkers, and the Federal Civil Defense Administration handed out pamphlets telling them exactly what to put…
Everyone has had the experience. You buy a tomato that looks perfect, deep even red all the way around, no blemishes, and you slice it open and it tastes of almost nothing. Water and a faint sourness. You blame the season, or the store, or your own memory of better tomatoes. Your memory is right….
The judging stage was decorated with dead chickens. June 24, 1948, Georgetown, Delaware. Boxes of carcasses from every contestant were arranged around the platform, along with frozen cross-sections of the highest-scoring birds so the assembled experts could examine the meat in profile. Outside, a parade was forming. There were floats showing the stages of the…
In 1952, in Rockford, Illinois, a group of men set out to determine, scientifically, the correct flavor of bread. They were not cranks. The project ran with the involvement of the Department of Agriculture and the leading figures of the industrial baking world. It took years. Participants have referred to it since as the Manhattan…
