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Dole pineapple cookbook featuring a pineapple upside down cake and a can of Dole sliced pineapple.

American Food Traditions That Started as Marketing Ploys

Your grandma didn't invent that recipe.
by Diana Hubbell via Atlas Obscura on September 30, 2024
Collage of meat products emerging from Pat Buchanan's head.

How Food Became a Weapon in The Right’s Culture Wars

First came the politics of right-wing grievance. Then came the new foodie culture. Together, they combined to create one toxic food fight.
by Brent Cunningham via The Nation on December 12, 2022
Cup of eggnog with cinnamon

From Weddings to Riots, Everything to Know About Eggnog's History

People have been drinking eggnog for hundreds of years. Here's where it originated and how it became a traditional holiday drink.
by Marianne Dhenin via Wine Enthusiast on December 7, 2022
La Choy cans and food

The Korean Immigrant and Michigan Farm Boy Who Taught Americans How to Cook Chow Mein

La Choy cans are a familiar sight in American grocery stores, but behind this 100-year-old brand is a story fit for Hollywood.
by Cathy Erway via TASTE on May 3, 2022
Exhibit

American Foodways

This exhibit explores the history of the ways Americans eat, from the influences on our cooking to the regional specificities of our meals to the ways we celebrate around family tables.
Yams under concrete with the leaves growing out of a crack in the sidewalk

The Deep and Twisted Roots of the American Yam

The American yam is not the food it says it is. How that came to be is a story of robbery, reinvention, and identity.
by Lex Pryor via The Ringer on November 24, 2021

What Happened to Peanut Butter and Jelly?

The rise and fall of the iconic sandwich has paralleled changes in Americans' economic conditions.
by Steve Estes, Ashawnta Jackson via JSTOR Daily on July 8, 2021
James Beard cooking illustration

How James Beard Invented American Cooking

The gourmet’s real genius wasn’t in his recipes but in his packaging. He knew how to serve up the authenticity that his audiences craved.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on October 5, 2020

A Brief History of America’s Appetite for Macaroni and Cheese

Popularized by Thomas Jefferson, this versatile dish fulfills our nation’s quest for the ‘cheapest protein possible.’
by Gordon Edgar via What It Means to Be American on May 29, 2018

The Flavour Revolutionary

Henry Theophilus Finck sought to transform the modern United States, by appealing to Americans' tastebuds.
by Nadia Berenstein via Aeon on December 19, 2017
Sketch of a mother carrying a large platter while children around her run and cheer.

A Backlash Against 'Mixed' Foods Led to the Demise of a Classic American Dish

In the 19th century, puddings were as popular and widespread as pasta dishes are today.
by Helen Zoe Veit via The Conversation on November 20, 2017

The Tater Tot Is American Ingenuity at Its Finest

The genius move that turned potato scraps into a frozen-food empire
by Kelsey McKinney via Eater on August 28, 2017
Colonial kitchen historic house display.

Mild, Medium, or Hot?

How Americans went from adventurous eaters to plain janes—and then back again.
by Sarah Lohman via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 3, 2017

How the Chili Dog Transcended America's Divisions

The national dish is really a fusion of immigrant fare.
by Christina Olson via The Atlantic on March 2, 2017

How the US Military Helped Invent Cheetos

How the US military figured out how to make self-stable cheese ... and helped invent Cheetos to boot.
by Anastacia Marx De Salcedo via Wired on August 7, 2015
A collage of processed food, including Tang, a frozen dinner, Spam, and Jello, over an image of Spaghettios.

SpaghettiOs and the Age of Processed Foods

After World War II, canned foods became more and more common, along with a smorgasbord of pre-prepared, processed foods such as SpaghettiOs.
by Aaron George via Origins on May 12, 2015

Food in America and American Foodways

Rachel Herrmann asks whether there’s such a thing as “American food.”
by Rachel B. Herrmann via The Junto on July 3, 2013
Jennifer 8 Lee.

The Hunt for General Tso

The origins of Chinese-American dishes, and the spots where these two cultures have combined to form a new cuisine.
by Jennifer 8 Lee via TED on July 1, 2008

The Ketchup Conundrum

Mustard now comes in dozens of varieties. Why has ketchup stayed the same?
by Malcolm Gladwell via The New Yorker on September 6, 2004

‘On the Brink of Extinction’: A Food Historian’s Hunt for Ingredients Vanishing from U.S. Plates

Disappearing foods – and why they need protecting.
by Emily Cataneo via The Guardian on November 5, 2023
A woman volunteering with the Salvation Army serving doughnuts to American servicemen.

We Have the Salvation Army to Thank for the Hipster Doughnut

Even during the worst of war, the ring-shaped confections offered a bite of joy and a much-needed morale boost to weary soldiers during World War I.
by Claudia Geib via Eater on October 24, 2023
Retro style American diner.

The Myth of the American Diner

Diners have always been considered a model of culinary democratization in the American public consciousness, but can they really be for everyone?
by Jaya Saxena via Eater on June 12, 2023
The women of the Source Family pose on a Rolls-Royce for an ad for the release of a recording of the cult's band, Ya Ho Wha 13.

The Cult Roots of Health Food in America

How the Source Family, a radical 1970s utopian commune, still impacts what we eat today.
by Diana Hubbell via Atlas Obscura on April 19, 2023
A fast food worker working a drive thru hands a bag to a customer in a car.

A History of the Drive-Thru, From California to Coronavirus

COVID-19 has recast the often-maligned restaurant drive-thru window as both a critical amenity and a basic comfort.
by Adam Chandler via Serious Eats on April 1, 2023
Collage of a farm with a large sun in the background and a cooking show on a TV.

What California Cuisine’s Past Tells Us About Its Future

Into the 1980s, the heart of the California food revolution was also a hub of French fine dining. Why did the goat cheese and sundried tomatoes win?
by Meghan McCarron via Eater on January 19, 2023
Slice of pecan pie.

Guess Which Brand Popularized Pecan Pie

This delicious sticky treat has quite the American origin story.
by Rossi Anastopoulo via Slate on November 24, 2022
Photo of Franklin Delano Roosevelt grilling hot dogs.

Why American Leaders Relish Hot-Dog Diplomacy

For 80 years, wieners have been an essential component of foreign policy.
by Doug Mack via Atlas Obscura on June 17, 2022
Chickens walking in front of Heinz, Velveeta, and Coca-Cola.

Why Do We Eat Bad Food?

Mark Bittman’s new history looks at the economy and politics of junk food.
by Bill McKibben via The Nation on May 18, 2021
Photograph of Prince's Hot Chicken restaurant superimposed over a photograph of an empty shopping center

Notes on Hot Chicken, Race, and Culinary Crossover

How does Black food go viral among white folks?
by Cynthia R. Greenlee via The Counter on May 11, 2021
Abandoned Howard Johnson's restaurant overgrown with vegetation.

Howard Johnson’s, Host of the Bygone Ways

For more than seven decades American roads were dotted with the familiar orange roof and blue cupola of the ubiquitous Howard Johnson’s restaurants and Motor Lodges.
via Sometimes Interesting on October 15, 2020
Spoonfuls of different types of sugar: white and brown, granulated and cubed.

Corn, Coke, and Convenience Food

How high-fructose corn syrup became an American staple.
by Hope Jahren via Literary Hub on March 6, 2020
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