Lecture 6. Hot dogs. Tad Dorgan, a sports cartoonist, gave the frankfurter its nickname in 1906American Food and Drink. Hot dogs. Tad Dorgan, a sports cartoonist, gave the frankfurter its nickname in 1906. Chewing it at a baseball game, he concluded that it resembled a dachshund’s body and put that whimsy into a drawing, which he captioned “Hot Dog!” Sausages go all the way back to the ancient Babylon, but the hot dog was brought to the US shortly before the Civil War by a real Frankfurter – Charles Feltman, a native of Frankfurt, Germany, who opened a stand in New York and sold grilled sausages on warmed rolls. Hamburgers. Modern hamburgers on a bun were first served at a St. Louis Fair in 1904, but Americans really began eating them in quantity in the 1920s, when the White Castle snack bar chain featured a small, square patty at a very low price. Chopped beef, tasty and easily prepared, quickly caught on as family fare. The history of the hamburger dates back to medieval Europe. A Tartar dish of shredded raw beef seasoned with salt and onion juice was brought from Russia to Germany by early German sailors. The lightly broiled German chopped-beef cake, with pickles and pumpernickel on the side, was introduced to America in the early 1800s by German immigrants in the Midwest. Doughnuts. It was early Dutch settlers and the Pennsylvania Germans who introduced the deep-fried doughnut to America. To the Dutch it was a festive food, eaten for breakfast on Shrove Sunday. Legend has it that the doughnut got its hole in 1847 when Hanson Gregory, a lad later to become a sea captain, complained to his mother that her fried cakes were raw in the center and poked holes in the next portion before they were cooked. During World War I, when the Salvation Army served them to the troops, doughnuts really took off as a popular fare. Since then, coffee and doughnuts have become a national institution. Stores sell them plain, sugared, frosted, honey-dipped, or jam-filled. Apple pie. At its best, with a savory filling and crisp, light-brown crust, apple pie has long been a favorite on American tables. Apples and apple seeds were among the precious supplies the early colonists brought to the New World. The first large apple orchards were planted near Boston by William Blaxton in the 1600s. When he moved to Rhode Island in 1635, he developed the tart Rhode Island Greening, still considered one of America’s finest apple pies. As the fruit became abundant, many settlers ate apple pie at every meal. Garnished with a chunk of cheese, it was a favorite colonial breakfast dish. By the 18th century apple pie had become so popular, that Yale College in New Haven served it every night at supper for more than 100 years. America’s love affair with apple pie has remained constant. Today’s housewives, pressed for time, can shortcut the tradition by buying the pastry ready-made at bakeries and supermarkets. Many variations on the good old original are available, but the classical apple pie, irresistible when topped with a slice of cheese or slathered with vanilla ice – cream, is still America’s favorite. Potato chips. George Crumb, an American Indian who was the chef at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, in the mid-19th century, was tired when a finicky dinner guest kept sending back his French fried potatoes, complaining that they were too thick. In anger, Crumb shaved the potatoes into tissue-thin slices and deep fried them in oil. He had a dishful of crisp “Saratoga chips” presented to the guest, who was delighted with the new treat. Potato chips became the specialty of Moon’s Lake House and, later, America’s crunchiest between meals snack. Coca-Cola. America’s best known soft drink was first concocted by an Atlanta pharmacist in 1886. The syrup was cooked up by John S. Pemberton from extracts of coca leaves and the kola nut. He then organized the Pemberton Chemical Company, and Coca-Cola syrup mixed with plain water was sold in local drug-stores for five cents a glass. Sales were slow until in 1887 a prosperous Atlanta druggist, Asa G. Candler, bought the Coca-Cola formula – then as now a carefully guarded secret – and added carbonated water to the syrup instead of plain water. Advertisements stressing the words “delicious” and “refreshing” and carrying coupons for free Coca-Cola added to the increase in consumption. A system of independent local bottling companies was developed, and the flared bottle, familiar worldwide and said to resemble the hobble skirt, was designed in 1916. In 1919 the company was sold out for $25 million to a group headed by Ernest Woodruff. Under his son, Robert W. Woodruff, Coca-Cola rapidly expanded its market. By the mid-1970s more than 150 million Cokes a day were sold in countries all over the world. Today Coca-Cola has to compete with many other soft drinks, but it is still one of the symbols of the United States.
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