by Matt Siegel
56. developed a tolerance: Alejandra Borunda, “Koalas Eat Toxic Leaves to Survive—Now Scientists Know How,” National Geographic, July 2, 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/07/scientists-sequenced-the-koala-genome-to-save-them.
57. highly toxic to other mammals: Rebecca N. Johnson et al., “Adaptation and Conservation Insights from the Koala Genome,” Nature Genetics 50 (2018): 1102–11, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0153-5.
58. our decision to start: Richard Wrangham, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 83.
59. Cooking potatoes: Rachel N. Carmody and Richard W. Wrangham, “The Energetic Significance of Cooking,” Journal of Human Evolution 57, no. 4 (2009), 379–91.
60. properly cooking lima beans: “Should I Worry About the Cyanide in Lima Beans?,” OSU Extension Service, Oregon State University, https://extension.oregonstate.edu/families-health/nutrition/should-i-worry-about-cyanide-lima-beans.
61. water-soluble nutrients tend: Hong-Wei Xiao et al., “Recent Developments and Trends in Thermal Blanching—A Comprehensive Review,” Information Processing in Agriculture 4, no. 2 (2017): 101–27.
62. those that remain: Kristen J. Gremillion, Ancestral Appetites: Food in Prehistory (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 26.
63. cooking makes foods softer: Rachel N. Carmody, Gil S. Weintraub, and Richard W. Wrangham, “Energetic Consequences of Thermal and Nonthermal Food Processing,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108, no. 48 (2011): 19199–203.
64. Two of our closest relatives: Nicola Temple, Best Before: The Evolution and Future of Processed Food (London: Bloomsbury Sigma, 2018), Kindle ed.
65. about 14 percent less: Katherine D. Zink and Daniel E. Lieberman, “Impact of Meat and Lower Palaeolithic Food Processing Techniques on Chewing in Humans,” Nature 531, no. 7595 (2016): 500–03.
66. the redness of ripe: Rachel Herz, Why You Eat What You Eat: The Science Behind Our Relationship with Food (New York: Norton, 2017), Kindle ed.
67. just the name McDonald’s: Thomas N. Robinson et al., “Effects of Fast Food Branding on Young Children’s Taste Preferences,” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 161, no. 8 (2007): 792–97.
68. resulting in smaller jaws: Wrangham, Catching Fire, 40.
69. “Nutcracker Man”: “Paranthropus boisei,” Human Evolution Evidence, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/paranthropus-boisei.
70. modern stomachs and colons: Wrangham, Catching Fire, 43.
71. human jaw sizes: Temple, Best Before.
72. The adoption of forks and knives: Bee Wilson, Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat (New York: Basic Books, 2012), Kindle ed.
73. using roughly 20 percent: Wrangham, Catching Fire, 109.
74. “Our brains weigh”: Peter S. Ungar, Evolution’s Bite: A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017), 160.
75. “by which hard”: Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (New York: Appleton, 1889), 49.
76. “probably the greatest”: Ibid.
77. the shared development: Clive Gamble, J.A.J. Gowlett, and R.I.M. Dunbar, “The Social Brain and the Shape of the Palaeolithic,” in Lucy to Language: The Benchmark Papers, edited by R.I.M. Dunbar, Clive Gamble, and J.A.J. Gowlett (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014), 19–51.
78. children could be weaned: Wrangham, Catching Fire, 180.
79. This isn’t to suggest: Gamble et al., “The Social Brain and the Shape of the Palaeolithic.”
80. cooking also softened us: Wrangham, Catching Fire, 184.
81. natural and human selection: Reay Tannahill, Food in History (New York: Stein and Day, 1973), 31.
82. the Latin com: “Companion,” OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2020, www.oed.com/view/Entry/37402.
83. which our ancestors learned: Tannahill, Food in History, 31.
84. we started rounding: Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of Kitchen History (New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004), 553.
85. though much of Asia: Ibid., 211.
Chapter 2: Pie, Progress, and Plymouth Rock
1. “Take anything away”: David Macrae, The Americans at Home: Pen-and-Ink Sketches of American Men, Manners, and Institutions, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1870), 25.
2. “And we must”: David Mamet, Boston Marriage (New York: Random House, 2002), 34.
3. Boston Tea Party: James Trager, The Food Chronology: A Food Lover’s Compendium of Events and Anecdotes, from Prehistory to the Present (New York: Henry Holt, 1995), 172.
4. “indomitable perseverance”: F. W. Searle, “Pie, Progress, and Ptomaine-Poisoning,” Journal of Medicine and Science 4, no. 9 (1898): 353–55.
5. the first recipe: Samuel Pegge, The Forme of Cury (London: Society of Antiquaries, 1780), 119.
6. the apple itself originated: Bill Price, Fifty Foods That Changed the Course of History (New York: Firefly Books, 2014), 160.
7. “cleanse them well”: The Whole Duty of a Woman: Or, an Infallible Guide to the Fair Sex (London: Reed, 1737), 235.
8. The trick with pigeon pie: Ibid., 508.
9. “Get a hare”: Ibid., 509.
10. Thomas Coryat: Bee Wilson, Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat (New York: Basic Books, 2012), Kindle ed; “Thomas Coryat, World Traveller, Discovers That Italians Use Forks,” Wired, February 21, 2017.
11. only fork in America: Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of Kitchen History (New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004), 392.
12. called for keeping: Trudy Eden, Cooking in America, 1590–1840 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006), 24.
13. when the English did use: Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food, translated by Anthea Bell (Cambridge, UK: Blackwell, 1992), 634.
14. made with beef broth: Ina Lipkowitz, Words to Eat By: Five Foods and the Culinary History of the English Language (New York: Macmillan, 2011), 59.
15. during Lent, with cod’s liver: Constant Antoine Serrure and Peter Scholier, Keukenboek: Uitgegeven Naar een Handschrift der Vijftiende Eeuw (Ghent: Annoot-Braeckman, 1872), https://lib.ugent.be/catalog/rug01:001393558, 5. (Translation by Christianne Muusers available at www.coquinaria.nl/kooktekst/Edelikespijse1.htm#1.16.)
16. Its name comes: Patricia Bunning Stevens, Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1998), 254.
17. the word humble comes from: Ibid., 256.
18. “When European colonists”: Sally Smith Booth, Hung, Strung & Potted: A History of Eating in Colonial America (New York: Potter, 1971), 1.
19. “starving times”: James Trager, The Food Chronology: A Food Lover’s Compendium of Events and Anecdotes, from Prehistory to the Present (New York: Henry Holt, 1995), 113.
20. “Though there be fish”: John Smith, The Travels of Captaine John Smith, vol. 1 (New York: Macmillan, 1907), 149.
21. “We attempted to catch”: Ibid., 121–22.
22. people were eating better: Eden, Cooking in America, 1590–1840, xxv–xxvi.
23. “a little boye”: John Smith, The Complete Works of Captain John Smith, vol. 1, edited by Philip L. Barbour (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 342–43.
24. “the least boy”: Francis Higginson, New-Englands Plantation, with the Sea Journal and Other Writings (Salem, MA: Essex Book and Print Club, 1908), 97.
25. Others describe lobsters: Waverly Root and Richard de Rochement, Eating in America: A History (New York: Ecco, 1981), 51.
26. most of Europe was living: John F. Mariani, The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013), 4.
27. “fat barbacu’d Venison”: John Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina (London, 1709), 18.
28. a single cockle: Ibid., 157–61.
29. Others describe great migrations: Booth, Hung, S
trung & Potted, 96–97.
30. “as big as a child’s”: John Josselyn, New-Englands Rarities Discovered (Boston: American Antiquarian Society, 1860), 143–44.
31. feeding eight hungry men: Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina, 149.
32. “fat, sweet and fleshy”: Higginson, New-Englands Plantation, with the Sea Journal and Other Writings, 101.
33. “The Flesh of this Beast”: Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina, 116.
34. “great sexual prowess”: Booth, Hung, Strung & Potted, 69.
35. Lawson describes drinking: Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina, 116.
36. a writer in London: John L. Hess and Karen Hess, The Taste of America (New York: Viking, 1977), 28–29.
37. “Does he imagine”: Ibid.
38. others, such as figs: Booth, Hung, Strung & Potted, 155.
39. The first apple seeds arrived: Mariani, The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, 38.
40. a landowner in Virginia: Mark McWilliams, The Story Behind the Dish: Classic American Foods (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2012), 1.
41. parts of Ohio: Kenneth F. Kiple, A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 195.
42. providing much of the supply: Gregory McNamee, Movable Feasts: The History, Science, and Lore of Food (New York: Praeger, 2007), 15.
43. seventy varieties: McWilliams, The Story Behind the Dish, 1.
44. thirty-six of those varieties: Mariani, The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, 38.
45. some seventeen thousand new varieties: Andrew F. Smith, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, vol. 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 45.
46. a currency for barter: Ibid.
47. consuming a few hundred gallons: Booth, Hung, Strung & Potted, 155.
48. many fruits were sugared: Ibid., 158.
49. McDonald’s first dessert: “You Are Are the Apple to My Pie,” McDonald’s, July 4, 2016, https://news.mcdonalds.com/stories/about-our-food-details/you-are-apple-my-pie.
50. “The great beauty”: R. K. Munkittrick, “Munkittrick Camps Out,” Los Angeles Herald, September 18, 1891, 7.
51. one of the reasons: Bill Price, Fifty Foods That Changed the Course of History (New York: Firefly, 2014), 138.
52. “The pie is”: Quoted in McWilliams, The Story Behind the Dish, 2.
53. wheat was initially scarce: Andrew F. Smith, Eating History: 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 1.
54. “a great American institution”: “The Deflation of Pie,” The Nation, November 22, 1922, 542.
55. “gems”: Andrew F. Smith, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, vol. 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 130.
56. pie was so ubiquitous: Charles Dudley Warner, Back-log Studies and My Summer in a Garden (London: Ward Lock and Tyler, 1872), 24.
57. “This country was founded”: “The Deflation of Pie.”
58. “wage war upon the vices”: “Founding Prospectus,” The Nation, March 23, 2015, www.thenation.com/article/founding-prospectus.
59. “The present civil strife”: “A Dyspeptic Republic,” The Lancet, October 1, 1864, 388.
60. “the real social curse”: George Augustus Sala, My Diary in America in the Midst of War, vol. 1 (London: Tinsley Brothers, 1865), 238.
61. “the Great Pie Belt”: Quoted in “The Great Pie Belt,” Cambridge Tribune, November 23, 1895.
62. “An indiscreet and perhaps malevolent”: “The Pie Microbe,” New York Times, July 23, 1884.
63. “the food of the heroic”: “Pie,” New York Times, May 3, 1902.
64. “What’s the matter”: “The National Emblem” [from the Milwaukee Sentinel], Sacramento Daily Record-Union, July 13, 1889, 8.
65. the Reagan administration finally settled: Joint Resolution to Designate the Rose as the National Flower Emblem., Publ. L. No. 99–449, 100 Stat. 1128, 1986.
66. goldenrod and arbutus: Richard J. Hayden, “National Flowers,” Bulletin of Popular Information, Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University 6, no. 1 (1938): 4.
67. substantially taller than the British: Kiple, A Movable Feast, 197.
68. The majority of roses: Max Fisher, “There’s a 1 in 12 Chance Your V-Day Flowers Were Cut by Child Laborers,” The Atlantic, February 14, 2012.
69. having imported American apples: David Karp, “It’s Crunch Time for the Venerable Pippin,” New York Times, November 5, 2003, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/dining/it-s-crunch-time-for-the-venerable-pippin.html.
70. introduced the English: McNamee, Movable Feasts, 15.
71. “For my own part”: Benjamin Franklin, The Life of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 3, edited by John Bigelow (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1875), 252–53.
72. “chicken of Turkey”: Dan Jurafsky, The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu (New York: Norton, 2014), 68.
73. “Do not suppose”: Henry Ward Beecher, Eyes and Ears (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1862), 254.
74. “Sown by chance”: Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food, 623.
Chapter 3: Breakfast of Champions
1. “It tastes like all”: Sanitas Nut Food Company, Sanitas Nut Preparations and Specialties (Battle Creek, MI: Review and Herald Publishing Company, 1898).
2. “In this fast age”: Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1909), 325.
3. a morning staple: “Nielsen Podcast Insights, A Marketer’s Guide to Podcasting, Q1 2018,” Nielsen Company, March 20, 2018.
4. One of the reasons: Michael Park, “How to Buy Food: The Psychology of the Supermarket,” Bon Appétit, October 30, 2014, www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/how-to/article/supermarket-psychology.
5. Trix over Fruity Pebbles: Aviva Musicus, Aner Tal, and Brian Wansink, “Eyes in the Aisles: Why Is Cap’n Crunch Looking Down at My Child?” Environment and Behavior 47, no. 7 (2015): 715–33.
6. egg consumption has dropped: Judith Jones Putnam and Jane E. Allshouse, Food Consumption, Prices, and Expenditures, 1970–97, Statistical Bulletin no. 965, Food and Rural Economics Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1999, 18.
7. people tend to consume: Pleunie S. Hogenkamp et al., “Intake During Repeated Exposure to Low- and High-Energy-Dense Yogurts by Different Means of Consumption,” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 91, no. 4 (2010): 841–47.
8. “unit bias”: K. McCrickerd and C. G. Forde, “Sensory Influences on Food Intake Control: Moving Beyond Palatability,” Obesity Reviews 17, no. 1 (2016): 18–29.
9. “cheerleader effect”: Cindi May, “The Cheerleader Effect,” Scientific American, December 3, 2013, www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-cheerleader-effect.
10. the Pavlovian response: Keri McCrickerd, Lucy Chambers, and Martin R. Yeomans, “Fluid or Fuel? The Context of Consuming a Beverage Is Important for Satiety,” PLOS ONE 9, no. 6 (2014): e100406.
11. was 34 percent sugar: “Children’s Cereals: Sugar by the Pound,” Environmental Working Group, May 2014, 7.
12. 55 percent sugar by weight: Ibid., 10.
13. updated the recipe: Natasha Blakely, “Honey Smacks will soon be back on the shelves after recall of Kellogg cereal,” USA Today, October 23, 2018.
14. 36-gram serving size: “Kellogg’s. Honey Smacks. Cereal,” Kellogg’s Smart Label, May 5, 2020, http://smartlabel.kelloggs.com/Product/Index/00038000391033.
15. “depraved desire”: John Harvey Kellogg, Plain Facts for Old and Young (Burlington, VT: Segner and Condit, 1881), 112.
16. decades after his death: Andrew F. Smith, Food and Drink in American History: A Full Course Encyclopedia, vol. 1 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2013), 409.
17. “the rude state of nature”: Sylvester Graham, Lectures on the Science of Human Life (New York: Fowler and Wells, 1869), 16.
18. “his body in the skins”: Ibid.
19. a messenge
r of God: Gerald Carson, Cornflake Crusade (New York: Rinehart, 1957).
20. provoked an armed riot: Ibid.
21. accusing butchers of selling: Graham, Lectures on the Science of Human Life, 195.
22. using spoiled flour: Sylvester Graham, A Treatise on Bread, and Bread-Making (Boston: Light and Stearns, 1837), 44–45.
