My grandmother, who was born in Watford in 1930, just passed away last night. I run a small bakery and would like to honour her a little bit by making some interesting baked goods she might have grown up eating. I’m open to sweet or savoury, but am more interested in unusual or less commonly known ideas. Thanks so much.

Modern packages can carry several dates—“sell by,” “best before,” and “use by”—even though they do not all mean the same thing.

When did manufacturers begin printing these dates for ordinary shoppers rather than using only internal batch or stock codes? I’m especially curious whether the shift began with retailers managing inventory, food-safety regulation, or consumer demand, and which country or product category adopted it first.

I've always wondered how could an ordinary working person be able to meet their needs in terms of a daily calorie intake especially during the Middle Ages and also in the beginning of the Modern Age.

Given the hard work and often scarsity of food I imagine people must have been in a calorie deficit majority of the time. I guess there were times with more food or less food during the year and also during their life but still weren't they mainly starving? How did they get the energy to work?

I know it's a broad question, thank you for any comments that help me understand this.

Did only the rich drink it? Or was it readily available? How was the quality of the coffee? Was cream and sugar added? These are all things I'm curious about.

Yes, I know salad (raita/pachadi/koshmbir) is a common dish. But most vegetable dishes I know are sautéed (e.g. sabzi).

If I compare it to malatang style dishes or banh mi, for example, other Asian cuisines seem to have fresh, raw vegetables or otherwise minimally processed vegies (like daikon and pickled carrot).

Are there any regions of India where fresh vegetables are eaten regularly in other dishes?

Has this traditionally been the case in the subcontinent or is it a recent development following conquest, globalisation and population increase? Or is it not the case at all?

And if I am mistaken please enlighten me. My mother (raised in India) and I got to talking about this and I am curious as to the history behind it.

Thanks in advance.

Hello,

Alrighty, so I am on a mission to see where the origins of bumbleberry pie are. On Wikipedia, it says it's part of Canadian cuisine. So I told my Canadian friend about it and he acted like it was fake and not true and an insult (as a joke of course). I also read that it has origins in a restaurant in Zion National Park but that was in like 1960s. He chooses to believe this. I however, don't think that because it seems unlikely that it took all the way to 1960 for someone to try mixing berries together in a pie. I say it has to be something like logging communities during 1800s or something between both Canada and the US. That general area near Minesota and across the border but also more east for both. But who knows. Hoping to get some insight.

Thank you!

I'm just wondering if anyone has (or knows of any) collections of recipes that were used in northern lumber camps in the 19th century. Places like Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, etc. that had major logging operations that ran on huge quantities of food, that was apparently quite excellent, must have resulted in some kind of record keeping. Is anyone aware of any resources that can point me in a direction on this topic?

I am curious about the average meals they would have had but I am also interested in what was uncommon for a meal but not rare.

Hi! I’m very curious about the different types of dishes involved in rituals/religious/folk customs and practices, especially in (but not limited to) Southeast Asia. For example, how Nian Guo is offered to the Kitchen God and how Tumpeng is often seen in Javanese ceremonies.

I’d like to learn more about such dishes were chosen for these events and how they became imbued with meaning, and why certain communities place such focus on food while others not so much. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

I’ve been wondering why certain food preferences seem to be particularly strong in different parts of the world.
For example, many South Asian cuisines use a lot of chili and strong spices; parts of China are famous for very spicy food, while other Chinese cuisines often use noticeable sweetness. Southern Turkish cuisine can be quite spicy, Georgian cuisine has many flour/dough-based dishes, and across parts of the former Soviet Union, bread is traditionally eaten alongside almost everything.

Obviously these aren’t universal rules, and there are huge differences within each country. But I’m curious about the historical reasons behind these regional food cultures.

How much of this can be explained by things like:
climate and agriculture which crops were historically available, food preservation, trade and migration
historical poverty, famine, or food shortages,
cultural traditions passed down through generations,
biology/adaptation to certain ingredients
or simply cultural preference that developed over time?

For example, I’ve heard explanations for the heavy use of potatoes and bread in some post-Soviet cuisines involving periods of food scarcity and the need for filling, inexpensive foods. Is there a similar historical explanation for why some regions developed a strong preference for extremely spicy food, very sweet/savoury combinations, or flour-based foods?

Kind of a crossover between r/history and r/cooking

Ok so I was just watching a German comedy/cooking show where the presenter said that he was gonna cook some potato pancakes since they were invented in cologne (where the show was filmed) and immediately was internally like lol nope if you really want to go back to history then they're Jewish latkes but then thought about how every culture Basically has a potato pancake (for example Irish boxty Slavic draniki etc.) so that made me wonder what are the earliest reliable source for potato pancakes?

I feel like I can eat soup everyday! I have a mini worry about my teeth not chewing into stuff like meats. I heard somewhere if you don’t use ‘em you lose ‘em. Oh, however, when I make my soups I have chunks of vegetables and meats in there. And there’s another version of soup I make with roasted veggies that I will put in there blender until it’s smooth and serve hot with a side of grilled cheese.

To add, our version of soup isn’t like primarily liquid, it’s more like Caribbean soup.

Also I’m considering weight loss; do you figure consuming soups much more regularly would help me shes a few pounds?

Like was the heat a completely new flavor for them? I know they had some pungent ingredients like mustard, black pepper, horseradish, but that wouldn't be anything comparable to like a habanero. Do we have any accounts of explorers or people back in Europe's first opinions on peppers?

I’m trying to remember the name of a show that aired on PBS in the late ’90s or early 2000s, on Saturday mornings. I would have watched it on PBS Plattsburgh or Vermont PBS.

It was a short educational show about the Columbian Exchange, with at least some animated segments. Each episode focused on a different food/crop and its history—one was about tomatoes, another about corn, etc.

Does anyone remember what this show was called? And, even better, does anyone know where I might be able to watch or find it today?

Thanks!

Let’s assume I keep a strictly kosher diet. What is my bread like? Do I have access to kosher wine or am I making it by myself? What vegetables am I growing in my garden

Did they come directly from Denmark, or via the USA (or elsewhere) when did they come and were they in any way different from what we now call a pain aux raisins?

Thank you

In general I'm curious about ancient salad dressing.

Never knew the history of Lemonade was so interesting. I wish people would walk around with tanks of lemonade on their back now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMp-a-W5FtY. I also wish we had fruit before it was mass produced. I bet the flavor was much better! It's also crazy that honey was cheaper that sugar back in the day.

I've been looking through old menus and noticed that under "Entremêts" there will often be two or so sweet dishes. Since someone of these menus end with entremêts, I assumed they were dessert. However some more elaborate menus list entremêts, then sometimes ices (which i get, ice creams were considered a separate kind of dessert), and THEN "dessert", under which then nothing is listed. So, which is the dessert course? And why is nothing usually listed under dessert?

I was wondering how a grain that has to be so highly processed before consumption as wheat was domesticated and its processing discovered. Domestication would make sense if it could be consumed raw and then other uses were found.

Thanks and sorry for the corny title 🙈.

In your country, are there traditional dishes that people still associate with regional identity or historical traditions? Why are they important?

What does a traditional dish from your country mean to you?

Is it something you eat regularly, a special occasion food, or more of a traditional dish that people know about but don't actually eat very often?

I'm a Japanese middle school student doing a school presentation about European food culture, and I'm interested not only in the history of traditional dishes, but also in how people today actually perceive and eat them.

I'd love to hear from people from different European countries or people who have grown up with these foods. What does this dish represent to you? Has the way you eat it or think about it changed over time?

I'd also be interested to know whether there are any common misconceptions foreigners have about this dish or your country's food culture.

I am talking specifically about the time right before the discovery of the new world and food that comes with it and the decline in the cultural use of spices after control of the spice trade, around 1300-1500 CE. I always wondered, was the aristocratic food relational with aristocratic south asian cuisine with high use of spices with meat, or something else? also specifically looking for information regarding italy (specficially central-northern like Genoa or Venice)