food history

Tubman's role as a professional cook has often been overlooked. She self-funded many of her heroic raids to rescue slaves through an activity she enjoyed and excelled at: cooking.

Many food riots broke out during Shakespeare's era. Endless rain wiped out crops, and speculators profited (including the bard). The chaos and anxiety around food show up in some of his famous works.

The wine associated with Jewish tradition was once a huge crossover success. At one point, the typical drinker was described as an urban African-American man.

References to obscure foods abound in Shakespeare. Know your codlings from carbonadoes? Your umbles from jumbles? We crack open Renaissance cookbooks to figure out how to feast like the Bard.

From British colonials who fell in love with "curry powder" in India, to Koreans who encountered the taste in Imperial Japan, the story of curry is one of globalization writ on a dish.

In March 1867, the U.S. purchased Alaska. This igloo-shaped, torched-meringue dessert came as a fringe benefit. Was it a sweet flash of genius, political satire — or maybe a bit of both?

The patron saint of Ireland was born to high status in Britain, then stolen away by pirates as a teen. It's a life story with plenty of fodder to cook up an unexpected, historically inspired menu.

From Pythagoras to Balzac, Darwin to Marie Curie, many a genius was inspired by certain edibles, repulsed by others — or had some very peculiar dining habits.

British tea drinking is on the decline. U.K. leaders might have welcomed such news in the 1970s, when the length of the tea break became a major point of political contention.

Finding bread alternatives may seem like a thoroughly modern obsession. But during both world wars, consumers were urged to give up their white bread habit for the national good.