Food History - December
FOOD HISTORY - December
December 1 - National Pie Day
1885 - Dr. Pepper was sold for the first time.
December 2 - National Fritters Day
2000 - The music group, ‘The Smashing Pumpkins’, played their final concert in Chicago before breaking up.
December 3 - National Ice Cream Box Day
1842 - Ellen Swallow Richards was born. She was one of the founders of the Home Economics movement in the US.
December 4 - National Cookie Day
1970 - Cesar Chavez, a Mexican-American labour leader and civil rights activist, was jailed in California for refusing to cancel a United Farm Workers’ lettuce boycott.
December 5 - National Sacher Torte Day
2006 - New York became the first US city to ban artificial trans fats in restaurant food when the Board of Health voted to ban them on this day.
December 6 - National Gazpacho Day
1945 - The microwave oven was patented.
December 7 - National Cotton Candy Day
1926 - The Electrolux Servel Corp. received the first US patent for a household refrigerator cooled by a sealed gas refrigerant.
December 8 - National Brownie Day
2006 - A smoking ban in all bars and restaurants in Nevada went into effect.
December 9 - National Pastry Day
1886 - Clarence Birdseye was born in Brooklyn, New York. In 1924 he started the General Seafood Corporation and thus gave birth to the frozen food industry.
December 10 - National Lager Day
1877 - Dr. Jared Kirtland died. A physician and botanist, he was credited with developing 26 varieties of cherries and six varieties of pears.
December 11 - National Noodle-Ring Day
1874 - James Lewis Kraft was born. In 1916 he patented pasteurized process cheese, a low cost cheese that would not spoil. The US army purchased over 6 million tins of it during WWI and it later became popular with the public during the Depression.
December 12 - National Ambrosia Day
1929 - Charles Goodnight died. He devised the first ‘chuckwagon’ from an army wagon in the mid-1800s. The chuckwagon became essential for carrying food and cooking equipment on the prairies of the US and Canada, feeding nomadic workers like cowboys and loggers.
December 13 - National Cocoa Day
1838 - Pierre-Marie-Alexis Millardet was born. A French botanist, he saved the vineyards of France from total destruction by the phylloxera (an insect) by grafting the French vines on American rootstock (which was resistant to phylloxera).
December 14 - National Bouillabaisse Day
1943 - John Harvey Kellogg died. A physician and health food pioneer, he developed the first breakfast cereals (granola) for his patients at the Battlecreek Sanitarium. His famous brother William K. Kellogg went on to found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. that produced cornflakes.
Decemeber 15 - National Cupcake Day
1903 - Italo Marchiony received a patent for an ice cream cup mold, made with waffle-like dough, and thus the modern ice cream cone was born.
December 16 - National Chocolate-Covered- Anything Day
1863 - Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought ‘The Haystack’, an Amsterdam brewery dating back to 1592, and turned it into Heineken Beer.
December 17 - National Maple Syrup Day
1843 - Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ was published. It contains numerous and elaborate descriptions of Christmas food.
December 18 - National Roast Suckling Pig Day
1965 - Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass’ “Taste of Honey’ was # 1 on the charts.
December 19 - National Oatmeal Muffin Day
1863 - Frederick Walton of London patented Linoleum, which later became standard kitchen flooring.
December 20 - National Sangria Day
1968 - American novelist, John Steinbeck, died. Some of his titles: ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, ‘Tortilla Flats’ and ‘Cannery Row’.
December 21 - National French Fried Shrimp Day
2000 - New standards were set for all organic food produced in the US. Only food that qualified could bear the seal that reads ‘USDA Organic’.
December 22 - National Date Nut Bread Day
1985 - In Destin, Florida, the largest grouper ever caught with rod and reel was hauled in at a weight of 436 lbs.
December 23 - National Pfeffernuesse Day
1675 - Charles II of England issued a proclamation suppressing Coffee Houses, believing they promoted idleness and adverse conversation about his Majesty’s government. The public response was so negative that he revoked the proclamation the following year.
December 24 - National Egg Nog Day
1968 - Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Heard It From the Grapevine’ became # 1 on the charts.
December 25 - National Pumpkin Pie Day
1946 - The musician, Jimmy Buffet, was born. He is known for ‘Cheeseburger In Paradise’ and ‘Margaritaville’.
December 26 - National Candy Cane Day
1865 - James H. Mason received the first US patent for a coffee percolator.
December 27 - National Fruitcake Day
1822 - Louis Pasteur was born. He developed the process of killing bad organisms in food by heat, called ‘pasteurization’.
December 28 - Eat Vegetarian Day
1763 - John Madison was born. He was the founder of the Molson Brewery in Canada.
December 29 - National Chocolate Again Day
1997 - Fear of the ‘bird flu’ led Hong Kong to order its entire population of chickens, over one million birds, to be killed.
December 30 - National Bicarbonate of Soda Day
1817 - The first coffee plantation was cultivated in Hawaii.
December 31 - National Champagne Day
1600 - The British East India Company was incorporated by royal charter to compete in the East Indian spice trade.
