Food History - February
FOOD HISTORY - February
February 1 – National Baked Alaska Day
1953 - James Lewis Kraft died. He was the founder of Kraft Co., a wholesale cheese distributor and producer. In 1916 he had patented pasteurized process cheese, a low cost cheese that would not spoil. Though not a hit with the public, the U.S. army purchased over 6 million tins of it during WW I. During the depression, however, it became popular with civilians because of its low cost.
February 2 – National Heavenly Hash Day
1659 - Jan van Riebeeck, the first governor of the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, planted a vineyard in 1655. On February 2, 1659 he made the first wine from grapes grown at the Cape.
February 3 - National Carrot Cake Day
1815 - The world’s first commercial cheese factory was established in Switzerland.
February 4 – National Stuffed Mushroom Day
1941 - Roy J. Plunkett received a U.S. patent for Teflon. He had discovered it by accident in 1938.
February 5 – National Chocolate Fondue Day
1840 - Sir Hiram Maxim, an American-born inventor, was born. Among his hundreds of inventions the mousetrap became a well appreciated device by those losing foodstuffs to the nasty rodents.
February 6 – National Yogurt Day
1617 - Prospero Alpini, an Italian physician and botanist, died. He is said to have introduced coffee and bananas to Europe and to have been the first to artificially fertilize date palms.
February 7 – National Fettucine Alfredo Day
1804 - John Deere was born. Inventor and manufacturer, he developed the first steel plow in 1838, and eventually founded John Deere & Company in 1868.
February 8 – National Molasses Bar Day
1795 - Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was born. He was a German chemist who developed a method for obtaining sugar from beet juice.
February 9 – National Bagels and Lox Day
1909 - Carmen Miranda was born. Famous for wearing a hat topped with tropical fruit, this Portuguese-born, Brazilian samba singer and actress, achieved stardom in motion pictures, was a Broadway star and one of the highest-paid artists in Hollywood. In fact, by some accounts, she may have been the highest-earning woman in the United States in the 40s and 50s.
February 10 – National Cream Cheese Brownie Day
1846 - Ira Remsen was born. He was an American chemist and the co-discoverer of saccharin, an artificial sweetener.
February 11 – National Peppermint Patty Day
1977 - The heaviest lobster known was caught off Nova Scotia, weighing in at 44 lb 6 oz (20.14 kg).
February 12 – National Plum Pudding Day
1791 - Peter Cooper was born. An American inventor and founder of the ‘Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.’, he obtained the first American patent for the manufacture of gelatin. In 1895, a cough syrup manufacturer, Pearl B. Wait purchased the patent and developed a packaged gelatin dessert. Wait’s wife, May David Wait named it Jell-O.
February 13 – National Tortini Day
1933 - The House of Commons defeated a bill that would have prohibited the sale of alcohol in the U.K.
February 14 – National Cream Filled Chocolate Day / Valentine’s Day
1833 - Gottlieb Sigismund Kirchhof died. He discovered glucose, developed a method for refining vegetable oil and experimented with brewing and fermentation.
February 15 – National Gumdrop Day
1758 - Benjamin Jackson advertised mustard for sale for the first time in America. The advertisement was in the Philadelphia Chronicle, and claimed Jackson was the first and only manufacturer of mustard in the U.S.
February 16 – National Almond Day
1933 - Prohibition (the 18th amendment) is repealed in the United States.
February 17 – National Cafe Au Lait Day
2008 - The USDA announced the largest beef recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a California slaughterhouse.
February 18 – National Crab Stuffed Flounder Day
1478 - George Plantagenet, duke of Clarence, died. He was the brother of Edward IV, whom he was accused of plotting against. He was thrown into prison and secretly executed in the Tower of London. The rumor is that he was drowned in a butt (large cask) of malmsey wine.
February 19 – National Chocolate Mint Day
1903 - Tsingtao, China’s first brewery, was founded by German settlers.
February 20 – National Cherry Pie Day
2001 - Foot-and-mouth disease ravages livestock in Britain in the worst epidemic since 1967. By March it had spread to mainland Europe and millions of animals had to be destroyed.
February 21 – National Sticky Bun Day
1895 - Carl Peter Henrik Dam was born. A Danish biochemist, he discovered vitamin K (a vitamin produced by bacteria in the intestines) in 1939. Today, vitamin K is routinely injected into newborns.
February 22 – National Margarita Day
1987 - Andy Warhol, the American painter of the pop art movement, died. In the 1960s he became well-known for his paintings of Campbell’s Soup and Coca-Cola cans.
February 23 – National Banana Baked Day
1896 - Leo Hirshfield introduced the Tootsie Roll at his small store in New York City. It was supposedly named after his 5 year old daughter, whose nickname was ‘Tootsie’.
February 24 – National Tortilla Chip Day
1955 - Steven Jobs, co-founder of the Apple computer company, was born. According to company information, he grew up ‘in the apricot orchards which later became known as Silicon Valley.’
February 25 – National Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day
1950 - George Richard Minot died. An American physician, Minot was one of the developers of a raw-liver diet used to treat pernicious anemia.
February 26 - National Pistachio Day
1903 - Richard Jordan Gatling died. Before inventing the Gatling Gun, he developed a machine for sowing rice, wheat, and other grains, and invented a steam plow.
February 27 – National Kahlua Day
1879 - Saccharin, an artificial sweetener, was discovered by Constantine Fahlberg and Ira Remsen at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The FDA of the US has required warning labels since 1972 on products using saccharin, because it is a suspected carcinogen.
February 28 – National Chocolate Souffle Day
1683 - Rene-Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur was born. A French scientist who made several contributions in many fields, he became known for isolating gastric juice and studying its role in food digestion.
