Americans’ eating habits have changed a lot throughout the country’s history, and not unlike breakfast, lunch, and dinner staples, dessert choices tend to look very different today than they did a few generations ago.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s, desserts were shaped by the ingredients and circumstances of the era. Until the mid-20th century, most of the U.S. didn’t have year-round access to fresh foods; economic downturns, food rationing, and periodic shortages during certain seasons were a normal part of life. Home cooks thus had to be thrifty and creative, turning whatever was affordable, seasonal, or already on hand into something tasty. Here are a few dessert dishes from your grandparents’ era that have all but disappeared today. Junket For much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a custardlike dessert known as junket was a mainstay on American tables. …Read More

Falling between the heyday of the Western Roman Empire and the onset of the Renaissance, the Middle Ages have an unflattering reputation as something of a backward epoch of human civilization. Wars raged across Europe, serfs toiled in backbreaking service to feudal lords, and diseases wiped out villages with little hope of preventing the next outbreak. While the negative connotations may not be entirely fair, few would dispute that medieval citizens lived in more primitive conditions than their modern counterparts, and that the day-to-day necessities for survival were markedly different. As such, the era produced certain professions that filled important needs of the time but seem quite unusual in hindsight. Here are six of the strangest. Rat Catcher Although the widespread belief that rats were the main carriers of the bubonic plague has largely been debunked, these critters nevertheless did spread disease in …Read More

Few social rituals are as widespread or instinctive as clinking glasses after a toast. At weddings, dinners, and bars and pubs around the world, we reach across the table, touch glasses with a satisfying clink and a quick “cheers,” and take a sip. But where does this custom actually come from? Let’s take a look at the origins of this familiar custom, and try to sort the myth from reality.   The Poison Theory The most common origin story goes something like this: In medieval times, clinking cups or glasses hard enough would cause liquid to slosh and spill from one vessel into another, so if your drinking companion had poisoned your cup, they’d be consuming poison too. As such, the clinking was a way to show that no drinks had been spiked, whether with belladonna, hemlock, arsenic, mercury, or any other common toxin …Read More