Complex Numbers

Faux Past

Nothing particularly deep today, fortunately...

    The Fakelore of Food Origins  
Where did potato chips come from? How about clams casino? Are the origin stories for these foods true, or do they fall into the category of “fakelore”?

Lots of origin stories are fauxlore. I've covered, in entries here in the past, misconceptions about the origin of our favorite F word, the "rule of thumb" thing, and, my personal hill to die on, the Blue Moon mistake.

But this one's specifically about one of my favorite things: food.

Can anyone own a recipe?

Ask Coca-Cola.

“Throughout history, claims for how new dishes were introduced range from the reasonably plausible to the absolutely impossible. Generally, most new dishes are not invented; they evolve.”

Distinction without a difference. Pizza, for example. The idea of putting stuff on bread dough and baking it couldn't have been too revolutionary. Changing up toppings was just a matter of using whatever was on hand. Adding pepperoni, now: that was the real revolution, the moment actual pizza was invented.

Several foods have fallen victim to fakelore. Take one of our most beloved snacks—the potato chip. As folklorists William S. Fox and Mae G. Banner explain, many believe that the chip originated in Saratoga Springs, New York, in the mid-nineteenth century. After several complaints that his fried potatoes were sliced too thickly, a frustrated cook “sliced the potatoes paper thin, fried them in deep fat, salted them heavily, and served them up.”

Yeah, that one always struck me as suspect.

All food fakelore isn’t as bitter, though. The origin of clams casino, a clam served on the half-shell and stuffed with herbs, aromatics, and bacon, is also one with questionable beginnings. As with the potato chip story, this dish was purported to be invented in 1917 to satisfy a wealthy and demanding customer, this time Mrs. Paran Stevens, the wife of a hotelier. She was described in her New York Times obituary as “never hesitating to give full expression of her opinions about everybody and everything,” so it probably wasn’t a huge shock when she showed up demanding something special.

More like Karen Stevens, am I right?

And here, I feel cheated, because those are the only two examples given. I think we need more, but I've been immersed in a video game, so can't be arsed to do anything else. I know there was some discussion about the origins of hamburgers a while back; I don't remember if I put it in the blog or not.

You know what else we need? Drink origins. As with food, drinks evolve, like how the martini wisely lost most of its original vermouth, and then, unfortunately, started to be made with vodka. Nothing wrong with liking vodka, but that's a vodka martini, as opposed to a martini, which is made with gin. And don't get me started on those sweet "-tini" abominations that were popular in the noughties.

Hm. Someone should research that and write articles or blog entries about the history of drinks. Someone who's not obsessed with a video game.