So long dear friend...

This whole week, I feel as if I’ve been mourning the death of a dear friend. With the news that Conde Nast would be ending the publication of Gourmet Magazine, we all witnessed the death of a legend. My constant admiration of Editor in Chief Ruth Reichl, the sheer excitement I felt the day Gourmet arrived in my mailbox and overall feeling of being connected to the foodie community through a genius magazine came to an end.

But for every death, there is a rebirth, and now begins the post-Gourmet Magazine life. My admiration for Ms. Reichl is even greater than before, and instead of looking forward to the day my issue shows up in the mail, I can fondly look over all my past issues and try the recipes I never got around to or have made a million times already. The closing of this magazine also demonstrated how passionate the food community is about the subject of gastronomy. We are all hurting, and there is something kind of beautiful in that.

Is German Chocolate Cake Really German?

FoodProject.com has raised an interesting question: Is German Chocolate Cake really German?

According to the folks over at Food Project, a recipe for German Chocolate cake first appeared in 1957 via a Dallas, Texas, newspaper. Sent in from a Dallas homemaker, the trail to track down the origins of this cake goes dry. However, according to Patricia Riso from Kraft Foods, the recipe called for a brand of chocolate bar called "German's" which has been developed
in 1852, by an Englishman named Sam German, for Baker's Chocolate Company.

Food Project says:

"The cake had an immediate and enthusiastic response, and requests about where to find the German's chocolate bar were so numerous that General Foods (who owned Baker's Chocolate) decided to send pictures of the cake to newspapers all around the country.Everywhere the recipe had the same response and the sales for the chocolate exploded.

Now the cake is a regular item in bakeries across the country, and a mix is on the grocery shelves also.

The cake most likely didn't originate from this Dallas housewife. Buttermilk chocolate cakes have been popular in the south for
over 70 years, and Pecans are plentiful in the area also, to make the nice frosting. German's chocolate is similar to a milk chocolate and sweeter than regular baking chocolate."

So, is the cake an orphan of Deutschland? I guess we'll never know...


Thanks to Foodimentary for the tip.

Fun fact about lemons

Ladies in the court of King Louis XIV used lemons to redden their lips.

I wonder if lemon-flavored desserts would work too?!

For those of you that need to get your chocolate fix through reading...

The New York Times included a write up today about a new book entitled "Chocolate: History, Culture and Heritage," and it seems like a must read for anyone interested in food history or just learning more about their favorite sweet treat.

The Times described the book as "a scholarly tome, full of articles on chocolate’s connection to anthropology, agriculture, religion, ethics, art, medicine and technology. But it offers plenty of surprises, too, like the explanation of how chocolate was a recommended treatment for smallpox in Boston in the 18th century. And how in the winter of 1762-63, soldiers near Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York often mixed their ration of chocolate with wine."

Sounds interesting. As soon as I finish up my collection of current foodie books currently nesting on my night stand, I'll pick up a copy.

Another interesting fact: This book is part of a research project at the University of California, Davis, that was paid for by Mars, the chocolate company.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, it is $99.95, $79.96 at amazon.com.

Ireland's Culinary History

Usually when people think of a rich culinary history, France is typically the country that comes up in most everyone's minds. True, France has a beautiful food history, but many other countries posses an interesting tale when it comes to food, and Ireland is no exception.

I found a fantastic online article about Ireland's history in the eatin' department.

Check out the full article here.

For instance, prior to the potato famine that most people associate with Irish cuisine, the country's food stock was plentiful. As the author notes, soft rains and moderating influence of the Gulf Stream created a temperate land where wheat, barley, oats, and rye were easily cultivated and grazing cows, sheep, and goats produced superior dairy products. This is definitely something any baker can apreciate!

So, in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, I suggest you take a minute to educate yourself on the history of Ireland's palate - it's an interesting read.