Upping the Ante

When you have a winner, go for the gusto!

A BITE OF HISTORY

 

 Mixing flavors, textures and aromas is a big deal.  One would think that every conceivable option has been exhausted in the relationship of different foods to one another, but there’s still ‘room’ for more ideas.  We can forever be grateful to Daniel Peter for working with Mr. Nestlé as to thinking of blending cocoa powder and condensed sweetened milk. You see, until the late eighteen hundreds, milk chocolate hadn’t ever been tried, or at least successfully.  For centuries chocolate was served hot, water-based, and bitter as a stimulant beverage – much like coffee, and sweetened if you were lucky or rich enough to have honey or sugar – and if you could even afford the chocolate!  It had rarely been considered as a sweet confection.

And then bringing in peanut butter, wow, Mr. Reece, you’re the man. 

OK, another blend story:  The 1904 worlds fair in St. Louis, MO, having a waffle booth situated right next to the ice cream booth . . . such serendipity.  The ice cream purveyor ran out of paper serving cups to present his ice cream and started using thin-crisped waffles borrowed from next door that they shaped into a cone-shaped cup. 

You have to realize -- ice cream -- although enjoyed for at least a thousand years as a sorbet-style dish in the Orient, and enjoyed in ancient Rome made with snow carted rapidly down from the mountains, and as a chilled cream refreshment that had been around for at least a century to the general European and American public – found this to be the first official effort with a portable ‘edible container’. 

So simple.  The rest, as they say, is history.  You just never know.

Then we have an ancient Asian sauce given a name derived from the Chinese ke-tsiap, that morphed as it traveled to the west, to kechap – which originally was a smoothly ground sauce consisting of vinegar, oils, herbs, spices, anchovies and nuts.  The English misspelled the word to ketchup when adopting the sauce to the European range of foods.  But what you probably didn’t know, the addition of the tomato as an ingredient in ketchup wasn’t until around 1790 – easily centuries into its culinary use -- thanks to Thomas Jefferson, who pretty much single-handedly legitimized the fruit (yes, it’s a fruit) to the uneducated population’s sensibility.  Until then, the general European and Colonial understanding was that the tomato, an import from the New World, was poisonous (lead or pewter cooking utensils and acidic tomatoes DO NOT mix; plus the leaves of the plant are NOT safe to eat, thus enhancing this confusion!).

Whew, are we glad THAT misunderstanding was straightened out!

Just a little daring – a little forethought and savvy – and you might find a food element or preparation combination with which you could make your own delicious mark.  Try this concept of ‘mix and blend’, using common sense on top of your smelling sense, and you just might originate another ‘potato chip’ or ‘brownie’ or ‘hamburger’ or ‘Buffalo wing’ or ‘cola’ or ‘chocolate chip cookie’ or ‘French dip’ sandwich or chicken ‘nuggets’ or . . .  or

– all serendipitous creations.  My Salsa Sorpresa and avocado cheesecake are such ‘serendipitous creations’, give them a try!

Although Solomon wisely observed there’s nothing new under the sun, it could be figured that some things might have just gotten misplaced, and we simply need to find them again.

Sounds great.