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The Amazing Twinkie: The Little Snack Cake That Could

Twinkies are one of the most popular snack cakes in America. Invented in 1930 in suburban Chicago, the Twinkie has enjoyed worldwide popularity and is still going strong today. The Twinkie was invented by James Dewar, a bakery manager at the Continental Baking Company in River Forest. Dewar wanted to find a use for the machines that made strawberry shortcakes that were dormant when strawberries weren’t in season. He made banana cream-filled cakes because bananas were plentiful year-round. The name Twinkie was inspired by a billboard that Dewar saw for Twinkle Toe Shoes. A pack of two Twinkies cost only a nickel, which helped their popularity since it was the Great Depression. The Twinkie soon took off.   In the 1940s, production using bananas was affected by World War II rationing, so the company instead used vanilla cream for Twinkie filling. It became popular, so they stuck with it. The Continental Baking Company was eventually purchased by Hostess, and production moved to a Sc...
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Pullman Bread: A Slice of the Past

Light, fluffy Pullman bread hearkens back to the days of luxury travel on Chicago's Pullman railcars in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the bread was a staple of the fine cuisine served in Pullman’s chandeliered dining cars. The Chicago-based Pullman company favored the use of a special rectangular bread pan with a sliding flat lid that was compact and easy to store on the train cars. Even though this type of pan was already being used in the baking world to make pain de mie sandwich bread, it became so closely associated with Pullman trains that it came to be known as the Pullman pan. Bread baked in this type of pan was ideal for use in Pullman kitchens because both the bread and the pans stacked well and made for an efficient use of space.  Bakers use the Pullman pan today to bake soft sandwich bread with an even crumb, a fine texture, and minimal crust.  The Pullman Palace Car Company was founded in 1867 by George Pullman with the goal of making train travel a more co...

The Long and Sometimes Strange History of Gingerbread

Gingerbread has been around for a very long time, and this ancient treat has been thought to be medicinal, lucky, romantic, magical, and even evil. Here are some highlights from the long and sometimes strange history of gingerbread. According to some food historians, the first recipe for gingerbread dates to 2400 BC Greece. Some believe gingerbread was introduced to Western Europe in 992 AD, when the Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis moved to France from Greece and taught Christian bakers how to make it. Gingerbread became a popular treat at festivals in medieval Europe. Gingerbread fairs were held in France and England, where gingerbread was bought and exchanged as a love token. People also ate gingerbread to spark some desired outcome in their lives. Heart-shaped gingerbread cookies were eaten by those searching for love or wanting to ward off evil. Rabbit-shaped gingerbread cookies were believed to increase fertility. Some ladies would give their favorite knights a piece of gingerb...

Pumpkin Pie Tastes Better with Illinois Pumpkin

Chances are that canned pumpkin you got to make your pumpkin pie came from Illinois. Morton, Illinois, a village of about 17,000 people located about halfway between Peoria and Bloomington-Normal and about a 3-hour drive from Chicago, is the “Pumpkin Capital of the World,” so named because 85% of the world’s canned pumpkin is packed in Morton’s Nestle/Libby’s canning plant.  According to Libby’s, the Morton area is perfect for growing pumpkins. Must be that rich Illinois soil. The Libby’s canning plant has been located in Morton for over 100 years.  To celebrate its status as the World’s Pumpkin Capital, Morton holds a Pumpkin Festival every year. The 59 th Annual Pumpkin Festival is scheduled for September 10-13, 2025. This year’s festival was held September 11-14 and featured such activities as a pumpkin pie eating contest, pumpkin decorating contest, pumpkin princess pageant, pumpkin recipe challenge, and pumpkin weigh off. In addition to the standard pumpkin pie, food ava...

The Pizza Puff: Chicago-Style Ingenuity at Work

If you go to almost any hot dog stand in the Chicago area, chances are you will find the pizza puff listed among the sides. The pizza puff consists of a deep-fried flour tortilla filled with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and usually some type of meat and seasonings. The story of the pizza puff is one of multiculturalism and creativity, two things for which Chicago is well known. The pizza puff was invented in 1976 by Warren Shabaz of the Iltaco Foods company, a supplier of tamales to Chicago hot dog stands. (Iltaco is a shortened version of “Illinois Tamale Company.”) The company was founded by Warren’s grandfather, Elisha Shabaz, an Assyrian immigrant who fled Iran around the turn of the twentieth century. Warren had been getting inquiries from hot dog stand owners about some sort of pizza product that would help them compete with the many pizzerias that were popping up all over the Chicago area. To meet this need, Warren decided to create something similar to a calzone that could ...

Soul Cakes for the Dearly Departed

Halloween is one of the biggest commercial holidays in the U.S., second only to Christmas. Every year, billions of dollars are spent on Halloween candy, decorations, and costumes. This made me wonder what the origins of the holiday are, and as I did research I found an excellent recipe along the way. Halloween’s roots can be traced back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which was observed on October 31. Samhain (pronounced “sah-win”) marked the end of harvest season and the beginning of winter. It was also a time to honor ancestors who have passed on. It was believed that the veil between the world of the living and the spirit world was almost nonexistent at this time. Samhain was celebrated with bonfires and feasting. Revelers would cook food in honor of the dead and leave food outside their homes as offerings for the spirits. People would wear costumes to ward off ghosts under the logic that if you looked like a ghost, they wouldn’t bother you. Celebrators were also known t...