Have you ever taken a bite out of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and thought to yourself, “Wow. I wonder what genius thought to put these ingredients together!”? I constantly find myself questioning the origin of delicious combinations of food, snacks, condiments, and candies; who first married root beer and ice cream? Rice Krispies and marshmallows? Where does tartar sauce come from?
I embarked on a research quest to find out the answers.
Peanut butter and jelly: We take for granted the amalgamation of sticky, goopy, crunchy goodness, and sweet, nectarous fruit substance between two pieces of bread. But who was the first to create this staple of American sustenance? Food historians have been struggling for years trying to discern the exact who, what, when, where, and why; all we know for sure is that no record of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich exists before 1940. It is documented that GIs in World War II were rationed both peanut butter and jelly; in an effort to spice up their wartime fare, they combined the two, thus inadvertently creating the delightful sandwich. America caught on quickly; upon the return of servicemen to the U.S. after war, peanut butter and jelly sales soared. Yet another reason to thank our men and women of service!
Root beer float: The root beer float is a variation on the original ice cream soda, stemming from a soda shop owner’s attempt to create something new and exciting. Flashback to Philadelphia, 1874: shop owner Robert M. Green wanted a beverage that would lure customers away from his soda shop rival during the Franklin Institute’s semi-centennial celebration. After much experimenting, he mixed ice cream and soda water. During the festival, Green sold vanilla ice cream with sixteen flavors of soda water, and the drink became a huge hit. Variations on the beverage soon surfaced: some include the root beer float, the “Slammer” (sherbet and seltzer water), and the ginger ale and sherbet float.
Tartar sauce: This oily condiment takes its name from the Turkic-speaking people (Tartars) of Mongolia sometime during the 400s AD. Although not a Tartar recipe, history tells us that the French referred to a culinary sauce as sauce tartare. According to “Dogster” of The Straight Dope, the French word “tartare” loosely translates to “rough”, “…as the Tartars were considered rough, violent, and savage,” (The Straight Dope). Using a mixture of oil, eggs, vinegar, and spices to flavor meat, fowl, and fish is a tradition dating back to the ancient Roman times; however, the egg and oil based sauce was particularly useful in flavoring the low-quality shredded meat dish of the Tartars. This culinary practice began receiving documentation specifically referred to as tartar sauce in the mid-1800s.
Rice Krispie Treats: These gooey morsels have a rather boring history. In 1928, Mildred Day wanted to make a unique and special treat for a girls’ camp fundraiser bake sale. She happened to work at Kellogs, the creators of Rice Krispies, and stumbled upon this delightful combination while experimenting with the cereal. Although Ms. Day created the dessert that we know and love, her invention is not entirely original; beginning in the mid-1800s, puffed grain and molasses was mixed and pressed together into molds.
*Some of this information is inherent knowledge; other facts are taken from searches on google.com. If you’d like a bibliography, let me know.
Author: Liv
