Food History

A woman smiles as she reaches for a container of Betty Crocker pizza dough mix, in the dairy section of a grocery store.

The Real Betty Crocker May Never Have Existed, but She Still Became a Symbol for American Women

Created as a customer service tool 100 years ago, the fictional character marks the evolution of domesticity in the United States

A procession overseen by the last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I

What Did Tudor England Look, Smell and Sound Like?

A new book by scholar Amy Licence vividly transports readers back to the 16th century

Julie Green poses in front of a selection of The Last Supper plates in 2015. The artist died on October 12 at age 60.

Remembering Julie Green, Who Painted the Last Meals of Death Row Inmates

The artist, who died this month at age 60, sought to emphasize condemned prisoners' humanity

The cake may have been baked for a Palm Sunday celebration.

WWII Bombing Raid Eerily Preserved This 79-Year-Old Charred Cake

Researchers discovered the blackened hazelnut-and-almond dessert in the ruins of a German house destroyed in March 1942

Top Spanish chefs have endorsed garum as a fishy sauce with deep roots in Spanish and Roman history.

Culinary Detectives Try to Recover the Formula for a Deliciously Fishy Roman Condiment

From Pompeii to modern laboratories, scholars are working to recreate garum, a sauce made from decaying fish that delighted ancient Rome

A plaster cast of a "ghost turnip" carving from Donegal, Ireland

When People Carved Turnips Instead of Pumpkins for Halloween

Revelers in Ireland transformed the root vegetables into lanterns designed to ward off dark spirits

Bronze and Iron Age miners' poop contained Penicillium roqueforti, which is still used to make blue cheese today.

Europeans Enjoyed Blue Cheese and Beer 2,700 Years Ago, Study Suggests

Ancient poop from salt mines in the Alps contained the same fungi used in brewing and cheesemaking today

Men ate over 50 percent more seafood protein than women and gained slightly more protein from grains. Women consumed more terrestrial meats, more eggs and dairy products, and more local fruits and vegetables.

New Analysis Reveals Vesuvius Victims' Diverse Diets

Isotope ratios show that men and women in the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum had different dietary habits

The wine press dates to the Byzantine period.

Byzantine-Era Wine Press, Gold Coin Found Near Tel Aviv

The 1,400-year-old currency shows Golgotha, identified as the site of Jesus's crucifixion, on one of its sides

SpongeBob on a stick is the closest we come today to the forgotten fad of molded ice cream.

The Lost Art of Molding Ice Cream Into Eagles, Tugboats and Pineapples

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ice cream makers used metal casts to create fanciful desserts

This slice of marzipan was likely cut from the top or side of a single-tier cake sent to Clarence House for the enjoyment of the queen mother's staff.

You Could Own a Slice of Princess Diana's Wedding Cake

The not-so-edible, 40-year-old piece of royal history is expected to fetch more than $300 at auction

A new exhibition at the Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem explores the fascinating history of coffee.

Tracing Coffee's Travels From the East to the West

New exhibition explores how the caffeinated beverage sparked religious controversy and technical innovation

Will an American athlete from the Tokyo Games grab gold and become the next to be featured on the cover of Wheaties?

How Wheaties Became the 'Breakfast of Champions'

Images of Olympians and other athletes on boxes helped the cereal maintain a competitive edge

Tollund Man was likely the victim of a human sacrifice.

What Did Tollund Man, One of Europe's Famed Bog Bodies, Eat Before He Died?

The enigmatic, 2,400-year-old mummy's last meal consisted of porridge and fish

The entrance to Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.

Fifty Years Ago, Berkeley Restaurant Chez Panisse Launched the Farm-to-Table Movement

'Local, organic, sustainable' are common buzzwords on American menus now, but it wasn't always that way

Cooking Up History, presented by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and Smithsonian Associates, shares fresh insights into American culture past and present through the lens of food.

Cook Up Delicious Feasts With These Culinary Legends

Cooking Up History programs share fresh insights into American culture past and present through the lens of food

Though researchers repaired the crack, much of the egg's contents leaked out.

Archaeologists Discover—and Crack—an Intact, 1,000-Year-Old Chicken Egg

Human waste in a cesspit in Israel preserved the shell and its contents for a millennium

At the foot of North Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains sits Wallace, an incredibly resilient, Old West mining town.

The 15 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2021

From Alabama's music capital to the self-proclaimed 'center of the universe,' these American towns are calling your name

New genetic research finds that the Kordofan melon (pictured), native to Sudan, is the watermelon's closest wild relative.

Researchers Uncover the Watermelon's Origins

A Sudanese plant called the Kordofan melon is the watermelon's closest wild relative, according to a new study

This mosaic featuring fish was likely laid down in A.D. 300 in what is now the Israeli town of Lod.

What Archaeology Tells Us About the Ancient History of Eating Kosher

A new study of fish remains deepens scholars' understanding of how the dietary laws came to be

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