Potato

Things We Never Knew About Our Favorite Comfort Foods

May 26, 2023 People's Tonight 249 views

Setareh Janda

Over 100 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Things We Never Knew About Our Favorite Comfort Foods.

Meatloaf and mashed potatoes, spaghetti and meatballs – who doesn’t love a plate of comfort food? Yet, just because a food is well loved does not mean its story is widely known. Like any other dish, comfort foods have their own stories.

What classic diner dinner actually began life as a breakfast meal? When did people start eating chocolate in bar form? And what does a distinguished literary titan have to do with Sloppy Joes?

These comfort foods are filled with delectable surprises.

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• Photo: sousvideguy / Flickr / CC-BY 2.0

Potato11
The First Recorded Recipe For Mashed Potatoes Appeared In The Middle Of The 18th Century

Though it’s a beloved side dish, there’s nothing marginal about mashed potatoes, which can accommodate a variety of toppings.

By the 18th century, Europeans were discovering different ways to consume potatoes. Potatoes were not native to Europe. In fact, they came from the Americas and crossed the Atlantic when colonizers brought them home.

In 1747, Englishwoman Hannah Glasse published The Art of Cookery, a popular and indispensable cookbook for 18th century cooks. Among the included recipes was a set of instructions for making mashed potatoes.

What do you think?

Comforted?

• • Photo: 日本網 / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Ando2
Momofuku Ando Invented Instant Ramen In 1958

Cheap, filling, and tasty, instant ramen noodles almost single-handedly fuel many students’ college years. Like all good things, instant ramen noodles came from somewhere – and that somewhere was Momofuku Ando, a Japanese inventor.

Ando invented instant ramen in 1958. His culinary invention could be easily, cheaply prepared with boiling water, which made the noodles accessible to more people.

Comforted?

• • Photo: Willis Lam / Flickr / CC-BY-SA 2.0

Cheese3
Originally, A Grilled Cheese Sandwich Had Only One Slice Of Bread

Butter-fried bread and bubbly melted cheese – there’s something magical and comforting about a simple grilled cheese sandwich. But even though it’s a simple comfort staple, the grilled cheese as most Americans know it today has a relatively recent history.

American-style grilled cheese sandwiches didn’t really exist before the widespread distribution of processed “American” cheese in the 20th century. Early grilled cheese sandwiches were open-faced sandwiches made from a single slice of bread.

It wasn’t until the 1960s, when American cheese slices wrapped in plastic became widely available, that grilled cheese gained its second piece of bread to make it a proper sandwich.

Comforted?

• • Photo: Arnold Gatilao / Flickr / CC-BY 2.0

Chicken4
Fried Chicken Became A Symbol Of Economic Empowerment During The Era Of Segregation

Before fried chicken became a racist trope – thanks, in part, to the film Birth of a Nation – it became a source of economic empowerment for formerly enslaved Black Americans.

The Jim Crow era – which lasted from the late 19th century to the Civil Rights era – upheld segregation and limited what jobs Black Americans could take, especially in the South. But, embodying the American spirit of entrepreneurship, many Black chefs – especially women – found ways to leverage their skills to earn a living. They often made and sold fried chicken to train passengers.

Segregation in the Jim Crow era also limited where travelers could stop to get a bite to eat on long road trips. But Black Americans did not let that stop them from traveling. Instead, they carried shoe box lunches – which often included fried chicken, since it kept well – with them so they could exercise their freedom to travel.

Comforted?

• • Photo: Kamel15 / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Cones5
The 1904 World’s Fair May Have Helped Popularize Ice Cream Cones

Ice cream wasn’t always served in cones, which developed as we know it in the 19th century. Different confectioners – like Italo Marchioni and Ernest Hamwi, both of whom happened to be immigrants – developed their own versions of ice cream cones in the 1890s and 1900s.

In 1904, the world came to St. Louis for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the first world’s fair to be held on American soil since Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.

World’s fairs are always an opportunity to showcase products, and St. Louis was no exception. Among the delicacies visitors enjoyed was an ice cream cone.

Though it is clear that some kind of ice cream cone appeared at the World’s Fair, it is less clear how it came about. As Robert Moss explained for Serious Eats:

All we know for sure is that the ice cream cornucopia had been introduced to America, and it was about to become an even bigger hit than it had been at the Exposition. As soon as warm weather rolled back around in the spring, confectioners across the country had a brand-new treat to offer their customers.

Comforted?

• • Photo: NowIsntItTime / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA 4.0

Mac-n-Cheese6
Kraft Mac And Cheese Was Popular During The Great Depression And WWII

For many Americans, Kraft mac and cheese conjures up images of childhood, when the contents of simple cardboard boxes were magically transformed into something delicious.

Americans during the Great Depression felt the same way about Kraft mac and cheese. The popular dinner-in-a-box product debuted in 1937, when Americans were looking for ways to get the most bang for their buck. A box of mac and cheese cost only 19 cents, making it a popular and affordable staple for American pantries. By the time WWII erupted, the shelf-stable meal inside the cardboard box offered families convenience during uncertainty, especially as rationing limited their access to fresh, perishable foods.

Comforted?

• • Photo: SKopp / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Chocolate7
The First Chocolate Bar Was Made In 1847

Chocolate products have existed for millennia. Beginning around 1500 BCE with the Olmecs in present-day Mexico, ancient Mesoamericans consumed a beverage derived from cacao.

Bars of chocolate as we know it have a considerably more recent history. Englishman Joseph Fry – whose father owned a cocoa business – debuted the first chocolate bar in 1847.

Fry’s chocolate bar came about thanks to the 1828 development of powdered cocoa by Coenraad van Houten, a chemist from the Netherlands. Only by mixing Dutch-processed cocoa with sugar and butter could Fry mold it into a bar shape.

Comforted?

• • Photo: alanagkelly / Flickr / CC-BY-SA 2.0

Spaghetti8
Spaghetti And Meatballs Are As American As Apple Pie

Spaghetti and meatballs may be a fixture at restaurants serving Italian fare in the United States – but don’t expect to see the dish on the menu in Italy.

Immigrants from southern Italy streamed into the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When here, they adapted their foodways to American realities. The affordability of canned tomatoes meant that Italian immigrants made marinara sauce reminiscent of the tomato-based “sailor’s sauce” they encountered in Italy. They then added what they could afford to the sauce, including cheap cuts of meat they bulked up with breadcrumbs and rolled into balls. An Italian American classic was born.

Comforted?

• • Photo: Sumeet Jain / Flickr / CC-BY-SA 2.0

Macaroni9                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    James Hemings, A Chef Whose Enslaver Was Thomas Jefferson, Likely Helped Bring Macaroni And Cheese To The United States

What’s more American than a heaping plate of macaroni and cheese, a popular staple at church picnics, school cafeterias, and family dining tables alike? Well, like so many things that have become popular in the United States, macaroni and cheese’s origin story is a melting pot whose roots are from across the ocean.

Though versions of macaroni and cheese have been consumed since at least ancient Rome, modern macaroni and cheese began to take shape in the 18th century, when the Italian treat was adopted and adapted by both French and English chefs.

From 1784 to 1789, Thomas Jefferson acted as a diplomat for the United States in France. Jefferson brought with him James Hemings, his enslaved chef. While in Paris, Hemings learned the art of French cooking – and that likely included learning to make macaroni and cheese.

When Hemings returned to Virginia, he brought his knowledge back with him and helped introduce sophisticated European dishes to American palates.

Comforted?

• • Photo: Renee Comet / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Meatloaf10
Meatloaf Used To Be A Breakfast Food

For decades, Americans have ended their day by tucking into a plate of ketchup-slathered meatloaf, the ultimate homey comfort food.

Americans in the 19th century would not have ended their day with meatloaf – they were much more likely to begin their day with it. Made from cheap scraps of meat and formed into a loaf with breadcrumbs and eggs, meatloaf was billed as a breakfast food.

That changed in the 20th century, when the Great Depression and WWII made budget-friendly meatloaf an increasingly popular dish for penny-pinching Americans.

Comforted?

• Photo: Norman Rockwell / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Sanders11
Colonel Sanders Was In His 60s When His Chicken Became Famous

Colonel Sanders, the white suit-sporting mascot of KFC, is not only the face of the popular fast-food chain: He was a real person. Born in 1890, Harland Sanders first entered the dining business in 1930, when he ran a service-station cafe in Kentucky. By the end of the decade, he had settled on the recipe that would make his fried chicken famous the world over.

Sanders opened the first KFC in 1952, when he was in his 60s.

Comforted?

• • Photo: Famartin / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA 4.0

Ramen12
Ramen Noodles Have Overtaken Tobacco As The ‘Most Valuable US Prison Commodity’

Incarcerated people in American prisons maintain their own currencies while behind bars. Objects like cigarettes and chocolate typically have higher value because they are harder to come by.

In recent years, a new commodity has emerged as a favorite in prisons: instant ramen noodles. While conducting research into American prisons, sociologist Michael Gibson-Light discovered ramen’s unexpected popularity. Gibson-Light shared with NPR, “As one inmate told me: ‘You can tell how good a man’s doing [financially] by how many soups he’s got in his locker. Twenty soups?

Oh, that guy’s doing good!’”

Part of what makes ramen so attractive for incarcerated people is that it is a tasty, shelf-stable alternative to the undesirable food prisons serve.

Comforted?

• • Photo: Buck Blues / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY 2.0

Sloopy13
According To One Origin Story, Sloppy Joes Have An Unexpected Connection To Ernest Hemingway

Like so many varieties of comfort food, there is no single origin story for sloppy Joes, the perfectly named mess of a sandwich that is equal parts delicious and untidy.

There are two main competing stories, either that chefs in Iowa created the sandwich, or it originated in Cuba when Havana bar owner José Abdeal Otero created a loose-meat sandwich with tomatoes. According to this story, Otero’s bar was called “Sloppy Joe’s.”

The second story features Ernest Hemingway, the lion of American literature who called Cuba home for many years. Hemingway supposedly frequented Sloppy Joe’s – and gobbled up the bar’s signature sandwiches.

As Priya Krishna reported for The Take Out, Hemingway’s enthusiasm for the sandwiches may have helped popularize them in the United States:

[Hemingway’s] friend, Joe Russell, opened a bar in Key West, Florida, in the 1930s called the Silver Slipper. Hemingway convinced Russell to change the name of the bar to Sloppy Joe’s, and to start serving the sandwich.

Comforted?

• • 14
A Grilled Cheese Sandwich Sold On eBay For $28,000

As a popular comfort food, grilled cheese is almost always the star of its meal. In the early 2000s, a grilled cheese sandwich became a star beyond the dinner plate.

It all started in 1994, when Diana Duyser made a grilled cheese sandwich. She took a bite out of it before she saw something incredible: The golden texture of the grilling made it appear as though the image of the Virgin Mary was imprinted on her sandwich.

Ten years later, the woman sold her well-preserved sandwich on eBay for $28,000. As Slate pointed out at the time of the sale in 2004, “Still, the sandwich’s lack of mold is perhaps even more remarkable than the visage of the Virgin Mary that some see in its nooks and crannies.”

Comforted?

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