In her upcoming book The American Plate HISTORY’s chief historian, Dr. Libby O’Connell, traces the history of the United States through a series of 100 iconic dishes and delicacies. In this excerpt, she examines the diet of American troops in Europe and shares a popular recipe ...read more

The Story of Washington’s Hoe Cakes George Washington and I share the same birthday, so even as a child I was a fan. He and his wife, Martha, entertained a steady stream of guests at his lovely home, Mt. Vernon, which isn’t very surprising, since the Washingtons’ table was ...read more

Charles Ranhofer was one of America’s first celebrity chefs. He did not have his own TV show, and he did not license a line of kitchenware. But from the 1860s until 1896, he presided over the kitchen of one of the Gilded Age’s grandest restaurants—Delmonico’s in New York City. ...read more

The colorful Gold Rush era—roughly 1848 to 1870—offers a mine of riches when it comes to all kinds of history, including some entertaining tales of food and drink. Mark Twain, for example, demonstrated a prodigious capacity for eating oysters and drinking hard liquor, feats ...read more

The Chinese, who first invented or discovered soy bean curd, call it “doufu.” The Japanese, who adopted it hundreds of years later, use the term “tofu,” as do many Americans. As for myself, I rarely cook doufu/tofu at home, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I order it ...read more

I have all sorts of reasons to like green peas. They have a very long history, for one thing. Archaeologists have found evidence that people were eating peas over 8,000 years ago. In ancient Athens, street vendors sold take-out hot pea soup. The appreciative Romans named this ...read more