Food

From ancient Egyptian beginnings to global popularity, lemonade may just be the original soft drink.

From capturing holy water in ancient vessels, to European spas advertising healthful spring water amid the Industrial Revolution, trace the evolution of bottled water and its popularity.

Eggs offer an amazing package of nutrition—and humans have been poaching wild bird eggs since time immemorial. Keeping chickens to eat their eggs is a more recent (but still ancient) practice.

Born at New England's Toll House Restaurant, chocolate chip cookies quickly rivaled apple pie as America's favorite sweet treat.

Coffee increased energy and alertness on the battlefield, improved morale and was even used by medics to help prevent shock.

Evidence suggests that people were drinking beer as far back as 13,000 years ago, while distilled liquor arrived much later.

Dim sum for Christmas? The experiences of immigrants in New York explain how the tradition began.

A health scare caused Americans (including President Eisenhower) to forgo serving cranberry sauce at their holiday tables.

From contaminated raw milk to tainted meat, outbreaks have spread rapidly through the country's food supply chain, with deadly consequences.

From Betty Crocker to Ronald McDonald, companies have used human mascots as the 'face' of their products. Not all have stood the test of time.

The origins of ice cream, sorbet and other chilled dairy treats are difficult to pin down—but span back to antiquity.

Peanut butter. Ice cream cones. Cotton candy. The 1904 St. Louis exposition popularized some of America’s favorite foods.

Some confections even played a role in U.S. history.

The origin story of spicy, saucy chicken wings has more than one hero.

Wally Amos parlayed his aunt's chocolate chip cookie recipe into a gourmet snack food juggernaut.

From stirring up coffee house rebellions to supporting the Industrial Revolution, the popular caffeinated brew has fueled global change.

'Beer barons' like Pabst, Schlitz and Busch forged brewing dynasties with their pale, effervescent lager.

These dietary staples were cultivated over thousands of years by Indigenous peoples of America.

Before McDonald's pioneered McNuggets for fast food consumption, a Cornell University researcher developed bite-size breaded chicken sticks that could be easily fried and frozen.

They didn't come from China.

This selection of enduring eateries reflects the nation's mosaic of cultures.

It's complicated.

By the end of the 1920s, more than 40,000 different candy bars were being made in the U.S.

The program was designed to aid American farmers and businesses—as well as the hungry—and had its largest expansion under a Republican president.

It started with some slightly moldy dough. Then it revolutionized the morning meal.

The tri-colored confection was designed to look like chicken feed and came out at a time when about half of Americans worked on farms.

While the fears may be overblown, Halloween crimes involving poison have occurred.

Which one was your favorite?

Clarence Birdseye took note of how Indigenous Canadians 'flash froze' their fish—and forever changed the way Americans ate.

From ancient Egypt to the Chicago World's Fair, pickles have had a staggeringly long run on the world's culinary stage.

The future fast-food giant started out as anything but swift, serving up slow-cooked barbecue. How did it become the behemoth it is today?

For most American kids, it wouldn’t be Halloween without trick-or-treating for candy. But that wasn’t always the case.

Did you know that New York has a state muffin and that Jell-O is the state snack of Utah?

From applesauce sucked out of a tube to shrimp cocktail and fresh vegetables, space food has come a long way.

The Curtiss Candy Company said it was inspired by a president's daughter. Baseball slugger Babe Ruth disagreed. A patent court decided the case in 1931.

The sandwich's roots trace back to ancient times, but it took on its modern form in the United States.

Find out just how these two delicious (and different) schools of bagel making came to be.

Coffee's importance can be traced across the centuries through the names we’ve come to know it by.

The first fermented beverages most likely emerged alongside the development of cereal agriculture some 12,000 years ago.

Beer: it’s the chosen beverage of English kings, Egyptian stonemasons and Homer Simpson. And it has a long and celebrated history going back to 3400 B.C.

It’s likely you’ve heard the adage “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” and everyone knows about the reputed healing powers of a steaming bowl of chicken soup. But would you think to place potato slices on a fever-stricken patient’s forehead? Or shampoo with mayonnaise to give your mane that healthy shine? Foods have […]

It's America's favorite condiment, but ketchup's long history dates back to imperial China—and at one point it was completely tomato-free.

Over a century after Horn & Hardart opened its first Automat in New York City, take a look back at America’s first fast food chain.

The earliest farmers planted grains in order to brew beer for politically expedient feasts, according to a new study.

Nearly seven millennia before movie nights and microwaves, humans snacked on popcorn, according to a new study.