Food Stories in the News: 1773-1922

by Karen Ballentine

This is not a cookbook. There are no recipes but the stories are delicious.The story about a woman who mailed a box of poisoned chocolates from California to Delaware and killed two women went viral in 1898 and continued to make headlines for several more years as the horrid Mrs. Botkin went through two trials.Adulterated bread, butter, milk, and coffee were in the news until laws were passed and enforced. Alum puffed up the size of a loaf of bread and milk was watered down. Butter was made mostly of fat from a rendering plant. It was strongly advised to buy whole coffee beans because ground coffee contained very uncoffeelike ingredients such as acorns, turnips, sawdust, and small pebbles.Of course, there was advice about food. Dr. Densmore warned against eating bread, adulterated or not, back in 1894 because hefelt that bread contained far too much lime salts and hence was the chief cause of kidney troubles, chalky gout, ossification of the tissues, and premature decrepitude.The old newspapers weren't afraid to use phrases like premature decrepitude and were a lot of fun. I prefer them to current news!

283 pages, Paperback

Published May 4, 2019