Food Stories in the News 1773 - 1922

This is not a cookbook. There are no recipes but the stories are delicious.

The story about a woman who mailed a box of chocolates from California to Delaware and killed two women went viral in 1898.

Adulterated foods were often in the news. Bread was puffed up with alum. Milk was watered down. Butter was made mostly from fat from rendering plants. Coffee beans were ground with acorns, turnips, sawdust and small pebbles.

Of course, there was advice about food. In 1894 a Dr. Densmore warned against eating bread because the lime salts in bread were the chief cause of kidney troubles, chalky gout, and premature decrepitude.

The reader will find the news about food gleaned from newspapers from all over the country to be not only informative but fun, occasionally horrifying, and entertaining.