Literature
Sweet as Sin
Explore the evolution of candy and its impact on history as we know it. Fun and informative, this book will make you appreciate the candy you love even more by revealing the fascinating backstory behind it.
There’s more to candy than its sugary taste. As this book shows, candy has a remarkable history, most of it sweet, some of it bitter. The author, a food historian and candy expert, tells the whole story—from the harvesting of the marshmallow plant in ancient Egypt to the mass-produced candy innovations of the twentieth century. Along the way, the reader is treated to an assortment of entertaining facts and colorful characters. These include a deposed Mexican president who ignited the modern chewing gum industry, the Native Americans who created pemmican, an important food, by mixing fruit with dried meat, and the little-known son of a slave woman who invented the sugar-processing machine still in use today.
Susan Benjamin traces people’s changing palate over the centuries as roots, barks, and even bugs were savored as treats. She surveys the many uses of chocolate from the cacao bean enjoyed by Olmec Indians to candy bars carried by GIs in World War II. She notes that many candies are associated with world’s fairs and other major historical events.
Fun and informative, this book will make you appreciate the candy you love even more by revealing the fascinating backstory behind it.
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Fun Foods of America
The history of fun foods is fast, energetic, and full of surprises. Ever-present and multi-faceted, fun foods have made appearances at birthday parties and lunch boxes in numerous guises, from Twinkies to energy bars. No mere high calorie treats—fun foods were instrumental to the core of how we live, and integral to the influence of Domestic Science, the shifting power of women at home, the use of fun foods as a weapon during war and the corporate swells that swallowed fun foods whole—and turned it into virtually everything we eat today. Fun Foods of America will take them to free websites to find online cookbooks dating back to the 1600s (with transcriptions!) and those with original paintings, drawings, and photographs of venues such as the World Fairs, where the newest fun food was introduced.
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