Eating and cooking utensils may make our lives easier and more etiquette-friendly, but they've had a few unintentional historical consequences. For example, consider the fork—which, incidentally, is the title of a book by Bee Wilson documenting the evolution of cooking and eating technology. Wilson writes that overbites didn't become common until people started eating with a knife and fork. Here's how it happened: More

In this age of excess, it's easy to forget that there was a time when people rallied around the idea of individual deprivation for the common good. What a nice surprise to come across this poster, which so neatly sums up some of my most basic beliefs about food, and realize it was created nearly a century ago. More

There's something both sweet and intriguing about looking back through old magazines and newspapers to see what dishes were popular way back when. Flipping through my mom's food magazines from the 80's reveals strangely complex appetizers, a million variations on cooking shrimp, and heavy cream sauces. If you don't have a mother with decades-old magazines at the ready, you're in luck: The L.A. Times has opened up the recipe vault on their site, a veritable cultural study in the past few decades or so in food. More

Have you ever wondered who thought up the whisk? Or how chicken came to dominate the dinner plate? What about the origins of cellophane packaging, or who invented soft serve ice cream? If your curiosity is piqued, check out these 15 quick glimpses into food history, including a look at meat market playsets in Victorian times (yes!) and history's 20 most significant food and drink inventions. More

We love getting glimpses into the lives of some of our favorite writers, especially when it comes to their tastes in food! Did you know that Walt Whitman loved oysters and meat for breakfast? Or that Allen Ginsberg had a famous and "uncompromising" Borsch recipe? Read on for these secrets and more, including a roundup of terrific food journals, a peek inside a literary food-themed dinner party, and Beatrix Potter's recipe for gingerbread. More

Usually, once a word makes it into the Oxford English Dictionary, it remains, even if it loses popularity. However, between 1972 and 1983, the then-editor of the OED deleted thousands of words, an unheard-of practice. Many of these were Americanisms, and there were a good number of food-related words that were almost lost forever. More

When you sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner in two days, you'll probably be sitting down to a meal that includes what we've come to view as holiday classics: turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, a few pies (pumpkin, pecan, apple). But how close is this to the menu at the so-called first Thanksgiving? More

Ever wondered where the expression "piping hot" comes from? Or maybe "easy as pie?" The Village Voice recently dug into the history of these expressions, and here are their (somewhat inexact but plausible) origins for 10 common food idioms: More

Maria Popova of the blog Brain Pickings always unearths the most interesting stories, tidbits, and other tidy pieces of information from history and the far corners of the internet. Yesterday she revealed excerpts from John Keats's Porridge: Favorite Recipes of American Poets, a 1973 book by poet and self-taught chef Victoria McCabe. The book contains 117 favorite recipes from some of that era's most illustrious literary minds, including Allen Ginsberg, Edward Abbey, Claire McAllister, and Joyce Carol Oates. More

Meet Shimizu San, a Japanese restaurant owner who grows his own wheat and makes his own udon. Take a moment and watch his ode to udon — a simple and centered take on sustainable living and eating. And it looks delicious! More