The Oldest Comfort Food Bread is older than recorded history. Long before agriculture, Paleolithic people ground wild grains into meal and baked flatbreads on hot stones. With the advent of farming around 10,000 years ago, grains became humanity’s staple crop, and by 6000 BCE Egyptians were fermenting doughs with wild yeasts to make airy loaves. […]

A Sweet and Spicy Tradition Gingerbread has a long and flavorful history that spans continents and centuries. In China, ginger has been used medicinally for more than 4,000 years. Medieval crusaders returning from the Near East brought ginger and other exotic spices to Europe, where bakers began blending them with honey to create spiced biscuits. […]

The Heart of the Holiday Table Stuffing—or dressing, depending on where you live—has been part of festive tables for centuries. Recipes for filled birds and baked breads span civilizations and continents, from the Roman Empire to the modern American kitchen. National Stuffing Day, celebrated on November 21, pays homage to this humble yet essential dish […]

The Bright Taste of Autumn Cranberries are one of the few fruits native to North America that have become an international symbol of autumn feasts. Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern woodlands harvested the tart berries from bogs long before European contact. They ate them fresh, mashed them with maple sugar and meat to make pemmican, […]