Q. Was or, gasp, is there such a thing as toast water? . A. One thing is clear: toast water is all over Victorian to early 20th Century recipe and potion books. Albert A. Hopkins starts our toast post with his 1919 guide: ‘Home Made Beverages. The Manufacture of Non-Alcoholic and

Q. It’s chilly at night; we’re bundled up in our houses. If ever there was a time for hot chocolate.. or is it cocoa? What’s the difference? . A. While both can be deliciously warming, hot cocoa is made from ground, roasted cocoa beans with sugar, while hot chocolate is

Q. What are some of the many superstitions people have that involve bread? . A. Well, I’ll start with a personal experience … If there was a theme to be put on our wedding troasts, it would be my lifetime of klutzy mishaps, and my mountain-biking husband’s extreme neatness. “Liz,”

Q. Which foods have bewitched well-known historical figures? . A. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s wrote mounds of  letters – to his wife ‘Stanzi’, to friends, to family. Amongst all the interesting details, we get a keen peek into appetites of the day. One meal that Mozart craved from a young age?

Q. So, what exactly are mince or mincemeat pies? Plenty of people who have eaten them at holiday parties aren’t so sure. . A. We see mince pies featured in multi-layer meaning nursery rhymes: Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner, Eating a mincemeat (or Christmas) pie He stuck in

Q. What are the ingredients in some famous literary love potions and how do things work out post-ingestion? . A. Short answer: herbs, flowers, hard to find nature bits. And, not well. One-way love potion are Illegal, of course. But even those literary couples who decide to drink love potions

Q. Which types of food do people see as most romantic? . A. Well, thanks to Betty Crocker’s  Dinner for Two Cookbook, we know what a romantic dinner looked like in 1958 North America. ‘Thousands of homemakers’ revealed their go-to dishes. Betty Crocker Romance i. Broiled steak ii. Roast beef

Q. “Trick or treat!” With each new open door came chatty adults – some beghouled – and new household noises, smells, and Halloween lighting. If we were lucky, friendly dogs would come bounding up to meet us. But, one key question remained: what would these strangers drop in our goodie

Q. To many of us, preparing intricate dishes for even one round of a 2020 cooking competition looks plenty stressful. But what was it like to create and stage food for ravenous, judgy royals at Late Medieval feasts? . A. Master Chef Chiquart Amizco offers us a peek in. Poor

Q. With September but days away and the crisp of fall in the air, we best get our outdoor ice-cream kicks in while we can. We won’t yet know how the pandemic affected our overall August ice-cream consumption, but in August of 2019, Statista reported that 1.87% of Canadian respondents