Skip to main content
College of Humanities
Humanities Cookbook

Stories

From printers to conquerors to saints, food has a rich and varied history. Convenience combined with tradition has created unique dishes that survived the ages. Dig into the stories below to learn the history behind each dish in A Taste of Humanities.
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Cézanne’s Still Life Madeleines Story

Madeleines are scalloped-shell-shaped French butter cakes. Legend tells of a young girl named Madeleine who made her grandmother’s butter cake recipe for King Louis XV as he passed through one day. King Louis took the madeleines back to Versailles and they were soon beloved by the French court.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Kvas Story

Kvas is a healthy, refreshing bread-based drink that dates to over 1000 years ago in Eastern Europe. In Russia, peasants and aristocrats alike drank kvas, which they believed had certain healing properties, some of which modern science has substantiated.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Coquilles Saint Jacques Story

The corpse of the Lord’s apostle James the Greater was retrieved from a shipwreck near large scallops. The shell has become symbolic of the beloved Saint and the dish, which utilizes scallops, was subsequently named after him.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Cochinita Pibil Story

The Mayans developed a technique for cooking meat underground in a pibil. When Spanish conquistadores arrived, they brought pigs with them. The Maya soon applied their indigenous techniques to season and cook this new animal, which they aptly named with a blend of Spanish and Mayan language: cochinita pibil.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Roman Pizza Story

Uncovered at Pompeii, the Roman brick oven has yet to be improved upon. These ovens were engineered to cook by channeling heat from the dome. The Pompeii oven, still heavily used for baking bread, holds the secret to making what is arguably the best pizza on the planet.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Jiaozi Story

Dumplings, or jiaozi, are similar in shape to traditional Chinese silver and gold ingots(used as currency in traditional times) and often appear on the table at Chinese New Year’s Eve feasts, where they symbolize hope for wealth and prosperity in the coming year
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Bibimbap Story

Korean Lunar New Year’s Eve, the final day of the year, was celebrated by eating goldongban, or rice mixed with vegetables and beef, to consume the family’s remaining food at the end of the year. That traditional New Year’s dish was the predecessor to bibimbap.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Tagliatelle Story

According to legend, Lucrezia Borgia (the famous illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander) was preparing to marry for the third time. The wedding’s chef took inspiration from Lucrezia’s long golden locks and cutp asta into thin golden strips, thus creating the iconic tagliatelle noodle.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Panna Cotta Story

While no cuisine is singular to Deaf Culture here in America, food may be chosen for its simplicity in eating with one hand—facilitating one-handed signing, and uninterrupted conversations. Panna cotta is an example of a simple dessert that can be eaten with one hand free to continue communications.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Printer's Devil Ice Cream Story

The printer’s apprentices (nicknamed printer’s devils) generally worked, ate, and slept in the shops and became stained with printer’s ink. As a tribute to these apprentices, Printer’s Devil Ice Cream is stained dark with cocoa powder, which tastes considerably better than printer’s ink.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Turkish Delight Story

Traditionally flavored with rosewater, Turkish delight reflects many Persian and Middle Eastern dishes. In Edmund’s England, the popularity of the candy reflects the cosmopolitan fusion of cultures, but to many Americans who only know the candy from Narnia it initially seems too foreign to like.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Arbitrary Zucchini Pancakes Story

Arbitrariness means that since there is nothing inherently zucchini-ish about the letter z, it is free to inhabit words such as zonk, zebra, and zipper. Zucchini has a similar kind of freedom, as it has been added to cookies, ratatouille, and is now available for pancake-lovers.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Everything We Love Cookies Story

What does a cookie have to do with the inter-disciplinaries humanities program? IHUM gives students lots of options, letting students pursue their interest in literature, film and media, art, music, and more. These cookies are designed to give you options to explore by adding and subtracting ingredients as you like.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Goethe’s West-Eastern Sweet and Sour Chicken Story

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German author and a father of comparative literature because of his interest in cross-pollination between Eastern and Western literary traditions. Sweet-and-sour chicken was brought to the United States by Chinese railway workers in the early twentieth century, and represents Goethe’s way of bring cultures together.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="oneOffPage"

Danish Pastry (Weinerbrod) Story

During the 1850’s Danish bakers went on strike leaving bakery owners scrambling. Their solution was to recruit bakers from Austria who brought with them new pastry techniques, which included adding layers of butter and repeatedly folding and chilling the dough. The resulting flaky pastries were an instant success.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=