Help Solve Food History Mysteries!

Find the earliest recipes for American dishes:

With each story are clues about where to look for earlier versions, and a rating of your chances. Some dates are for first published recipe, some for a manuscript recipe, and some for earliest print mention of the dish. Click for details. Then email back about your disoveries, and get your name on a website!

(Now of course, no sooner do I show this page to Lynne Olver, quoted kndly above, than she warns me to be clear when we are looking for the name of a dish, such as "fudge," which might be quite a lot later than an early recipe, say for a fudge-like "soft candy.") So remember...

This page, too, is always under construction!