Food - Overview
Part of a nation's history lies in what people eat. Artifacts at the Museum document the history of food in the United States from farm machinery to diet fads.
More than 1,300 pieces of stoneware and earthenware show how Americans have stored, prepared, and served food for centuries. Ovens, cookie cutters, kettles, aprons, and ice-cream-making machines are part of the collections, along with home canning jars and winemaking equipment. More than 1,000 objects recently came to the Museum when author and cooking show host Julia Child donated her entire kitchen, from appliances to cookbooks.
Advertising and business records of several food companies—such as Hills Brothers Coffee, Pepsi Cola, and Campbell's Soup—represent the commercial side of the subject
"Food - Overview" showing 27 items.
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Hand Refractometer
- Description
- This refractometer was used by winemakers at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, in Napa Valley, during the 1997 harvest. Manufactured by Ty'mup Products, in Gardena, CA, this hand-held model is of the type commonly used to measure the sugar content of grapes and juice.
- Judging when grapes are ready to pick is not as straightforward as it sounds. Winemakers consider many factors before giving the go-ahead for harvest, and determining the fruit's sugar content is critical. Because sugar in wine grapes is fermented into alcohol during the winemaking process, it is important to allow the grapes to ripen to a level of sweetness that is pleasing to the palate, but not past the desired percentage of alcohol.
- While the senses of taste, sight, smell, and touch are the main instruments winemakers use, they also employ scientific devices to quantify their sensory perceptions. A hand-held refractometer is used in the field (as well as in the lab, during fermentation) to measure the "Brix" value, or the sugar content of the grapes. The user of the device presses a drop of juice against the glass plate, points it to a light source, and looks through the eyepiece. As light passes through the juice, molecules of the sugar refract the light on a scale, which assigns the sugar concentration a value. The measurement is represented by % Brix. For champagne grapes winemakers look for a reading of 19, for table wines between 21 and 24, and, for dessert wines, 27 or slightly higher.
- Winemakers don't "pick by the numbers," (the Brix value) alone, but carefully observe and taste the grapes in advance of harvest. In California, grapes typically ripen in August and September, and this is when winemakers and vineyard managers can be seen in the fields fervently monitoring their crop. Ripening depends to some extent on the variety of grape, but there are many environmental factors that influence the way fruit matures.
- Grapes planted on hillsides, for example, generally ripen more slowly than those on the valley floor because the rays of the sun are less direct and the vines are more exposed to cooling breezes.
- As harvest approaches, winemakers begin tasting fruit from different parts of the vineyard. They sample grapes several times a day, a process described by Julia Winiarski, one of the winemakers at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, in Napa Valley, during an interview with Smithsonian researchers in 1997:
- When we go out to taste fruit we have an idea in our minds of what perfectly ripe fruit tastes like and looks like and feels like when you hold a cluster. And that's the form that all of the examples have to be compared to, all the different iterations or different versions of that form are overlaid in our minds when we're tasting and walking. Some fruit won't ever be there, they won't be that perfect cluster that we see, but it's [trying to get fruit] as close to that as you can.
- maker
- Ty'mup Products
- ID Number
- 1998.0181.14
- accession number
- 1998.0181
- catalog number
- 1998.0181.14
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Tastevin
- Description
- A shallow, silver tasting cup, or tastevin, was traditionally used by winemakers to sample wine. Created centuries ago by cellarmasters in Burgundy, the tastevin was essential for judging the maturity of wine in cellars lit only by candles. The tastevin's indentations, and its shiny, convex bottom, reflected even dim candle light throughout the cup and allowed the winemaker to examine the liquid's characteristics. The tastevin is typically attached to a ribbon or chain and worn around the neck
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- 2006.0157.04
- catalog number
- 2006.0157.04
- accession number
- 2006.0157
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bread-slicing Machine
- Description
- This commercial bread-slicing machine was designed and manufactured in 1928 by Otto Frederick Rohwedder (1880-1960). It was used to slice loaves of fresh bakery bread at Korn's Bakery, in Rohwedder's home town of Davenport, Iowa, beginning in late 1928. This is Rohwedder's second automatic bread-slicer, the first having fallen apart after about six months of heavy use at Bench's Bakery, in Chillicothe, Missouri.
- The public loved the convenience of sliced bread and, by 1929, Rohwedder's Mac-Roh Company was feverishly meeting the demand for bread-slicing machines. By the following year, the Continental Baking Company was selling sliced bread under the Wonder Bread label. Having achieved success, Mr. Rohwedder reflected on his invention in the June 1930 issue of the Atlanta-based bakery trade journal, New South Baker: "I have seen enough bakers benefit in a big way from Sliced Bread to know that the same results can be obtained by any baker anywhere if he goes about the matter correctly. A good loaf, a proper presentation of Sliced Bread to the grocers and a truthful, clean advertising program based upon successful experiences and the baker can build his business far beyond what he could do without Sliced Bread. . . We are continuing our experimental and developmental work confident in the belief that the real possibilities of Sliced Bread have scarcely been scratched."
- This 1928 bread-slicing machine was manufactured by the Micro Machine Company, of Bettendorf, Iowa, for the Davenport-based Mac-Roh Sales and Manufacturing Company. It was donated to the Museum by Mr. Rohwedder's daughter, Mrs. Margaret R. Steinhauer, of Albion, Michigan, in 1974.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1928
- maker
- Micro Machine Company
- ID Number
- 1975.315261.1
- accession number
- 1975.315261
- catalog number
- 1975.315261.1
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Triple Chocolate Liquor Mill
- Description
- There are many stages in the process of making a luscious bar of milk chocolate from dried and roasted cocoa beans. This machine, a chocolate liquor mill used in the Hershey chocolate factory from about 1920 to the late 1970s, was critical in the early stages of the process. Between heated stones, the mill ground the "nibs," or cracked cores of the cocoa beans, melting the cocoa butter contained inside. The resulting liquefied cocoa butter and ground nibs produced a mixture called "chocolate liquor," (a liquor with no alcoholic content). Unsweetened chocolate liquor is very bitter, and, while normally it isn't eaten as is, it can be used in the production of certain food products or sold as baking chocolate. To make "eating chocolate," like that in candy bars, the chocolate liquor requires many more additives, as well as the processes of mixing, refining, and conching.
- Milton Snavely Hershey's (1857-1945) road to becoming the most recognized name in the American chocolate industry was neither smooth nor entirely sweet. After failing at the confectionary business in Philadelphia, Denver, and New York, Hershey moved back to his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and began a business making caramel candies. While the company enjoyed modest success, Hershey was continually experimenting with new products.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1918
- maker
- J. M. Lehmann Machine Works
- ID Number
- 1980.0021.01
- accession number
- 1980.0021
- catalog number
- 1980.0021.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Chocolate-Making Conch
- Description
- The chocolate-making conche was named for the resemblance of initial designs to the shell of the conch, a sea-dwelling invertebrate. Invented in 1879 by Rudolph Lindt, the conche is outfitted with large stone rollers that are used to mix and aerate the liquid chocolate. An ad for the "Longitudinal Refining Machine" offered by J.M. Lehmann in an 1899 catalog describes the function of the unit: "In working Chocolate by this machine the highly prized melting character of the chocolate is obtained and besides the taste is considerably improved...No other machine will obtain similar favorable results...[a]s Chocolate handled by this machine becomes very fluid, obviating an excessive addition of Cocoa Butter. . ."
- The process of conching is one of the last stages in the production of milk chocolate. It develops the chocolate flavor, darkens the chocolate's color, stabilizes the viscous properties of the chocolate mass by covering all aspects with cocoa butter, and generally lowers the moisture content of the mass. Manufacturing processes vary; some producers add milk, sugar, and flavorings to the chocolate mass or liquor (a semi-liquid ground cocoa bean mixture), before the mixture is refined and conched. Others contend that the heat involved in conching destroys volatile flavor compounds, so flavors are added later. Conching can last from one to four days, and once it is finished, the mixture is melted, deposited into bar molds, and allowed to cool.
- The conche was part of a donation by the Hershey Foods Corporation of three machines representing major steps in the chocolate making process: the grinding of "nibs" (the roasted core of the cocoa bean) in the chocolate liquor mill is one of the first steps, the conche performs important mixing and heating functions in the middle of the process, and the depositor ejects milk chocolate that hardens into the final candy bar form. This conche was manufactured in approximately 1920, and was in use at the Hershey chocolate Company.
- Milton Snavely Hershey was a candymaker long before he became a significant figure in the American chocolate industry. After failed business ventures in Philadelphia, Denver, and New York, Hershey was finally able to establish a successful trade in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, making caramel candies. He traveled to the World's Columbian Exposition (1893), and visited many of the agricultural and food-related exhibitions there. The J.M. Lehmann Company had a fully functional chocolate bar production line on display in the Machinery Building, and before the close of the Exposition on October 30, 1893, Hershey had arranged to buy the machines that had been in the display. By New Year's Day 1894, Hershey was making cocoa products. He began offering solid chocolate candies in 1896, and, in 1900, the first Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars were offered for sale in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1920
- ID Number
- 1980.0021.02
- accession number
- 1980.0021
- catalog number
- 1980.0021.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Chocolate Depositor
- Description
- This depositor was in use at the Hershey chocolate factory from 1906 until it was donated to the museum in the late 1970s. Markings on the machine indicate that it was used to make milk chocolate and almond candy bars. A set of two depositors would be used to fill stainless steel bar molds with the semi-liquid chocolate mixture, each machine filling alternate rows on the molds. Moving on the conveyor belt, the chocolate would set into bars as it cooled in the molds on a twenty-minute ride through a "cooling tunnel." The molds were subjected to bumpy vibration as they traveled along the conveyor belt; the vibration helped to remove bubbles and air pockets, ensuring a solid candy bar. Once the chocolate had completely cooled and set, the finished candy bars would progress to wrapping and packaging.
- The famous factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania was not the original location of Milton Snavely Hershey's candy-making enterprise. M.S. Hershey had attempted a number of business ventures in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago before settling back in his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the early 1890s, and opening a caramel candy making company.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Racine Engine and Machinery Company
- ID Number
- 1980.0021.03
- accession number
- 1980.0021
- catalog number
- 1980.0021.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Krispy Automatic Ring-King Junior Doughnut Machine
- Description
- The Krispy Automatic Ring-King Junior was introduced by the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation of Winston-Salem, N.C., in the 1950s. It was designed for making the company's signature product—hot glazed doughnuts—in small retail operations around the United States and abroad. The Ring-King Junior could produce about 60 dozen doughnuts an hour, and was used until the late 1960s.
- This doughnut machine was part of a collection of artifacts and archival materials donated to the Museum in 1997 on the 60th anniversary of the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation. The collection documents the history of an American business enterprise and also provides a view into food technology, marketing, and southern regional food traditions.
- maker
- Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation
- ID Number
- 1997.0179.01
- accession number
- 1997.0179
- catalog number
- 1997.0179.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Budding Knife
- Description
- This knife was used by Nathan Fay (1914-2001), the California grape grower credited with planting the first Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in the Stag's Leap District of Napa Valley. Since Fay's first planting in 1961, the variety has become well established and the district is internationally known for its fine Cabernet Sauvignon vintages. When he donated this budding knife to the Smithsonian in 1997, Fay estimated he had used it to bud some 4,000 to 5,000 plants. He added that, in his prime, he was able to bud about 400 vines in a day, and, in his lifetime, he had probably budded some 12,000 plants.
- The first step in budding new vines is to plant rootstock resistant to phylloxera, the devastating insect that attacks the roots of Vitis vinifera, the Eurasian species of grapes from which the world's best table wines are made. Although grapes native to North America are phylloxera-resistant, their fruit does not equal the kind of complex, classical wine produced by the V. vinifera species. Consequently, American viticulturalists have learned to plant "resistant" rootstock, typically hybrids of species native to the New World. It is on this rootstock that they graft the buds from V. vinifera wood.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Henkels Dansk
- ID Number
- 1997.0304.03
- accession number
- 1997.0304
- catalog number
- 1997.0304.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Máquina de Margaritas Heladas
- Description
- In the 70's, the margarita surpassed the martini as the most popular American cocktail and salsa surpassed ketchup as the most-used American condiment. Today, Mexican cuisine, in all its modified, regionalized, commercialized, and even highly processed varieties, has become as American as apple pie. Mariano Martinez, a young Texas entrepreneur, and his frozen margarita machine were at the crossroads of that revolution. The margarita was first made on the California-Mexican border, and became associated with the service of Mexican food, particularly, with one of its variants, Tex-Mex, a regional cuisine that became popular all across the United States. In 1971, Martinez adapted a soft serve ice cream machine to create the world's first frozen margarita machine for his new Dallas restaurant, Mariano's Mexican Cuisine. With their blenders hard-pressed to produce a consistent mix for the newly popular drink they made from Mariano's father's recipe, his bartenders were in rebellion. Then came inspiration in the form of a Slurpee machine at a 7-Eleven, a machine invented in Dallas in 1960 to make carbonated beverages slushy enough to drink through a straw. The soft-serve ice cream machine that Martinez adapted to serve his special drink was such a success that, according to Martinez, "it brought bars in Tex-Mex restaurants front and center. People came to Mariano's for that frozen margarita out of the machine." Never patented, many versions of the frozen margarita machine subsequently came into the market. After 34 years of blending lime juice, tequila, ice, and sugar for enthusiastic customers, the world's first frozen margarita machine was retired to the Smithsonian.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1970
- maker
- Sani-Serv
- ID Number
- 2005.0226.01
- catalog number
- 2005.0226.01
- accession number
- 2005.0226
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1949 GMC Pickup Truck
- Description
- Ira Wertman, a farmer in Andreas, Pennsylvania, raised fruits and vegetables and peddled them with this truck to retired coal miners near Allentown. He also used the truck to take produce to market and haul supplies from town to the farm. Pickup trucks have been versatile aids to a wide range of agricultural, personal, and business activities. Early pickup trucks were modified automobiles, but postwar models were larger, more powerful, and able to carry heavier loads. Some postwar pickups were used in building suburban communities. Others were used for recreational purposes such as camping, hunting, and fishing. By the 1990s, many people purchased pickups for everyday driving.
- date made
- 1949
- maker
- General Motors Corporation
- ID Number
- 1999.0057.01
- accession number
- 1999.0057
- catalog number
- 1999.0057.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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