A Harte Appetite

The origin of hummus is something of a mystery. Some antique cookbooks suggest it was invented in the 12h century for the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria. The name itself derives from the Arabic word for chickpeas.

Cake mixes have some real advantages over home made. For instance, they’re much more forgiving. Over-beat the batter and they still bake up fine. Under-beat it and the result is nonetheless perfectly acceptable. Take a box cake out of the oven sooner than you should and all will be well.

You don't have to be from Africa to appreciate couscous. The late Craig Claiborne, for example, called it one of the dozen greatest dishes in the world.

Most observers say Boston's Parker House Hotel -- where they still bake nearly 200 of them each week invented the version of Boston Cream Pie we know today.

The pomegranate, that beautiful fruit with the jewel-like red seeds, has recently exploded on the culinary scene. Which is appropo for a fruit which inspired the name a hand-tossed explosive, known as the grenade.

What do award-winning cookbook author Rick Bayless, Food Network Iron Chef Bobby Flay, nationally acclaimed pastry chef Gale Gand, and Chloe, my granddaughter, have in common? They all began their culinary education by slaving over a hot light bulb.

The Romans believed cinnamon was sacred and every Roman emperor stocked cinnamon in his treasury. The Romans weren’t the only ones who valued cinnamon. The ancient Egyptians used it for witchcraft and embalming.

Ever been in a sticky situation? We all have. But probably none as sticky as the Great Molasses Flood, sometimes called the Molasses Massacre, which hit Boston in 1919.

The story of Wonder Bread started in 1921 when the Taggart Baking Company of Indianapolis was getting ready to launch its new 1 1/2 pound loaf of bread. Inspiration hit VP Elmer Cline who was attending the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Speedway. He became mesmerized by the hundreds of colorful balloons floating across the sky.

The word brunch is a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch, indicating a meal which combines elements of both. The term first appeared in print in 1895 in an article whose author proposed its virtue thusly: “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday-night carousers.”

Its more than 100,000 varieties grow on every continent except Antarctica; it feeds more people than any other crop and has for thousands of years; and it can be the principal ingredient in a wide range of dishes ranging from appetizers to desserts. I’m talking about rice.

A cobbler, after all, in the words of Nicole Weston on her Baking Bites blog, is just a pie for lazy people. As she explains, it gives you the all the character of a pie but without the hassle.

In Scotland, their oatmeal, or porridge, is a hallowed dish, celebrated every year at the World Porridge Making Championship in the village of Carrbridge.

“Beer is proof God loves us,” Ben Franklin supposedly said. If so, God must have a special fondness for the people of the Czech Republic. Beer is the most heavily consumed alcoholic beverage in the world, and the Czechs are doing their part to keep it that way. They rank #1 in world beer consumption.

For those of us used to modern conveniences, it's hard to imagine what life was like before the invention of the tin can.

Red velvet cake was all the rage years ago, but its popularity has faded since the 1970s amid safety concerns about the red food coloring in use back then to tint the cake. Perhaps it's time to bring red velvet cake back.

Sweetened condensed milk is a clear exception to the notion that when something is condensed or reduced it is inferior to the original.

In Hungary they take their paprika seriously. Just as seriously as the Italians take their pasta, the Japanese take their rice or the English their tea.

The Instant Pot is fundamentally a pressure cooker, a device invented way back in 1679 by the French physicist Denis Papin.

Pretzels, some historians contend, may be the oldest snack food known to humankind.

Even before Cracker Jack became inextricably linked to baseball, it hit a home run with the public when it was introduced at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago by Frederick “Fritz” Rueckheim and his brother Louis.

Spain has given many gifts to gastronomy, like paella, manchego cheese, and the world’s greatest ham. But no less noteworthy are churros, or Spanish donuts.

Feta cheese -- sometimes referred to as the princess of cheeses -- is every bit as admirable as any other Greek invention, and it is surely just as ancient. It is likely as old as Greece itself.