History of pepperoni

Pepperoni, a small, firm, spicy salami, well known to American pizza lovers, is unknown in Italy but it may be added to affettato if desired.

The origin of fermented sausages can be traced back with accuracy to 1730, when salami was first mentioned in Italy. Although it was inspired by spicy Italian salami, the sausage of pepperoni is an Italo-American invention dating back to the 1930s.

The word ‘pepperoni’ originated from peperone ‘cayenne pepper plant’. Pizza makers found that manual peeling and slicing of pepperoni was expensive because of the labor involved – and because of the injuries.

Better safety and easier slicing were facilitated, first by the invention of slicing machines for pepperoni in the late 1960s and then by the development of edible protein films to replace the traditional pigs casing.

Pepperoni is usually made from cured pork and beef although poultry may also be used. Thinly sliced pepperoni is a popular pizza topping in American-style pizzerias, a filing in the West Virginia pepperoni roll, and is used to make some varieties of sub sandwiches.
History of pepperoni

The first chocolate manufacturing plant in United States

In 1730, chocolate manufacturing becomes a mass production when a mechanical cocoa grinding process is introduced.

Chocolate production in the United States grew faster than anywhere else in the world. The first wholly machine-made chocolate was produced in Barcelona, Spain in 1780.

It was during pre-revolutionary New England – 1765 the first chocolate factory was established in America. It was first manufactured in 1765 by Irish-born chocolatier John Hannon and physician James Baker. They opened the first chocolate factory at Milton Lower Mills, near Dorchester, Massachusetts.

John Hanan brought the cocoa beans from the West Indies, thinking they might be used in medicine. In 1780 James Baker produced chocolate made soluble by a reduced cocoa butter content, a product called baker’s chocolate.

James Baker’s descendent Walter Baker hired an employee named Samuel German, who developed a sweet chocolate; which was added to the Baker’s line under Germans name.

In the 1900s, Milton S. Hershey worked zealously at preparing recipe that would compete with the Swiss until he finally came out with a formula which mixed the right combination of sugar and cocoa.

This was amazingly popular with the public that he began to mass produce and distribute chocolate candy very successfully.
The first chocolate manufacturing plant in United States

Hors d’Oeuvres: American Version

Hors d’Oeuvres: American Version
The introduction of the pre-dinner cocktail hour in the early twentieth century changed American’s view of hors d’oeuvres.

Before World War I, guests at a dinner party were presumed to arrive punctually and to proceed almost immediately info the dining room.

If cocktails were served, they opened the dinner, accompanying a plated appetizer, once everyone was seated at the table.

This custom had change by the 1920s, when racy hostesses served hors d’oeuvres as “accompaniments for the liquid refreshment that dodges prohibition conscientiously and yet is flavorsome enough to make the quarter hour before dinner less solemn and uninteresting than it sometimes proves.”

After the repeal of Prohibition, the modern cocktail party burst n the scene, with a slew of recipes for hors d’oeuvres to help absorb the liquor.

Until about 1940s, “fine dining” restaurant menus tended to use French terminology in organizing the successive courses - at least for those courses that did not have a handy English translation, such as hors d’oeuvre, entrée, and entremets.

But a simple model for a “proper” meal was emerging from the 1920s on consisting of only three courses.

A term being needed to pigeonhole the many types of dishes being offered, the generic category “appetizers” began to appear denoting the first of three courses.

Appetizers broadly included soups, salads and savory pastries, all of which appeared as separate courses - although in smaller portions - in nineteenth and early twentieth century meals.
Hors d’Oeuvres: American Version