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   Sausages go all the way back to ancient Babylon, but the hot dog was brought to the U.S.A. shortly before the Civil War by a real Frankfurter – Charles Feltman, a native of Frankfurt, Germany, who opened a stand in New York and sold grilled sausages on warmed rolls – first for a dime apiece, later, a nickel.

   The frank appealed to busy Americans, who – as an early 19th century comment put it – tend to live by the maxim of “gobble, gulp and go”. Nowadays Americans consume more than 12 billion frankfurters a year.

Hamburgers.12

   Modern hamburgers on a bun were first served at the St. Louis Fair in 1904, but Americans really began eating them in quantity in the 1920s, when the White Castle snack bar chain featured a small, square patty at a very low price. Chopped beef, tasty and easily prepared, quickly caught on as family fare, and today hamburger stands, drive-ins, and burger chains offer Americans their favorite hot sandwich at every turn.

   The history of the hamburger dates back to medieval Europe. A Tartar dish of shredded raw beef seasoned with salt and onion juice was brought from Russia to Germany by early German sailors. The lightly broiled German chopped-beef cake, with pickles and pumpernickel on the side, was introduced to America in the early 1800s by German immigrants in the Midwest.

Doughnuts.12

   It was early Dutch settlers and the Pennsylvania Germans who introduced the yeasty, deep-fried doughnut to America. To the Dutch it was a festive food, eaten for breakfast on Shrove Sunday.

   Legend has it that doughnut got its hole in 1847 when Hanson Gregory, a lad later to become a sea captain, complained to his mother that her fried cakes were raw in the center and poked hole4s in the next batch before they were cooked.

   During World War I, when the Salvation Army served them to the troops, doughnuts really took off as popular fare. Since then, coffee and doughnuts become a national institution. Stores sell them plain, sugared, frosted, honey-dipped, or jam-filled.

Apple pie[13]

   At its best, with a savory filling and crisp, light-brown crust, apple pie has long been favorite on American tables.

   Apples and apple seems were among the precious supplies the early colonists brought to the New World. The first large apple orchards were planted near Boston by William Blaxton in the 1600s. When he moved to Rhode Island in 1635, he developed the tart Rhode Island Greening, still considered one of  America’s finest apple pies.

   As the fruit became abundant, many settlers ate apple pie at every meal. Garnished with a chunk of cheese, it was a favorite colonial breakfast dish. By the 18th century apple pie became so popular that Yale College in New Haven served it every night at supper for more than 100 years.

   America’s love affair with apple pie has remained constant. Today’s housewives, pressed for time, can shortcut the tradition by buying the pastry ready-made at bakeries and supermarkets. Many variation on the good old original are available, but the classical apple pie, irresistible when topped with a slice of rat-trap cheese or slathered with vanilla ice cream, is still America’s favorite.

  

Potato chips.13

   George Crumb, an American Indian who was the chef at Moon’s Lake House in  Saratoga  Springs,  New  York, in  the  mid-19th  century,  was  irked  when  a

finicky dinner guest kept sending back his French fried potatoes, complaining they were too thick. In exasperation, Crumb shaved the potatoes into tissue-thin slice and deep-fried them in oil. He had a dishful of crisp “Saratoga chips” presented to the guest, who was delighted with the new treat.

   Potato chips became the specialty of Moon’s Lake House and, later, America’s crunchiest between-meal snack.

Coca-Cola.14

   America’s best known soft drink was first concocted by an Atlanta pharmacist in 1886. The syrup was cooked up by John S. Pemberton from extracts of coca leaves and the kola nut. He then organized the Pemberton Chemical Company, and Coca-Cola syrup mixed with plain water was sold in a local drug-store for 5 cents a glass.

   Sales were slow until in 1887 a prosperous Atlanta druggist, Asa G. Candler, bought the Coca-Cola formula – then as now a carefully guarded secret – and added carbonate water to the syrup instead of plain water.

   Advertisement stressing the words “delicious” and “refreshing” and carry coupons for free Coca-Cola added to the increase in consumption. A system of independent local bottling companies was developed, and the flared bottle, familiar worldwide and said to resemble the hobble skirt, was designed in 1916.

   In 1919 the company was sold out for $25 million to a group headed by Ernest Woodruff. Under his son, Robert W. Woodruff, Coca-Cola rapidly expanded its market. By the mid-1970s more than 150 million Cokes a day were sold in country all over the world.

   Today Coca-Cola has to compete with many other soft drinks, but it is still one of the symbols of the United States.

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