I picked up Yummy by Victoria Grace Elliott while working at a middle school library. Filled with facts, it’s a fun romp through the history looking at the origins and evolution of cakes, ice cream, pies, cookies and more. A clever narrator and her two pals explain how from ancient times people sweetened their diet, though with less sugar than we do today.
I learned that:
- There wasn’t a dessert course in earlier times. Our sweets like pie and cake were served in the middle of a meal like the other foods.
- Ice cream began in Ancient Persia, circa 400BC.
- Before the invention of baking soda or baking powder, bakers had to beat batter for an hour to get enough air in it to make it fluffy.
- Medieval bakers’ pie crusts were often two inches thick so the fillings could be preserved for months. Moreover, they sometimes did put live animals and birds like the famous black birds in pies.
Yummy’s a fun, educational micro history and a quick read.
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