Greater Midwest Foodways: How Sweet It is! April 5th 9-4 PM

Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance

The Midwest: How Sweet It Is!

Sweets: A Journey Through Midwestern Dessert Traditions

Saturday, April 5th, 2008
9 AM – 4 PM
Kendall College
900 North Branch Street, Chicago
(West of Halsted Street, North of Chicago Avenue)
FREE PARKING

Join us for a program about the history of sweets in the Midwest, including the important dessert traditions that began in small towns and big cities here in the Midwest. Enjoy a day learning about:

· The influential role of the railroad and immigrant populations in bringing new desserts to the Midwest and establishing them as traditions
· Abraham Lincoln’s favorite dessert
· The blue-ribbon pie traditions of county fairs, including unusual, lost recipes such as bean pie and sugar-cream pie
· The cooking of late 19th-century Michigan, as described in the autobiography of Della Lutes
· The role of Midwestern food companies in creating much-loved home dessert recipes such as the French Silk Pie, Tunnel of Fudge cake and Princess Brownies
· The humble Midwest origins of many internationally known candies, candy bars and other treats, such as the Heath Bar
· Dessert traditions completely unique to the Midwest, including the Wisconsin Kringle and the Mennonite-German Pfeffernusse

Featured speakers are Robin Mather Jenkins and Donna Pierce from the Chicago Tribune as well as LTH members Dobra Bielinski, Peter Engler, Michael Gebert and Catherine Lambrecht, in addition to a host of other dynamic Midwest food academics, culinary historians and cookbook authors. The program to date can be found here.

Lectures, interactive discussions – and of course, delicious tastings throughout the day that will help illustrate the ideas discussed. The cost is $50 in advance, or $60 at the door, with refreshments and lunch included. To register go to registration or by to Brown Paper Tickets.

The symposium is sponsored by the Culinary Historians of Chicago, Kendall College and the Almond Board of California.

Visit www.GreaterMidwestFoodways.com for more details and periodic updates.

I ordered my ticket last night and I'm very much looking forward to this. It promises to be quite a day . . .

but someone else can have my pfeffernusse

=R=

HI,

During registration (8-9 AM) and lunch, we will be showing a short documentary on Donut Day: 24 hours at Sweetwater's Donut Mill of Kalamazoo, Michigan. There will be Sweetwater donut holes to sample during registration.

Regards,

Updated program:

Sweets: A Journey Through Midwestern Dessert Traditions

Saturday, April 5th, 2008
9 AM – 4 PM
Kendall College
900 North Branch Street, Chicago
(West of Halsted Street, North of Chicago Avenue)
FREE PARKING

Program features speakers:

Jane Marshall, food historian and journalist Instructor, Kansas State University, Cakewalks and bake sales: How women pioneers refined the Midwest and defined community

Family ties to Candy.

· Ray Elliot, author-publisher, The evolution of the Heath Candy Bar

· Tom and Amy Wertheim, R.G.W. Candy Company, small batch candy making.

Home Baking I: Pie

· Paula Haney, Hoosier Mama Pie Company, Indiana’s Pies.

· Peter Engler, Culinary Historian, Bean Pie

· Catherine Lambrecht, Founding Board member, Pecan Pie

Ken Albala, Professor of History at the University of the Pacific, Almond Cookery from Northern Europe to the Midwest, or how an exotic import retained its status over time and tide

Home Baking II:

· Michael Gebert, freelance writer, Pfeffernusse and Pluma Moos: Mennonite Food Traditions in a Kansas Family.

· Judy Kancigor, author of Cooking Jewish, Jewish desserts: From poverty to plenty

· Donna Pierce, Chicago Tribune Test Kitchen Director, Sweet Ride Up the Rails

Desserts that went to market

· Dobra Bielinski, Delightful Pastries, Clash of cultures. How does a French and American chef create Polish pastries, breads and cakes? What makes a Polish pastry, if ganache is on top is it still Polish?

· Herb Fingerhut, Kaufman’s Deli and Bakery, What a baker does in his late 40's when the family bakery closes: experiences that have brought him to the best time in his life!

· Eleanor Hanson, former Kraft Kitchen director, From Recipe Box to Grocery Shelf: The test kitchen and recipe contest origins and lore of iconic everyday desserts

Riva Feshbach, Exhibits Manager, Newberry Library’s Culinary Collections, Food for Thought: Culinary History at the Newberry Library.

C2, I'm very much looking forward to this event, which promises to be as eye- (and stomach-) opening as last year's sausage symposium, which was honestly one of the most fascinating food info-exchanges of '07.

Just curious: what's for lunch?

For the morning break: bean pie, pecan pie and Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie


Lunch:

Relish tray: Cottage cheese, picked beets, three bean salad

Captain Powers Salvation Army Corn Pudding

Green Beans Almondine

Beef noodles over mashed potatoes

Turkey Tetrazinni

Abraham Lincoln's Almond Cake

Windy City Root Beer

Afternoon break: Mars Ice Cream bars

Post Event Dessert and Chat: More desserts, bread from Fingerhut ... etc.

If you walk away hungry its because you didn't eat.

Regards,

FYI - I will be on Chicago Beverage Beat which will broadcast on WJJG 1530 AM on Thursday (today) starting just after 5 PM.

Regards,

Big thanks and congratulations to Cathy and all the other Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance and Kendall College folks for a fascinating program that hit so many different aspects of the subject-- from academic historical research to modern-day retail experience-- and made so many interesting connections.

It moved right along through an incredibly wide range of topics and was fueled throughout by interesting food. I was also glad to see several LTHForum folks, including at least one I hadn't met before, though I must say there should easily have been three times as many, as the topic-- and the food-- certainly would have warranted more.

Thanks for inviting me to take part, I very much enjoyed it and will look forward to the podcast.

* * *

Link to pfeffernusse (I'll spell it both ways for the search engine-- pfeffernüsse) recipe here.

This was a fabulous event. It is so excellent to learn about different types of food…then eat it! Cathy2 gave a terrific presentation about pecan and many other types of pies, including sugar cream pie, along with pecan, below.



ReneG, MikeG and Cookie Monster, among many others, gave very focused, sharp and informative presentations. It was clear that the LTH contingent put a lot of thought and preparation into their pieces; they really did us proud.

From non-LTH contributors, I particularly enjoyed Eleanor Hanson’s perspective from the Kraft test kitchen (“Tunnel of Fudge put Bundt cakes on the map”). Later, I asked Eleanor her about the culinary concept that s’mores involve using toasted marshmallow to melt Hershey’s chocolate, which seems impossible from a physical science perspective: not nearly enough thermal energy. She conceded, but added that it’s possible that in days of yore the Hershey’s chocolate was thinner and thus more likely to melt (though probably not).

Unaddressed by any speakers, but somehow perfectly appropriate, was our lunch, with satisfyingly hearty selections like turkey tetrazinni (which I don’t think I’ve had since college, but enjoyed) and beef noodle.





Near the end of the day, Herb Fingerhut (bredphd) gave a personal account of the evolution of his family bakery, which suggests the range of approaches we heard today. There's not substitute for getting this first-hand account of a local food institution.

As with the sausage event (“Stuffed”) of last year, I went to this Midwest Folkways event thinking I’d split after lunch, but it was so remarkably engaging, I stuck around to the sweet end.

A very good use of a Saturday.

Thank you Cathy 2 , MidWest committee and others involved with this event. There was a wide range of topics and all the speakers were very informative and enhanced my knowledge of food in the midwest. Each presentation was accompanied by related food items which, in my opinion, was a delightful way to bring traditional and obscure recipes to life. The event was, in a nutshell, fabulous!

Cathy, a particular note of thanks for all the baking you did: pies, Lincoln cakes, Refrigerator cakes, Seven-Layer cookies plus more! Everything was delicious.

Jyoti

Sorry I did not make it to this event like I intended, Cathy. From being sick/working all week, I was too exhausted to really do anything on Saturday. It sounds like it was a great program, though.

bnowell724 wrote:Sorry I did not make it to this event like I intended, Cathy. From being sick/working all week, I was too exhausted to really do anything on Saturday. It sounds like it was a great program, though.

Hi,

It takes a lot of effort to do all this. bnowell724 absorbed quite a bit of her Friday working with Helen and I to prepare the range of homemade desserts you simply cannot buy. Helen and I are both homecooks with no small batch quantity experience.

Bnowell724 guided us on how to expertly prep for such an effort. Helen, who has never baked in her life, was chopping nuts and measuring ingredients. While bnowell724 prepared the batters in Kendall's pastry kitchen. They had commercial sized mixers to make batter for six bundt cakes in one bowl. I made 18 pie crusts, which is about 16 more than I usually do. I did something I had never done before: I made the crusts entirely by hand. No pastry cutter, just my hands rubbing the fat into the flour. It was much more pleasant than I had ever imagined.

After seven hours, we had 6 Lincoln almond cakes, 6 Tunnel of Fudge cakes, 6 pecan pies, 6 French Silk pies, 6 Hoosier sugar cream pies and too many Chocolate refrigerator cakes.

I am not surprised Bnowell724 was exhausted. I was wiped out last night from the effort, which reminded me again I am not restaurant worker material.

Bnowell724 - thank you for your assistance in making those treats come to reality! I was sorry you did not make it today to enjoy the fruits of your labors or to accept our collective thanks for your efforts.

***

I am thrilled you were all happy your time was well spent.

Hammond wrote:ReneG, MikeG and Cookie Monster, among many others, gave very focused, sharp and informative presentations. It was clear that the LTH contingent put a lot of thought and preparation into their pieces; they really did us proud.

I totally agree with you.

The LTH community and the collective body of information certainly influenced this program. From choice of speakers as well as the food served for lunch were influenced by LTH. I don't miss an opportunity to acknowledge LTH has been a deep well of information to draw ideas from.

The beef noodles over mashed potatoes was a new dish to many present. It took a lot of convincing this dish was worthy because some couldn't get past the double starch aspect. However once tasting the outcome, which was presented as beef noodles over mashed potatoes. There were many converts to this dish. In the program was Tyrus' narrative of how his Grandmother prepared this dish, which came directly from this post with his permission.

Gary's friend Captain Power's corn pudding also gained new fans. When I learned there was a tray left to take home, I thought the Kendall students would enjoy it on Monday. That is until a few other people swooped to take large chunks home. I guess the proof is indeed in the pudding.

Did anyone say leftovers? Whatever we had left, people were free to take home.

MikeG wrote:Big thanks and congratulations to Cathy and all the other Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance and Kendall College folks for a fascinating program that hit so many different aspects of the subject-- from academic historical research to modern-day retail experience-- and made so many interesting connections.

Thank you for your contribution to the interesting mosaic of information.

Regards,

We would like to add our thanks to the chorus of well deserved praise for a really great event. I am glad to hear that GMFA is trying to establish itself on a permanent basis. We are looking forward to future events. LTHers distinguished themselves by great presentations -- informative, amusing, and to the point. Kudos to Rene G, Mike G, and Cathy 2. I am afraid, though, that we seriously overdosed on sugar!

I'm sorry I was unable to make it to this program, but brisket cooking duty called. Interestingly enough, I also made a batch of Capt. Powers Corn Pudding for my wife's family as a side dish and it was a huge hit.

How did I miss the Tunnel of Fudge Cake?? Not that I didn't have more than enough to eat too - I was one of the leftovers takers. Thanks so much to Cathy and everyone involved in this fantastic event. I did have the elusive bean pie, the historic Hoosier pie, the Franco-Pole cheesecake, and the racy Mennonite Pfeffernüsse - among the many, many offerings. I also thought Kendall did a terrific job on lunch - and would love if they offered a classic Midwestern menu in their restaurant on a regular basis. It was an amazing difference having those dishes made with excellent quality ingredients and executed with fine technique. If only they'll serve Cathy's blue-ribbon-winning pecan pie too. Thanks again. Can't wait for the next one.

Cathy,

Terrific program, though anytime thought provoking talks are accompanied by cookies, pie and toffee it's going to be a day well spent.

Enjoy,
Gary

Chicago Public Radio's Chicago Amplified recently recorded the entire Sweets symposium hosted by the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance on April 5th at Kendall College:


Sweets: Opening Remarks and Keynote Address

Listen in for this symposium's Opening Remarks by Chris Koetke, followed by the morning's keynote talk with Jane C. Marshall: "Cakewalks and Bake Sales: How Women Pioneers Refined the Midwest and Defined Community."


Sweets: Family Ties to Candy

The first morning panel of the symposium, "Family Ties to Sweets" presented Ray Elliot along with Tom and Amy Wertheim of the R.G.W. Candy Company, to talk all about candy.


Sweets: Home Baking - Pie

The second panel of the morning featured three panelists to discuss Midwestern pies: Peter Engler, Pastry Chef Paula Haney and Catherine Lambrecht.


Sweets: Ken Albala

Presenting the keynote lunch was Ken Albala, Professor of History at the University of the Pacific, to discuss Almond Cookery from Northern Europe to the Midwest or how an exotic import retained its status over time and tide.


Sweets: Home Baking II

Starting off the afternoon was Michael Gebert, presenting on Mennonite food traditions; Judy Bart Kancigor, speaking on Jewish dessert; and Donna Pierce, covering black migration and desserts that followed the rail lines.


Sweets: Desserts That Went to Market

As the second panel discussion of the afternoon, Dobra Bielinski asked how a French and American Chef create Polish pastries, Herb Fingerhut discussed what a baker does when the family bakery closes, and Eleanor Hanson, talked about her experiences in Kraft's test kitchen.


Sweets: Riva Reshback and Closing Remarks

The last speaker of the day, Riva Feshbach, gives her presentation: "Food for Thought: Culinary History at the Newberry Library". With closing remarks by Kantha Shelke, Founding board member of GMFA.

Do remember if you attend Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance programs, then you can ask a question, meet the speaker and eat what was talked about. Otherwise Chicago Amplified’s recording this event is the very next best thing to being there.