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This is Sammy J. And I have some exciting news to share. We are back for season two of my podcast. Let's be real with Sammy J. This season we'll have more revealing and unfiltered conversations with celebrities, influencers, activists and athletes. Guests include the amazing singer and actor Anthony Ramos, Tic-Tac sensation Dixie Romelio, NBA star Aaron Gordon and many more listen to Let's Be Really Savage on the radio, Radiolab Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

Happy Saturday. We have some culinary history coming up this week. So we thought we would get a head start on that theme with a classic episode that also fits with the winter holiday season. It's the historical roots of holiday treats, which originally came out on December 13th, 2017, and it traces the origins of a few of our wintertime and Christmas time favorites. Enjoy.

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class A production of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast, I'm Holly Fry, and I'm Tracy B. Wilson. Tracy? Yep, it's time for delicious holiday snacks. I know for some people that celebrate Christmas or other winter holidays, the snacks are the best thing about the season. I think Tracy and I have told the ridiculous story of us being two of the only people in the office during Christmas holidays one year.

Yeah, and making s'mores with chocolate mousse peeps and peppermint bark and running around like we were wild animals. It was amazing because the sugar rush was more than we can handle. Yeah. And it was super fun. And even if you like, don't celebrate the the religious holidays or even like the more cultural like the people who are more culturally Christian and celebrate Christmas in a more secular way, like even if you don't do any of that, a lot of these things, the only time of the year that you really find them.

Yeah. And yummy snacks are yummy snacks. But many of these snacks have histories that go back hundreds of years. But because of the nature of the subject, things get really confusing in a hurry because after all, all of the historical evidence is pretty much eaten. And so there's a lot of apocrypha going on. And so in the interest of examining the stories behind some of the most ingested holiday consumables, we're going to sort through that apocrypha and the known facts, and we'll probably all be craving something sweet and delicious by the end.

Expectations management right out of the gate. We already talked about eggnog and its origins a bit in our eggnog riot episodes. So we're not going to talk about eggnog today. We do have another drink, which is Wasil, and we'll also cover candy canes and gingerbread.

I'm excited because. A lot of these things are delicious, though, candy canes, bright and cheerful sticks of peppermint goodness, but no one really knows exactly where they came from. There are a lot of unsubstantiated stories about their origins, though, and three of them are the ones that are the most commonly repeated.

So one version of this story goes that candy canes were originally invented in Germany in the sixteen hundreds. And in this apocryphal version, a choirmaster at a cathedral invented candy canes as a way to keep children who are normally a little bit fidgety and sometimes noisy, occupied and quiet in church. And he had the candy sticks made by a confectioner with a crook at the top so that they echoed the shape of a shepherd's staff, making the idea of candy in church more acceptable to parents.

Sometimes the story is told, along with color symbolism, that the choirmaster specifically chose white sticks of candy to represent purity and Christ. But there is absolutely no record of such a thing, and no one seems to know who this choir master was, even though there are an awful lot of details about his thought process. So again, it's a lovely story, but unsubstantiated. I'll say I would have much preferred Candy as a way to keep quiet in church than what I actually had, which was doodling on the church bulletin.

Church bulletins are generally not delicious. No shade to any church bulletin. No, but I would draw on them. So another origin story attributes the invention of the candy canes to a particularly devout confectioner in the United States, specifically Indiana, who carefully designed the candy cane as an expression of the story of Christ. And this similarly cites the white of the candy cane as a symbol of purity. And the red stripes is symbolic of the blood of Christ.

The crucifixion and the cane shape, according to this version, is actually the letter J for Jesus. Again, there's no evidence for this story that's similar to the one that I heard the most growing up, although I heard the combination of the colors being this one. And then the crook is the shepherd's crook. Yeah.

And it's one of those things like if people like to think of them that way, that's great. But like, there's not really any historical backing for that being how and why they were invented. A third story is less about the invention of the peppermint treat and it's more about the introduction of it to the U.S. in this tale features a German immigrant named Auguste M Guard and according to the legend guard, put up the Christmas tree, the first in Ohio, when he decorated his in 1847.

And it said that in Guards' Tree had paper ornaments and candy canes on it. At least that is how some versions of the story go. There are other accounts that say that it was actually a type of decorated Bavarian cookie that was used to grace the tree along with the paper ornaments, as well as nuts that were painted gold. Imgur does remain associated with one of the earliest Christmas trees in the U.S., although I think he is no longer referenced as the first Christmas tree in the U.S. but the candy cane aspect of the story in terms of him bringing it to the United States and decorating with it is again not substantiated in any way.

As for the striped peppermint sticks themselves, they're clearly described in 1844. But the complete confectioner, pastry cook and Baker by Eleanor Parkinson in a section of the text titled The Clove, Ginger or Peppermint Candy, the process of making striped candy is described this way for clove. The mixture, whilst boiling is colored with cocaine, oil, ginger with saffron. But the peppermint must be kept perfectly white except the stripes, which is done by cutting off as many pieces from the ball because you have colors which should be in powder, put a sufficiency in each piece to give the desired tint and keep them warm.

When the remaining portion of the sugar is pulled, lay them over the surface and narrow stripes double the roll together and the face each way will be alike. Pull them out into long sticks and twist them. Make them round by rolling them under the hand. Or they may be cut into small pieces with a pair of shears or scissors. Yeah, so in terms of that, it's more a matter of put in stripes to make them colorful and festive, not so much with any kind of meaning.

And while we may not be able to trace the invention of candy canes back to its origin point, we do know a bit more about the mass production of candy canes and where that started. Bob's Candies, founded by a man named Bob McCormick in Albany, Georgia, was the first confectionary company to start mass producing candy canes, which they did in the early 1920s. Incidentally, Bob's Candies was also the first to offer cellophane wrapped candy canes for see, I don't know about you, but I accidentally ingested a lot of cellophane as a child because I could not always peel it off the candy cane.

Initially, the hooks that were being added to the canes were done by hand before the candy cooled and hardened. But this method had a high rate of waist because more than one fifth of the candy canes broke and consequently could not be sold by McCormick's brother in law, a priest by the name of Gregory Harding, Keller invented a machine to automate the hook shaping process, which had a much lower rate of candy, breakage the Keller machine. Not to be confused with the one eyed doctor who was further refined by two Bob's Candie's employees named Dick Driscoll and Jimmy Spradling.

And then after that, almost all the candy canes produced are perfect. This novel Invention, which was really the start of the modern candy cane industry. One killer, his 15 minutes of fame, he even appeared on the game show. What's my line? So contestants could guess his profession. Yeah, I would imagine that was a stumper. Most priests do not also invent machinery for the confectionery trade. There is a great picture of him that I found online, and he's in his full, like, you know, priest collar and everything standing next to this machine.

And it's very charming. Next up, we are going to talk about a winter beverage that's been having a bit of a resurgence in popularity in recent years, and that is Wasil. But first, we're going to take a quick break for a word from one of our fantastic sponsors.

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Odds are yes, because there are a lot of different versions of it. Like there's no one. This is what equals. True was also probably something you have had could fall into the the very loose definition. And also there's a bit of confusion about whether Wasil is a thing you drink or a thing you do, and it's actually both. And we'll get into that. It's a word that has pretty soft edges around its definition.

Of course, there's also a Wasil song, which I'm not going to sing to you because no one needs to be subjected to that. You might have heard it with the reference to Wasil substituted out with another term. So it's the one that goes here we come a wassailing among the leaves, so green. Here we come, a wandering Sofaer to be seen. Love and joy come to you and to you. You whistle to and God bless you and send you a happy new year.

So sometimes a waffling is swapped out for a carolling and instead of to you you're wasil. It's something along the lines of plaid Christmas or a Merry Christmas. Yeah. The the really popular version in the United States that was recorded by Perry Como definitely subs out wassailing for a carolling and glad Christmas. And there have been other recordings as well that do the same. I'm not sure if that was because they didn't want any reference to alcohol or if it was because they thought people might not know what wassailing was.

But in any case, it gets them now.

But you know the song, even if you don't think you do, it always makes me think of the version of Little Women starring Winona Ryder and one of the earliest mentions of Wasil as a form of toasting and well wishing is found in the old English epic Beowulf, most likely penned somewhere sometime between the eighth and 10th century. Its exact date is unknown and the word is evolved from the greeting. Versatile in Old Norse and it's old English counterpart was how both of which convey a wish to someone for their good health or good fortune.

But aside from a fairly clear connection to root words, the path of the Wasil tradition through time is a very winding one, with many branches.

According to Robert Dawes writing for the Colonial Williamsburg Journal, it was England's Baner speaking community that started using it as a toast. But it caught on so quickly throughout the country that by the time William, the Duke of Normandy, brought the Norman French army to the Battle of Hastings 1966 to have an episode about an archive, the invaders believed that it was an English custom. Yes. So even though it probably did not originate with natives of England, they adopted it so quickly that it's now very much associated with England.

And one of the more specific origin stories of the Wasil toast is the tale of Vortigern and Rowena Vortigern. A 5th century British king was allegedly struck with Rowena's beauty. And when she approached him and uttered the greeting, was he, after conferring with an interpreter, answered drink. And then the two shared a drink of spiced wine, which would have been a luxury item. And while this story is unverifiable and it has taken on many variations throughout time, including versions that happened later where they were sharing a cup with a whole group of people.

And there was also a play which was allegedly written by Shakespeare, but was eventually revealed as a forgery. This exchange of greetings continues into modern time, although now it is not linked to romance, as the original story was, but merely to revelry and merriment, like as a call in response to people to start sort of a drinking party by the 13th century.

This idea of a communal drinking vessel filled with Wasil had become popular. This was a bowl of the drink which she would dip baked goods into you to like, soak up the wasil. And this is allegedly where the use of the word toast comes from mean a greeting before a group drinks together because pieces of toast were sometimes dipped or floated in the wassail bowl.

So wet alcoholic toast just put that out there. The Walsall became part of a roving street party practice in the 1500. So revelers also called wafflers would visit homes sort of similar to the way the carolers might, offering drinks and well-wishers and some locations. Wassailing was part of the Pagan Winter Solstice Festival, Saturnalia dressing in the skies or in Birdwing social roles as part of this practice. And it became a time when the wealthy would share their bounty with people who had less financial fortune, although there were also accounts that suggest the sharing had been demanded by drunken mobs rather than being offered magnanimously.

Yes. So some, you know, versions of this were a case where people would pass this Wasil ball around, maybe get a. A little bit of liquid courage to go to the rich guy's house and demand that he share his wealth with them or it was, you know, feudal lords would then kind of have the people under them come to their house and go, hey, you should share with us. That is a very, very watered down version of it.

The Pagan Warshel tradition was also part of farming life in Britain. Farmers would drink to the health of their animals and their orchards, and they would leave Wasil soaked bread and trees or just pour the Wasil directly on to tree trunks. And this could also involve groups of farmers and their families moving from one farm to another throughout the course of an evening to wish prosperity on the crops of everyone in the community.

So obviously, all of these various iterations of wassailing also evolved to coincide with the different beliefs and celebrations in different areas. While there were pagan roots to some of the farm practices, which included the desire to ward off bad spirits from orchards as part of Christian holidays, Wassailing became part of Twelfth Night festivities and in more relaxed definitions of wassailing, the word has been used in a modern way to refer to almost any instance of in winter where neighbors visit each other and bring some sort of Wasil or other libation to enjoy together.

Yeah, like I said, it's got very soft edges on the definition of the word. And all of this drinking around the holidays, we should point out, was not always looked upon as good cheer. So in both England and the North American colonies, where the wassailing tradition had moved along with the colonists, 17th century Puritan Church leaders were not enthused with the practice of drinking to celebrate a Christian holiday in the crossover with Saturnalia on the calendar further rankled them.

There were, in fact, attempts to banish Wasil and Wassailing and many other Christmas activities completely, while the practice and the beverage survived. And they were romanticized in nineteenth century literature as part of a traditional English Christmas celebration carrying a giant bowl of punch door to door is maybe a little too cumbersome to remain a popular practice. Yet there are still places where people do it, and villages and towns where it is a big part of the tradition. But it's really not as common as it would have been several hundred years ago.

And we mentioned earlier that if the story of Rowena and Vortigern were true, the wine spiced with ingredients that would have been imported would have been highly valuable. But while that drink was merely present, according to the law, at the moment when the idea of wassailing was born and would not have been called Wasil itself, there are plenty of other drinks that have been called Wasil through the ages. So some were made with more affordable spiced ale rather than wine.

Some replicated that more expensive wine with spices. Some have been made by whipping beer or ale into a froth and then dropping roasted crab apples into the foam. There are a lot of versions, and then, of course, considering the orchard focused traditions of wassailing and more rural areas, it's really no surprise that most modern Wasil recipes are really Apple centric. If you search online, you'll find that most start with apple cider and then add some combo of other fruit juices, including orange, pineapple and even cranberry.

The whole cider fruit juice mixture is cooked with spices like nutmeg, cloves, allspice and ginger, and some include eggs. The drink is served hot, often with a fruit garnish or a piece of fruit stewed in the beverage as it simmered. And then alcoholic. Wasil recipes can start with cider and spices, combined with sherry, brandy, rum, mulled wine and so on.

I feel like I should confess that this is not my thing. It's fine. Not at all.

I feel like a bad celebrant, but I'm like, please don't hand me hot sugar water. Well, I. I am fond of, like, a hot mulled cider with, like, lots of cinnamon and and whatnot. I am not find fond of the idea of communally drinking from the same bowl with maybe strangers. That's true. That's another thing that I didn't mention in in these notes, that there is also like a hygiene element that may have made this lose a little bit of favor over the years.

Yeah, to me, I mean, I have a thing where it was somewhere along the line ingrained in me that apple cider served warm is very dangerous as a potential haven of bacteria. And my brain cannot get past that possibility. Even if someone shows me all of the ways they have maintained safety, food standards throughout prep and serving, I'm still like all I see is orgo.

Yeah, well, as a person who worked in food safety for part of my career, like it is true that that like fresh pressed apple sliders and stuff, if they're not pasteurized, can be dangerous. My my dad kind of got around this often. The the apple cider would be way too high to put it in your mouth when you put it into the cup like you needed to get jail time. So had there been anything in it, it was dead.

Yeah.

Yeah. I'm more of an eggnog drinker than a Wasil drinker, but appears to anyone who likes their Wasil. I do love eggnog. Yeah, me too. We are going to move on to some more sober but very delicious baked goods. We'll talk all about gingerbread right after we first pause for a little sponsor break.

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Gingerbread is closely associated with Christmas celebrations, but its history is truly international and it is not tied in its origins to any holiday. Gingerbread has been popular in some form or another. We'll talk about its many forms for hundreds of years. There is even a reference to it in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost because it was so wildly popular already by the 16th century. The earliest known existence of gingerbread is all the way back in ancient Greece, around 2400 B.C., where it was used in ceremonies, ancient Egyptians also used some form of baked ginger, spiced food and ritual customs.

The earliest known instance of an Asian baked good cooked with ginger is from China in the 10th century.

Yeah, Asian countries were using ginger in all kinds of other ways, but oh yes, typically two baked goods and we know gingerbread was in Europe by the 11th century, possibly almost entirely likely brought back from the Crusades. And for the remainder of the medieval period, gingerbreads popularity grew and it spread throughout Europe and it actually became a staple at festivals. But through this early period, while words that equated roughly to gingerbread were being used in various languages, it did not really refer to what we call gingerbread today.

And there really was not a consistent meaning for it at all then. So sometimes it would simply be referred to preserve ginger that was edible.

Early versions of gingerbread as a baked item in Europe included Ginger, of course, but also ground almonds, stale bread crumbs, rosewater and sugar. And then this made a paste that could be pressed into molds before baking. And the dense mixture retains the shape of those molds really well.

And as gingerbreads popularity grew, so did the variety of shapes that it was baked in. And the level of detail that was used in the molds also got a lot more intense. And it wasn't long before animals and flora were crafted from gingerbread. Soon, this baked treat became a way to mark current events and theme the gingerbread to specific celebrations.

By the 15th century, though, the various translations of the word gingerbread all started to refer to some sort of ginger cake with varying degrees of denseness along the spectrum between spongy cake and hard cookie. Even today, the term gingerbread can refer to a cake or a cookie, and recipe is really very pretty greatly. You've probably had thin, crisp, ginger cookies, thick, bready cookies and everything in between with bakers experimenting and regional ingredient differences that have led to a huge wealth of different kinds of gingerbread.

And over time, of course, the recipe shifted. By the sixteenth century, flour was used instead of bread crumbs and eggs and other sweet spices were incorporated. And it was actually during the 16th century that the first gingerbread man was allegedly baked. So according to accounts, Queen Elizabeth, the first had miniature gingerbread replicas of prominent guests baked. And so when they arrived at court, the visitors were presented with their tiny, tasty doppelgangers.

That might creep me out a little bit. They were apparently delighted. OK, it was it was a cute little thing, not something spooky. I'm just imagining, like a very meticulous, uncanny valley kind of gingerbread representation of myself given to me to eat. That might be weird. So gingerbread had also become a token of luck, was sometimes given some nights by ladies wishing them well and tournaments hard. Gingerbread was also crumbled and use it as a topping on other foods, not for luck, but to hide the scent of items that had maybe lost their freshness.

Ginger to the rescue again. Yeah, they're allegedly meat that was maybe starting to turn would sometimes be treated in this way to cover it. Smell an additional gingerbread lower started to crop up. So some believed that if a maiden ate a gingerbread man intended to represent a husband, that they would put sort of cosmic forces of luck in motion to bring her a marriage. Ginger is also well known as a stomach settlor. So it's not surprising that by the 1400's, gingerbread was also being touted for its ability to soothe your tummy.

Henry the eighth is said to have hoped that ginger baked goods would stave off illnesses. I mean, I have to wonder if that's just a case of, like, this is delicious. It's medicinal. Oh, I don't know. I think there's there is some definite suggestion that chewing candied ginger can help if you have motion sickness. Oh, for sure.

I'm literally meeting Henry the eighth going gingerbread cure's. Oh, for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Gingerbread became so beloved in England that entire fairies popped up just to celebrate it. So it had been sort of a food that was served at other fairs and festivals. But eventually there were literal gingerbread festivals and the gingerbread morsels that were served at these events got the nicknames fairings for the wealthy. Gingerbread was even decorated with gold leaf and the idea of gingerbread became associated with finely detailed design and luxury.

Yeah, even today, sometimes you will hear of houses being built with gingerbread style details and usually that means very sort of meticulous, slightly. You know, I want to say, Fusi, and that can have a negative connotation, but that's not my intent, just with a lot of, you know, kind of ornate work on them, that is still used as a reference. And in the U.S., gingerbread is a tradition as old as the colonies themselves.

George Washington's mother's gingerbread recipe is still shared and baked. Our previous guest that was on the podcast and Byrne included it in her book, American Cakes. And after the colonies gained independence from Great Britain, gingerbread baked into the shape of an eagle, actually became popular. And some American politicians over the years even took gingerbread on the road to share with prospective voters in an effort to gain favor. Gingerbread cookies in German traditions took on a role that was similar to that of conversation.

Hearts traded in the U.S. or on Valentine's Day. Love cooking, as these cookies are called, often heart shaped with little sweet nothings, foul messages written on them in icing. In cities throughout Germany, as well as Poland, Russia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and France, gingerbread became so revered and so vital to regional culture that gingerbread guilds were established. And in some European cities, antique gingerbread molds are still on display in museums. They will occasionally also press like beeswax into them to make limited edition ornaments that are super duper popular.

Germany is also the home of the first gingerbread house, often said to have been inspired by the candy house in the Grimm's fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. That story was originally published in 1812 as part of the book Grimm's Fairy Tale Grimm's Fairy Tales. And there may also have been gingerbread houses even before that as far back as the 16th century. But the Brothers Grimm writing made the cookie domiciles more popular. Yeah, they really exploded in terms of their popularity after that came out.

So from Germany, the tradition of creating feats of confectionery architecture spread, although it never really caught on in Europe in sort of the widespread way that it did in the United States, where gingerbread houses are really popular.

Now, today, gingerbread houses are so popular that there's ongoing international competition to build massive ones that are as large as real houses. The current record holder is a house built in 2013 in Bryan, Texas, by a group called Traditions Club. And then that house is 60 by 42 feet, which is eighteen point three by twelve point eight meters, had more than 2000 square feet of interior space. Visitors could pay to have a visit with Santa Claus at the house and with all the proceeds going toward a new trauma center at St.

Joseph's Hospital. That is a lot of gingerbread. It's a whole lot of gingerbread and a much smaller scale. Prior podcast subject, The Grove Park in has a gingerbread house competition every year, but they're little ones. Little incredibly ornate ones.

Yeah, the we have talked about Disney a couple of times and Disney's haunted mansions. If any of our guests are in Disney World around the holidays, one of the coolest things you can do is spend a day not going into any of the parks in Disney World, but going from hotel to hotel because they all have their own special gingerbread house display. And some of them are amazing. And I love like the Polynesian usually has like a really cute little Hawaiian style, one that is sort of goofy and sweet.

But if you are in Anaheim at Disneyland during the holidays and you go see the Haunted Mansion holiday where they do the nightmare before Christmas overlay, usually in the ballroom there is like an astonishing feat of gingerbread physics going on. And it just smells amazing in there and it's really lovely. Who doesn't love Gingerbread Dear is so good. Hmm. I would make I think we should start making gingerbread year round. And I also if you have not had a gingerbread cake versus the cookies, I highly recommend it because some of those are really delicious.

Yeah. Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive, if you heard an email address or a Facebook URL or something similar over the course of the show, that could be obsolete. Now, our current email address is History podcast at I Heart radio dot com.

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