Bibliography:
http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/14/the-gooey-story-of-smores/
http://www.smore4u.com/food/history-of-the-smore/
Sunday, April 30, 2017
S'mores
S'more has been a long time camping icon. It is always pictured as campers roasting the marshmallow until it is soft and gooey and then putting it between two graham crackers and chocolate. There is, however, no consensus on where s'mores actually came from, but the early sighting of smores takes place in 1927 when a recipe for the smores appeared in Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts. Which in the recipe called it "some mores", along with instructions for building 12 different kinds of campfires to roast the marshmallows. Historically, the origin might have taken place during the Victorian era, where popular desserts included sandwich cookies and sponge cakes, which were usually filled with jam, cream, or lemon curd. More recent possibilities of the origin include the Mallomar, a graham cracker topped with a blob of marshmallow coated with chocolate. Mallomar was manufactured by Nabisco and first sold in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1913. Others include the MoonPie, a pair of graham cracker cookies with a marshmallow filling, dipped in chocolate that first went on the market in Chattanooga in Tenessee during the year 1917. S'mores might not have a specific origin, but the usage of melted marshmallow has been in practice for more than a century. Europeans have long used the marshmallows found in its swamp plant form as a medicine to treat sore throats and using it as a cough drop. In the mid-1800s, the French came up with the idea of turning marshmallow sap into a meringue-like froth with egg whites and sugar. This, however, was very expensive and only available to the upper class as tea snacks. The food soon spread to the Americas in the early 20th century and it has been seen throughout the world we live in. It is still not certain whether smores were created by girl scout experiments or inspired by the companies and the French, one thing is for sure, it will still be an icon for things related to camping.
Bibliography:
http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/14/the-gooey-story-of-smores/
http://www.smore4u.com/food/history-of-the-smore/
Bibliography:
http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/14/the-gooey-story-of-smores/
http://www.smore4u.com/food/history-of-the-smore/
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Interestingly, the history of the s'more reflects overarching changes in the American economy, and in society. You mentioned that s'mores originated as a treat mainly for the upper classes those that had tea parties in the late 19th century. The early s'more was a symbol for class division, because lower classes didn't have such fancy foods. Decades later, after union strikes and political reform, the middle class gradually became bigger. After WW1, camping became really popular. The 20s saw a lot of prosperity and leisure time, which probably led to the first recipe of the s'more published by the Girl Scouts organization and the creation of the Girl Scouts themselves (In 1912). In the postwar economy of the 1950s, consumerism jumped to new heights, which was probably the reason s'mores and the ingredients for s'mores: marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers, popped up on American shelves. For more info, look at this website: http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-are-they-called-s-mores
ReplyDeleteGreat post! It was really interesting to learn about the history of s'mores and how they came about in American society. I like how you explained the connections between the emergence of camping after World War I and how that boosted consumerism and brought about the creation of s'mores.
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