May is National Barbecue Month, and we’ve been enjoying everything from Barbecue Deviled Eggs With Pulled Pork to Pulled Pork Sandwiches With Barbecue Cabbage Slaw.

Today, it’s a Barbecue Chicken Baked Potato for lunch (you can spell it barbecue, barbeque or BBQ).

The recipe, from MinShien Denis of Joyous Apron, was sent to us by the Idaho Potato Commission—which has a seemingly endless number of creative potato recipes.

Read MinShien’s full post, including more photos, here.

In her recipe, baked russet Idaho® potatoes are topped with slow cooker shredded barbecue chicken, cheddar cheese, sour cream and chives.

It’s a quick and easy lunch or dinner that can be made ahead of time. BYOB!

We’ve got two more barbecue potato recipes below.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF BARBECUE

> THE HISTORY OF POTATOES

> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF POTATOES
 
 
RECIPE: BARBECUE CHICKEN BAKED POTATOES

These aren’t stuffed baked potatoes. Rather, the cooked potatoes are cut in half, and the chicken and garnishes are layered on top of them.

Many people will be satisfied with one baked potato half and a large green salad. Those of us with bigger appetites ate both halves, the salad and a beer.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. ADD the chicken breast, barbecue sauce, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder and liquid smoke to the slow cooker. Cook on high for 3½ hours, or until the chicken can be easily shredded with a fork.

2. PREHEAT the oven to 425°F. Wash the potatoes and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until they’re soft and can be easily pierced with a fork.

3. SHRED the chicken using a fork (or better, two forks, pulling in opposite directions). Stir, cover and cook on high for another 10 minutes.

4. CUT the potatoes into halves, then top with shredded chicken, cheddar cheese, sour cream and chives.
 
 
LIQUID SMOKE USES

If you like smoke flavor but don’t own a bottle of liquid smoke, now’s the time to get one. Thanks to Taste Of Home for these tips.

Liquid smoke is actually made from smoke. Chips or sawdust, typically from hickory or mesquite, are burned at high temperatures. Particles of the smoke are collected in condensers. The resulting liquid is then concentrated.

The best-known use of a few drops of liquid smoke is to enhance food with wood-grilled flavor, when you don’t have an outdoor grill.

It’s also vegan: a non-meat way to get smoky flavor and aroma onto vegetables, salad dressings and more.

Note that liquid smoke is concentrated so add it carefully. Use 1/4 teaspoon or less in your recipes. Sometimes, a drop or two is all you need. Taste and add more as you desire.

Here are some liquid smoke uses to start you off:

 
Next, we’re going to try Smoked Parmesan Ice Cream, a savory ice cream, adding smoke to this recipe. It should be great!
 

MORE BARBECUE POTATO RECIPES

[1] Barbecue chicken and garnishes top baked potato halves (photo and recipe © Idaho Potato Commission).

[2] Stubbs Liquid Smoke is made in both hickory mesquite flavors. You can find them both on Amazon (photo © Stubbs).

[3] Rufus Teague makes premium barbecue sauces in eight different flavors, including two sugar-free Keto flavors (photo © Rufus Teague).

[4] Top the barbecue with shredded cheddar, jack or other favorite cheese (photo © Szakaly | Panther Media).

[5] We used lots of sour cream (photo © Wisconsin Cheese).

[6] Barbecue stuffed sweet potatoes with pulled pork. Here’s the recipe (photo © Byron’s BBQ).

[7] A Smoked Margarita. Here’s the recipe (photo © Patron Tequila).

[1] A bowl of Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy (photos #1 through #5 © James Candy).

[2] A souvenir box of Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy in a reproduction of a box circa 1889.

[3] A modern variation #1: chocolate-covered taffy.

[4] Modern variation #2: chocolate covered taffy pops.

[5] Modern variation #3: Taffy with filled centers.

[6] A competitor of Fralinger’s created round toffee. Here, cinnamon taffy (photos #6 and #7 © Taffy Town).

[7] You don’t have to wait for Thanksgiving to enjoy pumpkin taffy.

[8] A taffy bar was invented in 1912, and later called Turkish taffy. It is still made today and you can buy it from numerous outlets, including the Vermont County Store (photo © Vermont Country Store).

>> SEE BELOW FOR THE 20% DISCOUNT ON SALT WATER TAFFY <<

National Taffy Day is upcoming on May 23rd. Taffy, a soft chewy candy you can pull apart, has been around since the early 19th century. The flavors, originally plain molasses or sugar, evolved into an assortment of basic fruits, chocolate, vanilla and peppermint. Today, that handful of flavors have grown to more than 80+ flavors at Taffy Town alone. There is just about any flavor you could desire, including passion fruit, piña colada and strawberry cheesecake. There are even “savory” flavors like buttered popcorn, chicken & waffles and pickle. How about X-Treme Hot Taffy?

Taffy was (and is) simple to made from brown sugar or molasses and butter, and then with different flavors mixed in. Today, corn syrup might be added to prevent crystallization.

With the advent of the flavors, the taffy, originally white-beige, was colored to match.

The taffy is stretched or pulled for 20 minutes or so, and rolled into ropes. The ropes are cut into pieces no longer than two inches, and wrapped in wax paper or cellophane, twisted at each end, to keep the taffy soft.

Today’s taffy is available in three shapes: the “original” oblong-shape (photo #1) and round shape (photos #6 and #7).

The history of taffy is below.
 
 
FRALINGER’S SALT WATER TAFFY

One of the first Atlantic City salt water taffy brands, Fralinger’s, sells the original taffy plus modern variations:

 
That’s a cornucopia of taffy! Head to JamesCandy.com to order yours.
 
 
>> LIMITED-TIME 20% DISCOUNT <<

From now through May 23, 2021 at midnight Eastern Time, take 20% off sitewide on any and all products on the James Candy website.

Just use coupon code TAFFYDAY20 at checkout.

The offer does not apply to taxes or shipping and handling, and is valid on online orders only (not available at store locations). This discount may not be applied to previous orders or combined with other discounts.

 
THE HISTORY OF SALT WATER TAFFY

Generations upon generations of Americans have enjoyed taffy. In the 1840s candy pulls became popular, and were called taffy pulls by the late 1870s. Taffy pulls entertained young and old alike. Here’s more about it.

Here’s how to host your own taffy pull (and here’s the difference between taffy and toffee).

They were also a suitable face-to-face pastime for courting couples (in those days, a husband didn’t even kiss the bride until they had been pronounced man and wife).

By the 1880s, “salt water” taffy, in small pastel-colored oblongs wrapped in wax paper, had become associated with the Atlantic City Boardwalk. A box taffy became the iconic souvenir.

First, let us say that there is no salt water in salt water taffy, although regular tap water is required to make the product.

From where came the name salt water taffy? Here’s what we do know:

Around 1880, the Ritchie Brothers and Windle W. Hollis both had taffy stands on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Taffy was the candy sensation of the day, a must-have vacation treat for children and adults alike.

The reigning story is that a storm flooded the shop of a taffy vendor. Was it Ritchie? Hollis? Someone else? We don’t know.

At the end of the summer of 1884, Captain John L. Young approached Joseph Fralinger, a local vendor whose various stands sold cider, fruit, lemonade, mineral water and a storefront with cigars.

Young wanted Fralinger to take over the taffy stand on the Applegate Pier. Fralinger agreed and in the winter of 1885, he read books on confections, selling his first batch of taffy that spring.

His first flavors were molasses, chocolate and Vanilla. More flavors followed, culminating in 25 different choices and color variations.

According to an account in Wikipedia, Fralinger was standing at the booth of another taffy maker, David Bradley, who had been selling taffy since 1883 and to whom the anecdotes credit with the “storm” story.

Fralinger heard one young girl ask for “salt water taffy,” another ask for “ocean wave taffy” and a third ask for “sea foam taffy.” Fralinger deduced that they were not asking for particular flavors, but simply giving their own creative names to the taffy sold on the Boardwalk.

The “storm” fable, subsequently created by Bradley, told of a Nor’Easter storm that sprayed the ocean water over Mr. Bradley’s stock of taffy.

Fralinger recognized a concept when he heard it. He had already been selling boxes of taffy. He took the next step and popularized the name “salt water taffy,” printing boxes with that name and selling it as a souvenir of Atlantic City (photo #2).

Here’s an account from his great-grandson, including many more details and how taffy was pulled.

According to the account, in 1923 another vendor obtained a trademark for the name “Salt Water Taffy” and attempted to get fees from anyone else using the name. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against him on the grounds that the name had been used by too many people for too long for any one person to claim any exclusive rights to it.

Fralinger produced taffy in small oblongs. His first major competitor, Enoch James, made his taffy into bite-size rounds. Both shops still operate on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.

The first mention of “salt water taffy” in an Atlantic City business directory dates to 1889.

James Candy Company, an Atlantic City taffy maker established in 1880, markets the Fralinger brand today.

Oblong or round, the older the taffy, the harder it gets. If you value your fillings, pinch a piece before you chew it. It should yield to pressure, like a ripe pear.

Otherwise, you might want to remove the wax paper and nuke it for 3 seconds in the microwave.

 
THE CREATION OF TURKISH TAFFY

In the early 20th century, Turkish Taffy bars, the size of chocolate bars, appeared (and later, a jumbo bar was made for souvenir shops).

While making a batch of marshmallow candy for M. Schwarz & Sons of Newark, New Jersey, Pop accidentally added too many egg whites to the batch. He recognized that the result had potential; and after much experimentation, he created, “Turkish Taffy.”

Why he chose that name is not recorded; however, our guess is that he may have been inspired by the Turkish confection known as Turkish Delight.

Later, Pop’s business was purchased by M. Schwarz & Sons, and Pop went to work for them perfecting his Turkish Taffy. M. Schwarz & Sons renamed the product Turkish Chewing Taffy.

In 1936 the Bonomo family of Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York purchased M. Schwarz & Sons’ Turkish Chewing Taffy. They dropped the word “Chewing” and the treat returned to its original name, Turkish Taffy—a name trademarked by Bonomo.

Coincidentally, the Bonomo family was of Turkish ancestry.
 
 
But Is Turkish Taffy Actually Taffy?

What Bonomo and its taffy bar imitators make is technically not taffy, but short nougat. The bars are made from a batter of corn syrup and egg whites that is cooked and then baked. Taffy bars are harder and tougher to chew than salt water taffy.

The way to eat Bonomo’s was to smack the wrapped bar against a hard surface to crack it into individual pieces. The pieces were chewed over a period of time, so the bar lasted longer than an individual piece of salt water taffy.

In 1972, the Bonomo brand was purchased by Tootsie Roll Industries, which changed the 60-year-old smack-it crack-it formula to a soft taffy, eventually named Soft and Chewy Tootsie Taffy. It did not do so well, and by the mid 1980’s the product was discontinued.

After petitions by fans, the original Bonomo Turkish Taffy was relaunched in 2010—in the original flavors, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and banana.

So…should you go for salt water taffy or Turkish Taffy?

Personally, we opt for the softer, chewier, salt water taffy. And on National Taffy Day, we’re going to dig in to a box of it.

May 16th is National Mimosa Day, a sparkling cocktail that was named because its color resembled the yellow flowers of the mimosa plant (photo #4—here’s more about the plant).

While the classic Mimosa is equal parts orange juice and champagne (or other sparkling wine—photo #2), the cocktail turns purple by substituting blueberry syrup for the OJ.

Is it a Mimosa without the orange juice or [to stretch the concept] another orange liquid like tangerine juice or Grand Marnier?

As a culinary history enthusiast, we’d give it a different name—like a Blueberry Sparkler. But most of the drinking world would likely vote for Blueberry Mimosa.

This recipe is courtesy of Gelson’s Markets, an upscale regional supermarket chain operating in Southern California. Here’s more about them.

Here’s the history of the Mimosa cocktail, purportedly adding OJ to champagne so imbibers would have an excuse to begin drinking at breakfast.
 
 
RECIPE: BLUEBERRY MIMOSA COCKTAIL

You can make the blueberry simple syrup up to one week in advance.

Bubbly: You may prefer to use a more affordable sparkling wine (cava, prosecco, etc.) because the blueberry syrup will cover up the subtle, toasty flavors of champagne.

Hack. While making blueberry syrup from fresh blueberries delivers the best fruit flavor, here’s a hack: use 1 cup sugar to 1 cup purchased blueberry juice (plus the lemon juice and zest—see below).

Ingredients For 10 Drinks

There are 25 fluid ounces in a 750mL bottle, enough for 5 flutes of champagne. If the flutes are half orange juice, that’s enough champagne for 10 glasses.

 
Ingredients For 1 Cup Of Blueberry Simple Syrup

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the syrup ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Mash the blueberries with a potato masher to release all of their juices, and simmer for 5 minutes more.

2. STRAIN the juice into a bowl, using a sieve lined with cheesecloth. Press the blueberries gently with a spatula to release all of their juices. Discard the pulp.

3. TRANSFER the blueberry syrup to a jar and let cool in the refrigerator for 1 hour or longer. It can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. When ready to make the Mimosas:

5. ADD 1 tablespoon or more of blueberry syrup to the bottom of champagne flutes (the more syrup, the stronger the blueberry flavor). Fill a champagne flute with 5 ounces of champagne. Stir very gently with a swizzle stick to combine—you don’t want to break the bubbles.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF THE MIMOSA COCKTAIL

[1] A blueberry Mimosa cocktail with homemade blueberry syrup (photo and recipe © Gelson’s Markets).

[2] A classic Mimosa, made with orange juice and champagne or other sparkling wine (photo © Good Eggs).

[3] If you want a garnish for the Blueberry Mimosa, a cocktail pick with fresh blueberries is the go-to (photo © Tommy Bahama).

[4] The Mimosa cocktail allegedly got its name from the color of mimosa flowers (photo © Flowers By Emil).

[1] One elegant can, one delicious G&AT (all photos © 6 O’Clock Gin).

[2] A mini bottle version of 6 O’Clock Gin’s 750mL bottle, poured into a G&T.

[3] The cans are portable, and there’s no glass to drop at a backyard barbecue.

[4] With most dry gins, juniper berries lead the blend of botanicals that creates each gin’s unique flavor.

[5] Would you drink your G&T from the can (with or without a straw)? Or would you pour it into a glass?

The Gin & Tonic is one of the most popular cocktails in the world. According to Liquor.com, it’s the go-to cocktail in Spain, where a particular gin’s botanicals are paired with a specific tonic water and aromatic garnishes.

In its homeland, Britain, it’s “an at-home staple,” with gin paired with different craft tonic waters [ibid].

That’s popularity!

Let us quickly elaborate on the parentage of the G&T: It was created not as a cocktail in England, but for medicinal purposes by British troops stationed in India.

Malaria was a persistent problem. In the 1700s, quinine was found to be helpful in both preventing and treating the disease.

But quinine had an unpleasant, bitter taste, even when diluted in water. (That was quinine water. Later, cocktails were made with tonic water, which included quinine but at a much lower percentage, plus sugar.)

In the early 19th century, someone (a doctor? an officer? a bartender?) suggested adding gin to make the medicine more palatable.

Thus emerged the predecessor of the modern Gin & Tonic: quinine water made palatable by adding sugar, lime and gin.

Over the years, the G&T became the cocktail of choice back home in England, as well.

Here’s more of the story.
 
 
6 O’CLOCK DRY LONDON GIN’S GIN & TONIC IN CANS

6 O’clock Gin is a premium brand in the U.K. that makes “strikingly smooth artisan gins.”

The company produces four expressions of gin: classic London Dry gin, Brunel (a stronger version, 100 proof, known as “Navy strength gin”), Damson gin (a fruitier style made with Damson plums, and Sloe gin (made with sloe berries).

The gins are handcrafted in small batches, using traditional techniques.

The brand name was inspired by the family’s long-held tradition of relaxing with a G&T at 6 o’clock, a custom enjoyed by gin lovers the world over.

(Maybe some start at 5 o’clock? After all, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere*.)

So…

What if you could open the fridge, grab an elegant 200mL/6.8-ounces can of G&T made with London Dry gin and all-natural tonic water?

Certainly more of us would be relaxing with a G&T. It’s easily portable…and maybe it’s just us, but looking at the elegant beauty of the can design is relaxing as well.

Even better, 6 O’clock’s G&T is a low-alcohol product: 7% ABV, 14 proof†. No one will be unfocused when it’s time to cook dinner.
 
 
WHO MAKES 6 O’CLOCK GIN

The 6 O’Clock brand is owned and operated by Bramley & Gage, a family-run artisan spirits company located on the outskirts of Bristol, England.

The company was one of just 23 spirit distilleries in England that, a decade ago, set about elevating the flavors of gin.

Artisanal gin is one of the fastest growing categories of spirits in the world. 6 O’clock Gin continues to evolve and innovate, regularly introducing new products, recipes and collaborations.

Discover more at 6oclockgin.com.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF GIN
 

________________

*“It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” is an expression said by someone who wants a drink, even though it’s was not yet 5 p.m. Five o’clock was the end of the work day for many people—and for some of them, it meant time for a drink. So even if it wasn’t 5 p.m. in the person’s time zone, it certainly was in another part of the world. And, drinking before five o’clock (except for a beer or cocktail at lunch) indicated a possible drinking problem.

The quote is attributed to the comedian Red Skelton. As the story goes, in 1959 on Skelton’s 50th birthday, he was doing three shows a day at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Before his first show began he commented, “I don’t drink this early in the day but what the heck, it must be 5 o’clock somewhere in the world.” The phrase caught on. “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” (2003) was a hit song for Alan Jackson [source].

†Double the ABV to get the proof of an alcoholic drink: 7% ABV/14 proof is a lower alcohol level than a glass of wine. Non-fortified wines range from 7% ABV/18 proof to 14% ABV/24 proof).

You can garnish plain hummus with a drizzle of olive oil. Get fancier by adding some paprika and flat parsley leaves.

Get even fancier with sprinkle of whole chickpeas—the base ingredient of hummus. Roast them yourself or buy roasted chickpea snacks for a step further.

But the James Beard Award-winning Shaya Restaurant in New Orleans knows how to dazzle.

Its take on modern Israeli cuisine draws inspiration from the cuisines of Eastern Europe, Greece, the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.

And some of those influences are turned into hummus toppings.

First, there’s the simple approach: olive oil and sumac (photo #2).

But expand your horizons to toppings like these:

 
The point here is that you can put almost anything atop a dish of hummus: legumes, meat, pickles, seafood and vegetables galore, with a variety of herbs and spices.

Start experimenting today!
 
 
THE HISTORY OF HUMMUS

Chickpeas, sesame, lemon, and garlic have been eaten in the Levant* for millennia. Though widely consumed, chickpeas were cooked in stews and other hot dishes.

Puréed chickpeas eaten cold with tahini do not appear before the Abbasid period (750 to 1517 C.E.) in Egypt and the Levant†.

The earliest known recipes for a dish similar to hummus are in 13th-century cookbooks from Cairo.

Some food historians believe the paste appeared a century earlier, prepared by Saladin, who was the first sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty (1174–1193).

(That is to say, it was created by one of Saladin’s chefs.)

If so, it was more likely created by a cook in his kitchen, the idea of the warlord Saladin-as-cook being tough to swallow.

Recipes for cold purée of chickpeas without tahini, but with vinegar, oil, pickled lemons, herbs and spices—but no garlic—appear in medieval cookbooks; as do recipes with nuts vinegar (though not lemon), with many spices and herbs.

Whomever and however, we’re grateful that it came to be part of our [almost] daily diet.
 
 
MORE HUMMUS RECIPES

[1] Hummus topped with a Middle Eastern “salad” of jammy eggs, onions, pickles and herbs (photos © Shaya Restaurant).

[2] Hummus garnish at its simplest: topped with extra virgin olive oil, Aleppo pepper and shredded parsley.

[3] Grilled octopus and chanterelles as hummus toppers? Yes, along with roasted corn and a sprinkle of sumac.

[4] Chopped eggplant is spiced and sautéed, then topped with peas and pine nuts.

[5] A garnish of roasted cauliflower and caramelized onions.

*The Levant is an English term that first appeared in 1497. It originally referred to the “Mediterranean lands east of Italy.” The historical area comprises modern-day Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. Among other popular foods, Levantine cuisine gave birth to baklava, balafel, kebabs, mezze (including tabbouleh, hummus and baba ghanoush), pita and za’atar, among other dishes that are enjoyed in the U.S. and around the world.

†Jammy eggs are eggs cooked until the white is set but still tender, and the yolk has a soft, custardy, spreadable texture. It is a soft-boiled egg, but one where the yolk isn’t runny, but somewhere between soft-boiled and hard-boiled.