What’s up, doc? Here’s a little history of one of our most popular veggies: carrots. According to the USDA, Americans consume 11.8 pounds a person per year. (Beyond raw carrots, this figure includes carrot cake, carrots in soups and stews, and so forth.)

In the beginning, all plants and animals were wild. Over thousands of years of cultivation/domestication, many took on different forms, as farmers bred them for the most desirable characteristics.

The domesticated carrot, botanical name Daucus carota subspecies sativus, started life about 10,000 years ago as a bitter white root vegetable. Over thousands of years, it has been bred into a fleshy, juicy, sweet edible root.

Its name originated in the Indo-European root ker-, for horn (due to its horn-like shape). That evolved to the Greek karoton, the Late Latin carota and the Middle French carotte.

Cultivated carrots originated in present day Afghanistan some 5000 years ago, most likely as purple or yellow roots. Mutants and natural hybrids occurred naturally, that crossed the purple and yellow carrots with both wild and cultivated varieties and produced other colors, including the now-ubiquitous orange.

For a long time, purple carrots were the norm, with occasional mutations producing yellow and white varieties, which lacked the purple pigment anthocyanin. You can still find these heirloom breeds in farmers markets.

It was Dutch farmers in the late 16th century who took mutated strains of yellow and white carrot and, over time, bred them into the orange carrots that are standard today.

Some believe that the reason the orange carrot became so popular in the Netherlands was in tribute to the emblem of the House of Orange and the struggle for Dutch independence. This could be, but it also might just be that the orange carrots that the Dutch developed were sweeter and plumper than their purple forebears.

> The year’s carrot holidays.

> 20+ yummy carrot recipes.
 
 
THE ”INVENTION” OF BABY CARROTS

Fast-forward 200-plus years to the next carrot innovation:

In 1986, a California carrot grower named Mike Yurosek sought a use for carrots with flaws and imperfections that could not be sold whole.

These “reject carrots” accounted for up to 70% of the carrots headed down the bagging conveyer belt! Yurosek made lemons out of lemonade and invented the baby carrot.

He took the broken and dwarfed carrots and sold them as “baby carrots,” which have become the fastest growing segment in carrot industry.

But if you want to save money and slice your own from conventional carrots, we highly recommend a crinkle cutter. It makes veggies as fun as…baby carrots.
 
 
 
 

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[2] Rainbow baby carrots quickly followed the introduction the all-orange carrots (photo Elvira Kalviste | © The Nibble).

[3] After baby carrots became the craze, specialty growers grew “real” baby carrots for fine restaurants (photo © The Chef’s Garden).

For the best steak experience, splurge for
dry-aged. Porterhouse steak from Morton’s
The Steakhouse.

Aging the beef allows a steer’s natural enzymes to break down its tough connective tissues. The result is deeper flavor and better texture.

Supermarket beef is wet aged, a less expensive process that takes 5 to 7 days. The beef is sealed in its own juices in plastic bags, producing a milder, less meaty-flavored beef. The process is known as Cryovac, a system developed in France in 1937 (originally using latex bags).

Dry aging, a more time- and labor-intensive process, takes place for 11- to 30-plus days. The longer the aging, the “meatier” and more buttery the beef. The side of beef is hung in a special room, where the temperature is controlled. It loses 15% to 30% of its weight due to water evaporation, concentrating the flavor.

Macaroni and cheese is one of America’s favorite comfort foods. Adults and kids both love to reach for a box of mac and cheese mix.

But there’s no need to purchase a boxed mix or prepared mac and cheese when it’s so enjoyable to prepare it from scratch. One of our favorite culinarians, Chef Terrance Brennan of Picholine and Artisanal restaurants in New York City, shows you how easy it is in this week’s cooking video.

More ways to enjoy mac and cheese:

You’ll find many more how-tos in our Cooking Video Section.

[1] Our first cookbook, Fannie Farmer, was not surprisingly our mother’s favorite. It was originally published in 1896.

[2] Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, America’s best-selling cookbook, originally published 1930. It doesn’t look mouth-watering, but that hasn’t hindered sales (all photos Abacus).

[3] The Joy Of Cooking, originally published 1930.

[4] How to Cook Everything, originally published in 1998.

National Cookbook Month is celebrated during the month of October to honor the tradition of physical cookbooks, encourage culinary exploration, and preserve family recipes. October 12th is often cited as Cookbook Launch Day in the publishing world.

It’s the perfect time to dusting off old cookbooks (and donate what you won’t be using again), try new recipes, and ask relatives to recommend family favorites.

The American cookbook has evolved dramatically from its earliest days, when recipes were guarded family secrets passed down through generations, to today’s era of instant online recipes and celebrity chef influencers.

Yet despite having millions of free recipes at our fingertips online, cookbooks continue to thrive—although they’ve had to adapt to compete in the digital age.

Today’s bestselling cookbooks aren’t just recipe collections; they’re beautifully photographed works of art, memoirs, cultural explorations, and lifestyle guides rolled into one. They offer something the internet can’t quite replicate: a curated, cohesive vision from a trusted voice, along with the tactile pleasure of flipping through gorgeous pages (preferably without getting them too splattered).

While home cooks may turn to AllRecipes.com for Tuesday night’s chicken dinner, they still buy cookbooks for inspiration, weekend projects, and the joy of cooking as a hobby rather than just a chore.

The classics remain classics—Better Homes & Gardens, Betty Crocker, and Joy of Cooking have sold millions of copies over decades and continue to anchor many kitchen shelves.

But today’s market has expanded to celebrate diverse cuisines, innovative techniques, and personalities from across the culinary spectrum, from Michelin-starred chefs to food bloggers, from haute cuisine to any international fare you desire.
 
 
MOST INFLUENTIAL AMERICAN COOKBOOKS OF ALL TIME

While your Top 3 (Better Homes & Gardens, Betty Crocker, Joy of Cooking) remain hugely influential, here are some other landmark American cookbooks that shaped how we cook, followed by today’s best-sellers.

But for the real “starter,” the world’s oldest surviving cookbook is De Re Coquinaria, “On Cookery,” compiled in the 4th or 5th century and named for a legendary first-century Roman epicurian named Marcus Gavius Apicius.

And it’s still in print—in the original Latin as well as English, and a Kindle version for just 99¢.

Beyond ancient Europe to the U.S., here are the cookbooks in order of publication date:

 
Of course, the cookbooks have been updated over the years—pizza, tacos and wraps weren’t on the menu in 1930, for example. A number of the older versions are still in print as well.

Our mother relied on Fanny Farmer and Julia Child. How about yours?
 
 
Below: the first-known surviving cookbook of Western civilization. It’s still in print!

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The juiciness comes from cooking meat quickly at a high temperature, as opposed to grilling or sautéing, which cooks the meat for a longer time at a lower temperature.

Searing creates a crisp and flavorful crust by caramelizing the natural sugars an amino acids in the beef (known as a Maillard Reaction). The ideal temperature for caramelizing is 350°F to 500°F.

Be careful not to exceed 500°F when cooking. Very high temperatures can char the beef, producing a burned flavor as well as carcinogens.

• Find more tips in Chef Eguaras’ book, 101 Things I Learned In Culinary School.

Keep it juicy! Ribeye steak from
RedMarbleSteaks.com.

• What‘s the difference between a ribeye and a porterhouse? A hanger steak and a cowboy steak? Learn your cuts of beef in our Beef Glossary.