The Chicago Food Encyclopedia

341 Pages·2017·25.027 MB·English

by  Carol Haddix (editor), Bruce Kraig (editor), Colleen Taylor Sen (editor)

THE
CHICAGO
Food Encyclopedia
HEARTLAND FOODWAYS
The Heartland Foodways series seeks to encourage and publish
book-length works that define and celebrate midwestern food
traditions and practices. The series is open to foods from seed to
plate and to foodways that have found a home in the Midwest.
Series Editor
Bruce Kraig, Roosevelt University
Editorial Board
Gary Fine, Northwestern University
Robert Launay, Northwestern University
Yvonne Lockwood, Michigan State University Museum
Lucy Long, Bowling Green State University
Rachelle H. Saltzman, Oregon Folklife Network
A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book.
T H E
CHICAGO
Food Encyclopedia
EDITED BY
Carol Mighton Haddix, Bruce Kraig,
and Colleen Taylor Sen
FOREWORD BY
Russell Lewis
© 2017 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Haddix, Carol Mighton, 1946- editor. | Kraig,
Bruce, editor. | Sen, Colleen Taylor, editor.
Title: The Chicago food encyclopedia / edited by Carol
Mighton Haddix, Bruce Kraig, and Colleen Taylor
Sen; foreword by Russell Lewis.
Description: Urbana: The University of Illinois Press,
[2017] | Series: Heartland foodways | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017006116 (print) | LCCN
2017007883 (ebook) | ISBN 9780252087240 (pbk. :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9780252099779 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Food—Illinois—Chicago—History—
Encyclopedias. | Food industry and trade—Illinois—
Chicago—History—Encyclopedias. | Chicago (Ill.)—
History—Encyclopedias.
Classification: LCC TX360.U63 C4534 2017 (print) | LCC
TX360.U63 (ebook) | DDC 664.00973/11—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017006116
Cover illustration: © iStock.com / kai813, alblec,
Margolana
Contents
vii Foreword
ix Preface
xi Acknowledgments
1
Introduction
19
Encyclopedia Entries
Appendix A:
279
Period Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry,
and Recipes Resources
Appendix B:
283
Price Comparisons
285 Selected Bibliography
287 Contributors
293 Index
Color illustrations follow page 162

Foreword
Students of Chicago history are all too easily tempted to this remarkable and unprecedented growth, a few com-
turn to a narrative of urban inevitability that posits that the parisons are helpful. During the same 60-year period, the
city’s evolution over the past two centuries was destined. population of London almost doubled, increasing by 1.8
Most typically, this view reflects a geographical determin- times; Paris more than doubled, growing 2.3 times; and
ism, arguing that Chicago’s uniquely favorable location for Berlin more than quadrupled, increasing 4.1 times. On this
transportation and industrialization gave it a head start side of the Atlantic, New York City’s population grew 4.1
over other cities. According to this understanding, loca- times. Chicago during the same period grew from 29,963
tion is at the root of the city’s rise as the crossroads of citizens to 1,099,850, an increase of almost 37 times. And
America. Chicago’s culinary history is especially vulner- during the decade from 1890 to 1900, Chicago increased
able to this approach. Named after a local food source its land area to 182.9 square miles, making it physically
(wild onion), positioned adjacent to some of the nation’s the largest city in the world. Chicago was indeed the shock
most fertile and productive agricultural lands, and home city of the nineteenth century.
to a distinctive cuisine that Chicagoans enthusiastically How did all of this happen? Through a combination
embrace as an essential element in constructing an iden- of a geographic location that was unusually well suited
tity, Chicago’s historic status as the nation’s food capital for industrialization, westward expansion of American
does indeed seem destined. settlements, civic vision, imagination, shrewd business
But there is another way to interpret Chicago’s culi- acumen, and sheer luck, Chicago became a national cross-
nary traditions and its history, and happily this volume roads where people, ideas, and products moved east and
has embraced this perspective wholeheartedly. According west, north and south. Initially through an interconnected
to this explanation, Chicago was shaped by a number of system of waterways, and by the 1850s via a national
national, regional, and local factors during the nineteenth railroad network, Chicago became the national center for
and twentieth centuries. Two of the most significant were the processing and shipping of agricultural products and
national transformations from craft to industrialized work implements, a leading port for grain, the world leader in
and from rural to urban living. Those Chicagoans who lumber production and shipping, and the center for the
stood at the intersection of these momentous trends and processing and shipping of meat. With the completion of
influences envisioned different city futures, making deci- the Illinois & Michigan canal in 1848 and the construction
sions and taking action in the context of the prospects of the first railroad the same year, Chicago had the unique
offered by a nation undergoing fundamental change. Food advantage of two intertwined layers of transportation—
was not only essential to sustain the city, it also pre- water and rail—that allowed the city and its businesses
sented a unique opportunity for urban growth. The pro- to tap into regional raw materials (especially agricultural
curement of agricultural products, the processing of them products), process them, and distribute them nationally.
into food, and their distribution became major enterprises In Chicago, industrialization went hand-in-hand with
in Chicago. rapid urbanization—the processes fueled each other—and
This national transformation found fertile ground in the result was a new kind of city. This remarkable fusion
Chicago and was critical to the city’s growth and expan- of two powerful nineteenth-century juggernauts played
sion. Indeed, between 1830 and 1890, Chicago was the out in Chicago on a massive scale. Population growth and
fastest growing city on the globe. For a better sense of the physical growth of the city expanded boundaries, and
vii
viii FOREWORD
new housing and infrastructure provided the resources for creating new markets. Likewise, immigrant and migrant
new industries to develop and to grow. Likewise, industrial entrepreneurs brought innovation to ethnic and regional
development brought immigrant and migrants to Chicago cuisines and especially to street food, building thriving
for work and demanded new land for production facili- local business and, in some cases, national food empires.
ties and new infrastructure to transport raw materials and Chicagoans were more successful than their urban coun-
finished products. These immigrants and migrants brought terparts in their innovative approach to the procurement,
ethnic and regional traditions with them to a nation and processing, and distribution of food and to creating new
a city that was rapidly changing. They adapted these tra- markets, and this became the foundation of the city’s
ditions to American habits and practices, as well as to national and international food business and its enduring
new opportunities they discovered in Chicago, creating a reputation as the nation’s food city.
swirling, ever-changing urban cultural stew that reshaped The Chicago Food Encyclopedia offers an original
work, leisure, and foodways. interpretation of the transformation of food in an urban
Together, industrialization and urbanization also fos- setting and makes a significant contribution to culinary
tered two important characteristics that supercharged history scholarship. Nothing to date rivals this volume
nineteenth-century Chicago: innovation and new mar- in terms of its scope and comprehensiveness. By com-
kets. Although we celebrate invention and innovation in bining sound urban history scholarship with fresh and
America as creative expressions that are worthy ends in compelling culinary history research, this encyclopedia
themselves, the person who develops new markets for charts new territory for understanding Chicago’s ongo-
an innovation is likely to be more successful. Chicago ing relationship with food and why the city has become
was fertile ground for new ideas, and the city’s position a major food destination today. It introduces the novice
as a national crossroads allowed businessmen to think to Chicago’s long association with the cornucopia of food
more imaginatively and expansively about creating new produced or consumed in the city over two centuries, yet it
markets. also provides seasoned scholars in-depth interdisciplinary
Chicago’s food history is replete with examples of analyses of urban food as a business and how it evolved
entrepreneurs developing new methods, technology, reci- as an essential part of daily life in a city. It certainly will
pes, products, and markets, and these risk takers had a become an essential reference work for students of Chi-
profound impact on the city’s relationship with food. Once cago history and a trusted guide for all Chicagoans who
Gustavus Swift had perfected a system of rail stations to love their city and its amazing food offerings.
replenish the ice in refrigerated railroad cars, enabling
him to ship meat to the eastern seaboard, he turned his
attention to developing markets to consume his new cuts RUSSELL LEWIS
of beef. His success hinged on his understanding of the Executive Vice President and Chief Historian,
link between fostering novel food-related technology and Chicago History Museum
Preface
Located at the center of America’s agricultural heartland would require another book or even as massive a project
and bordering the nation’s great waterways, Chicago is as the Encyclopedia of Chicago.
one of the world’s great food cities. Chicago has not only The second part consists of 375 well-researched entries
been home to some of the world’s top restaurants but in alphabetical order written by more than 70 writers,
has an enormous diversity of ethnic neighborhoods and educators, scholars, and industry experts. Our initial step
cuisines, with few counterparts in other cities. It is not was to draw up a list of headwords of potential topics
surprising that many of the city’s nicknames relate to food: and potential contributors. This list was based on our
Carl Sandburg’s “hog butcher for the world” and “stacker long experience in planning, writing, and contributing to
of wheat,” “the big onion” (an homage to the original other reference works such as The Oxford Encyclopedia
Native American name for the place on which the city of American Food and Street Food around the World. It
stands), and, more positively, City in a Garden (a transla- also was grounded in our decades-long work researching,
tion of its Latin motto Urbs in Horto), and Paris on the writing, and editing articles, columns, and books about
Prairie (from Daniel Burnham’s 1909 plan for the city). Chicago food. We drew up a list of contributors from
As editors, our goal was twofold: to create a reference the ranks of journalists, scholars, bloggers, and authors,
work that describes the full tapestry of the city’s rich gas- including many of the leading names in the Chicago food
tronomical scene; and to provide historical and cultural scene. They in turn suggested new or related topics. Even
perspective. It is meant to be a resource for citizens and during the writing of the actual entries, we discovered
a handbook for the tens of millions of visitors who come topics we had overlooked and commissioned new entries.
to the city—to browse through, savor the illustrations, Our first task was to determine geographical scope.
wonder at the stories of amazing people and interesting Looking at the Chicago region’s physical and economic
events, and even try some classic recipes. The Chicago extension outward to ever more distant suburbs and into
Food Encyclopedia will also serve as a resource for stu- a midwestern megalopolis, we realized that covering all
dents, historians, and scholars researching the city’s culi- of what is now the Greater Chicago region would be too
nary history. massive for a single volume. Historical overviews of each
The book is divided in two parts. The first is a brief area, suburb, and beyond, would take multiple volumes.
general history of Chicago’s food from before the city’s Therefore, we decided to confine the book’s contents
founding to the present day. We believe that the narra- to the current city limits, more or less. Since we posit
tive is necessary to tie the entries into a coherent whole. a model of the city’s neighborhoods, most of which are
Readers can dip into individual entries and learn about ethnically composed, moving outward from their original
a specific person, place, event, or food, but the story of locations, the collar suburbs such as Berwyn (Bohemians)
Chicago’s food puts them into a historical and cultural and Skokie/Buffalo Grove (Jews) are implicitly covered by
context. For instance, the connections between Chica- discussions of the Chicago communities. Some businesses
go’s role in America’s food production systems and what that relocated to suburbs, such as Kraft Foods to Glenview
people in the city actually eat is told piecemeal in entries (and back to the center city in 2016), do not warrant a full
but set into a historical fabric by the narrative. However, discussion of that suburb in this scheme. Perhaps another
the first part is not a comprehensive account of Chicago volume will cover the subject. Only the Period Kitchen,
food. That would be redundant with entry subjects and Dining Room, Pantry, and Recipes Resources discusses
ix