The term comfort food was used for foods that we eat in times when we want to feel better. We usually eat these when we are stressed, and when the going gets tough. Indeed, comfort food will be there for us in times of trouble. Why? Because they were themselves created during historic times of discomfort.
The periods of adversity that bred these scrappy dishes came and went, but the foods are here to stay. They’re ingrained in family recipes, local food lore, and regional menus, but not as relics of anguish or curios of hardship. They live on as beloved weapons, instrumental in the fight against despair, distress, and hunger. Born of discomfort they become, against all odds, our comfort foods—so ubiquitous and widely loved today that we lose sight of the fact that they emerged from utter destitution.
Atlas Obscura tells us the origin stories of the Goetta, the Ranfañote, the Tomato Soup Cake, as well as the Doodle Soup, the Hoover Stew, and the Crumble-In. Read their stories over at the site.
(Image Credit: David Berkowitz/ Wikimedia Commons)
the problem in louisiana is too many comfort foods!
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