by Jayne Ormerod
I like to eat. Correction, I love to eat. As a result, my characters also love to eat. I incorporate a lot of Classic and Cozy (and hence Comforting) foods in my books. Here is but one example:
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Sam asked as we exited
the dimness of Flossie’s Pharmacy. I squinted against the sunlight of a
glorious summer’s morn. The three Fig Newtons I’d stuffed in my
mouth prevented me from answering, but I figured it was a rhetorical question,
anyway. I was right.
~Excerpted from The Blond Leading the Blond
In the interest of researching my topics thoroughly, I did a little research on the Fig Newton. I was surprised by what I found, not the least of which is January 16th (this Friday!) is National Fig Newton Day! As they say timing is everything, so let's get ready for the big event by learning all there is to know about Fig Newtons.
Raise
your hand if you thought the Fig Newton was named after that Apple-to-the-Head
guy. You know, Sir Isaac Newton, the brilliant man who first proposed the
laws of gravity. Yeah, me too. But in my research for this food-related
topic I learned something quite different.
The Fig Newton was originally called just The Newton, named after a town in Massachusetts.
That was back in 1891. But the cookie wasn't new then; it was already
hundreds of years old by that time. So let’s start our history lesson a
few hundred years earlier.
The
history of figs can be traced back as far as 15th century Egypt when
figs first began being cultivated. Somebody (and nobody knows for sure
who, because that was a rather long time ago and records did not survive the
ensuing 500+ years…) figured out a way to bake the figs into a light pastry in
order to keep them fresher longer.
Good
ideas travel fast (well, maybe over a couple hundred years) and the
fig-filled-biscuit idea made its way to Sicily, where they were called
Cucidati. These special treats were prepared two times a year; Christmas and St.
Joseph’s day.
Eventually this good idea made its way to America, where they were considered “medicinal.” While today a doctor might say “Take two aspirin
and call me in the morning,” back in the 19th century you would have been
more likely to be advised to “stick to a diet of biscuits (defined as crisp,
dry bread) and fruit” to cure what ails you. Hence a combination of dried figs
and biscuits was just what the doctor ordered!
An
Ohioan by the name of Charles M. Roser, owner of a bakery in Kenton, Ohio,
is credited by some sources of baking and promoting the fig biscuit.
Research shows that he may have sold the recipe to the Kennedy Biscuit Company
for $1,000,000. (In today’s dollars that would equal 19 million!)
Now
enter James Henry Mitchell. He invented a machine that was a funnel
inside a funnel that squeezed out the fig jam encased in cookie
dough. It came out in one loooongg tube and then was sliced into the
cookie size you are familiar with today and then baked. (Ha! I bet
you thought Pillsbury had the lock on the slice-and-bake idea).
This enabled the Kennedy Biscuit Company to mass-produce the medicinal
cookie.
The Kennedy Biscuit
Company, the holder of the recipe, was based in Boston, Massachusetts, had
a history of naming their cookies after surrounding towns. So, the fig
biscuit was renamed the Newton.
The
year of the Fig Newtons birth is officially recorded as 1891. Fast
forward to 1898 when the Kennedy Biscuit Company merged with New York Biscuit
Company to become the NAtional BIScuit COmpany (hence the name NABISCO) and
Ta-Da, Nabisco Fig Newton became a household world.
It’s
interesting to note that the recipe, shape, size or baking process hasn’t
changed in over 120 years.
Not a big fan of the figgy cookie? Well fear not, there are other uses for them. A Google search for Fig Newton Craft Projects pointed me to these:
Source: http://www.catholicicing.com/cute-bible-snack-idea/
(And good luck getting that song out of your head today!)
And I bet you didn't know that National Fig Newton Day is celebrated annually on
the 16th of January. That's this Friday! Traditional celebrations suggest you bake
your own Fig Newtons from scratch, but I gotta say, the recipes I found make it
look messy unless you’ve got access to a double-funnel machine. I do
not. So I will have to celebrate by eating the store-bought kind.
Heck, I might even really cut loose and have some apple, strawberry or
raspberry Newtons!
But
if you miss National Fig Newton Day this year, fear not, Fig Newtons can be
enjoyed any day of the year. And they may make you feel better, if only as a
fond memory of your youth.
