Food & Cooking: Easter Delicacies

Easter Cake

When the season heads its way towards spring, the first thing that strikes our mind is undoubtedly yummy chocolate Easter cake. It is during this time, when newspapers and magazines are all flooded with the receipes of Easter cakes. Easter's bunny cake recipe is one such dish that sails smoothly in almost every home.
In fact, confectionary shops earn a very good business, during the Easter festivity, through the sale of delicious creamy Easter cakes. As a part of the Easter feast, people in Eastern Europe relish the taste of the skirt-shaped Easter cake called babka, which means little old woman. In Italy, Easter cakes usually acquire the shape of a bunny rabbit, the most prominent symbol associated with Easter. In other countries Easter cakes can be spotted in the shape of lamb.

Here are some of the famous Easter cake recipes:

Easter bunny cake
Easter lamb cake
Jellybean confetti cake
Marshmallow peeps cupcakes
Floral raspberry cake
Coconut almond cake
Daffodil Easter cake
Easter bonnet cake

Easter Cookies

Easter, being one of the most prominent festivals of Christians, is celebrated on a large scale, in which houses are adorned with splendid easy to make Easter crafts like Easter eggshell ornaments and Easter bunny rabbit stuff toys. Special dishes are prepared to honour the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And when the talk is about Easter feast, how can we forget our Easter cookie recipes?
During the Easter festivity, all the cookery shows are dedicated to Easter recipes especially recipe for Easter cookies. In the catalogue of cookies for Easter festivity, the top position is occupied by Easter's bunny cookie recipes for kids. It is not just about having sweets, but the prime moto is to have a gathering of family, friends and relatives on one day, when everybody can sit together and share their happy moments with each other.
Preparing these Easter cookies is not only pocket friendly, but also gives immense pleasure because of the personal touch attached to it. It is during the Easter springtime when magazines are all filled with cookie recipes by famous chefs. The reservoir of yummy cookie recipes is really large comprising different kinds of cookies like gingerbread Easter bunny cookies, meringue kisses for Easter, Easter dream bar cookies and Apricot Squares for Easter.

Easter Hot Cross Buns

Easter hot cross buns recipe is not just a yummy dish that is served on the Easter festivity, but the cross-pastry icing that is done on the bun, reminds us of the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Eating hot cross buns is a tradition that is passed over from one generation to another. From the Pagan times, it has been a custom to eat these Easter symbols: hot cross buns at breakfast time on Good Friday. And since then, this tradition has become a major part of Easter celebration.
One can relish the different flavours of hot cross buns that are added on in different proportions to make a perfect combo of sweet, spicy and fruity taste. These hot cross buns are baked at home in the oven and served hot. That is why they are called hot cross buns. These buns sell like hot cakes during Easter springtime, implying good business for the bakery shops.
People have a belief that hot cross buns protect us from evil spirits and have the magical power of curing. This explains the reason why in ancient times, people used to hang these buns on the kitchen ceilings. This Easter, enjoy the delicious recipe of hot cross buns and don't forget to serve it hot.

Food & Cooking: Easter Dinner

Easter festival calls for the preparation of special Easter dinner recipes. But Easter dinner is not just about yummy dishes for Easter, but it's about the entire atmosphere, that sets the mood for people to celebrate an Easter dinner party. In fact, it comprises everything from music to decorations to food and drinks etc.

Here are some dinner ideas for Easter:

* Give your house a new look, giving a warm welcome to the Easter spring season. Tinsel your house with articles that reflect the beauty of nature.
* Set the table beautifully. Table decorations form major part of house embellishments. Give your centre table a colourful look. In the heart of the table, place an Easter basket and stock it with gorgeous fresh lilies. Shop for some exquisite eggshell ornaments and keep them at different corners to adorn your sweet home.
* Dance on the tune of some nice famous Easter songs.
* Easter lamb recipe finds a special place for itself on the Easter festivity.
* For appetizers, there can be nothing better than hot cross buns. This recipe is exclusively prepared during the Easter week. In the catalogue of Easter appetizers, there are multiple options like Pineapple Salsa, Spiral-Sliced Ham, Cornbread Muffins, and Dilled Potato Salad etc.
Special dishes for the Easter dinner include Assorted Rolls with Butter, Cheesecake with Sliced Strawberries, Smoked Ham with Cranberry Chutney and Dilled Peas and Potatoes Vinaigrette, etc.
When it is the time for Easter dinner party, Easter chocolate bunny cookies cannot be forgotten.

Easter Dinner Recipes

When the spring season heads its way, celebration time begins. The celebration is not just dedicated to the refreshing springtime, but also to the Easter festival, that is enjoyed by people to honour Jesus' return to life. There are many symbols associated with the Easter time like Easter eggs, bunny rabbits, lamb, etc.
Easter, being one of the most important holidays of Christians, invites for special party. Many days before Easter arrives, women start surfing the net and magazines to check out the dinner recipes for Easter.

Here is a list of some mouthwatering Easter dinner recipes:

Honey garlic meatballs
Baked smoked ham
Spring salad
Stuffed Easter lamb
Rosemary Garlic Buttered Potatoes
Simple Baby Asparagus
Minted Baby Carrots
Blueberry Muffins
Apple Glazed Sausage and Bacon
Honeydew Salad Wedges

Bread Soldiers: Meant To Be Eaten, Not For War

We generally tend to associate the word "soldier" with war and military activities. However, the word soldier is also a cookery term which means a strip of bread or toast that is dipped into a soft-boiled egg.
What is the ideal width for a toast soldier? The answer, according to Mike Minton (who has just invented a new labour-saving toast-cutting device to make the perfect soldier), is 22mm. Although dipping toasted bread into a soft-boiled egg cannot be an exclusively English pastime, the nickname does seem to be a typically English whim. Why the English started calling the thin dipping strips of toast “soldiers” is anybody’s guess, but astonishingly, the term does not appear in the Oxford English Dictionary in its breakfast context until 1966. Some people think they are called soldiers because they are (or should be) uniform size, standing firm and straight like soldiers do.

French-Canadian Influence in the Kitchen: Cajun Cuisine

Cajun is a member of a people living in Louisiana in the US, who were originally French-Canadian. Cajuns have their own language, which is related to French, and they are also known for their lively music, and for their cooking, which is spicy and uses a lot of fish and shellfish. Traditonal dishes of Cajun cuisine are gumbo (a stew or soup whose key ingredient is okra, the African plant okingumbo) and Jambalaya, which is a Louisiana Creole dish of Spanish and French influence consisting of rice.

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Learn more about Cajun Cuisine.

A Taste of Switzerland: Fondue

The cooking term fondue refers to:

1 cubes of meat or seafood cooked in hot oil and then dipped in any of various sauces
2 hot sauce-like melted cheese or chocolate in which bread or fruits are dipped

Etymologically, the word come from the French fondue, literally ‘melted’, from fondre ‘to melt’.

Fondue is a dish typically eaten in Switzerland and the cheese fondue and the chocolate fondue are the most common varieties. Fondue is prepared in a caquelon, which is a cooking vessel of stoneware, ceramic, enamelled cast iron or porcelain. The word caquelon is from a Swiss French term originating in the 18th century derived from the Swiss German word Kakel meaning an earthenware casserole.

Wedding Cakes in UK and US

In the UK a traditional wedding cake is a fruitcake covered with white icing. It is arranged in three levels or tiers, with the largest tier on the bottom and and the smallest tier on the top.
The bride and groom cut the cake together and give pìeces of it to friends at the wedding reception. Some couples keep the top tier because it is traditional to save it until their first child is christened.
In the US the cake is also decorated with white icing and it is arranged in tiers but it is not fruitcake. The bride and groom cut the cake together and then feed a small piece to each other. It is traditional for the bride and groom to try to make a mess on each other’s faces with cake.

Food & Cooking: Ladies & Fingers

Lady Fingers

Ladyfingers (called Savoiardi in Italian, meaning "from Savoy") are light and sweet sponge cakes roughly shaped like a large, fat finger.
Today, their most common usage is in trifles, charlottes, and tiramisu. They are typically soaked in a sugar syrup or liqeuer, such as coffee for the tiramisu dessert.
Ladyfingers originated in the late 15th century at the court of the Duchy of Savoy, and were created to mark the occasion of a visit of the King of France.
Later they were given the name Savoiardi and recognised as an "official" court biscuit. They were particularly appreciated by the young members of the court and offered to visitors as a symbol of the local cuisine.

Lady's finger

Lady's finger is another name given to the okra plant, widely cultivated in in southern United States and West Indies and characterized by its long green edible pods.

Originating in Africa, the plant is cultivated in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions around the world.

Royal Ladies in the Kitchen

Duchess is the nobility title given to the wife or widow of a duke. Duchess potatoes are mashed potatoes mixed with cream, eggs, butter, and seasonings, piped onto a baking sheet or platter, sprinkled with grated cheese, and browned in the oven. They are also called pommes de terre or duchesse potatoes.
Two real duchesses who became very important in English history are:

- Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor

Her name at birth was Bessie Wallis Warfield but she will be rembered as the Duchess of Windsor.
Wallis Simpson was the American divorcee for whom King Edward VIII gave up the throne of Great Britain. She met the future king (then Prince of Wales) early in the 1930s and a few years later they became lovers, though she remained married to her second husband, businessman Ernest Simpson. Matters came to a head when Edward became king in 1936. Simpson filed for divorce from her husband, but the royal family and the British government would not allow Edward to marry her. In December Edward stepped down as king, saying in a radio broadcast "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love." They were married in France on 3 June 1937, becoming the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and spent the rest of their lives in exile from England, living mainly in France and the United States. In 2003 the British government released documents showing that while she was involved with Edward in the years before he became king, Simpson also was having an affair with a London car dealer named Guy Trundle.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were buried together on the grounds of Windsor Castle... The Duke and Duchess visited Germany in 1937 as guests of Adolf Hitler, creating the lasting impression that they were Nazi sympathizers... Her first marriage took place in 1916, to U.S. Navy pilot Earl Winfield Spencer, but barely lasted a year... She is often credited with the popular saying, "No woman can be too rich or too thin."

- Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

The title Duke of York is a title of nobility given to the second son of the British monarch. The current Duke of York is The Prince Andrew, second son of Queen Elizabeth II. Andrew currently has no male heirs and (since his 1996 divorce) is unmarried. The wife of the Duke of York is known as the Duchess of York. Duchess of York is the principal title held by the wife of the Duke of York since the creation of the title in 1384. The title is gained with marriage alone and is forfeited upon divorce. Sarah Ferguson was duchess of York from 1986 to1996. Following their high-profile marriage and divorce, she became known as Sarah, Duchess of York (the proper address for the divorced wives of peers). In addition, she lost the style of Royal Highness as well as all other dignities related to the title of British princess. Contrary to popular belief, Sarah, Duchess of York, is not The Duchess of York for that is the title reserved for the wife of the Duke of York. She retains only the style, not the title of Duchess of York. This is to emphasize her changed status from wife to former wife of the Duke of York.

Literature & Cookies: Madeleines

A madeleine is a delicate, scallop-shaped French tea cake often served with fruit or sherbet. In its preparation, flour, eggs, and sugar are beaten with a large proportion of butter, incorporating as much air as possible; then grated lemon rind and vanilla extract, and sometimes rum, are added. After baking in the customary 12-shell tin, the pastry is served plain or dusted with confectioner’s sugar.
The origins of the madeleine are disputed, but it was brought to its acme, and thence to broad fame, in the 18th century by the pastry chefs of Commercy and Liverdun, two communes of the Lorraine region in northeastern France.

The French author Marcel Proust immortalized the madeleine in his cycle novel Remembrance of Things Past, in which a taste of the cake is said to have evoked the surge of memory and nostalgia. Madeleines are perhaps most famous outside France for their association with involuntary memory in the Marcel Proust novel À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past in the first translation, more recently translated as In Search of Lost Time), in which the narrator experiences an awakening upon tasting a madeleine dipped in tea:

She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called petites madeleines, which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim's shell. And soon, mechanically, weary after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place…at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory…

— Remembrance of Things Past, Volume 1: Swann's Way

Did you know?

Some sources say madeleines may have been named for a 19th century pastry cook, Madeleine Paulmier, but other sources have it that Madeleine Paulmier was a cook in the 18th century for Stanisław Leszczyński, whose son-in-law, Louis XV of France, named them for her.

Éclairs: Naughty But Nice

An éclair is a small finger-shaped cake made of a special kind of pastry, with cream inside and usually chocolate on top. Éclairs are generally thought as being very tasty but rather bad for you. They have been used in advertisements with the words ‘Naughty but Nice’. Éclairs make a lovely dessert when served with French vanilla ice cream, or as a tasty addition to a lovely brunch.

Did you know?

The word éclair comes from the French éclair, lit. "lightning," from Old French esclair, from esclairare "to light up, make shine," from Latin exclarare "light up, illumine," from ex- "out" + clarus "clear." The sense is perhaps the "lightness" of the confection.

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Éclair (pastry)

French Cooking Terms

Here is a list of French cooking terms, for those who are interested in venturing into more gourmet cooking.

Bain-marie A roasting pan or baking dish partially filled with water to allow food to cook more slowly and be protected from direct high heat. Used for custards and terrines.
Bavarois Creamy pudding that is made with cream and eggs, then set with gelatin.
Beignets Fritters.Small dollops of dough that are fried.
Beurre Manié Butter and flour mixed together in equal parts and used to thicken liquids.
Beurre Noisette Browned butter.
Bisque A shellfish soup that has been thickened.
Blanquette A stew made from meat that has not been browned or fried. Usually refers to stews made of lamb, chicken or veal.
Bouchées Small puff pastry cases.
Bouillon Broth or stock.
Bouquet Garni A mixture of fresh herbs tied together with string and used to flavor stews, soups etc. It refers to a mix of parsley, bay leaf, thyme (and sometimes celery stalk). The bouquet is removed before serving.
Brunoise Vegetables cut into very small diced pieces.
Canapé An appetizer consisting of a small bread or biscuit base covered with a flavored topping. Chapelux Browned bread crumbs.
Chine To remove the backbone from a rack of ribs.
Concasser To chop roughly
Consommé Broth that has been made clear.
Coulis A thick sauce usually made from one main ingredient, such as raspberry coulis.
Court Bouillon Flavored liquid used for cooking fish.
Crêpes Very thin pancakes.
Croquettes A mixture of potato with ground cooked meat, fish or poultry formed into balls, patties or other shapes and coated with a breading before frying.
Croustade Bread piece dipped in butter and baked until it is crisp.
Croûte Crust Sometimes refers to a pastry crust, sometimes to toasted or fried bread.
Croûtons Small cubes of bread used as a garnish is salads and soups. DarioleSmall mould shaped like a castle used for moulding salads or baking cakes.
Déglacer To deglaze, to loosen browned juices and fat from the bottom of a frying pan or saucepan by adding liquid, bringing to a boil and stirring. The liquid is usually water, wine or broth.
Dégorger To extract juices from meat, fish or vegetables, usually by salting them, then soaking or washing. It is usually done to remove a strong taste.
Dépouiller To skim off the scum that accumulates at the top of a stock or sauce.
Duxelles Finely chopped raw mushrooms, used as a stuffing. Sometimes combined with chopped ham or scallops.
Entrecôte Sirloin steak.
Entrée The term used to refer to something served before the main course but is used now to refer to the actual main course.
Entremet Dessert or sweet, but not including pastries.
Escalop A thin slice of meat that is often pounded out to make it thinner.
Farce Stuffing.
Flamber or Flambé To set alcohol on fire.
Frappé Something that is iced or set on or in a bed of ice.
Fricassé A stew made from poultry, meat or rabbit that has a white sauce.

Glace de Viande Reduced brown stock used to add color and flavor to sauces.
Gratiner or Au Gratin To sprinkle the surface of a cooked food with bread crumbs and butter, and sometimes cheese and brown under the broiler. The finished food is referred to as au gratin as in au gratin potatoes.
Hors d'Oeuvre First course or appetizer.
Jus or Jus de Viande The juices that occur naturally from cooking.
Jus Lié A thickened gravy.
Liaison Ingredients used for thickening sauces, soups or other liquids.
Macédoine Small diced mixed vegetables, usually containing at least one root vegetable. Sometimes also means a mixture of fruit, like fruit salad.
Marmite French word for a covered earthenware container for soup. The soup is both cooked and served in it.
Mirepoix A mixture of braising vegetables.
Mortifier To hand meat, game or poultry.
Moulè-â-manqué A cake tin that is wider at the base than at the top and only about 1" in depth.
Napper To coat, mask or cover with something.
Noisette The word literally means "nut". It usually means nut brown in color. For example, beurre noisette is butter browned over heat until it becomes a nut brown color. It can also refer to boneless rack of lamb that is rolled, tied and cut into rounds. The word can also refer to hazelnuts.
Nouvelle Cuisine A term that refers to the style of cooking that features lighter dishes with lighter sauces and very fresh ingredients.
Panade A very thick mixture, usually made from a combination of flour, butter and milk, that is used as a base for dishes such as soufflés and fish cakes.
Paner To coat with egg and crumbs before frying.
Papillote A wrapping of parchment paper around fish or meat used for cooking. The paper retains moisture in the food.
Parisienne Refers to potatoes molded into balls with a melon scoop and fried or roasted.
Pâte A basic mixture or paste. Often refers to uncooked dough or pastry.
Pâté A paste made of liver, pork or game. PâtisserieA sweet or pastry, it also refers to a cake shop.
Piquer To insert fat, bacon, ham etc into meat or poultry.
Poussin A young chicken.
Quenelle Minced fish or meat mixture that is formed into small shapes and poached. It also refers to a shape that the minced mixture is made into.
Ragoût A stew
Réchauffée Reheated food.
Repere Flour mixed with water or egg white and used to seal pans when cooking food slowly. Often used when cooking a ragoût.
Revenir To quickly fry meats or vegetables in hot fat to warm them through.
Roux Melted butter to which flour has been added. Used as a thickener for sauces or soups.
Rouille Garlic and oil emulsion used as flavoring.
Sautoir A deep frying pan with a lid, used for recipes that require fast frying, then slow cooking.
Terrine Pâté or mixture of minced ingredients, baked or steamed in a loaf shaped container.
Timbale A dish cooked in a mould that is higher than it is wide and has sloping sides.
Velouté A type of sauce made from butter, flour, cream and stock.
Vol-au-vent A large pastry case made of puff pastry that is usually used as a container for creamed dishes, such as creamed chicken.

Food & Eating: The Cartoon Character and the Sandwich

Dagwood sandwich is a tall, multi-layered sandwich made with a variety of meats, cheeses and condiments. It was named after Dagwood Bumstead, a central character in the comic strip Blondie. Dagwood frequently makes enormous sandwiches. American cartoonist Chic Young, began drawing the huge sandwiches in the comic strip during 1936.

Though the actual contents of Chic Young's Dagwood sandwich remain obscure, it obviously contains large quantities and varieties of cold cuts, sliced cheese and vegetables, plus additional slices of bread. An olive pierced by a toothpick or wooden skewer usually crowns the edible superstructure. “Dagwood sandwich” has been included in Webster's New World Dictionary, and “Dagwood” (referring to the sandwich) has been included in the American Heritage Dictionary.

Language & Food: Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff is meat cooked with onions, sour cream, and usually mushrooms:
beef stroganoff with noodles
Various explanations are given for the name, it presumably derived from some member of the large and important Stroganov family, perhaps Alexander Grigorievich Stroganoff of Odessa or a diplomat, Count Pavel Stroganov. The Stroganovs or Strogonovs (Russian: Строгановы, Строгоновы), also spelled in French manner as Stroganoffs, were a family of highly successful Russian merchants, industrialists, landowners, and statesmen of the 16th – 20th centuries who eventually earned nobility.

The Stroganov Palace is a Late Baroque palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The palace was designed by the Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli for Baron Sergei Grigoriyevich Stroganov in 1753-1754. The interiors were remodeled in the 1790s and first decade of the 19th century. Today, the palace is part of the Russian Museum.

A Taste of Cornwall: Cornish Pasty

A Cornish pasty is a folded piece of pasty, usually for one person to eat, which contains small pieces of meat, potato and other vegetables.
Cornish pasties can be served piping hot, crisp and golden brown and just out of the oven, or eaten cold as a lunch buffet snack with a sprig of parsley.

There is as much folklore around the Cornish Pasty as there are recipe variations. Whatever the truth there is no doubt that the pasty formed an important part of many working Cornishmen's diet, be they miners, farmers, or fishermen. With the decline of the mining industry in Cornwall many Cornishmen were forced to emigrate, as far afield as the USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa taking the pasty recipe with them.

Food & Cooking: Meat

The meat from some animals has a different name from the animal itself. For example, the meat from a cow is called beef, the meat from a pig is called pork or ham or bacon, the meat from a calf (= young cow) is veal, the meat from a deer is venison, and the meat from a sheep is mutton. But the meat from a lamb is lamb and for birds the same word is used for both the meat and the creature:
Shall we have chicken or duck for dinner?

Christmas Treats: Dundee Cake

Dundee Cake is a famous traditional Scottish fruit cake with a rich flavour. Dundee Cake contains a lot of dried fruit and is decorated with almonds on the top, eaten especially in the UK. It became popular at the end of the 19th century. It is often served at Christmas. It can contain whisky or another spirit.
Dundee cake is a popular alternative to the traditional Christmas cake. Originally a Scottish Christmas cake from Dundee, it is light as well as spongy and not as rich as the traditional Christmas cake.
This cake keeps very well in an airtight tin and tastes all the better if kept for a few days before cutting.

A Taste of Scotland in the Kitchen

Scotch Broth

Scotch broth is a filling soup, originating in Scotland but now obtainable worldwide. The principal ingredients are usually barley, stewing or braising cuts of lamb or mutton (or, less authentically, beef), and root vegetables such as carrots, turnips or swedes. Greens - particularly cabbage and leeks can also be added, usually towards the end of cooking to preserve flavour and texture. Dried pulses are often used too. The proportions and ingredients vary according to the recipe or availability.
Scotch broth is often sold ready-prepared in cans. As with many slow-cooked composite dishes, it is often claimed to taste even better when re-heated.

Scotch Eggs

A Scotch egg consists of a shelled hard-boiled egg, wrapped in a sausage meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried. Scotch eggs are commonly eaten cold, typically with salad and pickles. Scotch Eggs were actually invented by the famous London department store, Fortnum & Mason in 1851.

Scotch eggs were traditionally a picnic food and homemade. In the UK, pre-packed, plastic-wrapped Scotch eggs are commonly available in supermarkets, convenience stores and motorway service stations.
In the United States, many "English-style" pubs and eateries serve fresh-made Scotch eggs. These are usually served hot, with dipping sauces such as ranch dressing, hot sauce, or hot mustard sauce.

Miniature versions of Scotch eggs are also widely available in British supermarkets, and are sold under the name 'savoury eggs', 'picnic eggs', 'party eggs', 'snack eggs' or similar. These contain a chopped, rather than whole, egg filling, sometimes combined with mayonnaise or chopped bacon.

British Cooking: Sunday Lunch

In the UK, Sunday lunch (also Sunday dinner) is a large traditional meal that is typically eaten at about one o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, with the whole family sitting together.
In the UK, traditional Sunday lunch consists of roast meat such as beef, chicken, or lamb, served with Yorkshire pudding, gravy, roast potatoes and other cooked vegetables, with a sweet dish served after this. Sunday lunch was traditionally eaten by the whole family together. This is no longer done as often as it was in the past, but many British pubs and restaurants serve a traditional Sunday lunch.

Lucky Food: Fortune Cookies

Babygirl fortune cookies.

Chocolate-covered cookies.

Messages inside the fortune cookies.

A fortune cookie is a cookie made from a thin layer of dough folded and baked around a slip of paper bearing a prediction of fortune or a maxim.

Cool link from Wikipedia:
Fortune Cookie

The Generals Behind the Milk Jam

Milk jam (its word in Spanish is "dulce de leche") is an Argentinian creation. It is said that Dulce de Leche originated in Argentina in 1829 in Cañuelas in the province of Buenos Aires. Two opposing forces were on the brink of ending a war. General Lavalle and General Manuel de Rosas had decided to meet in order to make a treaty. General Lavalle arrived very tired at General Manuel de Rosas's camp. Manuel de Rosas wasn’t in the camp at that moment so General Lavalle came into his tent and took a nap.
While General Lavalle was taking the nap, a serving woman was preparing “la lechada” for the camp. “La lechada” is prepared by heating sugar and milk. The woman went to speak with General Manuel de Rosas in his tent, but when she entered she discovered the enemy. She didn’t know about the treaty the two generals were about to make, so she ran to find soldiers.
General Manuel de Rosas arrived moments before the soldiers, and stopped them from waking the sleeping General Lavalle. In the chaos, the woman forgot about “la lechada.”
When she remembered and checked on “la lechada,” she noticed that it had become a dark brown jelly substance. It is said that a very brave and hungry soldier tried the jelly and then dulce de leche was born.