National Caramel Apple Day

National Caramel Apple Day is on October 31st in the United States.

Caramel apples are similar to, but not the same as, toffee or candy apples, and they are actually made in different ways.

Caramel apples are made by wrapping a sheet of caramel - caramel is sugar heated to 170 °C (340 °F) - around the apple, and then heating it so that the caramel is then melted evenly onto it. This is the commercial process, though, and homemade caramel apples usually are dipped into melted caramel, which results in a softer coating that is easier to eat.

The apples start off as apples on a stick before the caramel is added. After the caramel is applied, but before it cools and sets, the apples can also be dipped in other things such as crushed nuts, hundreds and thousands and similar items.

Caramel apples are popular at Halloween, so October 31st is a good day to celebrate them.

This is a partly healthy treat - it does contain an apple, after all - but there is a tendency for children to stop eating the apple after all the caramel has gone.

National Buy a Doughnut Day

October 30th is National Buy a Doughnut Day in the United States.

Not simply celebrating the doughnut, alternatively called the donut, but the act of purchasing them. So probably not celebrating cooking them.

There are two main types of doughnut, which are a type of fried dessert, the ring doughnut, which has the distinctive toroidal "donut" shape, and the filled doughnut. Ring doughnuts are ring shaped with a whole in the centre, from which the doughnut hole, a small, spherical doughnut originally came from, although doughnut holes tend to be purpose made today and ring doughnuts are usually made ring shaped to start with. Filled doughnuts are flattened spheres that have a filling inside, such as flavoured creams, jams or jellies.

Doughnuts of both types are often topped, whether simply with powdered sugar, or glazed with other things, such as chocolate.

National Candy Corn Day

October 30th is National Candy Corn Day in the US.

Candy corn is a food that is strongly associated with Halloween, when the majority of it is sold, so to have a national day for it just before Halloween itself does make sense.

Despite its name, candy corn is not made from pieces of corn, although it does contain corn syrup. It may sound like a relative of popcorn, but it is in fact nothing like it.

As well as the aforementioned corn syrup, candy corn is made from water, sugar, carnauba wax (a wax made from a type of palm tree leaf) as well as fondant and marshmallow. In appearance, the finished product looks like a kernel of corn, which is where the name comes from, although they are bigger. Each piece of candy corn has three colours, with a yellow band at the broad end, a white band at the pointed tip and an orange centre. They were first created by George Renninger in the late 19th century in Philadelphia.

There are other variants to the standard yellow/orange/white version, such as one intended for Thanksgiving and another for Christmas, and even a carrot flavoured one for Easter.

National Oatmeal Day

In the United States October 29th is National Oatmeal Day.

Oatmeal is the ground, hulled kernels of oats, a cereal crop. Oats are most commonly used for livestock, but they are also popular as a human food. Oatmeal can also be made from rolled, crushed and steel-cut oats as well as being ground, and is also known as white oats.

Oatmeal is popular as a breakfast cereal - such as in Quaker Oats, one of the more well known varieties - and the oatmeal does seem to have some health benefits (in moderation, anyway) and rolled oats have been used by athletes for years.

Oatmeal is a dish that is strongly associated with Scotland, whose environment is more suited to the growing of oats than of wheat. There are as a result many different dishes in Scotland that incorporate oats, not just the traditional porridge. It's also used in cheese, oatcakes, baking, haggis and a variant of black pudding amongst others.

Oatmeal is therefore quite versatile, and can be used in many recipes, such as biscuits or cookies, and not just eaten for breakfast.

National Chocolate Day

October 28th is National Chocolate Day in the United States.

Chocolate sometimes has a negative reputation, due to the fact that overindulgence in it can make you fat, but that depends to a certain degree on the type of chocolate, and it does contain a lot of things that are actually good for you.

The best chocolate, for both health and a reduced chance of gaining weight, is dark, or bittersweet, chocolate, especially certified organic. Lacking the sweeteners of milk or, especially, white chocolate, means that dark chocolate has less calories in it.

Dark chocolate can be a bit of an acquired taste for some, due to its bitterness - especially those high percentages, such as 70%+ - but it is still popular. White chocolate, the sweetest type, is not technically chocolate at all.

One piece of dark chocolate a day can be good for you. A whole bar of milk or white won't.

Wild Foods Day

October 28th is Wild Foods Day in the United States.

Wild food is, not surprisingly, food that is found growing wild, rather than that which is grown in the garden (or purchased from the supermarket). There are many different wild foods, especially plants, that can be eaten, such as beans, cereals, root tubers, nuts, berries, leaves, cacti, algae, fungi and moss. Fungi, such as mushrooms, are probably one of the most well known, and also most dangerous, foods that can be found.

Foraging for wild foods is certainly something that shouldn't be undertaken if you lack the knowledge, especially with fungi. Many wild mushrooms are very poisonous - the death cap (so called because it looks like a cap and will kill you) is extremely poisonous, responsible for the majority of mushroom poisonings, and resembles some nutritious species - and shouldn't be hunted if you don't know what you are doing. There are things such as forager clubs which will help, as well as guides (although these shouldn't be used solely by themselves) and, if you are still reluctant, it's possible to buy wild woods that other, hopefully more experienced, people have picked. Even in the supermarket.

National Pumpkin Day

October 26th is National Pumpkin Day in the United States.

This is a logical time of year to be celebrating the pumpkin, for an annual holiday in which pumpkins traditionally play a large role is just a few days away - Halloween.

During Halloween, pumpkins are traditionally carved into spooky Jack O'Lantern faces, and then lit from within, but there are more uses for pumpkins than simply Halloween decorations. Rather than buying a real pumpkin for Halloween, using it, then throwing it away, it can make more sense to buy a reusable plastic one, and save the pumpkin itself for cooking, although pumpkins used for cooking are usually different varieties to those used for carving.

Pumpkins are versatile, in that they can be used in both sweet and savoury recipes, and most parts of them are edible, including the shell, leaves, flowers and seeds, not just the flesh itself. Pumpkins themselves are a type of winter squash, and another popular holiday that uses them, this time for eating, is Thanksgiving, when pumpkin pie is a popular dessert.

National Mincemeat Day

October 26th is National Mincemeat Day in the US.

There are two possible types of mincemeat. The first is minced, or ground meat, which is sometimes referred to simply as mince. The second, and more commonly used type, and the one being celebrated today is a sweet item.

The earliest recipes for mincemeat, dating back to the 15th century, did use meat in them, but by the 20th century the term became commonly used for the meat free version. Although it is possible for the mixture to contain meat, it is more uncommon these days, but this is how the name came about.

Modern mincemeat is a mixture made from chopped dried fruit, spices and distilled spirits such as rum. Some fruits used include apple, candied fruits and raisins, but others can be included depending on the recipe. These are then bound together with some sort of fat; originally animal, but vegetarian alternatives exist.

Probably the most common dish in which mincemeat is seen these days is in mince pies, a sweet dessert pie associated with Christmas.

National Greasy Foods Day

National Greasy Foods Day is on October 25th in the United States.

If there's a short, one word way of describing what greasy foods are, that word would probably be "unhealthy". Consequently, this is one of those food types that should not be celebrated regularly, or your health will suffer and your weight will increase.

Given the health problems associated with such things, why are they so popular? Well, the simple answer is because they taste good.

Greasy foods encompasses the wide range of foods that are fried and deep fried, in such things as batter and breadcrumbs.

Having said that such foods are really not that great for you, there are ways to make them be better or, at least, not be as bad. Substituting better ingredients for unhealthy ones can make a difference. Olive oil is a good cooking oil, as it is quite a healthy one.

Even if care is not taken, one day a year is unlikely to be that harmful. A lifestyle of greasy foods is.

National Good and Plenty Day

National Good and Plenty Day is on October 24th in the United States.

This is one of the more specific, unofficial and commercial national days, as the sole purpose for its existence is to sell a specific type of candy (sweet).

Good & Plenty are a type of liquorice sweet that is today owned by Hershey. They are cylinders of black liquorice that are covered in a hard candy shell; the shell of Good & Plenty comes in two different colours, pink and white.

The sweets were not original produced by Hershey, but Hershey wound up owning the company that produced them in 1996, and they apparently are the oldest branded sweet in the United States, dating back to Philadelphia in 1893.

There is a similar, British candy, called the liquorice comfit or the liquorice torpedo.

National Bologna Day

National Bologna Day is on October 24th in the United States.

Bologna, whose full name is Bologna sausage, is originally from the Italian city of the same name. It is also called baloney, boloney and polony, the latter being a similar sausage from South Africa, and is related to the Italian mortadella sausage, from which it is derived.

The traditional bologna sausage is made from finely ground pork which has been mixed with cubes of lard. The American variant is required by law to be ground finely enough that the lard is not visible. As well as pork, venison, beef, turkey and chicken are popularly used, and soy protein is used to create a vegetarian variant.

The sausage is quite a large one, and is popular in sandwiches when it is thinly sliced, but it can also be used as an ingredient in other recipes.

National Canning Day

October 23rd is National Canning Day in the United States.

Canning first originated during the Napoleonic Wars, and is a method of preserving food. It was initially developed as a means of transporting large quanitites of food without it spoiling; something that was important for an army, as a lack of food would require foraging from the land, which is both slow and dangerous. The first "cans" used were not cans, but glass jars but, not surprisingly, these proved to be a bit fragile when transported.

The tin can was then invented as a method of canning - which is why they are also called tins, although modern-day cans are more commonly made from steel, or possibly aluminium. The food is processed and sealed inside an airtgiht container, the can. Canning is not a way of indefinitely preserving food; the expected shelf life is usually in the region of 1 to 5 years.

The can opener, which is needed to open cans, was not invented until 30 years later. Originally, cans were opened with sharp implements, such as knives.

National Nut Day

October 22nd is National Nut Day in the United States.

Nuts are a type of fruit that is consists of a hard shell and a, usually edible, seed inside. Botanically, nuts have to have a shell which does not open to release the seed.

In more general usage, the term "nut" is used to describe a wide range of true, botanical, nuts, seeds and even beans. Many foods called nuts, including but not limited to pecans, pistachios, almonds and peanuts, are culinary nuts, rather than botanical ones. Culinary nuts are generally large, oily kernels that are found in a shell and eaten.

Foods that are called nuts are typically very high in many different nutrients, including amino acids, vitamins and fats. Some nuts can also reduce the likelihood of suffering from certain disease, such as coronary heart disease, when consumed. Raw nuts are the healthiest, but they are also cooked, roasted, salted and pickled.

Nuts are also used in a variety of different vegetarian dishes as a source of protein, being used to make fake vegetarian and vegan "meat" dishes such as nut cutlets and burgers.

Nuts have been eaten for a long, long time, with evidence showing them being eaten over 780,000 years ago.

National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day

National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day is on October 21st in the United States.

Pumpkins are a type of squash, distinctive for their orange colouration and size, that are native to North America. They are in season at this time of year, and are strongly associated with Halloween, so one method of preparing them is as a cheesecake.

Pumpkins are quite a versatile vegetable, being used in both sweet and savoury dishes. This dish is, naturally, one of the sweet ones. In a pumpkin cheesecake, the most common method of preparation would use biscuits (or equivalent) as the base, then the cheese and finally it would be topped off with the pumpkin. Cheesecakes are made with many different flavourings and toppings.

Although you could make your own from a fresh pumpkin, pre-prepared pumpkin filling is commercially available. There is a difference between tinned pumpkin and pumpkin filling, though; the latter comes with spices added and is suitable for immediate use, whilst the former is simply tinned pumpkin.

National Brandied Fruit Day

National Brandied Fruit Day is on October 20th in the United States.

Brandied fruit is not a fruit brandy (which is a brandy that is made from fruit) but is instead more of a way of preserving fruit for later use. Brandied fruit can be purchased pre-made, but it can also be made at home.

The two main ingredients are, of course, brandy (an alcoholic drink made by distilling wine) and fruit. Indeed, not much more than that is needed, beyond sugar and water.

Many different types of fruit can be made into brandied fruit, but some are more popular than others. Mandarin oranges are a favourite for example, but others can be used. Those that are tend to be of the softer varieties.

Brandied fruit could be eaten by itself, but it is also a popular topping or as an ingredient in other dishes. Once made, it will often keep for months afterwards, especially if it is in a hermetically sealed jar or the refrigerator. The alcohol in the brandy is what preserves the fruit.

National Seafood Bisque Day

October 19th is National Seafood Bisque Day in the US.

Bisques are a type of soup that originates in France. It's not known precisely how the name came about; it could be named after the Bay of Biscay, or alternatively it could come from bis cuites which means twice cooked.

The dish is traditionally a seafood one, although it can also be used to refer to some similar soups made using fruit or fungi. Crustaceans, such as crayfish, crab, lobster and shrimp are used to make it.

Seafood bisque is a creamy soup made from the crustaceans that is highly seasoned. The original bisques had the shells of the crustaceans ground into a paste which was then added to the soup. Rice can also be used as a thickening agent, which is then strained off before serving. The soup is usually strained anyway, so that the texture is smooth.

National Chocolate Cupcake Day

October 18th is National Chocolate Cupcake Day in the United States.

Cupcakes, which are also known as fairy cakes, are small cakes intended to serve one person, and which are therefore usually cooked in something that will just be big enough for that.

The cake dates back to at least the late 18th century. In the 19th century, there were cupcakes and cup cakes. The former were usually baked in cups, although now individual muffin tins and the like are available, and the latter were where the ingredients were measured in cups (the now-standard US practice) instead of being weighed.

Cupcakes are similar to normal cakes (at least layer cakes, anyway, which are the most suitable recipes) in all respects but one - they are smaller. A chocolate cupcake will typically have chocolate (often as cocoa powder) added to the cake mix, giving them a distinctive chocolate colouration. They may also be topped or frosted with more chocolate, in the form of icing or a glaze.

National Pasta Day

National Pasta Day is on October 17th in the United States.

What is pasta? Well, this dish is intimately associated with Italian cuisine and, indeed, the first reference to pasta dates back to 12th century Sicily. However, the dish itself is probably older, as there are references to similar dishes dating back to the first century BC. Pasta being older is not surprising, because it is such a simple dish.

Pasta is actually a type of noodle, a dish which dates back over 4,000 years. Like noodles, pasta is made from an unleavened dough (being unleavened it tends not to rise when cooked) made from flour. Durum wheat is a common type of flour, but there are other cereals, grains and even eggs which can be used.

The dough is made into different shapes. There are currently 310 different types of pasta known, which are called by over 1,300 different names. Pasta can come in different colours, too. Some pasta comes in sheets (such as that which makes lasagne), but tubes, shapes and stuffed types are also common.

Pasta is an incredibly versatile dish. It's not so much what the pasta is, but what other things you can cook with it - which is pretty much anything.

National Chicken Cacciatore Day

October 15th is National Chicken Cacciatore Day in the United States.

Cacciatore is a way of cooking food that can be used with a variety of different main ingredients, but in this case the principal one is chicken, which is probably the most common variant of this type of dish.

The word "cacciatore" is Italian for hunter, and the full Italian name of the dish is polo alla cacciatore, which means chicken prepared "hunter-style". As well as the chicken, the other ingredients are onions, tomatoes and herbs, with bell peppers also being popular and wine sometimes being used. These ingredients can also vary, depending on what region of Italy the dish originates.

The chicken is seared in a frying pan with olive oil, then removed and the onions and peppers are fried. The tomatoes and herbs are then added to the dish, which is then covered and cooked slowly on a very low simmer, for about an hour.

National Roast Pheasant Day

October 15th is National Roast Pheasant Day in the United States.

There are different types of pheasant but the one that is most widely known is called the Common Pheasant which is, as the name suggests, common in many places around the world.

Pheasants are a species of game bird that is popular to hunt in the U.S. and the UK, although they may not necessarily be legal to hunt all through the year. Depending on the region, the birds may only be hunted at certain times. In the U.S. especially, some of the hunted birds are feral, but others are farmed simply to be hunted.

Roasting, which is a popular way of cooking many birds, is simple and uses dry heat to cook the pheasant. The roast bird would then be normally accompanied by vegetables. Pheasants don't come in a huge range of sizes; one bird would usually only have sufficient meat to provide for at most two people.

National Mushroom Day

October 15th is National Mushroom Day in the United States.

Mushrooms, which are the fruiting body of a fungus, and are sometimes known as toadstools, come in many different varieties. Not all of these varieties are suitable for eating; many of them are actually poisonous, and some are potentially deadly.

Although it is possible to harvest mushrooms in the wild, unless you really, really know what you are doing - or are with other people who know what to look for - it is far safer to buy them in a shop. Another alternative is to grow your own mushrooms at home using a kit.

Mushrooms, which are sometimes considered to be the "meat" of the vegetable world - the vegetarian and vegan meat substitute Quorn is actually mushroom based - are an extremely versatile food, and can be eaten raw and cooked, and different types are used in dishes all across the world.