1,165 articles
Fortune cookie
Fortune cookie: a crisp folded wafer with a paper fortune, served in Chinese-American restaurants. Also called tsujiura senbei in Japan. Japanese origin, American invention, rare in China; WWII internment shifted production to Chinese-American makers.
Frangipane
Frangipane: almond-flavored pastry filling of butter, sugar, eggs, and ground almonds, classically two parts almond cream to one part pastry cream; filling of galette des Rois and Bakewell tart, named after the Frangipani family.
Frank's RedHot
Frank's RedHot is an American Louisiana-style cayenne pepper hot sauce first bottled in 1920 by Jacob Frank and Adam Estilette, used in the original 1964 Anchor Bar buffalo wings, now owned by McCormick and mild at about 450 SHU.
French dip
French dip: American hot sandwich of sliced roast beef on a French roll served au jus, invented in early 1900s Los Angeles, not France. Philippe the Original (1918 Mathieu story) and Cole's (Garlinghouse story) both claim it; Cole's closed in 2026.
French dressing
French dressing names two products: a British/classical vinaigrette of oil, vinegar, and seasonings, and an American sweet, creamy orange dressing with ketchup or tomato ingredients; the FDA revoked its US standard of identity effective February 14, 2022.
French fries
French fries (chips in British English, pommes frites in French) are deep-fried potato batons. Origin is disputed between France and Belgium; earliest printed recipes are Parisian (1775, 1795). Global frozen-fry trade ships 10.6 billion pounds yearly, led by the EU.
French mother sauces
French mother sauces (sauces mères): the five classical bases, béchamel, velouté, espagnole, sauce tomate, and hollandaise, codified by Escoffier in the 1903 Guide Culinaire from Carême's four sauces, each generating daughter sauces like Mornay and béarnaise.
French onion soup
French onion soup (soupe à l'oignon) is a French soup of long-caramelized onions in beef stock, topped with bread and melted Gruyère or Comté, popularized 19th-century at Les Halles in Paris.
French toast
French toast, called pain perdu ("lost bread") in France, is bread dipped in egg and milk and fried. Traced to Roman Apicius, named in England c. 1650, popularized in America by French immigrants.
Fricassee
Fricassee (French fricassée) is a white stew of cut-up meat, usually chicken or veal, seared without browning, simmered in stock, and served in a creamy white sauce; the English word dates to 1568.
Fried chicken
Fried chicken: chicken pieces coated in batter or breading and deep-fried, developed in the American South from Scottish and West African traditions; regional styles include Nashville hot, Korean double-fried, and Japanese karaage.
Fried dough
Fried dough: sweet foods made by deep-frying flour-based dough in fat or oil, also called doughnuts, fry bread, or youtiao; defined by dough (not batter), festive origins, and three dough categories.
Fried egg
A fried egg is a whole egg cooked in a pan with butter or oil; styles include sunny side up, over easy, over medium, and over hard, distinguished by flipping and yolk doneness, with FDA guidance of 2 to 3 minutes per side.
Fried ice cream
Fried ice cream, also called deep-fried ice cream, is a dessert of hard-frozen ice cream coated in cereal, crumbs, or tempura batter and briefly deep-fried, popular in Mexican and Japanese restaurant styles.
Fried onion burger
Fried onion burger, also called Oklahoma onion burger or Depression burger: a smash-style hamburger from 1920s El Reno, Oklahoma, in which thinly sliced onions are pressed into a small beef patty, originally a 5-cent Depression-era way to stretch beef.
Frikandel
Frikandel (also frikadel, curryworst): skinless deep-fried Dutch/Belgian minced-meat snack, invented 1954 in Dordrecht by Gerrit de Vries; smooth 18 cm form by Bekkers 1958; ~600 million eaten yearly in the Netherlands.
Frito pie
Frito pie, also called Fritos chili pie, is an American dish of Fritos corn chips topped with chili, cheese, and onions, served in a bag or baked as a casserole; its origin is disputed between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Texas.
Frittata
Frittata: Italian flat, unfolded egg dish, name from friggere (to fry). Eggs beaten lightly with fillings like vegetables, cheese, ham, or pasta; cooked on both sides or finished under a broiler; served in wedges hot or at room temperature.
Fritter
Fritter: a food coated in batter and fried, from Old French friture. Includes fruit, vegetable, and meat fritters, pakora, tempura, and doughnut-family fried doughs; traced to Roman scriblita.
Frozen custard
Frozen custard is an egg-yolk-enriched frozen dairy dessert, legally requiring at least 1.4% egg yolk solids in the US. Also called fresh frozen custard; invented commercially by the Kohr brothers at Coney Island in 1919 and popularized in Milwaukee, the self-styled custard capital.
Frozen yogurt
Frozen yogurt (fro-yo, froyo) is a frozen dairy dessert made from cultured milk with Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, invented in the 1970s as H.P. Hood's Frogurt; lower in fat than ice cream but often as high in sugar.
Fruit
Fruit: botanically the ripened ovary of a flowering plant containing seeds; culinarily sweet or tart plant foods. Includes fruit types, the tomato vegetable question, Nix v. Hedden, and domestication.
Fruit preserves
Fruit preserves are shelf-stable spreads made from fruit, sugar, acid, and pectin, concentrated to at least 65 percent soluble solids under US standards; jam, jelly, preserves, marmalade, conserve, and fruit butter differ by fruit form and additions.
Fruitcake
Fruitcake, also called Christmas cake or plum cake, is a dense cake of dried and candied fruit, nuts, and spices, often preserved with brandy or rum. Known for Roman origins, extreme shelf stability, and holiday and wedding traditions.
Fry sauce
Fry sauce is a Utah-Idaho condiment of ketchup and mayonnaise (1:2 or 1:1) for dipping fries. Also called fancy sauce; related to salsa golf, mayoketchup, Marie Rose sauce. Origin credited to Don Carlos Edwards and Arctic Circle, disputed by Provo's Stan's Drive-In.
Frybread
Frybread (fry bread) is a Native American flatbread of flour, water, salt, and baking powder fried in lard or oil, traced to 1864 government rations at Bosque Redondo during the Navajo Long Walk; about 700 calories per plate-size piece.
Fudge
Fudge: a soft, dense crystalline candy of sugar, butter, and milk or cream, usually chocolate-flavored, boiled to the soft-ball stage (234–238°F) and beaten as it cools; originated in 1880s America, tied to Vassar College and Mackinac Island, distinct from chocolate and Scottish tablet.
Fufu
Fufu (Twi fufuu; also foufou, foutou) is a West and Central African staple dough of boiled, pounded cassava, yam, cocoyam, or plantain, eaten by hand with soups; fermented cassava fufu reduces cyanide by about 91%.
Ful medames (فول مدمس)
Ful medames (فول مدمس), Egyptian slow-stewed fava beans with oil, lemon, and cumin; Egypt's national breakfast dish, documented in medieval Cairo, eaten across the Levant, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa.
Full breakfast
Full breakfast (fry-up, full English breakfast): a large cooked British and Irish morning meal of bacon, sausages, eggs, baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms and toast, with Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Ulster variants, about 800–1,200 kcal, served all day in cafes.