14 November: The teddy bear story begins, and a bowl of Matzo Ball Soup
On 14 November 1902 Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear on a Mississippi hunt, and a newspaper cartoon of the moment inspired Brooklyn shopkeepers Morris and Rose Michtom to sew a toy they called Teddy's Bear. The world's favourite cuddly toy was born in a Jewish immigrant family's shop, so we serve a soup from Jewish family kitchens: golden chicken broth with matzo balls.
Matzo Ball Soup
United States7.3
Matzo ball soup is a clear chicken soup with dumplings made from matzo meal, eggs and chicken fat. The dumplings, known in Yiddish as kneidlach, can be light and fluffy or dense and firm, a choice families argue about with affection.
Read about Matzo Ball Soup and get the recipe →What happened
Theodore Roosevelt refuses to shoot a bear on a Mississippi hunt; the story inspires the first teddy bear.
Sources
- NPS: Origin of the Teddy Bear
- NPS: The Story of the Teddy Bear
- Jewish Virtual Library: Rose and Morris Michtom
This page comes back every year on 14 November.
Every special day and its soup, in one calendar.
On This Day in Soup More soups from United States