Today Is National Noodle Ring Day, So If You’ve Got a Bundt Pan, Use It

Today Is National Noodle Ring Day, So If You’ve Got a Bundt Pan, Use It

Among the season’s least known holidays is National Noodle Ring Day, which celebrates a noodle dish baked in a Bundt pan.

By Clare Ansberry in the Wall Street Journal

Among the season’s least known holidays is National Noodle Ring Day, which falls on Thursday and celebrates a noodle dish baked in a Bundt pan.

Some people are unfamiliar with noodle rings or are too busy making other holiday foods like fudge to bother with them. Francine Segan, however, plans a Sicilian version with eggplant, tomatoes, two cheeses and ring-shaped pasta called anellini that is familiar to those who have eaten Spaghettios. The food historian and author of the book “Pasta Modern: New and Inspired Recipes From Italy” observes every national food holiday involving pasta, including National Spaghetti, Lasagna and Tortellini days.

A surprising number of foods, including melba toast, have their own holidays and for different reasons. In 1938, the Salvation Army pronounced the first Friday of June National Doughnut Day to honor the women who handed out doughnuts to American soldiers in France during WWI. A macaroni association boosted its profile with a weeklong celebration and the naming of Sophia Loren as Macaroni Week Queen in 1955. Vegetable roots, less popular, rely on namesake holidays to boost consumption. The Horseradish Information Council, which comprises eight horseradish processors, promotes horseradish month. The council notes that a tablespoon has zero calories and can liven up scrambled eggs.

Today, there are more than 365 national food holidays, which can lead to overlap and, possibly, indigestion. Sept. 15 isn’t just National Double Cheeseburger Day, but also Creme de Menthe Day and National Linguini Day. None are federal holidays, although some commemorative holidays grew out of joint resolutions by the House and Senate and were approved by the president. Dwight Eisenhower declared May 17, 1958 National Walnut Day. Ronald Reagan reserved June 25, 1987 for National Catfish day, for good reason, noting in his proclamation that catfish are a tasty delicacy and that catfish processing provides thousands of jobs. State leaders and mayors create food holidays. As governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger declared January 2009 California Dried Plum Digestive Health Month. To many, that might mean prunes.

Origins of other food holidays, including Noodle Ring Day, are obscure. “We can’t find anything about how it started,” says Stephanie Meyering-Beahan, spokeswoman for The National Pasta Association.

Nor is it clear who picked National Pickled Peppers month. The Pickle Packers International Inc., a 121-year-old trade association, did decree a week in May as International Pickle Week to kick off the summer grilling season and remind people to put a pickle on their hamburger. The association, which has its own official limerick and “Pickle Polka” song, suggests that schools name their own Pickle Days to raise money.

Chase’s Calendar of Events, part of McGraw-Hill Education, has been publishing annual food holidays along with other events since 1957. There were 18 then, including Honey for Breakfast Week. Now there are more than 200. Every year, listings are reviewed with sponsoring organizations or individuals to make sure the holiday is actively commemorated. “We don’t add days ourselves,” says Christopher Brown, publisher for McGraw-Hill’s business and education group. About 100 proposals for new food holidays are submitted each year by organizations, he says, and about 10 to 15 are added. Cassoulet made the cut two years ago.

Chase doesn’t list National Noodle Ring day. State Symbols USA does. The nonprofit website, geared to middle school students, compiles lists of state flags, insects, reptiles, and cooking vessels. The Dutch Oven is the state cooking pot of Arkansas, Texas and Utah.

Erin Kathleen McCoy of Ambridge, Pa., who started the website in her home in 2003, decided to add a national food holiday list because people like lists and food. “It’s more popular than my home page,” she says.

Ms. McCoy likes to document sources, but had trouble tracking food holidays. “It was impossible, so I gave up,” she says. She found two National Doughnut Days and wondered why National Noodle Ring Day and National Noodle Day (Oct. 6) aren’t celebrated in March, which is National Noodle Ring month? “I don’t know how to resolve those kinds of discrepancies or answer those questions,” says Ms. McCoy, who personally doesn’t celebrate national food holidays because, she says, she lives with two cats and two dogs and doesn’t experiment much.

When John-Bryan Hopkins began blogging and tweeting about national food holidays in 2006 on his Foodimentary website, he found about 170 to 200 recognized food holidays on various lists. “I was dismayed by the lack of interesting ones,” he says.

So Mr. Hopkins, who doesn’t sell ads on his site, began filling the empty days with foods he thought deserved honor. He would announce a new national food holiday in tweets and in his blog, along with five facts related to the feted food. The Burmese favor gourd fritters, he noted on fritter day. He claimed Feb. 2 as Tater Tot day. “I was very surprised no one ever celebrated Tater Tots.” Leap Day lacked a food, too, so he declared Feb. 29 National Frog Legs Day.

Once a day makes his list or others, it seems to stick. “You google search. It gets copied and put on another list,” he says. “It becomes reality.” And a teaching tool. TeacherVision, a website for teachers, suggests Noodle Ring Day activities, including “Spot the Spaghetti,” to see if students can identify conchiglie (shells) and other pasta shapes, of which there are 600 at least.

Noodle rings have a limited following, in large part because most modern cookbooks don’t contain noodle-ring recipes. One recipe from a 1936 Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book calls for flour, eggs, milk and cheese. The ingredients are mixed together, baked in a mold and sliced. Later versions add ketchup. Cook’s Blessings, a 1965 Catholic cookbook, suggests serving noodle rings during Lent and filling the hole in the center of the ring with creamed fish or vegetables. Many Jews enjoy a casserole called Noodle Kugel on Shabbat and Yom Tov.

These days, nutrition is an issue for some lists. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Service is deliberately selective with its monthly Web-based National Food Days, Weeks & Months Calendar, highlighting low-fat foods, vegetables and fruits and offering recipes. “We kind of keep to ones people need more encouragement to eat,” says Alice Henneman. On National Bean Day, it offers recipes for black bean brownies, and links to the Nebraska Dry Bean Commission.