1
Popsicles were made by accident when a kid left his drink out overnight. 11 year-old Frank Epperson wanted to call them Eppsicles but clearly history had other plans.
2
There was once a German plan to feed Churchill an exploding chocolate bar but MI5 agents foiled the plot.
3
The first meal eaten on the moon was bacon.
4
Tomatoes aren’t native to Italy, spuds aren’t native to Ireland, and chillis aren’t native to Asia. All of these now-essential staples came from South America in the Columbian Exchange, which also gave the rest of the world corn, cacao, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and loads more.
5
Cornflakes were originally invented to discourage masturbating.
6
Ciabatta was first made in the ’80s by an Italian baker as a response to the popularity of French baguettes in his home country.
7
Most chickens in the States today are bred to be similar to the winning bird from “chicken of tomorrow” contests that were held in the ’40s.
8
Some rhubarb used to be picked by candlelight, and in some cases, it still is. If you really want rhubarb to grow fast you can starve the stalks of light so that the plant is forced to turn on itself for food. The only downside is that you can’t pick the stem in daylight, because the light would stop the fast-track growth of all the other plants.
9
Mac’n’cheese is hundreds of years old. There was a pasta-and-cheese dish recorded in the 14th century Italian cookbook “Liber de Coquina.”
10
In the 18th century, Antoine-Augustin Parmentier was doing everything he could to make the potato popular. PR stunts included serving tons of potatoes at his lavish 20-course dinners, getting celeb endorsements from people like King Louis XVI, and putting guards around his farm to make them seem more valuable.
11
Popcorn has existed for thousands of years. Researchers found old popped corn cobs that suggest Peruvian people were enjoying it up to 6,700 years ago.
12
Lobsters used to be so plentiful in the US that they were used as fertilizer. They’d often wash up on the beaches in 2-foot high piles.
13
Forks were once considered by some to be an affront to God and were ridiculed in the UK as late as 1608.
14
During World War 2, British people made mock bananas by adding banana essence to parsnips.
15
Black pepper was once worth more than its weight in gold. When Alaric the Goth conquered Rome in 410 A. D., he asked for 3,000 pounds of pepper as a ransom.
16
Cocoa beans were used as currency in Aztec communities.
17
European explorers left islands full of feral pigs behind as backup food supplies during their trips to the New World.
18
Ancient Greeks had waffle irons that were more for wafers, technically, but the design was the same in principle.
19
People used to say “receipt” rather than “recipe”.
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