Food — Page 7

The art of Neapolitan pizzaiolos is UNESCO Intangible Heritage.

The traditional art of Neapolitan pizzaiolos was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2017…

Fugu is a Japanese fish whose liver is the most prized part.

Fugu (pufferfish) contains tetrodotoxin, a deadly poison concentrated in the liver, ovaries and skin. Only licensed…

The Champagne region produces about 300 million bottles per year.

The Champagne region in France has about 34,000 hectares of vineyards and produces about 300 million bottles of…

Umami was discovered by a Japanese chemist in 1908.

Umami, the fifth basic taste, was identified in 1908 by the Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda, who associated it with…

The hot dog was invented in the United States.

The hot dog sausage originated in Frankfurt, Germany, where it was called frankfurter. It was taken to the United…

The croissant was invented in Austria.

The croissant, despite being a symbol of France, was invented in Vienna, Austria. It was originally a crescent-shaped…

There are more than 300 varieties of honey in the United States.

There are more than 300 varieties of honey in the United States, each with a unique colour and flavour determined by…

The Scoville scale measures the heat of chilli peppers.

The Scoville scale, created by chemist Wilbur Scoville in 1912, measures the concentration of capsaicin in peppers…

Traditional Bulgarian yoghurt is made with live ants, which are added to milk to ferment it.

An ancestral recipe from Bulgaria uses live red ants dipped in milk. The ants release formic acid and enzymes that…

Wasabi, the spicy green paste served with sushi, is made from a root.

True wasabi is obtained from the rhizome of the Wasabia japonica plant, a root that grows in specific conditions of…

Pineapple contains an enzyme that digests protein, causing a tingling sensation in the mouth.

Bromelain, present in pineapple, breaks down proteins on the tongue and cheeks. This is why the mouth can feel sore…

White chocolate is not technically chocolate because it contains no cocoa solids.

White chocolate is made only from cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, without the cocoa paste that gives dark and milk…

Peanuts are not true nuts, but rather legumes that grow underground, making them more closely related to beans and lentils.

Unlike tree nuts, peanuts develop in pods underground, classifying them botanically as legumes.

Tomatoes were widely feared and considered poisonous in 18th-century Europe, earning the nickname poison apples, because wealthy people got sick after eating them off lead plates.

The acid in tomatoes reacted with the lead in the plates, causing lead poisoning, which was mistakenly attributed to…

The cinnamon we consume is actually the dried inner bark of a tropical tree called Cinnamomum.

The spice is obtained by removing the outer bark and scraping off the thin inner layer, which naturally curls into…

Chocolate was originally a bitter and spicy beverage consumed by Mesoamerican civilizations, not a sweet treat.

The Mayans and Aztecs prepared cocoa with water, spices, and sometimes chili peppers, valuing it so much that the…

Ketchup was originally a fermented fish sauce called ke-tsiap, which reached Europe through Southeast Asia in the eighteenth century.

Only later did British and American cooks add tomato, sugar, and spices to the recipe, transforming it into the red…

Apples float in water because they are composed of about twenty-five percent air between their cells.

This air is trapped in a spongy cellular structure that makes the apple less dense than water, explaining why they…

Figs rely on tiny wasps for pollination, and the female wasp often dies inside the fruit after laying her eggs.

The symbiotic relationship requires the wasp to enter the fig to pollinate and lay eggs, losing its wings and…

In the eighteen thirties, tomato ketchup was sold as a medicine to cure diarrhea and indigestion.

Dr. John Cook Bennett promoted tomatoes as a cure for various ailments, and the ketchup recipe was sold in the form…

The pound cake got its name because the original recipe called for exactly one pound of each of its four ingredients.

Originating in the eighteenth century, the name served as an easy mnemonic for people who couldn't read, using flour…

Perfectly ripe cranberries bounce like rubber balls, and farmers use this property to separate out poor-quality fruit.

Sorting machines use slanted surfaces and barriers, where good cranberries bounce over the barriers, while spoiled or…

Most wasabi served in restaurants is actually green-dyed horseradish.

True wasabi is extremely difficult to cultivate and very expensive, so most establishments use a paste of…

Ripe cranberries bounce when dropped due to air pockets inside them.

Farmers use this bounce test to check cranberry ripeness, as green or spoiled berries do not have the same amount of…