When I was a kid, maybe around the time I was reading How to Eat Fried Worms, there was an urban legend circulating: McDonald’s hamburgers were made with ground worms, meaning, of course, earthworms. Circulating since at least 1978, the rumor originally started about Wendy’s but was switched to McDonald’s, since the chain was so […]
Food History
Why Did Jesus Say Salt Would Lose Its Flavor?
A popular question is whether salt ever expires. Cartons of table salt have an expiration date, after all. But salt never expires. It just keeps on being salt, for thousands, and even millions of years. In fact, it was probably sitting in the ground for a couple million years before it was put in a […]
Five Italian Foods In America That are Not From Italy
Italians sometimes get miffed at the unspeakable creations that we Americans call “Italian Food.” We may get it wrong much of the time, but I would remind Italy that labeling foods Italian, while it is sometimes branding, is more often simple love. We LOVE Italian food! Even though we may mess it up, we mess […]
On the False Hindu Origin of “Butter Someone Up”
A quick Google search of the origin of the idiom ‘butter someone up’ provides a colorful but unlikely answer. It is claimed that the idea of buttering someone up comes from the ancient Hindu practice of throwing balls of clarified butter at the statues of Gods to ask for favors. As idioms go, this particular […]
Why Pumpkin Pie is More American than Apple Pie
We’ve all heard the phrase “As American as Apple Pie.” It is true that America really did embrace apple pie and make it her own, but, it’s not really American in origin at all. Kind of a bummer, I know, to think that America’s favorite pie isn’t exactly American, but it’s true. Not even apples are […]
People Thought Nectarines Were a Cross Between the Peach and Plum
From childhood, I thought the nectarine was a cross between a peach and a plum. This is what I was told and this is what everyone believed. I thought it was a relative newcomer, recently developed, maybe sometime in the 1960s. I never was a fan of peaches, except in peach cobbler, but I did […]
There is Nothing All That Weird About the Grapefruit
For some reason, people love to write about how weird the grapefruit is. They make a big deal of it arising outside of Asia. They go on about its novel and strong drug interactions and act like its name is akin to something from an alien language. But, is the grapefruit all that strange? And, […]
What is Toad in the Hole?
Toad in the hole is a British dish of sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding and served with onion gravy. Historically, the dish was described as “meat boiled in a crust.” Earlier versions gave way to meats cooked in a “batter pudding” which may or may not have been classified as Yorkshire Pudding. There are references […]
What Is Hard Tack or Ship’s Bread? How Does It Relate To the Cracker?
In two previous articles, I explained how we Americans started referring to the British biscuit as a “cookie” and the origin of the words biscuit and cracker. In this article, I want to move on to a possibly confusing type of “cracker” called “hard tack” or “ship’s bread.” Isn’t this the same thing as a […]
Why Do the British Say Biscuit Instead of Cookie?
In a previous article, I explained why Americans call the British biscuit (a sweet biscuit) a “cookie.” In this article, I’m going to explain the opposite. Why do the British call the cookie a biscuit? As I previously explained, the word cookie came from a Dutch word for “little cakes” and got its start in […]