Broad Ripple Random Ripplings
search menu
The news from Broad Ripple
Brought to you by The Broad Ripple Gazette
(Delivering the news since 2004, every two weeks)
Subscribe to Broad Ripple Random Ripplings
Brought to you by:
VirtualBroadRipple.com Broad Ripple collector pins EverythingBroadRipple.com

Everything Broad Ripple HomearrowRandom Ripplings Homearrow2007 09 21arrowColumn

back button return to index button next button
Converted from paper version of the Broad Ripple Gazette (v04n19)
Recipes: Then & Now - Food Trivia - by Douglas Carpenter
posted: Sept. 21, 2007

Recipes Then and Now header


Food Trivia

I am, much to my dismay, still without a finished kitchen. Since I am again unable to cook anything, I thought I would write about cooking and food trivia.
Did you know the color of carrots is not the original color? Carrots were originally purple or red, with a thin root. They did not turn orange until the 1500's when the Dutch developed a carrot in the color of the House of Orange, the Dutch Royal Family. Carrots were also the first vegetable to be canned commercially.
A cluster of bananas is called a hand and consists of 10 to 20 bananas, which are known as fingers. As bananas ripen, the starch in the fruit turns to sugar. Therefore, the riper the banana the sweeter it will taste. Once a banana plant produces fruit it dies and leaves several offshoots which are dug up and replanted to form new plants.
Coffee, as a world commodity, is second only to crude oil. In Italy, espresso is considered so essential to daily life that the price is regulated by the government. And coffee beans aren't beans - they're fruit pits.
German chocolate cake did not originate in Germany. In 1852, Sam German developed a sweet baking bar for Baker's Chocolate Co. The product was named in honor of him -- Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate.
When Swiss cheese ferments, a bacterial action generates gas. As the gas is liberated, it bubbles through the cheese leaving holes. Cheese-makers call them "eyes".
The white potato originated in the Andes Mountains and was probably brought to Britain by Sir Francis Drake about 1586. Potato chips were invented in Saratoga Springs in 1853 by Chef George Crum. They were a mocking response to a patron who complained that his French fries were cut too thick.
And now for some one line odds and ends:
Coca-Cola was originally formulated with cocaine. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite. Tomatoes were originally thought to be poisonous. American and Russian space flights have always included chocolate. Frank Epperson invented the Popsicle in 1905 when he was just 11 years old. Fortune cookies were invented in 1916 by George Jung, a Los Angeles noodle maker. Rice is the staple food of more than one-half of the world's population. Swiss Steak, Chop Suey, Russian Dressing, and a Hamburger all originated in the US. The Pillsbury Bake-off has been held every year since 1948. Chickens were first domesticated in Southeast Asia. Plants of the onion family have been used as a food source dating back to about 5000 BC. Pressure of about 135 pounds per square inch is what it takes for a kernel of popcorn to pop. In the mid 1500s, lima beans were exported out of South America and since the boxes had their place of origin labeled "Lima - Peru", the beans got named as such.
Yes, this is all pretty useless information. But if anyone should happen to ask about Swiss cheese holes or banana plants, you'll be ready.



Douglas Carpenter is an avid recipe and cookbook collector. He has over 400 cookbooks in his library and he has published two cookbooks of locally-collected recipes. He has won sweepstakes and blue ribbons in the Culinary Arts division of the Indiana State Fair. Email your cooking questions to douglas@BroadRippleGazette.com




douglas@broadripplegazette.com
back button return to index button next button
Brought to you by:
BroadRippleHistory.com Broad Ripple collector pins EverythingBroadRipple.com
Brought to you by:
EverythingBroadRipple.com RandomRipplings.com Broad Ripple collector pins