Spamtown USA is the nickname given to Austin, Minnesota, a town full of spirit and community pride. Austin acquired its name from one of its original settlers, Austin Nichols. This town is home to the Hormel Foods Corporation, the maker of the world’s supply of Spam, as well as a variety of other products.Â
Spam, once [...]
Edwin Perkins, the discoverer of Kool-Aid, was a dreamer. He realized his dream of becoming a successful self-employed individual in 1927 with his discovery of Kool-Aid in Hastings, Nebraska.
A well-known soft drink mix, Kool-Aid began under the distinctly different name of “Fruit Smack,” also discovered by Perkins. In fact, Kool-Aid, rather than the powdery mix [...]
Smarter Students: Research indicates that fruit containing lots of potassium can make students more alert. So technically, the key to acing that difficult calculus test, SATs, or GREs could be a handful of ripe bananas.
Hangover-No-More: Drank just a little more than intended the night before? No problem - banana milkshakes with honey rehydrate, soothe a [...]
Here are some facts about the blue crab that are interesting enough to know.
1. Crisfield, Maryland is known as ‘Crab Capitol of the World’.
Every year on Labor Day weekend the town hosts a huge celebration that includes a parade, a beauty pageant, cooking contests and even a crab race called, “The National Hard Crab Derby”. [...]
Have you ever wondered about holiday spices? How are they important? And what are they used for? Can we live without them? Not if you love pumpkin pie, you can’t!
Trading in spices goes back before recorded history. Early written records and letters are full of references to illustrate the importance of spices to our early [...]
Citrus x limon, better known as the lemon is a citrus tree primarily grown in Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Spain, but also is grown commercially in the United States, India and Brazil as well as some other tropical and subtropical locales. The following factual offerings provide a vast array of information about growing [...]
Well-known throughout the world, the McDonalds we know today got its start in the form of a hot dog stand and has come a long ways over the years.
Unbeknownst by many, McDonalds was actually a product of three people: Ray Krock, Dick McDonald, and Mac McDonald.
Ray Krock was born to be an entrepreneur and spent [...]
Who ever says that the U.S. isn’t a place famous for introducing any type of food to the world never heard of the ice cream cone. Anyone who attended the World’s Fair in St. Louis Missouri in 1904 witnessed something historical … if they sampled an ice cream cone.
In 1904 vendors scrambled to meet demand, [...]
I love pumpkin pie, but most people don’t. What is wrong with some people? How can anyone not like pumpkin pie?
So, in place of actually baking such a pie, I decided to see what I could dig up. Doesn’t taste quite as good, but what I found was at least … fascinating.
1. Now for all [...]
It doesn’t take much research to learn that a diet based on fast foods makes one feel sluggish while eating a healthier diet results in more energy and overall health. Some foods are packed with healthful benefits causing researchers to term them as healing foods. The following facts discuss various foods that help ward away [...]
A cookie a small usually sweet portable snack. Every country has is own traditional version. The concept can be traced back to Persia in the 7th century AD.
The main ingredient, sugar, was discovered in Southeast Asia. As early as 510BC soldiers of the Emperor Darius discovered sugar cane growing near the river Indus. The potential [...]
Chocolate could well be called the food of gods and kings. Early Mayan writings record pictures of gods with cacao pods and bowls of cacao beans. Elite members of upper Mayan society had ornately carved vessels depicting these same cacao pods. Chocolate drinks were important to Mayan ceremony as well and used to seal contracts [...]
1. Even though they are commonly just called ‘animal crackers’, their actual name is really ‘Barnum’s Animals Crackers’. The latter is a little more difficult to say (especially with the ‘s’ on animals) so I can see why we’ve resorted to the shorter version.
2. Despite the name, it is reported that Barnum & Bailey’s Circus [...]
The First Pizza
Pizza, in one form or another has been around for ages. The Babylonians, Israelites, Egyptians, and other ancient Middle Eastern cultures consumed flat unleavened bread that resembled pizza. The flat bread was cooked in mud ovens and used as plates to hold food because only the very rich had plates to put their [...]
The Romans used it in cooking before the birth of Christ and garlic continues to be popular with home cooks and restaurant chefs alike - but what makes this humble bulb such a culinary star?
Garlic is a member of the onion family, although it has a stronger and more pungent flavor and smell than most [...]
Think that you know everything there is to know about the old stand-by ….. Macaroni and Cheese? You might be surprised. Even I didn’t know some of this stuff and I’ve been eating it for years.
Could it be that it was the infamous Marco Polo who first discovered Macaroni and Cheese in the late 13th [...]
Some are thick. Some are thin. Most are yummy. Milkshakes are the popular drink of ice cream, milk, and select flavoring. However, they did not always look the way they do today. There are many interesting facts and an even more intriguing history that can be learned about milkshakes.
1. Milkshakes have been around for a [...]
Chips of Cookie History
Quick, who makes good cookies? Hint: it’s a man! “Mr. Christie, you make good cookies.” But what was Mr. Christie’s name, and did he really make cookies himself? You bet he did. Born William Mellis Christie in Scotland (1829), he was apprenticed to a baker at 14. Five years later, training complete, [...]
Did you ever wonder why Henry VIII was forever pictured with a turkey leg in his hand? Or maybe why he was so grumpy, especially with his wives? All you need do is look at the menu of a medieval feast, to find out not only why he was so dyspeptic but why he was [...]
When you eat out at the finest Italian restaurants, one of the first things you notice is that the pasta is perfect, like Baby Bear’s porridge.
It isn’t too soft or too hard; the shape of the pasta holds the sauce the way it is supposed to do; there are no sticky lumpy bits; and the [...]
Introduction
Beside water, coffee is the most widely and frequently enjoyed drink in the world. Hundreds of billions of cups are prepared and consumed every single year in every conceivable country. Coffee has been brandished as a work of the devil on at least two occasions and blessed as a truly Christian drink by the Pope, [...]
Nutella is like peanut butter, except better. It is a chocolate-hazelnut spread great for bread, fruit, crackers, waffles, or pretzels.
It was first created in 1940 by the Ferrero company, now famous for their Ferrero Rocher chocolates.Â
The hazelnuts were used originally as a filler because during Nutella’s first production, cocoa was difficult to come by.
Nutella was [...]
If you’re a shrimp fan like I am this will probably interest you. I was amazed to learn some of these little tidbits and at the least; I can look smarter at parties!
* Freshwater shrimp can’t be boiled because they shrink to nearly nothing. I always wondered why my Daddy never passed a recipe to [...]
People love to see strawberry season! Fortunate people lucky enough to live near pick-your-own strawberry patches make picking a family affair but there’s a lot of things I bet you didn’t know about strawberries that will make these luscious summertime yummies, even yummier.
1. Health researchers say that 7-8 medium sized strawberries are considered one serving!
2. [...]
* In Thailand, giant water bugs are served as a treat with chili and rice. Dung beetles are added to curry to give it more flavor.
* People in Ghana roast and make soup out of frogs that they catch in the wild.
* Sweet treats in Sweden and Holland are not always sweet. These people love [...]
We all know the common uses for vinegar, like adding it to your fish or french fries to give them some flavor. But there are a lot of uses for the stinky liquid that many folks do not know.
White vinegar makes a wonderful window cleaner. Next time you run out of your favorite window cleaner, [...]
George Washington Carver was an agricultural chemist who discovered over 300 uses for peanuts. He made the first peanut butter in 1880, but believing that food was a gift from God, he never applied for a patent.
Before Carver, the Incas of South America made peanuts into an edible paste. Then, Africans began growing peanuts, which [...]
* M&Ms were invented after Forrest Mars, the company’s founder, saw soldiers eating pellet sized snacks out of a long tube during the Spanish Civil War.
* M&Ms were first sold in long, cardboard tubes in 1941. The tubes were replaced with small, brown pouches in 1948.
* In 1954, the slogan “Milk Chocolate Melts in Your [...]
It makes a refreshing brew and is particularly popular with the British, but how much do you know about tea?
Tea is a member of the Camellia family and is an evergreen plant.
There are more than 1,500 different types of tea in the world, including black, green, white and herbal varieties.
Tea was first discovered over 5,000 [...]
Yes, it’s great on a Greek salad and good to share with olives and pita wedges, but how much do you really about this quintessentially Greek cheese? Test your knowledge with these fun feta facts.
1. To be called “feta,” a cheese must be produced in Greece. “Feta” is a legal designation, similar to Champagne or [...]
Sponge cake is similar to angel cake-but different. The recipe for sponge cake calls for whole eggs and angel cake calls for only the egg whites.
During the Renaissance, English and French chefs introduced into their nations’ cuisine something called a “biscuit.” These “biscuits” were the forerunners of today’s sponge cake.
The earliest sponge cake recipe recorded [...]
Grappa is Italy’s brandy. Like Cognac in France or Sherry in Portugal, Grappa has come to symbolize the Italian “joie de vie.” Are you familiar with this potent potable?  Test your knowledge with the fun facts about Grappa.
1. Grappa is made from pomace, that is the stems, peels, and seeds discarded during the winemaking process. [...]
Today, we can barely live without packaged frozen food, but this ubiquitous food staple, as we know it, is only seventy-five years old. See how many of these frozen food facts you know.
1. Clarence Birdseye is generally acknowledged as the father of frozen food. His “Birdseye” line first appeared in March of 1930. The company [...]
Did you know…
• A pumpkin isn’t really a vegetable? It’s actually a fruit!
• Roasted pumpkin seeds make a great snack?
• Before pumpkins were discovered, turnips, potatoes and even large beets were used for carving scary faces in?
• 90% of a pumpkin is water?
• Pumpkins got their name from Jacques Cartier? He reported the discovery of [...]
