Trivia # 32 : Lasagna

 

• The etymology of the word lasagna is amusing.  It starts with the Greek lasanon which means 'chamber pot'!  The Romans borrow it as lasanum to humorously refer to a 'cooking pot'.  Later, the Italian word lasagne (plural of lasagna) came to refer to a dish cooked in such a pot - flat sheets of pasta layered with minced meat and tomatoes topped with grated cheese.  Soon, the word lasagna was applied to the pasta itself.  
• There are three theories on the origin of lasagna, two of which denote an ancient Greek dish. The main theory is that lasagna comes from Greek λάγανον (laganon), a flat sheet of pasta dough cut into strips. The word λαγάνα (lagana) is still used in Greek to mean a flat thin type of unleavened bread. The other theory is that the word lasagna comes from the Greek λάσανα (lasana) or λάσανον (lasanon) meaning "trivet or stand for a pot", "chamber pot". The Romans borrowed the word as "lasanum", meaning "cooking pot" in Latin. The Italians used the word to refer to the dish in which lasagne is made. Later the name of the food took on the name of the serving dish.
  A third theory proposed that the dish is a development of the 14th century English recipe "Loseyn" as described in The Forme of Cury, a cook book in use during the reign of Richard II. This has similarities to modern lasagne in both its recipe, which features a layering of ingredients between pasta sheets, and its name. However, an important difference is the lack of tomatoes, which did not arrive in Europe until after Columbus reached America in 1492. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in an herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli while the earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources.

Trivia # 31 : Ice Cream

• Ice cream is Chinese food.
• In the early days of television mashed potatoes were used to simulate ice cream on cooking shows. Real ice cream melted too fast under the heat from the lighting.
• French Ice Cream is enriched with egg yolks.
• More ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week.
• It takes about 12 pounds of whole milk to make 1 gallon of ice cream.
• Vanilla is the top Ice Cream flavor in the U.S., followed by chocolate, vanilla/chocolate, fruit and cookies & cream.
• The world's first soft-serve ice cream machine was in an Olympia, Washington Dairy Queen. 
• Haagen Dazs ice cream was created in 1959 by Polish born New York businessman Reuben Mattus.  The Danish sounding name was also invented by Mattus, and the premium ice cream had a map of Scandinavia on the carton.
• Here is the most popular story on the origin of the ice cream cone:  The ice cream cone was invented at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. An ice cream vendor ran out of paper cups and asked a nearby waffle booth to make some thin waffles he could roll up to hold the ice cream.
     However, it is also reported that a patent had been taken out in the late 1890's for an ice cream cone by Italo Marchiony. So, the ice cream cone was probably popularized at the St. Louis Fair, but not invented there.
• 'Neapolitan Ice Cream,' refers to a block of ice cream composed of layers of different flavors, usually chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. (The term Neapolitan is also used to refer to any molded dessert that is made with 3 layers.)
     The ice cream makers of Naples were famous in the early 19th century, especially Tortoni, who created many layered ice cream cakes.
     Natives of Naples are known as Neapolitans.
     The term Neapolitan Ice Cream originated in the U.S. in the late 19th century, and is presumably a reference to the 3 layered ice cream cakes of Tortoni, a Neapolitan.
• The origins of ice cream go way back to about 60 A.D. when the Roman emperor Nero ordered ice to be brought from the mountains and combined it with fruit toppings. In the 13th century, Marco Polo learned of the Chinese method of creating ice and milk mixtures and brought it back to Europe. Over time, people created recipes for ices, sherbets, and milk ices. It became a fashionable treat in Italy and France, and once imported to the United States, ice cream was served by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Dolley Madison. Jefferson's favorite flavor was vanilla.

Trivia # 30 : Parsley

• Parsley were hold sacred by Ancient Greeks. They use it not only to adorn victors of athletic contests but also to decorate the tombs of the deceased.
• Parsley is thought to have originated in Sardinia.  
• Parsley was used to flavor and garnish food as early as the third century B.C. The name 'parsley' comes from the Greek word petros, meaning 'stone,' because the plant was often found growing among rocks. In ancient times, wreaths were made with parsley and were worn to prevent intoxication. Parsley was brought to the New World by the colonists.
•  Parsley seed oil is used in shampoo, soap and men’s perfumes.

Trivia # 29 : Peppers

 BELL PEPPERS

• Sweet Bell Peppers contains 3 times more Vitamin C than  oranges and twice the iron a spinach has.
• Sweet bell peppers can be orange, yellow, red, purple, brown, black, ivory or green, depending on the stage of ripeness and the variety.
• Green bell peppers are fully developed, but not ripe. 
• All sweet bell peppers start out green, and change color as they ripen. (They also get sweeter).

CHILI PEPPERS

• The seeds (of the chili peppers) are NOT the hottest part. It is at the point where the seed is attached to the white membrane inside the pepper that the highest concentration of capsaicin (the compound giving peppers their pungent flavor) is found.
• Pepper is a strong spice often used when cooking bland dishes. This spice gives a pungent flavor to almost any food. Adding a little extra pepper instead of salt to your foods can be both a warming and healthy benefit. Pepper is also said to be helpful to those who have asthma. 

Trivia # 28 : Cabbage

• A cabbage is 91% water.
• The Greek poet, Homer (who live around 850 BC), mentions Achilles washing cabbages, in his epic poem the 'Iliad.'
• Cato the Censor (234-149 BC) mentions several medicinal uses for cabbage, including treating infected wounds.
• Those with thyroid problems should avoid eating large amounts of cabbage or cauliflower. They both interfere with the body's absorption of iodine, needed by the thyroid gland.
• The world record for eating cabbage is held by Charles Hardy. He ate 6 pounds 9 ounces in 9 minutes. 

Trivia # 27 : Lemons

• Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.
• Lemons are believed to have originated in Southeast Asia, and spread to Spain and North Africa during the Middle Ages. The cultivated variety is thought to be a hybrid of wild species of lime and citron. Lemon trees bloom throughout the year, and fruit is picked 6 or more times a year, with an average commercial tree yielding about 1,500 lemons per year.
• Third century Romans believed that the lemon was an antidote for all poisons.
• Lemonade was a favorite of the Chinese Emperors.  Lemons made their way to the United States with the help of Catholic Missionaries and were planted in Arizona and California.
• There are two different types of lemons — acid and sweet. The most common acid varieties include Eurekas and Lisbons. The acidic type is grown commercially and the sweet types are grown mainly by home gardeners. The trees bloom continuously all year and can produce up to 500 or 600 lemons a year.
• Lemons contain 30 to 45 percent juice depending on variety, climate, maturity when harvested, and storage conditions. The extracted juice contains between 4.5 and 8.5% organic acids (mostly citric).

Trivia # 26 : Tootsie Rolls

Tootsie rolls were named after the daughter of their creator.

The man was Leo Hirshfield. His five year old daughter's nickname was "Tootsie" (her real name was Clara Hirshfield). In creating the Tootsie Roll, Hirshfield was trying to create a chocolate that wouldn't melt easily and eventually came up with the artificial "chocolate" candy, the tootsie roll. This ability to not melt easily and to use artificial ingredients that weren't being rationed during war times proved a huge boon for the company as it eventually began being included in soldier's rations during WWII. The low price of the artificial ingredients also made it a popular treat during the depression, along with the tootsie pop. Today about 64 million tootsie rolls are produced every day along with 20 million tootsie pops.

Trivia # 25 : Snickers

The Snickers candy bar was named after one of the favorite horses of Frank Mars, who created the Snickers candy bar and founded Mars, Inc. The idea for the Snickers bar came from an already existing snack that was made up of nougat, peanut, and caramel. Frank Mars added chocolate, put it in candy form, and started selling it wholesale. The Snickers bar quickly rose to being the world's most popular candy bar and has sustained that to this day. Annual sales of Snickers bar total around two billion dollars with about 15 million Snickers bars produced every day, using about 100 tons of peanuts.

Trivia # 24 : M&M

In 1941, Forrest Mars Sr., of the Mars candy company, struck a deal with Bruce Murrie, son of famed Hershey president William Murrie, to develop a hard shelled candy with chocolate at the center. Mars needed Hershey's chocolate because he anticipated there would be a chocolate shortage resulting from WWII, which turned out to be correct. As such, the deal gave Murrie a 20% stake in the newly developed M&M; this stake was later bought out by Mars when chocolate rationing ended at the end of the war but the name remained M&Ms for "Mars & Murrie".

Trivia # 23 : Cookies

• The word cookie is derived from the Dutch word koeptje ( koekje ), meaning small cake. 
• The official state cookie of Massachusetts is the chocolate chip cookie, invented in 1930 at the Toll House Restaurant. (Pennsylvania is also considering the chocolate chip cookie as their official cookie.)
• EEL COOKIES: Unagi Pie, a specialty of Hamamatsu, Japan, are cookies made with fresh butter with crushed eel bones, eel extract, or garlic mixed in.
• The origin of Cookies: Two issues to deal with here. The word and the food.  The food, originated in Rome sometime around the 3rd century B.C., and it was called 'bis coctum' meaning twice baked.The Roman 'bis coctum' was not sweet, it had no sugar added.   'Bis coctum' is the origin of the word 'biscuit,' which is a flakey quick bread in the U.S.,  but in England a biscuit is what in the U.S. would be called a cookie or cracker.
  

Trivia # 22 : Hamburger

• The Hamburger got its name from Hamburg, Germany, a city where a kind of "hamburg steak" made of shredded meat once was a popular dish. 
• In 1921, Walter A. Anderson (a short-order cook) and E.W. Ingram (an insurance executive) founded White Castle in Wichita, Kansas. It is the oldest hamburger chain. They served steam-fried hamburgers, 18 per pound of fresh ground beef, cooked on a bed of chopped onions, for a nickel.
• The Big Mac was introduced in 1968. The price was 49 cents.
• Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers comprise 71% of the beef servings in commercial restaurants. (2001)
• 8.2 Billion burgers were served in commercial restaurants in 2001.
• The biggest hamburger ever served weighed 8,266 lbs. It was cooked in 2001 at the Burger Fest in Seymour, Wisconsin. Hungry hamburger fans can visit Seymour, the "Home of the Hamburger" and site of the Hamburger Hall of Fame, paying tribute to hamburger inventor Charles Nagreen. According to local legend, Nagreen served the first burger in 1885 at the Outagamie County Fair.
• Another large hamburger was made in Rutland, North Dakota. In 1982 the town made what was then the World's Largest Hamburger, 3,591 pounds, which was consumed by some 8,000 people.
• Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, Pennsylvania has offered a 6 pound hamburger, named Ye Olde 96er (6 pounds = 96 ounces) since 1998. It comes garnished with 2 whole tomatoes, 1/2 head of lettuce, 12 slices of American cheese, a cup of peppers, 2 whole onions, plus large quantities of mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard. No one has been able to finish one.

Trivia # 21 : Garlic

• Garlic is a herb which is also a natural antibiotic and a blood cleanser that boosts the immune system. It also helps in keeping the body warm. 
•  Garlic was an ingredient in mixtures used to attach gold leaf to early works of art.
• Garlic and onions are among the oldest cultivated food plants. Their culinary, medicinal and religious use dates back more than 6000 years.
• Garlic is pictured on ancient Egyptian tombs from 3,000 B.C. and is mentioned in the Old Testament, by Herodotus, Aristophanes, Virgil and Dioscorides. It is said to have grown in the left footprints of Satan when he left the Garden of Eden.
• Garlic bulbs were found in the tomb of Tutankhamen more than 3,000 years ago; they were part of the diet of the Hebrew slaves who built the pyramids and, for the ancient Chinese, garlic was a guard against plagues.
• Garlic has medicinal qualities: It contains chemicals that fight everything from viruses and bacteria to cancer and bad cholesterol and it boosts the immune system. During both world wars it was nicknamed Russian penicillin for how garlic poultices were used in dressing wounds and treating infections, especially gangrene.
• People write books about garlic. The latest is excellent: The Complete Book of Garlic (Timber Press, Aug. 2008), provides a complete look at garlic, an essential element in cuisines around the world. Worldwide, garlic cultivation occupies more than two million acres of farmland, an area that has more than doubled since 1970. The book covers everything you ever wanted to know about garlic, from its natural history and its history of garlic in cultivation, the nuances of cuisine and culture, therapeutic benefits, plant structure, how to grow garlic, cure and store it, taxonomy, pests and diseases and chemistry.

Trivia # 20 : Cucumber

• Cucumber is not a vegetable. It's a fruit.
• The cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is a member of the Cucurbitaceae family and is related to melons and squash.
• Cucumbers were believed to have originated in India and spread through Greece and Italy. They made their way into North America agriculture by the mid-16 century. Cool and moist due to their high water content. 'Cukes' belong to the same family as pumpkins, zucchini, watermelon and other squashes.
• Cucumbers are one of the oldest cultivated vegetables, having been cultivated since about 8,000 B.C.
• In Roman times, the Emperor Tiberius grew cucumbers in carts, and had his slaves wheel them around to catch the sun.
• Anyone allergic to pollen or aspirin should avoid eating cucumbers. They can cause an unpleasant mouth itch.
• Cucumbers are about 95% water, and have very little nutritional value.
• Bitterness in cucumbers can be caused by any stress on the plant such as high temperature, low moisture, low soil nutrients, etc. Bitterness is also associated with fruit harvested late in the season from poor yielding, unhealthy plants.
• The inside of a cucumber can actually be up to 20 degrees F cooler than the outside temperature.       

Trivia # 19 : Pineapple

• Pineapple is neither an apple nor a pine. It is a kind of berry.
•  Hawaii produce one third of all pineapples in the world.
• Canned pineapple was known at the very beginning of the 20th century, but wasn't financially feasible until Henry Ginaca, an engineer, invented a machine in 1911 that could remove the outer shell, inner core and both ends of 100 pineapples in less than a minute. The machine is still known today as the "Ginaca machine", and is widely used in canneries
• Christopher Columbus found pineapples in 1493, during the exploration of the Caribbean, on the island of Guadalupe.He brought them back to Spain as a gift for Queen Isabella, who reportedly loved them. Several attemps of growing them in Europe were made, but the plant didn't grow well in cool climates.
• Pineapples were originally called "anana", which means "excellent fruit" in Caribbean idioms, and were later called "pineapple" by European explorers who found the flesh to be like an apple, and the appearance similar to a pinecone.
• Approximately three pineapples are needed to make one can of slices.
• They were so rare in antiquity that they were given the name of "Fruit of Kings".

Trivia # 18 : Spam

• Spam stands for Shoulder Pork and hAM. 
• This ground pork-shoulder and ham product would become the world's largest selling canned meat. It was created to make use of surplus pork shoulder, mixing it with ham, salt, sugar and sodium nitrite. To distinguish Hormel's "spiced ham" from similar products, the company held a contest to come up with a unique name. Kenneth Daigneau, brother of a Hormel executive, won the $100 prize with 'Spam.'
• Spam was developed by George A. Hormel & Co. and first marketed in 1937.
• The 1 billion cans of spam was sold in 1959.
  The 6 billion cans was produced in 2002..
• Spam even has a mascot -- Spammy, the miniature pig. In 1991, for its 100th anniversary, Hormel Foods opened the First Century Museum. The exhibit of Spam memorabilia quickly became the most popular. In the United States alone, 3.6 cans of Spam are consumed every second, making it the number one product in its category (canned meat) by far. On the island of Guam, more than eight cans of Spam are consumed by every person each year.
• More than 60 years after it was first produced, Spam is still enormously popular. More than 6 billion cans have been sold!
• Richard LeFevre holds the world record for eating SPAM by eating 6 pounds in 12 minutes. 
  

Trivia # 17 : Beer

• Beer is made by fermentation cause by bacteria feeding on yeast cells and then defecating.
• Beer is the second most popular beverage in the world, coming in behind tea.
• To get rid of the foam at the top of beer (the head), stick your fingers in it.
• Bavaria still defines beer as a staple food.
• Monks brewing beer in the Middle Ages were allowed to drink five quarts of beer a day.
• The oldest known written recipe is for beer.
• American beer is made mostly by rice, unlike the beers of other countries. This was invented to give American beer a lighter taste and tap into the market of women buyers.
• Beer is a source of B- complex vitamins.

Trivia # 16 : Onions

• Onions contain a mild antibiotic that fights infections, soothes burns, tames bee stings and relieves the itch of athletes foot.
• The onion is believed to have originated in Asia, though it is likely that onions may have been growing wild on every continent. Dating back to 3500 BC, onions were one of the few foods that did not spoil during the winter months. Our ancestors must have recognized the vegetable's durability and began growing onions for food.
       The onion became more than just food after arriving in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the onion, believing that its spherical shape and concentric rings symbolized eternity. Of all the vegetables that had their images created from precious metals by Egyptian artists, only the onion was made out of gold.
       Today, onions are used in a variety of dishes and rank sixth among the world's leading vegetable crops.
• According to an old English Rhyme, the thickness of an onion skin can help predict the severity of the winter. Thin skins mean a mild winter is coming while thick skins indicate a rough winter ahead.
• Pace Foods (picante sauce & salsas) uses about 21 million pounds of fresh onions every year.
• If you eat onions you can get rid of onion breath by eating parsley.
• According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest onion ever grown weighed 10 lbs 14 oz and was grown by V. Throup of Silsden, England.
• Onions represent the third largest fresh vegetable industry in the United States. The U.S. per capita consumption of onions is around 18.7 pounds per year. This translates to approximately 370 semi-truck loads of onions used in the United States each day.
• Maui Onions are golden yellow, sweet, juicy onions grown on the Island of Maui, Hawaii. They are very sweet, have a high water content, and usually weigh about 1/2 to 3/4 pound. Maui onions are usually shaped like a flattened golbe. They are the earliest sweet onions on the market, and are generally available from April to June.  Excellent for onion rings.   
   

Trivia # 15 : Tomatoes

• Each American eats approximately 22 pounds of tomatoes yearly. Over 1/2 of the tomato consumption is in the form of catsup and tomato sauce.
• Believing tomatoes had aphrodisiac qualities, the French called them pommes d'amour (or "love apples") from the 1600s until the modern French word tomate became more commonly used.  
• Tomatoes were thought to be poisonous when Robert Gibbon Johnson brought them to Salem, New Jersey, from Europe in the early 1800s. To disprove that notion, Johnson, a wealthy local landowner, ate an entire basket of them in front of a shocked crowd on the courthouse steps on September 26, 1820. 
• A tomato is technically a fruit because it is a ripened ovary of a plant. But for trade purposes a tomato is considered a vegetable. The identity crisis stems from an 1893 Supreme Court ruling that classified the tomato as a vegetable so it could be taxed under tariff law.  
• The largest tomato on record―a whopping seven pounds, 12 ounces―was picked in Edmond, Oklahoma, in 1986.
• There are at least 10,000 varieties of tomatoes.
• The smallest species of tomatoes are less than three-quarters of an inch in diameter. There are both red and yellow varieties.
• China is the largest producer of tomatoes in the world, producing over 16% of all tomatoes.
• The highest concentration of vitamin C in tomatoes is in the jelly-like substance around the seeds.
• Tomatoes are a natural source of the antioxidant 'lycopene', which may help prevent heart disease.  According to scientists, more lycopene is absorbed by the body from cooked tomatoes than from fresh tomatoes.  1/2 cup of canned tomatoes delivers more than 3 times the lycopene as found in one medium raw tomato.
• The first tomato plants were planted in Greece by a Friar Francis in 1818, in the gardens of a Capuchin monastery at the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (built in 335 B.C.) in Athens.     

Trivia # 14 : Onion, Apple and Potato

An onion, apple and potato all have the same taste. The differences in flavour are caused by their smell. 

Trivia # 13 : Tea

• Tea is said to have been discovered in 2737 BC by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water. 
• Studies have shown that tea can provide over 15% of the minimum daily requirement of calcium, as much as 10% of folic acid, and 45% of manganese (promotes healthy bones). 
• Tea can also help regulate cholesterol.
• Drinking tea is also good for the heart.
• The tea bag was invented in the early 20th century by a tea merchant named Thomas Sullivan. This was done by accident too.
• Tea helps fight cavities.
• Don't through that old tea out! Instead try putting it in the refrigerator to help absorb odors, or use in your garden as fertilizer.