Category: food facts

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People Are Surprised About Where Cashews Really Come from

Prepare to be deeply confused and a little scared about where cashews come from. The truth is so weird that people on Twitter can’t stop talking about it.

First of all, these delicious nuts grow on trees. That in itself is not so surprising, as many types of nuts grow on trees—but it’s not the weirdest part by far.

Nope, that would be the fact that they grow from these things.

Excuse me, is that a nut or a monster?! I don’t know anymore.

That apple-looking thing is apparently called a “cashew apple,” which grows from the branches of the cashew tree. The shell below the apple contains the actual cashew.

To get to the nut, you have to pick the entire thing, cashew apple included, from the branch. Then you pull off the shelled nut, dry it, steam it, freeze it, and boil it to remove the shell. The shell is filled with caustic acid, so this is no joke—in fact, the extracting the nut is so grueling and dangerous that picking cashews is sometimes used as penal work in south- and southeast Asia where they grow.

Cashews are delicious and healthy, but are they really worth all this effort? Whose idea was this, anyway?

People on Twitter are understandably freaking out about the news.

“Who knew cashews look like angry, old men yelling at you to get off their lawn as they grow?” one user wrote.

Others pointed out that the middle cashew in this photo looks like it has a face.

FYI, you can eat cashew apples, too. The flesh is quite bitter, though, so it’s best to process it for jam or juice.

Now, excuse me while I go have nightmares about cashews for the rest of my life.

The post People Are Surprised About Where Cashews Really Come from appeared first on UberFacts.

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14 Interesting Facts About Food That Might Surprise You

Digging into the history of any topic can unearth interesting facts. Don’t believe me? The proof is in the pudding (and maybe in facts about pudding!), and these 14 tidbits have fun and interesting in spades!

Fair warning, though – the images and information below are bound to make you hungry, so please, make sure your mixer is in working order before digging in.

14. The famous Tollhouse Cookies weren’t exactly planned.

In 1930, Ruth Wakefield ran the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts. She was baking cookies and decided to add semi-sweet chocolates, expecting them to melt and make the cookies chocolate.

It didn’t, and people loved the chocolate chunks in the cookies; Wakefield eventually sold the recipe and rights to Nestle.

13. Graham crackers are meant to reduce sexual urges.

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In the 1800s, graham cracker inventor Reverence Sylvester Graham preached that a bland diet could quiet those pesky sexual urges.

12. All of your favorite vegetables come from the same plant.

Brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlarabi all come from the Brassica oleracea plant, which has been selectively bred over the past century to give us yummy vegetables.

11. Chocolate cake used to be mahogany cake.

The first chocolate cake in America dates back to the 1800s, and early versions used ermine frosting, a popular whipped buttercream.

Try it for yourself, here.

10. No one meant to invent popsicles.

In 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson left his cup of soda – complete with a stir stick – on his back porch overnight.

He (and his friends) loved it, and later in life he patented the Popsicle.

9. Boston once suffered a molasses flood.

In 1919, a storage tank that held more than 2 million gallons of molasses exploded and flooded the Boston streets, crushing buildings, killing 21 people, and injuring around 150 more.

8. Vogue wanted you to diet eating only wine and eggs in the 1970s.

You definitely should not try this wine-and-eggs diet.

It encouraged women to eat nothing but eggs, white wine, steak, and black coffee for three days straight.

Basically, fuck you 70s Vogue. Jeezus…

7. The first meal on the moon included a side of bacon.

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#Bacon

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Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ate bacon, peaches, sugar cookie cubes, pineapple grapefruit drink, and coffee in 1969.

6. McDonald’s gave onion nuggets a try before chicken ones took over the menu.

In the late 1970s, Onion Nuggets were tested in a few markets, but weren’t popular enough to make the nationwide menu.

A few years later, they found a winner with chicken nuggets.

5. Pez were invented to help people stop smoking.

The tiny candies were marketed as anti-smoking mints – Pez is a shortened version of the German word Pfefferminz, or Peppermint, and the original flavor was mint.

4. This omelet was concocted during the Gold Rush.

One of the earliest examples of native California cuisine was the Hangtown fry – an omelet made of eggs, oysters, and bacon – that was concocted during the gold rush.

3. The first St. Louis gooey butter cake was a mistake.

If you haven’t been to St. Louis and tried their gooey butter cake, well…you need to rectify that. The favorite can be traced back to the 1930s, and emerged when a local baker mistakenly added too much butter to his coffee cake recipe.

A happy accident!

You can make it at home if you don’t want to travel.

2. Carrots are meant to be purple.

Our carrots are only orange because Dutch growers have been cultivating mutated versions of the purple carrot since the late 17th century.

1. George Washington feasted on carrot cake to celebrate winning the war.

As the British were leaving the former colonies with their tailcoats between their legs, General Washington was nomming some carrot cake (sans frosting) at the still-standing Fraunces Tavern in NYC.

I don’t know about you, but I feel smarter (and hungrier) already!

Did you learn anything new? Did we miss something amazing? Tell us about it in the comments!

The post 14 Interesting Facts About Food That Might Surprise You appeared first on UberFacts.

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10 Interesting Food Facts That You Should Know

You might think you know A TON about food, there’s always something new to learn, right? Right!

So let’s take a look at 10 food facts that you might not be aware of.

1. That’s kind of gross…

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IT’S FINALLY FRYDAY 🍟

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The fries at McDonald’s were cooked in beef fat until 1990. They’re now cooked in vegetable oil to be at least a little bit healthier.

2. Wow, that’s cool.

Glass gem corn exists. A farmer in Oklahoma named Carl Barnes spent years selectively breeding corn to come up with these beauties. Now anyone can buy and plant these cobs.

3. That’s a head-scratcher.

German chocolate cake actually didn’t originate in Germany—it got its name from Sam German, a guy who invented a certain kind of baking chocolate. The first recipe for German chocolate cake was written by a homemaker in Texas.

4. Wait a second…

Hawaiian pizza wasn’t invented in Hawaii.

It originally came from…wait for it…Canada.

5. This one blew my mind.

Spam is a mashup of the words “spice” and “ham.”

6. Say it ain’t so!

Most wasabi is just horseradish dyed green…and now I’m upset.

7. That’s a loooooong time.

Pineapples can take two to three years to grow. You’ve come a long way baby.

8. Samesies.

Fresh coriander and cilantro are the same thing.

9. Load up on ’em!

Peppers have two to three times as much Vitamin C than oranges, depending on the color.

10. That’s what you can call it.

A single spaghetti noodle is called a spaghetto—an ‘i’ at the end of an Italian word indicates a plural masculine noun, and the singular is usually the same word, just ending in an ‘o.’

Did you learn some new things? Share some of your favorite food facts in the comments!

The post 10 Interesting Food Facts That You Should Know appeared first on UberFacts.

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15 Interesting Food Facts to Chew On

Are you a foodie? Or at least think you are? Think you know the ins-and-outs of what we stuff in our faces every day?

Well, if so, you should definitely keep reading because these food facts are jam-packed with information you might be totally in the dark about, foodie or not.

Read on, friends.

1. Peppers

A chipotle pepper is simply a dried and smoked jalapeño. In fact, all dried chiles have different names than their fresh counterparts.

2. I knew it!

Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish both have the same base.

3. A little short

Double Stuf Oreos DO NOT have twice the creme filling. In fact, a curious math teacher discovered that the Double Stufs only have 1.86x the creme as the original cookies, to be extremely precise.

4. Always listen to all of your employees

Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were invented by a janitor who worked at the Frito-Lay plant.

5. Now it all makes sense

Spam is named for a combination of “spice” and “ham.”

6. Delish!

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Share your break this #WorldFriendshipDay 👯‍♀️

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Kit Kats are filled…with other broken Kit Kats.

7. Not too much, now

Rhubarb leaves are poisonous…so if you’re growing it in your garden, beware. And make sure your kids don’t get into it, too.

8. Four shapes

McDonald’s nuggets come in four distinct shapes: Bell, Bone, Boot, and Ball.

9. Which one’s which?

Bananas are technically berries, while technically strawberries are not berries.

10. For all time

Honey never goes bad. EVER. So tuck that away into your apocalypse-prepper brain…

11. Pounds for days

Pound cake got its name because the original recipe contained one pound of each ingredient.

12. Quite an impressive plant

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My dazzling blue kale is nearly a yard long from end to end. (30" actual size) this is what happens if you give the plant everything it needs including proper water, soil, weather, trace minerals, beneficial fungi, beneficial bacteria, and organic matter. I strive to have every one of my plant babies to thrive like this. I'm not there yet.. Thriving plants make for thriving people. Eat more thriving nutrient dense plants. Learn how I grow my thriving plants on my YouTube channel. Link on profile page. #dazzlingkale #dazzlingbluekale #lacinatokale #dinokale #dinosaurkale #tuscankale #brassicaoleracea #nutrientdense #nutritarian #growingyourgreens #backyardgardening #organicgardening #organicgarden #growyourown #growyourownfood #homegrown #bigkale #largekale #hugekale #eatkale #kale #kaleme

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Kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi all come from the same plant. It’s called Brassica oleracea, and it’s been bred over time to provide a literal half dozen different veggies for your plate.

13. Straight up

Asparagus grows straight up out of the ground.

14. Gimme the big guns

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Since 1896! #TootsieRoll

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Tootsie Rolls start out as huge 13-pound logs that are shaped down to their little sizes.

15. That’s the difference

The difference between jam and jelly is thus: jam is made with fruit; jelly is made with fruit juice.

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