Food TriviaHow did pound cake get its name



Food TriviaHow did pound cake get its name?

A: From the one-pound quantities of the key ingredients (sugar, butter, eggs, and flour) in the original recipe.

What breakfast food gets its name from the German word for "stirrup"?

A: The Bagel.

What animal is the source of the milk used in making Roquefort cheese?

A: The ewe, or female sheep.

Why was the Animal Crackers box designed with a string handle?

A: The animal-shaped cookie treats were introduced in 1902 as a Christmas novelty--and packaged so they could be hung from Christmas trees.

How did the manufacturers of Old Grand-Dad bourbon get away with producing their whisky during Prohibition?

A: The marked the bottles "for medicinal purposes."

What popular drink did a Dutch medical professor produce in his laboratory while trying to come up with a blood cleanser that could be sold in drugstores?

A: Gin.

What beverage did Pope Clement VIII officially recognize as a Christian drink in an edict issued in 1592?

A: Coffee, which had been introduced to Europe by Arab traders and was considered by many Roman Catholics to be the wine of infidels.

In wine making, what is the must?

A: The juice drawn from the grapes but not yet fermented into wine.

What elaborate confection was inspired by St. Bride's Church in London?

A: The tiered wedding cake--which was based on the tiered spire of the church, designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

On what vegetable did an ancient Egyptian place his right hand when taking an oath?

A: The onion. Its round shape symbolized eternity.

How was the dish we know as chicken a la king first listed when it was added to the menu at New York's Delmonico's restaurant in the 1880's?

A: As chicken a la Keene--it was named in honor of Foxhall Keene, a regular at Delmonico's.

What American city produces most of the egg rolls sold in grocery stores in the United States?

A: Houston Texas.

What drink is named for the wormwood plant?

A :Vermouth, which is flavored with wormwood (vermout in French; wermut in German)--so called because the bitter-tasting plant was once used as a cure for intestinal worms. Only the harmless blossoms of the plant, not its toxic leave, are used in making vermouth.

Italy leads the world in pasta consumption with 61.7 pounds eaten per person per year. What country is second?

A: Venezuela, where the annual pasta consumption is 27.9 pounds.

When Birdseye introduced the first frozen food in 1930, what did the company call it/

A: Frosted food.

What two spices are derived from the fruit of the nutmeg tree?

A: Nutmeg, which is produced from he kernel; and mace, which is produced from the kernel's lacy covering.

How many different animal shapes are there in the "Animal Crackers" cookie zoo?

A: Eighteen--two bears (one walking, one seated), a bison, camel, cougar, elephant, giraffe, gorilla, hippopotamus, hyena , kangaroo, lion, monkey, rhinoceros, seal, sheep, tier, and zebra.

How many flowers are in the design stamped on each side of an Oreo cookie?

A: Twelve. Each has four petals.

Under what name did Domino's Pizza chain get its start?

A: DomiNick's.

What European nation consumes more spicy Mexican food than any other?

A: Norway.

What is the literal meaning of the Italian word Linguine?

A: "Little tongues."

What food product, marketed as Elijah's Manna in 1904, was renamed because of objections from the clergy?

A: Poast Toasties cereal.

What name is shared by a citrus fruit and the citizens of an African capital?

A: Tangerine (Tangiers is the summer capital of Morocco.)

What is Bombay duck?

A: Dried, salted fish. It's both a snack and a flavoring used in Indian cooking.

What popular treat did 11-year-old Frank Epperson accidentally invent in 1905 and patent in 1924?

A: The Popsicle, which he originally marketed as the Epsicle. Epperson inadvertently made th3 first one when he left a glass of lemonade with a spoon in it on a windowsill--and it froze overnight.

Where did the pineapple plant originate?

A: In South America. It didn't reach Hawaii until the early nineteenth century.

What was margarine called when it was first marketed in England?

A: Butterine.

What American city lead all others  in per capita consumption of pizza in 1990?

A: Milwaukee.

How much did Weight watchers founder Jean Nidetch weigh in 1963 when she came up with the concept that helped her shed pounds and make a fortune.

A: 214 pounds. A year later, she weighed 142.

What are the two top selling spices in the world?

A: Pepper is the top seller; mustard is second.

Under U.S. government regulations, what percentage of peanut butter has to be peanuts?

A: 90 percent.

Drupes are a regular part of the American diet. What are they?

A: Simple succulent, usually single-pitted fruit--such as plums, apricots, peaches, cherries, almonds and olives.

What is the essential ingredient in a dish that's prepared a la DuBarry in honor of King LouisXV's mistress?

A: Cauliflower.

Under federal food labeling regulations, how much caffeine must be removed from coffee for it to be called decaffeinated?

A: 97 percent.

How many quarts of whole milk does it take t make one pound of butter?

A: Almost 10--9.86 to be exact.

What shortbread cookie is named for the heroine of a nineteenth-century English novel?

A: The Lorna Doone. The novel Lorna Doone, by R. D. Blakmore, was published in 1869.

How much did Americans spend on pizzas in 1988?

A: $20 billion, according to the National Association of Pizza Operators.

Christmas is the biggest candy-selling season in the U.S. What holiday ranks second?

A: Easter--which surpasses Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Halloween.

How much money did American Airlines claim it saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each of the salads served in first class?

A: $40,000.

What is the hamburger we know as the Big Mac called in Russia?

A: The Bolshoi Mak--bolshoi means "big" in Russian.

What was the name of the breakfast cereal Cheerios when it was first marketed 50 years ago?

A: Cherrioats. The name was changed the following year at the urging of the folks at Quaker Oats.

What famous dish was named after shipping magnate Ben Wenberg?

A: Lobster Newburg.  Wenberg, who had sampled the dish in South America, passed the recipe on to the chef at Delmonico's in New York in the late nineteenth century.   The dish was named for him until he was involved in a drunken brawl and banned from the restaurant. Then it was altered to Newburg.

What favorite recipe of her and her husband's did First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy have taped to the wall in the White House kitchen?

A: The recipe for the daiquiri.

What beverage was advertised as "good to the last drop" in 1907?

A: Coca-Cola. The slogan was long forgotten by the time the line was adopted by Maxwell House coffee.

How long would a 130-pound person have to walk at a leisurely pace to burn off the calories in a McDonald's Big Mac? How about a Burger King Double Beef Whopper with cheese?

A: Two hours and one minute for the Big Mac; three hours and twenty-six minutes for the Double Whopper.

What popular soft drink contained the drug lithium--now available only by prescription--when it was introduced in 1929?

A: 7-Up, which originally was marketed under the name Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime soda. Lithium, now used to treat manic depression, was eliminated from the formula in the mid-1940s.

How did the croissant get its name?

A: From the crescent design (creissant in Old French) on the Turkish flag. Viennese bakers created the crescent-shaped rolls to mark their city's successful stand against Turkish invaders in 1683.

What recipe did Texas ice-cream maker Elmer Doolin buy for $100 from the owner of  a San Antonio cafe in 1933--and use to make a fortune?

A: The recipe for tasty corn chips that he marketed as Fritos. He made them at night in his mother's kitchen and peddled them from his Model-T-Ford.

What popular drink was marketed as Diastoid when it was first introduced in 1882?

A: The malted milk, which was first sold as a special food supplement for babies and sick people.

What did the Wrigley Company do to promote its chewing gum nationwide in 1914?

A: It mailed Doublemint gum to everyone listed in U.S. phone books.

What member of the British nobility received a special award from America's National Pickle packers Association in 1956 in recognition of an ancestor's invention?

A: The Earl of Sandwich, whose eighteenth-century ancestor--the fourth earl--is credited with having invented the sandwich. The pickle packers gave the award in appreciation of the sandwich's contribution to the consumption of pickles.

What percentage of the grains used in making bourbon must be corn?

A: 51 percent.

What are the five most frequently consumed fruits in the United States?

A: The banana, apple, watermelon, orange and cantaloupe--in order of their greatest consumption, according t the Food and Drug Administration.

What flavor did Baskin-Robbins introduce to commemorate America's landing on the moon on July 20, 1969?

A: Lunar Cheesecake.

What general introduced chicle--the main ingredient in chewing gum--to the United States?

A: Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, while he was living in exile in New York City more than 30 years after he guaranteed himself a place in American History by storming the Alamo. He enjoyed chewing unflavored chicle and brought it north with him.

What eating utensil was first brought to America in 1630 by Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop, who carried it around with him in a specially made, velvet-lined leather case?

A: The fork.

How long does it take to hard-boil a three-pound ostrich egg?

A: 1 hour and 45 minutes.

A pound of ground coffee yields 50 cups. How many cups does a pound of tea yield?

A: 200.

What popular fruit was named after a papal estate outside Rome?

A: The cantaloupe, which was named after the Pope's summer residence of Cantalupo.

Currants--small seedless grapes --were named for their place of origin. Just where was that?

A: Corinth, Greece. They were originally known as raysons de Corauntz or "raisins of Corinth."

In what country did the Jerusalem artichoke originate?

A: In the United States. Its name has nothing to do with the biblical city, but is a corruption of the Italian word for sunflower, girasole.

What was Charles Elmer Hires originally going to call the drink we now know as root beer?

A: Root tea--but a friend convinced him the name would discourage sales.

What is the most widely eaten fish in the world?

A: The herring.

How long does it take a ginseng root to reach marketable size?

A: Seven years.

What snack food commercial was pulled off the air in 1970 because of complaints from an outraged ethnic group?

A: The Frito Bandito commercial for Frito corn chips.  The complaints came from Mexican-Americans.

Vichyssoise--the cold potato and leek soup--was first created in 1917 by chef Louis Diat. Do you know where?

A: In New York City--in the kitchen of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where Diat was head chef.

What fruit did the Visigoths demand in ransom when they laid siege to Rome in 408?

A: Peppercorns--3,000 pounds of them. Pepper was a highly valued spice at the time.

What ethnic food did Jeno Paulucci make available in supermarkets nationwide for the very first time in 1947?

A: Paulucci gave us Chinese food--under the Chun King label. He later brought us Jeno's pizza.

What recipe--first published 50 years ago--has been requested most frequently through the years by the readers of "Better Homes and Garden"?

A: The recipe for hamburger pie, which has been updated and republished a number of times over the years.

What were guests at the Buckinghamshire estate of  financier Alfred de Rothschild asked when they requested milk with their tea?

A: "Jersey, Hereford and Shorthorn?"

Under standards establilslhed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, what is the minimum a gallon of ice cream must weigh?

A: Four and one-half pounds.

What food product is named after Hannibal's brother Mago?

 A: Mayonnaise--which is named after the Minorca Island port city of Mahon, which was named for Mago.

When was coffee first sold in sealed tin cans in the United States?

A: In 1879--by Chase & Sanborn.

How did the ice-cream sundae get its name?

A: The sundae was created in Evanston, Illinois, in the late nineteenth century to get around a Sabbath ban on selling ice-cream sodas.  It was dubbed Sunday but spelled with an "e" instead of a "Y" to avoid religious objections.

Who introduced standardized level measurements to  recipes?

A: Fannie Farmer.

With whom did the shallow champagne glass originate?

A: With Marie Antoinette, from wax molds made of her breasts.

Who introduced table knives in the seventeenth century?

A: Cardinal Richelieu. Daggers were in fashion at the dinner table until he became disgusted with their use as toothpicks and ordered knives with rounded ends.

What did blind cellar master Dom Perignon say when he discovered Champagne in 1668?

A: " Oh, come quickly. I am drinking stars!"

What nation produces two thirds of the world's vanilla?

A: Madagascar, the world's fourth-largest island (after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo).

What now famous chef joined the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) during World War II, hoping to become an American spy?

A: Julia Child.

How did the Gatorade fruit drink get its name?

A: From the University of Florida football team--the Gators--after the team tested it.

Why did candy maker Milton S. Hershey switch from making caramels to chocolate bars in 1903?

A: Caramels didn't retain the imprint of his name in summertime; chocolate did.

What fruits were crossed to produce the nectarine?

A: None. The nectarine is a smooth-skinned variety of peach, and not--as many people believe--a cross between a peach and a plum.

What was used to make the coffee substitute given to American soldiers during World War II?

A: Peanuts.  It was one of hundreds of peanut by-products developed by Tuskegee University scientist George Washington Carver.

What food product was discovered because of a long camel ride?

A: Cottage cheese. An Arab trader found that milk he was carrying in a goatskin bag had turned into tasty solid white curds.

What does cookbook author Julia Child claim is "so beautifully arranged on the plate--you know someone's fingers have been all over it"?

A: Nouvelle cuisine.

The peanut isn't a nut. What is it?

A: A legume-- a member of the pea family.

Where were the first frankfurters sold in the United States?

A: At Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York, in 1871. They were made by Charles Feltmann, a butcher from Frankfurt, Germany.

Wild rice isn't rice. What is it?

A: A coarse, annual grass native to shallow, marshy lakes and streams.

Who is credited with having invented the Manhattan cocktail, a combination of sweet vermouth and rye whiskey?

A: Winston Churchill's Brooklyn-born mother, Jennie Jerome.

For over fifty years, Ann Turner Cook's portrait has been the symbol for what  well-known food product?

A: Gerber's baby food.

What part of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner is the merrythought?

A: The wishbone of the turkey.

What is the name of the evergreen  shrub from which we get capers?

A: The caper; or caper bush.

What is the largest fruit crop on earth?

A: Grapes, followed by bananas

What is the official state beverage of  Massachusetts?

A: Cranberry juice. The state's cranberry crop is the nation's largest.

What food product overtook ketchup as the top-selling condiment in the United States in 1991?

A: Salsa.

What fruit was originally named the Chinese gooseberry?

A: The kiwi.

What common salad ingredient belongs to the aster family?

A: Lettuce.

What is Danish pastry known as in Denmark?

A: Vienna bread--Wienerbrod, in Danish.

What is the only essential vitamin not found in the white potato?

A: Vitamin A.

Under federal guidelines, how mulch alcohol can there be in beer labeled "non-alcoholic"?

A: Up to .4999 percent.

What delicacy is named for the city of Cheriton, Virginia?

A: The cherrystone clam (the town was originally known as cherry Stones).

What is the Asiatic cordial kumiss made from?

A: Fermented mare's or cow's milk.

Under U.S. Agriculture Department guidelines, what percentage of a meatball has to be meat?

A: At least 65 percent.

What popular lunch and snack food did an unidentified St. Louis doctor develop in 1890 for patients requiring an easily digested form of protein?

A: Peanut butter.  Five years later, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg filed for  a patent for the "process of preparing nut meal"--a spread of steamed peanuts that was not very popular with patients at his Battle Creek, Michigan, sanitarium.

What do Eskimos use to prevent their food from freezing?

A: Refrigerators.

What animal's milk is used to make authentic Italian mozzarella cheese?

A: The water buffalo's.

What is the worlds\'s largest herb?

A: The banana.

If you order the 5 Bs for dinner in New England, what will you  be served?

A: Boston baked beans and brown bread.

In the world of food, what is pluck?

A: An animal's heart, liver and lungs.

What is a cluster or bunch of bananas called?

A: A hand. Individual bananas are known as fingers.

What part of the orange is the albedo?

A: The bitter-tasting white tissue that makes the peel stick to the skin.

What is the BRAT diet?

A: A diet of bananas, rice, applesauce and toast that's often prescribed for infants with diarrhea.

Why are canned herring called sardines?

A: The canning process for herring was developed in Sardinia, and the fish were first canned there.

Who introduced the gin and lime juice cocktail we know as the gimlet?

A: Sir T.O. Gimlette, a British naval surgeon at the turn of the century who believed that drinking strait gin was unhealthy and impaired the efficiency of naval officers=so he began diluting it with lime juice.

What would you get if you ordered a Mae West in a diner?

A: A figure-eight cruller.

Which fruit has a variety known as Winter Banana?

A: The apple.

Which is the only U.S. state to produce coffee?

A: Hawaii.

What part of the strawberry plant is the true fruit?

A: The seed.  The delicacy that we eat and call the fruit is actually the swollen end of the stem called a drupe.

What percentage of whole milk is water?

A: 87 percent.

How many kernels of durum wheat are used to make a pound of pasta?

A: Approximately 16,550.

What part of the banana is used to make banana oil?

A: No part. Banana oil, a synthetic compound made with amyl alcohol is named for its banana-like aroma. It is used primarily as a paint solvent and in artificial flavoring.

From what part of the cinnamon tree do we get the spice?

A: The inner bark of young wood.

According to U.S. Agriculture Department grading regulations how many ounces must a dozen "jumbo" eggs weigh?

A :Thirty ounces.

Black-eyed peas are not peas.  What are they?

A: Beans.

What product was introduced in Japanese supermarkets after a survey showed half the country's young people weren't able to use chopsticks?

A: Trainer chopsticks, with loops to show users where to put their fingers.

The pretzel shape was created by French monks in 610A.D.. What was it designed to resemble?

A : A little child's arms in prayer.

What American brewery was the first to market beer in a bottle?

A: F & M Schaefer.

Two states have official beverages. Florida's is orange juice. What's the other state and its beverage?

A: Ohio, tomato juice.

In 1867 Emperor Napoleon III had a chemist develop a food product "for the army, navy, and the needy classes of the population." what was it?

A: Margarine.

The father f what American poet invented Peppermint Life Savers?

A: Hart Crane; his father's name was Clarence.

In cooking, how many drops to a teaspoon?

A: Sixty.

Who invented evaporated milk in 1853?

A: Gail Borden, who went on to invent a variety of juice concentrates and became known as "the father of the instant food industry."

What was the first of H.J. Heinz'"57 varieties"?

A: Horseradish, marketed in 1869.

What flavor ice cream did Dolly Madison serve at the inaugural festivities in 1812?

A: Strawberry.

Where was the first automated fortune cookie machine manufactured?

A: In Japan, for Los Angeles' Hong Kong Noodle Co., which first introduced cookies with messages (written by a Presbyterian minister) in 1918.

How many pounds of roasted, ground coffee does one coffee tree yield annually?

A: Just one.

What does the word "pizza" mean in Italian?

A: Pie, which makes the phrase "pizza pie" redundant.

Who said: "Never eat more than you can lift"?

A: Miss Piggy.

Where does the name "Sanka" come from?

A: Sans caffeine, French for without caffeine.

What does VVSOP mean on a cognac bottle?

A : Very Very Superior Old Pale.

What was the drink we know as the Bloody Mary originally called?

A: The Red Snapper, which was its name when it crossed the Atlantic from Harry's New York Bar in Paris.

What product did Mother Nature personified endorse in a television commercial, and who played the role?

A: Chiffon Margarine; Dena Dietrich played Mother Nature.

What is the traditional food served a Wimbledon each year?

A: Strawberries and cream.

Who originally coined the phrase that has been appropriated as the slogan for Maxwell House coffee; "Good to the last drop"?

A: President Theodore Roosevelt.

Who first developed frozen foods?

A: Clarence Birdseye, in 1930.

What was the first commercially-manufactured breakfast cereal?

A: Shredded Wheat, made by Henry Perky in 1882.

How tall is gourmet cook Julia Child?

A: 6 foot 2 inches.

What is the name of the dog on the crackerjack box?

A: Bingo.

Cleopatra used the juice of what common salad ingredient to preserve her skin?

A: Cucumber, which is still used in the skin care--in facial creams, lotions and cleansers.

What seeds are used to flavor the Scandinavian liquor aquavit?

A: Caraway seeds.

How many lemons does the average lemon tree yield per year?

A: 1,500. The trees usually bloom throughout the year, with the fruit picked 6 to 10 times a year.

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