If you’ve got an appetite for fascinating culinary information, we’ve got the perfect list for you to devour. Below, you'll find some of the wildest cooking facts Redditors have recently shared, as well as an interview with Bintu from Recipes Recipes From a Pantry, so bon appétit! And don’t forget to upvote the tidbits of information you can’t wait to store up the sleeve of your chef’s uniform.
Credits: benacampbell15
#1
Cashews are not actually nuts- they are seeds that grow out of the bottom of the cashew apple, which is also edible.
Image credits: UrukHaiGuyz
To gain more insight on this topic, we reached out to Bintu from Recipes From a Pantry, and she was kind enough to have a chat with us. Bintu shares a wide variety of recipes on her website, including mouth-watering African dishes, brilliant air fryer recipes, easy instant pot recipes, delicious vegetarian recipes and much more. So first, we wanted to know what Bintu loves most about cooking. "For me, it’s all about good food made with real ingredients," she told Bored Panda. "I love creating fresh, exciting recipes with color, flavor, and a dash of spice."
We were also curious if Bintu had any wild cooking facts up her sleeve. "I don’t think this can be considered crazy, but I grew up in Sierra Leone helping my Gran and favorite Aunt cook meals for our super-extended family. Now that I live in the UK, I love being able to introduce people to foods, spices, and recipes they've never heard of or experienced before!" she shared.
#2
The reason a bit of salt on your tomatoes tastes amazing is because they're naturally rich in glutamate, and they react with the salt to create MSG
Image credits: slogginmagoggin
#3
I didn't learn this recently and it's not so crazy (so I guess this doesn't fit at all lol), but I've always thought it was cute that margherita pizza was invented/named for the Queen of Italy (Margherita of Savoy) and its ingredients were to represent Italy's flag.
Image credits: BittenAtTheChomp
When it comes to common cooking myths Bintu would like to dispel, she told Bored Panda, "I know a lot of people think that cooking is complicated and difficult. But, I truly believe that anyone can do this! It just takes practice and a little imagination."
"I want to get people excited about created dishes from whatever ingredients they find in their pantry," Bintu went on to share. "Understanding how to use an item many different ways and what flavor pairings work together makes it possible to cook affordable meals that are flavorful, colorful and never boring."
#4
Oregano is from the Greek meaning "mountain of joy" and I agree
Image credits: ClementineCoda
#5
Fresh pineapple contains an enzyme that digests protein. If you make chicken salad with fresh pineapple and leave it in the refrigerator, the chicken will start to dissolve and get mealy.
Image credits: tongamoo
And for anyone out there looking for ways to increase their culinary knowledge, Bintu shared, "The internet is full of all sorts of amazing information and advice! I started my site with the goal of making cooking colorful, easy, and fun for all, which is why you will find really easy recipes with detailed step by step instructions, accompanying images, and some videos, so people can easily follow along in their own kitchen."
If you'd like to expand your skills in the kitchen today, be sure to check out Bintu's website Recipes From a Pantry right here!
#6
You know how Hershey's milk chocolate tastes "pukey" to a lot of people? (Especially Europeans who are traditionally more used to high quality chocolate)It's butyric acid, and it is intentionally part of the flavor. Back in 1899 shortly after Hershey started making chocolate, they developed the "Hershey method" which was "less sensitive to milk quality." What that means is the milk would spoil on the way to the factory or in holding, and you would end up with that acidic flavor. Well, people in America essentially just got used to it, especially after M&Ms became part of WW2 rations, and now it's just "their flavor." How they do it now isn't public knowledge but it's assumed they partially lipolyze their milk to produce butyric acid. Letting the milk spoil wouldn't fly with modern food safety laws.
So yes, it does taste like puke, and it's totally on purpose.
Image credits: camchapel
#7
Broccoli is mutant cabbage. It wouldn’t exist in nature if not for selective breeding. That said, as a species it is still over 2000 years old.Here’s another wild one for y’all: More or less every citrus fruit you’ve ever had is descended from the following 3 fruits: Citrons, Mandarins, or Pomelos. The Wikipedia page on Citrus taxonomy explains it well.
Image credits: benjiyon
#8
Margarine used to be the color pink to let people distinguish between it and real butter.
Image credits: fcewen00
#9
When tomatoes were first discovered in the Americas by European colonizers, they thought the plant was poisonous. They recognized some of the plant's features as a member of the nightshade family, and in Europe they immediately thought of nightshades such as *Atropa belladonna*, a fairly well-known poisonous plant. Plus, they noticed that when they sliced the fruits, and left them on metal plates, their juice would eat away at the plates' surfaces. This was actually because of the low amount of acids in the tomatoes, and wasn't actually dangerous to humans.
Image credits: CrazyPlato
#10
Apples are not true to seed. Meaning that if you plant the seed you won't get the same variety of the seed that it came from. The only way to mass produce a particular variety is to graft a branch of a known variety into the trunk of another apple tree. Then that branch starts producing the variety.
Image credits: Who_said-that
#11
The orange is a hybrid between pomelo and mandarin.
Image credits: The_Derock
#12
ciabatta was only invented in 1981
Image credits: fozziwoo
#13
The fruit was named orange before the colour. Before that, the colour orange was just considering a type of mild red
Image credits: bigbagofbaldbabies
#14
Japanese curry was created in attempt to replicate British stew, not Indian curry
Image credits: Prestor_Jon
#15
You can "cook" shrimp in lemon or lime juice. Or both! Just throw them in a bowl of juice and watch them turn pink.
Image credits: LadyFreightliner
#16
Spam= SPiced+hAM
Image credits: margalingo
#17
Mac and cheese was considered a really fancy food at one time, during the start of modern-style restaurants in America in the early-mid 1800s, it was the go-to dish to be served to you in a fancy restaurant (because all restaurants were a bit fancy then) in America.
Image credits: WeDriftEternal
#18
Another etymological fun fact: vindaloo, the Indian dish, comes from the port city of Goa, where Portuguese traders introduced the locals to a stewed pork dish with wine (vinha) and garlic (alho), named "meat with wine and garlic," or "carne de vinha d'alhos." Eventually the wine became replaced with vinegar, and taboos elsewhere in India against pork eventually caused the dish to branch out to all sorts of different meats.Interestingly, "aloo" means potato in most South Asian languages, so despite the etymology having nothing to do with potatoes, many versions of the dish eventually included potatoes, too.
Image credits: BirdLawyerPerson
#19
Palmolive (the soap company) was literally named after the two oils they use(d) to make their soaps. Learnt that at a soap making workshop!#20
The top global exporter of caraway (aka Persian cumin) is Finland, exporting approximately 30% of the world's caraway.
Image credits: premature_eulogy
#21
Fermented horse milk is a beloved drink in Kyrgyzstan (it’s also the absolute worst thing I’ve ever tasted in my life)#22
It was posted recently on TIL that ketchup was originally a Chinese Fish Brine Sauce in the 17th century. then Brits encountered it in Malaysia, and made a mushroom-based sauce out of it in the 18th century. And theeennn in the 19th century, it became tomato based, and finally by 1850 it dropped anchovies as an ingredient and all semblance of its original fish-based existence was lost.
Image credits: TheGreyPotter
#23
Pineapples take around a year to grow. Pineapples are also considered to be a group of berries.#24
Thanks to Kenji at SE, I learned that the direction you cut an onion affects the type of flavor it imparts. So, cutting from root to stem end produces milder, sweeter flavor whereas slicing in perpendicularly will be more pungent (and should also be reserved for raw applications only).
Image credits: 4The_Mare
#25
People often think of France when they hear mention of the croissant, but Austria is the true country of birth for this pastry. Its Viennese, not French! The 'kipferl' was believed to be the spiritual ancestor of the croissant. Was created as a propaganda technique by the Austrians, made in the shape of the Crescent Moon of islam so that when Austrians ate it they would be "Devouring" the Ottomans.So mesay it was also made in Romania around 1683.
But it was brought to widespread recognition by the Austrians and their hate for the Ottomans who at the time were frequently attacking.
Image credits: TheIrishladinspain
#26
That fried chicken was invented in Scotland. To think what they could have done with it if they kept with it#27
You can tell the approximate temperature of meat by comparing its toughness to the toughness of your thenar eminence.Relax your hand, pressing the thenar eminence (muscular pad between wrist and first thumb joint) is comparable to rare. Gently touch the thumb and index finger of one hand. Use the other to touch the thenar eminence. You should notice it is slightly tougher, this is medium rare. Middle finger and thumb is medium. Ring and thumb is medium well. Pinky and thumb is well done.
#28
Cilantro and oregano are cullinary important in Mexico, they also grow everywhere and many local produce shops give customers a small bouquet of one of them as a gift for buying at their shop.Heck even in american English their names are in Spanish because people associate them with Mexico, but the origin of these plants has nothing to do with the Americas but the Mediterranean
Image credits: MadMan1784
#29
Everyone always makes a big deal about tomatoes being fruits not vegetables, but no one seems to notice green beans being fruits all sneaky like.
Image credits: liometopum
