Food

Where the things on your plate came from. 10 stories, a few minutes each.

1. Why Carrots Are OrangeBefore the late 16th century, most carrots were purple, white, or yellow.
2. Why Honey Never SpoilsWhen archaeologists opened tombs in Egypt, they found jars of honey sealed thousands of years ago that were still perfectly edible.
3. The Inventor of Pringles Is Buried in a Pringles CanFredric Baur spent most of his career at Procter & Gamble developing food storage technologies. He created frying oils, engineered freeze-dried ice…
4. How the Caesar Salad Was Invented in TijuanaThe Caesar salad is not named after the Roman emperor. It's named after Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who ran a restaurant in Tijuana, and…
5. The Great Maple Syrup HeistQuebec produces about 77 percent of the world's maple syrup, and the industry is tightly controlled by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers.
6. How Champagne Was Invented by AccidentThe legend goes like this: Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk working in the cellars of the Abbey of Hautvillers in the late 1600s, accidentally…
7. Ketchup Was Once Sold as MedicineBefore ketchup became a condiment, it was a patent medicine.
8. Why Bananas Are RadioactiveEvery banana you eat exposes you to a tiny amount of radiation. This isn't a concern—it's barely measurable—but it's real enough that nuclear…
9. How Chocolate Became a Candy BarFor about 3,000 years, chocolate was a drink.
10. The Invention of the ForkThe fork is one of the most common objects in the Western world, yet it took roughly a thousand years to catch on. For most of European history,…