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Posted: 10/26/2006 9:14:32 PM | Just name some interesting food facts:
Well I will start:
Croissants aren't French. Croissants were made by Austrians in which they created a bread that resembles the crecent moon on the Turkish flag when the Turks retreated after having fought the Austrians. Later the French adopted croissants as their own.
The Japanese Tempura (Or Japanese fried shrimp or vegetables) are not Japanese. It's European.
Although many Japanese believe it's Japanese, curry is Indian. Although I prefer the Japanese milder + sweeter version.
The sandwich was first "invented" by Earl of Sandwich the IV, because heloved gambling so much that he prefered to have everything be placed onto a piece of bread and have another piece of bread slapped on top and given to him. So that he can continue to eat while gambling at the same time.
You can bake bread in only 15 minutes from scratch by not kneading the dough, microwaving it, flip it over, and microwave it again.
And finally but not least: No that green stuff that is growing in between your toes are not edible and should not be eaten. | |
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Posted: 10/26/2006 9:22:22 PM | Oh yeah one more interesting food fact:
Regardless of what most people believe..... lobster, caviar nor kobi beef are not the most expensive food ingredient in the world. The most expensive ingredient would be the high grade 1 pound white truffle which is worth anywhere from $30,000 US dollars to 110,000 US dollars. Even the "cheaper" molded poor quality black summer truffles costs $300 dollars a pound. | |
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Posted: 10/26/2006 10:12:47 PM | The most expensive spices in the world are
1. saffron-- something like 21000 stigmas are needed to make one pound-- each flower only produces 3 stigmas-- all have to be picked by hand
2. the whole vanilla bean | |
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Posted: 10/26/2006 10:18:53 PM | Wow very interesting. I never even heard about saffron before. I can only imagine how good it would taste. I think I would just explode and die and go to heaven.    | |
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Posted: 10/27/2006 7:16:29 AM |
1. saffron-- something like 21000 stigmas are needed to make one pound-- each flower only produces 3 stigmas-- all have to be picked by hand
true, saffron is the most expensive spice but you need more than 75,000 stigmas to make one pound.
Here's a little blurb on saffron and the countries that produce and import the most.
The Saffron filaments, or threads, are actually the dried stigmas of the saffron flower, "Crocus Sativus Linneaus". Each flower contains only three stigmas. These threads must be picked from each flower by hand, and more than 75,000 of these flowers are needed to produce just one pound of Saffron filaments, making it the world's most precious spice.
But, because of saffron's strong coloring power and intense flavor, it can be used sparingly. Saffron is used both for its bright orange-yellow color and for its strong, intense flavor and aroma.
Crocus Sativus Linneaus contains crocin, the source of its strong coloring property, bitter-crocin, which offers the distinctive aroma and taste and essential oils which are responsible for its therapeutic properties.
Saffron is available both in filaments and powder, though the long, deep red filaments are usually preferable to the powder as the latter can be easily adulterated.
Today, the greatest saffron producing countries are Greece, Spain, Turkey, Iran, India, and Morocco.
The largest saffron importers are Germany, Italy, U.S.A., Switzerland, U.K., and France. | |
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Posted: 10/27/2006 8:28:09 AM | Food and Superstitions
The ancient Egyptians thought onions kept evil spirits away. When they took an oath (made a promise), they placed one hand on an onion.
The custom of throwing rice at weddings goes back to the time when people thought rice, a symbol of health and prosperity, would appease evil spirits so they would not bother the wedding couple.
In Hungary, salt is thrown on the threshold of a new house because it is thought that salt will protect the inhabitants from evil.
Europeans who believed in vampires sprinkled mustard seed on the roof of their homes to keep them away.
In Japan, during the festival of Setsuben, beans are scattered in dark corners and entrances of the home to drive out evil spirits.
For many years, Europeans have used garlic as a charm against the evil eye. Some wore bulbs of garlic around their necks. Others placed wreaths of garlic over their doors for protection. | |
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Posted: 10/27/2006 9:29:20 AM | Wow pretty interesting. Heh ignorant ancestors!
*Runs around the house placing beans around dark corners, putting garlic on his doorways, scattering white rice on the roof, and tossing onions all over the room.  | |
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Posted: 10/27/2006 11:50:22 AM | | I am sorry, but I have to make just a slight correction in the history of the croissant. It is true that the Austrians were the first people to invent the croissant. From the late 1600's into the early 1700's a woman called "Anne of Austria" was actually called to Italy and married an Italian Noble. She was also responsible for the roux creation used as a thickener for sauces and stocks. So originally it was the Italians who took credit for the creation of the croissant. It wasn't until the late 1700's that the French invaded Italy and brought the idea of this pastry to their cuisine...sorry just had to fill in that blank... | |
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Posted: 10/27/2006 1:25:28 PM | Hmmm didn't know about that part...
So it would be a Austrian->Italian->French bread. | |
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Posted: 10/27/2006 4:50:43 PM | Ok so I love cooking and I love food so I will add my two sense...lol
Strawberry is not a fruit, it's actually the seeds on the berry that is the fruit.....
Buying sliced watermelon is a waste of time, all the nutrients and vitamins (although not a lot) has already disapated.
Tomatoes have more acidity than citrus.
Dates is probably the world's oldest cultivated fruit, dating back some 50,000 BC
Broccoli was is manipulated vegetable, it was crossed bred from cauliflower and leek (I could be wrong on the leek thing but it was a long straight vegetable resembling the leek)
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Posted: 10/27/2006 6:37:22 PM |
Croissants aren't French. Croissants were made by Austrians in which they created a bread that resembles the crecent moon on the Turkish flag when the Turks retreated after having fought the Austrians. Later the French adopted croissants as their own.
I am sorry, but I have to make just a slight correction in the history of the croissant. It is true that the Austrians were the first people to invent the croissant. From the late 1600's into the early 1700's a woman called "Anne of Austria" was actually called to Italy and married an Italian Noble. She was also responsible for the roux creation used as a thickener for sauces and stocks. So originally it was the Italians who took credit for the creation of the croissant. It wasn't until the late 1700's that the French invaded Italy and brought the idea of this pastry to their cuisine...sorry just had to fill in that blank...
The origin of the croissant is one of the great food legends of all time. The Larousse Gastronomique offers this explanation regarding the origin of the croissant:
"Croissant...This delicious pastry originated in Budapest in 1686, when the Turks were besieging the city. To reach the centre of the town, they dug underground passages. Bakers, working during the night, heard the noise made by the Turks and gave the alarm. The assailants were repulsed and the bakers who had saved the city were granted the privilege of making a special pastry which had to take the form of a crescent in memory of the emblem on the Ottoman flag."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Jenifer Harvey Lang, editor [Crown:New York] 1988 (p. 338)
It's an interesting story. Is it true? Alan Davidson, noted food historian, expresses his doubts:
"Culinary mythology--origin of the croissant
According to one of a group of similar legends, which vary only in detail, a baker of the 17th century, working through the night at a time when his city (either Vienna in 1683 or Budapest in 1686) was under siege by the Turks, heard faint underground rumbling sounds which, on investigation, proved to be caused by a Turkish attempt to invade the city by tunnelling under the walls. The tunnel was blown up. The baker asked no reward other than the exclusive right to bake crescent-shaped pastries commemorating the incident, the crescent being the sympol of Islam. He was duly rewarded in this way, and the croissant was born. The story seems to owe its origin, or at least its wide diffusion, to Alfred Gottschalk, who wrote about the croissant for the first edition of the Larousse Gastronomique [1938] and there gave the legend in the Turkish attack on Budapest in 1686 version; but on the history of food, opted for the 'siege of Vienna in 1683' version."
---Oxford Comapion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Companion to Food:Oxford] 1999 (p. 232)
While the history of pastry dates back to ancient times, the history of the croissant [as we know it today], seems to be a relatively new invention. Part of the problem may be how one defines "croissant." Food history sources confirm that crescent-shaped pastries were baked in Vienna during the 17th century and that they migrated to France soon thereafter. They recount, but do not confirm/deny the story of the brave bakers who supposedly created the first croissants.
This is what Mr. Davidson has to say:
"...croissant in its present form does not have a long history...The earliest French reference to the croissant seems to be in Payen's book "Des substances alimentaires," published in 1853. He cites, among the "Pains dit de fantasie ou de luxe," not only English 'muffins' but 'les croissants'. The term appears again, ten years later, in the great Littre dictionary [1863] where it is defined as 'a little crescent-shaped bread or cake'. Thirteen years later, Husson in "Les Consommations de Paris" [1875] includes 'croissants for coffee' in a list of 'ordinary' (as opposed to 'fine') pastry goods. Yet no trace of a recipe for croissants can be found earlier than that given by Favre in his Dictionnaire universel de cuisine [c. 1905], and his recipe bears no resemblance to the modern puff pastry concoction; it is rather an oriental pastry made of pounded almonds and sugar. Only in 1906, in Colombie's Nouvelle Encyclopedie culinaire, did a true croissant, and its development into a national symbol of France, is a 20th-century history."
---Oxford Companion to Food (p. 228)
A mid-19th century French recipe for croissants:
Almond Paste Crescents
Blanch, peel, and pound 10 oz. of almonds; add 10 oz. of pounded sugar, and moisten, to a stiffish paste, with some white of egg; Sprinkle a pasteboard with fine sugar; roll the paste on it to a 1/4-inch thinckness, and cut it out, with a 1 1/2-inch round cutter, into crescent-shaped pieces, 3/4 inch wide; Bake the crescents in a slack oven; and, when cold, glaze them with some Glace Royale, flavoured with Kirschenwasser; strew some coarsely sifted sugar on the top, and dry them in the oven for two minutes."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated and adapted for English use by Alphone Gouffe [Sampson Low, Sone & Marson:London] 1869 (p. 548)
The lesson here is never completely trust the first source you use when researching history, even if it is a standard reference volume. Sometimes it takes a little work to separate the legends from the facts. | |
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Posted: 10/27/2006 6:44:26 PM | check out the food timeline web ... very interesting when and how food was cultivated and used.
http://www.foodtimeline.org/ | |
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