10 crazy things about food you didn’t know

July 11th, 2012

This story comes on the back of a blog where we looked at some of the more marvelous and unknown qualities of vegetables.

Did you know, for example, celery can make woman horny and in England, large patches of thyme were planted for fairies to play in?

So what other interesting facts lurk in the kitchen? If you fancy the idea of baffling somebody with your peculiar knowledge of foodstuffs, here’s a list of 10 crazy things about food you didn’t know.

1. Worcestershire sauce gets its unique savory flavour from fermented anchovies – the little fish are one of the main ingredients! Vegans fear not, there are non-fish varieties available.

2. Apples are made of 25 per cent air. This is what makes them float and makes bobbing for apples possible!

3. Peanuts are actually a legume, and the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth is called Arachibutyrophobia.

4. Scallops have up to 100 eyes dotted around the edges of their mantles.

5. In an emergency, coconut water can be used as a substitute for blood plasma. It’s not ideal as it isn’t all that much like plasma, but transfusions have proven successful: coconut water transfusions were reportedly used by the British and Japanese in WW2.

6. Honey is the only food that will never go off.

7. A standard bottle of champagne packs 49 million bubbles and has 3 times the pressure of a car tyre.

8. Peanuts can be used to make dynamite. Wow. Apparently the oil from this legume can be used to make glycerol, which in turn is used to produce nitroglycerin and bingo, you have a major dynamite ingredient.

9. Soup has been dated back to about 6000BC and was first made out of hippopotamus!

10. Moderate drinking can boost IQ levels, according to Japanese research. Sake time!

Keri Algar

Having once had to sit on the washing machine to stop it from bouncing into oblivion, Keri is today delighted with the new (smoother running) technologies that make housework easier every day. A self-confessed lazy-bones, Keri seeks out quirky inventions that ease the human workload, such as the robotic vacuum cleaner (wow). And as soon as someone figures out a Jetsons-like self-cleaning house, she will happily lay her pen to rest and retire from appliance journalism. Until then, her pick is a fridge that will tell her smartphone when it's time to pick up more beer on the way home. Magic.

One response to “10 crazy things about food you didn’t know”

Louise Carter says:

July 12, 2012 at 11:53 am

With regards to #5 – my sister and I once had a raging argument about this one. Turns out it is, *technically* true, (because coconut water is sterile), however if you happened to have saline, for instance, that would be a hundred times more practical.