Food History Facts

The Hymn to Ninkasi, a 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem, contains the oldest known beer recipe in history.

Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating!

Vanilla flavoring is sometimes made with an ingredient from beaver pee.

The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old!

Worcestershire Sauce is basically an Anchovy ketchup.

The largest box of chocolates weighed 1,690 kg (3,725 lbs) and was created by Thorntons and Russell Beck Studios in London, UK on April 2, 2008. This record stood for 15 years until Russell Stover created a 5,616 lb box in 2023.

Cast iron skillets used to be the leading source of iron in the American diet!

The Japanese liquor, Mam, uses venomous snakes as one of its main ingredients.

Pretzels were originally invented for Christian Lent.

Pepsi-Cola was originally called 'Brad's drink'.

Tabasco sauce is aged for up to three years in oak barrels that previously held bourbon whiskey.

Frumenty was a spiced porridge, enjoyed by both rich and poor. It was a forerunner of modern Christmas puddings. It is linked in legend to the Celtic god Dagda, who stirred a porridge made up of all the good things of the earth.

In 1956, 80% of all U.S. households had a refrigerator, but only 8% of British households had one!

In 1974, canned food from a boat that sank in 1865 was tested by chemists and was found to be still safe to eat.

Carrots were originally purple, white, and yellow. Orange carrots emerged in 17th-century Netherlands through selective breeding by Dutch growers—possibly as a tribute to William of Orange, though this patriotic origin story may be more legend than fact.

Honey never spoils. Archaeologists have found 3,000-year-old honey in Egyptian tombs that was still perfectly edible.

Milkshakes were originally alcoholic.

The inventor of the modern chocolate chip cookie sold the recipe to Nestlé for just $1—and a lifetime supply of chocolate.

Howard Johnson's was once America's biggest restaurant chain. It had over 1,000 orange-roofed diners selling 28 flavors of ice cream and fried clams. In the 1960s it was bigger than McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC. The chain shrank for decades. Only one restaurant was left, in Lake George, New York. That last Howard Johnson's closed in 2022. Today there are zero left in America.