The first ever airline meal was served in 1919 on a Handley-Page flight from London to Paris. Selections at the time typically included cold fried chicken, fruit salads, and sandwiches […]
Category: posts
Swedish engineer invents the juice box
Ruben Rausing, a Swedish native, graduated from Columbia University in New York City with a master’s degree in engineering. While in America, he observed that self-service grocery stores were stocked […]
California postman discovered the Hass avocado
California postman Rudolph Hass brought back some some avocado seedlings to his home in southern California in 1926 and planted them in his garden. One that wouldn’t bear fruit he […]
When Norway introduced salmon sushi to Japan
The Norwegian farmed salmon industry had a big problem in the 1980s: a huge surplus of salmon which it even tried unsuccessfully to sell to Japan to use in sushi. […]
Sealing fruit with coatings like wax goes back more than 900 years
For more than 900 years, people have been coating their fruits and vegetables to preserve them and make them more attractive. “In 16th-century England, people used a method called larding: […]
Hard apple cider a symbol in 1840s of simpler frontier life
Americans, troubled by the economic malaise that had fallen upon the country in 1837, embraced a nostalgia for a simpler time when their fates were not tied to mysterious market […]
Ketchup revolutionized way food is grown, processed and regulated in the U.S.
U.S. companies began mass-producing tomato ketchup in the late 19th century. Food scientists at H.J. Heinz Company in Pittsburgh developed a balance of sweet, sour, and salty flavor that was […]
Eleanor Roosevelt does TV commercial for margarine
Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, 75, appeared in a television commercial for Good Luck brand margarine in 1959. She was paid $35,000 (equivalent to more than a quarter million dollars […]
The chicken experiment that radically changed meat production
On Christmas Day in 1948, 42-year-old biochemist Thomas Jukes came into work to weigh the chickens in his feeding experiment and discovered something unusual. The 25-day chicks fed the highest […]
Did the introduction of iodized salt raise IQs by 15 points in the U.S. Goiter Belt?
Did IQ scores go up for some men after the introduction of iodized salt in 1924? Researchers analyzed data from World War I and World War II to try to […]