Why does UHT milk last so long? UHT stands for Ultra High Treatment and it is heated at 138℃ for 2 seconds to kill all the bacteria. All milk you buy in the shop has been pasteurized. In most countries it is illegal to sell unpasteurized milk because of the dangers. Unpasteurized milk can contain […]
#290 Why does UHT milk last so long? Read More »
When did people start eating cereal for breakfast? Technically in the 1850s, but it didn’t catch on until the early 1900s. The first breakfast cereal (albeit hot) was invented by Ferdinand Schumacher, a German immigrant living in America. He used a hand grinder to grind oats that he then sold for oatmeal. The oats were
#284 When did people start eating cereal for breakfast? Read More »
I learned this today. How does a desalination plant work? A desalination plant makes freshwater from seawater by using reverse osmosis. Humans and animals obviously cannot drink salt water. Fish have adapted to be able to do it, but we have not. There is about 35g of salt in every liter of sea water. If
#278 How does a desalination plant work? Read More »
I learned this today. Instant coffee was technically invented in 1771, but this wasn’t really instant. Instant coffee that we would recognize today was invented in 1890. These days, instant coffee is coffee that has either been freeze-dried or spray dried. The two methods differ slightly, and freeze-drying is more expensive. When coffee is freeze-dried,
#277 When was instant coffee invented? Read More »
I learned this today. Hardtack is a dense biscuit made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. It was sometimes called “ship’s biscuit” because it was a staple on long voyages. The word “hardtack” comes from the British sailor slang for food, “tack”. It was called “hardtack” because it was extremely hard. Hardtack is a very
#262 What is hardtack? Read More »
I learned this today. A nut is a hard-shelled pod that contains the fruit and a seed. The difference between a nut and a seed is the hard outer shell. A seed is an embryonic plant. It contains protein, vitamin B, minerals, fat, and dietary fiber. These are all of the things that the seed
#161 What is a nut? Read More »
I learned this today. The first drink put in a can was beer in the 1930s, but it took a while before drink canning could be perfected. The process of canning was invented by Nicolas Appert in France in 1809. He was responding to a challenge by Napoleon Bonaparte for anyone that could come up
#143 When did people start putting drinks in cans? Read More »
I learned this today. Fruits have been preserved as jams since at least before the ancient Greeks. Since the Paleolithic period, people have been preserving foods in different ways. Drying was the easiest way and probably the first form of preservation. Chilling would have been possible in cold climates, but not all year round. People
#121 When did people start making jam? Read More »
I learned this today. Gin was sold from a cat in London in 1739 because Captain Dudley Bradstreet found a loophole in the 1736 Gin Act. Between 1690 and 1751, England went through a period of high consumption of gin. In 1743, it was estimated that people were drinking an average of 10 liters of
#120 Why was gin sold from a cat in London in 1739? Read More »
I learned this today. Bees make honey as a way to store food through the winter. Flowers cannot move, so they need insects to help them reproduce. To pollinate another flower, the pollen from one flower has to reach another flower. The best way for flowers to do this is to have the pollen stick
#92 Why do bees make honey? Read More »
