Stories

1 – The Sandwich

One of the most famous food origin stories is that of the sandwich. You’ve probably already heard it – In the late 1700′s during a late night game of cribbage, the Earl of Sandwich called for a snack. His hired help returned with a slice of beef held between two slices of bread – and that is where we get the term midnight snack  sandwich from. While he (or his staff) may not have been the first to think of this combination, the name certainly stuck.

Interestingly, the game of cards being played is said to have been ‘cribbage’, or ‘crib’ for short. In my home town in the mines, crib is also a short name for:

- a scheduled meal break during a shift
- a meal eaten during a break
- the card game of cribbage
- the act of taking a nap

So it is entirely possible to say ‘At crib, after we had some crib, we played some crib, then had a crib’ and it will actually make sense to some.

2 – The Pasty

Similar to the above anecdote, the humble pasty, or pastie depending on where you are from, also has its origin down in the mines.  The traditional Cornish Pasty gets its name from, funnily enough, Cornwall in England. In order to have a hot meal while deep down in the tin mines of the 1700′s, the miners would have a decent meat and three veg meal concealed on their person. The meat and diced vegetables would be held together by a thick crust – which meant the meal was kept warm (and some say kept the miners warm too), and would allow them to eat the contents while hanging on to the crust, which would then be discarded. Throwing some of the crust away was very important too – it was said to please the ‘Knockers’, the ghosts of dead miners that haunt their former workplace.

3 – Potato Chips

Shaved potato recipes have existed for centuries, but one popular story stands out in bringing them to the mainstream.

Those crunchy recess time snacks have their origin in New York. The story goes that in Saratoga Springs 1853, Hotel chef George Crum got fed up with a diner continually sending his fried potatoes back saying they were too thick and soggy. To teach the diner a lesson, Crum cut the potatoes as thinly as possible, and then topped with far too much salt – that’ll show ‘em! However, this hit the spot for the customer and became something of a trade mark for the restaurant known as “Saratoga Chips”.

Since then, chips have been packaged and sold the world over in a variety of flavours – including wasabi flavoured chips in Japan, paprika in Germany, mayonnaise in Columbia, and Worcestershire Sauce in South Africa, just to name a few.

4 – Coke

Numerous rumours, myths and legends surround Coca-Cola. So many in fact that popular internet debunking site Snopes dedicates an entire page to the truths and lies about the product and the brand that have probably come across your inbox over the years.

Coke was first sold as being medicinal, back in 1886 and became popular during prohibition. It was said to have been the cure for a wide range of ailments, and relieve the symptoms of others. One of the myths though of the origins of Coke was that it was originally green. This has never been the case so please, stop sending me these emails. It has always been brown – mainly because of the ingredients used but also because there was a dire lack of OH&S officers back in 1886. As such, the standards of production in your average basement chemist were not to the strict standards we have today. When these ‘medicines’ were produced, brown was a convenient colour to hide any impurities that may have got into the batch. It just made better sense for the makers back in the day.

But it did contain cocaine, and still one of the key ingredients is sourced from controlled substances which makes the Coco-Cola taste almost impossible to replicate accurately.

5 – Chicken Tikka Masala

This delightfully mild curry is a favourite at most Indian takeaways, and is a safe option for those spice-adverse people who have been dragged along by their “I love to have my tongue burnt off” friends to these kind of restaurants.

However, Chicken Tikka Masala is not a product of the subcontinent. The dish was first served in Scotland. It is said that the chefs from the Shish Mahal restaurant in Glasgow improvised a curry dish to suit the western palate (which means it wasn’t hot enough to burn through metal). Using ingredients they had on hand, the improvised dish was put together and given an authentic sounding name, and won over customers very quickly. In fact, in 2009 a Glasweigian MP petitioned to have the area and the restaurant recognised by the European Union as the origin of the dish. Either way, the dish is now considered the most frequently ordered restaurant meal in Britain.

6. BIGGEST POTATO-

The world’s largest potato weighed in at 18 pounds, 4 ounces according to the Guinness Book of World Records. That’s enough for 73 portions of medium fries at McDonalds.