Food Trivia Quiz FoodReference.com 1) This plant is a member of the Laurel family, which includes the bay laurel and cinnamon tree. The likely origin is the area north of Mexico City, and there is evidence that the fruits were being gathered by humans by about 8,000 B.C., and were being cultivated about 1,000 years later. This fruit is a high energy food, low in sugar, chock full of vitamins, and a good source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. It is also particularly good as a first solid food for babies. a) Pear b) Avocado c) Pea d) Potato e) Watermelon
2) Botanically, this is a strange plant - taxonomists are unable even to agree into which family it belongs. The flowers are a bright, waxy scarlet, and the fruits are topped off with a persistent calyx that resembles a tall, medieval crown which became a symbol of kingship in the Middle Ages: Henry IV adopted the fruit from the Moorish kings as his heraldic emblem, with the motto "Sour, yet sweet," and it was Catherine of Aragon's device when she married Henry VIII. They were among the first fruits to be brought into cultivation after grain-farming was invented in the Fertile Crescent between the Nile and the Indus about 10,000 years ago. Is this: a) Fig b) Date c) Pomegranate d) Apricot e) Mulberry 3) This premier fruit crop of the temperate regions of the modern world can ripen at higher latitudes than almost any other, except the cloudberry. It is a self-incompatible species, which means that you need two trees growing near each other to achieve pollination. The fruits need 900 cold hours to produce flowers in the spring and on the whole, they dislike the subtropics and tropics. The 11th labor of Hercules involved a specific type of this fruit. Name this fruit. 4) a) Do you know who is generally considered to have invented Lemon Custard and when? b) Who invented lemon meringue pie? 5) a) Does corn always have an odd or an even number of rows on each ear? b) Why? c) How many pieces of silk are there on each ear? 6) Born during the Great Depression, this snack treat was developed by bakers who tried scores of recipes before they were satisfied with the results. They were first manufactured in the company's north Philadelphia bakery, and introduced to the public in Philadelphia and Baltimore on November 21, 1934, at 19 cents per box. Success was immediate. In the first year of production, the company baked 5 billion of this snack treat, about 40 for every man, woman and child in America in 1935. They remain a best seller in its class today. Can you name this snack treat? 7) These plants, native to Central and South America are grown worldwide, both as garden flowers and for culinary uses. The brilliant yellow, orange or red flowers and peppery flavored leaves are used in salads. The flowers may also be chopped and used to flavor butters, cream cheese and vinegar; the immature flower buds and seed pods may be pickled and used like capers. There is also a species found in the Andes which is a vegetable tuber crop. Can you name this plant? 8) Nectarines are: a) A fuzzless variety of peach. b) A variety of plum. c) A cross between a peach and a plum. 9) What percentage of bread was baked in the home in 1910 in the U.S.? a) 100% b) 85% c) 70% d) 55% e) 40% 10) This product is introduced in 1911 and is advertised as "a Scientific Discovery Which Will Affect Every Kitchen In America" but women are often reluctant to accept free 1 1/2 pound cans of the product. The company issues a pamphlet in Yiddish when it finds that many of its biggest initial users are Orthodox Jews. The product gains more widespread commercial success during the First World War due to shortages of another product. Can you name this product and why it was initially popular with Orthodox Jews? Answers 1) b) Avocado. 2) c) Pomegranate. 3) Apples. The 11th labor of Hercules was bringing home the Golden Apple of the Hesperides out of the mythical West. 4) 2) The Quakers receive credit for inventing lemon custard in the late 1700s. Philadelphian Elizabeth Coane Goodfellow, a pastry chef, businesswoman, and cooking school founder, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1806, took lemon custard to another level when she invented lemon meringue pie. ( The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark : Recipes for an Expedition, by Mary Gunderson) 5) a) Corn always has an even number of rows on each ear. b) A corn ear is actually an inflorescence that produces nearly 1,000 female flowers. These flowers, or potential kernels, are arranged in an even number of rows (usually from 8 to about 22 rows). Row number is always an even number because corn spikelets are borne in pairs, and each spikelet produces two florets: one fertile and one sterile. Stress at a particular stage in development could theoretically produce an ear with an odd number of rows - but I believe if you looked under a microscope, you would find an unseen row that failed to develop fully. Most things in nature have an even number of rows or lines. Watermelon has an even number of stripes, cantaloupe, etc. Think of it this way. One cell divides into 2 - as cell division continues, there is always an even number. c) There is one piece of silk for each kernel. 6) Ritz Crackers, created by the National Biscuit Company, now called Nabisco. 7) Common garden Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) also called Indian Cress, Mexican Cress, Peru Cress and Jesuit's Cress (not to be confused with the genus Nasturtium, which is Watercress). 8) A nectarine is a fuzzless variety of peach. It is NOT a cross between a peach and a plum. Peach seeds may occasionally grow into trees that bear nectarines, and nectarine seeds may grow into trees that bear either nectarines or peaches. It is not possible to know which fruit will grow on trees grown from nectarine seeds, so branches from trees that produce nectarines are grafted onto peach trees to grow nectarines commercially. 9) c) 70% of the bread in the U.S. was baked at home in 1910. 10) Crisco, introduced by Proctor & Gamble. It was the first solid hydrogenated vegetable shortening, and since it contained neither lard nor butter (meat & dairy) it could be used at any meal without violating kosher dietary laws. It later became more widely accepted due to wartime shortages of lard. Courtesy of FoodReference.com. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Access the Recipes And More list archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/recipesandmore%40googlegroups.com/ Visit the group home page at: http://groups.google.com/group/RecipesAndMore -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
