CulinaryLore
Food Science, History, and Much More
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Latest posts
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Does Canned Ham Really Need to Be Refrigerated? Only ONE of Them Does
For over a century, commercial food packaging has trained us to rely on an reliable mental rule: If it comes sealed inside a metal can, you can store it in the pantry or cupboard. Metal cans are supposed to be culinary time capsules. Except around the holidays, an alarming…
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The Real Reason Malt-O-Meal Is So Cheap and Why It’s Not the Box
When you’re on a budget, there’s no mistaking the pull of the lower six inches of the cereal aisle. Above, at eye level, beautiful boxes of Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Honey Nut Cheerios stand neatly aligned like hardcovers in a library, commanding six or seven…
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The Real Origin of Blue Raspberry: Why Artificial Raspberry Isn’t Red
The real origin of blue raspberry is the subject of a lot of misinformation. Every kid who grew up eating sour blue raspberry candies or drinking Blue Raspberry Slurpees eventually hit the same wall of childhood skepticism. “Wait a minute, raspberries aren’t blue.” It’s one of…
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Store Brands Aren’t Just Name Brands With a Cheaper Label: The “Same Factory” Myth
Almost everyone remembers the grocery store speech, even if families disagreed on how to give it. Depending on where and how you grew up, consumer frugality took on different forms. In genuinely poor rural households, store brands were often viewed with deep suspicion. When…
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Why Is Little Debbie So Cheap? And Are They Actually Cheaper Than Hostess?
There has long been a sense of humiliation baked into how most of us remember buying Little Debbie snack cakes. Instead of finding them in the primary bakery aisle next to the rows of Wonder Bread and Entenmann’s, they’re often marooned on the grocery store perimeter. They sit…
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Is Food Really Illegal at Interstate Rest Stops? The 1956 Law Behind America’s Highway Hunger
If you have driven the turnpikes of the Northeast or Midwest, you’ve probably repeated the same routine many times. You pull off the highway into a big service plaza, fill your tank, grab a burger from a fast-food court, pick up a coffee, and merge back onto the road without…
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Who Really Invented the Hard-Shell Taco? (And How It Ended Up in a Box)
Determining who “invented” the hard-shell taco is more complicated than it appears, largely because the answer depends on what is being asked. Are we asking who first fried a corn tortilla into a crisp, folded shape? Are we asking who first mass-produced pre-fried shells for…
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Who Actually Invented Fried Chicken? The Myth of a Single Southern Origin
“Southern food is Black food.” For anyone who has spent time studying the agricultural and social history of the American South, this statement is not controversial, but foundational. With enslaved West Africans came staples like okra, black-eyed peas, benne seeds, and sorghum.…
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Could a McDonald’s Copycat Like McDowell’s Exist in Real Life?
In the 1988 comedy classic Coming to America, Cleo McDowell delivers what might be the most confident defense of blatant trademark infringement in cinematic history: “Look, me and the McDonald’s people got this little misunderstanding. See, they’re McDonald’s… I’m McDowell’s.…
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Why Do “Fully Cooked” Frozen Meals Still Need to Reach 165°F?
Frozen entrées and other frozen microwaveable food products always instruct us to “Cook thoroughly to an internal temperature of 165°F as measured by a food thermometer.” To most people, this instruction feels unintuitive if not absurd on its face. The meal is said to be “fully…
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The Food Science of Canned Pumpkin (And Why Fresh Can’t Compete)
Most home cooks assume that “from scratch” is always the gold standard, but when it comes to pumpkin pie, the opposite is almost always true. Attempting to roast and puree a fresh pumpkin in a domestic kitchen usually produces a watery and stringy custard that fails to set…
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The Real Reason Canned Foods Are Packed in Water (It Isn’t Just Cheap Filler)
If there is one thing that is consistent on the internet, it’s that people hate “paying for water.” Few things inspire as much quiet resentment as opening a can of beans and pouring half the contents down the kitchen sink. This is the same consumer grievance that constantly…