Ranker

Anime Underground

Button Mash

Graveyard Shift

Total Nerd

Unspeakable Times

Weird History

Weird Nature

Weirdly Interesting

Sports

Music

Entertainment

Living

Culture

Food

Makeup

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Holidays

Watchworthy

HBO Max

Fun facts and fascinating trivia about historical, bygone, and modern foods for people who love eating food.

Food History

Ask anyone who grew up in the 1990s, and they&#39;ll tell you advertisements were wild, colorful, and typically &quot;extreme.&quot; This is because the products they were selling were, likewise, wild, colorful, and in some way,&nbsp;extreme. This was doubly true for snacks.

In the &#39;90s, you didn&#39;t just munch on some bits of cookie decorated by a friendly kangaroo; you&nbsp;dunked&nbsp;your cookies in rainbow-colored frosting while a kangaroo with a backward&nbsp;baseball cap rappeled down the packaging. You didn&#39;t drink green soda; you knocked your playmates across a couch-strewn alleyway to ingest a &quot;fully loaded citrus soda with carbos.&quot; You didn&#39;t go to McDonald&#39;s for a Big Mac; you went there to eat&nbsp;pizza. Extreme!

Not all of these facts about &#39;90s snack foods will make you twist your cap around and reach for the nearest bottle of Pepsi Clear, but they will inspire nostalgia in anyone who did. Vote up the facts that make you hungry for these wild snacks of the past.

Diet

Eating healthy foods is a bit of a relative concept, especially with the gift of hindsight. What was once considered healthy may now amount to one of many food fads that continue to enter the diet landscape. The Atkins diet, paleo diet, and other low-carb diet options have come and gone for decades, and&nbsp;while many have reappeared in different forms, they often claim to be a healthy alternative to mainstream eating habits. Within <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/photos-of-grocery-stores-then-and-now/kellen-perry" target="_blank">vintage grocery stores</a> and modern markets alike, it was always possible to find fad health foods.

Food fads over the past century reveal a lot about how people viewed their relationships with food, the availability of information about eating, and how resources and preferences may not have always aligned. Nutrients, weight loss, strength - these have all been factors in determining the best foods to eat. The history of health&nbsp;food is&nbsp;as complicated as any assessment of the past, but it&#39;s obvious consumers, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-foodies-ate-every-decade-20th-century/ryan-sargent" target="_blank">foodies</a>,&nbsp;and advertising professionals throughout the 20th century have&nbsp;considered many foods healthy.

Old Stuff

In the years after WWII, Americans became more affluent than they had been in previous generations. Veterans were going to college and&nbsp;buying homes&nbsp;in droves, the population boomed,&nbsp;and cities around the country grew rapidly.&nbsp;

As Americans enjoyed greater prosperity, their day-to-day habits changed due to new&nbsp;innovations and technologies. They wanted to be able to come home after a long day of work, put on&nbsp;their favorite <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-50s-tv-shows/ranker-tv" target="_blank">1950s TV show</a>, and enjoy a quickly cooked meal with their families.&nbsp;Refrigerators&nbsp;were more accessible to the average&nbsp;family than ever before&nbsp;and they soon came to change&nbsp;the American palate. Consumers didn&#39;t have to go to the butcher shop every day to pick up the night&#39;s entree, and leftovers could be stored overnight without spoiling.&nbsp;

Families of the 1950s wanted everything to be convenient and filling,&nbsp;and some of the dishes that figured&nbsp;heavily in American diets reflected those purposes. Some of those foods&nbsp;have disappeared in subsequent decades, but others&nbsp;are still with us.

Food is tradition. We cook and eat what our parents made, and what their parents made before them. But since the dawn of the 20th century, when&nbsp;it became easier&nbsp;for both people and information to travel throughout the world, Americans have been exposed to all kinds of new cuisines. From one decade to the next, the country experienced rapidly changing food trends, from the tasty to the healthy to the bizarre. The <a href="https://www.ranker.com/collections/lifestyles-of-the-very-wealthy" target="_blank">well-off</a> usually decided what was fashionable - on plates and otherwise -&nbsp;for better or worse.&nbsp;

The times we live in influence <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/us-beauty-trends-in-the-twentieth-century/nicky-benson" target="_blank">how we perceive beauty,</a> and they affect&nbsp;the foods we love, too. It&#39;s impossible to predict a <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/food-trends-2019/samantha-dillinger" target="_blank">culinary trend</a>, but once it hits, the whole country just has to try it. Some last forever;&nbsp;others fade quickly.&nbsp;Either way, they remain indelible markers of our cultural history - and might even serve as inspiration for the next swanky restaurant.

19th Century

The 19th century was a time of great expansion and growth for the American empire. International and domestic conflicts, territory grabs, and Native displacement were commonplace&nbsp;during this period, which was marked by another major development: the discovery of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/effect-of-the-gold-rush/" target="_blank">gold</a>. While rumors of gold date back to the 16th century, most gold prospecting happened in the second half of the 1800s.

The <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldrush-california/" target="_blank">first major gold rush</a> began when the naturally occurring element was discovered in Sutter&#39;s Mill, CA,&nbsp;in 1848, less than two weeks before America won the Mexican-American War, opening up the western edges of the continent. Nearly 100,000 people (known as&nbsp;49ers) flocked to the Sierra Nevada mountains over the next&nbsp;two years. The entrepreneurial spirit brought on by gold mining survived until the end of the century, when&nbsp;the next great gold rush arose <a href="https://www.nps.gov/klgo/learn/goldrush.htm" target="_blank">in the Yukon Territory</a>&nbsp;covering southern Alaska and western Canada. After gold was found in the Klondike River in 1896, the Klondike Gold Rush began the next year, bringing 100,000 potential miners - called Stampeders - into the treacherous, frigid region.

Northern California and the Pacific Northwest were forever changed by these gold rushes, from population increases to economic growth&nbsp;to the introduction of new foods. People from all over the country - even all over the world - were crammed together in overcrowded camps and settlements, mixing ideas and recipes. Supplies were often limited, and food rations had to last much longer than normal, especially in remote regions.

Resourceful <a href="https://www.nps.gov/klgo/learn/historyculture/tonofgoods.htm" target="_blank">gold</a><a href="http://www.nps.gov/klgo/learn/historyculture/tonofgoods.htm" target="_blank">&nbsp;miners</a>&nbsp;knew how to pack accordingly for long journeys and use the flora and fauna available to them. This list brings together some of the more interesting and unusual foods consumed by those who participated in these gold rushes, some of which have become staples of American cuisine, and some of which have&nbsp;not survived the passage of time.

Organized Crime

Thanks to notable films like The Godfather and Goodfellas, Italian-American life now harbors at least two major stereotypes: the expectation&nbsp;of delicious home cooking&nbsp;and the assumption of Mafia connections. The truth is, everyone enjoys good food, and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-famous-gangsters/reference" target="_blank">famous gangsters</a> from around the world are no exception. From the mean streets of 1940s Los Angeles to the end credits&nbsp;of Martin Scorsese&#39;s <a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/all-mafia-movies-or-list-of-mafia-films" target="_blank">best mafia movies</a>, delectable recipes have often tempted America&#39;s most notorious underworld bosses.

Over the decades, some of these recipes have filtered out to the public for everyone to enjoy. If you&#39;ve ever thought, &quot;What did Al Capone eat?&quot; you can now find out for yourself. A number of classic, delicious gangster recipes are free to cook up in your home kitchen, and the best restaurants visited most frequently by notorious families have set the standard for classic dining.

Though Vikings are known for pillaging the coasts of Europe, <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/viking-history-facts/mike-rothschild" target="_blank">Viking facts</a> reveal that the marauders were more than just bearded warriors filled with&nbsp;blood-thirsty rage. Analysis of what Vikings ate shows that the ancient Norse people had surprisingly modern appetites. The Viking diet went beyond slabs of meat and tankards of mead to include a healthy balance of vegetables and breakfast staples like yogurt.The perception of Vikings as crude, dirty troublemakers&nbsp;doesn't match up with the refined nature of their meals. Viking cuisine incorporated a range of food and drink options, creating the balanced diet that made <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/viking-sex-lives-facts/lyra-radford" target="_blank">Viking men</a>&nbsp;such notorious bruisers. &nbsp;

Food is the language of cultural expression. It tells us what is available, what is desirable, and who gets to have it. Its role as a tool of sociological study is unique because it can be easily consumed and understood by all, though we may not initially think of it as more than a substance of survival.&nbsp;

Many delicacies that we take for granted in the milieu of food trucks and meticulously plated Instagram posts are not only the best international foods, but they&#39;re often born out of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-important-historical-events-of-the-20th-century/mwahahahaha" target="_blank">historical</a> tragedy. From suppression&nbsp;to servitude&nbsp;to conquering&nbsp;to theft, many of&nbsp;the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-most-delicious-foods-in-the-world" target="_blank">best foods in the world</a>&nbsp;have a dark backstory. While it&rsquo;s important to understand the often tragic cultural context behind our favorite cuisines, we can all agree that our world is richer for having access to these delicious recipes.

Food and drink are meant to be enjoyed, right? Not always.

<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/4w4d7k/does_anyone_here_know_of_a_foodbased_catastrophe/" target="_blank">Redditors</a> point out that the preparation, storage, and consumption of food and drink can have disastrous consequences. It&#39;s suprising to discover that food has been the focal point of several castastrophes throughout history. Shortages, overabundance, and even tainted food preparation have caused calamity in ways we never thought imaginable.

As you look through the list of food-based calamaties, vote up the ones that lead you to view your dining experience with more caution than ever.&nbsp;

World History

Archaeologists often make gruesome, significant, and fascinating discoveries, but some of their finds are downright repulsive &ndash; sometimes they unearth ancient <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/what-people-ate-in-colonial-america/setareh-janda" target="_blank">foods</a>.&nbsp;These foods date back thousands of years, making them actual archaeological discoveries,&nbsp;and most of them sound pretty disgusting.&nbsp;

Archaeologists find&nbsp;food all the time, whether it&#39;s&nbsp;hiding in ancient tombs, resting on the bottom of the sea in a sunken ship, or tied around the neck of a mummy. These ancient food discoveries range from the palatable &ndash; such as preserved honey found in Egyptian pyramids &ndash; to the completely revolting &ndash; 5,000-year-old butter pulled out of a bog &ndash; to the culturally significant &ndash; 4,000-year-old preserved noodles discovered at Lajia&nbsp;site, also known as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/bodies-at-lajia-the-pompeii-of-china/nicky-benson" target="_blank">China&#39;s Pompeii</a>.&nbsp;

Take a look&nbsp;through the oldest foods archaeologists have discovered, and contemplate facing these choices at a sadistic buffet. What would be the absolutely worst food to eat today?&nbsp;

Times and tastes definitely change, but some of the Founding Fathers' favorite foods were undeniably gross. True, 18th century America was full of <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/what-people-ate-in-colonial-america/setareh-janda" target="_blank">disgusting food</a>; it's not like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and other storied leaders had much say in what ended up on their dinner tables. They probably liked the taste of this cuisine, too. Modern appetites have changed, though, and no one would blame you if you wanted to stay far, far away from these menus.Reading about the food of the Founding Fathers can make you feel a little queasy. George Washington reportedly loved slurping down greasy peanut soup, while Thomas Jefferson had a taste for bone-filled shad. Alexander Hamilton probably had stale bread for breakfast. And then there was&nbsp;the always-innovative Benjamin Franklin, who was an early adopter of tofu – though he called it &quot;cheese.&quot;Colonial American food was certainly... something. You might be curious to taste some of these dishes, while others sound so strange and disgusting you'd never want to even see or smell them. Regardless of how much they intrigue or repulse you, these foods give an interesting insight into the dietary habits of storied figures from history.

Food is an essential part of culture. As communities, states, and nations form their identities, food becomes part of how they see&nbsp;themselves and shapes the perceptions of others. Dining at an Italian restaurant, for example, means pasta, pizza, and the like, while the names of some foods even attest to national origins.

But what if someone&nbsp;told you a food as prolific as french fries are Belgian? That tempura is Portuguese? Would the origins of these dishes, so commonly - and incorrectly - associated with one part of the world, change anything?&nbsp;

The origins of some so-called &quot;national&quot; dishes may surprise you more than others. If nothing else, you may never view a restaurant menu the same way again.&nbsp;

What It's Like

If you&#39;ve ever been to the restaurant Medieval Times or eaten at a Renaissance Faire, then you&#39;ve been horribly misled about medieval <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/weird-foods-in-ancient-rome/carly-silver">diets</a>. The real story&nbsp;of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/medieval-junk-food/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">medieval foods</a> and cooking is actually simultaneously a lot more disgusting and a lot more boring, depending on who was doing the eating. But there definitely weren&#39;t any turkey legs, okay?

So what did people eat in the Middle Ages? Bread, soup, meat, and plenty of fruits and vegetables. Does that sound boring? Well, they also ate porpoises and deer guts.&nbsp;How&nbsp;did people cook in medieval times? They cooked everything, any way they could, because they thought that&nbsp;even raw fruits and veggies were disease-ridden. Read on for some more&nbsp;interesting facts about the medieval diet of nobels and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/life-of-a-serf/oliver-pretl-drummond" target="_blank">serfs</a>. Huzzah!

History

Food is one of the greatest necessities and joys of our modern world. We eat to survive, but we also eat for pleasure, and we have centuries and centuries of historically important food innovations to thank for that. But this love of food is just one part of a bigger picture. When you get right down to it, it's hard to deny&nbsp;how food innovations changed history for the better.It's pretty obvious how technology related to food creation and food storage has changed our world. People live longer and develop new medicines and cultural traditions all based on technological food innovations. Besides, the variety (and tastiness) of food that has spread through our culinary world is hard to scoff at. I mean, come on, how many <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/cheese-facts/jacob-shelton?var=3&amp;utm_expid=16418821-195.lA6itfmOSOe_7Uz8Ip21PQ.2&amp;utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ranker.com%2Flists%2Fcheese%3Fq%3Dcheese">types of cheese</a> are there now?&nbsp;But the perfection that is cheese aside, which innovations do you think are the most historically relevant? Take a look at our list of&nbsp;historically important food technology and developments&nbsp;and vote up the ones you think are the best. And if you get hungry, you can thank food geniuses that came before you for whatever you decide to eat.

For centuries, troops have marched off to fight, risking their lives in combat. But what did soldiers eat in different eras? And which conflict offered the tastiest military foods? From blood soup to fermented horse milk, soldiers&#39; rations throughout history have contained some unappetizing options. There have even been military provisions so disgusting that they actually took the lives of soldiers.

Some armies would have been happy to get any food. George Washington&#39;s army was forced to go days without rations, and Confederate soldiers stopped to dig up vegetables as they marched. For centuries, soldiers survived on hardtack, tasteless dried crackers that sometimes only contained flour and water. By the 20th century, soldiers complained about mushy canned food but also received smokes and chewing gum in their rations.

While rare <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/world-war-2-pictures/ashley-reign" target="_blank">WWII photos</a> capture the trauma of combat, they often leave out daily life for soldiers. Even the most <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/accurate-war-movies/justin-andress" target="_blank">accurate movies</a> sometimes forget that soldiers had to eat multiple times a day. And nations that struggled to feed their troops could lose everything, like Napoleon&#39;s humiliating march into Russia. After all, military rations could be the difference between victory and defeat.

Here&#39;s some good news for picky eaters: genetic dispositions cause&nbsp;you to enjoy the taste of certain foods but not others. If some cultural food choices seem baffling to you, that&#39;s normal.&nbsp;Why do people eat what they eat? Why&nbsp;does something you eat taste completely different to someone else of a different race or ethnicity? Of course,&nbsp;taste can&nbsp;also be influenced by&nbsp;things that happen&nbsp;during your upbringing&nbsp;or&nbsp;by disease risk factors coded into&nbsp;DNA. Mainly, though, it&#39;s a mixture of many of these.

When looking at&nbsp;how genetics influences what one&nbsp;eats, you have to keep in mind both your geography, your ancestors, and your culture. <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/gross-foods-youre-curious-about/mel-judson" target="_blank">What seems gross</a> to one person may be a delicacy to another. While no specific flavor pallet is inherently right or wrong, there&#39;s no denying that some of the dietary differences are downright shocking.

At least now you have a scientific reason to explain why you hate cilantro.

It can be fascinating to look at <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-most-influential-people-of-all-time?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">famous historical figures</a>&#39; favorite food. Some of the best food throughout history is representative of the culture of that time. Other dishes, however, come from <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/disgusting-food-from-vintage-cookbooks/kellen-perry" target="_blank">recipes</a> that may appear a little odd to modern diners.&nbsp;The real question is not what people were preparing in a particular era, but whether or not it would still be considered appetizing&nbsp;today.&nbsp;

Some recipes, like figs and Devonshire cream, are undoubtedly delicious decades later;&nbsp;but&nbsp;Jimmy Carter&#39;s cheese ring&nbsp;- through it&nbsp;sounds pretty okay on the surface - contains a&nbsp;suspicious amount of mayonnaise that might make you think twice before giving it a go. Part of the fun of&nbsp;cooking is venturing into unknown territory, and some of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-most-delicious-foods-in-the-world" target="_blank">best foods in the world</a> have proved to be&nbsp;the most surprising. Who first thought of ice cream? And who was the first brave soul to eat&nbsp;a plate of sushi with wasabi? Variety is the spice of life, after all.

From Sir Francis Drake&#39;s mojito to Emily Dickinson&#39;s coconut cake,&nbsp;there&#39;s no shortage of recipes from history that offer a taste of life before the 21st century.&nbsp;

There's no shortage of weird&nbsp;diet trends. Whether you want to eat like a caveman, only eat super foods, or cleanse yourself within an inch of godliness, there's some diet out there for you - along with, of course,&nbsp;some annoying friend who has nothing else to talk about besides their latest all-juice fast. But it's not just a modern problem.&nbsp;Although the most common fad diets you've&nbsp;heard about may have been Atkins and gluten-free, you may be surprised to hear what came before.&nbsp;These crazy diets&nbsp;aren't new -&nbsp;and neither is the idea of celebrity trend setters influencing what people eat. There have been plenty of weird diet fads for centuries, some so disgusting they make a maple syrup, lemon, and cayenne pepper drink&nbsp;look downright scrumptious.&nbsp;Don't get any ideas, because some of the&nbsp;crazy diets on this list are also downright dangerous. What these diets demonstrate is&nbsp;just how far (and how illogical) people will go in order to lose a few pounds. Most of these will make you grateful for Weight Watchers, because counting points is way better than poisoning yourself to speed up your metabolism. (Yup, that really happened.) The search for the miracle diet has been going on for centuries, and it continues. Until it's discovered, we'll all just have to keep suffering through brick-flavored gluten free bread.&nbsp;

Human history is built on food. Just about any social occasion or backroom deal, no matter how small, has had some kind of food present. Armies need it to fight, people need it to live, and economies need it to function. The most historically important foodstuffs are more than consumable quantities... they&#39;ve tipped balances of power in the world.

The <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-but-true-food-history-facts/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">foods that changed history</a> come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors - from sweet to salty to savory. However, they always managed to fill a specific need at a specific time. Whether it be a new way of persevering crops, a delicacy for the nobility, or a way to feed the masses, food has been the cornerstone of humanity&#39;s foundation.

But what foodstuffs were the most influential of all time? You&#39;d think that would depend on the time and place, but most of the big discoveries still have relevance in today&#39;s world.

From the Gen X obsession with sun-dried tomatoes to the 1950s-era meat salads suspended in aspic jelly, we have collectively come a long way from our culinary past. New fad foods and diets pop up and disappear every year, but one thing has curiously stayed the same over the last century: junk food.

Before the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/haunting-photos-of-the-industrial-revolution/brenden-donnelly" target="_blank">Industrial Revolution</a>, most of what we would now consider &ldquo;junk food&rdquo; was made at home on a small scale. While the invention of the steel mill and steam power was certainly useful and revolutionary, the more whimsical effects of the societal overhaul are worthy of analysis, as well. The developments in food science expanded while mass production grew more sophisticated, enabling the American public to experience a wide array of new<a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-best-snacks" target="_blank">&nbsp;snacks.</a>

The most impressive aspect of junk food developed throughout the 20th century is just how many of the inventions stuck around. Cracker Jack and Jell-O are permanent fixtures in the national American identity. Hershey has become an entire census-designated place in Pennsylvania. While Atkins TV dinners and poke bowls may come and go, we tend to hold our old junk food standards close generation after generation.

Chew on This

pageType

top_fb_4-5

ticker_exclude

tier_3

pushable

wh_team

cb_chew-on-this

Money

People love to wax poetic about the days of old when a person could see a movie for a nickel&nbsp;or buy a soda for a dime, but was that really the case? Sadly, the answer is a resounding no. People who reminisce about the &quot;good ol&#39; days&quot; are forgetting one important factor: inflation.&nbsp;

While <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015073250444&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=19" target="_blank">data from the 1940s</a> might make <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951000014585x&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=233&amp;size=125" target="_blank">grocery store items</a>&nbsp;look&nbsp;cheaper than they are <a href="https://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/data/averageretailfoodandenergyprices_usandmidwest_table.htm" target="_blank">today</a>, when you use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=0.08&amp;year1=194001&amp;year2=201912" target="_blank">inflation calculator</a> to see how much those items really cost, the prices are not so different. So, before you&nbsp;try to pull a Marty McFly and go back to the 1940s to save some money, take a look at the grocery prices below and see if the effort is truly worth it.&nbsp;

How Much Grocery Store Items Cost In 1940 Vs. 2020

General

Other

Best Rankings of Random Cool Facts + Stuff

other

United States

Garri Chaverst

Region

American

West Coast US

Us States

Eggs

Bananas

Bananas is a 1971 American comedy film directed by Woody Allen and starring Allen, Louise Lasser, and Carlos Montalban. Written by Allen and Mickey Rose, the film is about a bumbling New Yorker who, after being dumped by his activist girlfriend, travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion. Parts of the plot are based on the book Don Quixote, U.S.A. by Richard P. Powell. Filmed on location in New York City, Lima, Peru, and Puerto Rico, the film is number 78 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Potatoes

Steak

Milk

Bread

Pork Chops

Rice

Bacon

Cheese

Coffee

Chuck Roast

Navy Beans

People love to wax poetic about the days of old when a person could see a movie for a nickel&nbsp;or buy a soda for a dime, but was that really the case? ...