#402: “Dairy products account for 29 percent of all food consumed in the United States.”
Times have changed, slightly.
I did some figuring using the data given in this factbook for this. I put the numbers from 2000 into this pie chart:
For 2000, dairy is 31% of all food consumed in the United States. Fruits and vegetables are 37%, while grains and meat are 10% each. Sweeteners take up 8% while fats and oils take up 4%.
As a sidenote, today we eat much more food than we used to. An American ate 3,000 calories per day on average in the 1950s, 3,300 in the 1970s and 3,800 in the 2000s.
#401: “As many as 50 gallons of maple sap are needed to make a single gallon of maple sugar.”
Plausible.
According to this FAQ by the University of Vermont, you need about 43 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup or sugar.
#400: “The term “cocktail” was invented in Elmsford, New York. A barmaid named Betsy Flanagan decorated her establishment with the tail feathers of cocks. One day a patron asked for “one of those cock tails.” She served him a drink with a feather in it.”
False.
This is one of several apocryphal stories about the origins of the word “cocktail.” Others include:
- in a bar near an American harbor, the owner had a ceramic rooster where people could pour in the remnants of their drink. Others could get a drink from the tap in this rooster, which was located in its tail, for cheap.
- “cock-ale,” a drink in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. This was basically a sack containing an old rooster mashed up, raisins, mace and cloves that was added to a cask of new ale.
But what’s the real story? The most plausible story is that it comes from the French word for egg cup, coquetier, which is said like cock-tay. In 1795, a French apothecary in New Orleans served mixed drinks in an egg cup. The term itself was first used in 1806, but wasn’t really used until 1920.
#399: “Lettuce is the world’s most popular green.”
True.
Lettuce has been grown for over 2000 years. The earliest recorded instance of lettuce dates back to Persia in 550 BC.
#398: “Cabbage is 91 percent water.”
True.
The average water content of a cabbage head is about ninety percent, so this factoid is about right.
There’s also a diet involving cabbage soup. It involves eating all the cabbage soup you want (since it’s 50 calories per cup) and also eating different foods on each day of the week. No, it doesn’t really work, because people who used it ended up losing only water weight which was quickly gained back.
#397: “The United States Department of Agriculture reports that the average American eats 8 and a half pounds of pickles a year. Dill pickles are twice as popular as sweet.”
False. Plausible.
According to this table, (an Excel file will download if you click) in 2009, there were 5 pounds of pickles per American. In 1975 (the date that this fact would have been taken from), there were 6.1 pounds of pickles per American.
Dill pickles are indeed the most popular type of pickles, but I don’t know if they’re twice as popular as sweet pickles.
Speaking of pickles, solæg (Danish pickled eggs) looks gross…
#396: “In medieval England, beer was often served with breakfast.”
True.
Medieval England had no water purification systems like we do today, so their river water wasn’t good to drink. Their milk also didn’t stay fresh as long as it does today. So instead, they’d make ale. It was usually made from barley and was also difficult to make. Both peasants and lords had ale to drink three meals a day, with lords also having wine. Peasants also ate bread with their ale at breakfast.
Beer was a common drink in England, Germany and Scandinavian countries and often looked down on. If they could afford it, people would also drink wine.
#395: “A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.”
True.
As seen in this Youtube video, this can happen. But from looking at other videos, there seems to be a specific set of circumstances. First, the champagne must be from a freshly-opened bottle of champagne. Second, it must be in a champagne glass and not a cup.
Why does this happen? The bubbles in the champagne lift the raisin to the top, but when the raisin hits the top, the bubbles pop, so it sinks to the bottom. The champagne must be fresh so enough bubbles are present. It must be a glass so the raisin won’t get stuck in the bottom and enough bubbles can access the raisin to lift it.
#394: “Diamond Jim Brady’s average breakfast as recorded by a New York restauranteur: a gallon of orange juice, three eggs, a quarter of a loaf of corn bread, sirloin steak with fried potatoes, hominy grits and bacon, two muffins, and several pancakes. For dinner Diamond Jim might eat three dozen oysters, two bowls of turtle soup, and six crabs as an appetizer. Restaurant owners referred to him as the best twenty-five customers they ever had.”
True.
Diamond Jim Brady, a Gilded Age businessman and philanthropist, had a legendary appetite. He did eat as much as described in this factoid, and George Rector, the owner of one of his favorite restaurants, was the one who described him as “the best twenty-five customers I ever had.” Brady also ate pastries and a two-pound box of candy for dessert.
After Brady’s death, his body was examined. Doctors found that his stomach was six times normal size.
#393: “It takes 4,000 crocuses to produce a single ounce of Saffron.”
True.
A single gram of saffron comes from 150 flowers. Since about 28 grams are in an ounce, that means 4,200 flowers are needed to produce a single ounce of saffron.
Saffron flowers are also very picky about how they’re grown. They must be in full sunlight, no shade. The plants bloom within a week or two of each other and quickly wilt, so they also must be quickly picked.
And that’s it for the category Flowers, Plants and Trees! It’ll show up in the next volume, so stay tuned!
