Fact-based Kitchen Science
Why Toast Turns Brown and Tastes Nothing Like Bread
A pale slice goes into the toaster and a golden, crunchy, nutty-smelling one comes out, thanks to a chemical reaction first spotted by a French scientist in 1912.
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Fact-based How It Started
The Frisbee Took Its Name From a Bakery's Pie Tins
Long before plastic flying discs, people in Connecticut were said to be sailing empty pie tins from a Bridgeport bakery across the grass, and the bakery's name stuck.
Fiction Tiny Stories
The Casserole Dish That Never Went Home Empty
One blue dish, two neighbours and a low garden wall: for years it crossed back and forth, and it was never once allowed to make the trip with nothing inside.
Fact-based Word Journeys
The Word Sugar Began as an Ancient Word for Gravel
Sugar in English, sakhar in Russian and azúcar in Spanish all grew from one Sanskrit word for grit and gravel, which travelled west with the sweet crystals themselves.
Fact-based Kitchen Science
Why Egg Whites Turn Into Clouds When You Whisk Them
An egg white is nine tenths water, yet a few minutes with a whisk turns it into a foam that stands in peaks, and old cooks swore by a copper bowl for good reason.
Fact-based Kitchen Science
Stale Bread Is Not Dry Bread, and the Fridge Makes It Worse
A loaf sealed so tightly that not a drop of water can escape will still go stale, because staling is the starch quietly rearranging itself rather than the bread drying out.
Fact-based Word Journeys
The Word Coffee Took the Long Way Round
Before it reached your cup, the word coffee travelled from Arabic into Turkish and then all over Europe, picking up a new spelling in almost every language.
Fact-based Kitchen Science
Why a Cut Apple Turns Brown, and How Lemon Stops It
The browning on a sliced apple is a tiny chemical alarm that goes off the moment you cut it, and the same reaction helps colour your tea and cocoa.
Fact-based Word Journeys
The Word Tomato Was Born in the Language of the Aztecs
Tomato, tomate and the Russian tomat all grew from one Aztec word, tomatl, while Russian also kept a second name that means golden apples.
Fact-based Kitchen Science
Every Popcorn Kernel Is a Tiny Pressure Cooker
A popcorn kernel pops because the water sealed inside it turns to steam, and when physicists filmed the moment, they found the pop sound is not the shell cracking at all.