Accidental food inventions: History's most delicious mistakes

[jw5]

Whether it's getting a recipe wonderfully wrong or just getting lucky throwing together random ingredients from your fridge, everyone knows the feeling of having created something new and astonishingly tasty. Little do many people know, however, that some of the world's most beloved foods were born out of mistakes—along with spite, neglect, apathy, and laziness.

 

[jw5]

Potato chips - In 1853, a chef named George Crum, at the Moon's Lake House in New York, was annoyed by a customer who complained repeatedly about the thickness of his french fries.

 

[jw5]

Potato chips - In response, Crum pettily cut the potatoes as thinly as possible, then fried, salted, and served them. His spitefulness resulted in one of the most popular snacks worldwide.

 

[eatshitndie]

 

[jw5]

Ice cream cones - At the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, an ice cream vendor had run out of dishes. Ernest A. Hamwi, a neighboring vendor, was selling waffle-like pastries (called zalabis) and decided to help him out.

 

[jw5]

Ice cream cones - Hamwi rolled the pastries into a cone so his neighbor's ice cream could be held inside. Thus, the first edition of the waffle cone graced the world.

 

[jw5]

Worcestershire sauce - In 1838, Lord Sandys of Worcester, England, was craving his favorite Indian sauce after returning home from Bengal, India. He commissioned drugstore owners John Lea and William Perrins to recreate it based on his descriptions.

 

[jw5]

Worcestershire sauce - The smell of the product they created was too offensive to be consumed, so they stashed it in their basement. A few years later, they found it again, and discovered that the aging period had improved the flavors immensely.

 

[jw5]

Nachos - In 1943, Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya was a waiter at a restaurant in Mexico when a group of 10 hungry women came in. Unable to find the chef, Anaya had to improvise.

 

[jw5]

Nachos - He covered a plate of tostadas with grated cheese, passed it through a broiling unit, and topped the whole thing off with jalapeños. One of the women dubbed the dish “Nacho’s especiale,” which was later shortened when he opened his own place.

 

[jw5]

Popsicles - In 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson was playing with a mixture of water and powdered soda mix on his porch, and left the liquid outside overnight. When he returned for it the next morning, he discovered the stir stick had frozen upright in the liquid.

 

[jw5]

Popsicles - About 20 years later, he applied for a patent, which he'd originally dubbed the "Epsicle." His kids, however, preferred “Pop's 'sicle,” and he changed the name to the one we're familiar with today.

 

[jw5]

Nashville hot chicken - Nashville's famous spicy take on fried chicken has its origins in red hot revenge. Restaurant lore traces the recipe back to Thornton Prince, an infamous womanizer in the 1930s whose girlfriend wanted to teach him a lesson.

 

[jw5]

Nashville hot chicken - One night, she made his favorite chicken dish loaded with fiery spice, but her plan backfired. He actually liked it so much that he began selling it at his restaurant.

 

[jw5]

Tofu - One origin story maintains that, long ago in China, boiled and ground soybeans were accidentally mixed with impure sea salt (containing calcium and magnesium salts), causing the soybeans to gel.

 

[jw5]

Tofu - Another Chinese legend says a cook accidentally dropped nigari (a natural coagulant) into a pot of soybean milk, creating a curdling effect which produced tofu.

 

[jw5]

Brandy - In the 17th century, Dutch vintners would boil their wine in order to reduce its volume for transport, then cut it with water when they were ready to drink.

 

[jw5]

Brandy - They didn't realize, however, that by transporting the concentrated mixture in wooden casks, the fortified wine would be transformed into something very different: brandy.

 

[steffychun]

Mostly Ang Moh food

 

[jw5]

Chocolate chip cookies - One day in 1930, Toll House Inn's co-owner Ruth Wakefield was baking cookies when she realized she had no more baking chocolate. She smashed up a bar of semi-sweet chocolate and added it to her batter, thinking that it would melt.