It seems that on long voyages sailing all around the world due to growing trade during the 16th and 17th century, European wines were bound to spoil on the long trip.
The brilliant winemakers were clever enough to fortify the wine and did so by adding a dash of brandy to stabilize it. Therefore, they prepared it to withstand the temperature differences.
Blue Cheese
It's not difficult to believe that Blue Cheese was at first simply a forgotten cheese! In the 7th century, a scatterbrained sheepherder in the village of Roquefort, France, forgot his lunch in a cave one day.
He returned several months later only to find his cheese infested with penicillium roqueforti, a mold growing there. He was brave enough to try the foul-smelling cheese, and with a grin on his face, he was surprised how good it tasted. Today, the natural mold culture is simply added to the cheese milk.
Hot Nashville Chicken
They say revenge is a dish served cold; in this case, it was meant to be flaming hot chicken. According to rumors, Nashville hot chicken was invented accidentally-on-purpose at Nashville's famed Prince's Hot Chicken Shack by the current owner's great-uncle Thornton Prince's lover.
She was suspicious of her lover cheating on her, so to get back at him, she served him a fried hot chicken, but with an extreme amount of pepper. To her surprise, Prince loved the spicy chicken and soon began to serve it at his Chicken Shack. And now, all those years later, it's become a complete sensation.
Corn Flakes
This iconic breakfast cereal also came about due to a bit of an accidental twist of fate. Corn flakes were invented by brothers William and John Kellogg in the late 1800s; the two worked at a Seventh Day Adventist sanitarium where vegetarianism and healthy nutrition were key values.
Looking for a replacement for bread for their patients in the sanitarium, the Kellogg brothers boiled wheat. However, they unintentionally boiled it too long, and when they rolled it out, it crumbled apart into flakes, which they decided to toast in the oven. Their patients both thought they were tasty, and William had the idea to develop the recipe with corn instead of wheat, leading to the cereal you know of today.
Champagne
The most celebratory of drinks almost wasn't invented at all. It was a complete coincidence that Champagne was created by accident in the 1490s. A changing climate in the Champagne region shortened the growing season and caused bottles to undergo a second fermentation when it warmed up in the spring, only to release carbon dioxide gas, popping the weak stoppers on their bottles.
What was once seen as a catastrophe eventually became something to celebrate in its own right. Winemakers managed to keep the bottles intact by adjusting their glassware accordingly, and today, we have something bubbly to celebrate special occasions with!