Everyone has their likes and dislikes, and Candy corn is pretty much the sweet version of the love-or-hate food. Nobody is entire 100 percent certain who invented this super sugary treat, but it’s been around for a long time. It was first sold as “Chicken Feed,” and it was a candy that picked its bright idea from an industry that helped build America: agriculture. There’s a bit of irony here, also.
When candy corn was first becoming popular, corn wasn’t a dietary staple… at least, not for people. Before the turn of the century, corn was purely meant as animal feed. It wasn’t until the time of World War I that eating corn was necessary, and before that, corn-shaped candy would have been a fun novelty.
Jelly Beans
There seems to be an agreement among jelly bean experts and other knowledgeable beings about this candy's origins. Many experts believe jelly beans are a descendant of a Middle Eastern treat known as Turkish Delight.
If you're not familiar with Turkish Delight, it is a Turkish delicacy with a gummy-like center that is a mixture of starch, sugar, and chopped fruit or nuts. It was also in the mid-1800s when an unknown candy maker in Boston reportedly took Turkish Delights and experimented with them; eventually, he created a smooth shell — to form jelly beans as we know them today.
Peanut Butter
Peanut butter is the stuff of junior lunches, and there are days where you just need to eat a decent spoonful directly from the jar; it's so good. It's tasty, filling, and salty, and it's perfect when you pair it with chocolate, right?
You may have learned that George Washington Carver invented it ... but we'll have to stop you right there as that's just not true. The general idea of peanut butter goes a long way back — all the way to the Aztecs, who used to grind roasted peanuts into a paste to treat tooth pain as it was easy to swallow without chewing. Peanut butter was first patented back in 1884 in Montreal by Marcellus G. Edson.
Orange Juice
Back in the 50s, the All-American thing was to have a white picket fence and a stay-at-home mom who eagerly poured you orange juice for breakfast.
In the early 1900s, drinking orange juice was unheard of. The California Fruit Growers Exchange hired Albert Lasker to help them sell more oranges ... So Lasker thought, why not drink oranges? It was marketed as a cure-all for general lethargy and even an obscure ailment called "acidosis." Sure enough, Americans bought in big time.
Spices
Every country and culture has its own relationship to spices; some are wide and diverse, like Indian or Mexican cuisines, while others are subtle and mild, like Russian or Polish. But if you didn't grow up in a culture with an appreciation for spices, cooking with it may seem to be as intimidating as it is crucial.
Early writings suggest that hunters and gatherers used to wrap their meat in the leaves of bushes, and by doing this, they accidentally discovered that this process enhanced the meat's taste, bringing along some flavors to it as well. Over the years, spices were soon being used for medicinal purposes.