Diseases
An infamous bacterium that is often associated with raw chicken or undercooked eggs, and it can cause severe stomach cramps.
What is salmonella?
A white, powdery baking essential that reacts with acids (like lemon juice) to instantly create carbon dioxide bubbles, making pancakes fluffy.
What is baking powder?
This is an official Japanese loanword used to describe the fifth primary taste; a deep, savory, or meaty flavor found in things like soy sauce, parmesan cheese, and mushrooms.
What is Umami?
Because they grow from a flower and contain internal seeds, both tomatoes and this green, bumpy guacamole staple are classified as fruits, not vegetables.
What is an avocado?
What is Basil?
A highly contagious stomach virus that is spread through contaminated persons not washing their hands and coming into close contact with others. It is the leading cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in the USA.
What is Norovirus?
An odorless, colorless powder made from animal collagen (structural protein) that gives Jello-O, gummy worms, and marshmallows their jiggly, chewy structure.
Gelatin
A bright green Japanese horseradish flavor that delivers a sharp, burning sensation that goes straight up your nose rather than staying on your tongue.
What is Wasabi?
A large red fruit that is unique because every single one of its hundreds of crunchy, juice filled seeds must be scooped out to be eaten.
What is a Pomegranate?
To grow a clone of a potato plant, you cut up an old potato and plant a piece that contains at least one of these small, sprouting bumps.
What is an "Eye"?
This bacterium is the major reason you should not eat raw cookie dough or cake batter- for it's found in raw flour, not eggs!
What is E. Coli?
An ingredient made from dried and ground pods of a specific orchid vine. It is the second most expensive spice in the world, right after saffron.
Vanilla
A popular fall flavor combination that contains zero gourds, but is instead a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice.
What is pumpkin spice?
A native North American vine fruit that is famous for growing bogs and being served at thanksgiving.
This process is crucial for the survival of fruit trees and vegetable plants. It involves insects or wind transferring yellow powder from the male part of a flower to the female part.
What is Pollination?
A rare but highly dangerous toxin that can grow in improperly sealed home-canned foods or dented tin cans, attacking the nervous system.
What is Botulism?
If you are baking a bread of any sort, you will need this living, single celled fungus to consume sugars and produce the gas that makes dough rise.
What is yeast?
Miracle fruit berries contain a protein called miraculin that temporarily binds to your tongue's taste buds, making this specific type of primary flavor taste intensely sweet instead.
What is sour/ acidic?
A layered vegetable that contains an acid that turns into volatile gas when chopped. The gas hits the water layer of your eyes, and creates a mild acid that makes you cry.
What is an onion?
A plant which leaves contain toxic levels of oxalic acid and are quite dangerous to eat.
What is Rhubarb?
A specific physical condition that occurs when your body completely lacks vitamin C. Famous for causing 18th-century pirates' teeth to fall out until they started eating limes.
What is Scurvy?
A Japanese ingredient made from fermented soybeans and grains. It is a thick paste used to add rich, salty, savory depth to soups and marinades.
What is Miso?
This specific fruit flavor used in candy like jolly ranchers or runts tastes fake because it was chemically modeled after the old-school Gros Michel variety, which was wiped out by a plant disease in the 1950s.
What is Banana?
A specific vegetable that is unique because it is entirely a fungus, lacks chlorophyll, reproduces via spores, and grows completely in the dark.
What is a Mushroom?
A gardening practice that involves intentionally planting different types of crops close together so they can naturally protect and nourish each other.
What is Companion Planting?