11 Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different

11 Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different:

1. Breakfast
2. elevenses
3. lunch
4. afternoon tea
5. snacks
6. supper
7. dinner
8. dessert
9. midnight snacks

I've had them all. But in all my eating, I've never stopped to ask myself about the history of food. For example, were bananas always shaped so funny?

Were Thanksgiving turkeys always so large? Did cucumbers used to look like horrifying, green spiders? Well get ready, because I'm about to answer all three of those questions and more, as we take a look at foods that used to look totally unrecognizable. now we start Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different:

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like ketchup

We start Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different with Ketchup. it's the most American tomato-based sauce there is. Loved on Hotdogs, burgers, fries, pizza, mac and cheese, waffles? Well, despite its patriotic appearance, ketchup isn't actually American, in fact, it predates the USA by over 1,000 years. The story of ketchup begins in ancient China, in approximately 300 BCE. There, the Chinese created a kind of saucy paste from salted, fermented fish guts and anchovies.

While the popularity of this paste would rise and fall over the centuries, and its exact method of preparation would change, it eventually gained the name ke-tsiap, or ke-tchup, meaning fish sauce. This sauce made its way to Europe in the 18th century and quickly became popular. Local chefs were eager to capitalize on this new trend, but there was a problem, they couldn't figure out how it was made.

This led to many strange imitation ketchup concoctions debuting all over Europe. At one point a pale-white version of the sauce using elderflower, anchovies, nutmeg, and horseradish became popular! Another used shallots and mushrooms as its base, later becoming known as mushroom ketchup, which is still made and used today. There was even a sweet and spicy pudding ketchup at one point.

However, the first tomato ketchup recipe came from horticulturalist James Mease in 1812. It wasn't popular though, probably because they were using coal tar, a substance that's poisonous to humans to deepen the red color. Modern ketchup only began to take off in 1904, when the Heinz company decided to finally create a tomato-based recipe that didn't include poison. And I'm glad they did, because I'd drown my fries in ketchup even if it was radioactive.

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like Berry different

after one we continue Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different with Strawberries. they are one of the most popular fruits in the world, with an estimated 10 million tons grown every year. Despite how recognizable they are today, however, strawberries once looked completely different. Several thousand years back, rather than being bright red, strawberries were white! They were also larger and more acidic, which apparently gave them a pineapple-like smell and taste.

These strawberry forebears aren't extinct though, they're called puren berries, and still grow in select South American farms today. These early strawberries were originally cultivated by the Mapuche people, near modern-day Argentina and Chile. While the exact date of their domestication isn't known, the Mapuche have history in the area dating back to around 600 CE.

If that's where they started, how did they make it over to Europe? Simple, fruit spies. In 1714, a French spy visiting South America smuggled a number of these pale puren berries back to Europe. Eager to cash in on a potential new fruit trend, these stolen berries were crossbred with the smaller Virginia or wild strawberry, which grow along the North African coast to create the larger, bright red strawberry we know today.

In an unfortunate and ironic twist, our strawberries then journeyed back to South America, where they overtook and eventually supplanted the puren berry, making the original much harder to come by.

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like Pineapple

It's always bittersweet when a child outshines their parent, especially when their parent tastes like pineapple and on that topic,  fine apples. Pineapple, these oddly-shaped fruits are loaded with antioxidants, nutrients, and it's fine on pizza. It's not great, okay, but it's fine. You know what's also not great about pineapples, though? How big, prickly, and difficult they are.

What gives, pineapples? I just wanna get at your juicy goodness. Well, believe it or not, pineapples were once even less friendly. That's because their origins can be traced back to the Central American Bromelia Pinguin plant, which bears the tiny pinuela fruit. This little fella is believed to be the progenitor of the pineapple, and boy is it one fickle fruit.

You know how pineapples can give you a tingly tongue if you eat too much? Well, a single pinuela can be inedibly sour, to the point where it's advised you dilute it down with water if you wanna eat it. Another possible ancestor of the modern pineapple is the much smaller ananas comosus ananassoldes, which is sometimes called the squat pineapple.

These thorny fruits are much smaller and are more bitter than the common pineapple, and still grow in Paraguay and Brazil today. Whether derived from the pinuela or squat pineapple, we obviously bred the fruit to be larger and chunkier over the centuries, so we could enjoy even more of its nutritious flesh. Whatever the root of our beloved modern pineapple is, it branched off in a few interesting directions.

For example, a brother of the pineapple is the ananas bracteatus, which resembles the common pineapple, but is bright red. What's more, despite its similar appearance, this red pineapple apparently has perfectly edible skin. Wonder what that tastes like on a pizza? Would you try a bright red pineapple on pizza? Or would you take a chance on the super sour ancestor instead?

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like watermelons

they may not be the most popular fruit, or easiest to carry, but by God are they the most satisfying to smash. pure endorphins. But what if I told you the watermelon we all know and love today is very different from its ancestors? Check out this piece of art by Giovani Stanchi, painted somewhere between 1645 and 1672. Notice anything unusual? How about this thing right here.

I know it looks like a giant tomato, but the swirly inside of this bewildering fruit actually belongs to the great great grandpappy of the modern-day watermelon. Watermelons were likely first domesticated in Northeastern Africa some 4,000 years ago, and were introduced to Europe by the Moors in the 13th Century. These watermelons were much more bitter than the kind we have today, however, with thicker, tougher skins and much less tasty red fruit flesh.

The process for selectively breeding away these traits had no doubt begun by the time Stanchi created this painting, but it wasn't quite there yet. As you can see, the watermelon of Stanchi's day appears to have less edible meat than modern watermelons, with softer-looking areas filled with seeds.

Again, not too unlike a giant tomato. While watermelons still had a ways to go, even by this point they had come far. where the fruit was shaped more like a stripy egg. To think, for so long humanity had a dream, that took thousands of thousands of years to fulfill, creating the perfect fruit to smash!

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like Colourful carrots

Carrots famously boast a bright orange colour that's unique among vegetables. What's that, you say? Pumpkins are also orange. Well, pumpkins are technically fruits, you fool.  In all seriousness though, ask anyone to name one thing about carrots, and most folks will say they're orange, but believe it or not that wasn't always the case.

Carrots used to come in all sorts of colours, including dark purple, pale yellow, and bright white. In fact, in some select farms across the world, multicoloured carrots are still grown today. Carrots were first domesticated over 1,000 years ago in ancient Persia, where it's theorised they were mostly white.

This is because carrots primarily grow underground without much exposure to sunlight. These early carrots were prized for their leaves, which were used as flavourful herbs, much like parsley and coriander today. The different colors of carrots were likely mutations that farmers kept alive to distinguish their crops from wild carrots.

So, why are the vegetables almost entirely orange now? One theory takes us back to the Netherlands in the 1500s. At the time, the Dutch Low Countries were Spanish colonies ruled in Madrid. William of Orange was a Dutch freedom fighter who led the charge for Dutch independence. He also happened to be the Prince of Orange, which is a region in the south of France today.

As an increase in orange carrots has been attributed to that time period and region, it's believed that farmers and merchants began selling orange carrots as a sign of their support for William's fight. Whether that story is true or not, however, the orange carrot was definitely seen as a political symbol a few 100 years later. You see, history eventually turned against House of Orange in the late 18th Century, and revolutionaries saw the vegetable as a symbol of the family they despised.

They even tried to govern the exact shape a carrot could take, lest it be seen as too provocative. By that point, however, the damage had been done, and orange carrots were everywhere. Who thought vegetables could be so subversive?

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like Gone bananas

Another Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different is bananas. Is there a funnier fruit than the banana? It's a silly shape, you slip on it if you step on one, and it's yellow, the colour of minions and emojis, the funniest creations of the 21st century, if memes are anything to go by. Well, what if I told you that the crisp, beautiful, appealing banana once looked like this!

I know, it's so horrifying you totally missed my amazing, appealing joke. It's okay, I'll give you time to laugh now. Anyway, bananas are believed to have been cultivated between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago, which has led some to call them the world's first fruit.

These proto-nanners first began popping up around Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Guinea, and were brought to Europe as early as 327 BCE by Alexander the Great, who first saw them in India. These bananas weren't like the bananas we know and love today, however. They were smaller, paler, and absolutely filled with seeds. Wait, seeds? Yeah, bananas are technically berries, meaning, they have seeds, pulp, and develop from the ovary of a flower.

As a fun bonus fact, this means that raspberries aren't technically berries. Go figure. Anyway, over the centuries, farmers have selectively bred bananas to be larger, brighter, and without the multitudes of black seeds. In many areas of the world, however, the older and less civilized version of the fruit can still be found growing in the wild.

The evolution of the banana doesn't end there, however. Have you ever wondered why banana ice cream and candy have such a strong, unusual flavour? The reason is because the standard banana flavouring you find in certain products is based on an extinct banana. Between 1850 and 1950, a strain of banana called the Gros Michel was a favorite across the world.

This strain of banana was high in isoamyl, which we today associate with the candy banana flavour. In the 1950s, however, a horrible banana virus decimated the world's Gros Michel market, leading the modern Cavendish banana to take its place.

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like Cucumbers

Another Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different is corns Cucumbers. they were first cultivated in West Asia around 3,000 years ago before making their way to Europe via the silk road. These cucumbers were very different compared to those we know today. They were rounder, shorter, and yes, covered in little spines.

These spines likely helped protect against insects as well as absorbed moisture. As you can probably guess, these made the fruits and yes, they are fruits, a little irritating to prepare. So, that was the first trait we bred out of them, but interestingly, not the last.

You see, in addition to being thorny little troublemakers, older cucumbers had much higher concentrations of cucurbitacin. This is the compound that adds the bitter flavor to the fruit, but also causes belching. In addition to removing the spikes, farmers slowly began to breed and produce burpless cucumbers with less cucurbitacin.

These gastro-friendly cucumbers were longer and thinner than their ancestors, bearing the shape of modern cucumbers today. Personally, I'm pretty happy they axed the spikes. Can you imagine heading out for a relaxing day at the spa, only for them to place slices of these over your eyes?

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like corn

Another Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different is corns. I shudder to think of where we would be without corn. I mean, what would we eat during movies or use in our breakfast cereals or serve smothered in butter, roasted to perfection? I'm drooling just thinking about it! Still, corn wasn't always so amicable, in fact, it's earliest ancestor was kind of a jerk.

This is teosinte or Zea Mexicana, a central American grass that happens to be the grandpa of all modern corn. Teosinte was first cultivated in what is now Mexico, anywhere between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, with some theorising its name originally meant, the grain of the gods. If that's true, the gods have awful taste in grain.

Teosinte resembles a tumorous, more emaciated version of the big, bubbling corncobs we know and love today. You might look at the teosinte and think, "Okay, there are fewer kernels, but they look huge, that's not so bad," right?

Well, I hate to break it to you, but teosinte isn't going to give you mega-sized popcorn anytime soon. That's because the kernels of the teosinte are contained in a hard outer shell, meaning, you need to crack it open to get to the goods. Teosinte and corn are so different in fact, that the link between them was only recently discovered, when the chromosomes of both plants were compared in a lab.

One scientist was later able to pop a teosinte kernel, as if it were popcorn, no word on the taste or size, though. It's theorised that corn was selectively bred over 1,000s of years to increase the kernel size and remove teosinte's difficult shell. And boy am I glad we did. I'd hate to break my teeth on a barbecued teosinte.

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like Turkey tots

There's nothing like spending Thanksgiving with the relatives, right? The peaceful conversation, the quiet gratitude, the strengthening of familial ties. The only thing that makes the stupid holiday tolerable is a great big, juicy turkey.

Despite what many people believe, however, turkey only solidified itself as the Thanksgiving protein of choice in the 1850s. For most of the 18th century, Thanksgiving dinner was far more likely to feature venison or goose as its centrepiece. Even in the 1950s, 100 years after turkey caught on, the meat looked paltry compared to today.

God, that was a smart joke. In fact, our Thanksgiving turkeys are monsters compared to those just 60 years ago, as farmers have been hard at work maximizing their products. On average, turkeys have increased by a quarter of a pound per year since 1960. Back then, the average turkey weighed just 15.1 pounds or about twice the weight of a house cat.

As of 2017, the average turkey in America weighed over 30 pounds, that's twice the weight of a 1960s turkey, and four times the weight of a house cat! This monstrous turkey progression is the result of selective breeding on the part of farmers, who tend to breed their largest and plumpest birds. And if you think turkeys are the only animals, we've bred into monsters, think again.

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like eggplant

The reason for the bizarre nomenclature of this fruit stems from the fact that, hang on a minute, an eggplant is a fruit, too? Seriously?

Do vegetables even exist? Sorry, let me get myself together. The reason for the bizarre naming of the eggplant stems from the fact that eggplants used to look like this. Yeah, it makes more sense now, huh? As you can see, progenitor eggplants, which still sometimes grow in the wild are a pale off-white in colour, not too dissimilar to an egg.

Even today, eggplants still sometimes turn out white. Furthermore, though, ancestral eggplants are much smaller and rounder in shape. Cultivation of the wild eggplant is thought to have begun over 2,000 years ago in India and China. The fruit likely wasn't grown for eating, however, but for medicinal reasons, as the wild variation apparently carries a very bitter aftertaste that makes them unpleasant to eat.

So, humans saw these pale, bitter, tiny plants and selectively bred them until they were bright, tasty, and big! As humanity desperately tried to manipulate eggplant evolution, the changing fruit made its way around the world. First the Moors brought it to Europe in the 8th Century. Then, in the 1500s, it made its way to the Americas, though it wasn't popular over there.

Our meddling eventually increased the eggplants size, along with its concentration of anthocyanins, which are pigmentations that gave the eggplant its signature colour. By that point, the name had stuck though. I know the feeling, you release one viral video back in 2015, and suddenly you're Be Amazed for life.

Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different like Lettuce

the last Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different is Lettuce rejoice. While I don't think lettuce is anyone's favourite vegetable, the plant still definitely has its uses. It can be used to pad out a salad, and is a great way to trick your body into thinking you aren't just eating 900 calories of fat and salt, when you inhale a Big Mac.

How can it be bad for you if there's green on it? Still, the history of the daisy plant and yes, lettuce is in the same family as daisies is interesting. Lettuce is believed to have been first cultivated some 2,500 years ago, which, if you've been paying attention, makes it a comparatively recent crop.

It was likely first domesticated somewhere in Southwest Asia before spreading to the Mediterranean, where the climate really suited it. However, unlike the big green balls we know today, the original lettuce, known then as latuca serirola, was notably pointier. This unusual shape is why the crop is often called the compass plant, as the leaves jut outwards like a compass.

It's also sometimes called a milk thistle, which is another cute name, I'll explain later. While some believe the plant was brought to the New World in the 15th Century by Christopher Columbus, there actually isn't any evidence of the plant in the Americas until 1863.

The plant quickly grew in popularity due to its resilience and the fact it made for an easy garnish or side to most meals. It was also partially used for medicinal purposes, as small amounts of lactucarium can be extracted from the plant.

This is a milky white fluid, which explains the milk thistle name, that caused a mild sedative effect, and up until the 19th Century was used as a treatment for everything from whooping cough to kidney pain. Over the centuries, however, the crops used for garnish were bred to be larger, leafier, and overall provide more bang for your buck.

A shame, it would be cool if my Big Mac tripped out and clogged my arteries at the same time. you can read more about Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different Here. you can watch more about Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different: