Food and Drinks Created by Accident

 

Just about every food has an interesting story behind it, and some of those were actually happy accidents, whether it was out of laziness, improvisation, luck, or out of unforeseen circumstances. Here, we take a look at the best accidental food inventions, and boy, are we glad for these "accidents".

Popsicles  

An 11-year-old left his soda-making equipment out on the porch on a cold night in 1905. Morning came, and he found that his mixture had frozen, capturing the stirring stick upright. Voila! Almost 20 years later, he applied for a patent for “Pop’s Sicles”.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

 A lodge owner ran out of baker’s chocolate, so she grabbed a bag of chocolate morsels, assuming that they would melt and blend with the cookie dough. They didn’t. It wasn’t long before people started to come over to her Massachusetts lodge just for the cookies.

Potato Chips 

In a restaurant in 1853, chef George Crum (Yup. Crum.) was frustrated by a customer who sent back his fried potatoes over and over, complaining that they were soggy and too thick. Sarcastically, the chef sliced a batch as thinly as he could, fried them, and covered them in salt. The customer loved them and spread the word about these thin, crunchy potato slices. 

Nachos

Ignacio Nacho Araya, a restaurant manager in Mexico, was visited by 10 hungry military wives. When his efforts to find the chef failed, Nacho improvised. He covered tostadas with grated cheese and broiled it. The women loved his creation, the “Nacho’s Special.”

Cheese  

Centuries ago, an Arabian merchant journeyed across the desert, taking with him a supply of milk stored in a pouch made from a sheep’s stomach. The heat of the desert and enzymes from the pouch curdled the milk, which he ate and loved. 

Cheese Puffs

In the 1930s, the Flakall Company in Wisconsin had a machine that crushed grains to make livestock feed, and corn kernels were used to reduce clogging. The machine’s heat made the kernels puffy as they fell from the machine as waste. A man, who obviously enjoyed snacking, picked up these ribbons from the ground, added seasoning… and a new treat was born. 

Beer

It was supposed to be bread. More than 3,000 years ago, the Mesopotamians hated it when their grains, stored to produce bread, became damp, causing them ferment into a liquid. 

Coffee  

Hundreds of years ago, an Ethiopian goatherd noticed his goats were being unusually cheerful and energetic, and he soon discovered that they had been devouring the beans and leaves of a particular tree. The man tried them, and shared them with a monk who was having trouble staying awake throughout prayers. The monks loved the new drink, and its effects.