Twelve Pizza Facts

Ancient Greeks and Egyptians covered flat-breads with toppings and are considered the real originators of the tasty dish.

Modern Pizza originated in 1738 in Naples, Italy when people covered focaccia (Italian bread with olive oil and herbs) with tomatoes. Cheese was added as a topping about a hundred years later.

Frozen pizzas were introduced during the 1950s.

The first online pizza purchase was from Pizza Hut in 1994.

Ninety-three percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month.

Saturday night is the biggest night of the week for eating pizza worldwide.

More pizza is consumed during the week of the Super Bowl than any other time of the year.

In 2001, Pizza Hut paid the Russians one million US dollars to deliver a six inch pizza to the international space station.

Thin crust pizza remains the most popular crust across the world. More than 61 percent of all pizza orders are for thin crust.

Some popular pizza toppings in Japan are squid and Mayo Jaga (mayonnaise, potato, and bacon)

The world's largest pizza was constructed in Italy in 2012 in Italy. It contained 19,800 pounds of flour, 10,000 pounds of tomato sauce, 8,800 pounds of mozzarella cheese, 1,488 pounds of margarine, 551 pounds of rock salt, 220 pounds of lettuce and 55 pounds of vinegar"; it weighed in at 51,257 pounds, and took 48 hours to cook. (According to the World Record Academy)

Over five billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year.

Toothpaste

As far back as 3000-5000 BC, ancient Egyptians were using a tooth cream. This dental cream was comprised of powdered ashes from oxen hooves, myrrh, egg shells, pumice. They used their fingers, instead of a brush. Greeks and Romans improved on the process. Then China and India were using a powder/paste as well. The Chinese were particularly forward-thinking in adding flavoring, such as Ginseng, herbal mints, and salt.

Doctors, dentists, and chemists in Britain  introduced tooth powders (or dentrifice) that included abrasive substances like brick dust and crushed china. Glycerine was added in the early 19th century, transforming the powders into pastes. In 1892, Dr. Washington Sheffield of Connecticut invented Dr. Sheffield’s Crème Dentrifice. It was the first time toothpaste was featured in a collapsible tube. In 1873 toothpaste was first mass-produced.

Tom and Kate Chappell sought to create their own toothpaste. They moved from Philadelphia to rural Kennebunk, Maine, and introduced the first natural toothpaste in 1975. It is still called Tom’s of Maine

Dog Days of Summer

The earliest reference to this expression goes back to the Ancient Egyptians. They noted that the rising of the star Sirius began the hottest part of the summer. The star’s hieroglyph is a dog. Sirius would appear in Egypt, after about a 70 day absence, just before the season where the Nile typically floods, so it is thought the star’s hieroglyphic symbol 'watchdog'.

Romans and Greeks also referred to dog days and would often make sacrifices to Sirius, including sacrificing dogs to appease Sirius with the hope it would result in a mild summer and protect crops from scorching.

Sirius is the brightest star in the Canis Major (Latin for “Greater Dog”) constellation.

Origin of Marshmallows

 I would be remiss if I mentioned Graham crackers and did not speak about marshmallows at the same time. Marshmallows date back to as early as 2000 BC and Egyptians made individual marshmallows by hand by extracting sap from a mallow plant and mixing it with nuts and honey.


The official name of the mallow plant is Althea officials and it is a pink-flowered plant. Marshes are the native growing ground for the mallow plant; hence the name marshmallow. Mallow plants are native in Asia and Europe and are also grown in eastern United States.


During the 1800s, candy makers in France took the sap from marshmallow plants and combined it with egg whites and sugar. The mixture was whipped by hand and took the form of the marshmallow we know today.


Candy makers replaced the sap taken from the marshmallow plant with gelatin, which enabled the marshmallow mixture to maintain its form and reduced the labor intensive process of extracting sap from the mallow plant. The gelatin was combined with corn syrup, starch, sugar, and water to create the fluffy texture of the marshmallow. The gelatin ingredient is essential for extending the shelf life of marshmallows because of the moisture it infuses into the candy. Thus, by replacing the previous egg whites with gelatin, marshmallows maintain their elastic and spongy qualities much longer than they had previously.


The marshmallow made its way to the United States in the 1900s and grew in popularity in the 1950s when it was used in a variety of recipes. Even though Americans were a little behind when it came to the marshmallow, they are now the number one consumers of the fluffy candy, buying more than 90 million pounds per year.
In 1948, Alex Doumak created an extrusion process to make marshmallows. Through this process, the marshmallow substance was pressed through tubes, cut into equal pieces, cooled, and then packaged - just the perfect size for s'mores.

Origin of Breath Mints

Bad breath in ancient Egypt often was a symptom of poor dental health. Seems the stones they used to grind flour for bread contributed a lot of sand and grit to their diet, which wore down tooth enamel to expose the pulp of the tooth and making it vulnerable to infection.

The Egyptians didn't have dentists to fix their deteriorating teeth and gums. Instead, they simply suffered, and scientists who examined mummies have found severely worn teeth and evidence of abscesses, even in youthful Egyptians. To cope with the unpleasant odors from their rotting mouths, Egyptians invented the first mints, which were a combination of frankincense, myrrh and cinnamon boiled with honey and shaped into pellets.

Archaeologists also found toothpicks buried alongside mummies, apparently placed there so that they could clean food debris from between their teeth in the afterlife. Along with the Babylonians, they're also credited with inventing the first toothbrushes, which were frayed ends of wooden twigs.

The Egyptians also contributed toothpaste. Early ingredients included the powder of ox hooves, ashes, burnt eggshells and pumice. They also found what appears to be a more advanced toothpaste recipe and how-to-brush guide written on papyrus that dates back to the Roman occupation in the fourth century A.D. It explains how to mix precise amounts of rock salt, mint, dried iris flower, and grains of pepper, to form a "powder for white and perfect teeth"

Four Uses for Mustard

Romans were first introduced to mustard seeds by the Egyptians. They mixed unfermented grape juice with ground mustard, and called this concoction "must" - hence mustard!

For Sore Throat - Combine mustard, the juice of one half of a fresh lemon, one tablespoon of salt, one tablespoon of honey, and one half cup of boiling water. Mix the ingredients thoroughly. Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes. Take some in your mouth and gargle! Warning: this concoction will not taste of smell good. After a few rounds of gargling, your throat should be feeling a lot less sore.

To remove bad smells, use some mustard and hot water and wipe over surface.

Drippyness' can be induced to encourage decongestion by rubbing some mustard on your chest. Place a cloth, damp with hot water, on top of the mustard. Within minutes, you will feel better.

Soothe aching muscles  Combine 2 tablespoons of mustard and 1 teaspoon of Epsom salts in your warm running bath water. Mustard will amplify the therapeutic effects of the salts, relieving you of muscle pains. As a bonus, you can also use mustard on your hot dogs and hamburgers.