# What is the most impressive food invention? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 1, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478 "2009-09-01T13:33:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TheMadHun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@TheMadHun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMadHun)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/21 "2009-09-01T18:51:44Z")
“Best thing since sliced bagels” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/22 "2009-09-01T19:29:15Z")
> [@the\_first\_supraliminal](#): > > What do you think? Spam? Toaster Strudel, Rice-a-Roni? Or farther back, the pretzel? I like pretzels. But in more ways mayonnaise is an interesting invention, and quite recent compared to others listed here. I loathe mayonnaise. Germ theory and the work of Louis Pasteur has done wonders for wine and food packaging, so I’ll vote for the invention of the live-yeast smack packs, especially [Wyeast’s 4632 Dry Mead yeast](http://www.wyeastlab.com/he_m_productinformation.cfm). ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/23 "2009-09-01T20:09:25Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > I don’t understand the hype about Ramen noodles. I can eat them occasionally, but not every day. They’re unhealthy, and there are other cheap foods like pasta. I’d rather eat spaghetti, or beans and rice, or peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. But Ramen noodles only cost 12.5 cents and are done in a moment. They have the most fillingness for the least amount of money. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/24 "2009-09-01T20:34:15Z")
Fermentation is easily the most interesting/tastiest. Cheese, Yoghurt, Beer, Wine & other alcoholics, Bread, Olives, Vinegar, Salami, Pickles, Saurkraut… the list is practically endless. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/25 "2009-09-01T20:47:31Z")
Let’s give props to Clarence Birdseye’s flash-frozen foods. Alcohol is wonderful, but man didn’t invent it. Yeast did. The ancient Assyrians (?) accepted yeast’s help to make beer a very long time ago. Several centuries later, some great soul discovered how to use distillation to make whiskey (or if that person was a Scot, whisky.) out of yeast’s blessed works. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/26 "2009-09-02T01:31:46Z")
The meat grinder is a simple yet ingenious and remarkably useful innovation. It made it much easier to make sausage (before, the meat had to finely chopped by hand!), not to mention hamburger. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/27 "2009-09-02T01:53:12Z")
Whoever first put the processing line and the freezer directly on the fishing boat gets my vote. Or maybe the garlic press. . . ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/28 "2009-09-02T02:20:55Z")
Yes - freezing stuff - there’s a lot to be said for flash frozen peas! ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/29 "2009-09-02T03:00:03Z")
I have found that there are finally some pretty decent frozen pizzas on the market----light years better that the cardboard discs they had when I was a kid… (now please dont get me wrong, I would almost always rather have a “real” pizza from even the lowest quality pizza joint (Little Caesars, Pizza Hut) that the top-end frozen ones, but for the times where thats not an option, there are a couple brands of frozen that are really quite good) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/30 "2009-09-02T03:13:35Z")
[Hot Pockets, of course.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9c9lAfXQHs) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/31 "2009-09-02T03:13:57Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/32 "2009-09-02T04:00:19Z")
Bulimia. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/33 "2009-09-02T08:33:26Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > I don’t understand the hype about Ramen noodles. I can eat them occasionally, but not every day. They’re unhealthy, and there are other cheap foods like pasta. For awhile, they had \*\*baked \*\*ramen noodles. They were a little bit more expensive, but they didn’t make me sick. I haven’t seen them in about 10 years or more, though. Maybe I should shop around and look again. I used to drain the water off and use a small portion of the flavor packet to season them. They were a nice hot snack. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/34 "2009-09-02T08:48:12Z")
Edible ball bearings. ---
**Author:** ![footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9f8e36/32.png) [@footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/footballisplayedwithyourfeet)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/35 "2009-09-02T09:23:34Z")
Just re-watched an old West Wing episode and appearently the invention of dwarf wheat (for India) saved about a billion lives; pretty good invention if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/36 "2009-09-02T09:23:37Z")
According to an ad I’ve been seeing on television, it’s a miracle device known as Slap-Chop… ---
**Author:** ![Staale\_Nordlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Staale\_Nordlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staale_Nordlie)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/37 "2009-09-02T10:27:34Z")
[http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20080103](http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20080103) > [@](#): > > When Humanity joined the Gallimaufry, the first impressions of established idea sifters were rather disappointing. Yes, they were entertainingly crazy, but their quirks were mere amplifications of other neuroses and psychoses that had been in and out of vogue for millennia. > > Then it was revealed that humans froze liquids. No big news there. The concept that electrified the Gallimaufry was that Humans stuck a handle into the frozen liquid and _ate_ it! _Still frozen_! > > Shockwaves of tsunami-like proportion ran through the culinary schools of the galaxy. Entire industries were spawned and fought over, and at least two desert dwelling races were saved from extinction. > > And most important of all, when Humanity threw a party with refreshments, _everybody_ came. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/38 "2009-09-02T11:00:14Z")
> [@Staale\_Nordlie](#): > > [http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20080103](http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buckcomic.php?date=20080103) Oooh! Thanks for introducing me to that! ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/39 "2009-09-02T12:39:02Z")
The [fluffernutter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluffernutter). ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478/40 "2009-09-02T12:51:20Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > For awhile, they had \*\*baked \*\*ramen noodles. They were a little bit more expensive, but they didn’t make me sick. I haven’t seen them in about 10 years or more, though. Maybe I should shop around and look again. I used to drain the water off and use a small portion of the flavor packet to season them. They were a nice hot snack. We want [Nissin Choice Ramen](http://cheaper-than-food.blogspot.com/2009/03/nissin-choice-ramen-slow-stewed-beef.html), which I haven’t found in stores. I just e-mailed them to ask where I could buy them. I’ll see if I get an answer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-impressive-food-invention/508478.md?page=3)