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  Can you make a better cookie? Yes. Escambia Farms, Florida. Sunday morning in the McLelland kitchen. Making cookies for dinner. John Collier, photographer, 1942. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Use the right measuring tools Use the...

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  How do fortunes get inside of fortune cookies? The cookies are baked as flat circles. After they are removed from the oven, slips of paper are folded inside while the cookies are still warm and flexible. As the fortune cookies...

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  What is "freezer burn?" The outcome of frozen food losing its moisture as a result of poor wrapping. Ask the man who repairs one, and he’ll tell you to turn the freeze control back to normal...

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  Who invented frozen food? Several individuals, but most credit Clarence Birdseye. USDA scientists flash-freeze and store berries for later evaluation of their suitability as a frozen product. Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Of course,...

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  Who "invented" the TV dinner? Several individuals developed the TV dinner. Convenience foods. Warren K. Leffler, photographer, 1965. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Like many creations, the story of the development of the TV dinner...

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  Why does chopping an onion make you cry? Unstable chemicals. Camp Kearny, Cal. “Anti-onion” gas mask. Between 1917-1919. Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Onions produce the chemical irritant known as syn-Propanethial-S-oxide. It stimulates the eyes’ lachrymal glands so...

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  Why does pepper make you sneeze? Because the chemical piperine, an irritant, gets into the nose. Black pepper: Piper nigrum.External link From “Spices: Exotic Flavors and Medicines,” History & Special Collections, UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library. A...