Food Can Be Deceptive Trivia Quiz

Answer: A variation on cheese on toast

Welsh Rabbit was the original name for this dish, but the name Welsh Rarebit is now more commonly used. There are a huge amount of ways in which this dish can be served - the spices used, the addition of breadcrumbs, whether extra egg yolks should be added, whether cider or beer should be used. In almost every Welsh Rarebit, however, it has to be cheddar.

The Welsh have a lot to answer for when it comes to falsely advertising foods. If you think laverbread is something you can pop into the toaster in the morning, think again! It's actually made from seaweed.

Answer: A thyroid gland

"Sweetbread" is a term used to describe various glands in the body, such as the thymus, and the pancreas. Though once considered waste meats, and food of peasants, sweetbreads have enjoyed a resurgence of popularity, due to their use in high-profile restaurants and television cookery shows. As is often the case with what are considered the "poorer" cuts of meat, they are tender and full of flavour.

After a brief exchange with the patient waiter, I decided to replace the sweetbreads for what the menu calls a "Rocky Mountain Oyster".

Answer: A thick Scottish soup

Cullen skink is a Scottish fish soup, usually made with haddock. It also contains potatoes (giving the soup its characteristic thickness) and onions. The "Cullen" element of the dish is named for the town in which this dish was developed. Rather than referring to the long-bodied lizard, "skink" is a Scots word for shin (of beef), which came to be used for soups containing this cut of meat and, later, for soups in general.

Answer: A sweet pie with currants and raisins

Perhaps a couple of centuries ago, I might have been in luck. Mince pies were originally made with real meat, though they did contain fruit and were still rather sweet. By the 19th century, however, meat was no longer used in mince pies, though the filling is still commonly referred to as "mincemeat".

This mixture contains fruit (usually raisins, apricots, and candied peels), as well as cinnamon and nutmeg, and maybe a splash of brandy! Mince pies are mostly eaten around Christmas time and are often served covered in icing sugar.

Answer: Pig

Toad in the hole is a treat in many households in the UK! It consists of pork sausages, which are cooked before being placed into a Yorkshire pudding batter mix and cooked in the oven for a further 30 minutes. It is usually served with onion gravy and, if one is feeling adventurous, vegetables. (Let's not bring up the fact that Yorkshire "pudding" is not what many would consider a pudding in that it is not sweet).

Answer: A type of fish dish

Bombay duck is named for Bombay (Mumbai) since the lizardfish that is used to make this dish is found in the waters off of this Indian city. The reason for the use of the term "duck" to describe a fish dish is a little less certain. It is one theory that the term "duck" is a corruption of the word "daak", a term used to describe the Bombay mail train which was used to deliver the fish.

Bombay duck involves salting and drying the fish in question. Though the fish originally has little flavour, its odour after salting/drying is (in)famous.

Answer: A sausage made from congealed blood

Growing up in Scotland, black pudding was common in our kitchen. It was borderline one of our five a day (but that's Scotland for you ;)). Much like haggis, black pudding is one of those things that makes people wince at hearing the ingredients described. These faces of disgust, however, invariably come from people who have never tried such foods. Try it - it's great. Try haggis too.

Black pudding is sometimes known as blood sausage, and it essentially dried and congealed blood, with other ingredients such as oatmeal (common in the UK). In the UK, pig blood is the most common type of blood used to make black pudding.

Answer: A seafood platter

"Fruits de mer" is French for "fruits of the sea", and refers to the bountiful selection of delicious seafood. On such a platter you may expect to find molluscs such as oysters, clams, and mussels, as well as crustaceans, like crab, prawns, and shrimp. Fruits de mer platters do not tend to include fish, though this statement is rendered redundant by the fact that there is, biologically, no such thing as a fish. Unlike other classes of animals, what we consider to be fish cannot be unified by physiological or anatomical characteristics (e.g. all mammals lactate, all birds have feathers, etc). Fish have no such distinguishing trait. *Biology rant over*.

Answer: Cream crackers

The cream cracker originated in Ireland and its name refers to the "creaming" of the mixture during manufacture. It certainly has no cream in it and is in fact one of the driest things people allow to be put into their mouths. Certain rowdy British teens may accept a dare to do the "Cream Cracker Challenge", where they try and eat as many of these snacks within a given time. Many have tried, many have looked daft.

Though "cream cracker" is a now ubiquitous term in Britain, it seems to have not been that well known amongst the middle classes in the south of England in the early 20th century, as George Orwell expresses confusion at hearing the term when he visits the industrial north in his book "The Road to Wigan Pier".

Answer: A meat jelly

The meat in head cheese is obtained from the head of an animal (usually pig, but sometimes cow or sheep). But what about the "cheese"? The reason for this seems less certain, and it is a term usually used by North Americans. The same dish is more commonly known as "brawn" in the United Kingdom.

The meat is usually set in aspic (a gelatine made from meat stock and which is also the jelly-like substance which lines the pork in traditional pork pies).