Why is it called that?

The food edition

Good morning!

Welcome to issue 5. A small one today! A feature I hope will make a regular occurrence and one I like to call: Why is it called that?

Well? Why are things called what they are? It’s something I ask myself often. And something I’m asked often, thanks to the small child I live with. I do quite enjoy being asked why all the time, though check back on me in a few months time.

My thanks, as always, to Ferry Gouw for this letter’s illustrations.

Until next time!

Your pal,
Katie

WHY IS IT CALLED THAT?

Jumbo

Jumbo sausage, jumbo packs of toilet roll (Thanks, Costco). But how did big things get to be called jumbo? 

Jumbo the elephant, the ‘largest animal in the world’, was a main attraction at London Zoo before being sold in 1882 to P.T Barnum (of “The Greatest Showman” movie fame — god, I hated that movie). By the time Jumbo died his name had come to mean anything large in size.

Justice for Jumbo!

Digestive biscuits

In the early nineteenth century it was thought that baked goods made with baking soda helped ward off indigestion and wind. So when Alexander Grant came along and invented a biscuit made with large quantities of the stuff it was an instant hit. 

Named the Digestive, it actually did very little to aid digestion. But despite this the digestive remained popular and even today is still seen as a ‘healthy’ biscuit. Is it because it’s brown?

Digestive titbit
A digestive biscuit broke up the Beatles. Geoff Emerick, the sound engineer and producer, recounts in his book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles the moment Yoko nicked one of George’s wife’s digestive biscuits, causing a huge row to break out between John and George. This, apparently, was the beginning of the end. No one, it seems, likes a biscuit thief.

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Do you have a good story behind the name of something? You can reply to this email. I’ll share the best ones in the next Why is it called that?

VERY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

1. As a kid I uses to always order a jumbo sausage instead of fish with my chips. Is this weird?

2. Would you steal someone’s biscuit?

3. Digestive biscuits are definitely god tier biscuits, right?!

4. Did anyone actually like the Greatest Showman?
   

SHARING IS CARING, etc

If you enjoy this silly little newsletter and think someone else would, please feel free to forward it onto them because I am crap at social media and promoting. Thanks!