I didn’t know a cheesecake had cheese in it!

[CormoranStrike]

Okay, not these days, cos I’m a sophisticated and cultured woman now, but I can clearly remember being utterly astonished as a teenager to find out a cheesecake had cheese in it.

In my defence, the only cheese in my house till then had been blocks of cheddar, or cheese slices. I had no idea that cheese could be anything other than orange!

What were your WTF discoveries, which seem even more bizarre through the lens of time?

I’m 43. I didn’t know until last year that sloths are real creatures.

Also as a child I wondered why people called it “public hair” for hair on your private parts! I was clearly reading it wrong and adding the L.

My dp didn’t know until recently that the skin is the largest organ in the body. He didn’t know it was an organ at all.

@Weedsnseeds1

Mince pies did originally have meat. It was quite popular in medieval times to have sweet, spiced, meat products. The suet in mincemeat is a relic of its past, although its mostly vegetarian suet now.

Tagine is spiced meat & fruit so not dissimilar.

I've just found the 1987 Centre Parcs first ever UK TV ad on YouTube. A huge dome appears at the beginning and at the end. Maybe that's what sublimely convinced so many of us that the whole site was under a dome.

When ds was about 3 he became obsessed with orcas I corrected him telling him they are called killer whales while wondering where he got the word orca from (which sounded like a plant)

Soy sauce - a fungal culture is added to wheat flour, which is used to inoculate steamed soya beans. These are then lowed to ferment for a while and then pressed to produce the sauce. Although it has to be labelled "contains gluten and soya" due to the ingredients, if you run a lab test on it, it will actually test negative for both as the proteins have been fully hydrolysed by the fungus.
Cheap soy sauce is made by acid hydrolysis.

ImAncient true. Some tagines also have honey, so even more medieval.

Blancmange was originally made with chicken. As a dessert!

I think I posted the wrong centre parcs link. Hopefully this is the one that I meant to post.

@ImFree2doasiwant

That the tongue sandwiches my nan used to make, we're made with an animals actual tongue

I was deliberately lied to about tongue. And kidneys.

I also didn’t realise tongue was actual tongue when I was a child. We regularly had it. Until one day I saw an unsliced one. And it was a very obvious fuck off big tongue. Never been able to look at It, never mind eat it since..

@OhWhyNot

London Cheesecake or what used to be known as cheese cake is a stale tasting flaky pastry with white icing and white wormy things on. Not sure what the white wormy things are

Coconut

'This is the magic of Santa Paws' 😂😂 That's what comes up on the the subtitles of that ad @cariadlet

I actually knew this, but it never ceases to amaze me that bag of nuts contain the warning "may contain nuts". I'd be heartily disappointed to discover wine gums in my pistachio bag.

I thought that Transylvania was a fictional place made up for Dracula until well into adulthood.

@frasersmummy

Wait Centre parcs aren't under a dome.. I thought that was the whole point!! 🤔

I've never been to one. Why do people think they're under a dome?

@DrMadelineMaxwell

I love the wtf faces I get in my class when we look at the life cycle of a dandelion and some of the 11 yo kids realise for the first time that the white seed heads are the same flower as the yellow dandelions.

They are

I’m Jewish and I think have known how to make a cheesecake since birth

However, grew up in London always having ‘London’ cheesecakes from the bakers which were just called cheesecakes. I loved Percy Ingles ones, but as I knew cheesecake should have cheese in it couldn’t understand why these were called cheesecakes. My siblings and I thought the stuff on the top was grated cheese coated in coconut and icing, guess that comes from not trying real coconut until adulthood.

Ours always had jam in though.

Because of the advertising it looked as though the whole of centre parcs was under the dome

And I’m sure they marketed it a holiday whatever the weather conditions

I thought it was all under one big dome and imagined it to be tropical heat

Rus gulle and a lot of Indian milk desserts are traditionally made from cheese too.

Wait how does the channel tunnel get to France if not through the water?
I also thought centre park was all under a big dome, like in the Simpsons movie.

I was shocked to find that Cottage Pies are not made out of actual cottages.

I don’t remember the jam in the cheesecakes

The coconut (which I love) had a waxy texture I think I assumed this was a weird type of cheese

Fruit was added with meat to help preserve meat and mask the smell and taste of meat going off

@Iwantacookie

Wait how does the channel tunnel get to France if not through the water? I also thought centre park was all under a big dome, like in the Simpsons movie.

Under the sea floor.

Blancmange was originally made with chicken. As a dessert!

I was in my early 20s before I realised the e in freight wasn’t a silent one. Had quite an embarrassing slip up in front of my boyfriend’s parents before I was corrected. I think I thought it was like the German ‘ei’ sound in words like zwei.

My mum used to make wee buns called cheesecakes, pastry bottom, jam in the middle and a sponge top. Not a bit of cheese in sight.

Can’t believe no one has made a Peter Kay reference yet..