Q 01/05

Which popular pet fish can survive long spells without any oxygen by making alcohol in its muscles?

A) Minnow

B) Goldfish

C) Guppy

D) Zebrafish

Answer · why

B) Goldfish

Goldfish and their wild cousins, crucian carp, turn the waste from oxygen-free living into alcohol that drifts out through the gills. Most backboned a...

Q 02/05

Captain James Cook took sauerkraut on his long sea voyages to protect his crew from which disease?

A) Typhus

B) Cholera

C) Dysentery

D) Scurvy

Answer · why

D) Scurvy

Scurvy comes from a lack of vitamin C, which raw sauerkraut supplies. Fermenting the cabbage also gave it the long shelf life needed for voyages that ...

Q 03/05

Surströmming, a fermented herring notorious for its smell, is a traditional delicacy of which country?

A) Sweden

B) Norway

C) Finland

D) Denmark

Answer · why

A) Sweden

Sweden's sour herring keeps fermenting inside the tin until the can bulges. The smell is so strong that it is usually opened and eaten outdoors.

Q 04/05

Iceland's national dish hákarl is made by fermenting and then drying the meat of which animal?

A) Seal

B) Whale

C) Shark

D) Puffin

Answer · why

C) Shark

Shark meat from the Greenland species is poisonous when fresh because it is full of urea. Curing and hanging it for months makes it safe, though the a...

Q 05/05

Which sweet treat gets its flavour from seeds fermented in their own pulp for days before roasting?

A) Liquorice

B) Chocolate

C) Marzipan

D) Nougat

Answer · why

B) Chocolate

Chocolate begins as cacao seeds heaped under mats or banana leaves for three to seven days. The heat of fermentation turns the purplish beans brown an...