ARE YOU A FOODIE egghead?

Do you know who the real Granny Smith was, how avocados got their name — and what Bisto stands for? As experts trace the true history of sirloin steaks . . .

Foodies who regard a juicy sirloin steak as a meal fit for a king were licking their lips with anticipation last week, when a 17th-century menu purporting to show the origin of the cut’s name went up for auction.

According to the document of dishes from 1617, James i found the meat so delicious that he knighted it ‘sir Loin’.

it’s a delightful anecdote, but caused consternation among food historians who maintain the term actually comes from the French sur la longe, meaning a cut of meat from ‘above the loin’.

Whatever the truth, MARK MASON reveals some of the tastiest stories behind other food names . . .

GRANNY SMITH APPLE

The apple variety was cultivated by Maria Ann smith in Australia in 1868. By then an old woman, she had originally emigrated from Britain, and was born in the sussex village of Peasmarsh.

By extraordinary coincidence, a farmhouse in the village is now owned by sir Paul McCartney who, along with the other Beatles, started the Apple record label, whose logo was . . .a Granny smith.

AVOCADO

The name comes from ahuacatl, an Aztec word for ‘testicle’ (because of the shape). The French for avocado is

avocat, which is also the word for a lawyer (an advocate), and this is why a poorly translated menu in switzerland once offered ‘half a lawyer with prawns’.

BISCUIT

FROM the Latin bis (twice) and coctus (cooked), because biscuits were originally baked twice, once to cook them and again to dry them out. The hard italian biscuits known as biscotti are still made this way.

NACHOS

IN 1943, some wives of U.s. soldiers stationed in Texas went on a shopping trip to Piedras negras, a town across the border in Mexico. They decided to get lunch at ignacio ‘ nacho’ Garcia’s restaurant and, even though he had just closed for the day, Garcia agreed to make them a snack from the few ingredients he had left.

Cutting some tortillas into triangles, he fried the thin bread with cheese and jalapeno peppers. The women asked him what the dish was called. Thinking on his feet, he replied: ‘nacho’s specials.’

BISTO

THE powder was invented in 1908 by Messrs roberts and Patterson, two men from Cheshire whose wives had asked for an easy way to make gravy.

The name is short for ‘browns, seasons and thickens in one’.

TARTE TATIN

STEPHANIE TATIN and her sister Caroline ran the hotel Tatin in the French town of Lamotte-Beuvron in the 1880s. one day, while making an apple pie, stephanie forgot about the fruit she had left cooking in butter and sugar, and it started to burn.

she tried to rescue the dish by placing pastry on top and putting it in the oven. she then turned the resulting tart upside down.

it was such a success that it became synonymous with the hotel.

KING EDWARD

THE potato variety was introduced in 1902, the year of edward Vii’s coronation. it’s entirely fitting that such a filling food should be named after the monarch — he was a keen fan of eating, so much so that he started the fashion of leaving the bottom button of your waistcoat undone after a meal (in his case out of necessity).

he also began weighing his guests when they arrived at sandringham, and then again on their departure, to check that they had been fed sufficiently.

PAVLOVA

THE dessert was named after the russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. The lightness of the meringue was intended as a tribute to her grace as a dancer.

HP SAUCE

THE spicy condiment was produced in small batches by Frederick Gibson Garton, a nottingham shopkeeper, in 1895. When he heard that restaurants in the houses of Parliament were serving it, he started using the initials ‘hP’ to cash in on the publicity. The famous picture of the elizabeth Tower on the label currently shows scaffolding, to reflect its ongoing restoration.

BEEF WELLINGTON

THE dish of meat in pate and pastry was named in honour of the duke of Wellington, possibly because the ingredients’ different shades of brown resembled those of the polished leather boot favoured by the great military leader (he thought they offered more protection in battle).

This is also the origin of the name ‘Wellington boot’.

SPAGHETTI

THE literal meaning of the word is ‘little strings’. similarly

linguine (like spaghetti, but more flattened) means ‘little tongues’, while ultra-thin vermicelli means ‘little worms’.

PIZZA MARGHERITA

THE pizza’s toppings of red tomato, white mozzarella and green basil give it the same colours as the italian flag. This was why the owner of a restaurant in naples served it to Margherita of savoy, the Queen of italy, when she visited his establishment in 1889.

CAESAR SALAD

ON JULY 4, 1924, Caesar Cardini, the owner of a restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico, had his kitchen stocks depleted by a rush of visitors from just over the border in the U.s., who wanted to celebrate independence day but who were forbidden from drinking by Prohibition.

All the chef had left was lettuce, eggs, olive oil, croutons and Worcestershire sauce. so he threw them together and created the famous Caesar salad.

That’s quite a way to celebrate!

CROISSANT

ACCORDING to stories repeated about several different battles from history (such as the Battle of Tours in 732, or the siege of Vienna in 1683), the croissant was invented to commemorate the defeat of islamic forces by their opponents.

Whatever the truth, it’ s certain that the word denotes the pastry’s shape — it’s French for ‘crescent’ (one of the symbols of islam).

PUMPERNICKEL LOAF

PUMPERN was a German word meaning ‘flatulent’, while nickel denoted ‘old nick’, or the devil. The German rye bread was seen as so heavy and hard to digest that it would make even the devil break wind.

CHOP SUEY

THE Chinese dish of meat or fish cooked with eggs and vegetables, such as bean sprouts and celery, may sound delicious. But the name becomes slightly less appetising when you learn that it derives from tsap seui, the Cantonese word for ‘miscellaneous leftovers’.

BOVRIL

THE name of the meaty drink, which was developed in the 1870s, combines ‘ bovine’ (as in cows) and ‘ Vril’, a mysterious strength- giving substance from edward Bulwer- Lytton’s 1870 science fiction novel The Coming race.

CIABATTA

YOU might think the air-filled bread is a centuries-old creation, but actually it dates from 1982.

Indeed, it was invented by a baker in the city of Verona, who thought the shape of the loaf resembled his wife’s slipper — or ciabatta in italian.