Funny You Should Ask

The QI elves are a team of writers and comedians who find the answers to impossible questions, doing the research for the long-running QI TV series, podcasts and the spin-off books. For the next little while, we’ll be running some of their finest findings: the weird, wonderful, witty and wise, from their latest book, Funny You Should Ask ... Again.

Why do we say someone is an “unsavoury character” if they are unpleasant? If they were unsavoury, wouldn’t they be sweet?

The word “savoury” used to mean “sweet”. It dates back to the 1200s, when it meant something or someone pleasant or agreeable. In the late 1300s, it evolved to mean a foodstuff that tasted good, then nearly 150 years later “savoury” began to be used to describe bitter or salty-tasting food, which has outlasted its earlier meanings.

The word “unsavoury” originally meant “flavourless”, but evolved to mean something that tasted bad. Later, it came to be used to describe a person who was unpleasant.

Although “savoury” has meant “not sweet” for centuries, the proper term for the savoury flavour is “umami”, but it was not scientifically named until 1909. It was discovered by Japanese chemist Kikunae

Ikeda, who analysed the chemical composition of seaweed broth and worked backwards until he isolated a chemical called glutamate, which is found in cheese, tomatoes, meat and other savoury foods. Umami is a play on the Japanese word umai, which means “delicious”. Ikeda’s scientific paper wasn’t translated into English until 2002, which may be why the idea is less well known in the Western world.

Puddings also used to be savoury (in the “not sweet” sense). Originally, a “pudding” was a 13th-century sausage made from the stuffed stomach, neck or entrails of a sheep or pig. We don’t recommend serving it with custard.

Extracted from Funny You Should Ask … Again, by the QI Elves (Faber, $27.99), which is out now.