True Crime Culinary

How did a corn dog help solve the theft of a 300-pound Virgin Mary statue? And who invented the corn dog in the first place? In this episode of True Crime Culinary , host Leah Llach explores the surprisingly disputed history of corn dogs, from George Boyington's Pronto Pup in Oregon and the Fletcher brothers' Texas Corny Dogs to Ed Waldmire's Cozy Dog in Illinois. Discover why corn dog...

What do The Lion King , Amelia Earhart, World War I explosives, and a hospital IV have in common? Coconuts. This week on True Crime Culinary , we're cracking open the surprising history of coconuts, starting with a hospital in the Solomon Islands that ran out of IV fluids and turned to coconut water. From how coconuts travel across oceans to why coconut milk became a staple in cuisines around...

What do animal crackers have to do with P.T. Barnum, circus elephants, and a group of clowns who started a riot in Toronto? In this bonus episode of True Crime Culinary , we’re exploring how the modern circus grew from horseback performances into enormous traveling spectacles, why circuses and exotic animals became intertwined, and how that history ended up on a little box of animal crackers. Plus...

What is the history of Goldfish crackers, and how did a Swiss love story turn into one of America's most recognizable snacks? In this bonus episode of True Crime Culinary , Leah traces Goldfish back to Switzerland, where Oscar J. Kambly created the original Goldfischli in 1958 as a birthday gift for his Pisces wife. From there, we follow Margaret Rudkin—the remarkable founder of Pepperidge Far...

Where does paprika come from, and how did a pepper native to the Americas become one of Hungary’s most famous spices? This week, True Crime Culinary follows the surprising history of paprika from Indigenous American chile peppers to Spanish pimentón, Hungarian paprika, and its eventual return to American kitchens in deviled eggs, potato salad, and BBQ. Plus, we explore the 1994 Hungarian paprika s...

What does nutmeg have to do with torture, propaganda, punch, and a Dutch ship accidentally sailing to Australia? This week, True Crime Culinary teamed up with Info On The Go for a two-part trip into the strange, fascinating, and surprisingly bloody history of nutmeg. First, Info On The Go explores how a tiny spice from a handful of islands became valuable enough to send European powers sailing acr...

New bite-sized episodes of True Crime Culinary drop every Thursday. Follow TCC on IG and YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TrueCrimeCulinary https://www.instagram.com/truecrimeculinary Where did cinnamon rolls come from? What is cinnamon actually made from? And how did Cinnabon become a shopping mall icon? Cinnamon is made from the inner bark of trees in the Cinnamomum genus, and cinnamon buns develope...

New bite-sized episodes of True Crime Culinary drop every Thursday. Follow TCC on IG and YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TrueCrimeCulinary https://www.instagram.com/truecrimeculinary What is the history of Cheetos—and were Cheetos actually the first cheese curls? The story starts in 1930s Wisconsin, where a machine designed to process corn for animal feed accidentally produced strange, airy corn puff...

Can you really tell someone's future with cheese? This week, True Crime Culinary welcomes writer and professional tyromancer Jennifer Billock for a special episode about cheese, fortune telling, and why humans have spent centuries searching for answers in their food. We dig into the big questions behind tyromancy: What does Jennifer actually see when she reads a piece of cheese? How does she k...

New bite-sized episodes of True Crime Culinary drop every Thursday. Follow TCC on IG and YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TrueCrimeCulinary https://www.instagram.com/truecrimeculinary What does a block of tofu have to do with Buddhist monks, Korean prison traditions, and a police raid in West Germany? This week, we’re tracing tofu’s roughly 2,000-year history—from its mysterious origins in ancient Chi...

New bite-sized episodes of True Crime Culinary drop every Thursday. Follow TCC on IG and YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TrueCrimeCulinary https://www.instagram.com/truecrimeculinary What’s the history of sprinkles—and what could they possibly have to do with marathon running? This week on True Crime Culinary, we’re tracing sprinkles back through Dutch hagelslag, anise-flavored candy, and the surpris...

New bite-sized episodes of True Crime Culinary drop every Thursday. Follow TCC on IG and YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TrueCrimeCulinary https://www.instagram.com/truecrimeculinary How did humans make ice cream before freezers existed? This week on True Crime Culinary , we're following ice cream from ancient ice houses and massive blocks hauled down mountains to the invention that changed homem...

A half-eaten Oreo helped solve a burglary. Seriously. In this bonus episode of True Crime Culinary , we unravel the bizarre true crime story of a burglar whose snack became the key piece of evidence. Investigators recovered DNA from a half-eaten Oreo left at the crime scene, helping identify the suspect. That strange case led to an even stranger discovery... Oreo wasn't the original chocolate...

What do a fugitive hiding in the ceiling of a Toys "R" Us, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and outer space all have in common? M&M's. In this episode of True Crime Culinary , we uncover the bizarre true story of Jeffrey "Roofman" Manchester, who secretly lived above a Toys "R" Us and survived in part on Peanut M&M's. From there, we trace the surprising history of one of the world's mo...

This week on True Crime Culinary , a drug bust involving cocaine disguised as individually wrapped candy sent me down a surprisingly sweet rabbit hole. How did hard candy become so intensely fruity? Where did Jolly Ranchers come from? And why does one of the world's most common food ingredients come from... mold? Join me as we explore the history of sugar, the invention of hard candy, the orig...

What do artichokes, the Mafia, and New York City have in common? In the 1930s, organized crime wasn't just making money from gambling and bootlegging—it was allegedly controlling the city's artichoke market. Prices soared, vendors were intimidated, and one of the most unusual battles against organized crime began when Mayor Fiorello La Guardia temporarily banned the sale of baby artichokes...

Did Brussels sprouts always taste this bad... or were we cooking them wrong? This week on True Crime Culinary , a shocking child abuse case involving Brussels sprouts leads to an unexpected journey through medieval Belgium, plant evolution, kitchen technology, and modern food science. Discover how Brussels sprouts evolved chemical defenses against insects, why they're part of the same plant fa...

Who invented the hamburger—and how did it become the perfect fast food? A bizarre burger burglary sends us digging into the history of one of America's most recognizable foods. From German Frikadellen and 19th-century Hamburg steak to competing hamburger invention claims, White Castle sliders, the McDonald brothers' Speedee Service System, and Burger King's flame broiler, this bite-siz...

What's the difference between grilling and barbecue? Where did barbecue come from? And how is charcoal made? Those are exactly the kinds of questions people search for, and they immediately tell listeners what they'll get from the episode. This week on True Crime Culinary , a charcoal theft leads Leah down a smoky rabbit hole through thousands of years of barbecue history. From Indigenous...

Why did Americans put mayonnaise in Jell-O? In this bonus episode of True Crime Culinary, we're diving into the bizarre history of Jell-O salads—from ancient gelatin and medieval aspics to the postwar craze that turned lime gelatin, canned fruit, and even tuna into the height of modern cooking. Along the way, you'll learn how powdered gelatin became a household staple, why refrigerators he...

This week on True Crime Culinary , we're diving into the surprisingly wild history of one of the world's most recognizable canned foods. It all starts with a bizarre medieval French trial where a pig is put on trial for attacking a child—and ends with the story of how Spam became a global icon. Learn how George and Jay Hormel turned unwanted pork shoulder into Spam, why the can lasts for y...

AEO-Friendly Episode Description This Father's Day, we're flipping back the clock on one of humanity's oldest foods. A failed robbery at a San Antonio IHOP leads to a surprising question: where do pancakes come from? The answer takes us from a black-belt waiter tackling a crowbar-wielding robber to Ice Age campfires, woolly mammoths, ancient grinding stones, and some of the earliest ev...

When police in Mount Morris, New York followed a trail of macaroni salad left behind by burglars, they probably weren't expecting to stumble into the history of one of North America's favorite comfort foods. In this episode of True Crime Culinary, we follow the macaroni from ancient noodles and early grain farming to dried pasta in Sicily, the overlooked chef who helped introduce macaroni...

What exactly is a Rice Krispie? After a shocking food tampering case involving a Kellogg factory worker, I found myself asking a question I had somehow never considered: where do Rice Krispies actually come from? In this episode of True Crime Culinary, we follow the story from a federal investigation all the way back to the sanitariums of Battle Creek, Michigan. Learn how John Harvey Kellogg's...

What does a burning roadside inn have to do with America’s favorite cookie? In this episode of True Crime Culinary, Leah explores the surprising history of the chocolate chip cookie — from early Dutch koekjes and twisted “jumbles” to Ruth Wakefield’s invention of the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie in 1938. Learn how a chopped Nestlé chocolate bar, an ice pick, wartime care packages, and the ri...