The story of Britain's oldest sweet, the Pontefract Cake (2019) | Hacker News Reader

The story of Britain's oldest sweet, the Pontefract Cake (2019)

bbc.com

12 pointsthomassmith6511 comments

An "sweet" made out of rotten roots, which tastes like medicine and is sticky enough to pull out fillings ... sounds like an english recipe to me.

Have you ever tried this stuff called "root beer" that Americans all seem to be into?

Sugary-sticky medicine flavoured stuff made from a poisonous plant. It's the sort of thing I'd expect from a country with absolutely no food culture like the US.

Ladies, ladies, stop with the quarreling. Both countries are equally terrible when it comes to gastronomy.

By "poisonous", you mean "slightly increasing the chance of cancer".

Not what most people call poisonous. Of course, we mix extracts of that root with the known poison, dihydrogen monoxide.

> the known poison, dihydrogen monoxide

Oh shit, they put that stuff in Root Beer? I hear that kills thousands of people every year—from kids to the elderly.

Yeah that shit is just loaded with hydric acid, too - it's got a pH of 7, the highest pH of any acid.

Goddamn, even Sulfuric only has a pH of 3, at most. That Dihydrogen monoxide stuff is DANGEROUS.

Where do you take the "rotten" part from? I assume it's made out of regular dried liquorice roots.

And they are also poisonous...

In 2004, healthcare professionals warned against overindulgence in Pontefract cake after a 56-year-old woman was admitted to hospital following an overdose. The woman consumed about 200 grams (7.1 oz) daily, leading to dangerously low potassium levels and subsequent muscle failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontefract_cake

At that dosage, this "sweet" is one of those things that must be locked away if there are any kids/dogs in the house.

If you're reading this in the UK and happen to have rats in the garden, try leaving some out for them. It's something even rats won't go near. Except possibly Scandinavian rats when the alternative is salmiak.

According to that universal source of all knowledge Wikipedia, "The word [cake] itself is of Germanic origin, from the Germanic 'kakâ' (cook)". Who says Germans don't have a sense of humor when they've got the Brits to name their oldest sweet "Pontefract kaka".

It's deliberately unappetising. The holy grail is hidden inside.

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