There’s something kind of comforting about knowing that even in the everyday world, there are things that might still surprise us.

I mean, who would have thought the process of making Panko breadcrumbs would be all that interesting?

It turns out that it is, though, and here’s why.

Panko breadcrumbs are used to add flavor and crunch to fried foods, most commonly in Japan, but they do have a unique texture that’s difficult to achieve.

The legend of how it began is that in World War II, Japanese soldiers wanted bread, but lacked ovens. So they decided to electrocute the dough, essentially baking it using the batteries on their tanks.

In reality, the Imperial Japanese Army designed a kitchen that could be deployed in the field that could prepare rice and bread, staples of their diet. They achieved this in 1937 with an insulated wooden box with electrode plates inside – a device that does, in fact, electrocute dough until it is baked.

“In ohmic heating, like in microwave heating, heat as such is not delivered to the food through its surface but is generated inside the food by conversion of another type of energy to heat.”

In fact, this review claims the method has a few advantages over traditional thermal cooking.

“The advantage of ohmic heating is that it uniformly heats in contrast with the non-uniform distribution of microwave heating. In the absence of a hot wall, ohmic heating provides a considerable advantage for foodstuff applications by not only avoiding the degradation of thermo-sensitive compounds through overheating but also by reducing the fouling of treated food surfaces during processing.”

They say the advantage improves food quality and saves cost and energy.

“Ohmic heating can produce safe, high quality food, and to validate any commercial process by experimentally demonstrating its application. The shelf life of ohmically processed foods is comparable to that of canned and sterile, aseptically processed products.”

After WWII, this method of making bread became the first step in making panko breadcrumbs, which are created using electrocution.

Who knew?

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a second giant hole has opened up on the sun’s surface. Here’s what it means.