Stupid meme. Many other countries also classify tomatoes in with vegetables for various commerce regulation and taxation purposes. That case was just capitalists trying to get out of paying tariffs by nitpicking the definition of a tomato
I hate these things where people twist reality just so they can make a cute “Americans are so dumb” meme. If you want to bash the US, there are plenty of relevant topics to choose from for criticism. Better yet, read a book once in a while instead of just scrolling the internet and grabbing random shit that’s gone viral.
This made me chuckle more than it should have
My stubborn position is that all fruits are vegetables.
Anything that comes from a plant (vegetation) is a vegetable.
Fruit is a scientific term. Vegetable is a culinary term.
Fruit is also a culinary term that is not identical to its meaning as a scientific term
That’s the one the SCOTUS used.
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Oh cool, now we can namedrop Schrödinger into this to give an even more educated impression.
That only makes you seem educated to the uneducated
A real Kroger Dinner situation.
I love you.
That’s not really a stubborn position. That’s definitively true.
All fruits are vegetables; not all vegetables are fruit.
As a former worker at a steel plant, I concur.
Underrated comment 👏
Care to explain to this poor guy?
Anything that comes from a plant is a vegetable
former worker at a steel plant concurs
Implying that steel workers are brainless
Thank you kind human
because they aren’t eaten for dessert
This sounds to me like a reasonable way to disqualify something as a culinary fruit.
Folks like make a big hullabaloo about tomatoes being technically a fruit, but no one gives a second thought about referring to peppers, cucumbers, green beans eggplant, avacado, pumpkins & other squash, or corn on-the-cob as vegetables even though they are all technically fruit.
And I was being picky there because beans, peas, grains and nuts are all also technically fruit. Heck, lots of “nuts” like peanuts and cashews aren’t even really nuts.
Keep your taxonomy out of my kitchen:
- Fruit are sweet.
- Vegetables are not.
- Grains make bread.
- Herbs and spices add a lot of flavor with a little bit. Herbs are the green ones.
- nuts are. They just are. Don’t think about it too hard.
Hold the presses!! Americans don’t count avocados as fruit?!
Is that because they’ve never eaten a tree ripened avocado? It’s not sweet like a mango, but it’s sweet. Eat a green banana or strawberry and see if it’s sweet. That’s no way to tell the dessert potential of produce!
Part of it might be that many of us have only had experience with the Haas variety, if any. And then most likely as guacamole.
I think this is more about which definitions to use for the purpose of tariffs than which definitions these things fall under.
Fruit are sweet. Vegetables are not.
Carrots, caramelized onions?
Those fruits are of the devil and the less we speak of them the better
You know that caramelized onions don’t come from a plant?
Sugar beet
Fruit are sweet.
Counterpoint: Oranges, pineapples
Those are incredibly sweet highly acidic foods. The acid is what balances the sweet.
Both of those are sweet and fruit…?
They are sour. Or tart, in case of pineapples.
You are buying shitty pineapple. To select a good pineapple:
Tug at the center most leaf on top of the fruit, it should give easily. It should smell like pineapple. The skin should be golden colored to slight green (sl underripe) or a very slight touch brown (overripe). The bottom should be dry. The very green ones that you can get for $2-3 never ripen properly as they were picked too early.
Informative.
Please change your username to ananasexpert.
I want to try the pineapples you’re getting. Ours are sweet, but that’s about it.
You tartness and sweetness are two orthogonal axes. A fruit can be both quite tart and quite sweet, like some varieties of pineapple and cherry.
Lemons and limes were right there man, they were right there
They’re not fruits by culinary definition.
Unless you eat them like oranges?😯
In that case, seek help.
Edit: On a serious note, I guess this is cultural difference?
Lemons and limes are definitely fruits in my culinary culture. What are they in yours, if not fruits?
Wait, you’ve found one! I consider peppers their own thing, culinarily speaking anyway, neither fruit nor vegetable.
The rest of your bullet points I basically agree with, but there’s also
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peppers are peppery, not always hot, red bell are sweet, and green bell tastes like feet.
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seeds are seedy, don’t think about the difference between them and nuts, some questions are not for mortal man.
Peppers are seasoning. ducks
You can season duck with peppers, sure. Seasoning is a verb, to season one uses herbs, spices, peppers, (or if we’re talking about cast iron, oil or wax.)
You don’t consider peppers spices? When something has a lot of pepper, wouldn’t you say it’s… spicy?
Riddle me that.
Red (or any) bell peppers, poblano peppers, banana peppers, Padrón peppers, cherry peppers, shishito peppers, habanada peppers, all peppers with no heat.
Furthermore “heat,” while commonly conflated with “spice,” is not “spice.” “Spices” are not necessarily “hot:”
Anise, allspice, cardamom, mustard seed, coriander, dill seed, clove, nutmeg, turmeric, saffron, vanilla, garlic, mace, sweet paprika, fennel, caraway, cumin, sumac, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and MORE!
are all not-hot spices. You have been riddled.
You missed a perfect opportunity to add the word picquant into the conversation.
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Fruits are edible seed pods. Nuts are inedible seed pods but have edible seeds.
Fruit makes wine.
Grain makes beer
Nuts in the right contexts make nougat, nut paste or babies.
Vegetables aren’t actually a thing though. Just a bunch of things we grouped because we like eating them.
Like fish.
There’s no such thing as a fish
Yes there is. Taxonomists aren’t the only people who give meaning to words
“Taxonomists aren’t the only people who give meaning to words”
Eloquently put! You’ve expressed a feeling that I have had for a while now and couldn’t quite put into the appropriate words! Thanks 🙏🏼
True. They are just water based government drones, to keep tabs on the mermaid population
*within taxonomy, I think most people can conceive of a fish in colloquial terms.
Whales are taxonomically fish.
No??? They’re mammals, where did you pull this information out of?
They are correct. You’re not wrong, whales are indeed mammals. But “fish” isn’t a monophyletic grouping, meaning you either need to give up on using it as a category or you need to correct it by including everyone sharing the same LCA, meaning mammals would be part of your “fish” grouping.
Of course, that’s how it works within biological classification. Colloquially, you can call them anything.
All mammals are taxonomically fish. Perhaps even all chordates. YOU are a fish!
After this conversation, I wish I was.
What they are trying to say: One cannot taxonomically group every animal we consider fish without also including all the mammals and i think even reptiles and birds. that’s because there are multiple taxonomic branches of fish that split off of the trunk before our ancestors started to walk on land, and not all of the fish in our branch decided to go on land, and continued their own branch. therefore yes: whales are fish and so are you. what does this mean? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
it is technically correct which is, of course, the best kind of correct.
I’m officially calling this post misinformation. See the text of the opinion (emphasis mine). They literally say “Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine”. This is not about whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable according to specific botanical or common definitions, but about which definition to use for the purpose of the Tariff Act of 1883. It doesn’t say that tomatoes are a vegetable. It doesn’t say that botanically they aren’t fruits. It says that for the purpose of the Tariff Act of 1883 they are vegetables, not fruits.
Nix v. Hedden, 149 U.S. 304 (1893)
[…]
MR. JUSTICE GRAY, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the Court.
The single question in this case is whether tomatoes, considered as provisions, are to be classed as “vegetables” or as “fruit” within the meaning of the Tariff Act of 1883.
The only witnesses called at the trial testified that neither “vegetables” nor “fruit” had any special meaning in trade or commerce different from that given in the dictionaries, and that they had the same meaning in trade today that they had in March, 1883.
The passages cited from the dictionaries define the word “fruit” as the seed of plaints, or that part of plaints which contains the seed, and especially the juicy, pulpy products of certain plants covering and containing the seed. These definitions have no tendency to show that tomatoes are “fruit,” as distinguished from “vegetables” in common speech or within the meaning of the tariff act.
There being no evidence that the words “fruit” and “vegetables” have acquired any special meaning in trade or commerce, they must receive their ordinary meaning. Of that meaning the court is bound to take judicial notice, as it does in regard to all words in our own tongue, and upon such a question dictionaries are admitted not as evidence, but only as aids to the memory and understanding of the court. Brown v. Piper, 91 U. S. 37, 91 U. S. 42; Jones v. United States, 137 U. S. 202, 137 U. S. 216; Nelson v. Cushing, 2 Cush. 519, 532-533; Page v. Fawcet, 1 Leon. 242; Taylor on Evidence (8th ed.), §§ 16, 21.
Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert.
The attempt to class tomatoes as fruit is not unlike a recent attempt to class beans as seeds, of which Mr. Justice Bradley, speaking for this Court, said:
“We do not see why they should be classified as seeds any more than walnuts should be so classified. Both are seeds, in the language of botany or natural history, but not in commerce nor in common parlance. On the other hand, in speaking generally of provisions, beans may well be included under the term ‘vegetables.’ As an article of food on our tables, whether baked or boiled, or forming the basis of soup, they are used as a vegetable, as well when ripe as when green. This is the principal use to which they are put. Beyond the common knowledge which we have on this subject, very little evidence is necessary or can be produced.”
You’re right, and I absolutely upvoted this. Can’t we just laugh at the funny but slightly inaccurate thing? Quit reminding people that America’s courts weren’t always such a joke.
Plus they make the national drink…ketchup.
So is ketchup technically a jam?
Yes according to the Dutch.
Botanically is there such thing as a “vegetable”?
VIC?!
Might have been more productive to let them pass it. Lesson learned kinda thing
Botanical vs culinary. Different contexts; different definition per context. There is not a problem here.
It wouldn’t be very patriotic of me to be patriotic of a foreign country.
Vegetable isn’t even a botanical definition.
“Fruit” within culinary is usually applied to “sweeter” forms of fruits, and the more savory forms usually get called “vegetable” instead regardless of being botanically called fruits or not.
Nix v. Hedden, 149 U.S. 304 (1893), is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court unanimously held that tomatoes should be classified as vegetables rather than fruits for purposes of tariffs, imports and customs. Justice Horace Gray delivered the opinion of the Court in holding that the Tariff Act of 1883 used the ordinary meaning of the words “fruit” and “vegetable”, instead of the technical botanical meaning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_v._Hedden
Yeah, I genuinely don’t see the problem here. There are much weirder classifications with regards to tariffs. (Note that I haven’t been able to fact check this, is could be a popular urban legend.) Converse shoes have a felt lining that makes them considered slippers instead of shoes. The practice is called tariff engineering. (That page lists the Converse thing, so maybe it’s actually true.)
Tomatoes are sweet
They’re also a Native American food that was made famous by Italians, celebrated by the Spanish, honoured by the French, used by the English and turned into Ketchup by the Americans … another bit of multicultural history of America.
What’s the deal with the background? Screenshots aren’t what they used to be, back in my day the worst that could happen was for the image to turn into a pixelated mess after being re-uploaded 1000 times.
Now I sometimes see images getting tilted by 5%, random words crossed out in yellow, and whatever the fuck happened here.
Idk, I stole the meme from somewhere
Because Fruits were taxed higher than vegetables, so importers started listing them as a vegetable.
It’s tax dodges all the way down.
Fruits are a subset of vegetables.
