Just when I think I have a half-decent grip on reality, it seems a social media post comes along to prove me wrong.
There was the Reddit post which taught me that bricked-up windows not only appear on some new-builds, but are meant to create a manufactured charm which is sometimes council-mandated.
Then came the X which led me to ask: wait, what do the non-fluffy parts of towels even do?
(An expert told us they’re called “dobby borders,” and help the towel’s structural integrity, give hotels space for branding, and make them easier to stack).
And now, a post shared by Redditor u/NotBruceJustWayne to r/AskUK has led me down another rabbit hole.
“Is there a definitive difference between chicken strips and tenders?” they asked.
Chicken tenders and chicken strips are not the same
A top-voted comment under the post read: “Chicken tender is the pectoralis minor, the muscle part of the chicken breast. Chicken strips can be made up of meat from any part of the chicken.”
Of course, that’s just a commenter’s opinion – but it seems they’re right.
The New York Times explains that chefs in the 1970s weren’t sure what to do with the pectoralis minor, which is “not used for walking or flapping the wings, so it is a very tender piece of meat.”
The weaker section of the breast sometimes fell apart from the rest of the section when it was butchered, the publication adds, which was annoying when frying or otherwise cooking chicken.
They claim chef Charlie Pappas was the first to fry the previously inconvenient part of the chicken breast on its own, calling the resulting food “chicken tenders.”
Meanwhile, chicken strips are typically made from breast meat, but don’t have to be.
Sometimes, chicken strips are made from chicken tenderloin, but chicken tenders are never made from any other part of the breast.
People were pretty surprised by the news
If you’re surprised by the revelation, you’re not alone.
“This is news to me,” u/NotBruceJustWayne commented under the original Reddit post.
“I always assumed it was just two names for the same thing,” u/AveryValiant added.
Some thought the confusion was heightened by American terms, though.
″‘Chicken tenders’ is the American term for what we’d call mini fillets,” u/SoggyWotsits opined.
Still, I didn’t know those were different either (what does anything mean?!).