How Curious Unknown Histories researches its stories, separates record from legend, uses AI in the work and pays for itself.
What we tell
Short histories of everyday foods and drinks: where they came from, how they traveled and why they are made the way they are. The stories are written for curious readers, not as academic texts, but they are meant to hold up when someone checks them.
Record and legend
Where a fact can be verified in published scholarship, historical chronicles or primary documents, it is checked and the source is named. Many food stories also live as legends. When a story belongs more to legend than to record, the text says so rather than presenting it as history.
Corrections
If you know a story differently and can point to a source, we would like to hear it. Corrections are made in the article and, where it matters, in the next edition of the book.
AI in the research
AI tools help with parts of the research and editing: finding and comparing sources, translating old references, organizing notes and tightening drafts.
The stories are The Taste Storyteller’s. Which story to tell, how to tell it and what to make of the evidence are human decisions. Every date, name and claim an AI tool produces is checked against a real source before it is used, and nothing is published without being read in full.
How the project is funded
Curious Unknown Histories is funded by the books in the collection. The Taste Storyteller or Curious Unknown Development may also have affiliate relationships or other financial interests connected with some of the books, shops, producers or products that appear on the site, and may earn a commission when readers use certain links.
None of that changes the stories. Nobody pays to appear in them, and nobody approves an article before it is published. A product or place is mentioned because it belongs to the story, not because of any commercial arrangement.