When Did This Happen? Sadly Way Behind The Times ........

I think I really ought to start helping Darrell a little more in the kitchen, although I know there will be undoubted protestations ........

 ...... however yesterday I discovered something that until now I had hitherto been totally unaware of .....

...... to wit, I'd always blithely assumed that the humble Oxo cube, be it red, yellow or green  was a tightly compressed, properly square cube of dehydrated stock, no ifs or buts ......

 ..... soooooooo imagine my surprise when I discovered that they are actually a flattened edge X shape!  How, what, why and when did this happen?  I felt so ashamed that something so basic and simple had just gone right over my head (and into my gravy)!  What am I like?

Darrell said not to worry, gravy is gravy, whatever the shape or form of the stock. He couldn't remember when it happened either, but he thought it might have come about as a cost saving exercise, think how much Oxo could be saved by taking four triangular pieces out of the aforementioned cube without anyone really taking heed, after all, look how long it had taken me!

My sad lack of knowledge in culinary developments then got even worse, because rather than have questions asked in Parliament I did my own research only to find that this change came about in 2009, according to the manufactures to make the cubes easier to crumble ......... I hang my head ........ in shame!