How The Hell Did It All *Begin*?

[Pickles]

What food creation do you find the most puzzling. Like..."who the hell thought to add X to Y and come up with Z!!"

Do you ever get curious about the very FIRST person who discovered that meat that fell into the fire accidentally (?) just tasted better? That's pretty basic stuff. But...how did our mother sauces happen? I wonder who was the ONE person who decided to mix eggs and oil to make mayonnaise. Or flour, butter and milk to make bechamel. And how about the person who FIRST mixed eggs, flour, milk and sugar to make...cake? This remains such a sacred mystery to me. For all of us who love food, there has to be ONE PERSON...one HUMAN BEING...who discovered that oysters taste good, that berries cooked in pie crust are more delectable than eaten raw....that tomatoes aren't something to be feared but eaten. Someone made ketchup for the first time in China! Man. It boggles my mind. All happy accidents perhaps. I love the book "Food In History" by Reay Tannahill. If you have other food history books you'd like to share please make them known.

[fifi]

I tend to think that most of these questions will ever be answered definitively. However, I am currently "dipping back into" a fascinating book. That book is History of Food by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat (translated by Anthea Bell). The book is very thick and has an extensive bibliography. It comes as close as I have found at getting to the origin of things as much as possible. Since it was originally a French book, it is from that point of view. However, it does not neglect the influence of other countries/regions. It is also quite witty. I highly recommend it.

[Pickles]

I tend to think that most of these questions will ever be answered definitively.

Maybe I need to clarify? I am not asking for anyone to tell us who invented mayo or mother sauces or french fries. We can't know this for sure. I am curious as to:

What food creation do you find the most puzzling. Like..."who the hell thought to add X to Y and come up with Z!!"

The book you mentioned sounds great! Love that stuff.....

Edited July 9, 2004 by Pickles (log)

[fifi]

Given your reply, I think you will find the book that I cited very interesting.

[Squeat Mungry]

Given your reply, I think you will find the book that I cited very interesting.

Fifi, thanks for the book recommendation. I am going to seek it out -- this subject is very interesting to me as well. Are you familiar with Reay Tannahill's Food in History? I found it to be quite fascinating. Ms. Tannahill also includes a very interesting bibliography and quite extensive notes on sources.

Cheers,

Squeat

[gwilson]

It's so funny, because I think about this a lot. I actually have the idea of a story involving the invention of a particularly French dish that I'm researching now.

And I love a quote/joke I heard a while back. I have no idea who said it, but I believe it was a male comedian in the mid 90's maybe. Anyway, he's talking about food. And he says (paraphrased), "Who's the first guy who ate lobster? I mean, who first saw a lobster and said, 'Hey! A giant bug! I bet that would be good with some melted butter.'" Cracks me up every time I think about it.

-Greg

[cakewalk]

In addition to wondering who ever thought of adding X to Y in the first place, I often wonder about things like: who ever figured out how to eat an artichoke? And why? I mean, why didn't they just leave the darn things alone? (I mean, I'm glad they didn't, but still ...) And acorns. Acorns are poisonous, no? Unless you do all sorts of things to them, which makes them okay. Well who figured that out? And how many people died in the process? This stuff keeps me up at night.

[srhcb]

I've always subscribed to the theory, put forth by Charles Lamb in his "Dissertation n Roast Pig", that cooking, like most of mankind's other accomplishments, was a result of serendipity.

In Lamb's essay, a Ancient Chinese gentleman has a favored pig. But he must take a journey, so he encloses the pig in his house, for safe keeping. Down the road a way, the Chinese gentleman sees lightning strike his house and set it afire. Hurrying back, he arrives just as the house is "in ashes". He smells something interesting. It is the pig, roasted. He cuts off a piece and tastes it. Yummy!

So, later, the Chinese gentlemman

builds another house;

puts a pig in it;

burns down the house;

and eats roast pig.

With only sight modifications and refinements, the basic practice continues to this very day.

[FunJohnny]

Fernand Braudel's The Structures of Everyday Life, part of his Civilization and Capitalism trilogy which is an economic history of Europe (15th-18th Century) has a very interesting and enlightening discussion of food, comparing and contrasting the eating habits of Europe with other regions during this formative period of modernity.

[johnnyd]

History of Food is an excellent book, a must-have for our crowd. Picked it up for $15 at borders in April.

In the same vein, I wonder why some things are missing the mark:

I worked on an island in the Gulf of Maine for a time and I expected a rich selection of fish at the one market there. There was only frozen Halibut from Alaska! I'm smack in the middle of the seafood breadbasket of New England!!!

Turns out there is no demand. Most of the islanders don't like fish! I figure the taste for it is a victim of dwindling stocks or maybe too young a gastronomic tradition, say, 3 or 4 generations. Too many potatos? Makes you wish the Indians won...

Edited July 9, 2004 by johnnyd (log)

[Abra]

Coffee, by a mile! Someone decided to: pick the berries, let 'em rot in the sun, wash off the rotted goo, remove and dry the remaining seed, roast that seed, grind it, pour boiling water over it, and drink the resulting brown liquid. Boggles the mind every time.

[chefdg]

Oysters!!! How in the hell did someone ever figure out that there is something inside of these rocks? And then have the courage to eat it.

[andiesenji]

For me it is things that are basically inedible unless they are rigorously processed.

Olives, for instance, who figured out how to make them edible, and why?

And manioc - the root is poisonous. How many people died before someone discovered that if it was grated, the liquid squeezed out and the pulp roasted it was then edible?

Same with potatoes, the wild potato is poisonous. How did the ancient Incas discover that with selective breeding they could develop a non-poisonous tuber? And why did they do it? There were other foods available.

I have a vision of an early-day Luther Burbank-type Inca, cross pollinating plants then when the tubers developed, feeding some to a slave to see if it was still poisonous. Ooops, back to the drawing board for another cross. Maybe if the slave just got sick, instead of keeling over, he knew he was on the right track and tossed out all the others and concentrated on that one.

How was corn (maize) developed? There is no true wild ancestor still extant. There are genetic relatives but you wouldn't recognize them as corn.

And why did cultivation of food plants begin in widely scattered parts of the world at about the same time.

Of all the claims for visits from aliens, this is the one and only thing that would make me believe it might be possible.

[Pickles]

Olives, for instance, who figured out how to make them edible, and why?

And olive oil! Who ever thought of pressing olives and using this wonderful "juice" to cook things in? Who mixed it with vinegar and poured it on greens..and why? It's really amazing, isn't it?

[hjshorter]

I love this topic. Food in History is good, and so areMuch Depends on Dinner by Margaret Visser and Near a Thousand Tables by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

[fifi]

How was corn (maize) developed?  There is no true wild ancestor still extant.  There are genetic relatives but you wouldn't recognize them as corn. 

Actually, I have read the first reasonable explanation of maize in History of Food. It seems that somewhere around Peru and Bolivia, several thousand years ago, maize naturally hybridized itself with a grass like plant called teosinte. How this got figured out takes a few pages in the book but there you are.

Near a Thousand Tables is another favorite of mine.

[alacarte]

My personal food history favorite is Richard J. Hooker's A History Food and Drink in America . It's out of print now, but the NY Public Library has a copy I use for reference sometimes.

[bloviatrix]

I've always wondered who realized the truffle was edible. And to expand on fungi further - who determined what mushrooms were ok to eat and which were poisonous?

[Pickles]

who determined what mushrooms were ok to eat and which were poisonous?

The one who was still standing upright and breathing?

[alacarte]

who determined what mushrooms were ok to eat and which were poisonous?

The one who was still standing upright and breathing?

I frequently wonder about the "failed experiments" through history too!

[Pan]

There's a bean that grows wild in Malaysia called Buah Berus. It's poisonous unless boiled in 7 changes of water, and since that takes a long time, the only time I ate it (in the form of cakes made with it) was in the monsoon season. One wonders how people figured out that that poisonous bean could be made safe for human consumption.

[gingerly]

count the notches on that tribal leaders kitchen hut..

[petite tête de chou]

I wonder who thought that the gelatin from boiled animal cartilage would make a yummy picnic item...just color it green and add pears!! ohmigod.

[andiesenji]

There's a bean that grows wild in Malaysia called Buah Berus. It's poisonous unless boiled in 7 changes of water, and since that takes a long time, the only time I ate it (in the form of cakes made with it) was in the monsoon season. One wonders how people figured out that that poisonous bean could be made safe for human consumption.

That is like the lupini bean, a favorite Italian snack.

I don't know how poisonous it is but it is very, very bitter until it has been processed through many changes of water.

I do know that it can be a problem in places where cattle, sheep and other domestic animals feed.

[Adam Balic]

I imagine that the chances of coming across a potentially new food item have been quite rare throughout most of human and pre-human history. I imagine that what happened was a variation on the theme of:

Oooh look at that funny nut/berry/mushroom/root etc, I wonder if you can eat it?

a- will ask if anybody has seen it before or has any information on it.

b- if not will taste a tiny bit, if it is bitter/makes the tongue tingle etc, spit it out, if not wait a day and see if I am sick etc. If I feel OK, then goto d)

c- If the nut/berry/mushroom/root etc is bitter, if I really need a potenial source of nutrition, I will cook/soak/squeeze out the juices and see if it tastes better, then goto b)

d- Will eat a little more and see if I feel sick, if not, repeat again, if so goto c)

It would have been sensible to have special people didicated to the task, as what may not kill you in small amounts , may do so in greater amounts. I would guess that these people spent a lot of the time being stoned out of their gourd or bumping off people they didn't like very much, claiming it was the will of the Gods etc, when actually is was some castor bean extract/fly agaric dust/finely slivered leopard whiskers mixed into the victims water/beer etc.