WEEKLY DISCUSSION SEPT 25 - OCT 1 History of Food
WEEKLY DISCUSSION SEPT 25 - OCT 1 History of Food
Some of us might consider certain customs related to food a "bad idea." One striking example was the ancient Romans' use of lead acetate as a sweetener. What, in your opinion, are some bad food ideas from the past? They don't have to be as deadly as consuming lead acetate, just a bad idea in your opinion.
I think I'll start with a share so that people feel more comfortable with discussing, as the weeks go by and I see people are reticent. To show you I'm totally encouraging and actually would love some subjectivity on expressing historical opinions, I'll share something from my very personal life. I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1970s, the use of gelatin in America was considered "fancy." This included suspending animal organ parts in aspic as a "fancy" presentation. Julia Child at the time, wow, it seemed like every episode of The French Chef was something about aspic. I saw nothing fancy or elegant about it. To me, even when I got a little older (like age 13), it was gross. It looked nasty, the texture was something like Jell-O crossed with chunky peanut butter, and the flavor was a bit gamey. I'm telling you, as an eyewitness to the past, aspic was a very bad idea. Nothing fancy-shmancy about it. I would venture to call it "barbaric."