ANTH 205 Lecture 6

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History of Food, part 2

Agricultural revolution ~11 Kya

• Cannot be undone
• Environment defined developing cuisine to some extent
• Creativity added to cuisine
• differentiation between elites/serfs based on agriculture (haves / have nots)

3 Inventions that creeped into Europe (from China) and changed everything:

• Gunpowder (13^th centruy)
• Compass (14^th century)
• Printing Press (15^th century)

In the late 1400s

• 1492 to be exact, Cristoforo Colombo stumbled across the new world.
• 1497 to be exact, Vasco da Gama went in the opposite direction to find a water route to India

The Columbian Exchange

Americas introduced

• Beans
• Chocolate
• Maize
• Peanuts
• Pineapples
• Potatoes (later adopted as result of famine, then wiped out by another famine)
• Pumpkins
• Squash
• Sweet Potatoes
• Tobacco
• Tomatoes (later adopted in 17^th century; originally thought to be poisonous)
• Turkeys (caught on very quickly; Portugese law once mandated that any returning ship had to bring back at least 10 turkeys)
• Chili Peppers

Europe offered

• Cattle
• Chickens
• Citrus
• Coffee
• Grapes
• Horses
• Onions
• Peaches
• Pigs
• Rice
• Sugarcane
• Wheat

Voyages originally set out in search of spices.

• Native to south Asia and India
• Land-based trading routes existed even during Roman empire
• Caught on quite well in Europe (high demand), but supply was short
• At one point, Venice controlled all spice trading
• 1 lb ginger ($12) = 1 sheep
• 1 lb nutmeg ($30) = 7 fat oxen (7 × $1000)

Spice Wars

Open warfare over access to spices

• Portugese established spice trading industry
• Dutch (VOC; East trading company) took over and ripped off the Portugese (stock exchange)
• English came and did the same thing)

Lots of people moving around, Europe ↔ Asia

• In South Africa, there's a group of people of Indian descent who have a traditional dish made from ingredients (pumpkins and chili peppers) native to the Americas.

Sugar

• Higher value than wheat
• Native to southeast asia
• Not crystallized until 5^th century (brown)
• By 7^th century, Persians refined it to white sugar
• Didn't reach Europe until crusades
• Grows really well in the Americas (single-handedly created slave trade)
• Dessert course introduced in 17^th century

Chocolate, Coffee, and Tea

Chocolate (Theobroma cacao = "food of the gods")

• drank with chili peppers
• adopted by conquistadors
• added sugar made it popular in Europe by the 17^th century

Coffee

• Found in Africa by the 9^th century.
• 15^th century: widespread production
• Caught on in Islam population (middle east) due to prohibition against alcohol
• 17^th century: became popular in Europe

Tea

• Most popular drink in the world (next to water)
• Probably native to China
• Popular among Bhuddists as an alcohol alternative
• followed along the spice trade

Canning

Modern era: canning and jarring

France in 1795: improve soldiers' and sailors' diets by preserving food

• Cheap to produce
• Easy to transport
• Better-tasting than current preservation methods

Nicholas Appert

• A confectioneur, experimented with sealing food in champagne bottles
• Boil jars once food was inside (Pasteur later showed why this works)
• Gave away his method for free
• British also adopted technique, but used tin cans (with lead sealant)

Now how do we get the food out?

It took 50 years to develop can-opener (previously used hammer and chisel, bayonet, whatever)