#Food History
Quotes about food-history
Food history is a fascinating tapestry that weaves together the evolution of human civilization, culture, and innovation. It represents the journey of how our ancestors discovered, cultivated, and transformed the natural bounty of the earth into the diverse culinary traditions we cherish today. This topic delves into the origins of our favorite dishes, the migration of ingredients across continents, and the cultural exchanges that have shaped our palates over centuries. People are drawn to quotes about food history because they offer a glimpse into the past, revealing the stories behind the meals that have nourished generations. These quotes capture the essence of how food has been a cornerstone of community, identity, and survival. They remind us of the shared human experience, where every bite is a connection to our heritage and a testament to our ingenuity. Whether it's the humble beginnings of a staple grain or the luxurious indulgence of a rare spice, food history quotes resonate with those who appreciate the rich narrative behind every meal. They invite us to savor not just the flavors, but the stories that have been passed down through time, enriching our understanding of the world and our place within it.
Until the twentieth century, the threat of famine was a universal aspect of human existence across the world. Harvests failed; populations starved; for anyone but the wealthy, food wasn’t to be relied on. Even in rich countries such as Britain and France, ordinary people lived with the daily spectre of going to sleep hungry and spent as much as half their income on basic staples such as grain and bread.
But in most places, the new global diet has involved a narrowing down of what people eat. Our world contains around seven thousand edible crops, yet 95 per cent of what we eat comes from just thirty of those crops. As omnivores, humans are designed to eat a varied diet, so there’s something strange and wrong when, as a species, we become so limited in our choice of foods
Antoine-Auguste Parmentier was an eighteenth-century officer who popularized the potato in the French Army, and his name has ever since meant "with potatoes".
The most highly developed salt cod cuisine in the world is that of the Spanish Basque provinces. Until the nineteenth century, salt cod was exclusively food for the poor, usually broken up in stews.
Typical of Iberia, both the Basques and the Catalans claim the word comes from their own languages, and the rest of Spain disagrees. Catalans have a myth that cod was the proud king of fish and was always speaking boastfully, which was an offence to God. "Va callar!" (Will you be quiet!), God told the cod in Catalan. Whatever the word's origin, in Spain lo que corta el bacalao, the person who cuts the salt cod, is a colloquialism for the person in charge.
In Middle English, cod meant "a bag or a sack", or by inference, "a scrotum", which is why the outrageous purse that sixteenth-century men wore at their crotch to give the appearance of enormous and decorative genitals was called a codpiece.
Bringing this all together, the 1980s become and intensely significant point for the purposes of our understanding of what one could consider the degradation of our prison system and our food system in America: We see at that time period a sharp increase in the rates of diet-related disease, the number of incarcerated people, and the gap between the wealthy and the poor.
By 1937, every British trawler had a wireless, electricity, and an echometer - the forerunner of sonar. If getting into fishing had required the kind of capital in past centuries that it cost in the twentieth century, cod would never have built a nation of middle-class, self-made entrepreneurs in New England.
Much of the way food has been shaped and formed in prisons is due to the cultural thought about prisoners in general, and how they should be treated by society and by the state. Food in prison is a reflection of culture and cultural thinking about criminal justice and reform.