To Dine at Kew: The Meals of George III and His Household | Hacker News Reader

To Dine at Kew: The Meals of George III and His Household

recipes.hypotheses.org

22 pointspepys10 comments

> to think about how food was used to encode social relations within homes where master and servant ate food produced in the same kitchens, and from the same supply chains

The triumph of capitalism and democracy has been the erosion of many of these distinctions. Consider that even now in this new Gilded age:

- Billionaires and housekeepers have the same phones, and the deliberately ostentatious Vertu failed because all it could offer was an inferior phone with a few gems glued on.

- Drive around Palo Alto and yes, you see a couple of A8s and escalades, and quite a few Mercedes. But the bulk of the cars in my neighborhood are the same Prius, Tahoe, Camaro than you see in the Central Valley, if, it's true, typically newer.

- migrant workers can pick up the phone and talk with their family; less than a couple of decades ago to be a migrant worker was to vanish for a time, or forever.

- It's the same facebook site for everyone (or it's a unique FB page to everyone, depending on how you look at it).

- Everybody can watch the same TV shows and movies; in their "private theatre"

- Anybody in the middle class, even the lower rungs, has flown on a plane.

Not to mention the usual list of reasons always trotted out that all but an infinitesimal slice of the OECD population has a better material life than George could dream about.

Of course there remain enormous disparities in health care, nutrition, and other factors. But the trend, in particular with new technologies, is running against it.

While the substance of the tools that everybody use has mostly converged, there are still many signals of wealth that I think you overlook.

- The iPhone X and Apple Watch with Hermes bands are a far cry from an average Android phone.

- I see plenty of Teslas in PA/MTV. But that aside, I see even more Google/FB buses - isn't that a higher level of differentiation, where you Uber/Lyft or take the corporate shuttle to get driven around?

- Ok, I mean there are still arbitrary borders and restrictions on immigration that make being a migrant worker a living hell in many places of the world. I'd guess they aren't experiencing a triumph of capitalism (or democracy, they can't vote in the places they work).

- Other social networks thrive on differentiation - Tinder Gold and The League position themselves as the dating apps where you can avoid the ugly and the plebian

- Mass media content has always been intended to be consumed by the masses. But that doesn't mean that it's the same content that the rich consume. Broadway shows and other in person performances are not replicated by TV or other mediums. I had a very interesting conversation about how the movie/theater divide plays out in Cuba but perhaps that's for another time. - It's odd to talk about the egalitarianism of travel by saying 'everyone has flown on a plane.' The transformation of air travel into a necessity is an artifact of the accelerating pace of global commerce which has created these very distinctions. The latest trends in air travel are in fact the additional polarization of the experience for the rich and poor - the near-universal embrace of 'basic economy' at the same time as 'ultra-luxury' flights a la United Polaris, Boom, or anything from Emirates.

Tinder gold only lets you see who liked you – and it's really not that expensive

Sorry, Tinder Select https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/08/there-s-a-secret-celebri...

Your examples need a reality check. In the prosperous US, median household income is $59,000 per year. Many people cannot afford cars, computers, phones, or TVs.

I happen to agree with the general thesis that poor people in the US are relatively well off, compared to much of the world’s population. For example, a huge percentage of India doesn’t have electricity or basic sanitation.

Still, it’s wrong to overstate the situation.

Soupe Sante, 4 chickens, tendrons of lamb; mutton cotellets; Emince of Pullets; 71/2 Veal Collops; a haunch of venison; 2 large soles; a leg of Portland mutton; 83/4 muttons; Richmond duck; Capon; 3 pigs trotters; asparagus; potted meat; Genoise; ¾ prawns; celery and pomme de terre.

If this is him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III_of_the_United_Kingd..., he still lived to 81 years of age.

edit: I know he didn't eat it all

It would be nice to link to the source, if it's available online. In fact, the raw data would be far more interesting to me than digested nuggets.

I found very interesting that the sample meal shown was very, very heavily pure meat. Today's meals tend to include substantial "bread"/starch component for each meat: whether a bun, breaded chicken, potatoes. That appears absent or much reduced on this menu.

Well, I think you can assume there was bread, alongside the pomme de terre which are on the menu; and we don't have relative quantities for everything, or know how many people were eating. Variety, though, is a large part of what makes a meal opulent - e.g. tasting menus usually have 10 to 20 courses when you include the various little nibbles in between courses. And indeed, tasting menus typically have a different meat for every dish; if you listed them in this format, they'd look very meat heavy too.

also this is the king's meal so a very meat heavy meal as a sign of opulence seems to make more sense.

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