For centuries, England’s go-to apple utensil was a sheep bone

atlasobscura.com

55 points·bookofjoe··10 comments

Atlas Obscura is one of my favorite places on the Internet.

They have a podcast, too! And some very interesting food specialties as well.

If someone from those times got as much pleasure and satisfaction from a sheep bone as I get today from my phone, or more even, what does that tell us about the nature of pleasure and satisfaction?

That other people's qualia are inaccessible?

Quite, and yet the magnitude of their pleasure may be mirrored by their smile.

that it is like warm apple pie?

as a musician i get far more pleasure out of some pieces of wood or bone than a phone could ever give me.

What an interesting article!

Why wouldn't they just use pig teeth for dentures? Or rat teeth?

They did! It sounds like using animal teeth was a more primitive approach than porcelain or other human teeth, presumably because they dont look human enough?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dentures

Let me guess, because they had LOTS of sheep, which they had because they had LOTS of grass, which they had because they had LOTS of rain. And they were known for mass producing wool and exporting it to Europe.

Ok, now I've skimmed the article. The elderly and toothless. That must be why medlars were so popular. Once the fruit is bletted, it gains the consistency of a baked apple.

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