The Food Timeline
foodtimeline.org
foodtimeline.org
https://tuttlefh.com/tribute/details/461/Lynne-Olver/obituar...
Lynne has worked at Morris County Library since 1991 as a reference librarian and ultimately became the director of the library in 2009. During her tenure at Morris County Library, she developed a passion for food history. In addition to her career, she became one of the preeminent food historians in the nation and built a renowned online research database entitled Food Timeline (foodtimeline.org). She has been published in several periodicals for her expertise in food history and has done numerous newspaper and radio interviews. Other honors and awards she has received include Saveur 100 and NY Times Librarian of the Year (2002). She was a contributor to Oxford University Press, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America and a consultant to America's Test Kitchen / Harvard Common Press. She was also a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and Culinary Historians of New York.
Pretty good, all done from Morris County Library. To me, it's what the Internet is about, and Lynne didn't even try to become an 'influencer'.
(And thanks to the people at Virginia Tech who are keeping it available to the world!)
Some archaeological sites, such as Cuddie Springs contain grinding stones dated to about 30,000 years. These stones were used to grind wild seeds into flour which in turn was baked as bread.
[0] https://australian.museum/blog-archive/science/food-culture-...
Among the oldest, no surprises to paleo/ancestral/traditional:
American bison---8,000BC
pigs, goats & sheep---7,000BC
lard---7,000BC
cattle domestication---6,500BC
milk & yogurt, & sour cream---5000BC
...but at the other end, these foods were older than I had expected, still over a thousand years ago (!):
loquats & flower waters---10th century
cod & nutmeg---9th century
spinach & sago---7th Century
eggplant---6th Century
pretzels---5th Century
lemons ---3rd Century
costmary & blood as food---1st Century
So: wheat, barley, rye, and oats filled with rat droppings, small stones, weevils, weed seeds, and funguses like mildew and ergot?
The idea is that the longer a food is around the more likely it is that any problems with it can be understood and countered. For example, we now understand how and why to prevent pellagra by treating corn with alkali before consumption. The most obvious target of this methodology are recently introduced industrial foods such as white cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup, vegetable oils, and hydrogenated fats. Meat and root vegetables are in turn older and more reliable than the grains you mention.
Is that true? What I've read of sanitation doesn't seem to suggest that. Even so, it's not a minor matter of degree. We understand germs and sanitation.
> The idea is that the longer a food is around the more likely it is that any problems with it can be understood and countered. For example, we now understand how and why to prevent pellagra by treating corn with alkali before consumption. The most obvious target of this methodology are recently introduced industrial foods such as white cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup, vegetable oils, and hydrogenated fats. Meat and root vegetables are in turn older and more reliable than the grains you mention.
We don't need to go back 1,000 years for that. Just eat whole (i.e., unprocessed or less-processed) foods. We didn't learn about e coli and pellagra in 900 CE, but in probably in the last century or so.
I’m not sure why anyone (except Taleb and then only as hollow brand marketing) would describe that as “antifragile”, or even merely sensible.
I suppose if you are adopting the diet typical of a particular set of people 1,000+ years ago, along with other aspects of their lifestyle, because you are targeting similar outcomes, then it makes sense (the goal doesn't but the action does given the goal). Otherwise, its just a silly game with no rational foundation.
Targeting most of my children dying in childhood, disease, and the rest (including me) likely not living past about 30-40?
It was introduced by Spanish chef Ángel León in Madrid Fusión after years of research [1] and is currently served on his restaurants, including 3 Michelin stars Aponiente.
Five years later, in 2014, he presented bioluminescent plankton [2] on that same event, where the attendants toasted with glowing cocktails. [3]
[1] - https://time.com/5926780/chef-angel-leon-sea-rice/
[2] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2016/11/04/an-oc...
EDIT: I see chicken nuggets are on the list
Is there a reason why some links like "Water" take me off to another organisation's website or am I just missing things? (edit: I am guessing it's just an older site and no one is around to take care of it anymore?)
This is a great resource and I hope I get a chance to spend more time reading through it.
Truly the crowning achievement of human food.
Does that really merit going on the timeline? :-(
Another possible version is that the resolution is very low and the exact order could be wrong because it is just based on the oldest recorded evidence of the food being eaten.