The Secret History of Food
Page 22
37. “The end of the year”: Reay Tannahill, Food in History (New York: Stein and Day, 1973), 209.
38. like bread: Montanari, Medieval Tastes, 58.
39. there are accounts: E. J. Kahn, Jr., The Staffs of Life (Boston: Little, Brown, 1984), 169.
40. given the “upper crust”: Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of Kitchen History (New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004), 68.
41. “The medieval ‘course’”: Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony (New York: George Braziller, 1976), 20.
42. The coronation banquet: Ibid.
43. the funeral collation: Ibid., 24.
44. an umble pie: Alex Johnson and Vincent Franklin, Menus That Made History (New York: Hachette, 2019).
45. meant to resemble: Ibid.
46. “superb insignia”: Cosman, Fabulous Feasts, 45.
47. “indicators of ostentatious waste”: Ibid.
48. Pepper was said: Marjorie Shaffer, Pepper: A History of the World’s Most Influential Spice (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2013), 6–7.
49. cinnamologus: W. Geoffrey Arnott, Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z (New York: Routledge, 2007), 97–98.
50. powered by courage alone: Andrew Dalby, Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices (University of California Press, 2000), 38.
51. grew in lakes: Ibid., 37.
52. whenever spices became affordable: Ken Albala, Food: A Cultural Culinary History, The Great Courses, transcript book, 2013, 371–72.
53. crushed pearls and rose water: Ibid., 282.
54. “This means, of course”: William Edward Mead, The English Medieval Feast (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1931), 58.
55. “oysters in gravy bastard”: Ibid., 55.
56. “dyschefull of snowe”: Albala, Food, 388–89.
57. having wine or rose water: Katherine C. Little and Nicola McDonald, eds., Thinking Medieval Romance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 13.
58. blood for brown or black: Cosman, Fabulous Feasts, 61–63.
59. the Easter egg: “A Hunt for Medieval Easter Eggs,” Medieval Manuscripts Blog, British Library, April 14, 2017, https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2017/04/a-hunt-for-medieval-easter-eggs.html.
60. coqz heaumex: Terrence, Scully, ed., The Viandier of Taillevent: An Edition of All Extant Manuscripts (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1988), 300.
61. cignes revestuz: Ibid., 303.
62. stuffing a ball of cloth: Richard Warner, Antiquitates Culinariae, or, Curious Tracts Relating to the Culinary Affairs of the Old English (London, 1791), xxiii.
63. “Take an olde cok”: Ibid., 66.
64. “one last pagan fling”: Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Carnival in Romans, translated by Mary Feeney (New York: George Braziller, 1979), 307–08.
65. the need to use: Henisch, Fast and Feast, 38.
66. a mock swordfight: Ken Albala, Food in Early Modern Europe (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003), 196.
67. Sometimes Lent would be: Samuel Kinser, Rabelais’s Carnival (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 48.
68. Carnival would wear: Terence Scully, The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 1995), 63.
69. reenactments of Adam and Eve: Herman Pleij, Dreaming of Cockaigne: Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life, yranslated by Diane Webb (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 7.
70. “designed to make”: Ibid., 6.
71. Middle Low German kokenje: “Cockaigne,” The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 2nd ed., edited by Elizabeth Knowles (Oxford University Press, 2005).
72. the Dutch similarly had: Pleij, Dreaming of Cockaigne, 77.
73. leuzig: “Lazy,” OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2020, www.oed.com/view/Entry/106558.
74. likken: “Lick,” OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2020, www.oed.com/view/Entry/108002.
75. the Germans had: Hans Hinrichs, The Glutton’s Paradise (Mount Vernon, NY: Peter Pauper Press, 1955).
76. schlaff: Anatoly Liberman, An Analytic Dictionary of the English Etymology: An Introduction (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 114.
77. “By the Middle Ages”: Pleij, Dreaming of Cockaigne, 3.
78. rain the occasional pie: Ibid., 34.
79. snow a dusting: Ibid., 42.
80. The streets were paved: Ibid., 35
81. the rivers flowed: Ibid., 34, 41.
82. Houses were made: Ibid., 40.
83. their beams were made: Ibid., 34, 40.
84. their rooftops were tiled: Ibid.
85. perfectly stewed and sprinkled: “The Land of Cockaygne,” MS Harley 913, ff. 3r-6v, British Library, London.
86. a pig would run up: Jonassen, “Lucian’s ‘Saturnalia,’ the Land of Cockaigne, and the Mummers’ Plays.”
87. a grilled fish might jump: Pleij, Dreaming of Cockaigne, 3.
88. “shit nothing but sweet figs”: Ibid., 41.
89. poached eggs: Hinrichs, The Glutton’s Paradise, 7.
90. “the encumbrance”: Pleij, Dreaming of Cockaigne, 39.
91. “Loose women”: Ibid., 43.
92. In fact, Schlaraffenland: Hinrichs, The Glutton’s Paradise, 21–27.
93. “sexual and economic predator[s]”: Carla Freccero, “A Race of Wolves,” in Animots: Postanimality in French Thought, edited by Matthew Senior, David L. Clark, and Carla Freccero, Yale French Studies, no. 127 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015), 121.
94. a fountain of youth: Hinrichs, The Glutton’s Paradise, 23.
95. you were paid: Pleij, Dreaming of Cockaigne, 43–44.
96. you had to swim: Ben Parsons, “Fantasy and Fallacy in the Old French Cocaingne,” Viator 46, no. 3 (2015): 173–93.
97. “There is nothing”: Pleij, Dreaming of Cockaigne, 43–44.
Chapter 8: The Choices of a New Generation
1. “Pour avoir assez”: Bee Wilson, First Bite: How We Learn to Eat (New York: Perseus, 2015), 105.
2. “Choose life”: Trainspotting, directed by Danny Boyle, based on the novel by Irvine Welsh, Miramax, 1996.
3. delay the annual slaughter: Alexander Tille, Yule and Christmas: Their Place in the Germanic Year (Glasgow, Robert MacLehose and Company, 1899), 68–70.
4. “Average Americans and Europeans”: Gregg Easterbrook, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse (New York: Random House, 2003), 80–81.
5. More than 36 percent: Cheryl D. Fryar et al., “Fast Food Consumption Among Adults in the United States, 2013–2016,” NCHS Data Brief no. 322, October 2018.
6. increasing to 80 percent monthly: Adam Chandler, “What McDonald’s Does Right,” The Atlantic, June 25, 2019, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/how-fast-food-can-unite-america/592441.
7. “No other institution”: Ibid.
8. customize drive-through menus: Amelia Levin, “Tech Ushers In a Drive-Thru Renaissance,” QSR, October 2019, www.qsrmagazine.com/drive-thru/tech-ushers-drive-thru-renaissance.
9. testing the use: Camilla Hodgson, “Fast-Food Chains Consider Trying License Plate Recognition in Drive-Throughs,” Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2019, www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-license-plate-recognition-drive-through-restaurant-20190711-story.html.
10. The initial success: “Our History,” McDonald’s, www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us/our-history.html.
11. just three items: Andrew F. Smith, Eating History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), Kindle ed.
12. you weren’t allowed: Ken Albala, Food: A Cultural Culinary History, The Great Courses, transcript book, 2013, 616.
13. reducing the wait time: Smith, Eating History, 221–22.
14. “A McDonald’s outlet,”: Jeremy MacClancy, Consuming Culture: Why You Eat What You Eat (New York: Holt, 1992), 189.
15. to reduce splatter: Richard Evershed and Nicola Temple, Sorting the Beef from the Bull (London: Bloomsbury Sigma, 2016), Kindle ed.
16. the same
chemical: Preethi S. Raj, “Re-review of the Safety Assessment of Dimethicone, Methicone, and Substituted-Methicone Polymers,” Cosmetic Ingredient Review Memorandum, November 15, 2019.
17. breast implants: Evershed and Temple, Sorting the Beef from the Bull.
18. The real watershed moment: Sophie Egan, Devoured: From Chicken Wings to Kale Smoothies—How What We Eat Defines Who We Are (New York: HarperCollins, 2016), Apple Books ed.
19. “Hold the pickles”: Olivia B. Waxman, “Here’s What $80 Worth of Extra Pickles on a Whopper Looks Like,” Time, February 26, 2016, https://time.com/4238762/burger-king-whopper-80-pickles.
20. 2005 “Fantasy Ranch” commercial: “Burger King: Fantasy Ranch,” AdAge, February 24, 2005, https://adage.com/creativity/work/fantasy-ranch/9247.
21. “nagging wives”: Carrie Packwood Freeman and Debra Merskin, “Having It His Way: The Construction of Masculinity in Fast-Food TV Advertising,” in Food for Thought: Essays on Eating and Culture, edited by Lawrence C. Rubin (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008), 286.
22. “It’s ok”: “Be Your Way at Burger King Restaurants,” Burger King, May 20, 2014, https://company.bk.com/news-press/be-your-way-burger-king®-restaurants.
23. “221,184 different ways”: Ibid.
24. that also brags about: John L. Hess, “A Sizzling Battle in the Burger Business,” New York Times, March 13, 1977, www.nytimes.com/1977/03/13/archives/a-sizzling-battle-in-the-burger-business-sizzling-battle-in-the.html.
25. McDonald’s once owned 90 percent: Haley Peterson, “The Ridiculous Reason McDonald’s Sold Chipotle and Missed Out on Billions of Dollars,” Business Insider, May 22, 2015.
26. “It’s as though”: Elizabeth Farrelly, Blubberland: The Dangers of Happiness (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008), 100–01.
27. Starbucks, for example: Egan, Devoured.
28. is made of sugar, water: “Naturally Flavored Vanilla Syrup,” Starbucks at Home, https://athome.starbucks.com/product/naturally-flavored-vanilla-syrup.
29. sea salt topping: “Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate,” Starbucks, www.starbucks.com/menu/product/762/hot?parent=%2Fdrinks%2Fhot-drinks%2Fhot-chocolates.
30. “If a person orders”: Heejung Kim and Hazel Rose Markus, “Deviance or Uniqueness, Harmony or Conformity? A Cultural Analysis,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77, no. 4 (1999): 785.
31. $100 billion per year: Solvie Karlstrom and Christine Dell’Amore, “Why Tap Water Is Better than Bottled Water,” National Geographic, March 13, 2010, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/3/why-tap-water-is-better.
32. more than 4 billion pounds: “Tap Water vs. Bottled Water,” Food and Water Watch, www.foodandwaterwatch.org/about/live-healthy/tap-water-vs-bottled-water.
33. a fraction of the cost: Karlstrom and Dell’Amore, “Why Tap Water Is Better Than Bottled Water.”
34. no less safe or clean: Ibid.
35. into water systems: “National Primary Drinking Water Regulations,” United States Environmental Protection Agency, February 14, 2020, www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/national-primary-drinking-water-regulations; Edward T. Furlong et al., “Nationwide Reconnaissance of Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Source and Treated Drinking Waters of the United States: Pharmaceuticals,” Science of the Total Environment, no. 579 (2017): 1629–42; “Drugs in the Water,” Harvard Health Publishing, June 2011, www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/drugs-in-the-water.
36. bottled from the very same source: “Tap Water vs. Bottled Water,” Food and Water Watch.
37. “is an example”: Paul Bloom, How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like (New York: Norton, 2010), 43.
38. Before the first self-service: “Food and Beverage Retailing in 19th and Early 20th Century America,” Janice B. Longone Culinary Archive, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan.
39. By the 1940s: Smith, Eating History, 180.
40. We can now choose: “Oreo,” Snack Works, www.snackworks.com.
41. “stuf” inside Oreos: Olivia Tarantino, “What Really Is the White Stuff in the Center of an Oreo?” Eat This, Not That!, March 28, 2017, www.eatthis.com/oreo-filling; “2 Flavors of Oreos Recalled over Undeclared Milk Allergen,” Fox News, October 31, 2016, www.foxnews.com/health/2-flavors-of-oreos-recalled-over-undeclared-milk-allergen.
42. This isn’t counting: Josh Hafner, “Oreo Launches New Hot Chicken Wing and Wasabi Flavors, but They May Not Be Easy to Find,” USA Today, August 28, 2018.
43. Halloween Whoppers: Hayley Peterson, “Burger King Is Bringing One of Its Most Bizarre Burgers to the US,” Business Insider, September 25, 2015, www.businessinsider.com/burger-king-is-selling-burgers-with-black-buns-2015-9.
44. hot pink Fruity Pebbles: “National Cereal Day Magic Fruity Pebbles Cereal,” Post Consumer Brands, http://natlcerealday.wpengine.com/?products=magic-fruity-pebbles-cereal.
45. heading to grocery stores soon: David Johnson and Siobhan O’Connor, “These Charts Show Every Genetically Modified Food People Already Eat in the U.S.,” Time, April 30, 2015, https://time.com/3840073/gmo-food-charts; Sophia Chen, “Genetically Modified Animals Will Be on Your Plate in No Time,” Wired, July 6, 2015, www.wired.com/2015/07/eating-genetically-modified-animals; “Modified Cows to Produce ‘Human’ Milk,” Fast Company, March 23, 2011, www.fastcompany.com/1742119/genetically-modified-cows-produce-human-milk.
46. “It’s no longer enough”: Sophie Egan, Devoured.
47. Starbucks’ Unicorn Frappuccino: “Starbucks Weaves Its Magic with New Color and Flavor Changing Unicorn Frappuccino,” Starbucks’ Stories & News, April 18, 2017.
48. KFC’s Double Down: “KFC’s ‘Double Down’ to Go Nationwide,” UPI, April 9, 2010, www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/04/09/KFCs-Double-Down-to-go-nationwide/77741270842514/.
49. Chicken and Donut sandwiches: “KFC Is Rolling Out Its Viral Fried-Chicken-and-Doughnut Sandwich Nationwide,” Business Insider, February 20, 2020, www.businessinsider.com/kfc-chicken-and-donuts-sandwich-basket-launches-nationwide-2020-2.
50. Heinz’s limited-edition: “Heinz Made a Ketchup Bottle Adorned with Ed Sheeran’s Tattoo,” AdAge, August 14, 2019, https://adage.com/creativity/work/heinz-ed-sheeran-tattoo-ketchup/2191451.
51. Burger King’s Flamin’ Hot: “Do You Dare? BURGER KING® Restaurants and the CHEETOS® Brand Introduce Flamin’ Hot® Mac n’ Cheetos™,” Business Wire, November 29, 2017, www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171129005248/en/Do-You-Dare-BURGER-KING®-Restaurants-and-the-CHEETOS®-Brand-Introduce-Flamin’-Hot®-Mac-n’-Cheetos™.
52. had to hire fifteen thousand: Ashley Lutz, “How Taco Bell’s Lead Innovator Created the Most Successful Menu Item of All Time,” Business Insider, February 26, 2014, www.businessinsider.com/taco-bell-doritos- locos-taco-story-2014–2.
53. Malcolm Gladwell gave: Malcolm Gladwell, “Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce,” TED2004, www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_choice_happiness_and_spaghetti_sauce.
54. “that sounds like”: Ibid.
55. Prego alone now offers: “Sauces,” Prego, www.prego.com/sauces.
56. “embracing the diversity”: Gladwell, “Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce.”
57. “In evolutionary terms”: Farrelly, Blubberland: The Dangers of Happiness, 14.
58. “To whom a little”: William Wallace, Epicureanism (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1880), 48.
59. adding food options: Sheena Iyengar, The Art of Choosing (New York: Hachette, 2010), 190.
60. “The more choice”: Ibid., 204.
61. “When people have”: Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 2.
62. Iyengar drew her conclusions: Iyengar, The Art of Choosing, 184–86.
63. “supplier of jams”: Ibid., 184.
64. “the relative merits”: Ibid., 186.
65. “When the options”: Ibid., 204–05.
66. “prose and recipes”: Molly O’Neill, “Food Porn,” Columbia Journalism Re
view, September–October 2003, 39.
67. Today, food porn: Anne E. McBride, “Food Porn,” Gastronomica 10, no. 1 (2010): 38–46.
68. lipstick to redden berries: Angelina Chapin, “WD-40 and Microwaved Tampons: Secrets of Food Photography Revealed,” The Guardian, January 4, 2016, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/04/food-stylist-photography-tricks-advertising.