The Oyster’s Secret

Let's explore some curious food. Fair warning, though...it might make you hungry.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable. And if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

(00:36):
It's just common sense. Got a cold, banish it faster
with chicken soup. Want clear skin, avoid eating acne causing chocolate,
and you want to see better at night, be sure
to chomp on some carrots. A lot of what we
learn about how food affects our bodies, like the advice
that I just gave you, traces back to old wives tales.

(00:56):
And while these so called facts don't always stand up
to scientific scrutiny, a lot of them have a kernel
of truth. Chicken soup is not a super cure, but
it does have vitamins, nutrients, and keeps you hydrated, all
of which helps colds feel better. Chocolate isn't to blame
for every pimple, but scientists think there may be a
link between eating sugar and growing zits. As for carrots,

(01:20):
they actually do do a lot for your eyes. They
contain beta carotene, which can be broken down into vitamin A.
Vitamin A is necessary for your body to see in
low light conditions. In fact, people with a vitamin A
deficiency will have a harder time seeing at night and
could suffer from night blindness. Still, that doesn't mean crunching
on carrots will make your peepers superpowered. Eating carrots when

(01:43):
you have low vitamin A can improve your night vision,
but it only affects people with limited or damaged eye sights.
It won't ever make seen at night like seeing during
the day. The popular myth that carrots can make you
see in the dark comes from an unlikely source. English
World War II propit. In nineteen forty, the Nazis were
attacking England directly. During the Blitz, a prolonged bombing campaign

(02:07):
against key cities in England. German pilots would fly under
cover of darkness and drop their payload of bombs over ports, factories,
and government buildings. So to confuse the Germans and make
it harder to hit their targets, England mandated citywide blackouts.
Every light was doused and every window was covered without
a lit target in the pitch black night, it was

(02:29):
much harder for the Germans to do real damage. It
was also much harder for the Royal Air Force to
find German planes. Pilots eyes and instruments were no match
for the British blackouts, which meant new methods were needed.
At this time, the RAF began experimenting with airborne interception radar.
Radar had been used successfully on the ground to identify

(02:50):
approaching enemies, but it was limited in scope. It couldn't
really reach high enough to give a clear picture of
German planes. By mounting radar on a fighter planeilots could
track enemy flyers with precision. So on the night of
November nineteenth, nineteen forty John Cat's Eyes Cunningham became the
first pilot to shoot down a plane using airborne radar.

(03:12):
Not wanting the Germans to catch on to their new technology,
the British War Ministry decided to use Cunningham as a distraction.
The next day, they published dozens of news stories claiming
Cunningham's superhuman night vision was all thanks to a steady
diets of vitamin A rich carrots. Now it's not clear
whether the carrot story ever fooled the Germans. There are

(03:33):
anecdotes of German commanders upping their pilot's carrot rations, but
it's never confirmed if this was the case. Regardless, Germany
would develop its own version of airborne radar soon after.
But what the kat's eye story did do was cause
a huge carrot craze in war torn England. Propaganda posters
declared that carrots would help citizens see during the mandatory blackouts.

(03:56):
The governments encourage people on the home front to plant
victory gardens stock full of carrots. Radio shows would encourage
home cooks to make putting cake and pie out of
the starchy treats to replace sugar which had been rationed
during the war. And on top of that, Disney animators
even created anthropomorphic carrot characters who extolled the virtues of

(04:17):
the root vegetables to British children. The carrot messaging worked.
By nineteen forty two, Britain had a one hundred thousand
ton surplus of carrots after the war ended. The myth
that carrots make you see in the dark persisted. At
first glance, there is some truth to it, especially with
how vitamin A can help damaged eyesight, but when it

(04:38):
comes to carrots and night vision, What you see is
what you get. When Thomas Downing arrived in eighteen nineteen,

(04:59):
New York City had no fine dining scene to speak of.
The food culture that did exist was barely recognizable from
what we have today. There was no pizza, no street dogs. Cheesecake,
and bagels wouldn't be associated with the city for many years.
In their place, one dish reigned supreme as New York
City's street food of choice, oysters, before overfishing in population

(05:24):
devastated New York Harbor. It was home to some of
the richest oyster beds in the world. The mollusks were
harvested by predominantly black oystermen and sold from street cars
and crowded dining cellars for as little as six cents
a dozen. New Yorkers couldn't get enough. The city consumed
roughly a million oysters each day, and it was the

(05:45):
oysters that brought Thomas Downing to New York in the
first place. A free black man and the son of
formerly enslaved parents, he learned to fish and harvest oysters
in his home state of Virginia. He knew the business
backwards and forwards, and had an eye for picking out
the mollusks with the best meat, but he wasn't interested
in simply selling oysters out of a cart like so

(06:06):
many other oystermen. When he arrived in New York City,
he saw an opportunity no one else had. In eighteen
twenty five, he opened Downing's Oyster House on Broad Street,
at the center of the city's financial district. It was
the first restaurant of its kind, a high class, fine
dining establishment that catered to wealthy businessmen who worked at

(06:27):
the nearby Customs House. Crystal chandeliers and expensive curtains set
it apart from the dingy cellars where working class New
Yorkers got their fix, and Downing always sold the best
oysters the city had to offer. The combination of the
good food, great location, and high class environment proved to
be a massive hit with the city's elites. Downing's Oyster

(06:49):
House was consistently full to bursting with bankers, merchants, politicians,
lawyers and dignitaries, and businessmen even brought their wives and
children along, both of whom had until that point traditionally
been steered clear of eating at restaurants. Imitators were obviously
quick to follow Downing's lead. The next year, more high

(07:09):
end restaurants opened nearby. Soon enough, the city was home
to a vibrant fine dining scene. Meanwhile, Thomas Downing's meteoric
success continued. He opened more restaurants and eventually expanded into
a catering business. He even started filling mail orders, shipping
crates of oysters to Europe and around the world. Despite

(07:30):
everything on his plate, though, he continued to manage the
Oyster House on Broad Street, where he rubbed shoulders with
the most powerful people in New York City. He became
extremely popular among the city's businessmen. When he died in
eighteen sixty six at the age of seventy five, the
Chamber of Commerce closed for the day so that merchants
could attend Downing's funeral. After that, his eldest son, George,

(07:53):
continued to run the Oyster House, and he also continued
his father's lesser known activities, because ever since Downing's Oyster
House opened its doors, the Oyster King had been hiding
something else, and it wasn't pearls. You see, his restaurant
was an important stop on the Underground Railroad, a network
which helped over one hundred thousand enslaved people to freedom.

(08:14):
Escape slaves freeing from Southern plantations regularly stayed in Downing's
basement until they could be smuggled out of the city
and across the border to Canada. They slept amidst the
restaurants supplies and equipment, listening to the sounds of aristocrats
dining just over their heads. I think it's fair to
say that none of Downing's wealthy customers ever guessed what

(08:35):
he was hiding, nor could they have known that by
enjoying a lunch of New York City's finest oysters, they
were helping fund the growing abolition movement. Downey never forgot
where he came from, and while he worked tirelessly to
ensure that his customers always left his restaurant full, he
wasn't so easily satisfied. Not even single handedly creating New

(08:55):
York City's fine dining scene was enough for him. Downing
wanted freedom, justice for his people, and he worked towards
that goal the best way he could, one shuck at
a time. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts.

(09:17):
Or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and television show, and you can learn all about it
over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time,

(09:39):
stay curious.