February 27, 2024 • 8 mins
Food plays so many roles in our lives. Obviously, it keeps us alive, but it also satisfies desires and brings us closer to the people we share it with. But over thousands of years, we’ve eaten some pretty weird stuff. From flaming, feathered peacocks to all sorts of bugs and “unexpected” animal secretions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, there, can I get you something tall and cool
to drink, like some liquefied bugs on the rocks. Hmmm,
I'll pass on that one. There are so many things
we eat and drink without ever thinking about what it
actually is or why we eat it. That started centuries
ago with some odd foods like gold leafed fleaming peacock,
but it still goes on. In fact, it's likely you've
(00:22):
recently indulged in everything from various bugs to the anal
secretions of beavers.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yikes, don't blame me.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
For that one. By Patty Steele. Gag me with a
spoon and a fork. Next on the backstory, bug, We're
back with the backstory. Food is and has been a
driving force in our lives for as long as there
have been animals on Earth. Right, we do it to survive,
(00:50):
we do it to indulge, and we do it to
share with others. Okay, let's head back to ancient Rome,
where there was a kind of mouse called a dormouse.
It was a tasty delicacy. They'd cook them up, drizzle
them with honey and poppy seeds, pop them in their mouths,
and munch away. But on the other hand, you couldn't
(01:11):
even mention the idea of eating butter to a Roman.
In fact, you are considered barbaric if you slathered on
yummy butter. Same went for the Greeks, who also considered
butter uncivilized. In fact, butter eater was one of the
nastiest insults among ancient Greeks. In Egypt, they had a
fairly recognizable Mediterranean style diet, which included lentils, chickpeas, nuts, figs, bread, onions,
(01:37):
lots of onions, a number of vegetables and fruits, and
to a lesser extent, meat and fish and beer was
served pretty much every meal, even to kids. Only thing
is to keep the flies away from their feasts. The
wealthy Egyptians would slather their servants with honey so the
flies would cover them in Not the big shots.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's nice.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Now we shoot forward a few thousand years or more.
At medieval banquets, there was often a really popular roast
that was actually made by stitching together the bottom half
of a baby pig and the top half of a
large bird. They were then roasted together and presented at
the table that way to amaze dinner guests. Yeah, and
(02:20):
there were other hot dishes in those days, like peacocks
and swans. They'd skin the bird, keeping the feathers in
place in the skin, then roast the bird, and once
it was cooked, they'd sow the skin back on and
serve it fully feathered. Guess you had to pick out
the feathers before chomping down. Now, occasionally, if they had
even more money, before serving, they'd gild the bird, including
(02:44):
the feathers, with gold leaf and serve it that way
with a bit of flaming cotton stuffed in the beak.
All this for a bird that was said to be
extremely dry and tough. All about the show, I guess. Now,
for those who were less well off, getting a hold
of fish for lent was kind of tough. It was
too expensive, and in North America, beavers were an important
(03:06):
source of food and a cheap one. So the Catholic Church,
anxious to help folks stay faithful, declared the beaver a
fuzzy mammal who swims most of the time, and its
tail in particular of fish, and therefore aok to eat
on Fridays during Lent. Now, I'm sure you've seen movies
set in medieval times that showed big feasts where people,
(03:27):
even royalty, were eating with their hands. There's a reason
for that. Forks were first introduced in the eleventh century
in Italy, but they actually freaked out religious leaders who
said that using what they called artificial hands was an
offense to God. When it comes to beverages, for thousands
(03:51):
of years, right up until just a few hundred years ago,
most cultures skipped water and drank wine or beer at
all meals, including chill. Given how riddled with bacteria water
supplies could be back then, I guess alcohol makes more
sense now. In the seventeen hundreds, one of the most
coveted foods was the pineapple. In fact, it was so
(04:12):
desired and so difficult to get. If you bought a
single pineapple in England in the seventeen hundreds, you would
pay about eight thousand dollars in today's money. Actually, Christopher
Columbus get some of the credit for first introducing pineapples
to Europe in the fourteen nineties after his trip to
the Americas, but just one pineapple.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Survived the trip back to Europe.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
He presented it to Spain's King Ferdinand, and as time
went by they started to import them and everybody wanted
the King of Fruits because it was tough to get.
It became a show offye thing that was a symbol
of power and royalty. Pineapples were featured in paintings of kings,
printed on linens and wallpaper, even carved into furniture. Getting
(04:57):
your hands on a rare pineapple meant you had money
and status. And here's how crazy it got. A lot
of partygoers in Europe would try to find somebody with
a pineapple and they would rent it for a fraction
of the cost of buying it and then carry it
around at parties as the ultimate accessory, but of course
without eating.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
It, or they'd have to pay the full price.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Now, as we move into the eighteen hundreds, during a
long economic downturn, some kind of creepy sounding foods got
people through tough times because they were inexpensive. We see
recipes for things like jellied eels, as well as something
called broxy that was meat usually from sheep, that butchers
sold really on the cheap because the animal had died
(05:42):
from diseases like tetanus or salmonella. And then there were
sheep's trotters, which were actually sheep's feet they were boiled
or fried and sold by street vendors, and their snail water,
a slimy drink that was also considered.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
A cure for tuberculosis.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Now on the upscale side, there were some serious Victorian foodies,
including the guy who gave us the theory of evolution,
Charles Darwin. As a college student, he helped create a
social group called the Glutton Club, where members gathered for
unusual meals, including digging into meat of iguanas, giant tortoises,
in one case, a twenty pound rodent, possibly a cappa.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Bara, which he said was the best meat.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
He'd ever eaten, also armadillos, and even a big cat
called a puma. The club disbanded after Darwin fed them
a really nasty tasting owl for one of their dinners.
So we've been eating and drinking a lot of weird
stuff for thousands of years, right, Well, guess what we
still do. Turns out these days a lot of foods
(06:44):
and drinks that have a red color, like frappuccino drinks,
cocktails with that red glow, some sausage yogurt, Many cakes
and pastries use a powder made of a kind of
ground up beetle and many pastas, breads, chips, and smoothies
use pulverized freeze dried crickets. Yeah, beer, particularly British beers,
(07:05):
can get their golden glow from dried fish bladder. And finally,
this product was and in some cases still is used
in a huge number of foods like strawberry and raspberry
ice cream, juices and puddings, as well as in various
perfumes and even medicines. It's called kastorium and it's created
by milking the anal glands of beavers.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, you heard me.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
It's still used in some cases, but the FDA only
has manufacturers label it as natural ingredients. So at the
end of the day, you know, food plays so many
roles in our lives. Yes, sustenance, yes, satisfying desire, but
most of all, connecting us with each other through sharing,
even if it's from beaver glands. I want to thank
(07:59):
loyal new listener Trish Connors Angelie for suggesting a story
about how we share food. If you'd like to suggest
a story for me to dive into and share, please
feel free to dm me on Facebook at Patty Steele
or on Instagram at real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
(08:20):
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
(08:43):
to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know.
Hey, there, can I get you something tall and cool
to drink, like some liquefied bugs on the rocks. Hmmm,
I'll pass on that one. There are so many things
we eat and drink without ever thinking about what it
actually is or why we eat it. That started centuries
ago with some odd foods like gold leafed fleaming peacock,
but it still goes on. In fact, it's likely you've
(00:22):
recently indulged in everything from various bugs to the anal
secretions of beavers.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yikes, don't blame me.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
For that one. By Patty Steele. Gag me with a
spoon and a fork. Next on the backstory, bug, We're
back with the backstory. Food is and has been a
driving force in our lives for as long as there
have been animals on Earth. Right, we do it to survive,
(00:50):
we do it to indulge, and we do it to
share with others. Okay, let's head back to ancient Rome,
where there was a kind of mouse called a dormouse.
It was a tasty delicacy. They'd cook them up, drizzle
them with honey and poppy seeds, pop them in their mouths,
and munch away. But on the other hand, you couldn't
(01:11):
even mention the idea of eating butter to a Roman.
In fact, you are considered barbaric if you slathered on
yummy butter. Same went for the Greeks, who also considered
butter uncivilized. In fact, butter eater was one of the
nastiest insults among ancient Greeks. In Egypt, they had a
fairly recognizable Mediterranean style diet, which included lentils, chickpeas, nuts, figs, bread, onions,
(01:37):
lots of onions, a number of vegetables and fruits, and
to a lesser extent, meat and fish and beer was
served pretty much every meal, even to kids. Only thing
is to keep the flies away from their feasts. The
wealthy Egyptians would slather their servants with honey so the
flies would cover them in Not the big shots.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's nice.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Now we shoot forward a few thousand years or more.
At medieval banquets, there was often a really popular roast
that was actually made by stitching together the bottom half
of a baby pig and the top half of a
large bird. They were then roasted together and presented at
the table that way to amaze dinner guests. Yeah, and
(02:20):
there were other hot dishes in those days, like peacocks
and swans. They'd skin the bird, keeping the feathers in
place in the skin, then roast the bird, and once
it was cooked, they'd sow the skin back on and
serve it fully feathered. Guess you had to pick out
the feathers before chomping down. Now, occasionally, if they had
even more money, before serving, they'd gild the bird, including
(02:44):
the feathers, with gold leaf and serve it that way
with a bit of flaming cotton stuffed in the beak.
All this for a bird that was said to be
extremely dry and tough. All about the show, I guess. Now,
for those who were less well off, getting a hold
of fish for lent was kind of tough. It was
too expensive, and in North America, beavers were an important
(03:06):
source of food and a cheap one. So the Catholic Church,
anxious to help folks stay faithful, declared the beaver a
fuzzy mammal who swims most of the time, and its
tail in particular of fish, and therefore aok to eat
on Fridays during Lent. Now, I'm sure you've seen movies
set in medieval times that showed big feasts where people,
(03:27):
even royalty, were eating with their hands. There's a reason
for that. Forks were first introduced in the eleventh century
in Italy, but they actually freaked out religious leaders who
said that using what they called artificial hands was an
offense to God. When it comes to beverages, for thousands
(03:51):
of years, right up until just a few hundred years ago,
most cultures skipped water and drank wine or beer at
all meals, including chill. Given how riddled with bacteria water
supplies could be back then, I guess alcohol makes more
sense now. In the seventeen hundreds, one of the most
coveted foods was the pineapple. In fact, it was so
(04:12):
desired and so difficult to get. If you bought a
single pineapple in England in the seventeen hundreds, you would
pay about eight thousand dollars in today's money. Actually, Christopher
Columbus get some of the credit for first introducing pineapples
to Europe in the fourteen nineties after his trip to
the Americas, but just one pineapple.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Survived the trip back to Europe.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
He presented it to Spain's King Ferdinand, and as time
went by they started to import them and everybody wanted
the King of Fruits because it was tough to get.
It became a show offye thing that was a symbol
of power and royalty. Pineapples were featured in paintings of kings,
printed on linens and wallpaper, even carved into furniture. Getting
(04:57):
your hands on a rare pineapple meant you had money
and status. And here's how crazy it got. A lot
of partygoers in Europe would try to find somebody with
a pineapple and they would rent it for a fraction
of the cost of buying it and then carry it
around at parties as the ultimate accessory, but of course
without eating.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
It, or they'd have to pay the full price.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Now, as we move into the eighteen hundreds, during a
long economic downturn, some kind of creepy sounding foods got
people through tough times because they were inexpensive. We see
recipes for things like jellied eels, as well as something
called broxy that was meat usually from sheep, that butchers
sold really on the cheap because the animal had died
(05:42):
from diseases like tetanus or salmonella. And then there were
sheep's trotters, which were actually sheep's feet they were boiled
or fried and sold by street vendors, and their snail water,
a slimy drink that was also considered.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
A cure for tuberculosis.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Now on the upscale side, there were some serious Victorian foodies,
including the guy who gave us the theory of evolution,
Charles Darwin. As a college student, he helped create a
social group called the Glutton Club, where members gathered for
unusual meals, including digging into meat of iguanas, giant tortoises,
in one case, a twenty pound rodent, possibly a cappa.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Bara, which he said was the best meat.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
He'd ever eaten, also armadillos, and even a big cat
called a puma. The club disbanded after Darwin fed them
a really nasty tasting owl for one of their dinners.
So we've been eating and drinking a lot of weird
stuff for thousands of years, right, Well, guess what we
still do. Turns out these days a lot of foods
(06:44):
and drinks that have a red color, like frappuccino drinks,
cocktails with that red glow, some sausage yogurt, Many cakes
and pastries use a powder made of a kind of
ground up beetle and many pastas, breads, chips, and smoothies
use pulverized freeze dried crickets. Yeah, beer, particularly British beers,
(07:05):
can get their golden glow from dried fish bladder. And finally,
this product was and in some cases still is used
in a huge number of foods like strawberry and raspberry
ice cream, juices and puddings, as well as in various
perfumes and even medicines. It's called kastorium and it's created
by milking the anal glands of beavers.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, you heard me.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
It's still used in some cases, but the FDA only
has manufacturers label it as natural ingredients. So at the
end of the day, you know, food plays so many
roles in our lives. Yes, sustenance, yes, satisfying desire, but
most of all, connecting us with each other through sharing,
even if it's from beaver glands. I want to thank
(07:59):
loyal new listener Trish Connors Angelie for suggesting a story
about how we share food. If you'd like to suggest
a story for me to dive into and share, please
feel free to dm me on Facebook at Patty Steele
or on Instagram at real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
(08:20):
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
(08:43):
to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know.
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