How Cooking Shaped Our Evolution Friday, Apr 9 2010

For generations, since the time of Darwin’s heralded theory of evolution in the late 1800s: we have search for defining moments in our evolution that allowed us to become the homo sapiens sapiens that we are today.  Anthropologists and evolutionary biologists have searched for why humans are unique.   When we compare ourselves to other primates, there are distinct differences in physiology, diet and culture.

From our most distant relatives of  ardipithecus ramidus,  Australopithecus afarensis, and moving through to homo habilis, homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis, homo sapiens and finally homo sapiens sapiens–scientists and common people have wondered: what allowed us to change and gain abilities our ape cousins can only dream of.

In early hominid species such as ardipitecus ramidus and australopithecus afarensis diet consisted of what could be forged.  They were still largely nomadic and in the time of  A. ramidus and A. afarensis bipedalism was introduced.  These early hominid species survived on a meager diet of fruit, nuts and if they were lucky meat they could scavenge off the savannah.

These early species spent time on both the ground and in the trees. However, A. afarensis spent more time in a bipedal mode than their cousin A. ramidus would have.   Regardless, a great deal of energy was required to forage for food.  It was an activity carried out by both males, females, young and old.  Furthermore, to meet even basic nutrient requirements it is theorized that these early hominid species would have spent most foraging for and digesting food.   From a physiological perspective, the amount of energy that would be required to extract the nutrients from raw foods would be immense.

Advancing technology with Homo Habilis through to Homo Neanderthalensis; coupled with full implementation of bipedalism with Homo Erectus allowed many adaptations in the hominid line.  However, it is theorized by Professor Richard Wrangham, a biological anthropologist that the ability to produce fire and alter what and how we ate was the catalyst to make our ancestors more human.

While the date for the first use of fire differs among experts in this field ranging from dates of 1.8 million years ago to a mere 800,000 years ago it is a sheer fact fire allowed positive molecular changes in what we eat.  Professor Wrangham has published a book, entitled: ” Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human”.  He suggests that because cooking changed the amount of calories and nutrients available to the body, this caused great leaps forward in species evolution, clan structure and culture.    Furthermore, he suggests that because of the increase of available calories, and the reduction of caloric output due to digestion: this energy could be used elsewhere in the body and potentially could have been a driving force to increase our mass, brain size, and in essence everything we identify in being human beings.

Also, theorized in his book is how this change in food preparation with the introduction of cooking fostered societal structure change.   With the male of the species forgoing gathering food, and instead hunting whereas the female remained in hearth cooking and gathering food.  This Wragham purposes created distinct gender roles, that over time became hired wired into our species and in some aspects are still observed today.

Well, I have always personally pondered how the ability to produce fire and into turn the most likely accidental discovery of the benefits of cooked food.  It is interesting to see scientists purposing theories with that in mind.  From a culinary anthropological view it proves interesting, in that mid way through our evolution nature set the stage for improved diet and strove to strongly initiate gender roles.   Physiological this changed us in size, abilities, actual brain size/capacity.  It allowed our species of homo sapiens via our ancestors to surpass homo neanderthalensis.  Though one must ask as Professor Wranghman ponders, what were the sociological implications across the generations of this lucky culinary advancement.

If you are interested in Professor Wrangham’s book please buy a copy or visit your local library!

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human: Amazon.ca: Richard Wrangham: Books

Buy from Amazon

BJV

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Cooking Folklore Wednesday, Jul 22 2009

Often in this day and age, we are too soon to forget when times were less hurried.  Things worked just as efficently if not more than today with all our modern technology.  Also, historically supersition/folklore played are larger part in our day to day lives.  This is true for the cooking world too!

The most common of course that everyone can think of, is if you spill salt to make sure you throw some over your left shoulder.  However, there is much more lore than this.

In a professional kitchen,  we are always warned about commenting prior to a service time on the level of business we anticipate.   Also, without fail if you are lacking in preparation or staff, your restaurant will be extremely busy.  Alternatively, if you over prep/staff you will be painfully slow.  One of my personal favourites that can tie into either a professional or domestic kitchen is: Never trust a skinny cook!  Here are some more!

10

Hollow Bread

It was once (and perhaps still is) a superstition that if you found a hole in a loaf of bread you cut, it symbolized a coffin and meant that someone was soon to die. If a person found a loaf in this state, there would be days of discussion to guess who it might be that would be stricken down. Of course, these days we are less likely to cut our own loaves of bread, so this one is likely to die into obscurity.

9

Egg shells

It was once a superstition that if you did not crush the ends of an egg after eating it, a witch would gather the shells and use them to craft a boat that she could use to sail out to sea to raise storms. This is a very ancient superstition which seems to originate in the 1580s. If you shattered the end of the shell, it would create enough holes to make it useless as a boat. We won’t even go into the logic of how a full-sized human might be able to stand in an egg shell – that was obviously not on the minds of our superstitious forebears.

8

Crossed Bread

This innocent old superstition dictated that all loaves of bread must be marked with a sign of the cross before baking. The idea was that the cross would prevent the devil from sitting on the loaf – and thereby prevent him from cursing or spoiling the bread. The upside to this superstition is that bread rises much better in the oven when crossed – though obviously not from the influence (or lack thereof) of the wicked one.

7

Salt

We all know of the superstition surrounding the spilling of salt, but here is a slightly more unusual one. It used to be considered bad if you helped another person to the salt – there was even a little phrase that evolved from the superstition: “help to salt, help to sorry.” Salt is such an important part of human life that it is no wonder that it appears so frequently in the history of superstition.

6

Tea Rituals

It used to be considered bad luck for two people to pour tea from the same pot. In addition, if you left the lid off the teapot while brewing tea, it was meant to mean that a stranger would visit soon. There were even a series of small rituals you could perform to determine the exact day, hour, and gender of the visitor by means of tapping the wrist.

Just paying the bills…

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5

Christmas Cake

Superstitions surrounding Christmas are as numerous as Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands. One such superstition says that all members of a family must have a turn stirring the Christmas cake mixture or else bad luck will befall them. Young unmarried girls were especially supposed to have a turn – otherwise they would remain alone for another year.

4

Eggy Luck

In many parts of Europe, farmers would take a fresh egg into the fields in the hopes that it would bring a good healthy crop. Eggs were also used to tell fortunes – two yolks would mean a marriage was coming up soon, a black spot on a yolk was a bad omen – and an egg with no yolk at all was just about as bad as you could get.

3

Garlic

In Greece there is an ancient superstition called the Evil Eye. It is believed that when someone gives you the evil eye, bad luck (usually minor) will befall you. Now you may be wondering why this is on a food superstitions list; the reason is that the way to prevent the evil eye from affecting you is to carry around a piece of garlic. This is unlikely to help you when you are having a night out looking for a date!

2

The Wishbone

Before we all sit back on our laurels and laugh at the superstitions around the world that would never afflict us; let us remember one of our own most revered superstitions, the pulling of the wishbone. In Western (especially American and British) tradition, two people use their pinky finger to break the wishbone. The person who wins the longest piece gets good luck and usually makes a wish. We may all say we aren’t superstitious – but this is something we have all done at one time or another which leads us to our last (and equally common) superstition:

1

Wedding Rice

Throwing rice at a wedding is such a common event that we don’t even bat an eyelid when we see it happening. But what most of us don’t realize is that this a very superstitious tradition with a very long history. The throwing of rice is meant to bring prosperity, wealth, and happiness to the couple. Frankly though, with the amount of money people spend on weddings these days, it would be more useful to throw wads of cash rather than rice.

Some Romanian Food Folklore:

Romanians have many superstitions, such as beliefs pertaining to weather, food and people among other things.
For many years, the garlic has been used as a charm against the evil eye. Some wore bulbs of garlic around their necks. Others placed wreaths of garlic over their doors for protection. Salt is, also, thrown on the threshold of a new house because it is thought that salt will protect the inhabitants from evil.
At midnight, on New Year’s Eve, it is said that the family should have food on the table to ensure an abundance of food throughout the year.
The custom of throwing rice at weddings or in the first day of the year, goes back to the time when people thought rice, a symbol of health and prosperity. It is very well known the custom of seeing a person’s future in the coffee grounds. Another superstition is about the food remains: do not let any food in the plate, because if you do, you’ll have an ugly husband. Some people are always eating the corners of a bread to have a good relationship with their mother-in-law.
The salt or the pepper spilt on the table means arguement. If you dropp salt or pepper you have to throw it over your shoulder and so, nothing bad will happen. If you are eating a salty soup, means that the chef is in love and after you accept an apple from someone and have bitten into it, if the apple breaks apart, return it to the giver at once, or you will have bad luck.
No doubt that there were some superstitions listed here which you remember hearing in your childhood. In that case, it is a little like meeting an old friend.

and some more interesting ones!!

1. Bake a cake while the sun is rising, and do not throw away the eggshells until the baking is done.
2. Tossing coffee grounds under steps leading to the kitchen table will rid the home of ants.
3. It’s bad luck to gather blackberries after October 11.
4. If you don’t spit out the seeds while eating a grape, the seeds will give you appendicitis.
5. Onions mixed with ant eggs will cure deafness.
6. Rum poured on the head cures baldness.
7. Hammer a peg or nail into a fruit tree that bears no fruit, and soon you will have some.
8. If you want your cabbage to flourish, plant them on St. Patrick’s day.
9. Hold a buttercup under someone’s chin. If it casts a yellow shadow, that person loves to eat butter.
10. The sound of thunder will turn milk sour.
11. If you spot bubbles in a cup of coffee, try to spoon them up and eat them before they burst. If you succeed, you will receive money from an unexpected source.
12. Eating peaches gives you wisdom.
13. If you love someone and want them to love you, give them an orange.
14. If you grow too much lettuce in your garden, your wife will never conceive children.

Anyone else have any interesting ones??

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