I like grapefruit.
I recently got a Harry and David grapefruit shipment. No one else in my immediate family cares much for grapefruit, so...this is a lot of grapefruit for one guy to consume.
It got me thinking, though (what doesn't get me thinking?). Who decided to cultivate this oversize, bitter, hard-to-eat citrus? I suppose it appeals to a certain segment (heh). I mentioned it to some friends, and one of them mentioned almonds. Almonds come in two varieties, bitter and sweet. One releases hydrogen cyanide, one does not, and it is important to know which you have.
Of course, this led me to thinking about other things. Now, I know that many things we take for granted were created accidentally (famously: vulcanized rubber, dry cereal flakes, microwaves; perhaps most famously: penicillin), but seriously, the number of food innovations is staggering (alcohol notwithstanding).
Speaking of alcohol, how many failed fermentations ended in vinegar? Who first pickled food with salt and vinegar? What made them think this would be a good idea? I envision someone hiding something in a salt pack, and discovering that it dried and was preserved...but who thought of trying the vinegar solution?
Cooking meat in a fire? Ok, this isn't really that much of a stretch, but the logical leap from "fire hurts" to "dead things put in fire taste better" is still pretty significant.
Who took grain seeds, ground them up to a powder, mixed them with various liquids (milk, eggs, water, etc), then put them on controlled heat? Who discovered leavening (chemical or biological?)? And refined sugar?
My son turned eight at the end of last month. We ate cake at the celebration. However, it wasn't until I was eating my third grapefruit this week that I thought about how unlikely a food cake ever was.
Until another time,
Salt
PS And Salt! Who went around licking rocks and deciding which ones would work with their fire-burned dead things?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've always wondered who looked at a dead horse's hooves and thought, "Hey, that might make a darned fine adhesive product!"
ReplyDeleteNot so fast grapefruit breath. You dad loves the stuff but cannot eat it because of the high cholesterol meds.
ReplyDeleteOr my question is always eggs. Who looked a raw egg and thought that it looked tasty? Raw egg have to be one of the slimiest substances on Earth. Yet we eat them (not raw normally, thank goodness).
ReplyDeleteWho ran the test to see which mushrooms were edible? "Lessee...he's healthy, he's healthy, he's hallucinating, and...oops. He's dead."
ReplyDeleteWhat about all those sea creatures some cultures pull out and suck down live? That just isn't right. :)
ReplyDeleteI imagine humans picked up salt from watching animals lick the rocks. Bread? Interesting that we have records of bread
(and beer) making from ancient Egypt; so that one is lost in pre-history. "Guns, Germs, and Steel" has fascinating things to say about ancient civilizations and how they found grains/animals/etc. to eat.