
Mind your Manners – late Medieval and Tudor mealtimes and The Banquet (2012) - pepys
https://livinghistorytoday.com/2012/08/28/mind-your-manners-a-look-at-late-medieval-and-tudor-mealtimes-and-the-banquet/
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Theodores
This is a really good read.

Note how much of a rarity chicken is. Today I learned the same could be said
for beef too. Originally cows were for dairy as well as pulling the plough,
they weren't there for eating until 1700 onwards when selective breeding made
them 2 1/2 times bigger... Plus selective breeding of the horse for pulling
the plough (by the same guy who did the selective breeding on the cow and the
sheep...) meant that there was now a market for beef whereas there was not one
before.

Also remember that eggs were a seasonal thing - easter - and you wonder what
we eat today that they ate then.

Incidentally the guy that did the selective breeding could only really start
doing that due to the turnip and clover. The nitrogen fixing qualities of
these crops enabled crop rotation to work properly and for it to be viable to
enclose the land and farm as we know it, not 'nomadically'.

The guy that 'invented beef' also inspired that Darwin chap to write a little
boot about it.

~~~
mc32
Interesting they say sugar was known in Roman times but was ignored for not
adding any flavor and instead Romans preferred honey as their sweetener of
choice.

