food for thought.
Everyone knows that… or DO they?
In the past everyone was much shorter in stature, it was commonplace for cooks to use more spice than they do now, people drank beer instead of water and food was habitually served cold… Yes? Turns out there’s a whole lot more to history than hearsay would have us believe, says food historian Annie Gray
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In 1805 the Marquis of Buckingham held a terrible dinner. His crime? All the dishes were tepid. One of his guests declared the meal “the worst I ever saw”. So how is it that so many people will tell you food was always served cold and nobody seemed to mind?
Food history is full of what I call ‘everyone knowsisms’. They are so-called facts that, when followed through the intricate web of hearsay, are founded on very little. We’ve all, I suspect, heard a few of them: some of us may even be guilty of repeating them. Rarely do we apply logic and watch them dissolve.