Where did this come from?

[mark the shoeshine boy]

Sometimes I have too much timem on my hands and I come often come up with this wierd ideas, however, this one has been with me for a long time.


Where in the world did "man" come up with the knowledge of bascis ingrediants of food...??? and then the combination of these things.

Take for example...bread...

after fire was discovered, what did the cave man do....walk out in the field one day and think "ugh...i am going to gather up some of this funny looking stuff and grind it up, mix it with water and cook it over the fire....and call it bread....

how did they discover yeast? salt? wheat or some other grain and put it together and produce bread? mind boggling isn't it?

here is another one for you....cream of tartar...it is a byproduct of the winemaking process.....who got the big idea of using it in cooking? did some french guy think to himself...lets just put some of this into my egg whites (who thought of separating an egg?) and beat them up and see what happens....wow....lets bake them now...

look around your kitchen, even the most simplest thing is actually a miracle that we have it today....


your thoughts.....

 

[Ron Gallant]

Well I can tell you it didn't happen over night. When your hungry, your more willing to experiment... Someone was asking me why would anyone have even thought mushrooms were edible. If your hungry enough, everything starts looking like mammoth meat.

 

[gollum83]

Well I would think the first breads were unleavened, so the introduction of yeast to bread probably didn't happen until someone left out some dough for a few days, either by accident or sheer laziness, and decided to bake it anyway. It would not have been by design that's for sure, considering the actual existence of yeast and other microorganisms wasn't confirmed until the 1860's by Pasteur. In fact, I think the first commercially available yeast came out in 1868 by Fleischmann’s.

 

[danek]

How about weird food items? I think lots of food items were discovered because someone lost a bet:

The oyster: I mean, could you see two guys on a beach, one guy picks up a rock, breaks it open and dares his buddy to eat the slimy glob inside?

Honey: Risk life and limb to break into a hive of pissed off bees to consume part of their nest. Weird.

 

[luvmysuper]

Hey, look at that white round thing that just came out of that birds butt!
I wonder what it tastes like?

 

[RazorDingo]

Take for example...bread...

after fire was discovered, what did the cave man do....walk out in the field one day and think "ugh...i am going to gather up some of this funny looking stuff and grind it up, mix it with water and cook it over the fire....and call it bread....

Most archeologists and food scientists believe that the "invention" of bread was inextricably tied to the brewing of beer, although there is disagreement over which came first.

Most likely there was some sort of "bread" prior to beer. Humans cannot naturally digest most grains very easily. They require milling of some sort, and well as the addition of water and heat to break them down enough to be edible. Grind up some grains, mix with a little water to make a paste - and you've got a basic "dough." Let it sit around and absorb some of the natural yeast spores that may be floating around the atmosphere - and you've got the beginnings of a leavened bread.

Anytime grain is stored, "accidental" fermentation is almost certain to take place. Let a lot of water get into your grain storage bin, let nature take its course and - Hey Presto! A tasty, yet intoxicating, beverage results.

 

[airplanedoc]

Howler monkeys have been observed to eat fruit that has begun to ferment and produce alcohol. So some of these things could be traints inherited or observed from animals

 

[ouch]

Yeast- man's best friend.

Sorry, Fido.

 

[professorchaos]

Take it a bit further - imagine what was going through the mind of the first person to pry open an oyster and eat it? Or Geoducks?

 

[mark the shoeshine boy]

Yeast- man's best friend.

Sorry, Fido.

true but not a womans....

 

[Ceezer]

I've wondered this about many of the things we take for granted, Mark.

Honey & oysters are a good example. And there are complex ones like the bread. Or who got the idea to take the fruit from a flowering bush, shuck the outer layer and roast what was left, then grind it up and filter hot water through it?

 

[Confuzius]

Many of the simple things, such as oysters and honey are probably as a result of animal observation and lean times.

Short on mammoth/buffalo?

"Hey, what's that otter doing, he's cracking open those rocks and eating them... hmmm, lets go check this out!"

"Hey, what's that bear doing with those bees, I don't like bees, hmm, what's that stuff it's eating? It must be good if that bear is willing to brave the bees for it. I'll go check it out... as soon as the bear is gone."

Many of the more complicated things are probably accidents, or results of trying to do something else. Most modern versions of food like bread are a far cry from it's original implementation, you discover something interesting and spend years tinkering with the recipe until it gets to the point where it is great, then another accident comes along and sometimes you get something even better, like the story of how croissants were invented accidentally by a baker hiding his butter from the tax man in the dough, and his assistant unknowingly kneading the butter into the dough to come up with croissant dough.

 

[RHVette]

Eh, the one I'll never get is cashews. I don't doubt some caveman tried to eat one at some point, but the shells are highly toxic. So, I want to know which caveman decided to try it again and decided to shell them.

 

[gollum83]

Eh, the one I'll never get is cashews. I don't doubt some caveman tried to eat one at some point, but the shells are highly toxic. So, I want to know which caveman decided to try it again and decided to shell them.

Well not to mention the shells contain resins and other compounds that cause skin irritation similar to that which is cause by poison ivy. Yes, cashews are a bit of a head scratcher to be sure.

 

[Tom C]

I thought it was from this guy?

 

[Commander Quan]

I want to know who first tried Kopi Luwak Coffee

 

[gollum83]

I want to know who first tried Kopi Luwak Coffee

Someone who probably got the idea from their dog. You know how dog like their poop.

 

[The Knize]

Bread and oysters are probably easier to explain that some others.
, at least for the former once folks figured out wheat, if not flour.

Lots of natural yeast around in the air. And oysters, just so. All that had to happen was for someon to see an otter at work. Also, for me it would have only take one human figuring out how wonderful a raw oyster is, for all humankind to get the idea. I do not think humans were as squemish back then. And, as I recall, human settlements near places like the Chesapeake Bay left mountains of oyster shellls behind.

I have heard legends about goats eating coffee and getting frisky and humans taking an interest, but I do not know whether I buy that. Coffee is complex enough in preparation that I am impressed that humans ever figured it out!

 

[Commander Quan]

I bet most of this stuff started as some sort of prank. Like some guy going out and collecting buckets of maple tree sap to put into his buddies deer hide boxer shorts, somehow it ended up boiling for days and what was left over tasted pretty good with waffles and squirrel sausage.

 

[Abdiel]

Hundreds and thousands of years of trial and error.

You are out foraging, you pick up some grass and make grass stew. During the right season you happen to forage that grass after it's gotten seeds. You notice your grass stew is now more of a porridge. Enough experimentation and EURIKA! the first bowl of oatmeal is born.

Taking this a step further some enterprising individual way back when realizes that seeds are what plants grow from, and if he collects those seeds he can grow them outside of his hut instead of having to search high and low for them. You now have farming. Someone realizes that two similar grasses next to each produce a grass that has characteristics of both. Boom, you now have the first engineered crop. Take this concept a few more generations and you could start to see some real definition to the crops. Somewhere along the line someone realizes that by separating the kernels from the stalks life and your porridge are much easier and tastier. You need to do it for the new seeds anyway.

Along the line someone then discovers if you crack those kernels you get and improved porridge that cooks quicker tastes better and digests easier. From there it's a hop skip and a couple of grinding stones away from the first flour. The first bread probably comes around from someone not having enough water to make their porridge and bread is born.

Alternate theory and in the same line anyway someone realizes that if those kernels are mixed with water and sit around for awhile you have a drink that makes you feel pretty once enough is consumed. As with the bread story above, someone isolates various things along the way and we progress onward to something that is finally identifiable as what we would recognize it as in the modern day.

Same with yeast, someone noted if that dough sits around it will magically rise. Someone notices eventually it's not magical and it's really a wee little critter that worked it's way in there and started belching.

It all stems from some enterprising individual somewhere in history having a light bulb moment and running with it.