WEBVTT - Bugs, Twinkies and Ancient Foods 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.360 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.000 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.480 do you like to throw like dinner parties, put together 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.480 like appetizers with things you do you call yourself a foodie. 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:25.880 I am a foodie. I don't do a lot of 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:28.680 dinner parties anymore, per se, but I do like to 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:33.559 whip up a nice bal slamaic onion and feta or 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.760 goat cheese pizza. You known, just on the fly rosemary 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.680 pizza is always so good, like goat cheese pizza with 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:44.080 like grapes and rosemary. I love that grapes. Sorry, I 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:45.959 know what I'm going to add now. So these these 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.279 are very you know, these are modern foods. These are 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:50.600 you know, we we pretty much have everything in the 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:52.680 world at our disposal. Yeah, I was about to say, 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:55.480 I I should um, I should point out that the 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.520 balslama onions I use are from a grocery store chain 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.720 that are frozen, which makes me being a foodie super 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.920 easy to your point. Well, but but even you know, 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:07.920 there even someone, even if you're not gonna even if 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:09.920 even if you can use raw materials, you know, there's 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.840 just so many at our disposal, so so modern cuisine 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:16.040 just encompasses everything. But have you ever attempted to cook 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:20.039 with ancient methods or to to prepare ancient recipes? Have 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.920 I churned my own butter? Have I created a little 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.560 hole in the ground in my backyard and and just 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.200 filled it full of hot coals and grow up some 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.319 stuff to pick in there? No? I haven't. Okay, well 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:34.280 I I don't think I think I have either. But 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:39.160 it's a It is a fascinating prospect, the idea of 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.440 inviting people over or just you know, just just preparing 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:44.640 this nice meal, setting the table, and then it's uh, 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.080 you know like nuts and bugs, nuts and bugs and 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.360 nuts and bugs, which could be very very I mean, 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.200 I'm not setting this up like, oh this is gross 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.320 and the goat cheese pizza is great. The oat cheese 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:57.760 pizza is great, but but bugs and nuts are good too. 0:01:57.800 --> 0:01:59.800 I mean, are you saying this is the plus to 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:03.120 see an era dinner party? Yeah, it's like the Pleistocene 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.840 dinner party. We're kind of trying to imagine here. It 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.360 would would be a very different affair than than what 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.160 we're used to. But but but is we try and 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:15.360 understand what people ate in the past. It is kind 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.000 of challenging because that we don't always have the best 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.119 kept records of what people ate, especially when you get back, 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:23.800 you know, obviously into prehistoric times. It's called prehistoric because 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:25.800 there's not really in a recorded history. You have to 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.360 depend on fossil records. Uh, you know, looking at the 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:31.600 actual teeth of our our ancestors and seeing what they 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:33.680 were capable of eating. Yeah, and when we looked at 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:36.440 neander faults, we actually are need it or tall as 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.480 they are called. We actually found that meat really wasn't 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.720 as present in their diet as people thought. In fact, 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.240 there's a lot more vegetable matter and so on and 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.640 so forth, And that meat as a main source of 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.480 proteins sort of a myth because it's very obvious that 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.760 bones would subsist better than vegetable matter, right, Yeah, I 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.320 mean you have to keep in mind catching something to 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:01.160 eat is kind of a challenging affair. Like if you 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.280 had to go catch an animal and eat it right now, Um, 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.440 I mean not counting pets, not counting squirrels that are 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.280 so used to the presence of humans that you could 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:12.480 go and grab one with your hand. Um, you know, 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:15.600 in an in an actual prehistoric environment where everything is 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.519 fearful of everything else. It's it's a lot harder to 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:20.840 actually go out and catch that much meat, right, I 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:22.440 would be toast. I think most of us would be 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:24.280 toast if we had to go out and actually get 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.840 except for for Mark Zuckerberg of course. Yeah. But then 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:29.880 also speaking of toasting, I mean that's another thing too, 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.919 since since cooking, which we'll get to in a lot 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.120 in in in a few minutes, uh, is it can 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:38.280 be used as a means of preserving meat. That's the 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.400 thing too. It's like, say you're a prehistoric tribesman, you 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.720 bring down some sort of large animal, Well get eating 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.600 because you only have so much time before that that 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.280 meat is spoiled in a warm environment, right, and hopefully 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:52.400 you've got a salt flat nearby, right, so you can 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:54.280 at least preserve some of it if you know the 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.240 methods and the methods have been taught to you. If 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.800 if there's enough language at this point to communicate this, Yeah, 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:01.400 there is the what was the movie about the kid 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:06.760 who who goes up into the wilderness to survive. Oh uh, 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.640 this is John cracow Um book, right, if you based 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:12.360 off of that, I cannot remember. Into the woods or 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.600 sometimes yeah, into the wild wild, Like there's a scene 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.400 in that where he kills a large animal and he's 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:20.360 looking to try and you know, preserve the meat as 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:22.520 fast as possible, and it just ends up failing because 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:26.200 it's it's a huge undertaking, especially if you as a 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.479 people have not developed the technology to do it yet. Yeah, well, 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:31.760 and let's just try to let's do a quick timeline 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.920 if if, if, if people will allow us such an 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.359 indulgence of what we're looking at when we talk about 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:42.000 these kinds of foods um, before we became an agrarian culture. Um, 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:47.279 we're talking actually a much longer, like twenty plus years ago. 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:53.520 You're really looking at food sources such as very basic water, ice, salt. Again, 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:58.200 if you've got salt, bed, handy fish, mushrooms, eggs, right, 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.200 so you probably creep up to a little nest and 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:04.120 grab some eggs, easy pickings, easy pickings, um, some grains, 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.440 and of course insects really important. This is called into mafaji. Right. 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.120 When you eat insects, it's a great source of protein. Yeah, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:15.120 because they're everywhere. They I mean they're they're just everywhere, 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.600 and and they're so easy to catch. Generally, you're not 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.039 gonna have to fight for your life to grab, you know, 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.839 a nice juicy grub to eat. You just gotta know 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:26.120 what to dick and right. And if you were in 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.919 the West, that probably sounds weird, but obviously in in 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.359 some Eastern cultures, this is you know, straight food for people. 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.360 It still exists. Yeah. Yeah, it's still traditional food in 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.400 many parts of Asia and Africa. And you know, you 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.919 can go on the streets of Bangkok and get the 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.560 fried insects and supposedly it's delicious. Yeah, I didn't get 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:45.760 to try it when I was there. There was all 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:47.600 sorts of street food, but we didn't actually get to 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:51.120 see the the insect because I was reason to go back. Yeah, 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:53.919 there's totally recently yea. Um. And then you've got the 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:57.640 sort of post agrarian fifteen thousand years ago or so, 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:03.560 you've got sheep, we cherries and almonds. Is afterward, domesticating animals. 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.479 We're grown we actually have early agriculture, so we're growing 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:09.680 up some plants we're gonna use. We've got animals that 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.520 we are controlling and they're not going anywhere, and we 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.840 can kill and eat them at our at our whim. Yeah. 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:17.760 But still we're talking about sheep here, We're not talking 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:20.120 about cows or pigs or anything else. And I mean 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:23.240 it's still very limited. And then cheap for the first 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:25.840 to get pulled in right there they are, Yeah, you're 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.520 kind of dumb, sorry guys. But then all seven thousand 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:33.040 BC beer and wine, oh yes, yea fermentation of fruit 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.760 and hops. And then you start to see cattle domestication 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.200 um in a in a very real way. And then 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.880 in six thousand BC you've got maze tortillas, honey chickpeas, 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:48.920 five thousand BC milk yogurt, popcorn, which just you know 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:53.280 that was the big that was the big invention that year. Yeah, yeah, 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:55.039 and they have little carts out there and they had 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.000 a little red and white striped buckets. Yeah yep. Um. 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:00.400 And then and then look at this, because this is interesting. 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:04.080 So you've got popcorn thirty s dred BC, three thousand BC, 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.960 spices starting to be used, and then five hundred BC 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.840 skip forward sausage. And then this is interesting. Obviously this 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.119 is a highly selected list. There's a ton of stuff 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:15.600 that we could go on forever and it would be 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.680 like reading the telephone book and would be highly unpleasant. 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.040 But um, the reason I wanted to point some of 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.680 these out is because as you go, uh, as you 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:25.640 as you come more towards the present, you see more 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.880 and more processing of food. So ninth century coffee and 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.800 cod because they go so well together, eleventh century corn 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:36.600 beef insider, fifteenth century jellies, jams and preserves, and then 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:40.960 seventeen sixty nine tofuon in America eighteen twenty four, A 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.240 one steak, sauce, eighteen seventy nine sacharin, and then we've 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:49.480 got Crisco in nineteen eleven, vegam nine ninety seven the 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:55.760 healthy element of processed foods uh spam. Yeah, So what 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:57.320 do we see? I mean, what we're seeing here is 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.480 just our ability to manipulate food more more century to 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:03.680 the point where it becomes increasingly more like this sci 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.320 Fi idea of like enjoy some food cubes, you know, 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.640 where it just comes out and it doesn't even look 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:13.000 at anything like uh, like a creature or a plant, 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.200 and maybe never was a creature. No, no, But I 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.600 think it's important to sort of talk about this just 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:21.200 in the context of me, how do we get from 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:25.080 you know, spearing insects and uh, trying to figure out 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:27.720 whether or not a tuber was edible or inedible to 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:29.880 to getting to this spam. Yeah, because there's a basic 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.160 like one like picture yourself in the woods like I 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.280 was doing. I've been doing this a little recently as 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:36.880 we've been looking to these food topics, and I guess 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.000 maybe I've been outside a little more in the last year. 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.600 Um uh and uh. And you know, like looking around 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:46.240 in a wilderness situation, especially here in Georgia, you look 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.640 around and you're like, wow, what if I just suddenly 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:50.280 had to survive right now? Just I you know, I 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.000 just had a forage to see what I could. You know, 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:54.640 I would I would be dead, you know before the 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.440 end of the day probably well, but you know, as 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:59.520 a as a wanderer. And and that's the thing too. 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.520 As humans spread throughout um, through throughout the world and 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:06.280 and and found new homes, they had to be able 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:08.960 to find these things, and some some areas were more 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.360 conducive to it than others. But basically early humans, you know, 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:14.840 you're looking around, You're looking for berries, you're looking for nuts, 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:19.040 you're looking for fungus, you're looking for water sources, and 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.079 the thing is that all of these can be poisoned 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.640 if you don't know what you're looking for. Some berries, 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.439 they maybe ones really red and it's really good to eat. 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.000 The other's red and will kill you, know, heartbeat, Uh. 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.040 Fungus is obviously, some are gonna be delicious, some are 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:35.679 gonna make you see the devil, and some are going 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.560 to kill you. Dead water sources, some are gonna be 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.920 clean and wonderful, some are going to clean you out. Well, 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.480 this is what when it becomes really important, this whole 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.920 trial and error process and really communicating, you know, among 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.000 your tribe or or whatever. The situation is, like, hey, 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:54.680 do not pick this type of mushroom. Bad things happen. 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.240 It's happened to me. I survived it, or someone didn't 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.480 survive it. So you know, we take only man, it's 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.720 like you have to give me those measures, right, yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:05.640 just save this for me. But so how do you 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.200 how do you do trial and error when you're dealing 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.600 with potentially lethal consequences? I mean especially it's like to say, 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:13.559 even if it's just a thing where you get dysenterry. 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.920 Like today, dysenterry is is a lot more treatable, you know, 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:21.520 especially in the more modern Western civilizations. But but back then, 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:24.360 it's like dysentery could be uh mean, until very recently, 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:26.640 dysentery was a death sentence in many places, and it 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.360 is in many places. Yeah, well, I mean in terms 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.360 of whether or not something might be poisonous. I mean, 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:33.000 they're gonna be some clues right off the bat. You know, 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:34.400 if you if you bring it up to your lips 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:36.319 as it began to sting, if you put in your mouth, 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:38.760 does your you know, do you go into antiploxic shock, 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.360 These sort of things that might be able to sort 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:45.600 of head you off from death before you know you 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.360 actually get there by consuming it. So there are some 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.080 clues that it would give you. But again the trying 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:56.240 to um orally tell this information is really important. And 0:10:56.280 --> 0:11:00.560 then later as an agree in society with domestication dogs, 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.199 it becomes a lot easier. Oh, because dogs of course 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.640 will eat anything. You will eat anything you throw them 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:07.680 that say, hey, check that out. Maybe you have twenty 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.480 dogs and you have one to spare. Um It's it's 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:12.480 an easy way to figure out whether or not something 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.520 is is edible or inedible? Yeah, or well it's like 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:18.439 a dog could eat it and not die, so it 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:20.760 must be good for dinner. That's that's that's setting the 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.200 bar kind of low, I think, but you know, it's 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.640 better than nothing. And and of course, uh, people end 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.280 up developing all these different myths and stories. You end 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.800 up with this oral history to share with with your people. 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:34.520 That lets you just you know, kind of like a 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:36.880 memorization sheet of what you can eat and what you 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:41.520 can't um. But not unlike the memory palace. That's thinking 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.360 instead of just trying to remember, right, this red berry 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.800 will kill you and this one is pretty delicious. You 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:49.200 create a story about it, and then it's it will 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.600 sink in a lot more. That's right. And I mean, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:53.640 how do we teach our kids right now? You know, 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.640 to avoid things? We we give them scary like you 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:00.200 know Grimm's fairy tales, you know, watch out for the witch. Um. 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:02.760 I mean, you know, it's it's all a little bit, 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:07.680 you know, in the same manner, I suppose, But there 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.560 you go. I mean, you are foraging, You're you're giving 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.280 your food scraps to the dogs, and then on top 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.120 of that, you're probably giving them something new that you're 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.880 interested in finding out whether or not you want to eat. Um. 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:20.960 And all of this starts to evolve into, you know, 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:25.760 this tide of food that becomes available to us and 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:29.120 that we cultivate. But the big big thing here obviously 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:33.760 is fire. Yeah, and it's it's really difficult to to 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.960 figure out when we first began using fire deliberately. You 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.600 look at some of these estimates and US and you 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:44.520 can some people say like Asia, other estimates are in 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.920 Africa even even further in the past. Um, And it 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:50.439 just kind of depends on which one you go with. 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:52.320 And uh, you know, it's it's hard to figure out 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.440 exactly when then, you know, because obviously you're keeping a fire. Um, 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.040 you might use the fire too, obviously to keep warm 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:02.000 to scare away animals. Um. Eventually the craft tools. But 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.320 at what point do you discover, Hey, if I take 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.599 this piece of meat and uh accidentally drop it in 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:09.880 the fire, then when it comes back out, it has 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.719 a different taste, it has a different consistency, right. Or 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.520 if I take this potato which was inedible, and I 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:18.319 cook it, then all of a sudden, I have something 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:21.920 that's really nutritious. Uh, that I can now eat. So, 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.040 I mean, because that's the thing about fire, It doesn't 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.839 just I mean it has several the way it changes 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.400 the property of food. Uh, it does so in several 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.760 different ways. I mean obviously, Um, if you cook meat thoroughly, 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.560 you don't have to worry as much about like parasites, 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:38.920 that's just just a small thing. You don't have to 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.120 worry about getting sick as much from it. Um, then 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.960 the taste is going to be in many ways better. 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:48.840 And then also you're gonna be able to digest it easier. 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.920 It's gonna that's a huge part of that. I believe 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.160 that the digestion part. Because we're talking about this, um 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.199 a little bit that you know, back in the day, 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.720 obviously there was no plumbing. So you would not want 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:03.200 to put yourself at risk for just fooling around with 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:05.800 a certain food to see whether or not you could 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.440 eat it, because you know, who wants to be doubled 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:12.120 over in a cave with diarrhea? Right? Yeah, I mean 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:14.480 you will be shunned. Yeah, and there are not that 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:16.800 many caves. Why aren't you doing it in the cave? Yeah? 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:22.800 Go outside? I know it's snowing, but um, it's uh, yeah, 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.280 I mean it's uh, it's it's like if we suddenly 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.520 had a magic sauce that you could pour over rocks 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:29.400 and make them edible. You know. It's kind of like 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:31.200 that's the thing. It's like being able to cook things 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.000 suddenly makes things that you could not eat before edible. 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:38.560 It it opens up the the culinary world world a 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:42.960 little larger, and in that way ensures your survival a 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.560 little more. Yeah, and yeah, there is no question that 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:47.560 this gave us the upper hand as a species. And 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:49.360 that's the important thing to realize to about earlier. I mean, 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:54.000 these early societies, even monestor, that food is survival, you know. 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:56.640 I mean as much as you know, especially in privileged 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.320 portions of the world, we get wrapped up in food 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.640 as enjoying and food as this recreation and this thing 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.560 that we love. But it's survival, I mean, obviously. And 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.920 that's an outrageous overstatement of the obvious. But like most 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:11.440 outrageous overstatements of the obvious, we do so because you 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:14.240 really have to drive from a point that we often overlook. 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:16.840 You know, this, This was the key to so many 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:20.240 of the roots of modern cuisine was that we had 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:22.680 to figure out ways to survive. We had to figure 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:24.960 out ways to eat things that we couldn't eat previously 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:28.240 and eat things tomorrow that we would otherwise have to 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.520 eat to eat all of it today. Well yeah, even 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:35.240 until the Industrial Revolution, it was pretty much uh, touching 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:37.280 go when it turned when it came to getting the 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.960 right amount of food and protein and surviving right little kids. 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.760 You know, babies often would perish because they didn't have 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:46.800 enough food or their parents didn't have enough food, or 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:51.120 obviously disease um was pretty rampant as well. So anyway, 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.360 until we stabilize enough for society, we really didn't take 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.680 it um as we do today. Is like, Okay, I'm 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:00.120 just gonna sit down and have myself a meal here, 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.160 whether or not it's in a restaurant, or I just 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:03.920 pull something out of my freezer and it happens to 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.640 be bossonic onions, which are delicious. So you have preservation 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:10.120 um of food. This is this is key. Well, we 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.360 we've alluded to this earlier, like if you if you 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:14.920 heat a meat, if you if you cook it right, 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.200 it can last longer. Right. The classic example of this 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.560 is beef jerky. Uh. You know, some people may just 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.120 you know, just think, oh, beef jerkey is delicious because 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:25.040 I can buy it a a truck truck stop and eat 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.200 it while I'm driving, you know. And and uh, you know, 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.280 and beef turkey can be really good if if you're 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.480 into that sort of thing. But it's an example of 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:36.640 meat that's preserved. I mean it's like, yeah, it's dried out, 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:38.840 it can last longer. It's not gonna rot and make 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.920 you sick. Um. And we see uh, several different food 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:47.600 preservation techniques that were essential early on, because especially when 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.560 you're dealing with harsh winters, you've got to I mean 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:52.600 it's it's like the weather grasshopper in the ant, right, 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:55.160 the the ant stores is food away and is therefore 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.920 able to survive. The winner the grasshopper doesn't and dies 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.440 during the winter. So we had a learned to be 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:04.720 ants pretty early on, which is taking something delicious now 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.000 and save it for the winter, even if it's going 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.679 to be a little disgusting come winter. Oh yeah, you 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.080 have a really good example of that bag of disgusting nous. Yes, 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:16.280 I mean to me, not to this culture. Yeah, we 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.520 kind of. Some of these are basically their survival foods. 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:20.560 There are things that and you see a lot of 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:24.280 these in UM in more extreme environments such as UM 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.200 such as Greenland, where we have this thing called Kiddiak, 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:34.640 which we're gonna get to right after this quick break. 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.840 This presentation is brought to you by Intel sponsors of tomorrow. 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.720 All right, kak laid on me? Yeah, okay, so halves 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:51.960 in Greenland. All right, So every year these little birds, 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:56.560 baby birds, cute, very cute little guys. Uh. You know, 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:58.640 they're they're all out, They're all just swarming all over 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.560 the place. This is a great time to eat little 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.200 birds because they're everywhere, right, and they have this great 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:05.919 way of catching them. They developed this it's like this 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.760 big sort of slingshot net, like like a picture of 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:10.720 like a giant butterfly net. And I was thinking, like 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.200 Dr Susie and net. It's very Sousian and they sling 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.280 that thing around. And if you've there's a the Discovery 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.560 BBC co production Human Planet has some excellent footage of 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.919 this in their episode about the Arctic. But they sling 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.800 this this net around and they catch these birds and 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:28.520 like in a day, they'll just catch hundreds of these 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.439 things and they'll they'll catch them and they'll snap their 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:33.760 little necks, put them in a bag, and then they'll 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:35.879 take them back back home. Now what are they doing 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:37.600 when they get home? Do they fry them up? No? 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:40.640 Because this is not food for now. This is because 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.840 now is a great what are you gonna yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:45.920 you can't eat them. You can't eat them all now, 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:50.240 it's impossible and you are worrying about surviving later. But 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.320 you also can't just uh pile them in you know, 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.000 a corner of your house, so they're gonna rot other 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:56.960 things they're getta eat there. They're not gonna be food 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.040 come winter. So they actually take a page for on 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.520 the the book of the Arctic Fox, which will we're 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:05.439 up pretty much all foxes will do this. This is 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:07.160 why they you know, they talk about like a fox 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:08.920 getting into a inhouse, so will just kill all the 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.360 chickens because the fox's ways to like, well, there's all 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:14.240 this food now, I'm gonna kill it all and I'm 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:16.360 gonna bury it. I'm gonna hide it and then I'll 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:18.520 come back and eat it when it's nice and nasty 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:20.800 later on during the winter. So it's the same principle 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.280 um they but but instead of just bearing it under 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.000 a rock. They take the birds and they stuff them 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:30.119 again by the hundreds into a big seal skin and 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.640 then they they and then they seal it no pun intended, 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:35.880 and then they jump on it get all the air 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.280 out of it. They literally are jumping on this right 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:41.919 after and they've sown the top right yeah, and uh, 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:43.920 and they put I think it's like like seal fat 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:47.280 on it to help keep the seal, keep it sealed 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:49.920 and to keep flies away from it. Then they put 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:51.879 some big rocks over it to keep anything from digging 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:53.359 it up and and to get the rest of the 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:55.040