5 ms·

I'm curious as to what easy advances there were in cooking. Do you mean something along the lines of better heat sources or do you mean recipes?

rcfox 15y ago
Making sure to eat sources of vitamin C to prevent scurvy, having women who intend to get pregnant eat more folate to help their babies' brains...(Not to mention not drinking alcohol while pregnant!)
- kragen 15y ago
  These might be practically difficult to realize just on brainpower alone. For example: how do you avoid drinking alcohol if your only sources of drinking water are contaminated? You can boil the water — but you don't know a priori whether the pathogens or toxins in the water can be destroyed by boiling, or how much boiling is needed. If the toxins are things like arsenic, boiling the water will concentrate them, while various kinds of biological processing may filter them out. And where do you get vitamin C? Tomatoes are a great source of vitamin C, but you can't just go around eating random local tomato-like plants; almost all of them are deadly. Plants like rhubarb have lots of vitamin C, but also lots of oxalic acid. Raw meat is also a good source of vitamin C, but raw meat can harbor many different pathogens. Are you going to build a microscope, synthesize some stains, and inspect a bunch of meat samples to see which ones bear pathogenic bacteria? And once a couple of your human-subjects experiments go wrong, or just have coincidental unrelated deaths, you're a candidate for a witch-burning. (Even in the best cases, modern hygiene is not without its drawbacks; the poliomyelitis epidemic is one example.)
pyrhho 15y ago
- Better Bread? Historically bakers had extremely short lives because without mixers they had to breathe in the flour dust all day. And the bread would have been extremely unevenly cooked (no temperature-regulated ovens), as well as being extremely salty (no preservatives). - Pasta? Pasta is absolutely amazing. It is an extremely dense source of calories, which doesn't rot, is super-compact, and only requires water and heat to cook. Great for armies on the march. - Coffee? Coffee's been around a long time, but high-pressure espresso is relatively new. Other fairly basic staples are newer than you might think, like Potatoes (16th Cent.), Or Tomatoes (17th Cent.) Edit: Also limes for sailors.
- InclinedPlane 15y ago
  Pasta is an amazing invention. It's functionally similar to hard tack except it can be prepared to an edible state very quickly with merely boiling water and also tastes much better.
  - ars 15y ago
    Can you make pasta with whole grain flour? I'm not sure milling techniques available in those days were able to make the right kind of flour. Also without fortifying the flour pasta is calories without nutrients. It's useful as a suplement, but dangerous to live on it long term.
    - chc 15y ago
      I've never made any pasta from scratch, but they sell whole-wheat pasta at my local grocer, so I assume it must be possible.
      - ars 15y ago
        I've seen it too, but it's not regular pasta, it has some other ingredients, so I'm not sure you could make it by hand successfully. I don't actually know if you can or not, I was just wondering.
        obeattie 15y ago
        http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/whole-wheat-pasta/Detail.aspx http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/whole-wheat-pasta/Detail.aspx
    - peterwwillis 15y ago
      Could you please clarify why whole grain flour pasta would not have nutrients? Unless you meant white flour pasta. And here is how to make it from scratch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_wheat_flour http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_wheat_flour Grind whole wheat into flour with a coffee grinder: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1593906/make_lowcarb_wholegrain_flour_for_10.html?cat=22 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1593906/make_lowcar... (you can also buy an expensive hand-crank version) Whole Wheat Pasta recipe: http://www.sugarlaws.com/whole-wheat-pasta http://www.sugarlaws.com/whole-wheat-pasta

rcfox 15y ago

Making sure to eat sources of vitamin C to prevent scurvy, having women who intend to get pregnant eat more folate to help their babies' brains...(Not to mention not drinking alcohol while pregnant!)

kragen 15y ago
These might be practically difficult to realize just on brainpower alone. For example: how do you avoid drinking alcohol if your only sources of drinking water are contaminated? You can boil the water — but you don't know a priori whether the pathogens or toxins in the water can be destroyed by boiling, or how much boiling is needed. If the toxins are things like arsenic, boiling the water will concentrate them, while various kinds of biological processing may filter them out. And where do you get vitamin C? Tomatoes are a great source of vitamin C, but you can't just go around eating random local tomato-like plants; almost all of them are deadly. Plants like rhubarb have lots of vitamin C, but also lots of oxalic acid. Raw meat is also a good source of vitamin C, but raw meat can harbor many different pathogens. Are you going to build a microscope, synthesize some stains, and inspect a bunch of meat samples to see which ones bear pathogenic bacteria? And once a couple of your human-subjects experiments go wrong, or just have coincidental unrelated deaths, you're a candidate for a witch-burning. (Even in the best cases, modern hygiene is not without its drawbacks; the poliomyelitis epidemic is one example.)

pyrhho 15y ago

- Better Bread? Historically bakers had extremely short lives because without mixers they had to breathe in the flour dust all day. And the bread would have been extremely unevenly cooked (no temperature-regulated ovens), as well as being extremely salty (no preservatives). - Pasta? Pasta is absolutely amazing. It is an extremely dense source of calories, which doesn't rot, is super-compact, and only requires water and heat to cook. Great for armies on the march. - Coffee? Coffee's been around a long time, but high-pressure espresso is relatively new. Other fairly basic staples are newer than you might think, like Potatoes (16th Cent.), Or Tomatoes (17th Cent.) Edit: Also limes for sailors.

InclinedPlane 15y ago
Pasta is an amazing invention. It's functionally similar to hard tack except it can be prepared to an edible state very quickly with merely boiling water and also tastes much better.
- ars 15y ago
  Can you make pasta with whole grain flour? I'm not sure milling techniques available in those days were able to make the right kind of flour. Also without fortifying the flour pasta is calories without nutrients. It's useful as a suplement, but dangerous to live on it long term.
  - chc 15y ago
    I've never made any pasta from scratch, but they sell whole-wheat pasta at my local grocer, so I assume it must be possible.
    - ars 15y ago
      I've seen it too, but it's not regular pasta, it has some other ingredients, so I'm not sure you could make it by hand successfully. I don't actually know if you can or not, I was just wondering.
      - obeattie 15y ago
        http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/whole-wheat-pasta/Detail.aspx http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/whole-wheat-pasta/Detail.aspx
  - peterwwillis 15y ago
    Could you please clarify why whole grain flour pasta would not have nutrients? Unless you meant white flour pasta. And here is how to make it from scratch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_wheat_flour http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_wheat_flour Grind whole wheat into flour with a coffee grinder: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1593906/make_lowcarb_wholegrain_flour_for_10.html?cat=22 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1593906/make_lowcar... (you can also buy an expensive hand-crank version) Whole Wheat Pasta recipe: http://www.sugarlaws.com/whole-wheat-pasta http://www.sugarlaws.com/whole-wheat-pasta