Nifty link

[tsaiko]

I keep losing and finding this website, so maybe if I put it here I won't have to keep searching on it. For those times when you're having a discussion with your girlfriend and realize you don't know whether sugar beets were around in Roman times (they weren't, though chard and red beets were):

http://www.foodtimeline.org/

The discussion leading up to this was "What naturally sweet foods were available to ancient Romans?" The answer is: not many. Honey was the big one, and possibly beets though they weren't in wide use and sugar beets as we know them had not been developed. Sugar from sugar cane was available, but it was expensive since it was made in China/India and seen as a medicine and not as food. That's why it was common for lead to be added to wine, since lead acetate is sweet. And this was done even though the Romans knew lead was poisonous.

There's your food history lesson of the day.

EDIT: Edited because lead was added to wine, not win. Obviously lead added to anything being consumed is the very opposite of win.

Comments

[m-steelgrave.livejournal.com]

This is awesome. Thanks for sharing this link!

[mechante-fille.livejournal.com]

Ooh, neat! Must check this out eventually. *adds it to the list*

Thanks for sharing the link!

[sheltem.livejournal.com]

It doesn't list Silphium =/

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

That's because it was considered a medicinal herb, not a food source. Besides which, no one can agree as to which plant it was. There's even the possibility it was harvested to extinction.

[sheltem.livejournal.com]

It probably was. However, I believe it was also listed as a "must have" cooking spice at the time.

[graymary.livejournal.com]

dude, did you read my mind?! i was thinking of what /actual/ peasant food would have been like in europe and... you solved the mystery!!!

[kiyoshi-chan.livejournal.com]

How about grapes and other fruit? Do they count as sweets?