Could Henry the Eighth have got a cheeseburger, if he wanted one?
Via Paul Krugman, this guy tries to do the "I, Pencil" bit with respect to the cheeseburger. Basically it's a bait-and-switch, possibly an unintentional one, but by the definition he is using (multiple specialized vendors, ability to transport foodstuffs large distances while keeping them fresh), the Homeric Greeks were probably an "highly-developed, post-agrarian society" and the Romans certainly were. I think that where he went wrong was in starting off thinking about Thanksgiving, and assuming that the whole world was like America[1] - a tribal subsistence farmer-hunter society, that suddenly became a modern capitalist one at the end of the eighteenth century. Also one where pasture is a "near zero cost" input (see comments), which has only been even nearly true in a small number of geographical and historical islands.
[1] Actually, like New England - I bet the Incas and Aztecs weren't far off being able to do the same things with food as the Romans. They were also positioned near the equator and thus presumably didn't have to deal with this strange thing about only slaughtering animals in the autumn, about which the author seems very strict.
I'd go with unintentional: from my experience, Americans who are raised on the pilgrim myth and don't spend much time looking at wider history tend to think that extended sea voyages (and the attendant trade) began in the late 1400s, eventually bringing tomatoes to Italy and spuds to Ireland.
ReplyDeleteFor comparison's sake, though: how much of the menu of a classic NY deli could a European have eaten in 1621?
I'm really surprised that Krugman and DeLong linked that -- it makes no sense whatsoever. He's talking about a meal consisting of bread, cheese, ketchup, a meat patty, lettuce, and tomato. The first three ingredients are non-perishable (the bread's perishable, but not the grain you use to make it) so no problem. Of the three perishable ingredients, lettuce and tomato are in season at the same time, so no problem. The only bit left of the post is the claim that it was impractical to eat fresh meat in September.
ReplyDeleteWhich really is news to me, and I'd need some serious convincing to believe it was true. Jaquith seems to have gotten confused between "I find the idea of making cheese at home intimidating" and "So modern industrial food transport and production are necessary to make any dish with cheese in it."