Culinary Activities Research Articles

Lichenized and non-lichenized fungi: Folklore and fact

Summary The use of fungi, particularly macro-fungi, in culinary and medical activities is discussed, in addition to the early history of the cultivation of fungi for human consumption. Larger fungi have been utilized in the production of dyes, tinder, and fabric over many centuries and have been used also as a source of light and for deodorizing and fumigation. Difficulty is experienced in separating facts from folklore, but there is, as with lichens, a distinct reliance on the doctrine of signatures. Although lichens were widely used in a range of medicinal concoctions, some of which worked to a limited degree, their economic value has been greater in connection with textiles and cosmetics. They have also been an essential ingredient in the economy of the peoples in Arctic regions, as a fodder for reindeer.

Food for Thought in Philadelphia: “The Larder Invaded”

Exhibit Reviews FOOD FOR THOUGHT IN PHILADELPHIA: “THE LARDER INVADED” JUDITH A. MCGAW The history of food is inherently difficult to exhibit. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, culinary historians have had their “best evidence . . . eaten by its creators”;1 the surviving record lacks the gustatory and olfactory data that tell us most about food. More­ over, “a full scholarly context is only now emerging ... [in this] rel­ atively new field of historical research.”2 Compounding the inherent difficulties for thisjoint exhibit by the Library Company of Philadel­ phia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania were the brief time available to prepare it—six months—and the two-dimensional char­ acter of its sponsors’ principal holdings—books, manuscripts, printed ephemera, prints, photographs, and paintings. Recognizing the topic’s importance, guest curator William Woys Weaver, a culinary historian whose research had alerted the host in­ stitutions to their enormous scholarly resources,3 and curators Mary Dr. McGaw is associate professor of the history of technology at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Most Wonderful Machine: Mechanization and Social Change in Berkshire PaperMaking, 1801—1885 (Princeton, NJ., 1987). She is currently conducting research in the history of early Delaware Valley agriculture and domestic food pro­ cessing. She thanks Lindy Biggs, Julie Johnson, and Raman Srinivasan for attending the exhibit at her request and supplementing her observations with theirs. ’Mary Anne Hines, Gordon Marshall, and William Woys Weaver, The Larder Invaded: Reflections on Three Centuries of Philadelphia Food and Drink (Philadelphia: Library Com­ pany of Philadelphia and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1987), p. 7. 2Ibid., p. 45. 3William Woys Weaver, Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania-German Food and Foodways (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983). Weaver is currently at work on a two-volume history of Philadelphia culinary activities to 1876. Some of the themes of his work are suggested in “Philadelphia in Bocca," an overview of regional culinary history through the early 20th century included in The Larder Invaded along with a selected catalog of the exhibit.© 1988 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/88/2902-0006$01.00 266 Food for Thought in Philadelphia: “The Larder Invaded” 267 Anne Hines and Gordon Marshall of the Library Company were willing to accept these constraints. And despite them, the curators created an exhibit that managed both to whet the potential food his­ torian’s appetite for a fuller view of the sponsors’ collections and to offer the casual visitor an engaging and generally balanced bill of fare. “The Larder Invaded: Reflections on Three Centuries of Philadelphia Food and Drink” ran from November 1986 to April 1987 and covered 4,500 square feet of gallery space, winding through the first floors of the Library Company and Historical Society. It incorporated 255 pieces of artwork, displayed 250 books and pamphlets, and presented 647 additional items, including a number of objects borrowed from local collectors, businesses, and historical institutions. The long array of display cases and wall panels was made more inviting by a serpentine route that periodically opened new vistas to the viewer, and by latticework portals with titles signaling new sections. The route generally promoted smooth and clear passage through the exhibit. Object labels, however, sometimes required some stretching and craning to read and their typed form, necessitated by the short lead time, made 20/20 vision essential. Both the enormous array of themes and topics to be illustrated and the limited relevant secondary scholarship prompted the curators to keep label text minimal “in the hope that, properly arranged, the number of items and their variety will tell our story for us.”4 They also decided to preserve their efforts in a select catalog with accompanying full text in microfiche and to offer the possibility of making, smelling, and tasting some of the historic fare with the guidance of 35 Receiptsfrom “The Larder Invaded,” a representative selection of original recipes enhanced by Weaver’s directions adapted to modern ingredients and equipment.5 The exhibit was well designed tcf intrigue the visitor at the outset. It opened with an array of Philadelphia food images and facts, sugAThe Larder Invaded, p. 8. Given the dearth...

Nourritures de l'altérité : le double langage des Juifs algériens en France

Répondant à l'invitation de Claude Lévi-Strauss qui leur suggérait de « découvrir, pour chaque cas particulier, comment la cuisine d'une société est un langage dans lequel elle traduit inconsciemment sa structure », les sciences humaines se sont interrogées, depuis le début des années soixante-dix, sur ce qui, dans la tradition juive apparaît comme la forme la plus manifeste et quotidienne de différenciation sociale : les commandements touchant à la pureté alimentaire. Force est de constater qu'en parfaite continuité avec les thèses lévi-straussiennes, ces commentaires sont largement inspirés par la démarche structuraliste, qui tente de faire émerger de l'analyse des règles alimentaires un code éthique et social, et de rapporter des catégories alimentaires à des catégories et des structures mentales. Mais c'est à la source biblique essentiellement qu'ont puisé les analyses de Mary Douglas de la pureté animale, celle de Jean Soler sur la « sémiotique » de la nourriture juive, et celle de Francis Martens de l'interdiction du mélange lacté/carné.

Cuisine et alimentation populaire à Paris

Daniel Roche : The Parisian people's food. The food of the common Paris people is one of the indications of the majority's life-style, and specifically, an expression of a style of consuming. For those who lived in a single room (that is, three-quarters of the population), the space devoted to culinary activities combined utility and the expression of values. Its organisation, furniture, the evolution of utensils during the century, show various changes which indicate both an improvement in living conditions due to an imitation of the habits of their superiors and the pauperisation of a large number by the deterioration of their economic situation. The superfluous and the necessary coexist in the people's cuisine, as do the ordinary and the extraordinary, to be seen in consuming habits, whether at home or in taverns.

Devil's Lair, an example of prolonged cave use in South‐Western Australia

Abstract Long‐term investigations at Devil's Lair, a small limestone cave in the Capes Leeuwin‐Naturaliste region of extreme south‐western Australia, have yielded archaeological material radiocarbon dated 6,500–33,000 B.P. Several occupation features show that people lived in the cave from 12,000 to 27,700 B.P. The cave deposit contains very rich assemblages of animal bones probably contributed by both human and animal predators; criteria are suggested to distinguish those bones and other remains representing human exploitation. A distinctive series of carbonate encrusted bones and stones present in the lower half of the deposit, including artefacts and the bones of extinct marsupials, is tentatively considered to be redeposited from unexcavated parts of the cave deposit whose minimum radiocarbon age is 37,750 ± 2,500 B.P. A wide range, though limited number, of stone and bone artefacts including debitage suggests that the cave was occasionally used as a campsite where culinary and maintenance activities ...