Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat

Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat

Bee Wilson

Language: English

Pages: 352

ISBN: 0465056970

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


Since prehistory, humans have braved sharp knives, fire, and grindstones to transform raw ingredients into something delicious—or at least edible. Tools shape what we eat, but they have also transformed how we consume, and how we think about, our food. In Consider the Fork, award-winning food writer Bee Wilson provides a wonderful and witty tour of the evolution of cooking around the world, revealing the hidden history of everyday objects we often take for granted. Technology in the kitchen does not just mean the Pacojets and sous-vide of the modernist kitchen, but also the humbler tools of everyday cooking and eating: a wooden spoon and a skillet, chopsticks and forks. Blending history, science, and anthropology, Wilson reveals how our culinary tools and tricks came to be, and how their influence has shaped modern food culture. The story of how we have tamed fire and ice and wielded whisks, spoons, and graters, all for the sake of putting food in our mouths, Consider the Fork is truly a book to savor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

home. It was said that when stoves were first introduced in the United States in the 1830s, they inspired feelings of hatred: stoves might be an acceptable way to heat a public place such as a barroom or courthouse, but not a home. In time, most people got over their repugnance. The “model cookstove” became one of the great consumer status symbols of the Industrial Age, and homes developed a new focus. The typical Victorian cookstove was a cast-iron “monster” that combined a hot-water tank for

pan, but this could be converted to the unventilated heat of an oven by closing the valves at the back. The Leamington could also supply gallons of boiling water. A range was never just designed to cook food; it was needed to provide hot water for the whole household, to heat up irons and warm hands. “Leamington” was one of the first pieces of equipment to become a household name in Britain and was soon being used as shorthand for closed ranges in general. But there were plenty of competing

window of forgiveness has passed. You are now expected to know how to wield your chopsticks dexterously To fail to do so would be taken as a sign of bad parenting. The earliest pair of surviving chopsticks are bronze, from the Ruins of Yin and dated around 1200 BC, so we know that they have been in use for at least 3,000 years. But it was only from around the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) that they became the universal method of eating all over China. The rich had chopsticks made of bronze, ivory,

For true politeness, in most cultures where food is handheld, only the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger are used. (As with the various knife-and-fork rules, there are exceptions. Couscous, because it is so fragmented, may be eaten with all five fingers.) Food should not be grabbed precipitously from the common dish. It is also very rude to anticipate the next bite before you have finished the first, which is not the rule among knife-and-fork eaters. As for the question of whether

“cut round the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer.” The first custom-made can opener was designed by Robert Yeates, a maker of surgical instruments and cutlery, in 1855: it was a vicious clawlike lever attached to a wooden handle. The idea was to gouge the lever into the top of the can and then forcefully cut around, leaving a jagged edge. It did the job—but not well. The history of can openers is riddled with unsatisfactory designs: the Warner, much used during the American Civil

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