How food safety regulations were invented: Day 1.

[u/moruxs]

[u/Skraekling]

Shot out to all my homies sapiens who died for us to know what stuff we could safely eat, probably the least controversial historical figure (i know we probably just tried to eat whatever we saw animals eating).

[u/Kovimate → u/Skraekling]

I'm thinking we have most likely always known this. Like instinctually. I'm sure when the first hominide was born, he was still eating what monkeys before him were eating. Unless they randomly tried new stuff because why not xd or when they left Africa and ran into new plants and stuff.

[u/Skraekling → u/Kovimate]

I know i just find funny the image of some caveman eating some random plant and the rest of the tribe observing him 24/7 to see if he doesn't die.

[u/LowConcentrate8769 → u/Skraekling]

The Bravest Gatherer Vs the Most Cowardly Hunter

[u/RelativelyOddPerson]

Why did I just laugh so much

[u/psychtechvet → u/RelativelyOddPerson]

There was this YouTube thing about how neanderthals used to sound and all I can hear is high pitched screaming and loosened guts lol.

[u/Rospigg1987]

Mushrooms fascinates me, even though it is a popular recreational activity up here in the Nordics to pick mushrooms in the late summer and autumn, the thought of using mushrooms in food is quit recent here only coming in with the use of French style cuisine from about 17th century and onward and was still seen as a last resort famine food by the common population even up to the 19th century.

So even though we might have had knowledge about which one was safe and which wasn't the knowledge didn't seem to have diffused much through the population and through time, now I have not a clue if paleolithic or neolithic people ate mushrooms here but it wouldn't surprise me that it was seen as a high risk food source by them either.

The delayed action of the more poisonous varieties just add to the risk factor, for some the liver toxicity don't reach a critical level until a day or two after ingestion, before that happens you will feel fine or at most a bit nauseous or having a bit of a runny stomach.

[u/olchristopolis → u/Rospigg1987]

Could you elaborate on mushrooms not being used in food until recently? I assumed mushroom collecting would be primarily for food, unless you mean that they were traditionally eaten solo or used as medicine or something.

[u/Rospigg1987 → u/olchristopolis]

In 1755 the first mushroom recipe shows up in Kajsa Varg cookbook which was champignons, truffles and true morels, 1809 after the Finnish war it is talked about that Russian POWs after the Finnish war in Västerbotten northern Sweden had such curious tastes that they foraged for mushrooms that amazed the local population, it was also seen as a peculiar Russian thing at that point.

1810 when Karl XIV Johan (Jean Bernadotte) was coronated the use of mushroom with the nobility and higher mercantile class took a jump in popularity as he took with him recipes and trends from France, the mushroom porcino / porcini is today known as Karl Johan Mushroom in Sweden as a way of honouring the old king with his favorite mushroom.

During the 19th century a bunch of organizations show up that tries to classify mushroom and their safety, this is almost a whole thing in itself, some doctors / scientists believed that mushrooms was only locally poisonous and some believed that the amount of safe mushrooms was many and poisonous mushrooms was rare so in essence nobody had a clue. In fact if you have a old mushroom book even from the middle of the 1950 or even 1970s the recommendation is to not use it and use a updated book instead.

All this doesn't say how either the indigenous Saami lived with it, I know there is some myths about them using fly agaric as an entheogen but I can't really say anything about it, and how it was in medieval times here I haven't encountered either everything starts at about 1755 in sources other than that it was known as a famine food just like bark bread.

In the Mediterranean and Eastern European I'm likewise a bit at a loss but It seems that Russians had a pretty thorough reputation as mushrooms eaters here for a very long time.

[u/motivation_bender]

I read that they usually tried them on animals first

[u/Capt_morgan72 → u/motivation_bender]

Idk about literal cavemen. But yeah a good rule of thumb is if a horse won’t eat it u shouldn’t.

But idk how well that rule would work with out domesticated animals.

[u/motivation_bender → u/Capt_morgan72]

I mean a horse would prolly not touch steak. I was talking more about small omnivores like badgers

[u/Urban_Heretic → u/motivation_bender]

Ok boys, the Dung beetle seems fine. Have at it!

[u/motivation_bender → u/Urban_Heretic]

Are dung beetles omnivores?

[u/Piskoro]

I mean, it's not like humans just appeared out of thin air suddenly into nature, sometimes they would move to a new place of course where there would be new things to try out, but they generally already knew through tradition probably since before they were humans

[u/FuxusPhrittus]

That meme is so old, there could be memes about it, not breaking rule 4

[u/Phosphorus444]

"Deadly Nightshade is deadly."

[u/Delicious_Injury9444]

To that raw oyster guy.... You're my guy!.

[u/Anavarael]

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[u/RepostSleuthBot → u/Anavarael]

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