Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 12 Jul 2022
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November 24, 2022
A History of Ketchup
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November 22, 2022
The real story of the First Thanksgiving
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 15 Nov 2022
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November 17, 2022
A History of Tacos
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 5 Jul 2022
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November 16, 2022
Can Plant Identification Apps Be Used for Foraging?
Atomic Shrimp
Published 8 Jul 2022There are numerous smartphone apps that assist with identification of plants. A lot of people have proposed these for use in identification of plants to forage for the table. Just how good are these apps, and is it safe to use them in that way?
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November 9, 2022
Macaroni & Cheese from 1845
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 8 Nov 2022
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How-to Eat Like a Marine in the Field
Munchies
Published 11 Jul 2018Lieutenant Glenn-Roundtree shows us how to make his ideal MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat), which includes a beef ravioli taco and cherry blueberry cobbler.
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November 2, 2022
Feeding King Tut
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 1 Nov 2022
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November 1, 2022
What is actually inside MSG and is it Safe? | Food Unwrapped
Food Unwrapped
Published 26 Feb 2022Jimmy heads to Thailand to see how MSG is made and get some expert opinions on if MSG is safe to eat.
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October 26, 2022
Sin Eaters & Funeral Biscuits
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 25 Oct 2022
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October 21, 2022
What is Gruel?
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 14 Jun 2022
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QotD: The real reason for Upton Sinclair writing The Jungle
In 1906, Upton Sinclair came out with his book The Jungle, and it shocked the nation by documenting the horror of the meat-packing industry. People were being boiled in vats and sent to larders. Rat waste was mixed with meat. And so on.
As a result, the Federal Meat Inspection Act passed Congress, and consumers were saved from ghastly diseases. The lesson is that government is essential to stop enterprise from poisoning us with its food.
To some extent, this mythology accounts for the wide support for government’s involvement in stopping disease spread today, including Covid and the catastrophic response.
Not only that, but the story is also the basis for the US Department of Agriculture’s food inspection efforts, the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of medical drugs, the central plan that governs food production, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the legions of bureaucrats who inspect and badger us every step of the way. It is the founding template for why government is involved in our food and health at all.
It’s all premised on the implausible idea that people who make and sell us food have no concern as to whether it makes us sick. It only takes a quick second, though, to realize that this idea just isn’t true. So long as there is a functioning, consumer-driven marketplace, customer focus, which presumably includes not killing you, is the best regulator. Producer reputation has been a huge feature of profitability, too. And hygiene was a huge feature of reputation — long before Yelp.
Sinclair’s book was not intended as a factual account. It was a fantasy rendered as an ideological screed. It did drum up support for regulation, but the real reason for the act’s passage was that the large Chicago meat packers realized that regulation would hurt their smaller competitors more than themselves. Meat inspections imposed costs that cartelized the industry.
That’s why the largest players were the law’s biggest promoters. Such laws almost have more to do with benefiting elites than protecting the public. It was not really about safety, the best scholarship shows, but exclusionary regulation to raise competitors’ costs of doing business.
Jeffrey A. Tucker, “Poke and Sniff: A Lesson from 1906”, Brownstone Institute, 2022-06-29.
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October 14, 2022
When Potatoes were Illegal
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 7 Jun 2022
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October 12, 2022
History’s Real Macbeth
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 11 Oct 2022
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October 7, 2022
Pease Pudding – Weird Stuff In A Can #74
Atomic Shrimp
Published 28 May 2018This is Pease Pudding — A sort of spreadable paste made from yellow split peas, and with a very long history as a staple food in England.
Here’s the link to the article on Atomic Shrimp (includes a recipe, of sorts): http://atomicshrimp.com/post/2007/01/…
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October 5, 2022
Ancient Roman Jellyfish for the Black Banquet
Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 4 Oct 2022
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