ANTB64H3 Chapter Notes -Mecha, Lump Sugar, Jack Goody
Week #5
Food and Culture
“Industrial Food: Towards the Development of a World Cuisine” -Jack Goody
•Rise of Industrial Cuisine in the West
-4 factors: preserving, mechanization, retailing (and wholesaling), transport
-preservat. of food was a feat. of simple econ.’s like those of northern Ghana: drying of fish
and meat enabled animal protein to be more widely distrib. in time and space, drying of
vegetables prolonged their use into the dry season where soup ingredients were scarce
-preserv. of meat and vegetables, by drawing, pickling, salting, and in some regions by the
use of ice was charact. of domestic econ. in early Europe
-dev. in migration allowed for great sea voyages which needed the use of long-life foods,
also for the personnel of navies and armies of Europe
-salt used by peasants to preserve food during winter months + butter and veg. preserved
with salt; it was the imp. of salt for diet and preserving that was behind peasant uprisings
against the salt tax in France such taxes were imp. source of revenue in Europe as in Asia,
both to the merchants and to the govn’ts; it was against such fiscal imposit’s and against alien
gov.’s imposing them that Gandhi led march to the sea in Brit. India
-vinegar was imp. f/ indust. activity; sugar preserved fruit in the form of marmalades and
jam, coating for ham and other meats
-spreading from Indian to east Med. at the time of the Crusades, cane-sugar led to the
estab. of many of the slave plantat’s of the New World; the fact that supplies of cane-sugar cut
off b/c of napol. wars that lead to the invention of the canning process and use of the second of
the trio of junk foods (coffee, tea, sugar)
-context of colonialism, overseas trade, long-lasting food saw the dev. of the great Brit.
Biscuit Industry - small bakeries since Shakespearean times, then large-scale ones created
human assemb. line that economized each workman’s movements various wars meant they
had to be supplemented by the work of contractors Thomas Grant invented steam machinery
that was used to mech. the processes red. labour costs, increasing output and improving quality
= fancy biscuits like hard-tack used for med. purposes or at festivals
-mech. was applied to the manufact. not long after the tech. changes that had taken
place in the dockyards
-1830s a Quaker miller and Carr designed machinery for cutting and stamping out
biscuits; 1841 Palmer (another Quaker) & Huntley made biscuits in Reading
-Huntley’s shop was across from Crown Hotel so got the idea to send a delivery boy to
sell to waiting passengers quality led to demand to prod. from grocers at home and open local
market Huntley got his son to make tin boxes for transport of the biscuit for orders which were
carried by canal syst.
-Palmer’s addition of steam to the process allowed for oven for mixing dough, rolling,
cutting; second industry dev.: specialized manufacturers of machinery for the trade, dev. that
helped fuel the Indust. Rev.; Palmers &Huntley/Peek Freans/Carrs changed eating habits in the
shape of earlier breakfasts and later dinners led to a further increase in consumption and by late
1870s the figure had risen from 6-37 mill. pounds a year w/i 50 years their biscuits were
distrib. not only throughout the nation but throughout the world; *canning industry prod. of
biscuits had first of all been directed to the needs of travellers, explorers, and armed forces
such prod. sustained sailors, traders and colonial officers
Preserving: Canning
•Canning on which mod. indust. depends was invented by Nicolas Appert; solving prob’s
created by the war situation in France: during Nap. wars France was cut off from its overseas
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