The Fantastic History Of Food

Mithridates has claimed his throne, built a reputation for being remarkably difficult to poison, and made himself one of Rome’s most determined enemies. Now the Romans are coming to deal with him.

In the second half of our mad honey story, we follow the Poison King through decades of warfare, meet the mountain tribes who prepared a rather unusual welcome for Rome’s soldiers, and discover how a few bowls of roadside honey became a devastating military trap.

And for Mithridates, a lifetime spent trying to make himself impossible to poison is about to have one final, deeply inconvenient consequence.

This is part two of our story. If you haven’t listened to Mad Honey and the Poison King (Part 1), start there.

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After surviving months of fighting, starvation and freezing mountain passes, thousands of Greek soldiers finally stumble across something worth celebrating: an enormous supply of free honey.

And naturally, they start helping themselves, but before long, they're barely able to stand!

In part one of our mad honey story, we discover how bees around the Black Sea produced this strange substance, before meeting Mithridates, a young prince whose father’s murder left him deeply suspicious of everyone around him as well as his own dinner.

From an army defeated by it's own lunch to the making of the Poison King, this is a story about honey, paranoia and a rather ambitious attempt to become impossible to kill.

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Thank you to the sponsors of this episode The Stephenson Honey Co.

Get 10% off your order at https://www.stephensonhoney.com when you use offer code FOODHISTORY at checkout.

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There are probably very few people listening to this podcast who don’t already know at least some of the story of the Titanic.

But as with all famous stories like this one, there are always miniature sub plots playing out in the background that don’t become quite as famous, but once you hear them add life and color to the story as a whole.

Today’s story is just one such tale and stars a man name Charles Joughin. He was the ship’s Chief Baker and on the fateful night of April 14, 1912, he found himself less concerned about the quantities of the following mornings sourdough loaves and somewhat more concerned about the water that was rising all around him.

In today's episode we’ll discover just how Charles saved the lives of many on board the ship that night, chief amongst them, his own.

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In Georgian Era London, some of Britain’s most powerful men formed an exclusive dining club devoted almost entirely to eating enormous steaks, drinking heavily and celebrating the virtues of beef.

They took their society so seriously that they even appointed their own bishop and when the Prince of Wales told them that he’d like to join their club, they simply told him they had a strict 24 seat policy, and all 24 seats were already full.

This is the strange story of The Sublime Society of Beefsteaks.

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In the 1880s, Henry Friend claimed he had invented a secret electrical process that could revolutionise the sugar industry.

His demonstrations were convincing and at the time, investors were throwing money at him. But almost nobody was allowed to see how it worked.

So what exactly was going on inside his locked refinery?

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War often calls for quick thinking and unconventional tactics, but few battles have ever been won with… potatoes. But, during World War II, the USS O’Bannon, a U.S. Navy destroyer, found itself in a tense standoff with a Japanese submarine. With the enemy dangerously close, too near in fact for their deck guns to be effective, the crew resorted to a rather unexpected weapon.

This is the incredible tale of how the USS O’Bannon used quick thinking, and a well-stocked pantry, to help sink a Japanese submarine.

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Website: wildhistoryofwar.com

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At it’s very core, war is essentially throwing everything you have at your enemy hoping that they break first, and at times that breaking point can be as much a psychological one as a physical one.

Wars of attrition, as in the case of prolonged siege warfare, is all about seeing who can last the longest.

And today's story is all about one of those siege warfare breaking points, and how an army was defeated by a woman who had nothing but her cunning, boldness and two loaves of bread.

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Website: wildhistoryofwar.com

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The entire experience of eating a fancy meal these days is no longer just about the food itself. For decades, chefs like Heston Blumenthal have been creating entire culinary experiences to delight all of your senses at once, pairing sounds, smells and textures along with the already delicious flavours of their food.

But while this trend has taken off again more recently, this is by no means a modern practice. In fact, as far back as the early 1600’s an innovative chef by the name of Robert May was creating similar sensory dining experiences all around Elizabethan England.

Today, we’ll discover just who this man was, and how he went about revolutionising banquets into what would come to be called his "Spectacle Feasts".

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-aaron-mahnkes-cabinet-of-c-29519194/episode/chefs-table-172173292/
• https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-fantastical-feasts-of-englands-first-celebrity-chef
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_May_(cook)

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It’s well into the northern european winter season at the end of 1939. Five hundred thousand Russian Soviet Soldiers are making a collective push northwards, swarming the countryside as they go. They are armed to the hilt with tanks, explosives, machine guns, grenades and a staggeringly overwhelming number of troops.

But there is one thing that they didn’t count on, one thing that threatened to derail their entire military offensive altogether. And that one thing, was the humble sausage.

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Thank you to my brand-new supporters:

• Josh Lovetere
• Zachary Hedden

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://www.history.com/news/the-bizarre-sausage-war-that-inspired-hitler
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Varolampi_Pond
• https://www.finlandatwar.com/the-sausage-war-an-army-marches-on-its-stomach/
• https://sofrep.com/news/sausage-war-when-hunger-got-the-best-of-the-soviets/
• https://short-history.com/sausage-war-733d71767317
• https://pennytyrrellmcqueen.wixsite.com/togetherapart/single-post/2016/10/26/sausage-war

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For the majority of history they were considered the ultimate delicacy by European nobility who just couldn’t get enough of them. From snack to status symbol, the pineapple has graced many a King and Queens palace courts, while outside of them they took on a mythical quality akin to some sort of precious jewel.

Today, we’ll track the pineapples voyage across the seas and into the history books as it became synonymous with the very peak of royal de rigeour.

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Thank you to our brand-new supporter:

• Sarah Thompson

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Sources for this episode's research:https://winstoncupmuseum.com/nascar-and-prohibition/#:~:text=Across%20the%20country%2C%20bootleggers%20had,cases%20of%20liquor%20as%20possiblehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood

• https://www.thedailymeal.com/1233796/in-the-1700s-pineapples-were-wildly-expensive-symbols-of-prosperity/
• https://www.britannica.com/plant/pineapple
• https://www.bimstore.co/resources/10-facts-about-pineapples
• https://www.tastesofhistory.co.uk/post/a-brief-history-of-foods-pineapple
• https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/04/25/the-strange-history-of-the-king-pine/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3-uKgiyE3Y
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple#:~:text=Precolonial%20cultivation,-The%20wild%20plant&text=By%20the%20late%201400s%2C%20cropped,it%20into%20India%20by%201550.

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For as long as so-called civilised societies have existed, equally uncivilised clubs and groups have sprung up within them, allowing their members to revel in all sorts of weird and wonderful excesses.

In previous episodes we have heard about secret food clubs with a goal of eating every type of animal on earth. Todays story may not be so different, although this clubs members were’nt so picky about reaching any particular goal other that just eating every type of food they could get their hands on.

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• Frank Morales

• Philipp Surkov

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Sources for this episode's research:https://winstoncupmuseum.com/nascar-and-prohibition/#:~:text=Across%20the%20country%2C%20bootleggers%20had,cases%20of%20liquor%20as%20possiblehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood

• https://www.insidehook.com/culture/revisiting-fat-mens-clubs
• https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/03/07/469571114/the-forgotten-history-of-fat-men-s-clubs
• https://www.sunjournal.com/2020/01/19/when-fat-mens-clubs-were-big/
• https://www.antikeychop.com/fatmensclub
• https://husheduphistory.com/post/141904668068/girth-and-mirth-the-rise-of-the-fat-mens-club
• https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/unusual-clubs-in-history

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Turn on the tv or radio, or scroll any news site online and you’ll no doubt be inundated with stories about crazy weather anomalies happening all around the globe.

Volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, earthquakes, tornadoes and so much more.

But none of us, thankfully, have ever lived through one of the strangest events in history when something a lot more dense than rain began falling from the skies onto some unsuspecting farmers in the small town of Olympia Springs, Kentucky.

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Sources for this episode's research:https://winstoncupmuseum.com/nascar-and-prohibition/#:~:text=Across%20the%20country%2C%20bootleggers%20had,cases%20of%20liquor%20as%20possiblehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood

• https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/What-Was-the-Kentucky-Meat-Shower

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_meat_shower

• https://www.vice.com/en/article/kzkmgw/the-mystery-of-the-kentucky-meat-shower

• https://www.popsci.com/story/science/weirdest-thing-meat-shower-kodak-cow-sword-swallower/

• https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/running-ponies/the-great-kentucky-meat-shower-mystery-unwound-by-projectile-vulture-vomit/

• https://www.wate.com/news/kentucky/the-great-kentucky-meat-shower-147-years-passed-since-the-kentucky-shower-of-flesh/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lluvia_de_peces

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_of_animalshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood

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In our modern age we have lived through natural disasters and floods in various parts of the world, and no matter what, they are always tragic. But tragic floods are not always a cause of nature.

In episode 7, we discussed the great molasses flood that occurred in Boston and the ensuing devastation of that event. Well today, we’ll be taking a look at a similar, albeit less gloopy tidal wave of destruction that occurred 100 years before that.

And, as much as any of us may love a beer every now and then and dream of swimming in a pool of the bubbly liquid, this tragic event was unfortunately no laughing matter.

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Sources for this episode's research:
https://winstoncupmuseum.com/nascar-and-prohibition/#:~:text=Across%20the%20country%2C%20bootleggers%20had,cases%20of%20liquor%20as%20possible

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood

• https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-London-Beer-Flood-of-1814/

• https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/great-beer-flood-1814-what-happened/

• https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/the-london-beer-flood/

• https://www.history.com/news/london-beer-flood

• https://explorethearchive.com/london-beer-flood

• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/1814-beer-flood-killed-eight-people-180964256/https://winstoncupmuseum.com/nascar-and-prohibition/#:~:text=Across%20the%20country%2C%20bootleggers%20had,cases%20of%20liquor%20as%20possible

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This episode is a look at how in the early to mid 1900’s the abolitionist laws banning the production and consumption of alcohol played a majorly significant role in the creation of what, today, is a veritable institution of the American South, NASCAR.

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Sources for this episode's research:
https://www.picuki.com/tag/humanostrichhttps://www.historydefined.net/when-the-dutch-murdered-and-ate-their-own-prime-minister/
https://historianandrew.medium.com/the-man-who-couldnt-stop-eating-including-cats-rats-grass-and-his-friend-s-leg-c7ec7e1fce01

• https://winstoncupmuseum.com/nascar-and-prohibition/#:~:text=Across%20the%20country%2C%20bootleggers%20had,cases%20of%20liquor%20as%20possible

• https://www.history.com/news/how-prohibition-gave-birth-to-nascar

• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-moonshine-bootlegging-gave-rise-nascar-180962014/

• https://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/nascar/history/nascar-bootleggers.htm

• https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/nascar-moonshine

• https://www.ranker.com/list/ways-people-hid-alcohol-during-prohibition/kellen-perry

• https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-early-american-booze-consumption/rachel-souerbry

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower

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There are many stories throughout history of individuals with freakish appetites, who seem to be able to consume quantities of food well past what a human stomach should be capable of handling.

Today, we’ll be diving into the story of Charles Domery, a Polish-born soldier who tried to eat the whole world.

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Sources for this episode's research:
https://www.picuki.com/tag/humanostrichhttps://www.historydefined.net/when-the-dutch-murdered-and-ate-their-own-prime-minister/

• https://historianandrew.medium.com/the-man-who-couldnt-stop-eating-including-cats-rats-grass-and-his-friend-s-leg-c7ec7e1fce01
• https://www.weirdhistorian.com/domery-the-man-who-ate-anything-and-a-whole-lot-of-it/
• https://allthatsinteresting.com/charles-domery
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Domery

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For most of history, the Dutch have been an almost all-powerful force to be reckoned with. They were the forerunners for a lot of the world's exploration, and for a long time dominated the seas and trade routes through the stranglehold of the Dutch East India Company.

In the preceding century, they were still under Spanish rule, with 2 of their kings, Charles the Fifth and his Son Phillip II, simultaneously ruling as the kings of Spain and the so-called Low Countries of The Netherlands.

But the Dutch weren’t having any of this for long and at the first sign of mismanagement, made their feelings known.

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Sources for this episode's research:

https://www.picuki.com/tag/humanostrich

• https://www.historydefined.net/when-the-dutch-murdered-and-ate-their-own-prime-minister/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_de_Witt

• https://dutchreview.com/culture/dutch-history-crowds-ate-prime-minister/

• https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/is-it-true-that-an-angry-mob-of-dutchmen-killed-and-ate-their-own-prime-minister-in-1672/

• https://allthatsinteresting.com/johan-de-witt

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For today's story we will be diving into the life of a truly extraordinary man named William V McKenna, and while he fits the category of “people who eat random things”, those things that he ate can’t really be classified as food.

So let's see just how this man, William McKenna first discovered his talented digestive system.

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://www.picuki.com/tag/humanostrich
• https://www.weirdhistorian.com/appetite-for-intestinal-destruction-the-man-who-ate-glass-nails-tacks-and-frogs/
• https://historianandrew.medium.com/william-mckenna-the-human-ostrich-who-made-a-living-eating-nails-glass-and-live-frogs-dd1697a3c7d5

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WW2 was raging onwards, with men fighting and dying each and every day. It was so delicately poised that there seemed to be no end to the fighting in sight.

Weeks and months dragged on into years, and with them came more and more plots of how to win the war. Some were impractical, some were impossible, and some were downright insane.

But every now and again, one of these plots would be just insane enough to work.

And so, out of this think tank came possibly one of military history’s greatest-ever schemes.

What if we turned Adolf Hitler into a woman?

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Sources for this episode's research:

• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-15/allies-planned-to-make-hitler-a-woman/2839874
• https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hitler-estrogen-hormone-plot_n_927281
• https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/book-claims-allies-tried-to-turn-the-fuhrer-into-a-female-464589
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025975/Hitler-hormone-plot-Bizarre-plan-British-spies-make-Fuhrer-fraulein.html
• https://theweek.com/articles/482449/bizarre-plan-turn-hitler-into-woman
• https://medium.com/the-collector/the-bizzare-plot-to-turn-hitler-into-a-woman-185bc837eba5
• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8701024/Revealed-sex-hormone-plan-to-feminise-Hitler.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Has_Only_Got_One_Ball
• https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/hitlers-psychological-profile-shows-feminine-side/72P2CQ6HYWXN6NHH57GO57FMRU/?c_id=2&objectid=10118222

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There is a spice we use so commonly today that it's hard to believe that at one time, wars were fought, people were killed and entire civilizations almost wiped out, simply so that the strongest force could get their hands on this prized spice.

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Thank you to Four Sigmatic for being a sponsor for this episode.

To make it easy, Four Sigmatic is offering you 30% off anything in their range when you use promo code: FOODHISTORY at checkout.

Check out their range here: https://us.foursigmatic.com/

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Thank you also to Chemists In The Kitchen by LabX and the National Academy of Sciences.

In each episode, real scientists walk you through things like making your own pickles, the chemistry behind ceviche, the formula for perfect homemade pretzels, and much, much more!

Watch their YouTube Channel Here: https://bit.ly/3CVKz5E

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If ever you’ve doubted food's integral place in history, today’s stories are sure to remind us all, that no matter what life and history in general, wouldn’t and in fact, couldn’t be the same without the daily rituals that food brings.

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Thank you to Athletic Greens for being a sponsor for this episode.

To make it easy, Athletic Greens will give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit http://www.athleticgreens.com/EMERGING to take ownership of your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance!

-------------------

Thank you also to Chemists In The Kitchen by LabX and the National Academy of Sciences.

In each episode, real scientists walk you through things like making your own pickles, the chemistry behind ceviche, the formula for perfect homemade pretzels, and much, much more!

Watch their YouTube Channel Here: https://bit.ly/3CVKz5E

-------------------

Please support me on Patreon for just $2 a month : https://www.patreon.com/foodhistorypod

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fantastic-history-of-food--3591729/support.

Thank you to my all of my supporters!

You can also support me over on Patreon starting from just $2 a month: https://www.patreon.com/foodhistorypod