The Fantastic History Of Food

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.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE WILD HISTORY OF WAR:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1896816399
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033nrBsVgo8URSbobSZIhU

Website: wildhistoryofwar.com

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

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

You too can support me on Patreon for just $2 a month: patreon.com/foodhistorypod

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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

You too can support me on Patreon for just $2 a month: patreon.com/foodhistorypod

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Sources for this episode's research:
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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