Comments on: Home-cooked, delicious, and inexpensive main meals in Mexico http://www.rachellaudan.com/2008/02/home-cooked-delicious-and-inexpensive-main-meals-in-mexico.html A Historian's Take on Food and Food Politics Tue, 6 Jan 2009 23:18:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Adam Balic http://www.rachellaudan.com/2008/02/home-cooked-delicious-and-inexpensive-main-meals-in-mexico.html/comment-page-1#comment-328 Adam Balic Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:27:19 +0000 http://www.rachellaudan.com/2008/02/home-cooked-delicious-and-inexpensive-main-meals-in-mexico.html#comment-328 I was surprised when I read the store items requested by my working class ancestor in the mid-19th century. Actually more expensive items then I would have guessed given their background (bricklayer from a mill town). It is also very easy to find articles/books by well meaning >middle-class people on what poor people should eat. I have a small collection of such books from the 19th century, which make for interesting reading. I believe that one modern version of this debate is conventional V free-range chicken. In the UK there is a huge push by well meaning (most celeb.) chefs/cooks/TV personalities for "working families" to eat free-range chickens. OK in itself a reasonable aim. As far as I can determine there is little nutrional difference between the two, in terms of taste, there is a difference, but also a spread in this difference. Some free-range chicken just doesn't taste that different to conventionally raised birds (most likely because they are not really ""free-range", except by legal definition). So it comes down to animal welfare. This last point I find interesting. Many people that say "eat free-range chicken for animal welfare reasons" seem to have no problem with eating quail (rarely free-range) or wild game which has been shot. In the latter case not all game is killed outright and it is a luxury item not a staple. The very thing that makes a poor persons staple protein "wrong"", gives caché to a luxury protein. Yet the cry is "Free-range chicken or death", not "No thanks I won't have any grouse". I find this bi-polar position really interesting, in effect these people taking in the communal information on "how to live right" and are projecting their own rationalisations of this onto a third party. A third party that they feel they have some sort of authority over, moral or otherwise. As an aside, I really like duck and chicken hearts. But only because I am aspirational middle-class I guess... I was surprised when I read the store items requested by my working class ancestor in the mid-19th century. Actually more expensive items then I would have guessed given their background (bricklayer from a mill town).

It is also very easy to find articles/books by well meaning >middle-class people on what poor people should eat. I have a small collection of such books from the 19th century, which make for interesting reading. I believe that one modern version of this debate is conventional V free-range chicken.

In the UK there is a huge push by well meaning (most celeb.) chefs/cooks/TV personalities for “working families” to eat free-range chickens. OK in itself a reasonable aim. As far as I can determine there is little nutrional difference between the two, in terms of taste, there is a difference, but also a spread in this difference. Some free-range chicken just doesn’t taste that different to conventionally raised birds (most likely because they are not really “”free-range”, except by legal definition). So it comes down to animal welfare.

This last point I find interesting. Many people that say “eat free-range chicken for animal welfare reasons” seem to have no problem with eating quail (rarely free-range) or wild game which has been shot. In the latter case not all game is killed outright and it is a luxury item not a staple. The very thing that makes a poor persons staple protein “wrong”", gives caché to a luxury protein.

Yet the cry is “Free-range chicken or death”, not “No thanks I won’t have any grouse”. I find this bi-polar position really interesting, in effect these people taking in the communal information on “how to live right” and are projecting their own rationalisations of this onto a third party. A third party that they feel they have some sort of authority over, moral or otherwise.

As an aside, I really like duck and chicken hearts. But only because I am aspirational middle-class I guess…

]]> By: Rachel Laudan http://www.rachellaudan.com/2008/02/home-cooked-delicious-and-inexpensive-main-meals-in-mexico.html/comment-page-1#comment-327 Rachel Laudan Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:56:39 +0000 http://www.rachellaudan.com/2008/02/home-cooked-delicious-and-inexpensive-main-meals-in-mexico.html#comment-327 Yes. One reason I posted this is that although it's easy to find all kinds of books and articles in many countries suggesting what people could or should eat that would be economical, I don't see nearly as many accounts of what they actually do eat. I have seen poor country families in Mexico preparing chicken hearts and gizzards for a weekend meal. Yes. One reason I posted this is that although it’s easy to find all kinds of books and articles in many countries suggesting what people could or should eat that would be economical, I don’t see nearly as many accounts of what they actually do eat.

I have seen poor country families in Mexico preparing chicken hearts and gizzards for a weekend meal.

]]> By: Adam Balic http://www.rachellaudan.com/2008/02/home-cooked-delicious-and-inexpensive-main-meals-in-mexico.html/comment-page-1#comment-326 Adam Balic Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:27:58 +0000 http://www.rachellaudan.com/2008/02/home-cooked-delicious-and-inexpensive-main-meals-in-mexico.html#comment-326 It would be interesting to compare the responses to the same question to people from different social classes and from different countries. I wonder if the poor of wealthy countries eat offal for instance? It would be interesting to compare the responses to the same question to people from different social classes and from different countries.

I wonder if the poor of wealthy countries eat offal for instance?

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