It’s one of those questions you see pop up every now and then. People wondering who might have been the first to try something. Like most of our food items. Who was the first person to take a chance and give them a try? It’s an interesting question.
At the time this popped into my head, I was throwing together some pasta sauce. Actually, cutting up a few mushrooms. There are a lot of mushrooms out there. As people like to say, all mushrooms are edible. Some are only edible once. But who did the testing?
I suppose people might have watched animals, which would be rather unreliable, since animals don’t always digest things the way we do and have different tolerances for different toxins. Or maybe one cave man followed another brave cave man around while he tried a few of these things. Taking notes on which ones were okay, and which might make you sick. Or worse.
I can’t find much on mushrooms. But tomatoes have an interesting history. Up until a bit over a hundred years ago, a lot of people thought tomatoes were poisonous. They’re from the nightshade family. They can’t be good for you. In spite of the fact that people in South America and Central America were growing them and eating them as a regular part of their diet.
The Spanish took them back to Spain and started growing and eating them. But a lot of the rest of Europe still considered them toxic and only a decorative plant. It wasn’t until the late 1600s that recipes with tomatoes started to appear. Even then, eating tomatoes wasn’t very widespread until about the mid 1800s and even a bit later.
As a person who enjoys things like pasta and pizza or even a nice tomato sandwich now and then, I can’t imagine a world without them.
But at some point, someone had to take that first bite. And as much as a like them, I’m not sure it would be me. I like trying new foods, but I’m not big on the idea of poisoning myself.
So to whoever took that chance, thank you. I might need a pizza tonight in your honour. With extra sauce.
Although then there’s the cheese. Who thought eating spoiled milk was a good idea?
