Sacred Cow, Mad Cow: A History of Food Fears

Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History

by Madeleine Ferrieres, Jody Gladding (Translator)

Contemporary concerns about food such as those stemming from mad cow disease, salmonella, and other potential food-related dangers are hardly new-humans have long been wary of what they eat. Beyond the fundamental fear of hunger, societies have sought to protect themselves from rotten, impure, or unhealthy food. From the markets of medieval Europe to the slaughterhouses of twentieth-century Chicago, Madeleine Ferri?res traces the origins of present-day behavior toward what we eat as she explores the panics, myths, and ever-shifting attitudes regarding food and its safety. She demonstrates that food fears have been inspired not only by safety concerns but also by cultural, political, and religious prejudices.

Flour from human bones and p?t? from dead cats are just two of the more unappetizing recipes that have scared consumers away from certain foods. Ferri?res considers the roots of these and other rumors, illuminating how societies have assessed and attempted to regulate the risks of eating. She documents the bizarre and commonsensical attempts by European towns to ensure the quality of beef and pork, ranging from tighter controls on butchers to prohibiting Jews and menstruating women from handling meat. Examining the spread of Hungarian cattle disease, which ravaged the livestock of seventeenth-century Europe, Ferri?res recounts the development of safety methods that became the Western model for fighting animal diseases.

Ferri?res discusses a wealth of crucial and curious food-related incidents, trends, and beliefs, including European explorers' shocked responses to the foodways of the New World; how some foods deemed unsafe for the rich were seen as perfectly suitable for the poor; the potato's negative reputation; the fierce legal battles between seventeenth-century French bread bakers and innkeepers; the role of the medical profession in food regulation; and how modern consumerism changed the way we eat. Drawing on history, folklore, agriculture, and anthropology, Ferri?res tells us how our decisions about what "not" to eat reflect who we are.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, History, Food and Drink

416 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2005

Reviews

[Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

When reading history it is often hard to understand motives or to be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes. I'll often think, "Well, that's stupid. Don't they understand disease?" Of course not. This book is half food, half disease in Medieval Europe to modern times and it really opened my eyes and I could feel those people a bit more. Self dosing on ergot out of necessity? Gold!

[Tbone · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a wordy, dry read. I was not impressed.