Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Spuds of War

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4.8 • 812 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2014

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Staple though it is today, the lowly potato had a hard time reaching its preeminent status in Western cuisine. Perhaps its lengthy purgatory has something to do with the tale that when Sir Walter Raleigh gave some potatoes to Queen Elizabeth, her cooks tossed aside the roots and served up the boiled greens instead, causing a court-wide case of indigestion. Whether that's the case or not—and there's no evidence that Raleigh ever so much as set eyes on a potato—for decades Europeans would have nothing to do with the tuber. At best, it was found useful to feed the cattle. At worst, it was considered a leprosy-inducing invention of the devil. This belief was particularly pernicious in the fair fields of France, a country at the time holding a quarter of Europe's inhabitants despite its periodic decimation by epidemic and famine. By the beginning of the 17th century France's population reached had twenty million and continued to rise. Clearly, a cheap, plentiful, and resilient crop was just what the nutritionist ordered, yet even in the face of the brutal demographic crises that popped up every ten to fifteen years over the next two centuries, each time lopping two or three million inhabitants off the non-existent voting rolls, the potato remained unpondered, unprized, and unplanted. Clearly, the potato needed a champion. What it got was a pharmacist.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is damn interesting.
0:05.0	Headphones recommended.
0:07.0	Staple, though it is today, the lowly potato had a hard time reaching its preeminent status in Western cuisine.
0:17.0	Perhaps its lengthy purgatory has something to do with the tale that when Sir Walter Raleigh gave some potatoes to Queen Elizabeth, her cooks tossed aside the roots and served up the boiled greens instead.
0:31.6	Causing a court-wide case of indigestion.
0:41.8	Whether that's the case or not, and there's no evidence that Rally ever so much as set eyes on a potato, for decades Europeans would have nothing to do with the tuber. At best,
0:47.8	it was found to be useful to feed the cattle. At worst, it was considered a leprosy-inducing
0:53.4	invention of the devil.
0:56.7	This belief was particularly pernicious in the far fields of France.
1:01.1	A country at the time holding a quarter of Europe's inhabitants despite its periodic
1:05.7	decimation by epidemic and famine.
1:08.5	By the beginning of the 17th century, France's population had reached 20 million and continued
1:13.5	to rise.
1:14.5	Clearly, a cheap, plentiful, and resilient crop was just what the nutritionist ordered.
1:19.8	Yet even in the face of the brutal demographic crisis that popped up every 10 to 15 years
1:24.5	over the next two centuries, each time lopping 2 to 3 million inhabitants
1:29.0	off the non-existing voting rolls, the potato remains unpondered, unprized, and unplanted.
1:37.0	Clearly, the potato needed a champion.
1:40.8	What it got was a pharmacist.
1:45.0	Captured by the Prussians in the Seven Years' War, French pharmacist Antoine
1:50.0	Pamentier became acquainted with the Ig Noble, Solanum, Tuberosum, while a prisoner of war.
1:55.0	As a prisoner, he was fed little but boiled potato mash, which was sometimes his only food
	...

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