Burger came before bread?
Reviewing an
earlier thought and adding more....
= = = = = START REPRINT:
We generally assume that humans picked up the idea of fire from BIG lightning-caused wildfires. Good old
Guk and Ik wandered BAREFOOT through the burned savannah, smelled the cooked sabertooth tiger, sampled it, and then figured out how to "store" fire. The "storing" is the hard part. Guk picks up a branch that's still burning and takes it home. Guk says to Ik: "Hmp. Me like hot sabertooth. Me makeum TEDX clip. Show other tribe how makeum hot sabertooth."
Doesn't make much sense when you examine it.
Wouldn't it make more sense if we learned cooking as part of fermentation? We were definitely fermenting stuff from the start. Fermentation can EASILY get hot enough to
spontaneously combust. It's a serious problem in grain elevators.
What do you have then? It's ALREADY food, already in the context of preservation, and it's a controlled smolder
in the food itself. To remake the fire, you don't need to wait for a T-storm. In any season, just reproduce the way you fermented the barley. Same size of pile on same stone: presto!
= = = = = END REPRINT.
Now add another step:
Here Guk has placed a strip of Sabertooth meat on the fermenting barley. What happens? The fat melts down into the barley, and the top layer of barley fries and solidifies.
What do you have then? SANDWICH. And if Guk uses the stick to turn the Sabersteak over for more complete heating, the barley will grease up and fry up on all sides of the Sabersteak.
What do you have then? Pita or pierogi or pasty. The universal meat-inside-frybread envelope with universal bilabial name.
So I'd argue that
barley gave us everything that makes us human. Fire, beer, bread, pita, money, measurements. All from barley.
Labels: Asked and sort of answered, Grand Blueprint