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NZ Herald
23-05-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
The Conversation: How snails and oysters became luxury foods
From garden snail to gastronomy Eating what many consider to be a slimy nuisance seems almost counterintuitive, but consuming land snails has an ancient history, dating to the Palaeolithic period, some 30,000 years ago in eastern Spain. Ancient Romans also dined on snails and spread their eating habits across their empire into Europe. Lower and middle class Romans ate snails from their gardens, while elite consumers ate specially farmed snails, fed spices, honey and milk. Pliny the Elder (AD 24–79) described how snails were raised in ponds and given wine to fatten them up. The first French recipe for snails appears in 1390, in Le Ménagier de Paris (The Good Wife's Guide), but not in other cookbooks from the period. In 1530, a French treatise on frogs, snails, turtles and artichokes considered all these foods bizarre, but surprisingly popular. Some of the appeal had to do with avoiding meat on 'lean' days. Snails were classified as fish by the Catholic Church and could even be eaten during Lent. For the next 200 years, snails only appeared in Parisian cookbooks with an apology for including such a disgusting ingredient. This reflected the taste of upper-class urbanites, but snails were still eaten in the eastern provinces. An 1811 cookbook from Metz, in the Alsace region in northeastern France, describes raising snails like the Romans, and a special platter, l'escargotière, for serving them. The trend did not travel to Paris until after 1814. French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754–1838) hosted a dinner for Russian Tsar Alexander I, after he marched into Paris following the allied forces' defeat of Napoleon in 1814. The chef catering the meal was the father of French cuisine, Marie-Antoine Careme, a native of Burgundy, spiritual home of the now famous escargots de Bourgogne. Careme served the Tsar what would become a classic recipe, prepared with garlic, parsley and butter. Allegedly, the Tsar raved about the 'new' dish, and snails became wildly popular. A recipe for Burgundy snails first appeared in a French culinary dictionary published in 1825. It is ironic that it took the approval of a foreign emperor who had just conquered Napoleon to restore luxury status to escargot, a food that became a symbol of French cuisine. Snails remain popular today in France, with consumption peaking during the Christmas holidays, but May 24 is National Escargot Day in France. Oysters: the original fast food Oysters are another ancient food, as seen in fossils dating to the Triassic Era, 200 million years ago. Advertise with NZME. Evidence of fossilised oysters is found on every major land mass, and there is evidence of indigenous oyster fisheries in North America and Australia that dates to the Holocene period, about 12,000 years ago. There are references in classical Greek texts to what are probably oysters by authors like Aristotle and Homer. Oyster shells found at Troy confirm they were a favoured food. Traditionally served as a first course at banquets in Ancient Greece, they were often cooked, sometimes with exotic spices. Pliny the Elder refers to oysters as a Roman delicacy. He recorded the methods of the pioneer of Roman oyster farming, Sergius Orata, who brought the best specimens from across the Empire to sell to elite customers. Medieval coastal dwellers gathered oysters at low tide, while wealthy inland consumers would have paid a premium for shellfish, a perishable luxury, transported to their castles. French nobles in 1390 preferred cooked oysters, roasted over coals or poached in broths, perhaps as a measure to prevent food poisoning. As late as the 17th century, authors cautioned: 'But if they be eaten raw, they require good wine … to aid digestion." By the 18th century, small oysters were a popular pub snack, and larger ones were added as meat to the stew pot. In that century, it is believed that as many as 100,000 oysters were eaten each day in Edinburgh, and the shells from the tavern in the basement filled in gaps in the brickwork at Gladstone's Land in Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Scottish oyster farms in the Firth of Forth, an inlet of the North Sea, produced 30 million oysters in 1790, but continual over-harvesting took its toll. By 1883, only 6000 oysters were landed, and the population was declared extinct in 1957. As wild oyster stocks dwindled, large oyster farms developed in cities like New York in the 19th century. Initially successful, they were polluted and infected by typhoid from sewage. An outbreak in 1924 killed 150 people, the deadliest food poisoning in United States history. Far from the overabundance of oysters we once had, over-fishing, pollution, and invasive species all threaten oyster populations worldwide today. Due to this scarcity of wild oysters and the resources required to safely farm environmentally sustainable oysters, they are now a premium product. Next on the menu Scarcity made oysters a luxury, and a Tsar's approval elevated snails to gourmet status. Could insects become the next status food? Ancient Romans ate beetles and grasshoppers, and cultures around the world consume insects, but not (yet) as luxury products. Maybe the right influencer can make honey-roasted locust the next species to jump from paddock to plate.
South China Morning Post
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
How truffles are revolutionising skincare: from the court of Catherine de' Medici to Netflix's dating show Single's Inferno, the culinary delicacy is now coveted for its anti-ageing properties
For thousands of years, gourmands have sought out truffles – considered a food of the gods – for their rich fragrance and woody flavour. Culinary use of the ingredient, which is technically the fruiting body of subterranean fungi, was documented in ancient Roman texts by Pliny the Elder, it was beloved by the Etruscans before that. Centuries later during the Renaissance, Italian noblewoman turned French queen Catherine de' Medici brought the white truffle to the French court. And in 1954, Marilyn Monroe reportedly requested truffles for her and Joe DiMaggio's wedding meal. White truffles are lauded for their hydrating, brightening, firming and soothing properties. Photo: Shutterstock Advertisement While we may now be accustomed to splurging on indulgent truffle-capped pasta dishes and snacking on addictive French fries sprinkled with truffle salt, the prized fungi is also moving from menus to our vanity tables. Eagle-eyed viewers of the Netflix dating show Single's Inferno may have glimpsed a spray bottle on the contestants' vanities; even more beauty fans have seen it used in one of the many K-beauty tutorials touting the product, d'Alba's First Spray Serum, as a must-have. Seen in K-beauty tutorials – d'Alba's First Spray Serum. Photo: Handout The viral formula, developed to be misted on clean skin, as well as during and over make-up for a hydrated, luminous complexion, is infused with white truffle sourced from truffle mecca Alba, in Piedmont, Italy. It's a serum, setting spray and refreshing mist all in one, with TikTok users and make-up artists alike applauding the dewy, radiant finish it gives. In fact, d'Alba's entire offering – from its hit spray serum and treatment face masks, to another fan favourite, the Double Serum & Cream – revolves around the prized ingredient. The brand cites white truffle as containing large amounts of vitamins C and B12 (beloved for their effectiveness at preventing hyperpigmentation, or fading it if it has already occurred), as well as key minerals and amino acids for anti-ageing benefits like improved skin elasticity. Elsewhere, the fungus is lauded for its hydrating, brightening, firming and soothing properties. Black truffles, on the other hand, more subtly flavoured than their white counterparts, are used in skin and haircare products for their moisturising benefits, as well as anti-inflammatory properties that can improve the likes of acne, eczema and rosacea. They may not look special, but black truffles have excellent moisturising and anti-inflammatory properties.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Lab-grown teeth could be the future of dentistry
Researchers are closing in on a breakthrough that could one day change one of dentistry's most common practices: fillings. Building off work published late last year in ACS Macro Letters, a team at King's College London is developing methods for lab-grown replacement teeth and fillings made from human cells. Humanity has endured the pain of cavities for as long as we've had teeth, but the basic remedy has remained fundamentally the same for millennia. Evidence dating at least as far back as 13,000 years ago indicates Paleolithic peoples made fillings from a combination of bitumen, plant fibers, and even hair to adhere to a tooth's inner walls. Around 6,500 years ago, remedies in present-day Slovenia involved beeswax fillings, while Pliny the Elder referenced similar procedures in his Naturalis Historia (shortly before his untimely demise during the Mount Vesuvius eruption of 79 CE). Today's dental fillings can be composed of multiple synthetic materials like alloys, amalgams, and composite resins. But at the end of the day, a filling is a filling—and they can still pose problems. 'Fillings aren't the best solution for [repairing] teeth. Over time, they will weaken tooth structure, have a limited lifespan, and can lead to further decay or sensitivity,' Xuechen Zhang said in an April 14 university profile. More intensive therapies like implants can also add further complications, and require a precisely crafted prosthetics to attach to the alveolar bone. Zhang and fellow researchers have spent years attempting to grow human teeth in the lab using organoids, but routinely hit a wall when trying to direct cells to communicate with one another. Without the ability to 'tell' one another that they need to form into tooth cells, the organoids simply couldn't grow from there. However, Zhang's team discovered a solution after collaborating with experts at nearby Imperial College. The problem was that their target cells previously attempted to send signals all at once, as if they were simultaneously shouting over one another. By suspending mouse cells in specialized three-dimensional matrices made with modified hydrogels, the cells paced their signal releases and properly communicated tooth production plans. 'This new material releases signals slowly over time, replicating what happens in the body,' explained Zhang. Now that it's possible to create teeth from bioengineered mouse stem cells, researchers are moving on to investigating the best methods to get future human versions into mouths. In the case of whole tooth replacement, options may include transplanting young cells from a lab culture directly into the space where it was, then fostering them to grow into an entirely new tooth. Another possibility may be to grow an entire tooth in the laboratory, then treating it like a natural implant once it is ready. 'Lab-grown teeth would naturally regenerate, integrating into the jaw as real teeth,' said Zhang. 'They would be stronger, longer lasting, and free from rejection risks, offering a more durable and biologically compatible solution than fillings or implants.'
