The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

silvasava

Can't remember how I know but apparently when Anne Boleyn was playing hard to get she refused to kiss him as her breath was tainted........maybe garlic?

[Deleted User]

I'll have a little consult with my teacher daughter who is a head of History and ask her if she actually knows from documentation why garlic hasn't been part of British cuisine, if she doesn't know she'll find the facts and I'll post them.

Greenglockenspiel

In German wild garlic is called bear leek because apparently bears like to eat it!

Nargleblast

A quick internet search ("history of garlic eating in Britain") revealed a lot of interesting articles on the subject from different sources. Leaving the indigenous wild garlic aside, it seems the Romans introduced us to the cultivated stuff. It was used as much for health purposes as culinary. It apparently lost favour in the early part of the 20th century because  food supplies were an issue during both World Wars, and Britons became used to a very bland, plain diet. Things like French or Mediterranean ingredients were looked upon with distrust as "foreign muck" by most people. I am sure there were probably many people who used the wild stuff or even grew their own alliums, but you don't tend to hear much about them. It was people like Elizabeth David who helped reawaken the British palate to more Mediterranean style foods.

That was from just a brief search, there looks to be a load more stuff online. There may even be books on British diet and nutrition through the ages if you look long enough. 

Elona_2

nargle
That is really interesting. I remember the Romans introduced garlic along with a lot of other things and had a vague memory of Thomas Culpepper mentioning it.  I looked it up and he suggested garlic as a remedy for "all diseases and hurts". I knew he was a contemporary of Henry the Eighth but had not realised he was a distant relative of the Howard family and hence related to two of Henry's queens.
I do remember when studying history at the OU that there were two historians almost coming to blows about the diet of the residents of workhouses in the nineteenth century.

LameWolf

Copied verbatim from my copy of Culpeper's Herbal:

“Mars owns this herb.This was anciently accounted the poor man's treacle, it being a remedy for all diseases and hurts (except those which itself breed). It provokes urine, and womens' courses, helps the biting of mad dogs and other venomous creatures, kills worms in children, cuts and voids tough phlegm, purges the head, helps the lethargy, is a good preservative against, and a remedy for any plague, sore, or foul ulcers; takes away spots and blemishes in the skin, eases pains in the ears, ripens and breaks imposthumes, or other swellings.”

Apparently "imposthumes" is an archaic word for abscesses. If it's that good, I wonder why a certain D Trump didn't advocate it's use against Covid?

greenbee

@LameWolf -  I don't think McD's do garlic so Mr Trump probably doesn't know about it  
It sounds like @Nargleblast has got to the bottom of it - that 'healthy' diet due to rationing also limited/restricted people to the extent that they clearly forgot how to make food interesting. Probably didn't have the time/inclination either given everything else going on and most women doing some kind of war work. 

ivyleaf

Goodness LW, it sounds as if I'd better increase my intake of garlic forthwith 

And thanks boultdj, I'd no idea nettles were an antihistamine! I do like nettle tea though - I think it has a nice "clean" taste.

-taff

My mother always made us eat garlic because it was 'good for you, cleans the blood' and always put honey on any scrapes I managed to aquire [she was italian though and not scared of it]...this was in the seventies/eighties before manuka honey became god of honey and before fake honey was being sold...

ZsaZsa

Hi, apologies if this is a daft question (I’ve searched and searched but can’t find an answer, which suggests it must be super obvious)
Once  I’ve dehydrated food, does it have to be stored in single servings? I’d assumed that I could store in a glass jar for example, and just take out what I need as and when- but will the remainder spoil?