Friday, September 21, 2012

A Top Twenty

Ploughman, via Wikipedia
The Royal Society has listed "The 20 Most Significant Inventions in the History of Food and Drink" this month. A group of fellows--including a Nobel winner--narrowed the field of 100 innovations down to the following twenty:

The Top 20
  1. Refrigeration
  1. Pasteurisation / sterilisation
  1. Canning
  1. The oven
  1. Irrigation
  1. Threshing  machine/combine harvester
  1. Baking
  1. Selective breeding / strains
  1. Grinding / milling
  1. The plough
  1. Fermentation
  1. The fishing net
  1. Crop rotation
  1. The pot
  1. The knife
  1. Eating utensils
  1. The cork
  1. The barrel
  1. The microwave oven
  1.  Frying
Some I might argue--like the microwave over rat-proof granariesor the amphora. After all, the amphora did manage to keep wine on board a sunken Roman ship in good shape for a thousand years (you know, until the Calypso crew opened and drank it). Some are really inarguable, like grinding/milling. After all, that helps transfer more calories than the consumption of whole grains. And cooking makes more calories available as well. And fermentation, wow! Beer AND bread!
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