[Sca-cooks] Cooking techniques- Was Funges Follies-

[Terry Decker]

Muscle tissue is muscle tissue, but the flavor sure varies a lot.  Having
had wild boar (probably closer to Medieval pig than today's farm pigs) and
javelina, I can say that the difference in flavor to pork tenderloin or pork
chops is noticeable.  The differences are probably due to differences
between species and diet.

In the citrus fruit loosely collected under C. sinensis, the different
flavors are due to deliberate selective breeding and hybridization which may
have begun as early as the 4th Century BCE.  While the science to explain
the results may be new, selective breeding and deliberate hybridization are
not.

The first noted occurence of modern cultivated rye occurs in a 10,000 year
old site at Abu Herrara.  The people were hunter-gathers with no concept of
selective breeding, yet by casually planting wild rye and harvesting the
results, they accidentally selected for the characteristics (primarily a
less brittle head which would remain with the stalk) which would increase
the yield of the harvest.  Other grains underwent similar changes.

Those accidental selections made casual planting and harvesting more
productive than hunting and gathering and began the Neolithic agricultural
revolution which in turn led to the great civilizations of the Ancient
World.  Little changes can have big consquences.

Bear


-----Original Message-----
<clipped>
Cow is cow, pig is pig, chicken
is chicken, and our minor modifications in body shape
and fat content in the past few hundred years are
nothing like the evolutionary changes across millions
of years. Muscle tissue is muscle tissue, regardless.

<clipped>
You need to keep in
mind that the _concept_ of selective breeding is
fairly new, and doing it consciously, other than
breeding your best to your best, to change the
characteristics, simply can't have changed things that
much.


Phlip