The Supper Book
Wine in Ancient Culture
Herodotus writes that Cleomene’s madness proceeded from the habit of drinking wine unmixed with water, which he learnt of the Scyths. Likewise Plato, in Laws, says: But the Scythians and Thracians, both men and women, drink unmixed wine, which they pour on their garments, and this they think a happy and glorious institution.
"Alcohol consumption in the ancient world was a matter of public endeavour" Tamra Andrews, An Encyclopaedia of Food in World Mythology (2000)
An exchange between one of the ambassadors and Dicaeopolis in Aristophanes' Acharnians also illustrates the barbaric nature of the custom:
A: And when we were entertained, we were compelled to drink unmixed sweet wine from cups of glass and gold —
D: City of Cranaus! Are you aware how these ambassadors mock you?
A variation on this ancient custom is still performed today as part of the Mass, when the priest pours a few drops of water into the wine and says this prayer (Novus Ordo):
By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
Boswell and Johnson on Wine in Scotland
Boswell : We had wine before the Union.
Johnson : No, sir; you had some weak stuff, the refuse of France, which would not make you drunk.
94 Litres of Beer
ALL THE BEER I DRANK IN A YEAR
Beer is famous in our time. Everyone wants it and yet nobody can hold down more than half a dozen pints of it. Due to this challenge beer is widely abused, and many of our matings are its result. In the following list are the beers — bottled and canned — which I drunk at home, and in the homes of others, over the course of one year.
Helpfully enough, this is a golden age of bottled and canned beer. Storage of beer in domestic casks, butts and hogsgeads would of course be absurd and impractical, involving work on the part of the consumer.
To ease this burden, beer is now filtered and charged with carbonic acid gas — and squashed into handy bottles and cans. The product is inferior to properly matured and naturally conditioned beer, but nonetheless serves a cheap and potent public service.
Greggs Caramel and Pecan Momento
To most people they are simply bakers, but to you and I they are biscuit technologists — you might even call them pioneers — maybe pie-oneers.