On Fri, 23 Nov 2001 06:26:26 +1300, Quentin Grady <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>Roasting game on a spit is very low tech compared to boiling some
>beans.    That is not to say you don't have a point.  Just that more
>technology is required to cook legumes to remove antinutrients.
>Is pottery 2 million years old?

Have you ever seen how Tibetans roast their barley?
In the sands of a fire.
Pottery isn't necessary for this.
Some kind of vases are necessary for soaking or watering seeds, which
greatly reduces toxins and increases vitamins
(Essene style, angel of the water, angel of the wind, recall?).
That's paleopossible with leaves, stone pits, wood pieces, leather bags,
baskets etc.

Btw. meat needn't be heated to be eaten.
But if it's cooked , I think its unlikely that it has been "roasted on a
spit" frequently.
Because in this way you would loose most of the fat (fat is rare in wild
game anyway). And protein (meat) can only be consumed up to a certain
percentage of *calories*. That means it requires a lot of fat or other
calories to be consumed with.
Otherwise the danger of "rabbit starvation" would arise.
Inuit and Stephansson ate around 50% of each, fat and meat. h/g could not
afford to loose fat. Some cooking pits or cooking bags may have been used.

>My guess is tubers arrived earlier since they can be cooked in fire
>ashes,  bread can be cooked in a crude clay oven or even on hot
>rocks Essene style.

Essene style bread is *uncooked*, as is described in Skecely's book.
Only soaked for 1 day and then dried in the sun.

I agree for the earlier arrivement than grass seeds (nut nuts - tree seeds).
I contacted Dr.Wrangham who wrote the great work about tubers and evolution.
I have his article now, and a second one on the topic.
Striking is, that many tubers can be eaten raw and are available in plenty,
particularly in a savannah environment. Even more are edible cooked.

Cooking or roasting them increases the availability of the starch energy
twofold. Same for grass seeds (increased usability).

In some regions wild grass seed stands are reported to have been
so rich, that one person could with little effort collecte the necessary
food for a very long time (that was *wild* grains, Hans).

That was in regions with strong seasons , where plants have the biggest
advantage to produce big annual seeds (and die then),in the neat east.

I cannot imagine, however how such a gatherer could have consumed a lot of
gathered wild barley every day, without cooking. Even with soaking (Essene
style) there will be a limit(?).

Wrangham postulates that hominids learned to control fire very early
(not 500,000 years back, but maybe 4-times as early), which would
have greatly increased the advantages of tubers (and grass seeds)
and greately increased the ecological niche of tuber eating hominids.


>NZ Maori ..bracken fern root ...

Fern root?
I wonder how this tastes like.

regards,
Amadeus S.