As you may have noticed, 2009 is both the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species.
Having read a lot of and about Darwin over the past couple of years while researching my book about pluots, I’m sort of Darwined out at the moment. Still, I was interested to read that a couple of authors have compiled a book of recipes based on the notebooks of Emma Darwin.
While the food Emma cooked for her family seems to have been pretty straightforward — roasted mushrooms, beef collops, baked apple pudding — Charles is known to have been an adventurous eater elsewhere.
As Chloe Diski observed in the Guardian a few years ago, Darwin led the Glutton Club while a student at Cambridge. The group met weekly to eat “strange flesh” — hawk, bittern, owl — and discuss its relative merits. Later in life, while sailing on the Beagle, he ate, among other odd things, armadillos and “a 20-lb, chocolate-coloured rodent.” Take that, Zimmern!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I received a message that you linked to the Darwin cookbook story on my site, but when I click on your link above, it doesn’t work.
Your site looks interesting, though!
The words “beef collop” are linked to Gherkins & Tomatoes. I had a bad link to the Telegraph, though. Thanks, Cindy!
Oh, OK. I didn’t check that one, just went for the cookbook link.
Thanks for telling me!