Food that used to be the food of the poor but is now a delicacy

Red and black caviar

Whether in Russia or abroad, people did not immediately feel the taste for caviar. They appreciated the fillet of red fish, appreciated the sturgeon – but not these slippery “fish balls”. In the United States, red caviar was considered a food for handymen, and in Russia, black caviar was advised to be used to clarify broth. And then suddenly everything changed: the number of salmon and sturgeon fish sharply decreased due to the barbaric catch, caviar also decreased, and then there were scientists with their conclusions about the exceptional benefits of these products … In general, the law of scarcity worked: the less, the more expensive. Now the cost of a kilogram of red caviar starts at 3 rubles, and black caviar is sold literally in teaspoons.

Lobsters

They’re lobsters. They were generally afraid to eat them: the crustaceans did not look like a decent decent fish, they looked strange and even scary. At best, lobsters were thrown out of the nets, at worst, they were allowed to fertilize. They fed the prisoners, and for reasons of humanity it was forbidden to give the prisoners lobsters for several days in a row. And lobsters became popular only when they were tasted by the inhabitants of the continents – before they were available only to the inhabitants of coastal territories. Very quickly, lobsters became a symbol of luxury, a real delicacy and the food of kings.  

Snails and oysters

Now they are a fashionable product, a well-known aphrodisiac. They are praised by nutritionists, because these seafood is very high in zinc and the purest high-quality protein. Once upon a time, oysters were mined so much that a whole street in New York was laid out with their shells. In Europe, oysters were meat for the poor – you can’t buy normal meat, just eat that.

And they began to eat snails in ancient Rome. Then the French poor ate them to compensate for the lack of meat and poultry in the diet. The snails were stewed in sauce, and offal was added to them to make them more satisfying. Now snails are a delicacy. As well as oysters, which suddenly became scarce and therefore expensive.

Fondue

This dish is originally from Switzerland, it was once invented by ordinary shepherds. They had to take food with them for the whole day. These were usually bread, cheese and wine. Even the most dried cheese was used: it was melted in wine, and bread was dipped into the resulting hot aromatic mass. Cheese was usually prepared on their own farm, and then wine was also made in almost every courtyard, so such a dinner was quite cheap. Now fondue is prepared on dry wines from a wide variety of cheeses: Gruyere and Emmental, for example, are mixed. Later, variations appeared – fondue began to be called anything that can be dipped in melted cheese, chocolate, hot butter or sauce.

Paste

Pasta with sauce was a classic peasant food in Italy. Everything was added to the pasta: vegetables, garlic, herbs, bread crumbs, dried peppers, fried onions, lard, cheese, of course. They ate the pasta with their hands – the poor did not have forks.

Nowadays, pasta can be found even in the most expensive restaurant, along with pizza (which also has poor roots) – this dish has become the hallmark of Italy. With shrimp and tuna, with basil and pine nuts, with mushrooms and expensive parmesan – the cost of a portion can be surprising.

Salami

And not only salami, but sausages in general are considered the invention of the poor. After all, jerky can be stored longer. And if you make the sausage not from pure meat, but from scraps, offal, add cereals and vegetables there for volume, then you can feed the whole family with one small piece. And salami was especially popular among European peasants – after all, it could be stored for a very long time at room temperature, and it did not deteriorate. Even sliced ​​salami remained quite edible, sitting on the table for up to 40 days.

Now real salami, cooked according to all the canons, without speeding up the process, is a rather expensive sausage. All because of the cost of raw materials (beef is an expensive type of meat) and long production.