Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

RealMainer t1_j4q4f3s wrote

Because it was cheap, not because it was bad. Lobsters used to be so plentiful they would wash up on the shore and you could fill a bucket just by walking the beach in the morning.

Of course even lobster will start to taste bad if you have to eat it every other meal.

21

illevirjd t1_j4qb1e3 wrote

They also ground the whole thing up with the shell and all the guts, can’t imagine that being too appetizing

14

RealMainer t1_j4qcnqw wrote

Sounds gross but with the right cook that could make a delightful bisque!

I've only been to jail once (failure to show up in court over a fine I forgot about) but I had some really good food while there. Just depends who's on kitchen duty.

7

terminally_cool t1_j4qnvas wrote

Time changes everything. We used to have lobsters washed up on the shore and now we have used syringes on the shore.

7

Shilo788 t1_j4shcl3 wrote

They used to use them as fertilizer too, I read.

2

terminally_cool t1_j4qnwzi wrote

Time changes everything. We used to have lobsters washed up on the shore and now we have used syringes on the shore.

1

Menckenlover t1_j4rf18y wrote

I'm not trying to troll anyone, but I have seen conflicting reports and I'm genuinely curious how this evolved. The contrary reports all say that there is no primary source material.

If you Google it, there are plenty of sites supporting the idea. Does anyone know what the deal is?

1

RealMainer t1_j4ri8lz wrote

That's certainly some food for thought, however the fact is that lobster was very plentiful at one point and now it's considered an expensive food. If early colonists were indeed subsisting off lobsters for a time as the article suggests, then that would certainly give credence to it being such a readily available food that people would get sick of it, and eventually only the people who couldn't afford an alternative might eat it, however even that doesn't make much sense, because if they could get lobster then they would also have access to crab, tons of shellfish as well as regular fish which even now are quite easy to gather or catch year round.

On a side note I have always been a bit perplexed at how many people died in the early colonies from starvation. It's the middle of January right now and I can easily go the coast and gather mussels, fish for Pollock and even grabs still are plentiful (which would have been even more plentiful back then). I suppose they just didn't have the knowledge of readily available food back then.

3