The invention of cooking
In the old days_ the very old days when the first homo sapiens started roaming our world, 300,000 years ago, our ancestors sustained themselves on roots, berries, fungi and whatever animal, bird or fish they could catch. You could say they invented sushi! They ate everything raw. They had powerful gnashers then and could deal with bones without any difficulty. But obviously little children did not yet have fully developed dentition.
There was a family of father, called Phrak, mother called Khooroo and little boy called Pripri living in their own tree. The ancestor of the baobab, would you believe? Fire had been discovered _ harnessed a few millenia before so most families could afford central heating. They had a fire going most times, except when summer became unbearably hot. A fire kept you warm, provided light, and the smoke kept buzzers away.
At first it occurred to no one that cooking the raw meat on the fire might make it tastier or more tender. Pripri was a good-tempered little fellow, with a loving and warm nature, liking to laugh and chuckle, and he was not given to tantrums. Except when he was teething.
Phrak and Khooroo always hunted together, his flint edged spear rarely missed target, but it was his wife who had perfect vision. She could spot anything moving in the bushed much before Phrak. That day it was a lovely boar. The ancestor of today’s specimen looked very different from his descendant: the fangs were longer and sharper, its head was rounder, and above everything else it was furrier with longer strands.
Husband and wife knew exactly what to do; they could read each other’s mind effortlessly as in those days, homo sapiens had some gift of telepathy. They certainly knew to keep completely silent. They avoided stirring the bushes, and made sure their feet avoided pebbles, twigs and leaves. If the boar caught a whiff of them, or saw them first, there was every chance that it would charge, and almost no chance that they would both survive such an encounter. They were lucky, or perhaps clever enough to catch the shiny black porcine unawares, and Phrak had go his spear ready in good time. Boar saw him too late. He began charging, but the hunter was able to hurl his weapon in good time and with full force, and on target. The quadruped winced as the flint penetrated his thick skin. He stood on his four legs for a good few seconds before his four legs all gave up at exactly the same moment. and he collapsed into a lifeless heap, bleeding profusely. The couple knew that there was no danger to them and bent down to drink the healthy juicy drink. They gathered some congealed blood in a leaf for Pripri.
It took them almost the whole day to skin their trophy, and they knew that there would be food for the foreseeable future. Pripri was in a bad mood and at first spat out the blood which Phrak introduced into his mouth by means of a semi-dried lead, but when he finally swallowed some he smacked his lips and seemed to enjoy this treat.
Unfortunately it wasn’t going to be easy when it came to the actual flesh. Boar is known for its tasty and pleasant consistence, and its prehistoric ancestor wasn’t any worse. But the problem was how to get a toothless toddler to deal with it?
Father and mother took turns chewing small chunks, and when they had become smooth and homogeneous, they took i ou of their mouths with their fingers and put it in the baby’s mouth. Pripri would have none of it. He still hankered after mother’s milk. But the parents knew that he had to cope with solid food some time. But the little laddie would have none of it, and spat one mouthful into Khooroo’s face. But they would not give up. The net instalment, he spat at the blazing fire. Khooroo got angry. We risk our lives, she told her husband (telepathically) and work our fingers to the bones and the little perisher thinks nothing of wasting good meat. But she stopped in her tracks. As the minced meat began to burn, a very attractive smell filled the habitation. As neither of the two adults believed in waste anyway, Phrak used a stick to extract the burning piece of meat from the flame, and put it in the still angry Khooroo’s mouth. She opened wide her eyes on the first contact of the seared boar with human tongue. She had never tasted anything as good in her born life.
That was the first barbecue.
