CHAPTER 3
Far back in time, in the Pleistocene period, a being who already looked quite similar to us had the intelligence to invent cooking. This revolutionised the origins of food and drink. In this chapter, we explore all these matters. However, there was another momentous event… the control of fire. This would be a further turn of the screw in the feat of gaining nourishment through cooking.
This chapter is divided into two subchapters: cooking, food and drink both before and after the control of fire. We use the Sapiens methodology to determine the variables and concepts that we then seek to explain. In both subchapters we follow a step by step analysis, starting with what preparations the hominids of the Paleolithic period consumed, and how they ingested them. Next, we explain what is known about the different processes and what non-gastronomic resources were available for them. Then, we end the chapter with a review of the gastronomic resources employed to make these preparations: the most important tools, techniques and products available at the time. As a final note, we hypothesise about the types of cooking that were already possible for these first humans.
