Quote:
Originally Posted by Pineedles
Its funny, I remember my parents let me only have legs when I was around 8 years old when they had dinner parties where they served lobster. That was a few years ago, but I also remember my mother telling me that when she was a child, her father used to bring home lobster for the "cheap" dinner each week. Less expensive than chicken! I just confirmed this story with my aunt last week while taking her back from the lake to her assisted living center in Bedford, NH.  What a scream lobster cheaper than chicken. |
There was a time when lobster was thought of as the food of the poor. In colonial days, it was used for fertilizer, it was so plentiful.
Hey, who wants to be regarded as being poor?!
Marketing strategy changed its status and people regard it as the rich folks food.
Some reading for a stormy day...
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by lobsterdotorg
While ancient, Middle Age, and Rennaisance people appreciated many aspects of the lobster, they did not retain their popularity with the more modern Europeans and Americans. Along the northeastern coast of the U.S., the lobster was once so common in the 17th and 18th centuries that it was considered a "junk" food. When caught in great quantities or stranded on shore after severe storms, lobsters served as garden fertilizer and as a food staple given to widows, orphans, servants, and prisoners. It was so commonly used as a food for servants and prisoners that Massachusetts passed a law forbidding its use more than twice a week - - a daily lobster dinner was considered cruel and unusual punishment! The American revolutionaries hurled the insult "lobsterback" at the red-coated British. It wasn't until the 19th century that lobsters regained their status as a luxury food item, mostly as a result of their popularity with royalty.
|
http://www.lobsters.org/tlcbio/biology.html