@@ubichihica3364 Those agrochemicals are washed away way before the fermentation process begin, unless you are having illegal or non regulated alcohol. In fact today's alcoholic beverages are safer than before (they have no methanol for example) and all those nutrients are still inside them. Also, enzymes are not nutrients, enzymes are digested in the stomach and their nutrition value is only measured by the amino acids they provide. The bacteria and fungus living in the beverages are also killed by the stomach and our immune system and also most of our beneficial bacteria comes from our fellow human beings rather than food
Fermentation, always improving things: According to company tradition, when the recipe was first mixed there the resulting product was so strong that it was considered inedible and the barrel was abandoned in the basement. Looking to make space in the storage area a few years later, the chemists decided to try it again, and discovered that the long fermented sauce had mellowed and was now palatable. In 1838 the first bottles of "Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce" were released to the general public.
@Ultimum Draco Some native monkeys and apes on various tourist-heavy islands will steal your drinks if you're drinking at the beach and haven't finished when you go for a swim. For that matter, Drunken Monkey Kung Fu was invented by a guy watching Asian monkeys who were drunk on fermented fruit (dates, I think).
@61 Cygni Not a fermented food but dolphins have been found to hunt puffer fish because the nerve toxin the fish give off produces a high in the dolphins.
If you are from Europe, like the Netherlands, Germany etc your ancestors drank beer because it was an easy way to get clean water. Beer had a lower abv back then, but still cracking open a cold one with your mates has historic significance.
I was once at the home of a Cherokee shaman. We were out on the porch and I saw many, many birds in a fruit tree. I thought they were just getting the ripe fruit,but then realized they were wobbly as they flew away, and some were falling to the ground. I was concerned, thinking they had been poisoned. He explained they waited past the ripe stage and ate them when they were overripe and fermenting. They were getting DRUNK. How very strange that was to me. At home we had cherries, pears, apples, blackberries, and grapes, but no fruit "bars," and no drunken animals!
I found a racoon passed out under our apple tree once. He was like a miniature furry frat boy, flat on his face and holding the instrument of his demise. unfortunately I didn't have a cell phone yet, so no picture :(. The squirrels who lived in the apple tree had evidently also been partying. They slept all day!
Its just that people are extremely well adapted to alcohol, so we dont get drunk from a few fermented fruits. We found a solluction though, just make beverages with way higher concentrations then naturally appear.
@@JanSobieskiIII of course not you ignorant morron, there are lots of examples were species evolved along those lines were plants, their preys or enemies became more poisionous and they evolved to be resistant to that poision as well. You thinking that you as a human can now suddenly start injecting yourself with snake venom and have offspring thats resistant to it is simply you being unable to understand the timescale on which evolution happens. You probably think a dinosaur laid an egg one day and a chicken came out of it. Its not that evolution in the real world works like pokemon you know.
Well here in Sweden it's been reported that cows and occasionally moose purposefully eat fallen and old apples and blueberries, just to get drunk. So yeah.
I remember hearing that in the Middle Ages, alcoholic beverages were often safer than water. I wonder if fermentation played a lifesaving, critical role than we know in giving us drinkable water from fruit or stuff like that. Also, while the meat thing is probably the case, I'd imagine there was a fair bit more meat scavenging in the early human and neanderthal diet than we talk about and way more berry and fruit gathering. No food is easy, so we'd take the easier foods where we could and vessels make gathering possible. The question of when we start farming and how long we did it while still nomadic also seems key here. I think there's a tendency to conflate farming with staying rooted to one place, but this needn't imply that.
That's because cities in the middle ages were a lot dirtier, and water was risky. Rural areas probably didn't rely on alcohol for hydration and many civilizations didn't had clean drinking water.
@@boygenius538_8 Sailors as well. Securing safe drinking water for a ship was easy enough, but keeping it safe for a voyage lasting months wasn't. Casks of beer would stay safe, and later after distillation was widespread so would mixing in a fair helping of brandy, rum, or gin. Throw in limes for vitamin C, and you've invented grog. Then the invention of a lime cordial that would let the limes last longer without destroying the vitamin C like other preservation methods created the basis of the gimlet.
One thing I learned is that the alcohol they drank back then was very low concentration alcohol compared to what we drink now. That’s why they were able to drink it so often
@@dorian4646 whether you think you know or not, when something is written incorrectly, there is always a chance you misunderstood it. That's why it's important to use words correctly. They are the tools we use to communicate, and anyone should know that tools should be used correctly. One doesn't use a hammer to tighten a screw, or use a pair of pliers to sink a nail. That's why people point out mistakes, especially those that can be misunderstood - because we should be better at proofreading what we say, even online. It's really not that hard to understand.
At first I was surprised to see pickles on there since they definitely aren’t fermented these days. Just put them in vinegar and... oh right. Vinegar is a product of fermentation. Modern method just separates one process from the next!
I do a lot of cauliflower and peppers on vinager. Still have them by the end of southern winter. When I run out I will be harvesting the new production.
There are actually two types of pickles! You’re thinking of vinegar pickles or refrigerator pickles. They are not fermented, merely preserved, which makes them easier and cheaper to mass produce, and they have a more mild flavor which appeals to a wider base. Makes em better for sandwiches too. So most people, at least in America, have never actually had a true fermented cucumber pickle. Now THOSE suckers are sour as a nine volt battery, let me tell you, and salty and just a hint of funky to boot. Once I’d had some from a farmers market, I never went back. Truly superior 👌🏼
The rest of the scientific community: We may never know if eating fermented meat is possible. That one scientist:... The rest of the scientific community: Hey dude where are you going with that dead horse?
I love this. A toast to EONS and to Blake, who must eat a lot of healthy fermented foods--he sure ages well. I used to teach a class on creating wild fermented beverages--we used mostly local herbs and fruit. The wild yeasts vary but always gives a unique brew. Once we made a brew so bubbly one guys erupted to the roof when he opened the jar--the remaining liquid was complex, full of unique flavors and delicious! You can indeed taste or even just smell if things go "bad". Thanks primate ancestors, and thanks to whichever adaptation makes chocolate edible for humans (but not pets)...hey how about a video about that?
Short answer: “Hey what’s wrong with Brian? “Oh he drank the salt water with that potato floating in it.” “Hasn’t it been sitting in the sun for weeks?” “Yep.” “Is that wheat in there too?” “Some mammoths trampled it.” “And he still drank it?” “Yep.” “Brian’s weird.”
Hey! Who are you calling weird? Brian is my great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather!
I've both brewed beer and wine and have a degree in experimental archaeology, this stuff is super fascinating especially thinking about the impact alcohol would have had on early culture. A key one that could be expanded on is mead (honey wine) which too occurs naturally and is thought by some to be the first alcoholic beverage humans actively produced rather than just came upon like the fruit on the forest floor
I used to have a plum tree in my backyard. Whenever I would see the squirrels walking and jumping weirdly and otherwise acting strange, I knew that they had been eating some of the plums that had fallen off and fermented.
From what I've read, some animals can and do eat fermented fruits on a regular basis and don't seem to suffer any long-term issues (as long as they don't accidentally injure themselves while intoxicated). Other animals, however, are very susceptible to alcohol poisoning even at small doses.
I love this topic! I'm a doceni at the University of Michigan Natural History Museum so Dr. Fisher's fermented pond horse story is a common topic of conversation!!
The greatest channel on UA-cam! Thank you! I'm curious about ADH4 expression among humans. Alcohol metabolism was once theoried to explain why some cultures used tea instead of beer for more hydration. I wonder if that holds up :)
Absolutely awesome post. Arguably one of the catalysts for our evolution. Even to go so far as to say that the "plain of jars" would be a great starting place for Archeology to look at for this topic specifically. I would debate from a chefs perspective, accidental mistakes make some of the best foods, and that certain foods require time to develope in both taste and consistency so making alcohol would have required a lot more time but much less food resources. An alternative to fresh when you can't preserve things in fridges.
Once me and my friend were eating some cherries and guys what they were a bit fermented and well we kept eating them, we called them “booze cherries” and well yeah
@@glennjpanting2081 actually "me and my friend" is a perfectly valid noun phrase. It's "my friend and me" that's problematic due to the oblique case being followed by a verb when used in a sentence.
@@nealjroberts4050 While “X and I” is frequently used as hypercorrection for “me and X”, there are times when it’s correct to use it, while “X and me” is generally considered more polite than “me and X”, just like “X and I” is considered more polite than “I and X”.
I feel like PBS Eons has been reading my thoughts, because I was just wondering about this very topic and, suddenly, there’s a video on it! Thanks for not letting me wonder too long!
for sour and bitter its important to note that we also use it to determine when a berry is not yet ripe enough somewhat, and learning to not eat those things until they lose the sourness or bitterness likely led to more of the sugars getting to those ancestors
Quite literally lockdown challenge as in when I was in hmp ranby we used to get a 5l wash up liquid bottle from the kitchen half a bag of sugar few slices of brown bread a smidge of marmite and a lot of oranges. Trick is to vent it periodically after head counts an that cuz it stinks and gets the whole place turned over if the screws get a wiff....
@@WinkLinkletter what the jamacain bun? gotta love aramark aint ya? they must KNOW theyre sellin all the bits cuz soon as one goes off the list a different product comes up that does the same thing?! PRISON FOR PROFIT FTW!
Humanity has purposely bred, and cross pollinated, and genetically engineered fruits to make them sweeter and more alcoholic for consumption. All for a buzz.
Dude 13k years ago: "Bro look what I just did!" Other broski: *Takes sip* "BROOOOO this is divine!!!!!!!" All humans: *Declares spot holy land from now on*
Mortadela is horse meat, at least the original one, cheap mortadela is faked using waste parts of meat industry, just like hot dogs (nails, hairs, instestines, bad state meat, tendons, cartilage, cow serum, "flavor" and some more chemicals).
@@Argentvs no, there are no nails, fur/hair, or bad meat used in hot dogs. That is just an urban myth, probably started by the butcher industry to sell more expensive meats, LOL!
I mean...they probably ate everything for the calories. They were still far from the comforts of modern food security. Back then if u found food, u ate it, lol.
It depends on how fermented it was. Getting drunk on the forest floor is a great way to attract predators. If it smelled too strongly fermented, they likely collected it and ate it later once they were safely surrounded by their group for the night.
Also ppl became sedentary before they adopted agriculture, so it's not like they didn't have housing and storehouses prior to domestication of plants animals (with the exception of dogs)
Vietnam's fermented dish "nem chua" was pictured. It was recently discovered that there was a natural antibiotic plantacyclin associated with this process that suppressed some other food pathogens like listeria or clostridium. Having tasted many fermented food items including hakarl, i have to say that nem chua is a delicious introduction to fermented meat. Something an absolute beginner can try!
Decades ago, I had friends who made mead. They insisted that it was pronounced "med". Theirs tasted like a fine white wine, very dry. They also aged their meat. My girl friend refused to eat it after seeing it hanging in the shed. Her loss.
I've got a nice mixed berry melomel in a carboy for secondary now! Searching around for a good source to get 15lbs of honey and get a nice Yule mead going. With apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
I always find it so cool how scientists can study theories like this one and combine the evidence we've found from multiple fields to form a better understanding of our history Edit: Also I really appreciate the details Eons gives about why we have certain theories. A lot of other places would have just mentioned when the earliest evidence of human fermentation was and leave out what led scientists to label it such.
As a vegetarian and horse girl I absolutely hate the thought of eating horse meat BUT horsemeat isn't produced like cowmeat and stuff like that and they only get medication when needed (where i live at least because they are kept as pets or for sports). So it's actually quite healthy in comparison.
@@bernardfinucane2061 Sauerbraten most of the time is made with beef, horse meat is actually pretty rare. Although the traditional Rheinländer Sauerbraten seems to have used horse meat, yes. Old horses that is, which is why they marinated the meat in vinegar or wine and had to wait a couple of days for the meat to become more soft.
Ironically enough, my son and I have just started brewing beer at home during this pandemic. We live on a farm in a rural area and a neighbor that brewed beer just passed away. His widow gave us his home brewing supplies and now we have another hobby to enjoy. Slainte!
that is so interesting! for some reason I never expected fermented food to be that early in our diet... though now that you mention it it does make sense!
7:38 Welp, no longer hungry! Ugh. Kinda off-topic but I just bought that Eons poster and I'm sooo excited! Had to clear off some space on my wall for it, lol.
Nope, any animal can get drunk, if anything we are the least susceptible and recover faster since we metabolize it quicker, but wee are far from the only animals who get drunk, squirrels and birds seek out fermenting fruits for a buzz and get absolutely wasted, however this also leaves em more susceptible to predation
I was rotational grazing my cattle in an apple orchard and moved them into one paddock with a lot of drops that had been there for a few weeks. Needless to say the cows immediately went after the fermenting apples then I saw one barf, she was ok but … I figure I should rotate them a little quicker through the parts that were really dropping apples. :^)
Just a fact correction about 0:42: the alcohol in fermented fruits would NOT have provided extra calories to early hominins. Alcohol has more energy on a per-gram basis, yes, but this doesn't account for density differences. Calculating on a per-molar basis, 1 mol sucrose (the main sugar in fruit) provides 5822 kJ of nutritionally-available energy. This turns into 4 mols. of ethanol after fermentation, which in total provide 5344 kJ. Essentially, the caloric content went DOWN by 8.2%. Which is not surprising, seeing as the yeast are getting energy from the sugar, and ethanol is the leftovers.
I really need to look into getting fermentation jars. Maybe I could trick my partner into eating veggies that way. He said the smell of cooked veggies makes him nauseous (trauma from his mother's terrible cooking - and yes, I fully believe that having actually tried her cooking).
I am a professor of Palaeolithic archaeology. Other aspects of the development of fermentation technology by our ancestors that may be of interest to your audience include: (a) Use of fermented plant products to dye cloth (think indigo.) This inhibited the growth of bacteria and molds on clothing, bedding, etc. (b) The incorporation of a stage of fermentation in the process of embalming dead bodies -- a process very well documented from ancient Egypt to historic Cambodia and Siam. The use of fermentation preserved the essence of life in perpetuity -- or at least until it was consumed by fire and transformed into air. There are other examples as well, including so-called "pickling" as part of the process to alloy metals. Fermentation was/is such an important technology central to many material production processes of SEAsian cultures that the famous American-Indonesian anthroplogist, Marie Jeanne Adams, has labelled fermentation as THE signature technological style of the SEAsian cultural complex.
Man they only need to add 8 more secs for extra money and yet they didn't wow they really are about teaching people instead of prioritizing in profiting
Great book on fermenting plant products by Patrick E McGovern titled Uncorking the Past. McGovern discusses the idea, presented at 8:08 in this video, that brewing and bread making went hand in hand. Beer doesn't spoil, is easily transportable and has significant food value.
6:50 Need for vitamin C is much higher if you're eating high (modern) amounts of carbohydrate. Vitamin C and glucose are structurally similar and compete for receptor space. Also, organ meats contain vitamin C in trace amounts. If you're eating animals nose to tale, you're getting enough of it to prevent scurvy. There is still enough in cooked liver alone to prevent scurvy. This is well known now.
@@fredtuturo1793 the whole neighborhood die hahaha.. But again in my country there is a lot of food that have very strong scent.. Like durian, ikan asin (dried salted fish).. Belacan (Fermented shrimp paste)...
I love that you showed milk kefir a few times. A lot of fermented foods require tons of effort to make properly, but all you need for milk kefir is fresh milk and a milk kefir SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast) and about 18-24 hours at room temperature to turn a pint of milk into a pint of kefir. As a bonus, the SCOBY grows as it's given more milk to process, so as long as it's not abused, you'll never run out. In fact, you'll have too much -- which can be shared with others or incorporated into your kefir smoothie for that extra kick of probiotic goodness.
May I recommend moyasimon, an anime and manga explicitly about fermentation and diet through cute magical reality where we get to meet the microbes that cause it
It is not an alcohol problem, it is scientific paleodiet research...
HSPM Huits ... so long as you're not worried about running into windows.
good one
Your not worried about somthing that has killed 75 thousand americans since march? Yep thats the work of alchohol poisioning
The only alcohol problem I ever have is not enough of it.
@@ubichihica3364 Those agrochemicals are washed away way before the fermentation process begin, unless you are having illegal or non regulated alcohol. In fact today's alcoholic beverages are safer than before (they have no methanol for example) and all those nutrients are still inside them.
Also, enzymes are not nutrients, enzymes are digested in the stomach and their nutrition value is only measured by the amino acids they provide. The bacteria and fungus living in the beverages are also killed by the stomach and our immune system and also most of our beneficial bacteria comes from our fellow human beings rather than food
“Hey, Dave, I dare you to eat this mango.”
“Oh, gross, dude. No!”
“I’ll give you this stick.”
“... Okay.”
😂 Ok I'll take it now
"Oh dang! Charlie, you gotta try this! It's like the world is warping!"
Most likely triple dog dared him
funny
Brian Gomez Triple-Direwolf Dare
Thank goodness for that ancient relative that did the equivalent of "How long has this been in the fridge? Eh, guess I'll try it anyway."
"If it doesn't kill me it will make me stronger!"
if it is green, blue or black, trim it first.
“If it doesn’t kill me, it will make me wish it did.”
Underrated comment Kim 😂 This deserves more love
I mean it has resulted in the death half that of corronavirus in the same period from alchohol poisioning.
Fermentation, always improving things:
According to company tradition, when the recipe was first mixed there the resulting product was so strong that it was considered inedible and the barrel was abandoned in the basement. Looking to make space in the storage area a few years later, the chemists decided to try it again, and discovered that the long fermented sauce had mellowed and was now palatable. In 1838 the first bottles of "Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce" were released to the general public.
The rich dude back from india who ordered the stuff loved it fresh, is the scary part. haha.
@@shansational1803 He probably didn't know it had been fermented. Guy missed out on a lot of money.
Out there one of our ape ancestors got wasted by eating expired mangoes.
The law of averages means a non insignificant portion of our population is descended from the mango monkey.
@Ultimum Draco animals do this all over the world
@61 Cygni the plural of moose is moose! :)
@Ultimum Draco Some native monkeys and apes on various tourist-heavy islands will steal your drinks if you're drinking at the beach and haven't finished when you go for a swim. For that matter, Drunken Monkey Kung Fu was invented by a guy watching Asian monkeys who were drunk on fermented fruit (dates, I think).
@61 Cygni Not a fermented food but dolphins have been found to hunt puffer fish because the nerve toxin the fish give off produces a high in the dolphins.
So humans evolved through ingesting fermented fruit, guess getting drunk is a tradition that goes back millennia.
yes
Getting drunk the way we do nowadays IS a tradition that comes from millennia, actually.
Ancient greeks are known to have been huge drunkards.
If you are from Europe, like the Netherlands, Germany etc your ancestors drank beer because it was an easy way to get clean water. Beer had a lower abv back then, but still cracking open a cold one with your mates has historic significance.
DO PEOPLE BELIEVE THIS NONSENSE?????
@@dggjr1759 Do you have evidence to suggest anything contrary? You sound like a troll.
I was once at the home of a Cherokee shaman. We were out on the porch and I saw many, many birds in a fruit tree. I thought they were just getting the ripe fruit,but then realized they were wobbly as they flew away, and some were falling to the ground. I was concerned, thinking they had been poisoned. He explained they waited past the ripe stage and ate them when they were overripe and fermenting. They were getting DRUNK. How very strange that was to me. At home we had cherries, pears, apples, blackberries, and grapes, but no fruit "bars," and no drunken animals!
I found a racoon passed out under our apple tree once. He was like a miniature furry frat boy, flat on his face and holding the instrument of his demise. unfortunately I didn't have a cell phone yet, so no picture :(. The squirrels who lived in the apple tree had evidently also been partying. They slept all day!
Its just that people are extremely well adapted to alcohol, so we dont get drunk from a few fermented fruits. We found a solluction though, just make beverages with way higher concentrations then naturally appear.
@@swamidude2214
Lmfao: yeah.... How adapted will your offspring be if you continually consume snake venom to make yourself immune? Not. At. All.....
@@JanSobieskiIII of course not you ignorant morron, there are lots of examples were species evolved along those lines were plants, their preys or enemies became more poisionous and they evolved to be resistant to that poision as well. You thinking that you as a human can now suddenly start injecting yourself with snake venom and have offspring thats resistant to it is simply you being unable to understand the timescale on which evolution happens. You probably think a dinosaur laid an egg one day and a chicken came out of it. Its not that evolution in the real world works like pokemon you know.
Well here in Sweden it's been reported that cows and occasionally moose purposefully eat fallen and old apples and blueberries, just to get drunk. So yeah.
As a food scientist specialized in fermentation, this one is probably my favorite episode from PBS. Keep up the good work! :-)
As a food scientist specializing in sensory science I find this episode very indulgent (see what i did there?) :3
As someone who loves dry aged steak I too love this episode
Do you work for Dannon? :)
@@jarjarbinks3193 I rather keep such informations about myself a secret :-)
As someone hankering for a hard cider right now, I’ma go get one. Saludos’!
I remember hearing that in the Middle Ages, alcoholic beverages were often safer than water. I wonder if fermentation played a lifesaving, critical role than we know in giving us drinkable water from fruit or stuff like that. Also, while the meat thing is probably the case, I'd imagine there was a fair bit more meat scavenging in the early human and neanderthal diet than we talk about and way more berry and fruit gathering. No food is easy, so we'd take the easier foods where we could and vessels make gathering possible. The question of when we start farming and how long we did it while still nomadic also seems key here. I think there's a tendency to conflate farming with staying rooted to one place, but this needn't imply that.
That's because cities in the middle ages were a lot dirtier, and water was risky. Rural areas probably didn't rely on alcohol for hydration and many civilizations didn't had clean drinking water.
@@boygenius538_8 Sailors as well. Securing safe drinking water for a ship was easy enough, but keeping it safe for a voyage lasting months wasn't. Casks of beer would stay safe, and later after distillation was widespread so would mixing in a fair helping of brandy, rum, or gin. Throw in limes for vitamin C, and you've invented grog. Then the invention of a lime cordial that would let the limes last longer without destroying the vitamin C like other preservation methods created the basis of the gimlet.
One thing I learned is that the alcohol they drank back then was very low concentration alcohol compared to what we drink now. That’s why they were able to drink it so often
Yeh that's true. Kids drank beer in europe for the longest time.
@@felonyx5123 They also made "Navy strength Gin" it was that strong (at least 60% proof) so that if it wet the gun powder it would still fire.
Man I loved this channel. It's just so refreshing to have Paleontology-based content like this. Great work guys
You loved it? But not anymore. (how is it hard to write correctly?)
@@MuscarV2 why are you nitpicking on such minor mistakes? I think most of us know what he meant.
@@dorian4646 yes he loved this channel but now for some reason he doesnt love it anymore. Whats hard to understand?
@@dorian4646 whether you think you know or not, when something is written incorrectly, there is always a chance you misunderstood it. That's why it's important to use words correctly. They are the tools we use to communicate, and anyone should know that tools should be used correctly. One doesn't use a hammer to tighten a screw, or use a pair of pliers to sink a nail.
That's why people point out mistakes, especially those that can be misunderstood - because we should be better at proofreading what we say, even online. It's really not that hard to understand.
My favorite part of archeology is the anthropological relationship we have with the past from things like brewing, fermenting, domestication, etc
Sounds self absorbed
Especially since domestication is destroying us
Daniel Reynolds ok mr. Anarcho primitivism
@@Ms.gnomer pass
At first I was surprised to see pickles on there since they definitely aren’t fermented these days. Just put them in vinegar and... oh right. Vinegar is a product of fermentation. Modern method just separates one process from the next!
I do a lot of cauliflower and peppers on vinager. Still have them by the end of southern winter. When I run out I will be harvesting the new production.
In Poland we do it both ways. We even consider them as two totally separate products.
There are actually two types of pickles! You’re thinking of vinegar pickles or refrigerator pickles. They are not fermented, merely preserved, which makes them easier and cheaper to mass produce, and they have a more mild flavor which appeals to a wider base. Makes em better for sandwiches too. So most people, at least in America, have never actually had a true fermented cucumber pickle. Now THOSE suckers are sour as a nine volt battery, let me tell you, and salty and just a hint of funky to boot. Once I’d had some from a farmers market, I never went back. Truly superior 👌🏼
Sauerkraut is actually fermented without any vinegar.
They're still quite different as lactic acid is not acetic acid. I like vinegar, but prefer lactic acid.
The rest of the scientific community: We may never know if eating fermented meat is possible.
That one scientist:...
The rest of the scientific community: Hey dude where are you going with that dead horse?
😂
Fermented fish is regularly eaten actually.
@@oxybrightdark8765 Well, yeah, I'd try it. Pond horse though?
Martin Mercy well, I’m sure that’s inside the fish.
Actually, there are plenty of fermented meats on the market, like salami.
"How We Learned to Get Drunk"
And then the first Russian was born...
It wasn't very hard.
I learned in jail... It's surprising how easy it is to make alcohol from sugar
Christopher Rhudy tell us how man pretty interesting
I love this. A toast to EONS and to Blake, who must eat a lot of healthy fermented foods--he sure ages well.
I used to teach a class on creating wild fermented beverages--we used mostly local herbs and fruit. The wild yeasts vary but always gives a unique brew. Once we made a brew so bubbly one guys erupted to the roof when he opened the jar--the remaining liquid was complex, full of unique flavors and delicious! You can indeed taste or even just smell if things go "bad". Thanks primate ancestors, and thanks to whichever adaptation makes chocolate edible for humans (but not pets)...hey how about a video about that?
Short answer:
“Hey what’s wrong with Brian?
“Oh he drank the salt water with that potato floating in it.”
“Hasn’t it been sitting in the sun for weeks?”
“Yep.”
“Is that wheat in there too?”
“Some mammoths trampled it.”
“And he still drank it?”
“Yep.”
“Brian’s weird.”
Noooo. Brian is experimental.
underrated comment
Hey! Who are you calling weird? Brian is my great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great
grandfather!
Brian was a Visionary
@@PabloSanchez-qu6ib *A million years later*
Great grandfather
I've both brewed beer and wine and have a degree in experimental archaeology, this stuff is super fascinating especially thinking about the impact alcohol would have had on early culture. A key one that could be expanded on is mead (honey wine) which too occurs naturally and is thought by some to be the first alcoholic beverage humans actively produced rather than just came upon like the fruit on the forest floor
Eons is the best channel on UA-cam. Keep up the amazing work!
Forget human like hot/spicy food too.
@Aki Akisautumn Inalways thought people who like very hot and spicy food are a little masochists.
"the pain makes me feel something"
-a human probably
@Aki Akisautumn heat receptors and pain
Yeah, no. I'll pass on the hot spicy.
Spicy food are also inhospitable to microbes, meaning that spicy foods kept longer, and our fondness for spice is a cultural legacy of that necessity.
I've seen birds get drunk on fallen, fermented berries. Do they have a similar genetic adaptation or is it a sign of mild food poisoning?
I used to have a plum tree in my backyard. Whenever I would see the squirrels walking and jumping weirdly and otherwise acting strange, I knew that they had been eating some of the plums that had fallen off and fermented.
I love it when animals get wasted
Yeah we used to have mulberry trees and the birds would get drunk on the overripe fruit and fly into the windows!
From what I've read, some animals can and do eat fermented fruits on a regular basis and don't seem to suffer any long-term issues (as long as they don't accidentally injure themselves while intoxicated). Other animals, however, are very susceptible to alcohol poisoning even at small doses.
Technically, getting drunk IS mild food poisoning.
"...Ethanol, also known as Alcohol. Perhaps you've heard of it?"
Is that like a personal attack or something?
Ape ancestor: *eats rotting fruit* TURN UP YEAHHHHH
I love this topic! I'm a doceni at the University of Michigan Natural History Museum so Dr. Fisher's fermented pond horse story is a common topic of conversation!!
The greatest channel on UA-cam! Thank you!
I'm curious about ADH4 expression among humans. Alcohol metabolism was once theoried to explain why some cultures used tea instead of beer for more hydration. I wonder if that holds up :)
I wonder which ancestor first said, "Hey hold my fermented fruit..."
Lol
Absolutely awesome post. Arguably one of the catalysts for our evolution. Even to go so far as to say that the "plain of jars" would be a great starting place for Archeology to look at for this topic specifically. I would debate from a chefs perspective, accidental mistakes make some of the best foods, and that certain foods require time to develope in both taste and consistency so making alcohol would have required a lot more time but much less food resources. An alternative to fresh when you can't preserve things in fridges.
Laws of Nature: Did eating this kill me? No? Sweet then imma keep munchin'
Once me and my friend were eating some cherries and guys what they were a bit fermented and well we kept eating them, we called them “booze cherries” and well yeah
@@glennjpanting2081 actually "me and my friend" is a perfectly valid noun phrase. It's "my friend and me" that's problematic due to the oblique case being followed by a verb when used in a sentence.
@@nealjroberts4050 Incorrect.
@@BatCaveOz I know you are but what am I? 😋
@@BatCaveOz who cares man
@@nealjroberts4050
While “X and I” is frequently used as hypercorrection for “me and X”, there are times when it’s correct to use it, while “X and me” is generally considered more polite than “me and X”, just like “X and I” is considered more polite than “I and X”.
I feel like PBS Eons has been reading my thoughts, because I was just wondering about this very topic and, suddenly, there’s a video on it! Thanks for not letting me wonder too long!
I’m impressed at Blake’s deadpan delivery of “Perhaps you’ve heard of it”
No one:
500,000 BC Human: Mmmmmm.... gotta get me some more of that six month dead at bottom of the lake horsemeat!
When dying of hunger you will eat even your brother carcas.
It’s so strange to me that we even have the ability to process ethanol. Awesome video! Thanks to the Eons team and their patrons ♥️
for sour and bitter its important to note that we also use it to determine when a berry is not yet ripe enough somewhat, and learning to not eat those things until they lose the sourness or bitterness likely led to more of the sugars getting to those ancestors
To alcohol! The cause of and the solution to all life's problems.
Lmao
Some might disagree. To them I say "Scientifically speaking, alcohol is a solution."
“The cause of, and solution to,”
Wise words Homer Simpson, wise words.
@@Argentvs mmmm, beer....
I love Blake's videos. He brings so much character to them!
Before the beer bottles we had fermented Citrus how many oranges does it take to get a Buzz???
Get drunk on orange juice, call it experimental archeology. New lockdown challenge?
Quite literally lockdown challenge as in when I was in hmp ranby we used to get a 5l wash up liquid bottle from the kitchen half a bag of sugar few slices of brown bread a smidge of marmite and a lot of oranges. Trick is to vent it periodically after head counts an that cuz it stinks and gets the whole place turned over if the screws get a wiff....
@@adrianjohnson7295 Wow, Marmite hooch! We used "honey buns" pastry for our yeasts.
@@WinkLinkletter what the jamacain bun? gotta love aramark aint ya? they must KNOW theyre sellin all the bits cuz soon as one goes off the list a different product comes up that does the same thing?! PRISON FOR PROFIT FTW!
Humanity has purposely bred, and cross pollinated, and genetically engineered fruits to make them sweeter and more alcoholic for consumption. All for a buzz.
It’s cool to know that fermented foods and the umami flavor is so widespread among other land mammals. Thanks for the great video!
So our food history boils down to a long series of "hey I dare you to eat that"?
Probably also a lot of, "I'm so hungry right now that I'd even eat that."
@@normamcphee8956 Probably more true, but unfortunately quite a bit _less_ funny.
Dude 13k years ago: "Bro look what I just did!"
Other broski: *Takes sip*
"BROOOOO this is divine!!!!!!!"
All humans: *Declares spot holy land from now on*
Lmao too bad ot was lost in translation. Underrated
6:18 So hungry you can eat a horse?
oh wait
Mortadela is horse meat, at least the original one, cheap mortadela is faked using waste parts of meat industry, just like hot dogs (nails, hairs, instestines, bad state meat, tendons, cartilage, cow serum, "flavor" and some more chemicals).
@@Argentvs Was just making a joke but thanks for the info
@@takenname8053 an info, which is false, by the way
@@Argentvs no, there are no nails, fur/hair, or bad meat used in hot dogs. That is just an urban myth, probably started by the butcher industry to sell more expensive meats, LOL!
@@takenname8053 yeah, most of that "info" is made up... baloney.
Had to do the pun. But seriously, the "info" is nonsense.
Thanks, Steve, for your support.
I assure you, ancient hominids didn't eat fermented fruit for the calories.
I mean...they probably ate everything for the calories. They were still far from the comforts of modern food security. Back then if u found food, u ate it, lol.
getting drunk on the forest floor is a good way to get eaten yourself
@@taylorhillard4868 true, the agrarian revolution hadn't begun until then. If they found food, they ate it.
It depends on how fermented it was. Getting drunk on the forest floor is a great way to attract predators. If it smelled too strongly fermented, they likely collected it and ate it later once they were safely surrounded by their group for the night.
Also ppl became sedentary before they adopted agriculture, so it's not like they didn't have housing and storehouses prior to domestication of plants animals (with the exception of dogs)
I absolutely love this channel. Learn so much every time I watch a video. Greetings from Guatemala.
Help, I am being distracted from my education by how sharp he looks in that shirt!
Oh please
No but for real, quarantine did him well 🔥😝
He looks great! Meanwhile, I gained like 665764 pounds in quarantine 😭😭😭
This is literally one of the reasons I keep watching this channel.
He's been steadily making me question my sexuality more and more each week for months now.
Vietnam's fermented dish "nem chua" was pictured. It was recently discovered that there was a natural antibiotic plantacyclin associated with this process that suppressed some other food pathogens like listeria or clostridium. Having tasted many fermented food items including hakarl, i have to say that nem chua is a delicious introduction to fermented meat. Something an absolute beginner can try!
As someone who makes their own mead I never clicked faster
ever try frozen banana mead? i had an acquaintance who made it. OMG sippin' whiskey only but mmmmmmm good.
Decades ago, I had friends who made mead. They insisted that it was pronounced "med". Theirs tasted like a fine white wine, very dry. They also aged their meat. My girl friend refused to eat it after seeing it hanging in the shed. Her loss.
Yep. Same hear my 1st year making it
I've got a nice mixed berry melomel in a carboy for secondary now! Searching around for a good source to get 15lbs of honey and get a nice Yule mead going. With apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
"(Insert whatever) never clicked faster"
Has become the cringiest trendy comment format.
One of the best episodes I’ve ever seen. Thx guys.
I always find it so cool how scientists can study theories like this one and combine the evidence we've found from multiple fields to form a better understanding of our history
Edit: Also I really appreciate the details Eons gives about why we have certain theories. A lot of other places would have just mentioned when the earliest evidence of human fermentation was and leave out what led scientists to label it such.
become a scientist, no doubt our universe still needs some explaining
It helps that modern chimpanzees and bonobos are also known to seek out and consume fermented foods in the wild.
i know right?! it also absolutely breaks my heart to imagine how much of our hsitory could be lost forever
@@fuckyougeorgebush I'm not really sure what you mean? It was clearly stated what evidence they were basing the theories on.
@@fuckyougeorgebush bro thats because it’s our most concrete theory at the time
Cheesy and sour horse meat... I'll stick to BBQ burgers.
With cheese and pickles!
Sauerbraten, which is sour horse meat, it a favorite dish in the Rhineland. I guess beef is mostly used these days.
You are missing out, horse meat is really tasty
As a vegetarian and horse girl I absolutely hate the thought of eating horse meat BUT horsemeat isn't produced like cowmeat and stuff like that and they only get medication when needed (where i live at least because they are kept as pets or for sports). So it's actually quite healthy in comparison.
@@bernardfinucane2061 Sauerbraten most of the time is made with beef, horse meat is actually pretty rare. Although the traditional Rheinländer Sauerbraten seems to have used horse meat, yes. Old horses that is, which is why they marinated the meat in vinegar or wine and had to wait a couple of days for the meat to become more soft.
Always good being here. This one was a particular gem. Thank you.
Ironically enough, my son and I have just started brewing beer at home during this pandemic. We live on a farm in a rural area and a neighbor that brewed beer just passed away. His widow gave us his home brewing supplies and now we have another hobby to enjoy.
Slainte!
So refreshing to watch a PBS Eons video not sandwiched between any Mass Extinction Events.
"...I am so hungry right now..." I love this channel.
This commentator is my favorite on the channel. He's like the ideal guest you could invite for dinner and just talk about stuff with
I've been getting into some small homebrewing,so this is really good timing. Did you know you can use fermentation to make your own soda?
THIS CHANNEL NEVER STOPS GIVING
Props to the guy who took there time to add the fly on the fruit
that is so interesting! for some reason I never expected fermented food to be that early in our diet... though now that you mention it it does make sense!
Everytime I watch one of these episodes I just go "Whoa."
Thank god for this channel. You guys help me fall asleep at night because it’s just some sooooothing voices. Fav channel on yt.
I would also suggest Into the Microcosmos, with Hank - such a great voice to fall asleep to! Look them up and give it a try!
Do a video on Hummingbirds!
7:38 Welp, no longer hungry! Ugh. Kinda off-topic but I just bought that Eons poster and I'm sooo excited! Had to clear off some space on my wall for it, lol.
I've not seen this presentator jet before, but, I like his style of telling a story.
Worth way more than the one up vote I was able to give.
When you realize humans got the ability to get drunk from the evolutionary lottery
Nope, any animal can get drunk, if anything we are the least susceptible and recover faster since we metabolize it quicker, but wee are far from the only animals who get drunk, squirrels and birds seek out fermenting fruits for a buzz and get absolutely wasted, however this also leaves em more susceptible to predation
Always wanted to see a video about this. Thank you!
OK, guys, have you seen the inside of my refrigerator? How could we NOT discover fermentation with housekeepers like me?
I was rotational grazing my cattle in an apple orchard and moved them into one paddock with a lot of drops that had been there for a few weeks. Needless to say the cows immediately went after the fermenting apples then I saw one barf, she was ok but … I figure I should rotate them a little quicker through the parts that were really dropping apples. :^)
of course the one episode I'm early to for once is the episode about cheese & beer
I was wondering about that.
Just a fact correction about 0:42: the alcohol in fermented fruits would NOT have provided extra calories to early hominins.
Alcohol has more energy on a per-gram basis, yes, but this doesn't account for density differences.
Calculating on a per-molar basis, 1 mol sucrose (the main sugar in fruit) provides 5822 kJ of nutritionally-available energy. This turns into 4 mols. of ethanol after fermentation, which in total provide 5344 kJ. Essentially, the caloric content went DOWN by 8.2%.
Which is not surprising, seeing as the yeast are getting energy from the sugar, and ethanol is the leftovers.
Ok, this is lots of information
to digest. I feel fermented now! 🥴
I really need to look into getting fermentation jars. Maybe I could trick my partner into eating veggies that way. He said the smell of cooked veggies makes him nauseous (trauma from his mother's terrible cooking - and yes, I fully believe that having actually tried her cooking).
“Alcohol, perhaps you’ve heard of it? “ / dead horse meat... “mmm, I’m so hungry right now” 😂
That picture of the fruit on the forest floor is legit some beautiful artwork
6:16 How hungry are you? 🤣
My favourite presenter and one of my favourite topics! But why did you not mention Braidwood and Braidwood's material?
Really fascinating stuff!
That was a super interesting episode ! Thank you so much for your work, I really love each one of your videos :D
How about some love for sauerkraut? What kind of pale existence would life be without Reuben sandwiches and krautdogs?
Sauerkraut is awful
Krautdogs... stop raping our Sauerkraut! 😂
Oh, I love sauerkraut! My mom would make a sauerkraut that I would just sit and eat right out of the jar!
Itd be interesting to hear more about silageing in relation to this subject as its an often overlooked part of the puzzle.
TL;DR - Consuming alcohol is directly correlating with intelligence.
And Neanderthal genes!
So you're saying my neighbor might be Einstein?
No
@@boygenius538_8 begone, East Asian stock, the world belongs to people who can digest alcohol and dairy properly.
DISTurbedwaffle918 I’m not East Asian
I am a professor of Palaeolithic archaeology. Other aspects of the development of fermentation technology by our ancestors that may be of interest to your audience include: (a) Use of fermented plant products to dye cloth (think indigo.) This inhibited the growth of bacteria and molds on clothing, bedding, etc. (b) The incorporation of a stage of fermentation in the process of embalming dead bodies -- a process very well documented from ancient Egypt to historic Cambodia and Siam. The use of fermentation preserved the essence of life in perpetuity -- or at least until it was consumed by fire and transformed into air. There are other examples as well, including so-called "pickling" as part of the process to alloy metals. Fermentation was/is such an important technology central to many material production processes of SEAsian cultures that the famous American-Indonesian anthroplogist, Marie Jeanne Adams, has labelled fermentation as THE signature technological style of the SEAsian cultural complex.
Neanderthals: Use spears to get meat.
Modern humans: May I get an A10 Warthog strafe please?
Thank goodness for this channel! I love it so much
Man they only need to add 8 more secs for extra money and yet they didn't wow they really are about teaching people instead of prioritizing in profiting
Those who studied or are studying Food Science, this is the introductory story of the unit Fermentation,,, this video have explained it so well 👌
"To alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life's problems!"
Great book on fermenting plant products by Patrick E McGovern titled Uncorking the Past. McGovern discusses the idea, presented at 8:08 in this video, that brewing and bread making went hand in hand. Beer doesn't spoil, is easily transportable and has significant food value.
For people who have Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, fermented foods are STILL ....dicey!
I am so allergic to corn that I will instantly vomit any alcohol created from it! Literally the second it hits my stomach.
HOW COME I DIDNT KNOW THIS CHANNEL EXISTED. It’s so good
How many thought this was going to be about our ancestor making booze for the first time?
6:50 Need for vitamin C is much higher if you're eating high (modern) amounts of carbohydrate. Vitamin C and glucose are structurally similar and compete for receptor space. Also, organ meats contain vitamin C in trace amounts. If you're eating animals nose to tale, you're getting enough of it to prevent scurvy. There is still enough in cooked liver alone to prevent scurvy. This is well known now.
Fermented cheesey dead lake horse. Mmmmmm, yuck.
Actually, I'm kinda curious how it would taste.
V Guyver okay, you first!
Do you think the smell wouldn't kill you first?
@@lancheloth try the danish fermented fish in a can and tell us if you survive the smell...
@@fredtuturo1793 the whole neighborhood die hahaha.. But again in my country there is a lot of food that have very strong scent.. Like durian, ikan asin (dried salted fish).. Belacan (Fermented shrimp paste)...
What a fascinating story! I love these Eons vids and this is an especially great one. Thanks for this fantastic channel!
I am so hungry right now...
I love that you showed milk kefir a few times. A lot of fermented foods require tons of effort to make properly, but all you need for milk kefir is fresh milk and a milk kefir SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast) and about 18-24 hours at room temperature to turn a pint of milk into a pint of kefir. As a bonus, the SCOBY grows as it's given more milk to process, so as long as it's not abused, you'll never run out. In fact, you'll have too much -- which can be shared with others or incorporated into your kefir smoothie for that extra kick of probiotic goodness.
May I recommend moyasimon, an anime and manga explicitly about fermentation and diet through cute magical reality where we get to meet the microbes that cause it
Well thanks for that info
melskunk Really?! Thank you!!
Yeah the instant they mentioned the horse I thought of Professor Itsuki!
Clicks first episode of Moyashinmon on Crunchy Roll. -monitor explodes with cuteness-
Just an amazing presentation
"I am not deliberately drunk , im low in ADH4"
you don't have low ADH4 in your liver, you deliberately drink very much so your body takes time to subdue the effect
Really worked from the ground up on this one. I think an episode 2 would be awesome