Lobsters as prison food

[snopes]

Comment: I recently read an article that prisoners in the 1800's,in the US, were
fed lobster before it became popular to eat. I told my husband and he
would like to see where it is written, but I can't remember where I saw
it.

[dfresh]

This website says that it is true, which is from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

As an aside, my great-grandmother talked about getting truckloads of lobster to use as fertilizer on her garden, up in Maine.

[Eddylizard]

I've heard it claimed that at least in this part of the world oysters which are now an expensive delicacy were at one time considered a cheap food only eaten by poor people. I've no idea if it is true, but if so then it would perhaps make sense for lobsters if they were then prevalent in the era and the location the commenter refers to.

[Beejtronic]

We took a short holiday in New Brunswick/ PEI a few weeks ago, and were told the same thing by our tour guide.

[Johnny Slick]

I imagine that there were at one time parts of France where truffles were eaten by commoners on a regular basis. Heck, an English king died from gorging himself on lampreys, which are these disgusting eel-like parasites that hook onto the bodies of fish. I can't even imagine wanting to eat a lamprey but apparently they were meatier tasting than your average fish and therefore desireable during Lent. Oh yeah, and at the beginning of last century, wasn't chicken considered something like a delicacy in some parts of the world? Often scarcity moreso than taste determines whether or not a food is desireable (and one should add that lobster has the additional pitfall that if you don't boil those suckers alive the meat tastes off*).

*Or so I am told.

[Astra]

I heard the same thing during a tour of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.

[Keket]

South Shore Nova Scotia is a lobster mecca, and it's often told around here. Lobsters were bottom-feeding scavengers, and were only for people that couldn't afford fish.

[snopes]

Comment: I've heard a legend about lobster and the 17th century settlers
of the Americas. According to the story, Lobsters were enormous beasts
sometimes up to six feet long and were considered trash food fit only for
prisoners and the poor. Any truth to this?

[Thebobo]

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: I've heard a legend about lobster and the 17th century settlers
of the Americas. According to the story, Lobsters were enormous beasts
sometimes up to six feet long and were considered trash food fit only for
prisoners and the poor. Any truth to this?

Stephen King's The Dark Tower:The Drawing of the Three came to mind when I read that statement.

I read,in a seafood cookbook IIRC,that lobster was fed to the prisoners in Maine all the time. Because of its abundance this was their only food source and thus caused them to eventually riot. The prison relented and began to give them other varieties as well.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

I was researching a Murillo painting of an orphan boy on the streets of a city, Seville I think, where he is shown sitting sadly, but clearly not too hungry, as he has a few pieces of fruit and some shrimp around him which he was ignoring. I had taken this to be a way of showing that while the charities might have provided enough sustenance, the emotional and educational needs of the poorest among them were being ignored. That may still be the intent, or it may be the equivalent of sad-puppies-with-big-eyes, but what I learned was that shrimp was considered a poor person's food, cheap and so eaten only be the poorest. Fruit, however, was and is a symbol of plenty.

Of course many foods start out as peasant foods, like French fish-head-soup, that becomes stylish when the adventurous middle and upper classes go looking for 'authentic' cuisines, as happened with Chinese food in the US about a hundred or so years ago.

[overyonder]

I think it mostly boils down (ah!) to whether the food is abundant or now.

In a way, it reminds me how pineapples are seen in the South.. Having pineapple decor by your house often means a sign of prosperity.

OY

[Lainie]

It's a symbol of hospitality. That's why it's often seen carved into furniture, doorways, gateways.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by overyonder

I think it mostly boils down (ah!) to whether the food is abundant or now.

I saw that and thought it was not a typo of 'not', and that you were saying the big factors were abundance and whether something was au courant. Now I am not so sure, as it works either way

[Avril]

Pigeons are abundant and used to be eaten in quantity, but today are very pricey, if you can even find them available for purchase. But they're still all over the place anyway (the live ones, I mean).

[overyonder]

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

I saw that and thought it was not a typo of 'not', and that you were saying the big factors were abundance and whether something was au courant. Now I am not so sure, as it works either way

indeed a typo.

OY

[overyonder]

Originally Posted by Lainie

It's a symbol of hospitality. That's why it's often seen carved into furniture, doorways, gateways.

AND prosperity:

As a rare, expensive delicacy coveted by the rich and the royal, the image of the pineapple found its way into 18th century European and American architecture – especially the seaports that prospered on the West Indian trade route.

OY

[Don Enrico]

One of the earliest collective agreement in Germany is said to be one negotiated by the house servants in Hamburg. It ruled, among others, that the servants must not be given salmon as food more than three times a week.

[Thebobo]

Originally Posted by overyonder

I think it mostly boils down (ah!) to whether the food is abundant or now.

In a way, it reminds me how pineapples are seen in the South.. Having pineapple decor by your house often means a sign of prosperity.

OY

I went to a crystal glass museum in my area last year and one of the things the tour guide showed was this nice ornate vase from the late 19th century. He said it was used to hold celery. Celery was affordable to the affluent and they would adorn their dining room tables with it to show their prosperity.

[Kallah]

I've often wondered how someone even figured out how to eat lobster. I assume there was some poor sap out fishing, minding his own, who pulled in his net and saw this horrifying thing looking back at him:



Claws snapping. Huge feelers waving around. Finned tail lashing. Big, buggy eyes looking right into that fisherman's soul. If I were him I'd fling the thing right back into the ocean and run my butt right back to my church* and beg forgiveness from the pastor* for whatever I did to deserve the devil spawn that appeared in my nets that day. Who the heck would stop, look at that thing, and go "You know, I'm going to eat that"?

*Insert your imaginary fisher's religion here.