Cooked Spuds

[EternalOptimist]

But they had large brains? Surely they were intelligent enough to throw together a quick seabass with smoked eel reduction and cockle with cucumber foam, lightly sprinkled with lime zest and accompanied by a glass of verdejo, just as the odd looking chef in Haarlem did last night?

No , you are getting confused with Homo Erectus. Habilis or HAB were/are not that keen on fish.
Homo Hab was not a great fan of the tuna munching

Plus the large brain bit is relative, they were probably cleverer than a labour minister, but not as clever as a dog, for example

[Mich the Tester]

no, we are talking Homo Habilis here, not Homo Jamie Oliver.

more like
grunt = (oh fck , I dropped the sweet potatoes on the fire by accident. mm they taste quite nice actually)

rather than
'would you like some bush chips with that dear ? gives you more energy when you have to fight that Mastadon you know'

But they had large brains? Surely they were intelligent enough to throw together a quick seabass with smoked eel reduction and cockle with cucumber foam, lightly sprinkled with lime zest and accompanied by a glass of verdejo, just as the odd looking chef in Haarlem did last night?

[EternalOptimist]

Oh, that clears it up. Did they make bush chips with them? Hmmm, delicious, especially with barbecued guinea fowl.

no, we are talking Homo Habilis here, not Homo Jamie Oliver.

more like
grunt = (oh fck , I dropped the sweet potatoes on the fire by accident. mm they taste quite nice actually)

rather than
'would you like some bush chips with that dear ? gives you more energy when you have to fight that Mastadon you know'

[Mich the Tester]

I think these were African sweet potatoes.

Oh, that clears it up. Did they make bush chips with them? Hmmm, delicious, especially with barbecued guinea fowl.

[EternalOptimist]

<pedant alert>

I don’t know if spuds are the right example seeing as they were only found in the Americas until the 16th century. Turnips might be a better example.

</pedant alert>

I think these were African sweet potatoes.

[Mich the Tester]

<pedant alert>

I don’t know if spuds are the right example seeing as they were only found in the Americas until the 16th century. Turnips might be a better example.

</pedant alert>

[EternalOptimist]

The limiting factor is the female pelvic opening vs brain size thingie.

Too big a brain & oooooops.

maybe we should have a CUK competition to design the perfectly evolved human. i.e.

Long cylindrical head, to navigate the birth canal.
Mouth situated on the ribcage to be closer to the stomache.
An extra eyeball on the back of the head.
A fat - burner button, to maintain a constant BMI

[Churchill]

he had to get the right amount of spit in.

He didn't appear to do that with the cooked potato though.

[EternalOptimist]

Why did he do that? Surely he could've used a liquidiser - unnecessary.

he had to get the right amount of spit in.

[Churchill]

The limiting factor is the female pelvic opening vs brain size thingie.

Too big a brain & oooooops.

Surely it's the female pelvic opening - or man's knowledge of such - that has stunted the development of the male brain.

[Moscow Mule]

Why did he do that? Surely he could've used a liquidiser - unnecessary.

Maltase I think.

Wasn't following it to much as I was killing terrorists and Russian ultra-nationalists at the time.

[Churchill]

Yes, but I don't envy the bloke that had to chew raw potato...

Why did he do that? Surely he could've used a liquidiser - unnecessary.

[Moscow Mule]

Quite an interesting idea

Yes, but I don't envy the bloke that had to chew raw potato...

[EternalOptimist]

Watched an interesting programme on telly last night
Horizon - it asked whether cooking led to a leap forward in Human evolution.


'Homo habilis was about a metre tall with long, swinging arms – not much to look at, apparently, but clever. Habilis had a bigger brain (50% bigger) than his forebear, Australopithecus. Was this down to his diet?'


Basically the theory is that when you cook food, a spud for example, some of the components explode and make them increase dramatically in nutritional value. In addition, cooked food requires much less energy to process, so the body gains twice.

This massive surplus of energy meant that some of the weaker members of the population did not die out, so individuals with smaller guts, but big brains, now had a chance to survive. These individuals then did better, by virtue of the bigger brains , and so progressed in a self-stoking cycle. In the end, the population was left with the small-gutted big brained types that led on to us.


Quite an interesting idea