Themes in the Cooking) Cuisine

Social Sciences
and Class
EditorJ: Jack Goody & Ceoffiey Hawthorn A Study In Comparative Sociology
The aim of this series is to publish hooks which will focus on topics of
general and interdisciplinary interest in the social sciences. They will be
concerned with non-European cultures and with developing countries, JACK GOODY
as well as with industrial societies. The emphasis will be on comparative
sociology and, initially, on sociological, anthropological and
demographic topics. These books are intended for undergraduate
teaching, bur not as basic introductions to the subjects they cover.
Authors have been asked to write on central aspects of current interest
which have a wide appeal to teachers and research students, as well as to
undergraduates.

Other books in the series

Edmund Leach: Culture and Communication: The logic by which symbols are
wnlJectrd: an introduction to she use of structuralist alUllysis in social
anthropology
Anthony Heath: Rational Choice and Social Exchange: A critique of exchange
theory
P. Abrams and A. McCulloch: Communes, Sociology and Society
Jack Goody: The Domestication of the Savage Mind
Jean-Louis Flandrin: Families in Former Times: Kinship, household and
sexulllity
John Dunn: Western Political Theory in the Face of the Future
David Thomas: Naturalism and Social Science: A post-empiricist philosophy
of social science
Claude Meillassoux: Maidens, Meal and Money: Capitalism and the domestic
community
David Lane: Leninism: A sociological inurpmanon
Anthony D. Smith: The Ethnic Revival CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge
London New York New Rochelle
For a list of other books by Jack Goody see p. 253 Melbourne Sydney
 Cooking, cuisine and class
Company, Butchers', Poulterers', Bakers', Fruiterers' or Grocers'.
It was the last of these, the grocers, who were the key to later
developments. Originally one of the minor food trades, grocery overtook
all the others. For many years $rocers were associated with the import of
joreign goods. In the fifteenth century they had been general merchants
dealing in most goods except fresh food and clothing. But in London
they gradually concentrated on the non-penshable items offood arriving
Industrial food
twenty-six years later there were 245 branches scattered all ove~ t~:
kingdom. Selling a limited number of cheaper goods. the new mul ~
in rum influenced the trade of the old_fashioned grocer who no.w ~a ~o
deal with the appearance of 'an entirely new style o~ commodity ~ t s.
form of manufactured foods' (Davis 1966: 284) - tinned goods. pm
powders for custards, grams , an d so CIon h . J ust as rm imported goods becamed
cheaper with the new developments ill rranspor t , s 0 roo manufacturek
.

in increasing quantities from the Mediterranean, the Far East and the gOQds and items packaged before sale came to dominate the mar e "
b
New World. The English (London) Company of Grocers was made up These products were generally bran d e d goo d's, so ld' before sale y
of merchants dealing in spices, dried fruit and similar commodities national advertising. . h
which they imported or bought in bulk ('gross', grassier in French is a Advemsmg . . . the modem sense was a cnitical
m ....... factor ill t ese
wholesaler), and sold in small quantities. Later they added tea, coffee, developments and had begun WIth . pnntlOg
.' . If, a Irea dy in 1479 Caxton
use
cocoa and sugar, all of them initially 'luxury' goods. 17 One of the most printed an advertisement lor 00 s rrom IS pres., The first newspaper
, 'C b k C hi
important commodities was sugar. first imported at a high price from
Arabia and India hut then brought in much more cheaply first from the
Canaries and then from the Caribbean, one of the Junk foods' that were
advertisement appeared in 1625, and by the mid-eighteenth century Dr
johnson was complaining of their ubiquity. Bur the major development (
of the business came in the nineteenth century with the adven the
f
key components of colonial plantations and working-class diets. wholesale trade which itself derived from the industri .sation of produc-
The grocer was distinguished from the provision merchant who dealt ~ith the coming of the mass newspaper dependent. upon
in butter, cheese and bacon, and the distinction obtained until very the , rotary press. Large-scale manufacture brocg ht WIith It an
recently in the larger shops where there was a 'provision' counter dealing increased gap between producer and consumer so that some new way of

I/
.
in these items; the British housewife herself referred to these central
foods as 'provisions'

~Authors
and to the dry goods as 'groceries'.
It was the grocer dealing in dry, imported goods who led the second
such as Davis (1966) and Jefferys (1954)
communication

compames,
, I d
natrona a vernsmg .... "
was required. During the fifty years fr~m 1853 t~e
quantity of soap bought in Britain increased fourfold. WIth the main
, Levers, 'p~rs' " and Hudson's,
....
campaigns of which the
competing
use of
. by means
SIr John
. M
ill of
N arsW
.,

have considered this great development in retailing (as distinct from "
pamnng 'B u bbl'es was che ....most famous example. In Amenca, d d. ' .
wholesaling) to lie in the growth of multiples, of shops that were the first modem agency, was faun e 10
A yer an d S on, I nc., . d d
organised in branches along national lines. Since this growth was based Philadel hia in 1869. acting as an intermedIary betwe~n. pro ucer .an
upon the rise of working-class incomes, it is not surprising that the first di p d akin ssible the more complex advertising cam~algns
such organisation was that of the Rochdale Pioneers whose cooperative me. a. an m g bles d cts to reach a wider market but which to
which not only ena es pro u . the case of breakfast cereals.
was begun in 1844 - not the first of its kind but the first commercial some extent create ~h~t I~Iarket, as _ill the Hovis loaf is an interesting
success. In 1856, at the request ofloyal customers, it opened the first of
The role Q~advemsmb: prom~r;::~d has been the product leader in
its many branches. At the same time the cooperative experimented in S
example ofthi~ pro~;s~ h P:tt~:d probably been adapted from a loaf
vertical integration by starting the Wholesale Society in 1855 which brown bread SInce . wen. G ....ham in the 18405. The problem
moved from purchase and distribution directly into production. It was . ed by an American vegetarun,...,. .
invent .1.. ula prPiudice in existence smce Roman Urnes
not until some time later that private firms entered into the same field.18 was to overcome Llle PQP r -~ 9'
Indeed, the great boom came in the last twenty years of the century. at Iea , in favour of white bread. I
when Coop membership rose from half a million in 1881 to three million " th at as to acquire a sound reputation with a public mat
in 1914. In the (':lr!:J~rs e ~~;and wary of adulteration. Thus ~ly advertiscm=Cl
One of the first trades to develop..i netwOrk Qf chain SEQrf:S,was was seepn 'd 0 bP,,,mlt of roy.I patronage, of awards :and diplom.OISfor quality
made conSI a2 c p 2y . .. . 30"
, d f1.. eed to bewuc of cheap IlIllt:lOOns (Collins 1976:
:and punty, = 0 u.e n
J.
footwear which had 300 shops in 1875. rising to 2.600 in 1900. Butchers
started later. with 10 shops in 1880 and 2,000 in 1900. while grocery ~,emof roy,} p2tronage and international diplomas
The re lics a fLute s,_ . .
branches jumped from 27 to 3,444 over the same period (Hobsbawm _.J b the industry remain WIth us to this day. They were
emp Ioyrcu y
1968: 131). (n 1872 Thomas Lipton started his grocery shop in Glasgow;
169
168
 Cooking, cuisine and class
essential parts of the initial legitimation of processed foods, just as the
advertisement and the grocery trade were essential aspects of their other items which are still
Industrial

. h ouse hid
0
food
including Nestle's, tinned fruit, Crosse & Blackwell
mes hwastetecmc<LI
names. a: .
z:
and hm~n~

. d . ssing foodstuffs III com-

distribution. revolution of mass-producmg an seml-proce. h
. d I f t demteaandsugart at
This whole process led to a considerable degree of homo genis at ion of man use together with the increase vo ume orad d C
. ,h t .mportant faa tra er lor
food consumption and was dependent upon the effective increase in now brought the grocer mto focus as r e mos I
demand from the 'working class', which now had no direct access to regular family purchases' (Blackman 1976: 151).
foodstuffs. to primary production. Because of this mass demand, mass
importation and mass manufacture, grocery, formerly one of the minor
ADULTERATION UNDER THE NEW DISPENSATION
food trades, became by far the most important. 'The vast majority of
consumers of all income groups drink the same brands of tea, and smoke .
omplainrs .
against teranon 0 f too
the adulterari f d ar.... asoldasthesa1eof
the same cigarettes, and their children cat the same cornflakes just as they foodstuffs itself. In Athens protests about the quality of wine ~ed to the
wear the same clothes and watch the same television sets' (Davis ~..~appointment of inspectors to contro I Its
. qua liry
1 .
In Rome wines from
.
1966: 84). Differences in income, class and status have to manifestl/\ Gaul were already accused of adulteration, and local bakers were said to
themselves in other ways. rI add 'white earth' to their bread.2O h f
While some historians see the second retailing revolution as develop- Adulteration is a feature of the growth of urban society, or rat er 0
ing with the growth of the multiples, Blackman would place it earlier in .
ur b an or rural society at iIS diivorce d 0trom primary producnon. fThe
t hat h
the century when processed foods and mass unports began to make an agee-towns of West Afnca were not so di vorcec,d while even many .0h rh e
.
impact on the market as a result of changes in technology that were rural .inhabitants
. of modern Eng 1an dh ave utt "I e or n erhing to do wit t. e
. . t:c - E gland in the centunes
linked with the new demands of the industrial workers. Cheaper West land. With the growth of a d,snnct town ure tn n .
Indian sugar and less expensive Indian teas became essential items III the . . ber of merchants artlsans
after the Norman Conquest, an mcreasmg num 'd.
improved diets of the working class (when they were employed) III the and shopkeepers had to rely on a thers 0LOT t hei elf sup ply of food '. an It was h
latter half of the nineteenth century. In the 18605 grocers added other th t nd sometlmes t e
these non-food producers w h 0 were. ea. f b d d _. as
new lines, processed foods, including comflours, baking powders and . Th Iiry and pnce a rea an <LIew ~
perpetrators 0 a ulteranon. e qua h fi
dried soups, such as Symingtons'. As we have seen, many of these - d edtobe so for more tan ve
controlled as early as 1266 an connnu
'processed' foods were not the results of changing techniques of food
hundred years. . .. e' of the first half of the
preservation so much as the advent of national instead of local products, It was tharr'raese re-volummary SOC1a1--Cb.;m;~ d _.. th
such as soap or 'patented' branded foods consisting of established items . id th of towns, an espeoauy e
nineteenth century, the rapl grow h f E I d (Burnett 1966
broken down, packaged and sold through public advertising-campaigns. .. idl ds and nort a ng an .
industrial towns of the rru an t of manufacruring industry in
Blackman notes that at this time one grocer in Sheffield was buying dried 28), which was based on the developm~t ratiOn of fOQIJ a mqjor social
peas, oanneal and groats from Symingtons' Steam Mills at Market the previous century, .that. made th~ alread taken a literary fonn
Harborough, and mustard, cocoa, chicory and other commodities from pr~otests agamst lmpure food h . dYe mainly aimed at
forty different firms including starch and blue from J. & J. Coleman's, bvy thheem miidddleof the eighteenth century an wer h .. ub"oh.d
'M F end' a p ySlClan, p 11" ..
the mustard manufacturers who had a dramatic rise from the time in millers bakers and brewers. In 175 7 Y n, of L ,n
, w the appearance Y g
1854 when they purchased a windmill in Lincolnshire, before moving a work entitled poison Detected; the next year sa I d of th,o
. ki the genera [ren "
to Norwich. In the United States tOOthe national canning industry took Detected by Em;muel Collins, attaC ng . I d A o_
ksOll enot e n =say on
off in the mid-l860s when Blue Label canned foods, founded in 1858, li as well as a work by Henry J ac .
te:~ture;o which is added an Appendix; explaining the vi!e pracdtjchie~ chommmed
started advertising nationally, though items like Borden's condensed Bre ... . 1 ad f scaroty an g pnces,
milk (1857), Burham and Morrill's sweet Com (c. 1850), Burnett's vanilla in adulterating wines, CIder etc. In a ater pen 0 . h ir Deadl
fi d The Crying Frauds of Londo" Markets, provlP1g r e thY
essence (1847) and various brands of soap were already available. we n the Two Pillars of Life, BreDd and porter, by e
By 1880 a grocer in Hull was buying Wotherspoon's cornflour, Brown
17!:~:':r":h:n Cutting Butcher's Appeal (1795). ~U[ it was [he wor~ of
and polson's brand of the same commodity, Symingtons' pea Rour, a. . 1820 A Treatise 011 AdulteratIOns afFood and Culmary
Goodall's custard and egg powders, several brands of tinned milk, Fredenck Accum m ,

171
170
 Cooking, cuisine and class
Poisons, etc., that had the greatest influence on the public since he
was a respected analytical chemist and a professor at the Surrey
Institution. He gave widespread publicity both to the methods
adopted and to named individuals until he had to flee to Berlin,
possibly as a result of ta deliberate conspiracy of vested interests' (Burnett
1966,77).
The adulteration of food continued to be a problem for the
industrialisation of cooking, particularly in these early days. While
Accum's departure from the country led to a temporary neglect of his
work, the fight continued. The main analytic contribution was a series of
reports made by Dr Hassall between 1851 and 1855, published
collectively in the latter year. Hassall recounts that within months of
coming to live in London in 1850 he saw that 'there was something
wrong in the state of most of the articles of consumption commonly
sold' (1855:xxxvii). So he examined a range of items sold at grocers'
shops (coffee, cocoa, mustard, sauces, preserved goods, prepared flour)
as well as butter, bread, beer and gin. Some passed the test; many failed.
To take a typical example, 22 out of 50 samples of arrow root were
adulterated; one variety advertised on the label as
Walker's
Arrow-root
sold in packages, '2d the quarter pound', elicited the comment (most
were equally lapidary) 'Consists entirely of potato-flour' (1855: 41).
Much of the produce was packaged in the stores in which it was sold.
Some had been wrapped and even produced elsewhere, being labelled
with the maker's name. These names were publicised by Hassall so that
the brand became a mark of quality, or lack of it. Names like Frys and
Cadbury's already appear in the cocoa trade (pp. 264-5), Crosse &
Blackwell and Fortnum & Mason's in the sauce trade, J. & J. Coleman
for mustard (p. 131). Each of these well-known firms was indicted for
selling adulterated products and no doubt took steps to improve the
quality. On the other hand a posirive recommendation for a branded
product was clearly an important aspect of publicity as well as of quality
control, as for example in Hassall's conclusion: 'That Borden's Patent
Meat Biscuit W<iSin a perfectly sound state, and that there is much reason
to regard it as a valuable article of diet in the provisioning of ships,
garrisons, etc.' (1855: xx). Firms soon began to employ the label as a
certification.
Vicker's Genuine Russian Isinglass for invalids and culinary use .... Purchasers
who are desirous of protecting themselves from the ochJtfflltion which is now
172
Industrial food
k f 'Vicker's Genuine Russian
extensivelypractised are recomrnen dcd to as or
Isinglass', in sealed parkets.
The samples that were tested by Hassall sometimes indicate the foreign
.. . India had an obvIOUS
provenance of their constituents or recipes.
influence on the appearance of chutneys as weU as on the fact that ,thr~e
varieties of 'King ofOude' Sauce were on the market as well as an India
Soy', consisting of burnt treacle. Hassall tested seven tomato sau~es, SlX
of which were adulterated, including two from France, one of which was
from Maille ('very much of the red earth', he co~ments).
The combined contribution of public medical resting, branded goods
l
and widespread advertising ~rought _a~ulteration under control ar the
same time as creating a national CUISIne,at least as far as processed
ingredients and prepared foods were concerned. At the same orne the
pattern of the grocery trade changed radicall~. For now the shopkeeper
was no longer the one who selected and certified the product; ~hat was
done by the producer and packager, by the name and the advernscn:ent.
Regional tastes continued to be important, as Allen (1968) has pointed
out. But these comprised only a small component of a largely
nationalised even internationalised, repertoire. .
Given th:se developments in retailing, the move towards self-serv~ce,
"_.,.,, was the next major step. Consumer services
even automa Uc ,. , . . h
importance: small special shops tend to varus
b ecome a f 1ess an d I"~, '
s prosper But not altogether. In some European
w hi!e ,arge genera 1 sore,
t .
. th d . 1"5 marked So it is in rural areas where the
counmes e ten eney IS .
-, to" persists. In towns, smaller shops often
owner-manage d general s .'
__" . d .......;.. second-hand and antique goods, filling the
speciause m new pro U"'''. ll.-' d
. 1.. d b the supermarkets the department stores an
spana intersnces create y , I II
arket stalls arise in unexpected p aces to se
t h e discount h ouses, Whil em. ral the 1 e
obiecrs of craft manufacture or local produce. But III gen , f I ar? r \
" ..' eISona lIt 0 se ecrron
stores offer lower prices, Wider choices and the Imp f Y
that a socially mobile population often appears .to pre er. A
di d cuisine was enormous.
The effect of these changes on t h e let an
great deal of domestic work was now done before the food ever entered
the kitchen. Many foods were already partly or fully processe~, an~ven
sold in a ready-to-eat form. Consequently not only have the Ing.re cots
become standardised but a number of the dishes as .well, at l~ast ~ ma~y
homes in England and America where only the festive occasion, ~lther ill
the house or at the restaUram, requires the food to ~ake some claim .t~ be
'home-made'. While Ghana is far from attaining this extreme. condition,
the industrialisation of food bas begun to affect the country not only as a
supplier (essentially of cocoa) but also as a consumer. Within a relatively
173
 Cooking, cuisine and class
short space of time _tinned sardines " condensed milk , t ornata paste and 6
canons..of lump sUg;!,Lhave become standard features of the small
markets through~ut Anglophone West Africa. A dram on the limited
resources
. of foreign exchange ' the demand IO co' W hiic h 15. ccnnnous
L . Iy
~xpandmg while co.coa production remains static, the absence of these
Items causes hardshl~ and complaint; th~LfoodS-G-the-West
The impact of the world system
have now become Incorporated in~ea1&-o..[he-Third-W orld._.

In precisely what way has the Third.-W"orld been affected? To answer this
question let us return to the region which we know in some detaiL It is
n~t one that has been directly involved in the production of cash crops or
minerals for overseas, although it has supplied much of the labour and
received little of the wealth arising out of these activities. Because of the
marginal position of much of the savannah country in recent develop-
m.ents in West Africa, the patterns of life described in an earlier chapter
still exist among the bulk. of the inhabitants of northern Ghana today.
At the same time the growth of the nation state has led to the
emergence of an elite involved in administrative, professional, political
and military activities, an elire that constitutes a 'new class'. Although
this class is spoken of as the bourgeoisie or middle class it is in fact the
ruling class. and it seems curious to refer to an emergent middle class
when locally at least there is no one else on top. The immediate basis of
their recruitment is education. The first echelon o~e
sometimes the offspring of chiefs. traditional and government-
appointed, who were enjoined to send representatives to the newly
establised schools. In other cases the school children had less noble
genealogies, having been pressed into service in the place of chiefs' SODS.
In recent years recruitment has come from a wider range of families,
though the early elite has usually succeeded in training their own children
for positions similar to those they occupy, introducing a strong
hereditary element into an ostensibly meritocr:atic system.
The strength of this elite did not initially rest on any privileged
position regarding the system of primary production: the ownership of
landed property did not figure prominendy in its system of support. But
the situation is changing rapidly. Since 1968 the effects of the Green
Revolution have been felt even in the savannah regions of northern
Ghana, with its relatively poor soil, limited water and restricted
techniques. For the extensive cultivation of rice in valley bottOms by
means of the tractor and the combine harvester, using improved varieties
of high yielding grain. has become a common feature of the area.
Whereas the elite had earlier tended to keep ont of agricultural
175
174