User:YesToYummy/sandbox

'''Abby- You have clearly done a lot of research and critically thinking here. It makes sense to just focus on one subsection POST ROMAN EUROPE. Although you only have 3 sources, they are exceptional ones and fine as is. In terms of style- be careful about your tone. Its critical that you remain neutral. For example, "during the Middle Ages the elite scoffed at the thought of cheese". While this MAY be true, it is not something that can be proven (unless you have the primary source that states this). Very well done. Just clean up and edit. Remember that this is not a research paper. It is a wiki article and you should try to keep your own analysis/opinions out of it.'''

Article evaluation:

The article I selected was on the pumpkin: (Pumpkin). Overall, everything in the article seemed relevant to the topic. Nothing seemed to be distracting from the main material. The article seemed neutral with no apparent viewpoint throughout. I felt that no viewpoints were overrepresented or underrepresented. Upon checking a view of the citation links, everything seemed to be in order. Most of the information was recent and seemed relevant to information about pumpkins. Some sources, however, were from more than twenty years ago, such as the article about cucurbits. While I doubt much of the content has changed, it might be beneficial to include a more recent source in case any new discoveries about this botanical family have been made.

There were a few pieces of information that could have been cited in a better fashion. Under the "Cooking" section, none of the information about pumpkin dishes around the world was cited (see third paragraph). It would be helpful to know where the author found the information about the pumpkin dishes in East Asia, for example. In addition, there were no citations about pumpkin chucking. Perhaps the article could source a news article discussing pumpkin chucking events?

Not much talk is going on about pumpkins. The last discussion took place in January 2017, so no one has added anything since. The article has been rated as "B-class" and is part of a few projects, including "Food and Drink," "Plants," and "Holidays/Halloween."

While we haven't talked about pumpkin much in class, we did talk about squashes when reading Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel." I noticed that this article didn't focus much on the history of the pumpkin, which was the one area we did focus on in class. This article was much more focused on the botanical understanding and culinary uses of pumpkin, not really on how it has evolved over time/how it has been integrated into cuisine. Perhaps this is another area in which the article could be improved!

Possible topics:

1) Foodways of cheese (perhaps pick a specific cheese or region)...how did cheese come about? How did it go from "disgusting" to "delicious?" Why did cheese evolve in some places and not others? How did it become adapted to cuisines where it was not originally found?"Hi Abby, I saw you claimed a new page, Cheese in France, for this project. While the scope seems reasonable, do you think it's better to make a separate page or try to work within the History of Cheese page? You could perhaps reorganize the Post-Roman Europe section, carving out an area for France for you to work in? An idea to consider Rgh234 (talk) 18:34, 13 October 2017 (UTC)"

2) Evolution of veganism among culture...where did it originally begin? How did it get to where it is now in western culture? Did it start out as being eastern or western? What were the original reasons behind it? (Perhaps select a region of the world to make more specific?)

3) Trace history of salad...how and why did people start eating raw vegetables again? How did it become so popularized in western culture over time? Does it have any roots in antiquity?

Project description + sources:

I seek to improve upon the "History of Cheese" page already existing on Wikipedia. In particular, I aim to focus on the "Post-Roman Europe" and "Modern" sections of this article. Along with cleaning up and clarifying the language of this article, I would like to enrich these sections with more academic sources. There are also a variety of questions I would like to answer, including: I will use a variety of sources to unpack these questions, including:
 * Why, when and how did the differentiation of cheese occur? Why do we see such stark differences in cheeses today?
 * Why is cheese so important to French culture in particular? Where there early cultural references (i.e. in literature, art, etc.) that would point to this?
 * Which regions in France developed which kinds of cheese? Why did this take place?
 * How did cheese go from a "poor person's" food to something so luxurious and classy?
 * How have the preparations and presentations of cheese changed over time? How did cheese become incorporated into cuisine?

BROMBERT, BETH ARCHER. “Peasant Fare.” Cheese, Pears, and History in a Proverb, Columbia University Press, 2010, pp. 13–16. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/mont15250.7.

Paxson, Heather. “Bellwether.” The Life of Cheese: Crafting Food and Value in America, 1st ed., University of California Press, 2013, pp. 187–218. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppx07.13.

REBORA, GIOVANNI, and ALBERT SONNENFELD. “Cheese.” Culture of the Fork: A Brief History of Everyday Food and Haute Cuisine in Europe, Columbia University Press, 2001, pp. 35–       41. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/rebo12150.9.

Notes for draft:

"Peasant Fare" and "When Rustic Food Becomes the Fashion" in Cheese, Pears, and History in a Proverb "Cheese and Culture: A History of Cheese and its Place in Western Civilization" "Place, Taste and the Promise of Terroir" in Crafting Food and Value in America "Cheese" in Culture of the Fork "The History of Cheese: Cheese History from an Ancient Nomad's Horseback to Today's Luxury Cheese Cart" Section I want to edit, as it stands:
 * Story of Polyphemus "vividly illustrates the notion of primitive and pre-civilized life that cheese and dairy products long connoted in European culture" (13)
 * "Barbaric" steppe peoples ate cheese (and dairy)
 * Pliny the Elder -- "mark of civilization is the very ability to transform milk into cheese" (14)
 * Cheese = associated with shepherds and peasants, food of the poor
 * "Cheese constitutes the main dish and is often the principal provision of the peasant's meal" (15)
 * "Cheese remains a sign of social and/or geographic marginality. It is the food of poor people, of pilgrims and inhabitants of alpine villages for whom dairy products are the major component of their daily diet" (15)
 * "During the Middle Ages, a laborious and not unambiguous process of ennoblement took place that progressively modified the social and cultural image of cheese. Significant in that process was the part that food played in the diet of monastic communities..." (17)
 * "...on days of vigils and of weekday abstentions, dairy products were quickly accepted as substitutes for meat, and as of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries they were also permitted during Lent" (18)
 * "If cheese was occasionally used in cooking as an ingredient in sauces and stuffings, it had a hard time getting on the table and being appreciated as a product in its own right. [...] French cookbooks of this period mention cheese in fewer than one out of ten recipes" (19)
 * "The change in attitude toward cheese, clearly perceptible in the fifteenth century, is due to the appearance during the two preceding centuries of quality cheeses, highly reputed products esteemed in the marketplace and associated with particular places of origin, as well as to particular techniques of fabrication" (22)
 * "If in the last centuries of the Middle Ages certain cheeses began to be offered as gifts among the upper classes as a sign of worthy homage, and on occasion of self-aggrandizement, this indicates that the social status of cheese had indeed changed" (23)
 * "It seems likely that the Celts brought their technologies for producing durable, long-lived cheese wherever they migrated across Europe, which may account for the extraordinary geographic range of Celtic cheeses [...] extending from Toulouse in far southern France..." (108-109)
 * "The typical manor of northwestern Europe -- with its village of peasant tenant farmers, demesne, common lands, and temperate damp climate -- created a peculiar environment for cheese making, which inspired the development of a group of cheeses on the peasant side that eventually evolved into the much-loved soft-ripened varieties that we know today" (125)
 * "It wasn't until the later Middle Ages and beyond that the soft-ripened peasant cow's milk cheeses that we recognize today...emerged as identifiable fixtures of the agricultural landscape of France" (125)
 * "Fortunately, in the cool temperate environment of northwest Europe it was possible to store milk overnight or longer, in contrast with the warm Mediterranean climate, where souring and acid coagulation occurred much more rapidly. Consequently, peasant cheesemakers in northern France had the option of combining two or milkings before commencing the lengthy process of cheese making, an option that was probably quite attractive at times" (126)
 * "Through trial-and-error experience peasant cheesemakers in northwestern France learned to control critical manufacturing parameters, environmental conditions during storage, and physical manipulations that led to the development of three broad families of soft-ripened cheeses" (127-128)
 * "...it seems that peasant cheesemakers in northwestern France gradually fine-tuned their simple practices and storage conditions in ways that rendered predictable, desirable outcomes. Their processes, which might best be described as controlled rotting, enabled the forerunners of our modern soft-ripened cheeses to emerge" (130)
 * "...it is conceivable that native Celtic cheese-making practices persisted in northwest France and Flanders and continued to influence demesne cheese making in this region during the early Middle Ages" (138)
 * "Women served as the professional cheesemakers [...]. The dairywomen became the developers and repositories of the 'secret knowledge' of demesne cheese making that was handed down for man centuries" (139)
 * "Terroir is a French term dating back to the thirteenth century, use primarily to describe the influence of the material conditions of a locale" (187)
 * "...terroir is best understood as a conceptual category 'for framing and explaining people's relationship to the land, be it sensual, practical, or habitual'" (188)
 * "In France, that notion of place refers not only to the material conditions of a locale -- soil, topography, microclimate -- but also to the collective, cultural know-how behind agricultural products that helps to constitute place as a locus of shared tradition and affective belonging" (188)
 * "When the consortium of Comte cheese producers claims a thousand-year history for Comte, a product distinguishable by a characteristic sensory profile said to emerge from a place-based tradition of dairying and cheesemaking, they root a people as well as a food product in the soil of the French Alps" (188)
 * "The production of cheeses in France and in the Piedmont offered the most extensive range and diversity according to the breed raised" (36)
 * "A down-market product with a strong smell, goat cheese was certainly not appreciated at the tables of the Parisian aristocracy. [...] Distribution problems made it a regional product" (36)
 * "...fresh cheeses had to be eaten in their region of production" (36-37)
 * "In Paris, at the table of the rulers, goat cheese was held in contempt, and the varieties consumed were few in number. The variety of products available was already great, however. Not all food was intended as luxury produce" (38)
 * "France developed a wider range of cheeses in the rich agricultural areas in the south and west. Soft cheese production was preferred; hard-pressed cheese appeared to play a secondary role" (3)
 * "...throughout the Dark Ages, little progress was made in developing new cheese types" (3)
 * "During the Renaissance, cheese was considered unhealthy and suffered a decline in popularity" (4) ???

"Most cheeses were initially recorded in the late Middle Ages. Cheddar was recorded around 1500 CE, Parmesan was founded in 1597, Gouda in 1697, and Camembert in 1791. Cheeses diversified in Europe with locales developing their own traditions and products when Romanized populations encountered unfamiliar neighbors with their own cheese-making traditions. As long-distance trade collapsed, only travelers encountered unfamiliar cheeses. Charlemagne's first encounter with an edible rind white cheese forms one of the constructed anecdotes of Notker's Life of the Emperor. Cheese-making in manor and monastery intensified local characteristics imparted by local bacterial flora while the identification of monks with cheese is sustained through modern marketing labels. This also led to a diversity of cheese types. Today, Britain has 15 protected cheeses from approximately 40 types listed by the British Cheese Board. The British Cheese Board claims a total number of about 700 different products (including similar cheeses produced by different companies). France has 50 protected cheeses, Italy 46, and Spain 26. France also has at least 1,800 raw milk cheese products and probably more than 2,000 when including pasteurized cheese. Furthermore, French proverb states that there is a different French cheese for every day of the year. Late French general and statesman, Charles de Gaulle, once asked "how can you govern a country in which there are 246 kinds of cheese?" Meanwhile, the advancement of cheese art in Europe was slow during the centuries after Rome's fall. It became a staple of long-distance commerce, was disregarded as peasant fare, inappropriate on a noble table, and even harmful to one's health through the Middle Ages.

In 1546, The Proverbs of John Heywood claimed "the moon is made of a greene cheese" (Greene is referred to being new or unaged). Variations on this sentiment were long repeated and NASA exploited this myth for an April Fools' Day spoof announcement in 2006."

My edits (***FINAL HERE***)

Throughout the Middle Ages, many changes in the culture surrounding cheese, as well as cheese itself, could be observed.

As had been the case in antiquity, cheese was seen as a poor person's food, one reserved to peasants and shepherds. While these people had cows, sheep and goats, they seldom ate animals from their herds. Meat was a luxury, too costly to be consumed on a regular basis. It was therefore more pragmatic to milk these animals and consume their dairy products. Consequently, cheese became a main source of protein for the lower classes.

During the Middle Ages, the elite rarely ate cheese. While it was occasionally used in some recipes, it was never highlighted as a main ingredient. Even in France, which globally consumes the greatest amount of cheese, cookbooks included recipes with cheese less than ten percent of the time.

Over time, however, these perceptions about cheese evolved, assisted in large part by religion. Starting around the fourteenth century, cheese began to play a more prominent role in monastic communities. On fasting days, dairy products became accepted as meat substitutes and, by the fifteenth century, were permitted during Lent. Around this time, high-quality cheeses also began to be cultivated. These luxury products, associated with particular places of origin and certain preparation methods, were held in high regard. Thus, it became fashionable for the elite to consume these crafted cheeses. By the end of the Middle Ages, cheeses began to be offered as gifts among the upper classes.

In this time period, diversity in cheese also began to appear. This is in part because of the emergence of terroir, a French term dating back to the thirteenth century, which describes the unique environmental conditions of a particular region. In France in particular, terroir is not limited to the material conditions of soil, topography and microclimate, but encompasses the cultural knowledge behind the agricultural products produced. Through this, the notion of shared tradition is conveyed. This idea can be seen in a cheese like Comte, whose thousand year history represents not just the conditions in eastern France, but also the tradition of cheesemaking that roots the people as well as the food to the soil of the French Alps.

Until more advanced preservation methods were developed, fresh cheeses had to be eaten in their region, further promoting the philosophy behind terroir. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, harder, more durable cheeses were the norm across northern Europe. This is likely because the Celtic people brought their methods for producing long-lasting cheeses with them as they migrated across northwest Europe. The climate there, with its temperate, damp weather and villages of peasant farmers, created an environment ripe for cheese cultivation. Because of cooler days and evenings, cheesemakers in northern Europe could store milk overnight or longer, which allowed for combining two milkings before beginning the cheesemaking process. Over time, peasant cheesemakers in northwestern France refined their techniques, leading to the development of three broad families of modern soft-ripened cheeses. By the later Middle Ages, these cheeses became more visible across the agricultural landscape of France.

During the Renaissance, further cheese diversification occurred. Cheddar was recorded around 1500 CE, Parmesan was founded in 1597, Gouda in 1697, and Camembert in 1791. As localized trading began to multiply, traditions cultivated in one area became familiar to surrounding locales. The diversity established in the late Middle Ages continues into modernity. Today, Britain has 15 protected cheeses from approximately 40 types listed by the British Cheese Board. The British Cheese Board claims a total number of about 700 different products (including similar cheeses produced by different companies). France has 50 protected cheeses, Italy 46, and Spain 26. France also has at least 1,800 raw milk cheese products and probably more than 2,000 when including pasteurized cheese.