It was said of the gods. The gods must have liked the smell if one of the first “religious” practices was to sacrifice animals to them, to obtain their protection, their favours. In ancient Greece the ritual, Enágisma, consisted in sacrificing one or more animals (ox, pig, goat or sheep) to the deceased, to the heroes: generally, in this sacrifice, the sacrificial victim was entirely burnt. Yes, but the gods were content with the smoke from the animals sacrificed in their honour. The proverb “a lot of smoke, but not much fire!” really applies to them.

But there is another aspect. Killing an animal is a bloody ritual! And as Claude Lévi-Strauss, the great French anthropologist, said, food should not only be good to eat but also good to think about. Animal sacrifice was a way of making animal flesh also good to think about.

But before we sit down to enjoy a good plate of roast meat, we would like to offer some other cultural reflections, also due to Lévi-Strauss. Roasting, which is in direct contact with fire, is more natural than boiling, where water mediates between the fire and the raw material. Roasting, therefore, refers to the natural phenomena of human life, while boiling is the emblem of cultural evolution.

In fact, it can be said that cooking is a cultural transformation of raw food, just as putrid is a natural transformation of raw food. In most Western cuisines, the roast is a reception or ceremonial dish, one that is offered to strangers (exocucina): masculine. Have you ever wondered why it is mostly men who tend the spit, the grill? Boiled meat, on the other hand, cooked in a pot, is an intimate, family dish, intended for a closed group (endocucina), and therefore female, requiring the mediation of a pot, water and a closed place, the home. 

This is how man became a cook. James Boswell, an 18th-century Scottish aristocrat, wrote: “My definition of Man is that of a “cooking animal”. There’s food for thought. Enjoy your meal!

Prof. Danilo Gasparini

Food historian, writer, guest, and consultant of Geo & Geo (Rai Tre)