Ruth is truly a delight to watch! I love that they don't simply tell us about history, they actually put themselves right in the thick of it. They really make you feel as though you're right there next to them.
She is WRONG about the internet though ... which will "ruin humanity" globally, because we humans arent learning fast enough how to deal with it in a sensible way.
@ 21:16 Alex: "Look at that one. I mean, THAT is a MONSTER." Breeder: "It's a big lad, innit he." Me: Huh. It's ok. Just a sheep----OHHH [I see the testicles] That's what they mean. lol I was surprised to learn fish and chips gained popularity in this era. I thought it was a much more older food tradition than that. Rhubarb farming is pretty. Didn't realize that they could live and grow in such cave-like conditions. I'm sure it is more than that but I really liked seeing the rhubarb farm.
The two steam engine seesaw plow blew my mind. That's way more complex then what I would have thought one of the first steam powered plows would look like.
The American railroads transferred oysters from a rare delicacy to cheap common food in the 1800’s. Oyster Point, near Norfolk, VA was served by 3 railroads that daily took trainloads to the North East. Now Chesapeake Bay oysters are difficult to source. It’s hard to imagine a time when oysters were food for the poor. Oyster Shells were used for roads marking that you had entered a poor area.
It's so interesting how all of Britain's most famous national foods are not actually truly from the Isles but came to exist as a cultural mashup. Also her in the US In-N-Out burger still uses those "chip" presses to make their french fries. The grid is more narrow but the mechanism is exactly the same. You can watch them do that while you wait in line. It's neat.
I imagine that originally, farms near London got good prices for their meat since there were no alternatives, while farmers further away, say in Dorset, earned lower prices. With the railways, distant farmers were able to find better prices for their produce, but those near the city would have suffered from the competition.
27:50 Wow! I would go buy fish&chips every hour of the day there, if I could hear him say that "Well, hello! Fish and chips, is it?" with that pleasant voice and such a relaxing smile and posture, even the mustache is perfect! What kind of accent is it he have? English with some Irish in it?
I once had a patient, who served during WWII in England he told me that he never ate fish and chips again after seeing fish and chips cooked in motor oil due to the shortages in that area at the time. He also lost the love of his life due to the war and never married. RIP Bert.
My next door neighbor is British. But the young man is half my age. If he were older than me, I'd probably be asking him to tell me stories about England all the time. As it is, this young man told me he'd never even been to London. He is however helping me to shop for good English tea. Us Americans don't know what real tea is.
Loved watching this. Love the UK even though I am an Aussie. Long may the UK continue! I must say, however, having tasted fish and chips in many countries of the world I love Aussie fish and chips the best. Only in Australia can you get potato cakes (potato scallops), fried dim sims and Aussie-style spring rolls which are eight inches long and a meal in themselves. UK chips fried in tallow do taste great, I must admit, and the differences between the Aussie version and UK version are minor.
@Brian Garrow same here in littleNZ. I have a question about the British and beaches. Do many British people sit looking away from the sea when they go to the beach? Or is that just a myth?
I recently bought asparagus in Brooklyn NY at a vegetable store for $1 a bunch. The label said it was from Peru. OK, not as romantic as the steam train revolution in Britain, but more of the same thing. Also far less charming, but the container ship revolution has globalized industrial production in similar ways also.
Wonderful video... very nostalgic.... As I said in the other vid... if Britain ever had an EMP.. they would still be OK,... IMO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are some exceptions.... but transporting food has a built-in implication that it will Not be fresh. You trade freshness for variety. The freshest / best food I've ever eaten was in a part of Europe that did not have 5 lane highways for big trucks, nor any railway lines. These days, there is a whole science on how to keep food fresh... messing with the dna, etc...
Where do you live @Greg Munro? Fish sticks are children's food or hospital/institution food so I agree with you there. I suppose the standardisation appeals to administrator s and the utter predictability of fish fingers appeals to the child
Marilyn Woolford-Chandler i live in Ont, Canada ( use to be very British in attitude) and we could buy really good fish and chips - now, the batter is either too thick or too thin and they over or under cook it . I mean the batter is suppose to crack open and that facd full of steam and heavenly smell, not like a used condom chewed by the village idiot
Statements like "It became the biggest fish market in the world!" when you're talking about a market that was, at the time, mostly domestic trade on a small island, are beautifully enthusiastic and optimistic but probably not accurate.
There must have not been many deer in England back then. Those things are clueless and will jump right in front of your moving car and blam! Antlers banging on the windscreen. Somehow cats have cars figured out, mostly.
U can get beef fat if u ask the meat counter. Suiet & lard is the flavor we miss Double fry ur taters for a crispy fry. Dry off the potato 🥔 then sprinkle 🌽 starch that's a secret shhh c ont tell ✌️
The Brits faithfully reproduced the Railways in their colonies especially India. At times the similarities seen are uncanny. They did this not out of sympathy for the locals but to help themselves move cash crops to the ports from the hinterlands. Whatever be the reason it changed India forever. In fact it helped the Brits win the First War of Independence (The Mutiny from the British perspective). Today India transports itself on Railways and you still have 'vendor' coaches to transport fish, meat, vegetables and grain.
Your English Farm Shows remind me of the small TX town i grew up in. We had FAIRS kinda like your FETES but with cattle auctions, cake shows Science exhibitions, horny teenagers, and very spurious rides setup by pot smoking carnies.
I’d make a horrid Brit. I like fish fry with powdered lemon, and mashed potatoes with butter. That’s what I get for being raised in the States. Note to self, go defrost some fish for tomorrow.
Fascinating! Marvelous! But what a shame that this history has absolutely no comment about the resulting devastation of the environment and society of this early development. The same story could be told in the context of how to apply these technologies and societal relationships into an appropriate world. It's as if the video were made in a vacume, with no relationship the horrible state of the world that came as a result.
My tiny brain still can't understand how it is cheaper to the end user to purchase, in this case, wheat that has travelled so far, with all the inherent transport costs, than it is to buy wheat produced within a few hundred miles. Especially when the railway had already been established in Britain.
@@dadillen5902 Yeah, I get that. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I find it hard to fathom that production costs could be sooooo much lower as to still make it cheaper even with the addition of a load of transportation costs.
@@dadillen5902 True. But that's not my question/issue. With something as basic as wheat, I wouldn't have thought that it would be THAT much cheaper to grow it in the US as in the UK, especially after rail transport and specialisation started. With manufactured goods, like clothing and machinery, there is much more scope to do it cheaper in some countries, but with agriculture I wouldn't have thought so. I guess I won't find the answer here.
@@robynw6307 One thing you need to take into consideration is scale. In the US, Canada, Brazil and Argentina wheat, corn and Soybeans are grow on farms of thousands if not tens of thousands of acres. Beef, pork and chicken are the same thousands of animals are raised on a single farm/ranch. Other cost are also lower labor, fuel, taxes and land cost. Then there are other differences longer growing seasons, long periods of daylight, quality of the land, weather. Bottom line overall lower cost to produce a ton of gain.
Excelent! This kind of videos are a delicious way of learning history. I am a Portuguese mechanical engineer, who worked/lived in Somerset for ~2.5 years (and enjoyed it). These videos remind us about the impressive societal changes that the industrial revolution brought to Britain, and to the world. (Similar in scale to the changes brought from the intercontinental trade resulting from the "age of discoveries") I'm still not a big fan of fish and chips, but now I see it "with different eyes"... But I did became a fan some (crispy fruity) types of Somerset cider!
I am old enough to have eaten fish (halibut) and chips cooked in beef tallow. Gives the best flavour, nothing else comes close. And the saturated fat doesn't oxidise and break down when heated, unlike the vegetable oils we use now.
My dad lived and worked in Worcestershire in the 1950s. He used to talk of eating fish and chips fried in lard. It seems the newspaper in which the stuff was wrapped gave it a special flavour😃😃
They have it where I am... but it's very expensive as entrees go. They want $30.00 for two pieces of fish and fries. I'm thinking about it.... the price gives me second thoughts though.
@@FeedScrn wow $30 for fish n chips!😳 where r u located?? I live in the Florida Keys and any entree with fish is usually $15-$18 depending on type of fish. Dolphin,Yellowtail, grouper, heck its all yummy as long as you add key lime juice! Now I'm craving it!!🤤 No way I'm buying it today, but tomorrow most definitely!(the Cuban place that sells it is closed till Wednesdays, so sad!🥺) Vinager on fish n chips is awesome too! 👍💚😋✌
I moved from England and what I miss most is full English breakfast Cornish pasty lunch and battered cod and cheesy chips for dinner. Shout out to my boys roast dinner and shepherds pie n sausage rolls keep it real 👌🏻
I live in the Philippines now (originally from Scotland).I know what you mean Little Whiskey.One of my ex pat friends gave me a jar of Branston Pickle the other day.I could've cried with joy !
Full plate for Sunday breakfast alright, but rest of the week Marmite on toast or fried bread! While skimming the leaves that preferred to swim rather than sink ...
I've had fish and chips in England, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Plenty of places in the States do it just as well, though the chips are usually a bit smaller.
I am having such a flashback to my childhood in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where at my house it was rhubarb sauce everyday for at least two months in the Spring, watercress and cream cheese sandwiches packed for school lunch, kippers, and Welsh Rarebit at Christmas. Haven't been to England since 1999, but my late Husband and I owned a 1991 Lotus type 82 Esprit, Jim Clark Edition. We traveled to Hethel in 1999 to do an Elise driving experience for my Husband's 50th Birthday. Rode Brit Rail, ate bangers and mash, me everyday and drank a bit of Blackthorns Dry every evening. I love Britain and miss the food very much. I ordered British bangers from RJ Balson and Sons this year for St. Patrick's Day and they are delicious and made me wish I could still be in England. Maiden name is Bell, and my Mother's maiden name was Cox. Great video, I throughly enjoyed learning about the farming and missing Britain and my friends who live there. FYI, I am from the same county where Robert Fulton, who invented the steam engine and the first steamboat was born and my late Mother-in-Law was a Budding and her Great Grandfather held a patent from Queen Victoria for the lawn mower.
I grow a raised bed of rhubarb plants, on the sunlight-baked plains of Eastern Colorado. I'd heard about growing rhubarb in the dark, to retain the red coloring in the stalk and keep it from becoming woody ans stringy as the stalks grew in circumference. This would explain the outrageous price of rhubarb stalks at the local grocery, which are always a deep red compared to the green and pinkish-green stalks of the plants I grow. So much goes into the 'ideal' commercial production of the stuff that wouldn't make a great deal of economical sense for the average home gardener. it still tastes fantastic when baked into a crisp or muffins, or turned into preserves with April and May's strawberries (also something that we have issues growing in our climate).
Good fish and chips are one thing that we don't have enough of here in America. I am serious. It is so hard to find a nice crispy piece of fish and chips. Oh sure, you can find hamburgers all over the place, but not any good fish and chips. Good video. Thank you. 💓
One of the things I really appreciate about Ruth is that she's so knowledgeable and seems to have so many skills collected from many eras of history, but as I'm watching her try to prepare herring, she's so willing to be bad at something and so humble about it too. I suppose that's how we get good at things though.
Most people balk at the prospect of having to gut fish. The scene was to be a re-creation of a fish cleaner in a shop, who would get a bucket of fish, and expected to hurry; most people would find a bucket of fish going CLANK on the bench a bit daunting. Ruth and her cheerful enthusiasm for these formerly important jobs brings history to life in this series. This series of documentaries is a great example of what TV should be.
@@marilynwoolford-chandler1161 I completely agree. I'm watching Peter and Alex right now on the Cherry episode and their willingness to scramble up ancient technology to go pick cherries. Those guys have some guts.
Yes yes, The trio is great, especially Ruth and overfishing is a problem that that vendor seems to misunderstand, but has no one noticed that Fish'n'chips lad? He's adorable! I want a cooking show with him!
It is interesting to see the variations of that phrase. In the US military they say "hurry up and wait". Even Augustus Caeser used to say Festina Lente which roughly translates to "make haste slowly".
The German equivalent is "Eile mit Weile", roughly "hurry by tarrying". "Weile" has the same root as "while" as in "to stay for a while". To give enough time to make sure shit's done properly before moving on so it doesn't have to get revisited.
Brian Spenst -The saying is one of the Pythagorean ‘dicta’ originally attributed to the philosopher Chilon the Lakedaemonian, one of the Seven Sages of Archaic Greece. The Romans were very fond of these Greek maxims and translated them into Latin. In the original Pythagorean dictum, “Festina lente” is given as, “ΣΠΕΥΔΕ ΒΡΑΔΕΩΣ” (“Speude Bradeos”) - “Make haste slowly”.
Not surprising that the Romans even stole that phrase from the Greeks. They seem to have taken everything else. The use by Caesar was the earliest that I knew.
Thank You. Liked, and Shared. I really enjoy your channel. The thing is, after I watch your videos it makes me feel better about my day. I know suck up right? No, I just appreciate history, and the hard work you folks put into your documentaries. The resource today kids have is extraordinary but they seem to be more interested in taking selfies. If only I had this resource when I was kid.
I had a very good friend of mine who along with her husband in Wales, collected and restored steamrollers and trains from the Victorian Era. They recently passed away due to Cancer.
“They think tonnage like that isn’t feasible....but it was”..........well no, it WASN’T feasible, nor was it sustainable which is WHY you now have weeks withOUT herring.
Yep, the industrial revolution fed WWI & WWII, where so many Europeans were killed, but the worse are those that went home crippled. Then today, so many resources have to be managed, which costs so much money. Like where I'm at, it's said there used to be a couple hundred shrimp boats, now a couple dozen where they cried about competition from recreational shrimpers. But, I guess GMO foods can replace natural foods, where industry definitely allows God to be challenged in people's minds.
@@Noone-rt6pw Greed plain and simple Greed. Greed is driving species after species extinct. Humans are very much like locusts probably pretty close on the evolutionary scale lol
So I've heard too, but is it possible that it was a frenchman who brought the idea to Britain? I don't find that thought entirely improbable. And if that was indeed the case, it's easy to see how they'd be named 'French Fries' in english.
I heard that American soldiers during WWI tried the fried potatoes in France and called them "french fries" and brought the name and love of the food back home.
I love this. I was born in the wrong country. I love trains. This is so beautiful. The first time I rode a train was in France after flying there from the US in 1990. Thank you.
Though these shows are great, they're a bit too positive sometimes. It's a bit wild hearing about these improvements in "choice" when really, for the majority of people involved the Victorian age represented a loss in quality of life for the majority of people...
All that coal; so much coal being used to drive the steam engines. Roads and cars were the next transportation innovation. And look at all the pro blems they brought. It is enough to make me give up on the "constant improvement" theory of History. But the programmes with these three get into it and give it a knowledgeable go. Fascinating entertainment
Scratchy Ballzack yes. The pendulum has swung way too far.. Are you yourself one of those way too soft people? Just asking. I myself most definitely am(one of those way too soft people....sadly)
They mentioned it a bit, but coal is a very potent pollutant, and cities back in the Victorian era were incredibly polluted and quite dangerous to live in because of it. It's no wonder the life expectancy of most people was rather low. This technology brought convenience and opportunities, but it was also limiting in many other ways.
All fishery areas got overfished. The original cod fisheries off the Grand Banks were considered by everyone to be inexhaustible....the amount of fish there in the 17/1800's is difficult to beleive.....but like the British herring grounds that too proved false.
@@trooperdgb9722 Yeah it's a shame. Too bad the world population keeps on growing, and with it the demand for food grows. It will never get better, I fear :(
@@1337flite . No, they migrate.I expect that some time a mega rich twat with too much money will find some way of tagging/barcoding them, then we’ll all be paying a fortune for a fish.
I could never understand why my uncle loved herring so much until watching this, he was stationed in England during ww2 then married an English lass and brought her home to America, my aunt Vera
At 13 years old, my first job i was a spuddy, on a rumbler 2 hours after school. 3 days a week, cutting out eyes and making awsome fresh double fryed chips. I used to let the rumbler run a bit long at that age.... my pay, $5 ph..... and i was happy to do it... 1988? or so.
The Romans had hot food you could take away/eat as you go. Not sure of other cultures concerning that. But yeah in more recent history it shifted things food wise to what we have now in a real way.
I love riding trains. Too bad Amtrak is so severely limited in the continental US. This is especially so, when you get further away from the Eastern Seaboard. I got to do a little train travel when I was in England literally a year ago. I was mainly up in Redditch and Birmingham. I even did an overnight visit to Nottingham. Just seeing the English countryside from the train window has a calming effect.
Fun fact: a few years ago I came across a Brit here on youtube who said that Tulip was an english company; when i told him it was danish he refused to believe me so i had to find a link to the company's website where its history was told, complete with an account of how it became one of the biggest bacon companies in the UK. I'm not even sure he believed me after that, he simply refrained from responding! lol Greetings from Sy'fyn.
I think it would be great if we stopped making EVERYTHIYNG available all year round, and just treat their season like an exciting holiday. Things we need all year round should be only things we actually NEED as a base... the rest can be just fun, we need fun, good quality fun. Sometimes over-competiveness in the market only hurts the quality of the product.
