>> ... Let's dispel the legend of " good and healthy grandma's cooking ", or the legend as " traditional ". Almost all of our grandmothers have always cooked poor and poor foods with nutritional content. The " grandma's soups" ? They were often a broth of water, not always drinkable.
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The truth about the diet of this end of the nineteenth century has been distorted by the appearance of many publications even before and written from "untori della tavola" who wrote down recipes that could actually be made only in small, high class families. On the other hand the "manuals" of cooking were always written by chefs or "operators" at the service of nobles and powerful. Maybe it's time to debunk the legend of "good and healthy grandma's cooking" because, except for short brackets, the "people", or almost the entire population is not well off, has always consumed poor food and poor nutritional content. The "miracle" will happen only after the end of the Second World War, when the socio-economic situation will reverse situations that were
incancrenite species in the last centuries.
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An agriculture constituted by a poor, malnourished, socially marginalized, illiterate (*) and growing demographic with the relative consequences.
(*) In 1861, Unita Italy had 74.7% of illiterate people, but in Veneto (not yet united), in the entire farming environment and in the new territories of the South, the percentage reached 90% .
Marshes and swamps subtracted about a third of the land for cultivation. Malaria, tuberculosis, pellagra, were endemic diseases due, in addition to malnutrition, to the scarcity of sanitation.
Another cause of poor health was the living spaces that often in 11,000 villages or villages, were divided with animals: a degrading cohabitation and deleterious; narrow and damp spaces that made the hovels of the peasants uninhabitable, to which the rich houses of the owners and tenants were set against each other.
A few years before (in 1951) the "Parliamentary Inquiry on misery in Italy" he had ascertained that "869 thousand Italian families they crowded into houses crumbling where they lived more than four people per room or in "improper homes" such as cellars, barracks, huts built with pebbles found in tilling agricultural land, or lived in caves, as in Matera.
Even worse was the situation in the South. And at the beginning of the 60s, little or nothing had changed since 1951 when the mayor Achille Lauro had explained: "according to very reliable calculations and if anything wrong in Naples, 80,000 people get up every morning. who do not know if and how they will be able to feed themselves in the day". A part of Italy, even the rich one, still lived without running water at home. In the Veneto of 1961, - a trail of misery in the immediate eve of the boom - recalls the sociologist Ulderico Bernardi, out of 100 houses 48 were without running water, 52 without the toilet, 72 without a bathroom, 15 without electric light, 81 without the network gas, 86 ignored what the radiators were.
The indebtedness of the majority of the poorest population, both of the peasants and of the small owners of the funds and the economic crisis that overwhelmed, besides Italy, also part of Europe, were decisive for the living standards of both the urban and urban populations. of those who lived on the margins of agricultural and pastoral productivity.
(Note of Chronology: In 1880 the agriculture workers in Italy are 70%, Great Britain has fallen to 20%, France to 39%, Germany is 41%.)
Regarding the INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION year 1880 - 30% of the UK, 23% the USA, 18% Germany, 15% France, 4.2% Russia, 3.9% Belgium. Italy is lagging behind, with 2.4%.)
Demographic pressure, diseases, unemployment and poverty, were the elements that paved the way for the great emigration that numerically faltered the most active populations of both the city and the countryside. A motto circulated among the wealthiest classes who were holding the fortunes of the agricultural and industrial economy of the nascent Nation: "Lascíamoli go, those who leave better will be better, especially those who remain".
Although "food spending" was the most important item in the economy of households, there is no specific and exhaustive study on the problem.
The variegated social stratification, the diversity between the zone and the zone and the various socio-economic conditions, are elements that do not facilitate the comprehension of the alimentary problem in its entirety; just think that while in a group of mountain peasants of Bergamo you die of pellagra, a few thousand meters, in the hovels of the "bergamini" or guardians of cows, the diet is good and plentiful, consisting of dairy products, fresh or aged cheeses with high caloric power that also bring a fair ration of proteins, from wheat bread and corn, potatoes and vegetables, while in the houses of the "lords" of the hill or plain, the food is complete and varied enough to represent a reference of exceptional gastronomic interest.
The lack of protein and vitamins were the destabilizing elements. The meat, in almost all households, both in the countryside and in urban centers, appeared only a few times a year: often limited to Easter and Christmas.
It will be only at the beginning of the twentieth century that proteins of animal origin, even if obtained from meat of poor quality, will begin to appear in the occasional ration of some more advanced social strata. Vitamins continued to be scarce because the only easily available vegetables were broad beans, beans, lentils, chickpeas, while fresh vegetables, with the exception of wild ones harvested by farmers for family use, were sent to markets to make a minimum profit.
1960s - In the Osteria dei Lucchisi, the first television set appeared in Paese . They were the dawn of the second half of the century. In the afternoon, when the programs began, the place was filled with children. The broadcasts resumed with the evening news, followed by "Carosello" (advertising) and entertainment programs, such as "Leave or double?", Conducted by Mike Buongiorno. This transmission was aired for the first time on November 26, 1955, immediately triggering a mind-blowing success. Even to get the place, someone arrived in the tavern well in advance, but after "Carosello" the children were sent to bed. Money did not circulate, so most people watched TV broadcasts from
Canéo without ever consuming anything. Purchases of foodstuffs were marked on a booklet. The balance took place on the occasion of the sale of the calf, the shells or the harvest. A cigarette was also worth a chicken egg.The oil was purchased in measures (decilitri). Each family had its greasy bottle, corked with an overgrowth. Nothing was superfluous and quarreled over a vessel of mackerel. There was only a bit of rancid oil left, but that was fine for dinner. The memory of Giovanni Canèo is even more alive than ever in Sovernigo, especially among the no longer young, and more than anyone in his heart brings him - and he owes him - so much gratitude. ... <<