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Pineapple and Gold for me!
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SGT Aaron Atwood
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The sugar one is a little misleading. If we're talking sugarcane then the details check out. However, if one were to interpret the paragraph and think that Europeans as a whole didn't know any sweets besides fruit then they're forgetting that honey was commonly available.

The salt/pepper paragraph I think is mildly misleading as well since salt was obtained from different sources, and black pepper/peppercorns were known since the spice trade routes of ancient times (Cpl Vic Burk what grade were you in when that happened, or were you already an adult ;)?). I think the YouTube channel "Tasting History with Max Miller" had something on salt/pepper at least once. I can't recall anymore.

The rest generally checks out. Something else left out was produce only being available when in season. When my parents were young it was a significant treat to find a fresh orange in their Christmas stockings, for example.
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Bethina Lee
Bethina Lee
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The Romans used to pay their soldiers in salt it was so valuable at one point and time in our world history. The word "Salary"
Is Greek based for salt. It's actually a pretty detailed and very interesting read.

Sugar is more recent coming from the refined sugar cane or sugar beet...the original sugar cane came from India (near the Khyber Pass & China); there was various species & subspecies and how the different species was refined, also due to soil content they all had different tastes. Around mid 1400's explorers had spread/propagated around the tropical regions of the world by colonists. Most sugar obtained, before the modern super refining methods that where developed, had fillers or wasn't very pure. It was sold in loafs or cones to be shaved off..
Crusaders had brought back sugar from the Middle East in the 1st and following century's. Sugar was not widely prevalent and accessible to the masses until before the French Revolution. Remember that old saying Marie Antoinette was supposed to have said during the starvation of the peasants?
"Let them eat cake"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt
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