ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the cuisine of disgust. Disgust is essentially a real or symbolic threat to our sense of identity. Arising from a perceived danger to the self, to the group, it sets symbolic boundaries that allow us to stake out a position within the essential ambiguity of the world. The cuisine of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries included little beef, but the wealthy regularly consumed peacock, swan, heron, crane, blackbird, fox and so on. The chapter also explains the excremental remedies, the taste of dog meat, wariness of meat and the Body as a reflection of/on disgust. Human flesh was a remedy, not a food. It contained essential medicines that were a hidden source of salvation for those who could not be otherwise cured. Times of war produce food shortages and can lead to cannibalism even among those for whom the taboo remains powerful. That which is disgusting, abject, and dirty can also, however, be a source of strong attraction.
