stackyFACTSThe French 'Gabelle' was one of the most hated taxes in human history. The government monopolized salt and mandated that every citizen over the age of eight had to purchase a minimum amount of it every year at heavily inflated prices. If you didn't buy enough, you were legally considered a smuggler and punished.
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Being a royal food taster was the absolute worst job in the kingdom. You were served the finest culinary masterpieces on earth, but every single bite carried…
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You don't get that massive by eating salads. Sumo wrestlers consumed gigantic, calorie-dense pots of Chanko Nabe, completely filled with massive amounts of…
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What surprisingly mundane fruit was so insanely expensive in the 1700s that people rented it?
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When flour was scarce, highly unethical bakers simply swept the floor and threw literal wood shavings into the dough. It was the ultimate historical scam,…
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The mid-century dining table was a bizarre landscape of gelatinous horrors. It was considered peak culinary sophistication to suspend chunks of tuna, hot…
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Four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie wasn't just a nursery rhyme. Aristocrats loved 'entremets' where cutting the crust released a swarm of live animals…
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