whole point of Lent. In his 366 Menus (1872),
Baron Brisse asked: “Are the meatless meals
of our Lenten enthusiasts really meals of
abstinence?”
The Influence of Modern Technology The
age of exploration and the advancement of
fine cooking brought a new prominence to
fruits and vegetables in Europe. Then the
social and technical innovations of the
industrial age conspired to make them both
less available and less desirable. Beginning
early in the 19th century, as industrialization
drew people from the agricultural countryside
to the cities, fruits and vegetables became
progressively rarer in the diets of Europe and
North America. Urban supplies did improve
with the development of rail transportation in
the 1820s, then canning at mid-century, and
refrigeration a few decades later. Around the
turn of the 20th century, vitamins and their
nutritional significance were discovered, and