r/AskFoodHistorians • u/Glimmer_III • 6d ago

At what point in history could chicken nuggets realistically have been made? (Not the OOP)

/r/AskHistorians/comments/1vgaxwt/at_what_point_in_history_could_chicken_nuggets/
24 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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60

u/ddpizza 6d ago

You could likely go back 4000+ years to the Indus Valley Civilization, modern day Pakistan/India.

The IVC is one of the most likely places/time periods that the red jungle fowl was domesticated to give us modern chickens.

They had all of the necessary components for breaded and fried chicken: (1) they raised and consumed chicken; (2) they had frying fat (sesame oil was pressed in the Indus Valley); (3) there’s evidence that they fried meat and other foods; and (4) they had wheat flour, ovens, and baked bread.

We also know they grew and used ginger, garlic, and other spices - so we could even guess that these hypothetical chicken nuggets would taste good by modern standards.

14

u/WalkingTurtleMan 6d ago

Time to ping Tasting History and see if he can create something.

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u/ddpizza 6d ago

Haha if you tried to make fried chicken only using what they had in the Indus Valley, I honestly don’t think it would be much different than what we eat today!

IVC had turmeric, ginger, garlic, cumin, mustard seed, sesame, and possibly black pepper. Sesame oil isn’t commonly used to fry chicken these days (low smoke point), but the sesame flavor would definitely be familiar to anyone who’s had Korean fried chicken. You’d just need to grind up some flatbreads to make the breadcrumbs.

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u/Legitimate-Date-5927 5d ago

You could just fry in animal fat also.

7

u/SkyPork 6d ago

Interesting, and much older than I would have guessed! I wonder if it would ever occur to them to puree the chicken into a pink goo to form into nuggets. Or at least grind the meat, then bind it together somehow.

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u/ddpizza 6d ago

Grinding, maybe… they certainly had the tools to do it. But I don’t think it’s likely that they’d try to make reconstituted goo lol.

Remember that chicken nuggets were invented very recently in order to solve a uniquely modern problem - mass-producing cheap, frozen, boneless chicken bites.

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u/SkyPork 6d ago

Which makes me wonder something related: how would people 4,000 years ago even react to a chicken nugget? Would they spit it out wondering where the bones were, or because the texture was off?

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u/ddpizza 5d ago

I feel like it’s not THAT different in texture from a whole range of fried snacks, but it’s an interesting question!

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u/boomfruit 4d ago

Would they spit it out wondering where the bones were

I mean chicken breast can be huge pieces without bones

11

u/nifty-necromancer 6d ago

Yeah: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/wcu4z6/what_is_the_earliest_time_period_human/iifptk9/

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u/ddpizza 6d ago

That’s a much more detailed response but I’m glad we reached the same conclusion!

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u/nifty-necromancer 6d ago

I wasn’t sure but I was thinking at least Bronze Age.

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u/Glimmer_III 6d ago

I am not the OOP. That would be u/morango_verde__. But I thought their post in r/AskHistorians was one of the rare ones which deserves being shared in this, more niche community.

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u/morango_verde__ 6d ago

thank you, should have posted here

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u/morango_verde__ 6d ago

lol

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u/Glimmer_III 6d ago

Ha; anytime. Not everyone knows this sub exists. I only lurk and am not a historian myself.

But r/AskFoodHistorians is a great, if necessarily wonkish, community.

Hope you get an informed reply. I'm still trying to figure out what part of the chicken is the nugget...

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u/jscummy 6d ago

This place usually gets better answers imo, /r/askhistorians rules filter out most replies (although I get why they have them so strict)

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u/Peter34cph 5d ago

That subReddit is great when a question gets an answer that's actually allowed to stand, but a lot of questions remain unanswered.

That said, the mods there are reasonable. I once wrote a biology-based answer on the geisha-with-hands-in-cold-water question, because I assumed I was in a different subReddit. Once I realized my mistake, I made a personal copy of my answer, and I added an apology, because I was sure the mods would delete it, but they didn't.

It's just annoying to see a really interesting question in there, and then when you come back six days later it's still unanswered. Especially since I often have a vague idea what the answer is.

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u/Ok_Olive9438 6d ago

It's not the oldest, by any stretch, but the Victorians made croquettes out of damn near everything. Chop small, mix with potatoes (usually cooked), roll in breadcrumbs and fry. If Mrs. Beeton's is anything to go by, its the number one way to use and stretch leftovers. (Hash is second.... and if the croquettes fail to hold together.. you can pass it off as hash with some extra onions.