COQ AU VIN and steak-and-kidney pudding may not bring to mind the principles of evolution. Yet evolutionary mechanisms may well be reflected in recipes for these tried-and-tested dishes.
Physicist Antonio Roque of the University of S茫o Paulo in Brazil and colleagues analysed thousands of recipes () drawn from the French Larousse Gastronomique, the British New Penguin Cookery Book, three editions of the Brazilian Dona Benta spanning nearly 60 years, and a medieval cookbook. When they looked at how often ingredients appeared in recipes and ranked them accordingly, they saw a precise mathematical relationship across the board between an ingredient鈥檚 position on the list and how commonly it was used. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a remarkable similarity,鈥� says Roque, 鈥渋ndependent of culture and author.鈥�
This similarity, they suggest, may point to an evolutionary mechanism at work in the way recipes are passed down. When they tested their idea using a mathematical model in which additions, deletions or errors could be introduced into recipes, they obtained the same relationship as long as they assigned each ingredient an inherent 鈥渇itness鈥� which made it more likely to be retained. This fitness might in practice reflect, say, its nutritional value or flavour.
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There was also a curious tendency for some low-fitness ingredients, which add little to a recipe, to become locked in, says Roque. These can persist by default if there are no obvious substitutes.
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