Animal Protein and Rational Choice: Diet in the Eighteenth Century

Analysis of the account books of the convent school of Saint-Cyr between 1688 and 1788 reveals the causes of the institution’s changing patterns of meat consumption. Although a rational-choice model can explain short-term variations in the school’s diet, economic variables alone are not sufficient to explain its long-term variations, as evolving tastes began to infiltrate Saint-Cyr’s traditional, aristocratic diet. The unintended side effect of this development was to improve nutrition, which the school managed to do without running afoul of claims to elite status.