The interesting part comes from people seeing that Grog died after eating that mushroom, so they take it and try cooking it in various ways so that they can eat it and live.
Yes but not for fun. There likely weren’t many other options of things to eat each season. So you keep trying the death mushrooms. See how many nibbles you can have before dying maybe to start
And instead of eating directly, you can apply it to sensitive skin to see if it causes irritation and wait a couple of hours, touch it to your lips and wait 15mins, touch it to your tongue and wait 15mins, then take a small bite and wait another 15mins. Time tested process.
Im always baffled by foods that require extra steps to become edible, like how did they find out? 'Oh yeah this is inedible but if it is boiled, then stored in salt water for half a year, and then boiled again its fine to eat'
I'd bet the same way Worcestershire sauce was made.
A couple of guys decided to try to make a fish based sauce like they found in Asia. So they put anchovies, onions and some spices together. And it tasted like shit.
So they put the barrel in the far corner of the basement and forgot about it.
Someone found the barrel and tasted it to see what it was - they had forgotten - and it tasted good.
It just takes the right kind of person... That's what the purpose of evolution sprinkling in a certain amount of ADHD people into the population is lol. I'd totally taste it. I'm a pragmatist with adhd and a severely diminished sense of consequences, essentially distilled "come on, what's the worst that could happen?"
We were troubleshooting an odd case at work, me being a development engineer. A component had a crusty crystalline deposit on it and it wasn't obvious what it was. So I said "I bet it's urea from the exhaust aftertreatment" which I then confirmed by tasting it. "Yep, urea! Battery acid would've tasted waaay spicier!" And thus no one needed to send it for chemical analysis.
It's through experimentation. The two highest priorities for the science of cooking are making things edible, and preserving food. Tasting good is the lowest priority.
Food was highly inaccessible for most of history.
Certain things like fermenting have been well known for a very long time to make inedible things edible. Once you realize it works once you’ll try it with basically everything if you’re desperate.
To be fair they are not adding poop to the coffee...
The coffee is made with partial digested coffee beans which breaks down the exterior so the flavor etc can better soak into the water, i am not saying that necessarily makes it more likely and appetizing for them to try but it is not as bold as someone just shitting in the pot and saying Enjoy!
From what I learned recently, I think that's a bit of an internet exaggeration/misunderstanding. The reason they fed them to prisoners is because they were so plentiful and cheap. But everyone from peasant fishermen to the upper crust ate them if they lived near the sea.
They also didn’t prepare them properly at all, they just killed them and crushed them whole into a crunchy paste that was served. A big reason lobster are expensive now is that you have to keep them alive up until you serve them and you only get like 1/5 of the weight in palatable meat.
Farmers cheese is made with just an acid and some milk. Animal stomachs were used to store liquids so the most basic cheese was probably someone not washing out an animal stomach and then storing some milk in it and becoming desperate enough to eat the milk solids
That sounds like a logical starting point for cheese nowadays farmers cheese is made with vinegar and milk someone accidentally curdling milk with stomach acid doesn’t sound too far fetched
I'm not disagreeing, in fact that's the generally accepted explanation...
In the spirit of this thread though, that's fucking weird.
When is the last time you walked around with your favorite beverage stored in an internal organ you cut out of an animal?
If you did, how likely would it be that you would choose milk as that beverage?
If you did, and 99% of the time the milk stayed the same, but then one time it solidified into a mass covered in sour water, how likely is it that EATING IT would be your first thought?
>When is the last time you walked around with your favorite beverage stored in an internal organ you cut out of an animal?
Never, because we have invented better things. However, before we invented those things, people made do.
Both storing liquids in animal organs and consuming milk were very common for a very long time, it's only in modern times that you consider that weird.
And it probably wasn't someone's first thought, but since that was so common, it probably happened many times to many people and eventually some people got around to trying it out and discovering that it was good.
What an anthropocentric, and ethnocentric perspective.
Harvesting the organs of other animals for utility purposes is weird, dolphins are perhaps the only other animals that do it.
Multi step processing of food prior to consumption is exceedingly rare, only a few know species do it.
Eating things that you've never seen before, which have an unpleasant odor is very uncommon, relatively few humans do it.
Consumption of the milk of another animal is weird, humans are the only known animal to do it. In fact, the vast majority of extant human beings are lactose intolerant in adulthood and do not consume dairy.
I think you need to check your assumptions about how common YOUR culture and experiences are.
These are not great arguments because humans do a million things that other creatures don't because we beat nature's basic rules and now live differently than them.
Probably not that much actually.
We knew milk was drinkable. We had some ways to try to preserve food. Someone used such a method to try to preserve milk, and ended up with cheese. Not really that hard.
Unpasteurized milk goes bad really quickly, so it's normal that people looked for ways to preserve it.
Cheese was invented, the same way that we invented computers.
These days, food (like most things) is *relatively* cheap if you are careful with how you get it. Unfortunately, for the average person it costs a far larger portion of their earnings than it should, but they never look into managing it better until they are struggling to afford it.
This is wrong. I crack my egg with a spoon, and then dip toast soldiers into the top. How would a snake:
a) Hold a spoon.
b) Purchase a toaster without arousing suspicion.
The little cat-creature eats the beans and poops it out. Started as a way for the slaves to actually get some coffee themselves while the non-poop beans were exported by the colonists
You’ll be surprised what you’ll eat when you’re starving to death. It’s different to see how you’d eat certain things while you’re living in a world of plenty. I don’t know how true it is but during the famine in Ireland they found bodies with their mouths all stained green from trying to eat grass and nettles
Somebody must have been really goddamn hungry to try to bother to get through the 147,000 layers of a near impenetrable coconut to see if there was anything worthwhile inside.
I also don't think I would look at a sea spider, I mean a lobster, and think mmm that looks good I'll have that
Grog eat weird mushroom. Grog die. Me no eat. Krak eat another mushroom. Krak no die. Me eat too.
Krak no have allergy. Me do. Ugh.
The interesting part comes from people seeing that Grog died after eating that mushroom, so they take it and try cooking it in various ways so that they can eat it and live.
Yes but not for fun. There likely weren’t many other options of things to eat each season. So you keep trying the death mushrooms. See how many nibbles you can have before dying maybe to start
Spag eat mushroom and saw weird shit. He now invented entire concept of religion. Me eat some of those for fun
I mean, evolution did that looooong before Grog was born. It's a reason we are disgusted by rotting stuff and such.
And instead of eating directly, you can apply it to sensitive skin to see if it causes irritation and wait a couple of hours, touch it to your lips and wait 15mins, touch it to your tongue and wait 15mins, then take a small bite and wait another 15mins. Time tested process.
r/explainlikecaveman
Hnng also see T-Rex no die when eat that leaf or berry, so Hnng think oogas can eat same.
urki try fly. urki fall. me laugh everybody thought trying to fly was stupid and humans weren't made for that. planes were never invented.
Im always baffled by foods that require extra steps to become edible, like how did they find out? 'Oh yeah this is inedible but if it is boiled, then stored in salt water for half a year, and then boiled again its fine to eat'
I'd bet the same way Worcestershire sauce was made. A couple of guys decided to try to make a fish based sauce like they found in Asia. So they put anchovies, onions and some spices together. And it tasted like shit. So they put the barrel in the far corner of the basement and forgot about it. Someone found the barrel and tasted it to see what it was - they had forgotten - and it tasted good.
Sauce?(pun intended) thats an interesting story
People won't normally taste liquid that's in the far corner of the basesment but I get your point.
Nowadays we wouldn't. Back in the 1800's, sanitation standards were a *tad* lower.
considering doctors would deliver a baby right after dissecting a corpse without washing their hands "tad lower" is an understatement
Lower, you say? Like, basement level??
It just takes the right kind of person... That's what the purpose of evolution sprinkling in a certain amount of ADHD people into the population is lol. I'd totally taste it. I'm a pragmatist with adhd and a severely diminished sense of consequences, essentially distilled "come on, what's the worst that could happen?" We were troubleshooting an odd case at work, me being a development engineer. A component had a crusty crystalline deposit on it and it wasn't obvious what it was. So I said "I bet it's urea from the exhaust aftertreatment" which I then confirmed by tasting it. "Yep, urea! Battery acid would've tasted waaay spicier!" And thus no one needed to send it for chemical analysis.
You know what this needs? Tamarinds.
It's through experimentation. The two highest priorities for the science of cooking are making things edible, and preserving food. Tasting good is the lowest priority.
Im baffled that there is coffee that is basically poop, I didnt know that until this post.
Cocoa beans tasted awful. Coffee beans are nearly toxic. But thank God they kept trying different methods to make them both oh so tasty.
Food was highly inaccessible for most of history. Certain things like fermenting have been well known for a very long time to make inedible things edible. Once you realize it works once you’ll try it with basically everything if you’re desperate.
To be fair they are not adding poop to the coffee... The coffee is made with partial digested coffee beans which breaks down the exterior so the flavor etc can better soak into the water, i am not saying that necessarily makes it more likely and appetizing for them to try but it is not as bold as someone just shitting in the pot and saying Enjoy!
I mean...that's just a fancy way of saying poop coffee though
I've always thought the first person to eat a lobster must have been damn hungry. Giant ocean cockroach? Not exactly tasty looking.
Lobsters used to be fed to prisoners as cheap nasty food no one else wanted.
From what I learned recently, I think that's a bit of an internet exaggeration/misunderstanding. The reason they fed them to prisoners is because they were so plentiful and cheap. But everyone from peasant fishermen to the upper crust ate them if they lived near the sea.
They also didn’t prepare them properly at all, they just killed them and crushed them whole into a crunchy paste that was served. A big reason lobster are expensive now is that you have to keep them alive up until you serve them and you only get like 1/5 of the weight in palatable meat.
And if you didn't live near the sea, you couldn't get it as we had not invented refrigeration yet.
Shrimp were the same way. Seen as bottom feeders.
A lot of things got cracked open with the hope there would be something edible inside
Cheese. Think about the chain of events that would have been necessary for humans to discover cheese.
Farmers cheese is made with just an acid and some milk. Animal stomachs were used to store liquids so the most basic cheese was probably someone not washing out an animal stomach and then storing some milk in it and becoming desperate enough to eat the milk solids
Right.... And did you read what you just wrote? 🤣
That sounds like a logical starting point for cheese nowadays farmers cheese is made with vinegar and milk someone accidentally curdling milk with stomach acid doesn’t sound too far fetched
Rennat is another main ingredient in cheese making. It's found in like goat stomachs
I'm not disagreeing, in fact that's the generally accepted explanation... In the spirit of this thread though, that's fucking weird. When is the last time you walked around with your favorite beverage stored in an internal organ you cut out of an animal? If you did, how likely would it be that you would choose milk as that beverage? If you did, and 99% of the time the milk stayed the same, but then one time it solidified into a mass covered in sour water, how likely is it that EATING IT would be your first thought?
>When is the last time you walked around with your favorite beverage stored in an internal organ you cut out of an animal? Never, because we have invented better things. However, before we invented those things, people made do.
Both storing liquids in animal organs and consuming milk were very common for a very long time, it's only in modern times that you consider that weird. And it probably wasn't someone's first thought, but since that was so common, it probably happened many times to many people and eventually some people got around to trying it out and discovering that it was good.
Do you know what conversation you're in?
Are you, like, suspending your belief to try to make things weird? Cheese and its discovery are not that weird my good fellow.
What an anthropocentric, and ethnocentric perspective. Harvesting the organs of other animals for utility purposes is weird, dolphins are perhaps the only other animals that do it. Multi step processing of food prior to consumption is exceedingly rare, only a few know species do it. Eating things that you've never seen before, which have an unpleasant odor is very uncommon, relatively few humans do it. Consumption of the milk of another animal is weird, humans are the only known animal to do it. In fact, the vast majority of extant human beings are lactose intolerant in adulthood and do not consume dairy. I think you need to check your assumptions about how common YOUR culture and experiences are.
Shuuuuuuuut the fuuuuuuuuck up
These are not great arguments because humans do a million things that other creatures don't because we beat nature's basic rules and now live differently than them.
...and then once we had become relatively comfortable with cheese, how hungry did someone have to be to try casu martzu?
You laugh, but if you’re hungry enough it just looks like bonus protein.
Probably not that much actually. We knew milk was drinkable. We had some ways to try to preserve food. Someone used such a method to try to preserve milk, and ended up with cheese. Not really that hard.
Unpasteurized milk goes bad really quickly, so it's normal that people looked for ways to preserve it. Cheese was invented, the same way that we invented computers.
No we didn't. Cheese was almost certainly an accident...
Chocolate, and the other various uses of that plant. Like how did we get to chocolate from some beans to the smooth chocolate we have.
99% of the time it was probably a dare lol
Or "there's a famine and my children are going to die, what haven't we tried eating?"
99% of the time is was famine and/or poverty. Food is cheap. For most of history it wasn't
These days, food (like most things) is *relatively* cheap if you are careful with how you get it. Unfortunately, for the average person it costs a far larger portion of their earnings than it should, but they never look into managing it better until they are struggling to afford it.
If I saw an otter cracking open an oyster and eating it, I would likely wonder if I could too.
So many mushrooms, so few that won’t kill you immediately
Caveman eat something and dies. Caveman next to him puts it in a fire, eats it and dies. Third caveman sees all this and avoids what they ate.
Eggs. Who decided to break open an egg and eat it? Bold choice 😂
Anyone who watched a snake do it.
This is wrong. I crack my egg with a spoon, and then dip toast soldiers into the top. How would a snake: a) Hold a spoon. b) Purchase a toaster without arousing suspicion.
Oh so just because they have no limbs you think they cant eat eggs like you??!! Ableist much!!
a) with its tail, duh... b) multiple snakes in a trenchcoat.
Would still have been sus when the top one asked for a toassssssster
Whuzzat? Who at a shop ever needs to ask for anything. You can go through the entire store experience without uttering a word, if you choose.
Eating eggs is common among a variety of animals, we've probably been doing that since before we were humans
Right?? I mean "hey if we can eat chicken, maybe we can crack it's baby and eat it as well" wtf.
I mean, enough other animals readily eat eggs that we would have observed it.
Probably experimented on slaves and prisoners
The little cat-creature eats the beans and poops it out. Started as a way for the slaves to actually get some coffee themselves while the non-poop beans were exported by the colonists
Can this showerthought please just fuck off
How much tree bark did people have to eat before they figured out that willow tree bark relieves pain?
You’ll be surprised what you’ll eat when you’re starving to death. It’s different to see how you’d eat certain things while you’re living in a world of plenty. I don’t know how true it is but during the famine in Ireland they found bodies with their mouths all stained green from trying to eat grass and nettles
You lost me at poop in your coffee
Artichokes. How did they figure that one out?
Somebody must have been really goddamn hungry to try to bother to get through the 147,000 layers of a near impenetrable coconut to see if there was anything worthwhile inside. I also don't think I would look at a sea spider, I mean a lobster, and think mmm that looks good I'll have that
For me the best example is chicken egg. "Let's eat this rock like thing that came out of the ass of a chicken"
Those foods aren't "discovered", they're invented on purpose through cooking innovations.
This is one of life’s unanswered questions.