How TF Did Our Ancestors Figure Out This Was Edible? 30 Bizarre Foods That We Eat
It can be a fun way to pass the time to think about how our ancestors and society have evolved over time. Like, how ingenious and determined they must have been to survive in times so far from our current comforts.
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They had to figure out shelter, tools, and how to keep warm. Not to mention, how to hunt, forage and prepare food.
Can you imagine all the trial and error it must have taken to figure out what fruits and veggies, or parts of animals were (or were not) safe to eat? Like, what was the thought process when the first person found and prepared an egg to eat?
We know now which foods aren’t suitable for consumption, whether due to being poisonous, improperly prepared, or stored. But dang, how many people had to suffer or die to get us to this level of knowledge?
Thanks to those brave, and possibly desperate souls, we have so many delicious food options available to us. And while everyone’s tastes vary, there are some foods that are arguably disgusting or have so many steps to make into something tasty that it makes you wonder how we figured it out.
Redditor u/The_True_John_Doe wanted to know this very thing, and posed a question to the AskReddit community: “What food made you think how the frick did our ancestors found out this was edible?” We collected the top 30 responses for you to enjoy, so keep scrolling to see what we found.
What food made you think how the frick did our ancestors found out this was edible?
1. Castoreum
Castoreum. A sweet-tasting exudation that comes from glands near a beaver's asshole. "Damn this beaver ass smells great, wonder what it tastes like?"
2. Cassava
The cassava...
"However, cassava is poisonous unless it is peeled and thoroughly cooked. If it is eaten raw or prepared incorrectly, one of its chemical constituents will be attacked by digestive enzymes and give off the deadly poison cyanide. As little as two cassava roots can contain a fatal dose."
3. Poke Salad
Poke Salad
The Pokeberry/Pokeweed plant that grows in the southern US has edible leaves. Sort of.
If you eat them raw they contain a nerotoxin that will make you extremely sick or more likely kill you. If you cook them the toxin will still kill you. If you boil them, the toxin will still kill you.
So basically someone died after eating this stuff and their friends went "Well maybe if we boil it one more time" died and someone else went "Third times the charm?" However, if you boil them, discard the water, boil again, discard the water, then boil one last time and discard the water again the left over cooked plant is sort of edible.
4. The fruit from the Gympie-Gympie Plant
The fruit of the gympie-gympie plant. It is also known as the suicide plant because its sting is so painful that there have been reports of people and animals killing themselves to escape the pain, which can last for days or even years. The sting is delivered by tiny hairs that cover the whole plant, yet someone was able to discover that if you painstakingly remove each hair from the fruit, it is edible.
5. Mushrooms
Some mushrooms that require special preparation. Eat it raw or cook it like most other shrooms and you end up dead. Boil it 3-5 times however, and it’s fine.
Edit: An example of a mushroom requiring this procedure is Gyromitra esculenta.
6. Puffer fish
Puffer fish; only a small part of the fish is edible and the rest is deadly poisonous, so how did they find out which bit was edible.
7. Bread
Bread! Like how did someone put all the ingredients together to make the bread!! I think about it all the time.
8. Oysters
Oysters.
Someone looked at that snotty looking thing from a shell and thought "yeah I'm gonna put that in my mouth"
9. Hákarl
Hákarl
Usually poisonous, unless prepared thus:
"The traditional method is by gutting and beheading a Greenland or sleeper shark and placing it in a shallow hole dug in gravelly sand, with the now cleaned cavity resting on a small mound of sand. The shark is then covered with sand and gravel, and stones are placed on top of the sand in order to press the shark. In this way the fluids are pressed out of the body. The shark ferments in this fashion for 6–12 weeks depending on the season. Following this curing period, the shark is then cut into strips and hung to dry for several months. During this drying period a brown crust will develop, which is removed prior to cutting the shark into small pieces and serving."
10. Acorns
Acorns. How hungry one must be to figure out to pound them to powder and leach out the tannins. Three times!
11. Coffee
Coffee. Can’t eat the beans as-is; gotta roast ‘em first. Whoops, not yet; gotta grind ‘em. Hmm, not quite right yet, let’s pour water over them and drink the water. Hmm .. let’s try using hot water. Perfect!
12. Yogurt and cheese
Yogurt and cheese. It's like first of all they start drinking cow juice from cow titties. Then they save some for later. It goes off. Voila cheese
13. Chili peppers
Chili peppers.
Like imagine finding this pepper, taking a bite, and then feeling your entire mouth feel like it is on fire. Then you decide it's actually really good though and start including it into dishes to add spice.
14. Lobsters
Lobsters. “Well this looks horrifying, i think I’ll taste it. “
15. Nopales
Nopales, a kind of cactus, and it's fruit have been a staple in Mexico for millennia. I've always wondered what went through our ancestors' heads. "That plant and it's fruit is covered in thorns...I bet they're delicious".
16. Artichoke
Artichoke. Hmm, that purple thistle looks good...
17. Durian
Durian! It's super spiky, it seems like it'd be tough to open (though I'm not 100% sure) and apparently it smells rank.
18. Sea urchin
Sea urchin
I was going to post this. I had it on sashimi before, not bad, but not good either.
Regardless, that shit looks deadly when you see it in the water.
19. Blue cheese
Blue cheese.
Yes! This! Like who looked at a piece of mouldy cheese and was like ‘this is some seriously gourmet s**t!’
20. Honey
Honey. When something is guarded by swarms of easily pissed off insects with poisoned ass darts, you would think that would be enough of a deterrent that nobody would fuck with it.
21. Rice
Rice, who looked at a piece of thicc grass and thought: "yeah, I'll dry it out, bash it about then polish it and boil it just before it turns into a sloppy mess"
22. Chocolate
Chocolate
There is a very interesting video where a guy visits chocolate-bean farmers in Africa and brings them a few chocolate bars to try out.. they've never even been told what the beans are for, they think they are used for (edit) wine..! And the expressions are very interesting when they enjoy a bite of the very sweet chocolate bar. Fascinating, sad.
Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEN4hcZutO0
23. Truffles
Truffles
If the pigs are eating it, it must be fucking delicious
24. Snails
Snails. Our ancestors must have been friggin' starving!
25. Maple syrup
Maple syrup. "Let's poke a hole in this here tree, collect the sap, boil it for three days and see what happens"
26. Cranberries
cranberries. If I had tasted a cranberry without any knowledge of the berry, I would be certain it was poison.
27. Onions
Onions: "hmm, wonder if I can eat this bulb... OH MY GOD MY EYES! WHAT'S THAT SMELLL???"
28. Olives
Olives. They have to be soaked in a brine of Lye before they are edible, or they can be poisonous, Who was the poor guys testing this out for the people wanting so much to eat those nasty tasting little things anyway?
29. Lutefisk
Lutefisk
For those who don’t know, lutefisk is a traditional Scandinavian (think Norway, Sweden, and Finland) dish where fillets of fish are soaked in water for days on end, soaked in lye for days, and then put back in water for another few days. By the end of this, the filets are pretty much just jelly. Lastly; they get steam cooked and are pretty much ready to eat.
I’ve never had it personally but I haven’t heard good things and it’s kind of a joke where I live. I don’t get how my ancestors could’ve thought that would be appetizing or why they would thought soaking their food in lye would be a good idea
30. Alcohol
Alcohol. Who kept drinking that crap enough to figure out you get drunk from it? Did someone really think it tasted good when they first tried it?
Food allergies aside, are there any foods that you will NOT eat no matter what? Or did one of your favorite foods make this list?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. And next time you enjoy some bread, coffee, or yogurt, give a quick mental “thank you” to those clever ancestors that did all the hard work to figure them out.