# Any animals observed to have a cuisine? i.e. mixing/altering food to possibly enhance flavor/nutrition?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 24, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638 "2022-03-24T16:32:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/1 "2022-03-24T16:32:54Z")
Any non-human animals that is. Any animals seen taking food and throwing it on a salt lick? Or perhaps mixing meat with fruit as we do fish with lemon? Letting it age/ripen for other than future food supply purposes?
I tend to think not, but I’ve been surprised before.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/2 "2022-03-24T16:48:54Z")
Maybe?
Our African Grey will take any hard bread/biscuit type foods and dunk them in his water dish. He then gulps down the softened food. He will not put food in water that doesn’t benefit from a quick dunk. Old, dried out cornbread? He dunks. Walnuts in or out of the shell? Nope. Peanut brittle? Nope.
ETA: my observation might not belong in GQ…
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/3 "2022-03-24T16:56:38Z")
I do not have a factual answer, but I would assume most animals in the wild spend most of their time and energy just finding enough food. Once they find a source of food the priority is just getting it inside themselves before a) a competitor comes along, or b) a predator comes along. It would be interesting to know if a wild animal purposely mixes food for some pleasure or health benefit - presumably they would have time and privacy to do that. It would also be interesting to know how various animals taste things.
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/4 "2022-03-24T16:57:04Z")
Shrikes impale poisonous grasshoppers on thorns for two days to let the toxins degrade.
Capuchin monkeys have been observed leaving palm nuts out in the sun to dry so they can crack the shells.
Macaques in Japan have been observed cleaning dirt off of potatoes given to them by researchers, and dipping them into salt water presumably for flavor. One female started doing it, then taught her offspring, and soon the whole group was doing it.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/5 "2022-03-24T16:57:56Z")
I once saw a documentary about monkeys (I think in Japan). They would wash their food in water before eating it. Given a choice between fresh water from a stream, or salt water from the sea, they would wash their food in seawater.
@#$%^ ninjas
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/6 "2022-03-24T17:10:18Z")
> [@DCnDC](#):
>
> Macaques in Japan have been observed cleaning dirt off of potatoes given to them by researchers, and dipping them into salt water presumably for flavor. One female started doing it, then taught her offspring, and soon the whole group was doing it.
It’s been pointed out that since this behavior isn’t present throughout the entire species of Japanese macaques, it constitutes animal culture - that is, behavioral traits that are learned from one’s peers and ancestors, as opposed to behaviors that are transmitted genetically from one’s parents (i.e. instincts).
> [@DCnDC](#):
>
> Shrikes impale poisonous grasshoppers on thorns for two days to let the toxins degrade.
There is a group of monkeys on Zanzibar who live near people who produce and sell charcoal. They’ve learned that by eating charcoal, they can counteract some of the toxic substances in the foods they eat, allowing them to utilize food sources they previously could not.
> **[Zanzibar Monkeys Eat Charcoal To Counteract Toxins](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/09/970901072246.htm)**
>
> Monkeys on the African island of Zanzibar have learned that ingesting charcoal will counteract the adverse affects of toxic substances in their diet, say Duke University and University of Wyoming scientists.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/7 "2022-03-24T18:38:12Z")
> [@snowthx](#):
>
> I would assume most animals in the wild spend most of their time and energy just finding enough food.
That’s my assumption too. I just got to wondering . . .
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/8 "2022-03-24T18:39:21Z")
> [@DCnDC](#):
>
> Macaques in Japan have been observed cleaning dirt off of potatoes given to them by researchers, and dipping them into salt water presumably for flavor.
Nifty!
> [@Machine\_Elf](#):
>
> t’s been pointed out that since this behavior isn’t present throughout the entire species of Japanese macaques, it constitutes animal culture - that is, behavioral traits that are learned from one’s peers and ancestors, as opposed to behaviors that are transmitted genetically from one’s parents (i.e. instincts).
Double nifty!
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/9 "2022-03-24T18:55:34Z")
I know that’s very vague, but I’ve seen a documentary a few years ago where some birds dipped caught butterflies into the water of a salt lake they lived nearby before eating.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/10 "2022-03-24T19:25:04Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#):
>
> It’s been pointed out that since this behavior isn’t present throughout the entire species of Japanese macaques, it constitutes animal culture - that is, behavioral traits that are learned from one’s peers and ancestors, as opposed to behaviors that are transmitted genetically from one’s parents (i.e. instincts).
I’ve seen magazine articles that described the first journal article as saying it was the first reported evidence of backwards transmission of knowledge. That is, the information did not go from older macaques to the younger ones they were rearing.
The first macaque to discover sea water washing was an adolescent. Other adolescents and younger macaques learned it from her or from each other. Adult female macaques then learned it from their children. That’s the backwards part. The learning went from younger to older.
The magazine said that adult males, who did not tend children, did not pick up the habit. But I’ve never read the original journal article, so I can’t swear that the last bit is accurate.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/11 "2022-03-24T21:26:45Z")
Do social insects like ants and termites count, when they collect plant material, chew it up and then ferment it in gardens using bacteria and fungi?
It’s basically food prep along the same lines as brewing or making bread or cheese.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/12 "2022-03-24T22:06:37Z")
^Cool!
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2022, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/13 "2022-03-25T00:29:04Z")
Wasn’t that colony of monkeys also the inspiration for [The Hundredth Monkee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth_monkey_effect?wprov=sfti1) woo?
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2022, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/14 "2022-03-25T00:34:22Z")
Yes. Yes it was.
Woo has no shame.
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### Author:  [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2022, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/15 "2022-03-25T01:31:00Z")
If cuisine is required to be innate and cannot be a learnt, humans don’t have it either.
This impossibly cute video shows two pet otters eating cat biscuits. Both alternate between food dry and eating food dunked in water. One (Kotaro) is a very dexterous critter, and you need to watch carefully as he flicks dry biscuits into his mouth. He alternates fairly strictly. His partner (Hana) is a quite messy eater, but also alternates, but in larger batches.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meAj5IHnU58)
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2022, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/16 "2022-03-25T01:49:19Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#):
>
> If cuisine is required to be innate and cannot be a learnt, humans don’t have it either.
I think the point is exactly the other way around: Something innate wouldn’t truly be “cuisine”, but the monkey saltwater potatoes are learned, and therefore are true cuisine.
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### Author:  [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2022, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/17 "2022-03-25T01:58:47Z")
I watched a NOVA presentation last night that demonstrated how slime molds can discern between choices of carbohydrate (oats) mixed with sugar in varying recipes and determine the optimal mixture for their nutritional needs. It was pretty interesting. Not an animal, per se, but the mechanism to choose is there all the same.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2022, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/18 "2022-03-25T08:14:57Z")
Hehe. How long before the topic of freewill turns up in this thread?
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2022, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/19 "2022-03-25T09:17:23Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Our African Grey will take any hard bread/biscuit type foods and dunk them in his water dish. He then gulps down the softened food. He will not put food in water that doesn’t benefit from a quick dunk
I’ve had a number of birds do that, including my current conure.
Raccoons are known for dunking food as well as “washing” their hands.
Also:
> [@DCnDC](#):
>
> Shrikes impale poisonous grasshoppers on thorns for two days to let the toxins degrade.
>
> Capuchin monkeys have been observed leaving palm nuts out in the sun to dry so they can crack the shells.
>
> Macaques in Japan have been observed cleaning dirt off of potatoes given to them by researchers, and dipping them into salt water presumably for flavor. One female started doing it, then taught her offspring, and soon the whole group was doing it.
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### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2022, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/20 "2022-03-25T09:28:59Z")
What a great question!
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638.md?page=2)