# 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:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/21 "2022-03-25T10:48:42Z")

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A number of animals have shown a preference for cooked food in the wild. For example, carnivores will scavenge carcasses after a wildfire, and will preferentially eat those carcasses, or parts thereof, that have been cooked through. Of course, this is all done opportunistically; I don’t think any animals besides humans have been observed to deliberately throw meat on a fire to cook.

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**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/22 "2022-03-25T10:49:56Z")

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> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> Raccoons are known for dunking food as well as “washing” their hands.

Giving raccoons cotton candy is a cruel trick I’ve seen videos of.

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**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/23 "2022-03-25T11:31:32Z")

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They eventually figure it out.

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**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/24 "2022-03-25T21:12:19Z")

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> [@kayaker](#):
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> 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.

You can see this same behavior a lot in crows or grackles. Give them some stale bread or cookies and they tear off a piece and hop to the birdbath or edge of the lake to dunk it.

Hard to tell if it’s innate or cuisine because not all of them do it. It is funny to see a line of 15 or 20, all dunking bread in the lake. They have to be careful about it too. If it gets real soggy it just slides thru their beaks and they can’t pick it back up and it just sinks.

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**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-animals-observed-to-have-a-cuisine-i-e-mixing-altering-food-to-possibly-enhance-flavor-nutrition/961638/25 "2022-03-26T03:08:23Z")

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> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Giving raccoons cotton candy is a cruel trick I’ve seen videos of.

The look of sadness and defeat on their little furry faces … ☹

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