# Explain how “high meat” works **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 17, 2018, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-how-high-meat-works/810718 "2018-03-17T07:29:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-how-high-meat-works/810718/21 "2018-03-19T18:20:50Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Probably the most familiar fermented animal product is going to be Thai fish sauce - fish are salted and pressed in wooden barrels - the salt doesn’t exactly preserve them - it just limits the range of microorganisms that are involved in the process (I think it’s mostly enzymatic fermentation anyway, but not sure). > > I mention this because this ingredient is so commonplace. Controlled fermentation or aging of other kinds of meat isn’t that weird an idea. Even more familiar is Worcestershire sauce, which contains fermented anchovies. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-how-high-meat-works/810718/22 "2018-03-19T18:59:11Z")
Speaking of rotten fish juice, [the Classical world revolved around it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garum). ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-how-high-meat-works/810718/23 "2018-03-19T19:22:50Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > During the tunagate scandal decades ago in Canada (Dept of Fisheries overruling health inspectors who had failed tuna for processing using the “nose test”) it was pointed out by one of the expert commentators that if properly cooked to kill bacteria, even fecal matter would be perfectly safe to eat (although unappetizing in the extreme). Apparently that’s what the tuna tasted like… Except that does’t account for the enterotoxin the bacteria leaves behind like botulism. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-how-high-meat-works/810718/24 "2018-03-19T21:37:29Z")
Hákarl, A Poem by Norman Gibson\*… Stinky predator, Hanging for weeks in a shed. I’ll have the salad. \*Not really, but I hear it in his voice; such are my muses. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2018, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-how-high-meat-works/810718/25 "2018-03-20T17:13:18Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > … which is poisonous if you **don’t** do the fermentation. The Greenland shark’s meat contains some kind of dangerous compound - I forget what, but it’s due to a biological oddity and not pollution or something - and completing the fermentation stage makes it safe to eat. I’d love to now how they discovered this. “Hey, Snorri. You know that shark meat? The stuff that makes you really sick if you eat it?” “Yeah?” “Well there’s a whole load of it here that’s been lying around rotting for a few months. Smells kinda like drain cleaner. Want to try a bit?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-how-high-meat-works/810718.md?page=1)