# I just ate something.  Should I worry?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 10, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967 "2007-11-10T23:17:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![tonedef](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@tonedef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tonedef)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/21 "2007-11-11T03:44:56Z")

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[QUOTE=Pullet]  
You know how sometimes something will taste like how something else smells? For reasons I can’t explain, fried chicken livers taste like the way formaldehyde preserved dogs smell.  
[/QUOTE]

^^thats just makes me want to run out and try some fried chicken live!

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**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/22 "2007-11-11T05:17:46Z")

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[QUOTE=tonedef]  
^^thats just makes me want to run out and try some fried chicken **live!**  
[/QUOTE]

Tricky, but guaranteed fresh. 😃

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**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/23 "2007-11-11T06:01:11Z")

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I was at Publix today and WHOLE chickens are 69 cents per pound. That’s pretty cheap for some good fresh breast meat. Why do you need to eat the liver?

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/24 "2007-11-11T06:05:16Z")

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[QUOTE=jtgain]  
I was at Publix today and WHOLE chickens are 69 cents per pound. That’s pretty cheap for some good fresh breast meat. Why do you need to eat the liver?  
[/QUOTE]  
It tastes good. Breast meat, on the other hand, is bland.

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/25 "2007-11-11T06:13:23Z")

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[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth]  
I love that **Pullet** answered this.  
[/QUOTE]

His name is not a coincidence - he’s the SDMB chicken expert.

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**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/26 "2007-11-11T08:28:50Z")

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[QUOTE=Pullet]  
Tricky, but guaranteed fresh. 😃  
[/QUOTE]

Just wrap the head in a frozen towel when you fry them, that keeps them alive. Think nothing of the noises it makes, it is just the air leaving its lungs. Use a splash guard.

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**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/27 "2007-11-11T08:38:07Z")

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[QUOTE=Pullet]  
You know how sometimes something will taste like how something else smells?  
[/QUOTE]  
Yeah. Blue mouthwash tastes the way toilet-bowl cleaner smells.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/28 "2007-11-11T17:23:47Z")

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[QUOTE=jtgain]  
I was at Publix today and WHOLE chickens are 69 cents per pound. That’s pretty cheap for some good fresh breast meat. Why do you need to eat the liver?  
[/QUOTE]

Because breast meat isn’t liver? 😕 And breast meat sucks. Gimme thigh any day.

Seriously, people, there are some of us who eat liver because we like it, not because it’s some cheap food. I _love_ deep-fried chicken livers (and many of the local fried chicken shacks serve 'em and fried gizzards around here). Pate is great. When I was a kid, one of my favorite treats was my mom’s chestnut-less variation on rumaki: just chicken livers wrapped in bacon and baked. Livers were a treat in homemade chicken soup (I wasn’t as big a fan of heart, though).

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**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/29 "2007-11-12T02:16:24Z")

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The only reason to eat a chicken liver is because someone stole your cat and you can’t be bothered to walk out to the compost heap.

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**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/30 "2007-11-12T11:18:25Z")

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Let me get the straight. You kept eating them after you bit into the bad one? Ewwwww . . .

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**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/31 "2007-11-12T13:30:26Z")

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In reading the OP I am reminded of the Stephen King story about the guy who drank most of a can of beer before realizing it had gone bad. He eventually mutated into a giant, slimy, gray, pulsing, yellow-eyed mutant amoeba.

I don’t know what eating a chicken gallbladder will do to a human, but one can imagine an enormous, nightmare version of the San Diego Chicken… :eek:

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**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/32 "2007-11-12T14:30:38Z")

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[QUOTE=GuanoLad]  
His name is not a coincidence - he’s the SDMB chicken expert.  
[/QUOTE]

His? For some reason, I pictured **Pullet** as a female.

Oh, and you should only eat liver from cholecystectomized birds! 😃

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**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/33 "2007-11-12T14:34:57Z")

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[QUOTE=Chefguy]  
I think the problem here is that you ate something called “chicken livers”…::hurk::  
[/QUOTE]

A man with your username should have slightly more all-embracing tastes. Chicken livers, properly prepared (I’d normally say “hold the gallbladder”, myself), are delectable. They make nice pâte, too.

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/34 "2007-11-12T14:35:18Z")

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[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.]  
Well, the way the gall bladder burst it was kind of _like_ a giant pus-filled zit, only on a filtration unit.  
[/QUOTE]  
And of course, bile is often a component of vomit. So you ate chicken puke.

ETA: I should have said “drank”.

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**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/35 "2007-11-12T14:38:06Z")

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[QUOTE=pulykamell]  
Because breast meat isn’t liver? 😕 And breast meat sucks. Gimme thigh any day.

Seriously, people, there are some of us who eat liver because we like it, not because it’s some cheap food. I _love_ deep-fried chicken livers (and many of the local fried chicken shacks serve 'em and fried gizzards around here). Pate is great. When I was a kid, one of my favorite treats was my mom’s chestnut-less variation on rumaki: just chicken livers wrapped in bacon and baked. Livers were a treat in homemade chicken soup (I wasn’t as big a fan of heart, though).  
[/QUOTE]

As a kid, I hated liver. Of course, the calves’ liver was cooked to shoe leather consistency in our house. And the flavor & texture did not improve as I sat glaring at it. It just got colder. Eventually, Mom decided to stop trying to serve it.

Then–I tasted some chicken livers fried in a cornmeal coating. Yum. It made me look at all livers in a new way. (Fried okra also convinced me that the green pod could be something other than slimy.)

Our many Louisiana immigrants (who started coming long before Katrina) brought Dirty Rice to Texas. That’s rice cooked with chicken livers, gizzards, spices–& perhaps a bit of sausage. Yum!

(I’ll pass on the gall bladders, though.)

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**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/36 "2007-11-12T16:27:00Z")

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[QUOTE=Barbarian]  
Where’s the puke smiley when you really need one?  
[/QUOTE]

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You’re welcome.

**Johnny** is far more hearty than I would have been. While I could probably eat chicken livers provided I didn’t know what they were before trying them (and assuming I didn’t find the flavour objectionable), biting into any piece of meat and having it burst likes a pustule full of the main component in vomit, I would have no choice but to follow suit and in much greater volume. Right there. Violently. Not unlike Mr. Spew above.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/37 "2007-11-12T18:17:14Z")

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[QUOTE=jjimm]  
And of course, bile is often a component of vomit. So you ate chicken puke.

ETA: I should have said “drank”.  
[/QUOTE]

Yes, bile is disgusting stuff. If you’ve ever gutted a chicken yourself, you know to be careful when taking out the livers and gall bladder. If you burst that gall bladder, the bile gets all over the inside of the chicken, and it’s hard to get that bitterbitterbitter flavor out.

Oddly enough, at the international grocery store near my house, I saw pork bile for sale next to the pork blood in the Filipino section. Now, I could understand plenty of uses for pork blood, being a fan of blutwurst/kiszka/veres hurka (all types of blood sausage), but I can’t possibly imagine a culinary use for bile. Anybody know?

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**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/38 "2007-11-12T21:44:24Z")

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I **so** want fried chicken liver now. Maybe with some cornbread and cloeslaw.

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/39 "2007-11-12T22:37:06Z")

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[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.]  
Well, the way the gall bladder burst it was kind of _like_ a giant pus-filled zit, only on a filtration unit.  
[/QUOTE]

This thread should be book-marked for those on a diet.

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-ate-something-should-i-worry/425967/40 "2007-11-13T00:04:31Z")

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[QUOTE=Si Amigo]  
Let me get the straight. You kept eating them after you bit into the bad one? Ewwwww . . .  
[/QUOTE]

Ah… That would be negative. I sort of lost my appetite after discovering the gall bladder.

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