# Universally bad tasting foods... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 24, 2004, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843 "2004-02-24T05:46:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/41 "2004-02-28T00:32:32Z")
I’m not sure if this is a food, per se. But you can eat it, as it’s quite inert chemically. It’s called Bitrex, and I think it’s supposed to be the most bitter substance known. > **[Bitrex - Keeping children safe](https://www.bitrex.com/)** > > Bitrex is the brand name of the bitterest substance in the world, denatonium benzoate. It's added to household cleaning products to prevent accidental poisoning Apparently, a human being can taste 10 parts per _billion_, and at 50ppb, it is already unpalatable. It’s put in lots of things to keep people from eating them. Hence, it’s kind of an anti-food, now that I think of it. But it could be used on any food, and at ppm levels it will make you vomit, it’s so bad. Butyric acid shows up in lots of rotting things. Butyrate is what makes your feet stink and makes some cheeses stinky as well. It’s found in vomit, from what I remember, and nobody much likes that. If butyrate is present in sufficient amounts in a food, it will induce vomiting itself, it’s that foul. We’re actually evolved to respond that way because, well it’s not good to eat really rotten things. But if you could choke it down, butyrate itself wouldn’t hurt you, I don’t think, unless it was really concentrated; in which case it would be corrosive, I’m pretty sure, just like other organic acids like it. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/42 "2004-02-28T01:28:59Z")
If you count stuff that might result in sickness…feces may be the only universal source of taste-related disgust in humans. Cite: Rozin, P. (1990) The importance of social factors in understanding the acquisition of food habits. In E. D. Capaldi & T. L. Powley (Eds.), _Taste, experience, and feeding._ Washington, DC: American Psychological Association ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_Heart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Angel\_Heart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_Heart)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/43 "2004-02-28T03:26:33Z")
> [@fishcheer15](#): > > Bad breakup with your veggie girlfriend? For gross, try dried fish. Pictures [here](http://www.randburg.com/is/norfish/). I take it you’ve never been to a Carribean restaurant? In Jamaican cuisine, snapper is _always_ served with the head on. > [@muttrox](#): > > Foods taste universally bad because they are very bad for you. There is some grey area with foods that may be very bad for you, but not actually lethal. FWIW, I first saw this theory in Steven Pinker’s books. A watered-down theory is also used to explain preganant womens sudden issues with many previously safe foods: They are dangerous to the foetus, therefore the mother suddenly can’t eat them. Could that also be explained by the “Last time I ate X I threw up, so I can’t stand to eat X ever again” principle? I know this at least temporarily destroyed my desire for certain foods when I became sick after eating them (actually, I started a thread on this a while ago, saying it’s probably an evolutionary adaption: many things that make someone vomit are poisonous as well). ---
**Author:** ![japatlgt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@japatlgt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/japatlgt)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/44 "2004-02-28T04:10:04Z")
> [@Chelonia mydas](#): > > …Route 44 Cherry Limeade … Oh, now you’ve gone and done it!! (Sonic 3/4 mile away) Having said that, powdered eggs would gag a maggot. \ ---
**Author:** ![Wrenchslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/94ad74/32.png) [@Wrenchslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wrenchslinger)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/45 "2004-02-28T04:37:11Z")
To the best of my knowledge the most universally reviled, naturally occurring foodstuff is humble pie. Though I have to admit I’ve never heard a good word said about vegemite either. ---
**Author:** ![Necro\_Romancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Necro\_Romancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necro_Romancer)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/46 "2004-02-28T07:24:37Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > George W Bush > > No one could swallow that. booyah! I hear poop tastes like crap too. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Serpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@Silver\_Serpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Serpentine)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/47 "2004-02-28T10:41:49Z")
**seaworthy** - When I was in South Dakota, I saw Bufalo burgers. Also, have you ever had Rocky Mountain Oysters? ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/48 "2004-02-28T11:17:18Z")
Vegemite? All you 'd have to do is search this board. there’s lots of people who are fond of it. My household argues over vegemite, marmite and gluten free mighty mite as to which is the best. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/49 "2004-02-28T11:49:59Z")
> [@seaworthy](#): > > I was really excited last summer (on my first trip to England) to discover that they had **fire-grilled steak** flavored crisps. Probably the best thing I ever had on that trip (besides those chips and gravy), because I wasn’t really interested in eating much of my full English breakfast. The egg yolks were quite a bit oranger than I’m used to, and something on my plate smelled really bad. Can anyone tell me what the half-bacon-half-ham meat was? Gammon? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/50 "2004-02-28T12:00:00Z")
When I was in China, I ate a hundred-year-old egg. Man oh man oh man. I am retching thinking about it. They’re not really a hundred years old - merely a few months or a couple of years. They’re made from raw eggs packed in hessian and buried in soil, often permeated with horse’s piss. A slow chemical reaction occurs that solidifies the egg, and turns the yolk green and the albumen _black_. It is the single most disgusting thing I’ve ever had the misfortune to savour. It hurts in so many ways: concept, ingredients, look, texture, smell, and taste. Sulfurus and jelly-like, while the yolk is powdery and rank. Gaah. But, clearly, Chinese people dig them. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/51 "2004-02-28T12:22:18Z")
Sounds like the egss we used to get served at school. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/52 "2004-02-28T12:25:31Z")
How about Lutefisk, in proper Norwegian style, not the sanitised consumerised stuff that is available in some delicatessen outlets. Here is a pretty good story of someone giving it a try, toward the end of the article the writer describes the taste and texture. It appears that preparation fro eating it is to aneasthatise the taste buds, and possibly the whole mouth with very powerful liquor. [http://users.rcn.com/ross.dnai/hewn/lutefisk.html](http://users.rcn.com/ross.dnai/hewn/lutefisk.html) I would imagine that the Capercaille, which is a large grouse type game bird, would not be far behind in the inedible stakes. This bird is around the size of a wild turkey and on first appearance might seem like it would be good eating. Alas, if it were good eating then its number would surely be higher as game wardens would ensure their numbers would be high enough to provide a good days shooting. Unfortunately, the main diet of the Capercaillie are the shoots of the Scots pine and this is what give the flesh its distinctive and overpowerful, unpalatable taste. Unless you are a big fan of drinking vintage turpentine, it’s unlikely you would enjoy eating this bird, which is pretty much an avian turps laboratory - other predators such as foxes will only prey on them if desperate, and then they will not eat it all. ---
**Author:** ![WILLASS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/54ee81/32.png) [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2004, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/53 "2004-02-28T15:31:03Z")
I read that in Iceland they eat shark that has been buried underground for a year or two and smells like urine and vomit mixed together. The guy who was going to try it actually puked from the smell and couldn’t bear to try it. I’m pretty sure that restaurants serving this would likely have a very small clientele. They also serve sheep’s faces in microwaveable boxes at service stations, if you take this as an example of what is evidently mainstream food this might give you an insight into how rank something as ‘speciality’ as rotting shark might be. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/54 "2004-03-04T03:18:08Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > George W Bush > > No one could swallow that. Well, that’s what they said about Clinton, too. Then came Monica… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![dylan\_73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2004, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843/55 "2004-03-04T13:13:12Z")
Umm…dodo. Honest! I watched a documentary about the extinction of the dodo. It said that they weren’t hunted to death and part of their evidence was a diary entry from some sailors trapped on the island. Apparantly they killed and tried to cook a dodo but, even though they were starving, they couldn’t stomach the meat. Oh, it seems they introduced pigs to the island and the pigs killed the dodos off (eating their eggs and stuff). > [@](#): > > “the sailors named it ‘valghvogel’- meaning disgusting bird.” Can’t find a cite. Must be a reasonable new theory as all sites say they were hunted instead. I’ll keep looking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universally-bad-tasting-foods/230843.md?page=2)