# What's the worst smelling thing that you would willingly ingest? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 19, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603 "2011-07-19T17:03:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/1 "2011-07-19T17:03:12Z")
Inspired by my recent question about why Valerian smells so bad… I take Valerian capsules every night to help me sleep. They smell like Satan’s asshole. They smell STRONG. They’re so strong that my hands smell bad after taking them and I have to go wash my hands. And yet, every night I put them in my mouth and swallow them. What stenchtastic things are you willing to put in your mouth? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/2 "2011-07-19T17:08:37Z")
I’ve eaten [stinky tofu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinky_tofu) and [durian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian), and neither of those smell like roses, so to speak. I assume that I’d take life-saving medicine no matter how bad it smelled. In theory. ---
**Author:** ![otternell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecc23a/32.png) [@otternell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/otternell)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/3 "2011-07-19T17:24:04Z")
Bad smells make me gag. the strong vitamin smell from multi-vitamins can make me gag (I hold my breath to actually get them down of course). I cannot eat stinky things. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/4 "2011-07-19T17:49:16Z")
Penicillin and Parmesan cheese ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/5 "2011-07-19T17:49:30Z")
I have vague memories of reading somewhere about a wedding tradition in France. Apparently on the morning after the wedding the bride and groom drink a concoction of chocolate and champagne that smells indescribably terrible but tastes delicious. I wish I knew more about this tradition – I’d love to try it. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/6 "2011-07-19T17:50:17Z")
I’d really like to try this durian thing I heard so often about on this board. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/7 "2011-07-19T17:51:32Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I have vague memories of reading somewhere about a wedding tradition in France. Apparently on the morning after the wedding the bride and groom drink a concoction of chocolate and champagne that smells indescribably terrible but tastes delicious. > > I wish I knew more about this tradition – I’d love to try it. Drank from a chamber pot, from what I read/heard somewhere. Never heard of someone actually doing that, though. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/8 "2011-07-19T17:55:09Z")
I’ve eating some delicious but nasty smelling french cheese before, and I’ll do it again happily. Seriously, I purchased the cheese, put it in my car and then went in a shop to purchase a gift (I was attending a Wine & Cheese shower). 30 minutes later when I returned to my car it _REEKED_ like dirty feet, but damn was that cheese tasty. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_in_second_hand_clothing)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/9 "2011-07-19T19:14:16Z")
I think raw honey smells like feet, but tastes just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/10 "2011-07-19T19:41:06Z")
We get smells-like-feet cheese from a Trappist monastery every Christmas. Tastes great, but man does it reek. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/11 "2011-07-19T23:23:07Z")
Stinky cheese. There’s a wine and cheese place on Michigan Avenue called Eno’s that I’ve been to a couple of times. I had often heard that cheese that smells bad tastes great. They had a sampler of their more odoriforous cheeses, and that’s what I chose. Well. I only remember one of the three cheeses offered, and not by name. It smelled honestly something like shit. Not exactly like shit. But something that reminded me of shit. No problem, right? It ought to taste like heaven, right? Here’s the thing, in a story like this the cheese should either give me an orgasm, or make me vomit in front of everyone. It did neither. It was strictly meh. I would not order it again. And I didn’t even get a good story to tell out of it. For a cheese that smells like shit that’s really lame. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/12 "2011-07-19T23:37:29Z")
Durian. Wow, does it smell bad. But I rather like the taste. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/13 "2011-07-19T23:48:02Z")
Asafoetida (hing, a.k.a devil’s dung…seriously) by itself is pretty awful, but I eat it in certain dishes. I don’t even cook with it myself except by using prepared spice blends, which isn’t at all the way I cook. But I’m not keeping that stuff around in pure form. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/14 "2011-07-20T07:15:52Z")
Stinky cheese. My kids started calling it ‘outdoor cheese’ for a while (because they wanted me to go outdoors with it to open/eat it) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/15 "2011-07-20T07:28:45Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > I take Valerian capsules every night to help me sleep. A tie between a relax and sleep supplement that contains Valerian, and [Cramp Bark](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viburnum_opulus#Cultivation_and_uses). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/16 "2011-07-20T09:50:26Z")
Cheese. Any cheese. I’d even eat that Sardinian maggot cheese if I could get some. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/17 "2011-07-20T11:26:36Z")
Is this about what we think smells bad, or what other people do? Because I don’t think I’ve eaten anything that I thought smelled bad and liked it. I don’t think moldy blue cheese smells bad, or pig guts, or stinky tofu, and I love those things. But licorice smells like a candy cane ice picked into your brain via your sinuses, and I can’t even think about putting the crap into my mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/18 "2011-07-20T13:06:35Z")
Surströmming and hákarl have been the worst so far. I don’t think they can be topped. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/19 "2011-07-20T13:22:47Z")
There’s nothing wrong with surströmming. ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2011, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603/20 "2011-07-20T13:40:39Z")
Nothing wrong with it, but the smell is _foul_. I opened the tin 12 meters from the house and my wife still wouldn’t stop complaining. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-smelling-thing-that-you-would-willingly-ingest/589603.md?page=2)