Rotten food not only smells bad, it can make you sick or kill you. Yet, certain cultures regularly consume food that is in an advanced state of decay-take the Inuit people who inhabit the northern polar regions…one delicacy is meat buriedin a sealskin for 5 months…imagine what this stuff must smell like? Then there are ferented salmon eggs (“stinkeggs”)-yechh!
Given that most animals refuse to eat carrion (except for scavengers like vultures), what made these repugnant foods seem tasty and delicious to certain people? I imagine that if you were faced with starvation, a pileof rotten food would be better than nothing…but the thought of eating rotten food makes me ill! 
I’m no Eskimo, but one of my favorite meals consists of curdled milk that’s been heavily contaminated by bactria, bread made from dough that’s been exposed to airborne microorganisms, and juice that’s been left in the sun untill it smells funny. In my culture, this is considered quite normal, and is called a chesse sandwich on sourdough with a glass of wine, but if you were naming it, you’d probably translate it “stinkfood.”
Shot down with style within 20 minutes. My hat goes off to you, Alan.
Ya, that was good Alan.
Damn, Alan-- you done stole my thunder. Bread and cheese is about all I ever eat so the OP was amusing to me.
I would not have put it so eloquently, though. Cheers!
PS-- LOVE your films!
Aw, shucks. :o Thanks guys!
Not to mention thousand year eggs, rotten shark, kim-chee, and natto, among many others. A better question might be: “Why do so many cultures eat ‘rotten’ food?”
Fermented foods are found in just about every culture on the planet. They’re pretty much always made under conditions that allow only very specifc types of bacteria to grow in them and do the fermenting - disease-causing bacteria are generally not able to get a foothold in the pot and start growing. Way back when I was in college, in one of my food micro classes, we looked at traditional kimchee and its microbiology. It’s really quite ingenious how it works. One type of bacteria will grown and ferment until the solution is so acidic they die off and another type takes over, and so forth.
I suspect fermenting (and other not-really-spoilage processes) became popular because (a) it provides flavors not easily found in any other way with primitive technology, and (b) it’s somewhat preservative - it’s hard for this stuff to go bad, considering it’s already spoiled (sort of).
Just to drive an already-made point into the ground, your finer American steakhouses often deliberately let the beef hang out to rot a little. Then they trim off the more spectacular colors, and cook the steaks. That’s where aged meat comes from. Kids, don’t try this at home.
(It’s virtually necessary to age squirrel, opossum, and beaver, or so I understand, and all of these have been staples in various portions of the U.S. at various times.)
Some years back, in a university sociology course, I was taught that the only society that didn’t use alcohol or some other mind altering substance was the Eskimo (Inuit.) The speculation at the time was that temperatures were too low for yeast, and they substituted fermented auk meat, buried in the snow. Apparently, some other animal products are, uh, biologally processed. Do these products alter one’s state of mind? I don’t know, and if you want to do testing, don’t call me. :eek:
Ageing of some foods gives it a better flavor. Sourkraut comes to mind. Ageing for just a day or two helps some foods.
Spelling and grammer subject to change withour notice.
I was reading a book (can’t remember title, subject or author) and he mentioned that he knew a farmer who would let his beef hang out until it turned black. It was the best steak the author ever had.
I was about to type “meat” instead of “beef”. Maybe I should go to bed.
Cecil’s column, and this thread, remind me of George Carlin’s comedy from the 70s. He said something like “Do you ever look in someone else’s shopping basket at the grocery store, and think ‘eww, goddamn - look what they eat!’”
According to what I read, the Indians in NE werefond of sun-died oysters (and other shellfish). Now, if any of you have ever eaten a bad oyster, the results can be horrific-projectile vomiting, diarhea, and terrible gas are among the consequences. Yet, the natives would expose the opened shellfish to the sun, and dry them for consumption later.
I’ve heard that shellfish are a perfect culture medium for all kinds of nasty bacteria…so what kept these people from being sick?
Getting back to the Inuit…Admiral Peary (on one of his expeditions) recounted how the Greenland eskimos were fond of sealliver that was “high”(covered with maggots. I don’t see how this couldbe palatable.
Short answers
Meat - The rotting process tenderizes the food
Other foods - taste and effect (Alcohol)
In John Thorne’s book American Pig, he writes that old-time Mainers are fond of fish jerky, and relates a shopkeeper’s anecdote about customers who would only buy it when it was full of maggots.
In It Must Have Been Something I Ate, by Jeffrey Steingarten, there’s a whole chapter on aging beef. There are two methods- dry aging and wet aging. Probably all the beef you’ve ever eaten was wet-aged. I believe he says that the aging process doesn’t involve outside bacteria- the meat is internally broken down by its own enzymes.
Dry-aging isn’t usually carried on to the point of fermentation. It’s not usually done anymore because as the beef is dry aged, it loses water weight and shrinks. Meat that isn’t aged at all is (I am told) inedibly tough.
Tastes follow necessity. It’s likely that during some periods, the amount of fresh food available was insufficient to maintain survival.
If you grow up eating “x”, you’re likely to like eating “x”.
I read a book by a guy who had lived among the Eskimos. He claimed that when one cut a hunk of blubber, one hoped for a piece that had fermented a bit, because it had a strong flavor, which apparently unfermented blubber lacks. I get the impression that selective “rotting” of food leads to a more varied set of flavors, and maybe a more varied diet.
Romans were very big on fermented fish paste. I understand that’s a big hit in southeast Asia, too. It’s one of those flavors that western civ has apparently decided to do without. But we have plenty of fermented and rotted products of our own – cheese, wines, sauterne, “aged” beef, etc.
quothz:
Of 'possum and beaver I cannot speak, but you do not need to age squirrel. I’ve eaten squirrel within hours of shooting it and it’s quite good and reasonably tender.
Worcestershire Sauce is a stinky fish sauce. Not quite Vietnamese prawn paste, but certainly the same territory as Thai fish sauce.