"What Is A Food That Makes You Think, 'How Did Humans Discover This Was Edible?'" (30 Answers)

The first person to eat an oyster - how hungry was that m**********r?

"Hey guys, I found a loogie in this slimy rock! Want some?".

That expensive coffee made from beans collected from animal droppings.

Who the hell looked at that and said "Why not? Let's give it a go.".

Cheese is weird.

Hey ogg, that milk you were storing has gone weird and lumpy, should I throw it out?

Nah, it's still good, pass it here.

SirTwitchALot reply:
Rennet, which causes milk to curdle is naturally present in the stomachs of calves. Some speculate that people may have used stomachs as storage vessels. You put some milk in there, and it curdles. Food is scarce, so you're not about to let it go to waste, thankfully the chunky milk actually tastes pretty damn good!

Honey. Let's follow these highly territorial murder flies to their stronghold and eat their vomit.

_Molotovsky reply:
That's easy, watch a bear. It's kind of a cliche now because of cartoons but bears LOVE honey, and will climb trees to get to the hive. Probably doesn't hurt that their skin is thicker and getting stung probably tickles, but they will go to some lengths to get it."

"Some enterprising caveman watched the bear go for the hive and probably decided to taste what was left. I wouldn't want to fight the bear for it but it probably was the first sweet thing ever tasted other than fruit, so it was valued."

Vanilla flavoring from beaver butt.

The amount of effort you have to go through to make cashews edible

The f**k did someone figure that out.

Maleficent_Nobody_75 reply:
Yes. The shells that surround the cashews apparently contain very toxic oils and the extraction process they need to do can be hazardous to us humans if not handled correctly. The extraction process has to be done manually, hence why the process is difficult and time-consuming. Probably the reason why they are one of the most expensive nuts on the market when I think about it.

Ever think about coffee beans? Hey, I'm gonna roast this seed, smash it up and drown it in hot water. Bet it tastes great.'.

TheFerricGenum reply:
This one is not that difficult to come by. The beans are edible when freshly picked, and actually contain more caffeine (caffeine is lost through baking). So I bet people were regularly drawing on these as a food source since they are an upper. Someone along the line probably realized cooking things can keep them from spoiling a bit longer and started roasting their beans. If food was scarce, it’s possible they boiled these beans at one point to try to stretch their food supply. They liked the taste, and realized grinding the beans helped draw out the flavor easier.

The enigmatic durian – a fruit so pungent it could make a skunk blush. It's like someone stumbled upon this spikey orb, dared to take a bite, and thought, "Yes, let's create a culinary sensation that smells like a blend of rotten onions and gym socks." Truly, the mysteries of gastronomy know no bounds!

Blue cheese…someone left that out for too long, looked at it, shrugged their shoulders and went for it.

Gelatin.

I swear whoever invented gelatin was probably a serial killer.

Foods that are poisonous unless prepared in a specific manner.

I mean who was it who first realised that the kidney beans that were poisoning everyone raw, were perfectly safe after being boiled for 20 mins?

F*****g sea urchins. why would you even want to crack that open and eat it.

One of the first staple foods is kinda weird: Acorns. Acorns were actually farmed very early in human history, but to make them edible you have to soak them and treat them. Sure, you see animals eat them all the time, but animals also eat tree bark and leaves. Somehow people figured out, that you could turn the inside of acorns into flour and basically eradicate hunger by simple picking up acorns for a couple of days.

Nettles. "Ow, that m**********r stung me! Maybe I should boil it for its crimes....".

Hakarl. I think it was probably starvation that led someone long, long ago to eat that rotten dead shark that had been fermenting in beach sand for months. Surely that could be the only reason someone would eat it because I have heard hakarl smells and tastes like p**s.

Potatoes. Early potatoes were small, hard, and poisonous.

Methods of making them not poisonous included soaking them in running water for weeks or, in the high Andes, leaving them out on rocks high in the mountains so they effectively freeze-dried. Alternatively, you could mix them with clay when eating them - the clay would adsorb some of the toxins.

There’s a fruit in Brazil that needs to be cooked around 7 days, otherwise it’s toxic.

Gummy bears. How are you not scared the bears would attack you from the inside? Actually, I hear the sugar free ones do.

Fugu. To even be allowed to make it, you need a license to show that you can consistently make it in a way that won‘t kill your customer(not to mention the training required to get the license which IIRC can only be issued by the Japanese Government). How many tries were needed to figure out the propper way to make it and why did they keep trying after the first two or three tries?

SeiCalros reply:
Fugu fish aren't that lethal. Most people could eat a whole fish including the skin liver and ovaries which are the poisonous parts. One fugu fish COULD be fatal but most people who used to die from fugu liver had eaten several of them.

Chocolate. I mean don't get me wrong I get why they were playing around with the plant and all.

The sheer process of getting to Chocolate as a product is so weird and bizarre and kinda gross...and then it comes out as the lovely candy we know and love.