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

What the f**k was bread guy doing? What compelled him to collect tiny pieces of grain, dry them out, smash them into a powder, get them wet again (but not too wet), and then put the whole thing over fire?

Our earliest ancestors in Africa likely ate a ton of yams, which were basically hard roots that I believe are also sometimes toxic. People were probably dead set on making the root vegetables where they ended up edible. Eating root vegetables as a staple might be the most engrained human tradition.

Almost every edible mushroom. Lots of trial and error there, I bet.
shadowa1ien reply:
Shiitake mushrooms are like this. They're not deathly poisonous, but if eaten raw in medium to large amounts can cause severe itching for up to several weeks. Now imagine my face as I read that little tidbit on Google... after I had popped a raw shiitake mushroom in my mouth and had already swallowed most of it. The moral of the story, if you aren't sure, google before taste testing. my logic was since there's no warning on the store packaging, it must be fine! I didn't get the severe itching thankfully.

Lobster, crab, shrimp...

The french are masters at this :

- engorged livers from geese and ducks that have been force fed
- snails : they’re everywhere but for some reason only the French eat them, but not slugs because that would be weird
- frogs : they’re everywhere but for some reason only the French eat them, but not toads because that would be weird
- cheese with maggots in (my Norman FiL)
- Camembert cheese dipped coffee (my Norman FiL)
- Pigs ear salad
- pig and sheep’s brain (they sell them at my local supermarché)
- Normandy sausage made from god knows what (delicious it is) but I think it comes from the stomach / intestine (my Mum calls it A**s Sausage)
- not to mention turning rotten grapes into an art form / national obsession
- sheep’s testicles (FiL)
- raw beef (and if its not dodgy enough well add a raw egg too)
- Horse (like really good beef, but better).

Maybe not quite food, but like tobacco and Marijuana. The amount of trial and error of just smoking random things to see what happens must have been an interesting time.

Steamed-Barley reply:
It's brewed from a combination of Chacruna leaves and the vines of Banisteriopsis caapi - two completely different plants. The leaves contain DMT, while the vines contain MAOIs, which inhibit enzymes and allow DMT to enter the bloodstream and reach the brain. Both are necessary for the potent psychoactive effects to occur, you can't take one without the other.
It's been used since at least 1000 years ago. How the hell they found the correct combination is just... wow.

Artichokes.

oldcrustybutz reply:
I kinda feel like they're a specialization from a generalization though.
There are the more generalized Cardoon thistles where you more eat the stalk and stems which wouldn't be that big of a stretch to throw them on some coals, peel, and enjoy. Later someone found that the flower base was even better because you can use it as a bunch of tiny spoons to deliver copious amounts of butter to your cardoon hole.

That blowfish stuff. The kind that they have to be super careful when preparing. How'd they figure out being good enough to prepare it?

Balut. A duck embryo still in the shell.

Green Olives? Poison until soaked in brine? How did that get figured out?