Posted on 07/16/2015 8:28:52 AM PDT by Red Badger
While we're taught that food that smells rotten should be thrown away, there are actually many foods that you eat whenever they've just started rotting.
Of course, it's not pleasant to call these foods rotten, so we refer to them in different ways instead.
Cheese
Making cheese comes down to your ability to control rot. This is because milk is treated with bacteria and enzymes causing it to curdle. The curdles are then cut, formed and ripened into cheese.
Stinkheads
Another native Alaskan delicacy is what's known as stinkheads. These are King Salmon heads that have either been buried in fermentation pits in the ground or placed inside of a barrel or plastic bag where they're left for weeks. Once removed, they're mashed and eaten.
Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut is a type of fermented cabbage. It’s made by mixing shredded cabbage with salt then letting it sit for a bit. Many people say that this is good for your digestion.
Aged Beef
In order for beef to be dry-aged it must sit in a temperature and humidity controlled room for 3 weeks. This allows it to develop a moldy crust that’s cut away so that you have a tender steak that’s full of flavor.
Of course, it’s also full of minerals as well.
Kimchi
Korean cuisine is known for its kimchi. This is made by covering cabbage with a mixture that's both salty and spicy. It's then allowed to sit in an air tight jar for a couple of days.
Miso
This is a staple in Japanese cuisine, being found in sauces, spreads and marinades. In the US, it's commonly found in soup. It's made by fermenting soybeans then adding barley, wheat and rice.
Hákarl
While hákarl is a delicacy in Iceland, it’s a very divisive food elsewhere. This is because it’s rotten shark that’s made by putting a gutted shark into a hole in the sand for 6-12 weeks.
It’s then dug up and left hanging for several months before being eaten.
Tempeh
In Indonesia, tempeh is a staple. It's made by soaking whole soybeans in vinegar and allowing them to ferment. All of this is then bound together with mycelium, which is a sticky fungus.
Fesikh
This is a very popular dish throughout the Sham-el-Nessim festival in Egypt. It is made by sun-drying mullet then preserving it in salt. Fesikh poisonings are common because the recipes are passed down through generations, making it difficult to get right.
Igunaq
The Inuits in Alaska preserve their meat by cutting it into big steaks then burying it in the ground for months where it ferments in the autumn then freezes in the fall. They then eat this prized delicacy. However, since these recipes are also passed down through the generations, botulism is also quite common here as well.
Pickles
Pickles are cucumbers that have been soaked in vinegar or a brine solution and left to ferment for a very long time. So next time you pick up a pickle, just think, you're about to eat a rotten cucumber.
Coconut yogurt
Coconut yogurt is a healthy source of non-dairy bacteria. You can make you own by heating coconut milk, adding probiotics, and allowing it to sit on your counter until sour.
I had a girl friend who ate that stuff. Just kissing her after she ate was bad enough.
Other than pickles, cheese and steak, I want nothing to do with this list.
A couple of days!!! Heck, I can remember Koreans burying those big earthen jars sometime in September or October and not digging them up until the Springtime --- February or March or April!
It's really bad when they forget where they bury them and you unexpectedly dig one up while digging a fighting position.
The joys of youth. Too stupid to know, but too proud to ask or surrender! You just use a bigger hammer when you are young. lol
I may sound like I am lying, but honestly, I wouldn’t be 18 years old again for all the tea in China. I wouldn’t mind being 33 again though...
I would love to be 18 again............with my 60 year old brain and all its contents!..........................
Surströmming...according to Japanese scientists, the smelliest food in the world. The British “Telegraph” video reporter describes it as smelling like “rotting dog poo.” All airlines have banned it from their flights.
Click link to watch the British reporter writhe and gag as a can of Surströmming is opened!
I have never had the stuff. I am a Midwesterner; its hard for me to eat herring, which I will do at least once every decade, accompanied by a glass of Vodka. Gravlox on Rye with onion or dill is fine for me!
Also:
http://www.thelocal.se/20140210/swedish-expert-called-to-disarm-norway-fermented-herring-stink-bomb
“A Swedish fermented herring expert has been called to help “disarm” a 25-year-old can of the odorous Swedish delicacy that managed to literally raise the roof of a cabin in northern Norway.” (more at link)
I’ll take a good, crisp Kosher Dill, over a cucumber any day.
If you like pungent cheeses, try German Tilsit. It has a bit of a nose, but in comparison Limberger smells like brie
Tilsit smells like a high school boy’s locker room 9 weeks into the semester, and nobody has brought their strip home for a wash yet.
It doesn’t stink, it STAINKS!!
I did some toasted crackers with Tilsit one night shift at 0100hrs. Nobody would go into the lunchroom the whole next day. I was NOT the most popular guy for weeks after that < BG >.
Everyone knows pickles are cucumbers soaked in evil.
LOL!.............The Swedes must really enjoy Surströmming !.................
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