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.
The Koreans are just the opposite, the like their food still breathing.
Yes, there is a difference between fermenting and rotting. With most fermented foods, special precautions are taken (such as boiling, drying, adding salt, sugar, spices etc) to make sure that only the fermentation process happens, and other bacterial processes that contribute to “rot” are stopped.
No chef! It's a fresh cat, chef.
Agreed. Natto is yummy.
Same with Vietnamese `Nuoc Mam’ fermented fish sauce.
An acquired taste to say the least.
Aged beef, if done properly, will not grow a fungus, the author is an idiot.
http://bbq.about.com/cs/beef/a/aa030301a.htm
I like cheese.
It took 30 replies.......................
I’ve eaten almost all this rotting food...
Nobody mentioned the hundred year eggs popular in Asia.
Eggs are buried in acid soil until the shel just about goes away (a few months not actually a hundred years).
Also, nobody mentioned fish sauce.
“Same with Vietnamese `Nuoc Mam’ fermented fish sauce.
An acquired taste to say the least.”
Plenty of the clear fish sauce in Thailand. But the “Pla Raa” or “Pla Dak” in the Northeast and Laos is much worse. It’s fish and salt left to ferment or whatever until it’s like slightly lumpy mud. Looks and smells awful.
Fermented shrimp paste is pretty smelly as well. I do a double-take at the front door whenever my wife cooks with it. Thank goodness she doesn’t eat Pla Raa.
I think they have a different definition of “rotted food we are used to” than me.
That being said I wouldn’t consider haggis or lutefisk spoiled at all. Haggis is usually made fresh, and its pretty deliscious despite its reputation. Lutefisk is dried fresh and gets its texture from when it’s rehydrated, it’s texture is horrid(the smell is somehwat bad as well)
No mention of beer? Wine?
They consider fermentation in this article as a form of rotting. Most pickles that aren’t mass produced are in fact fermented. The salt is used as a selective media for the right acidic organisms to grow in. So if it’s not a mass produced pickle and it’s barrel aged, like classic sour or kosher pickles, it is fermented.
Agreed. Natto is yummy.
My friends think it is gross but a little gyoza sauce mixed with it or on some rice and it is even better!
That poor poor cat....
Haggis is honestly one of my favorite breakfast foods ever. You kind of have to wonder what went through someone’s head to invent something like that, but I am so very glad they did.
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