30 Comments

I was into the "paleo" diet for a while, but it did occur to me that our actual Paleolithic ancestors were probably not feasting on grass-fed steaks with a nice salad. In fact, even within living memory my immigrant grandparents (Hungarian peasants) ate a lot of things that were pretty nasty to modern American tastes (I'm thinking specifically of koscyona, which are fermented jellied pig feet - I was very grossed out by those).

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True, its only been a generation or so between us and more traditional foods. Pig feet, ears, blood sausages, tripe, liver and onions etc

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Blood sausage and liver are not outlandish. They have a strong taste that may take some getting used to. They're also the best source of iron.

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I was introduced to blood sausage by my wife's family. It takes a little getting used to but it has a great, rich flavor.

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Black pudding is very popular in Britain, and Spanish morcilla sausage is unreal, def worth trying

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Haha, we learned on a trip to Ireland that "pudding" has an entirely different meaning there than in the U.S..

The black pudding had a bit of a unusual taste, but was tasty once I got used to it.

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Proud to say I've eaten all of the items in your list; the first two in China. Pig's trotter with chopsticks is something of an art and chews down to a surprisingly large number of small bones. Black pudding is an essential part of a traditional English breakfast, at least where I come from. God's own delicacy, I reckon.

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This is why wolves liked us so much.

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Interesting: the much vaunted 'paleo diet' is just archaeological-culinary cosplay ...

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The seal flippers being prepared for fermentation was like a scene from Aliens. I have never made such loud groaning noises on reading an article before, the description of preparing those meats for eating is almost beyond belief. I just wonder how many people died before they managed to perfect the correct fermentation technique for their meats, but then it got worse and I had my hands over my eyes at the end. Yet again a fascinating article.

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It might be the most disgusting thing I've ever written, I debated whether people wanted to see pictures of the seal flippers tbh. It is a good question about deaths from these foods, there are plenty of accounts of Inuit/Arctic foragers dying of botulism from scavenging meat and fat from bloated whale carcasses, even without using plastic. Whilst they do have genetic adaptations to such a fat heavy diet the Inuit don't have great life expectancies anyway. Life in the Arctic is harsh.

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Wonderful! Have to go check on my sauerkraut and whether it’s sour enough yet.

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There is also Thai fish sauce, ie Roman garum. Again very good, but you need to get accustomed to it. This article explains very well why putrid/fermented food is disgusting for people unaccustomed to it, but very tasty for accustomed ones. If you have eaten some particular food a few times and haven't got poisoned you know you can eat it safely, and it stops being disgusting.

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Here people turn green when I describe Haggis. Ha!

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I hang partridge until the eyes turn green, about two to three weeks. The flavour is amazing. Breaks down and tenderises the muscle.

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Nice! What's the flavour like? More intense gamey?

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Your article made this North American queasy.

Apropos of nothing, I followed a link to this article: https://www.sciencenordic.com/anthropology-archaeology-denmark/dna-links-native-americans-with-europeans/1393344. What do you make of it?

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It's true that Native Americans have what's called 'ancient north eurasian' (ANE) ancestry, but I wouldn't call that 'European'. ANE ancestry appears in modern Europe through mixing in the east so you could say that Europeans and Native Americans partially share a root culture from Palaeolithic Siberia.

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I read this while preparing breakfast!

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I'm so sorry

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Faroe Islanders today eat a type of wind-dried and fermented lamb called skerpukjöt. The meat has a distinct green outer hue and a bracing smell and taste.

See below for an example.

https://www.visindavefur.is/myndir/skerpikjot2_190819.jpg

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I have eaten Surströmming and recalling enjoyed the sour taste of the meat as it is anaerobically fermented in lots of salt

It is also very salty

The smell is very off putting and many gag or puke from the smell alone!

Great article

Stone Age Herbalist

Tusen Takk

Jon

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No wonder the modern diet is killing us....

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I'm impressed with myself for reading this considering I have ARFID. Lol. That was weirdly fascinating to read.

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Well done for making it to the end! I'm glad you found something interesting in it though

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buen provecho!

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Interesting how these findings contrast with the Levitical laws of hygiene and eating pewscribed to the Jews in the OT.

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That is an interesting point. Some of the laws were to form a distinction between the Hebrews and other nations, but some may also have had health considerations. We are not given many reasons in the Law.

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God is not interested in explaining himself, (see Job). But it is certainly clear that even though God did not explain to the Jews what bacteria and viruses were, the laws certainly protected them from getting sick from bad food and improper hygiene. Hmmm; almost as if God knew what he was doing. (My comment has a large portion of irony served along with it).

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