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how did they find that out

the_pen_turner

i ha a discution with a friend aboutstuff that would be really odd to find out

some milder ones
milk, who thought to drink that from an animal
eggs , same

to more wierd ones
those coffee beans that are eaten by a goat and collected from the dung and made into coffee

how did they find this out

what other things do you wonder about like this

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Crop/hunting failure, months of starvation...

Not really that much of a quantum leap in that scenario!

ScumLord

Humanity's love of drugs may have played a role in finding some of the stranger foods. The lengths some modern tribes in south America go to to get high shows they must have at some point tried processing just about every plant and animal they could find. Once cooking became a thing they obviously did a lot of experimentation.

Anyone that's tried starving would know that you'll eat just about anything when you're hungry too.

eet fuk

ScumLord wrote: »

Anyone that's tried starving would know that you'll eat just about anything when you're hungry too.

Not coriander though, that shít is mank

Cortina_MK_IV

HellSquirrel wrote: »

<snip> But the story is that Raleigh brought potatoes back to Europe and introduced them as a novelty.

Then they made the Chopper. :pac:

ScumLord

eet fuk wrote: »

Not coriander though, that shít is mank

I bet you my best stone axe you wouldn't eat ten of them.. Is another way it could happen.

HellSquirrel

ScumLord wrote: »

I bet you my best stone axe you wouldn't eat ten of them.. Is another way it could happen.

A tradition that continues proudly to this day and has lead to the discovery that Haribo Sugar-Free Gummi-Bears are in fact, not edible.

CINCLANTFLT

Milk and eggs I can understand, but what about cheese or yogurt... you process milk in such a way that it seems to go off but after another step or two you get something tasty... that must have taken a lot of experimentation...

jmayo

the_pen_turner wrote: »

i ha a discution with a friend aboutstuff that would be really odd to find out

to more wierd ones
those coffee beans that are eaten by a goat and collected from the dung and made into coffee

I don't know about the goats, but there is Kopi luwak coffee which is beans crapped out by Asian palm civets in Indonesia.
The Vietnamese labelled weasel coffee.

And then there is the Black Ivory coffee from Thailand produced by siphoning through elephant sh*t.

These ones do get me wondering.
Who thought it was a good idea to root through animal shyte and take the beans out and try them.

This got me thinking has anyone in Ireland tried anything similar.
Only thing I can think that goes in one end and comes out the other basically the same is sweetcorn.
Or this that only with humans.

ScumLord

jmayo wrote: »

I don't know about the goats, but there is Kopi luwak coffee which is beans crapped out by Asian palm civets in Indonesia.
The Vietnamese labelled weasel coffee.

And then there is the Black Ivory coffee from Thailand produced by siphoning through elephant sh*t.

These ones do get me wondering.

Cow dung has had many uses in the past. In India they turn it into "medicine" (it's not medicine). Cattle have been given god status in many ancient cultures, so it may not have been that someone thought it would add to the flavour but that maybe they would be absorbing some of the animals prowess by using stuff from their feces.

Neyite

CINCLANTFLT wrote: »

Milk and eggs I can understand, but what about cheese or yogurt... you process milk in such a way that it seems to go off but after another step or two you get something tasty... that must have taken a lot of experimentation...

Kill suckling calf. Open stomach to see solidified milk (cheese) Give some to the village asshole for a laugh but he likes it so someone else tries it and they like it too. Pretty soon it becomes a delicacy but killing a calf is an expensive way to get cheese so they experiment with stomachs until they figure out how to do it without killing the calf.

Not sure about yoghurt though.

BetsyEllen

It's not really rocket science.

I would imagine that somebody observed a calf drinking from its Mother and saw it was thriving on just her milk, just as humans would from their Mothers.
If there was a lack of food, they may have decided to milk the cow and give it a go.

Eggs; plenty of animals eat eggs, again it would only take somebody to observe this and realise that the egg is edible and obviously full of goodness.

Cortina_MK_IV

Origins of alcohol always fascinated me. Grapes, grain and someone somewhere got totally Oliver Twist and had that eureka moment and wine and whiskey* were born.

*Then we get stared on Irish or Scotch came first?

murpho999

Always thought the first man to open an oyster and eat it was a brave one. Glad he did though!

razorblunt

How?

Many bothans died to bring us this information.

ScumLord

Cortina_MK_IV wrote: »

Origins of alcohol always fascinated me. Grapes, grain and someone somewhere got totally Oliver Twist and had that eureka moment and wine and whiskey* were born.

*Then we get stared on Irish or Scotch came first?

Using Alcohol may predate our ability to produce it. There are fruits in Africa that naturally ferment. Many animals travel to eat these fruits and get hammered. It's a real problem when the elephants turn up, you don't want to be anywhere near a drunk elephant.

Vojera

CINCLANTFLT wrote: »

Milk and eggs I can understand, but what about cheese or yogurt... you process milk in such a way that it seems to go off but after another step or two you get something tasty... that must have taken a lot of experimentation...

The scenario we were told in school is that cheese was likely discovered by someone using an animal's stomach as a drinking bladder (as the would have back in the day). Hoping to have a drink of milk, they'd have opened it to discover that the milk had reacted with the rennet in the stomach to form a cheese-like substance. And once they worked it out, they'd have experimented and refined the process.

Wibbs

donegaLroad wrote: »

The Irish diet previous to this was mainly oats which is an infinately better food, but the potatoes were introduced to weaken the Paddy.

Funny enough the Irish peasantry after years of eating spuds were widely regarded and noted at the time as among the most vigorous in Europe and in better shape than their grain eating like in the rest of europe. Might make sense given that we've been eating tubers of various kinds as a species(and as previous humans) for hundreds of thousands of years.

Coming up with making and controlling fire is an impressive feat and one of our major killer apps. Animals are scared stiff of it, yet one/a few of our early ancestors had a lightbulb moment and approached it and started to use it. Initially as keeping accidental fires going(lightning strikes and the like), only later working out how to make it from scratch. Indeed there are still cultures today that don't or didn't know how to actually make fire, instead they stored it as smouldering embers from existing fires. Crazy to think that a Neandertal could have shown modern people like you and me how to make it. After fire comes cooking, one of our biggest killer apps of all. It physically changed our very bodies.

Needles and thread another amazing idea. Only us modern humans seemed to have cracked that one.

ScumLord

Wibbs wrote: »

Initially as keeping accidental fires going(lightning strikes and the like), only later working out how to make it from scratch.

It's crazy they used to carry fire around with them in pouches. From our perspective knowing how easy it can be to make fire it's madness they probably spent millennia going to such lengths to protect embers of fires that may have started generations ago. Even after we know how to start fires it seems that the tradition of keeping a fire going becomes a matter of pride for cultures as late and sophisticated as the Romans.

razorblunt

"See that wolf over there? I'm going to make him my best friend and call him Fido, but if he pisses in my house he's out".

Ergo, dogs.

ScumLord

razorblunt wrote: »

"See that wolf over there? I'm going to make him my best friend and call him Fido, but if he pisses in my house he's out".

Ergo, dogs.

It was more likely the other way around.

"See that human over there, I'm going to make him my best friend, by the end of the day he'll be giving me his food and rubbing my belly".

razorblunt

ScumLord wrote: »

It was more likely the other way around.

"See that human over there, I'm going to make him my best friend, by the end of the day he'll be giving me his food and rubbing my belly".

I like it.

Or, or, or ... some old fella was feeling sorry for himself and just started throwing sticks to alleviate some anger. Lo and behold the wolf brought it back for him and we've been dancing that dance ever since.

jmayo

ScumLord wrote: »

Cow dung has had many uses in the past. In India they turn it into "medicine" (it's not medicine). Cattle have been given god status in many ancient cultures, so it may not have been that someone thought it would add to the flavour but that maybe they would be absorbing some of the animals prowess by using stuff from their feces.

Except it is not bloody cows but a cat like weasel thing and a bloody elephant.
Do you know how big an elephant sh** is ?
That is a lot of sh** to sort through for a few beans.

ScumLord wrote: »

Using Alcohol may predate our ability to produce it. There are fruits in Africa that naturally ferment. Many animals travel to eat these fruits and get hammered. It's a real problem when the elephants turn up, you don't want to be anywhere near a drunk elephant.

Just feed them up on coffee beans first and if they get the trots it will be easier to find the beans.
I wonder can I copyright that production method.

Beer and beans in, coffee out.

ScumLord wrote: »

It's crazy they used to carry fire around with them in pouches. From our perspective knowing how easy it can be to make fire it's madness they probably spent millennia going to such lengths to protect embers of fires that may have started generations ago. Even after we know how to start fires it seems that the tradition of keeping a fire going becomes a matter of pride for cultures as late and sophisticated as the Romans.

Shure usen't me mother tell me not to let the fire go out when she was going to town.
But I discovered Maguire & Patersons and petrol.

ScumLord

jmayo wrote: »

Except it is not bloody cows but a cat like weasel thing and a bloody elephant.
Do you know how big an elephant sh** is ?
That is a lot of sh** to sort through for a few beans.

The poop probably had value other than beans. I think they can use it for burning in fires. I think some poop has antibacterial qualities. Because elephant dung would be pretty fibrous it could have all sorts of construction uses. People back then would have seen the world around them as one big supermarket where they could get everything they needed. We see poop, they would see an extensive range of products.

Just feed them up on coffee beans first and if they get the trots it will be easier to find the beans.
I wonder can I copyright that production method.
Beer and beans in, coffee out.

Just say its organic and you're onto a winner.

Shure usen't me mother tell me not to let the fire go out when she was going to town.

It's a deep seated instinct that still afflicts us today.

murpho999

CINCLANTFLT wrote: »

Milk and eggs I can understand, but what about cheese or yogurt... you process milk in such a way that it seems to go off but after another step or two you get something tasty... that must have taken a lot of experimentation...

This was discovered in the udders of cows after a severe earthquake.

jmayo

murpho999 wrote: »

THis was discovered in the udders of cows after a severe earthquake.

Wasn't that a milk shake.

HellSquirrel

Wibbs wrote: »

Funny enough the Irish peasantry after years of eating spuds were widely regarded and noted at the time as among the most vigorous in Europe and in better shape than their grain eating like in the rest of europe. Might make sense given that we've been eating tubers of various kinds as a species(and as previous humans) for hundreds of thousands of years.

As I've heard on that (archaologist/historian fiance), you're right on how they were regarded, but it goes back a lot further than potatoes. It's down to the milk.

Throughout the Middle Ages (and before), it was fairly well understood that drinking water was going to do horrible things to your gut and/or kill you. Europeans got around that by various forms of beer and small beer. The pastoral Irish drank milk as a substitute instead.

[Deleted User]

ScumLord wrote: »

It was more likely the other way around.

"See that human over there, I'm going to make him my best friend, by the end of the day he'll be giving me his food and rubbing my belly".

No, that's how the cats got in! :cool:

[Deleted User]

ScumLord wrote: »

Cow dung has had many uses in the past. In India they turn it into "medicine" (it's not medicine). Cattle have been given god status in many ancient cultures, so it may not have been that someone thought it would add to the flavour but that maybe they would be absorbing some of the animals prowess by using stuff from their feces.

Contrary to popular belief, cows aren't gods in India. They're considered to have some divine characteristics as they contribute more than they cost, and are symbolic of wealth because possession of a cow meant food in the form of dairy products and an animal to pull a plough and cow dung is used for fuel. Cattle are also the symbol of Dharma, which broadly refers to the various principles of living a moral and spiritual lifestyle.

They're not gods, but it's taboo to harm them.

FortySeven

Candie wrote: »

cow dung is used for fuel.

So that's where diesel came from !!