Re: Untasty Food

> Date:         Thu, 12 Jul 2001 10:44:10 +0200
> From: Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
>
> Indeed, I saw that in Lonely Planet a while ago, when it was about
> Iceland. Indeed, rotten shark is considered a delicacy, but they
> didn't mention that it should be urinated on, only that it was
> hanging out to rot, and then cut into cubes and eaten as
> accompaniment with a drink. Well, I'm not allowed to eat shark
> anyway (the doctor forbid it :) ).
AFAIK, urine is usually sterile, so I wouldn't be surprised if some
cultures use it for food preparation. I think that it used to be
collected and processed to get saltpeter, some places in Europe.

> Well, you know, pheasant is quite a delicacy here in France, and yet
> in order to simply be edible you have to let it rot for a few days.
> Fresh pheasant is not edible...
Well, most types of meat should be hung for a few days before use or
freezing, for good biochemical reasons. Poultry is the only exception
I know. (And fish, if you consider them to be animals).

But I think that leaving wildfowl hanging outside in the sun for a
week, or until the belly turns green, before even cleaning them out is
a traditional conceit, and the meat could be just as edible if the
birds were cleaned and plucked and hung in a nice 12