[TheForge] Toxic foodstuffs- was Ice in the Slack Tub, OT

[marilyn traber 011221]

> Here in Finland there is a deadly mushroom (korvasieni) that people
> eat. It is so toxic that you need to handle it with gloves.
> It needs to be boiled three times and then cooked for eating.. I've
> always wondered how they discovered that boiling it 3 times was
> enough. Was the forth person heating up the pot of leftovers lucky?
> Besides why put your life at risk just to eat fungus? blahhh! It 
> would be safer to lick my toes!
> 
> Wombat

Actually, there are quite a few foodstuffs which start out as poisonous, and 
only become edible after they're processed. Look at tapioca, for example, 
which comes from two different plants, one of which is considerably more 
toxic than the other. And, acorns need processed carefully, because they have 
tannins in them, which not only taste nasty, but also interfere with the 
body's ability to process protein. And, a staple of po' folks in the southern 
US, pokeweed needs to be "cooked in two waters" to be edible, but once that's 
done, it's called "poor man's asparagus". It's pretty tasty, too, sauteed in 
a bit of butter ;-)

If it's edible, people are going to figure out how to do it, and some of us 
are going to get a taste for what was previously inedible- it's human nature.

Now, Filipinos eat things like balut, and while SOME may consider it a 
delicacy, it's one of the few foods I'm pretty determined not to try.

Phlip