7 ms·
When I was young my grandma told me an interesting rule of thumb from her childhood in the old country: If there are no bugs in the grain after it has been sto
by danans 4y ago
When I was young my grandma told me an interesting rule of thumb from her childhood in the old country:
If there are no bugs in the grain after it has been stored for a while, don't eat it.
The rationale was that if bugs didn't want to eat it (they didn't have tightly sealed packaging at that time), it was probably chemically contaminated.
- happytiger 4y agoThat is one fantastic rule of thumb and a great perspective on the way we were that I’ve never heard before.
- a_bonobo 4y agoThere's a story from the introduction of the potato into Germany. People would not eat the 'new' potatoes as dogs would not eat them. >The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us? https://www.berlinexperiences.com/did-frederick-the-great-introduce-the-potato-to-germany-mythbusting-berlin/ https://www.berlinexperiences.com/did-frederick-the-great-in...
- beebmam 4y agoSeems to me like a pretty unscientific way to conclude whether a food is edible (or good for you). But it makes sense of course, if you didn't have access to modern science due to poverty or era.
- ehnto 4y agoEven modern grain infrastructure relies on delcarations of chemical usage and not itemized testing. Real time testing equipment is prohibitively expensive and lab testing takes too long to do it before mixing a load of grain into a silo. On site tests are done but for indicators of moisture spoilage, protein deterioration and disease, but not chemical contaminants.
- perryizgr8 4y agoHaha reminds me of the time Tintin mixed in an anti-alcohol drug into the Picaros' meal, and they wouldn't eat it until snowy did.
- smdyc1 4y agoHaha one of my favourite scenes, apart from Captain Haddock losing his taste for whisky at the start!!!
- vintermann 4y agoThere is such a drug, sort of: Disulfiram. Though the effect isn't technically to make alcohol taste foul, it's to make consuming it give an almost instant, terrible hangover. Some inkcap mushrooms which are otherwise edible have a mycotoxin with the same effect, coprine. There are persistent rumours that other mushrooms can contain some of it too, not verified as far as I know but there's enough poorly understood variation in mushrooms that I wouldn't dismiss the possibility.
- philshem 4y agoGreat read! > One of the most oft-repeated stories about Frederick’s relationship with the potato concerns the ingenious tactic of reverse psychology the King embarked on to increase interest in potatoes: rebranding it as a ‘royal vegetable’. By ordering his soldiers to plant potatoes in royal fields and lightly guard the crops, allowing the locals to sneak in and pillage the vegetables – the Prussian king would conclude: what is worth guarding is also worth stealing. This reminds me of Rory Sutherland's "Lessons from an ad man" where he tells this story, and then follows-up with another myth-like story about Ataturk wanting to modernize Turkey, but rather than ban head coverings for women, he required prostitutes to wear one. full video (which is definitely worth a watch): https://youtu.be/audakxABYUc https://youtu.be/audakxABYUc 3:20 is where the story starts: https://youtu.be/audakxABYUc?t=200 https://youtu.be/audakxABYUc?t=200
- 4gotunameagain 4y agoThe story about lightly guarding potatoes seems to be common European trope, I've heard it in many countries. Variations include the one you mentioned, and one where potatoes were placed in a warehouse with increased security, in order to attract the attention of the peasants who were allowed to steal them.
- mcv 4y agoI just came across the Frederick the Great story somewhere else this morning. That version also claimed he even told the guards to accept bribes from people trying to steal the potatoes.
- vintermann 4y agoThat they could see that it was a plant in the nightshade family probably also didn't help matters.
- somenameforme 4y agoAnother really interesting one is about eggs. If you buy eggs from a supermarket in the US they will usually need to be refrigerated. But if you go buy eggs straight from a farm (or in many places outside the US) they'll be fine outside for weeks. When eggs are first laid they have a protective outer coating on them, called either the bloom or cuticle. The external cleaning process mandated by the FDA results in the destruction of the bloom, which leaves the eggs vulnerable to all sorts of nasty stuff. Moving abroad one of the weirdest things was seeing eggs, on occasion a bit 'dirty', stacked at room temperature for days to weeks. Turns out it's perfectly safe!
- mcv 4y agoIt's one of the few foods that comes in its own super convenient packaging. Why wouldn't you take advantage of that?
- nemo44x 4y agoBecause it could be covered in salmonella and other things. Even just washing them might not be enough if you’re not careful to not cross contaminate. Washing them and keeping them cold works great.
- mcv 4y agoAs others have pointed out, just washing them is exactly the wrong thing to do. But if you don't wash them, you don't need to keep them cold. Not washing them works great too.
- nemo44x 4y agoBut they could be covered in poison. So we clean the poison off which has the side effect of requiring they be put in the fridge. They stay fresh longer too. I don't know why much of Europe is OK with having poisonous eggs. There are hundreds of Salmonella outbreaks in Europe because of eggs every year.
- zxcvbn4038 4y agoThere is a lot of truth in that. If no other mammals are eating those bright red berries in the woods, you probably don’t want to either. If mature rodents are unsure about a food source they’ll wait for some young go-getter to have a bite then watch to see what happens to them. I put poison packs everywhere in my apartment but after the first couple died none of the other mice would touch them.
- culi 4y agoThere are a few exceptions to this rule however. For example saponins. One of the most common plant poisons in the natural world that might kill your dog. If you ever read an ethnobotany piece and it mentions that a certain plant is used to kill fish in a pond, it's likely a saponin-rich plant (which also means it's likely to be good to make soap out of). But since these compounds are so common humans have evolved specific enzymes to break this down and they leave us mostly unaffected (indeed some have even been turned into important drugs). It's kinda like lignin. When wood first evolved, there was nothing that could break it down. And for thousands of years the world was "littered" with wood from dead trees until fungi finally learned how to break it down. I'd say plastics might be the next lignin as we see more and more organisms already learning to break it down, but there are too many different types of plastics that I doubt all of them could be broken down I think the point I'm trying to make is that the "toxicity" of a chemical or compound is often in proportion to how much time the rest of the ecosystem has had to evolve a way to deal with it
- hoppushoppard 4y agoI like this theory very much! But there was also thread here on news.ycombinator about a paper which says that this theory is not entirely true. I can't recall the paper. I think, paper said "the lignin breakdown by fungi" was already invented. The abundance of dead wood (which became coal) is described by existence of wast marshes. I'm sorry without link is my text not valid very much. Maybe someone could find the paper and link it here.
- oasisbob 4y ago
- FredPret 4y agoI grew up in a hot country. The peaches that were bird-bitten were always the best
- somenameforme 4y agoI expect she was describing something else. Bugs, especially things like weevils [1] tend to lay microsized eggs in grains of all sort. Even when hermetically sealed they'll be able to hatch and thrive. I tend to buy relatively large quantities of things like rice, flour, etc and finding bugs in hermetically sealed bags after some lengthy time is not uncommon. It's not bugs getting into your food from the outside, but being packaged into your food! If you don't have bugs it means they've been killed in some way, and one of the easiest to do that is chemical. Incidentally, weevils (the most common) are harmless and tasteless to consume. It just means a bit of extra protein in your food! [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weevil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weevil
- darkerside 4y agoI think that's exactly what OP was describing
- jsharf 4y agoIs it extra protein, if they lived only off the rice in the bag? Presumably all the protein inside of them came from rice that would have otherwise been there. I guess it helps digest and synthesize some of the proteins for you.
- Karawebnetwork 4y agoWe eat grazing animals because they turn grass into muscles (proteins). It's similar for insects. That said, I don't know how the protein amount in one insect compares to the protein amount in rice.
- mhb 4y ago> weevils (the most common) are harmless and tasteless to consume So chances are good of eating the lesser of two weevils!
- chakintosh 4y agoMom tells me the same thing about mint and other herbs. If it doesn't have holes in it made by worms, then it's been doused by pesticides.
- jaygray0919 4y agoSimilar idea about corn. Select the corn with insects - they are your taste testers. Of course, remove the critters before boiling your corn-on-the-cob.
- alexizorba 4y agoI got the exact advice from my parents, too. If bugs eat that then it's mean it's safe to eat.