Comments on: What Did Eskimos Eat?

by: The Umami Hypothesis | Lost Wanderer

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:44:04 +0000

[…] Seth Roberts has proposed an interesting hypothesis, that humans like complex tastes (umami) because we evolved to like the taste of bacteria in food. He believes that bacteria from natural pickling is harmless, and actually improves our immune function. As reported in Conditioning Research, Roberts points out that explorer Vihjalmur Stefansson reported that Eskimos ate lots of bacteria fermented fish, which he also grew to enjoy. Supporting this theory, Conditioning Research also tells of University of Michigan paleontologist, Dan Fisher, who butchered a draft horse and cached the meat in a stock pond. The lactobacilli in the water pickled the meat, which it emitted a slightly sour odor that put off scavengers when it floated to the surface. Fisher cut and ate the meat from February until midsummer to prove its safety, showing how hunter gatherers might have once stored their large animal kills. As I blogged in an earlier post, fermented foods also are known to be good sources of vitamin K2. Social bookmarksSubscribeBlinklistBloglinesBlogmarksDiggdel.icio.usFacebookFurlMa.gnoliaNewsVineRedditStumbleUponTechnorati […]

by: Luke

Fri, 29 May 2009 13:01:33 +0000

Just to let you know:

Yes. The Japanese do eat fermented (rotten) fish. It was in fact the original form of Sushi if I remember correctly. Fish would be stored with fermented rice for a long time, then eaten. The rice was discarded and not eaten. It is is still a delicacy I beleive.

I also think that in some parts of Malaysia or Thailand they eat fermented fish. Obviously there will be a lot of similarities of diet and crossover from culture to culture in that area.

Thinking about it…. Im sure in Korea they eat some fermented fish as well.

by: EAT: Fermented Foods « STRETCH EXERCISE EAT

Wed, 06 May 2009 21:30:39 +0000

[…] *Seth Roberts, the UC Berkley professor has been chronicling his self-experiments with fermented / bacteria rich food on his blog. He reports lots of positive results. Professor Roberts chronicles experiments with fermented meat. There is an interesting post about the Eskimo delicacy of rotten/fermented fish. Also, see this National Geographic article discussing the possibility of our ancient ancestors fermenting mammoth meat in ponds. The article points out that, Daniel Fisher, University of Michigan professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, used this method to preserve and eat a draft horse over an extended period of time. […]

by: Aaron Blaisdell

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:36:43 +0000

Sheila,

I believe a lot of Aisan fish sauces are fermented, as are soy sauces. This of course applies to the traditional sauces, not their poor immitations commercially available in supermarkets.

by: Sheila Buff

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:40:55 +0000

Fermented fish is also a delicacy in Iceland, as in Sweden. I’ve read that it’s also a delicacy in the South Pacific, though I don’t recall any specifics–perhaps Samoa? Don’t know how widespread fermented fish is across Polynesian culture. The ancient Romans were very fond of something called garum, which was a sauce made from fermented fish guts. Perhaps any culture that eats a lot of seafood will also have fermented fish in its cuisine? Does anyone know if Japanese cuisine uses fermented fish? How about southeast Asia, leaving aside nam pla? Others? Perhaps isolated islands such as Shetlands, Falklands?

by: Aaron Blaisdell

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:10:43 +0000

@ Patrick,

I noticed a big improvement in a number of dimensions of my health and well-being when I began making nutritional adjustments about a year ago, but especially 6-months ago when I began taking high-vitamin cod liver oil and butter oil. Seth blogged about it about a month ago. I haven’t noticed any change since switching from the regular high-vitamin cod liver oil to the fermented kind, however. Perhaps I’m already at a ceiling effect and I’ve been taking a lot of fermented dairy (cheese, yogurt, kefir) daily.

by: Melissa

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:09:15 +0000

We eat fermented herring here in Sweden. It’s called surströmming and when my housemates ate it, we had to be very careful to open it outside and dispose of any waste quickly because if we left bones overnight the smell would take days to get rid of. Doesn’t taste as bad as it smells though…but it’s not exactly a regular part of my diet.

by: Tom

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:10:15 +0000

I thought about getting the Green Pastures butter oil for my Vitamin K, but I couldn’t shake the suspicion that I would be buying a bottle of exorbitantly-overpriced ghee. If that’s all it is (and I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t say so, if it’s not), I’d rather just get Anchor Butter from NZ and save the $.

(How can Green Pastures get away with selling that stuff without giving any indication of what’s in it????)

Anyway, I went with Carlson’s K-2 capsules.

by: Patrik

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:49:09 +0000

@Aaron Blaisdell

I also supplement with fermented cod liver oil and butter oil — but I cannot say I have noticed any sort of difference since taking them.

by: Patrik

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:47:54 +0000

@Seth

People still eat “decayed” game. They only call it “aged”.

http://www.honest-food.net/blog1/2008/11/27/on-hanging-pheasants/

I also mentioned the dry-aged (perhaps more accurately referred to as dry-decayed) beef used in hamburgers at Father’s Office here:

http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2009/03/13/umami-burger/#comment-280113

It dovetails right into your umami hypothesis.