Rice Pudding and other things that are wrong

[Cyrus]

"Raisins are nasty" ...?

 

[binzing]

NVM...

I'm going to bed, goodnight.

 

[morphism]

Raisins are great. Chocolate-covered raisins? Even better.

 

[Evo]

Raisins are great. Chocolate-covered raisins? Even better.

I will eat raisins if I have to, but I don't willingly seek them out. As Moonbear said, chocolate raisins are an abomination unfit for human consumption.

The only thing worse is canned white hominy corn. This is corn soaked in lye. It smells and tastes like sweaty sneakers.

 

[turbo]

The only thing worse is canned white hominy corn. This is corn soaked in lye. It smells and tastes like sweaty sneakers.

I have no basis for comparison, Evo. Unlike you, I have never felt the urge to taste sweaty sneakers.

 

[Evo]

I have no basis for comparison, Evo. Unlike you, I have never felt the urge to taste sweaty sneakers.

I can imagine the taste from the smell. If it smells the same, I assume it tastes the same.

It's like durian, the people that like it say that it doesn't taste as bad as it smells. It's one of the only things that I've watched Andrew Zimmern gag on. He didn't agree that it tasted any better than it smelled, and he's eaten some pretty nasty stuff. I wonder if Zimmern has ever eaten canned hominy?

 

[Borek]

I'm with Evo on rice pudding, and chocolate-covered raisins. Neither is fit for human consumption.

We, humans, love chocolate-covered raisins

 

[Evo]

We, humans, love chocolate-covered raisins

Borek NO! Please don't tell me that you have gone to the dark side!

 

[Borek]

Borek NO! Please don't tell me that you have gone to the dark side!

Gone? Mwahahaha, I was born here!

 

[LowlyPion]

I can imagine the taste from the smell. If it smells the same, I assume it tastes the same.

It's like durian, the people that like it say that it doesn't taste as bad as it smells. It's one of the only things that I've watched Andrew Zimmern gag on. He didn't agree that it tasted any better than it smelled, and he's eaten some pretty nasty stuff. I wonder if Zimmern has ever eaten canned hominy?

Actually it can taste worse. Or else I didn't get a good enough whiff before tasting. I'd as soon soak my tongue in turpentine as ever taste it again. Ever.

As to hominy there wasn't enough sugar on the table to stop me from gagging on that stuff. My Mother - God Bless her - served that at times along with her overcooked Salvidor Dali vegetable medleys and I think as much as anything that sealed my fate as a meat/carbohydrate/dessert eater.

 

[Evo]

Actually it can taste worse. Or else I didn't get a good enough whiff before tasting. I'd as soon soak my tongue in turpentine as ever taste it again. Ever.

Well that seals it, I'm not going near the stuff.

As to hominy there wasn't enough sugar on the table to stop me from gagging on that stuff.

My dad loved it. Of course from all of the pipe and cigar smoking, I doubt he could tatste it.

Salvidor Dali vegetable medleys

 

[cristo]

Borek NO! Please don't tell me that you have gone to the dark side!

I bet you can guess which side I'm on

 

[Math Is Hard]

Anybody here ever put Karo syrup on their pancakes?

 

[Evo]

Anybody here ever put Karo syrup on their pancakes?

No, but I like tuna mixed with mayonaise on mine. Chili pancakes are also very yummy. But my pancakes have no sugar in them, they aren't sweet.

 

[LowlyPion]

I doubt he could tatste it.

It wasn't until I was older - we're talking in college older - that I even discovered it was related to corn. I just thought it was some nasty alien vegetable. I imagined stalks of the horrid stuff being harvested from thorny rocky hillsides and carried down in baskets to feed the starved who could find no other means of surviving. I remember thinking what a waste of corn when I discovered what it was.

As grits it was OK, because the cheese or other seasonings would carry it as filler. But for the life of me I never could understand how people even started to eat it plain except in desperation that would make palmetto bug roaches and rats look tasty.

 

[LowlyPion]

No, but I like tuna mixed with mayonaise on mine. Chili pancakes are also very yummy. But my pancakes have no sugar in them, they aren't sweet.

I use sour cream in my pancake batter, no sugar, but then they only come served with maple syrup at breakfast. A crepe batter is better I think to use as wraps.

 

[turbo]

Anybody here ever put Karo syrup on their pancakes?

Nope! Grew up in the county that is the largest producer of maple syrup around. I used to tap trees every spring and haul buckets of sap around on an old toboggan, My mother would boil down the sap until it was dark, and it was so thick that it would almost start sugaring in the pan. You can't find real maple syrup like that anywhere. The stuff in the stores is crap. Now, we make pancakes with fruit or berries and top with a berry sauce instead of syrup. Apple pancakes (with cinnamon in the batter) topped with blackberry or blueberry sauce is very good.

When we ran out maple syrup, my mother would sometimes boil down sugar-water with vanilla extract to put on French toast or pancakes. That was OK.

 

[Evo]

It wasn't until I was older - we're talking in college older - that I even discovered it was related to corn. I just thought it was some nasty alien vegetable. I imagined stalks of the horrid stuff being harvested from thorny rocky hillsides and carried down in baskets to feed the starved who could find no other means of surviving. I remember thinking what a waste of corn when I discovered what it was.

From an old thread, here are some foods that make me wonder "what were they thinking?"

Hakarl (Rotted Shark)

This is without a doubt the most pungent and dubious thing at the table. Tastes like a combination of dodgy fish and strong French cheese with a hint of ammonia. If you are new to shark and are offered some, it is wise to take the darkest piece you see (the lighter the colour, the stronger the taste). The shark is prepared by burying it in sand for about six months. Served cold in little pieces, be careful not to eat too much as it can result in diarrhea.

Note - do not attempt to prepare rotted shark at home! If you do it wrong or don't leave it in the ground for long enough, it's quite likely that you will die in agony from eating it, as it is full of neurotoxins and ammonia, which are filtered out using the process described above.

Hrutspungar (Sour Ram's Testicles)

Ram's testicles, pickled in whey, put in gelatin, pressed either into a cake with garlic, as a jam, or as a kind of pâté that tastes sour and spongy, with a texture reminiscent of pressed cod roe. Guidebooks comment: 'Not bad if you don't think about it too much, especially in pâté form.' Or you could just take their word for it.

Lundabaggar (Sour Lamb)

This is a tough one to explain - it is made from secondary meats, like colons and other such stuff, rolled up, boiled, pickled (made sour in mysa, more commonly known as whey), sliced and held together with string. Very fatty, it may be a good idea to cut away the fat before eating, as sour fat usually tastes bad, but it won't leave you with much meat on your plate.

Selshreyfar (Sour Seal Flippers)

The flippers of those adorable animals, made sour in milk and salted. They taste sour, salty and slimy. These are rare, except at some family feasts where the participants have hunted the seals themselves. Quite revolting.

Hvalrengi (Sour Whale-fat)

Made sour with milk. Tastes like sour papier mâché, and probably not very healthy either. Fresh whale blubber is stringy and tough, but apparently pickling it makes it soft and more easily digestible.

Kæst skata (Rotted Stingray)

Made in the same way as the shark, but not as pungent and offensive to the nose as the rotted shark. It has a strong smell of ammonia about it. Sometimes it is mashed, then it is called skotustappa. Usually eaten as a main course, with potatoes.

According to some sources, Skata originates from the Western fjords in the eighteenth century when the brighter lights of society, on þorláksmessa (the day before Christmas), gave their humble hired help 'Skata' so as to assure that until the next þorláksmessa, anything would taste better (!) while they themselves stuffed themselves with hangikjöt (see below).

Svid ('Burned' Sheep-heads)

Stuff that most people associate with devil-worship. A sheep's head that's been burned to remove the wool, cut in two in order to remove the brain, boiled, and either eaten fresh or pressed into jelly (Svidasulta, 'sheep-head jam'). Despite the rather gruesome appearance, these taste quite good.

Even though they look quite serene and peaceful, some people can't stand the thought of eating a burned head. Many people eat only the lower jaw and the tongue to avoid 'eye contact.'

As long as anyone can remember, Icelandic children have then used the lower jawbones as playthings, usually pretending that it was livestock such as sheep. However, after the 1940s, the jawbone became a gun in children's games, and cowboys and Indians became quite popular. Today the jawbone has been replaced by videogames.

 

[Borek]

foods that make me wonder "what were they thinking?"

They were thinking "We are hungry!"

 

[LowlyPion]

Once you start getting into rotted secondary meats, I have other plans for dinner.

 

[Evo]

Once you start getting into rotted secondary meats, I have other plans for dinner.

Nix on the sour seal flippers, eh?

 

[LowlyPion]

Nix on the sour seal flippers, eh?

Maybe if they are baby seal.

 

[Evo]

Maybe if they are baby seal.

<GASP>

Noooooo, not baby seals.

 

[turbo]

I've got to wonder if the development of most of those rotted-meat "treats" started out because the meat was buried to prevent animals from eating it. Surely, such exciting food experiments started well before refrigeration, and at times and places where salt was rare or unavailable. I guess rotted protein is better than none... Glad I have freezers, though.

 

[Math Is Hard]

No, but I like tuna mixed with mayonaise on mine. Chili pancakes are also very yummy. But my pancakes have no sugar in them, they aren't sweet.

I want your pancake recipe. Sounds like the little pancakes they serve with a Chinese dish - is it "Moo Shoo" I am thinking of?

 

[Math Is Hard]

Nope! Grew up in the county that is the largest producer of maple syrup around. I used to tap trees every spring and haul buckets of sap around on an old toboggan, My mother would boil down the sap until it was dark, and it was so thick that it would almost start sugaring in the pan. You can't find real maple syrup like that anywhere. The stuff in the stores is crap. Now, we make pancakes with fruit or berries and top with a berry sauce instead of syrup. Apple pancakes (with cinnamon in the batter) topped with blackberry or blueberry sauce is very good.

When we ran out maple syrup, my mother would sometimes boil down sugar-water with vanilla extract to put on French toast or pancakes. That was OK.

You were blessed.

When I was a kid it seemed so normal to put Karo on pancakes, but now I look back and pouring on straight corn syrup sounds kinda gross.

 

[LowlyPion]

<GASP>

Noooooo, not baby seals.

Not even if they were "harvested humanely" with clubs?

 

[Topher925]

 

[Math Is Hard]

 

[turbo]

You were blessed.

When I was a kid it seemed so normal to put Karo on pancakes, but now I look back and pouring on straight corn syrup sounds kinda gross.

Corn syrup would have been weird (to me, at least). Often we would have sulfated Crosby's molasses on biscuits or pancakes, and sometimes melted butter and some brown sugar on French toast. My mother always added cinnamon to the beaten eggs before dipping the bread for French toast.

Sometimes we remember the little things... I got my love of cooking from her.