We know what we crave and don't think twice about the edible delights we put in our mouths
But if we find out the nauseating truths about our favorite foods, would we still eat them?
Curious to know about unsettling food fact, Redditor KhaleesiDog asked:
"What's a gross fact about a common food we eat?"
You may want a bucket near your place at the table after hearing about some of these
Processed foods get a bad rep. They have been blamed for causing obesity and high blood pressure. Some foods like frozen pizzas and microwavable entrees are more processed than others.
Still they're very difficult to avoid – like the following:
Gross, To Be Frank
"There are an allowable amount of rat hairs allowed in hot dogs!"
– jenyj89
"And bug parts. Probably sh*t too. I think it's just general foreign biological material, not anything in particular."
Cured Delights
"Salami and many other Italian deli meats are not cooked, they are cured."
"Raw meat is ground up and blended with spices and binders, then it's loaded into a casing and hung to dry in a curing chamber. Curing chambers are very precise pieces of equipment that keeps the humidity and temperature in the perfect range to encourage mold growth on the outside of the casings."
"So ya, salami is moldy uncooked meat...."
We Love It Anyway
"cheese is essentially a rotten milk roll waiting to be eaten for years and somehow I still eat it."
Bet you didn't know these not-so-appetizing facts about the following treats.
Jiggly Desserts
"That gelatin is actually made out of skin, tissues and bones of cows and pigs."
It Comes With A Side Dish
"If you've eaten wild caught fish you've almost certainly also eaten dead parasites."
Taste Like Vomit
"American milk chocolate often contains small but measurable amounts butyric acid, either as a byproduct of how the chocolate is made or added to it on purpose as a preservative."
"Butyric acid is also produced by human gut bacteria, and is one of the noxious/smelly/foul-tasting components in vomit."
"The amount of butyric acid in American chocolate is small enough and Americans are usually so accustomed to it that we don't really notice, but, to non-Americans - especially Europeans, apparently - American chocolate literally tastes like puke."
Artificial Goodness
"Artificial vanilla and strawberry flavouring used to be derived a chemical extracted out of a beaver's musk glands (near it's anus)."
Unwelcome Patrons
"As someone who did pest control for years, the vast majority of restaurants that you eat at have a rodent problem, a roach problem, or both. And quite a few of them are severe."
Whether you like it or not, you can't interfere with the laws of nature.
The Thing About Figs
"Wasps go into figs to lay their larvae. They also have an enzyme called ficin that breaks down the deceased wasps into protein, which become part of the ripened fruit."
Cheese is made through the process of curdling milk – on purpose.
While that doesn't sound appetizing, the popular dairy product has always been a guilty pleasure for many people.
Just keep in mind that – unless it's blue cheese – the mold growing on any other cheese that's been sitting in your fridge should be tossed.
You wouldn't want to make the same mistake my roommate once made after eating rotten brie.
Long story short, I had to clean up after him.
Food is for survival. That was the plan. But over the years it has become somewhat of a way of life. Some of the most annoying people are foodies. They get so uppity about the preferences of others. Like, let me just enjoy what I enjoy.
Mom No!
Mom Smile GIFGiphy"I don't like my mom's cooking."
"Livestock have refused to eat my mother's cooking. She's a terror in the kitchen."
Take them OUT!!
"I hate walnuts in baked goods. It tastes like wood shavings and completely ruins the flavor."
"I love walnuts but I feel this way about raisins in baked goods, raisins are fine by themselves but not in sweets, I once ordered cinnamon rolls at Hardee's and bit into it and found out there were raisins in it, and I was grossed out and didn't want to eat it. At least freakin' McDonald's serves real cinnamon rolls without freakn' raisins!"
The Fart Ingredient
"I don't like kidney beans except in chili."
"I don't even really like them in chili. I'd rather have pintos in everything."
Oh thew Crunch...
"Pickles and onion make the best sandwich. I make most of my own pickles from stuff I grow or get from local farms in the fall, but I responded to another comment with two different heinous concoctions I enjoy. Crunchy, salty, sour. I really like pickles and onions to begin with."
"I use more than pickled cucumber though. Like the last one I made, I used garlic naan, mayo, red onion, scallions, pickled garlic, green olives, Kalamata olives, garlic dill cucumber, and green beans. Shallot, sour pickled onion, sweet pickled cucumbers, and sushi ginger on sprouted 14 grain bread is also also a favorite of mine."
People Break Down The Best Loophole They've Ever Exploited
No Sizzle
bacon GIFGiphy"I do not like bacon."
"I've been learning this over the years. If I'm gonna do bacon I much prefer the maple bacon since it's sweeter and doesn't overpower with saltiness."
- truije15
Who doesn't like bacon? That seems like a sacrilege. Right? But to each their own. Though I will never understand not loving walnuts in comfort food. Y'all need more self love.
Love the Big M
"Fast food tastes amazing, yeah its unhealthy as hell but don't you sit there and lie and say it tastes bad."
"Pisses me off when people act like they're better then McDonald's. What the hell? McDonald's is incredible and billions of people buy their food still. The same can't be said for other restaurants."
Blasphemy!
golden girls flirting GIF by HULUGiphy"Cheesecake is disgusting."
"I don't find cheese cake disgusting. It looks good. Smell delicious. Has ingredients in it that I love. But i can not eat more than one bite. It is too rich. One bite and i feel sick."
Too Many Legs
"Lobsters and crabs are giant insects."
"I don't really think that's that controversial, in my area of the world we even call this creature a 'Moreton Bay Bug' even though some fisheries try to give it the more appealing name of 'flathead lobster'."
bad bones
"Boneless wings are vastly superior to bone-in wings. I think bone-in wings are a ripoff because when you get half a pound of them, part of that half-pound is inedible. It's like if you ordered a quarter-pound cheeseburger, but the restaurant considers the weight of the plate to be part of that quarter-pound and you end up with just a slider. Just give me some damn meat."
The Slime
man oyster GIFGiphy"Oysters are truly disgusting and absurdly overpriced for quarter sized pieces of snot that tastes like salt water and hot sauce."
- C_23_s
Side Dish Bad
"Cheese fries = ruined fries. I don't have a lot of texture issues, but I refuse to eat limp, soggy french fries. No cheese fries, no chili fries, no poutine."
Bad Carbs
"I don't care for pasta. Around a decade ago, I lost a ton of weight by cutting out carbs (except beer) and after not eating bread or pasta for 3 or 4 years, I still liked some breads but to this day don't like the squishiness of pasta."
- mrsc00b
"I realized a few years back that pasta tastes like poverty to me. It's what my mother used to base dinner off of when we didn't have much grocery money."
Apples?
pineapples GIF by gifnewsGiphy"I do not like pineapple. Period. Not on pizza, not cooked, not by itself, not in juice form. I just do not like pineapple."
Hey Red
"Tomatoes can screw off."
"I don't mind raw tomatoes, for things like salads or sliced in sandwiches. But cooked tomatoes? Get them the fuck away from me. I hate canned tomatoes in, for example, a vegetable soup. When my family fires up our grill, we skewer a bunch of different vegetables. Mushrooms, zucchini, bell peppers..."
"And cherry tomatoes. While all the other veggies get combined onto the same skewers, the tomatoes usually get a skewer of their own just for my sake."
Yucky!
"You could not pay me to eat a banana. The texture, the smell, just everything about it. Won't even drink a smoothie that has a little bit of banana in it—that's all I'd taste."
"Thank you! One of the only foods on this planet I will not eat are bananas."
"I am NOT a picky eater, love every single vegetable and fruits and a huge variety of food. Cannot. Stand. Bananas. They make me gag to even think of them. I truly cannot believe that people actually find bananas edible or even enjoyable to eat. I hate them so much I think everyone is lying about liking them."
Evil
"Nutella on pancakes is just plain abomination."
"It's something about hot Nutella that makes it disgusting. Slapping some Nutella on a piece of white bread is euphoric."
Sick 'n Nasty
"Licorice is absolutely disgusting."
"Yeah it is. I don't understand what child hating sicko decided to invent a candy as superficially inviting as Good n Plenty, knowing that it would contain that rancid excrement on the inside. When I was young and getting a dollar to buy the candy of my choice was a huge deal to me, I once made the mistake of wasting my cash on a box of those rabbit turds."
"I think I remember crying when I bit into a handful of them, because idk what exactly I was expecting... but it wasn't freaking licorice."
Poached
GIF by markoGiphy"Poached eggs are infinitely inferior to fried or scrambled eggs. I don't want my food or plate contaminated with gross eggy water and I want some crispy variation in the texture."
- cewumu
A Whole Meal Mess
"I may like my steaks medium rare and with nothing but a bit of butter and garlic, but if you want your steak well-done and slathered in ketchup, cool, you do you. Some people prefer different tastes and freak snobs who think if your grilled cheese is American on Wonderbread and isn't made with Asiago and Romano on freshly baked bread, toasted via fireplace, you're not doing it right. Sometimes I like my food how mom used to make... and mom was a crappy cook."
Dairy No
"Food is so much better without cheese. Cheese drowns out all of the other flavors. Take a sandwich for instance. You can really taste the vegetables on a sandwich without cheese. You taste mostly cheese when you add cheese."
"Cheese is the bane of my existence. EVERYTHING comes with cheese when you are at a restaurant these days. I have a very limited number of cheeses I can eat. Things like cheddar, a very popular cheese, give me killer migraines. Stop putting cheese on everything people!"
Ok, I'm trying to stay calm. I don't want to judge. But some of these opinions... are leaving me shook. Except the oysters. That is that work of the devil. Look away...
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Ordering food or, for the time being, enjoying a socially distanced lunch at an establishment is convenient, but it can take a toll on your wallet.
So what options are there?
Fortunately, there are plenty of them that do not involve nuking a frozen entree.
Strangers on the internet shared their amateur culinary wisdom when Redditor SandandS0n asked:
"What's your go-to under 5 minute meal?"
These dinner selections are super sufficient.
In Case You Didn't Know
"Quesadilla. super quick and easy to make and there's a ton of ingredients that you can add without much effort that will make it even better."
A Must For Quesadilla
"I like to buy a rotisserie chicken and use it for a lot of things...I probably make Quesadillas 2-3 times a week. A little roast chicken and salsa to your cheese quesadilla and you have a real meal in the same amount of time. The trick is to use butter in the pan and to cook it on medium-low until the insides get melty, and then raise the heat to medium and get your desired tortilla crispness."
Noodling Around
"Ramen and an egg, but not the traditional way."
- "Boil roughly half an inch of water (we want just enough water to boil the noodles, with very little water left over when it's done boiling)."
- "Smash up the ramen noodles, while still in the package (optional but cooks MUCH faster)."
- "Open the package and remove the seasoning."
- "Dump the noodles in."
- "While boiling, crack an egg and whisk in a small bowl."
- "Noodles should be done and almost all the water should be gone, if not strain out some.
- Remove from the heat."
- "Slowly pour in the egg while mixing very quickly, try not to let the egg touch the pan."
- "Mix as much of the seasoning packet as you like (I prefer 1/2 - 3/4 because I usually add a salty component at the end.)"
- "Add to bowl and top with some chives, thinly sliced, ripped up ham/salami and/or parsley. Leftover bacon or pancetta are fantastic crunchy components to dial up the texture."
"Easy, fast and checks so many of the 'munchie' boxes for me."
noodles ramen GIF by HUANG'S WORLDGiphyDon't Underestimate Soups
"Tomato soup and add tortellini. I like the spinach ones from Trader Joe's and Progreso creamy tomato with basil. It's bomb and it really makes a decent meal."
People Explain The Worst Thing That's Ever Happened To Them On Their Birthday
Get Your Soups On
"Grilled cheese and tomato soup. Put tomato soup can in pot on low. Add in equal amount of milk to soup(1 can of soup= 1 soup can of milk). Cook grilled cheese as desired and enjoy!"
Microwave Dumpling Soup
"Pick a broth, add (insert Asian dumpling here; mandu are good, but gyoza or wonton work too), add a fistful of fresh greens (spinach, arugula, cabbage, literally whatever you have on hand). Add hot sauce if you want it, a splash of soy if you have it, whatever you like in your broth. Microwave three minutes; beat an egg while you do. Remove the soup from the microwave and drizzle in the egg very slowly. Congrats, you've hit most major dietary requirements and made a satisfying meal that's as filling as you want it to be."
"Peak tier for me is beef broth, a splash of dashi, a splash of soy sauce, a splash of mirin, a big spoon of sambal olek, about four or five mid-sized Chinese beef and vegetable dumplings, a fistful of baby spinach, and an egg. Sometimes you have to microwave again for a minute if the egg ribbons don't set."
Goes Well With Veggies And Cheese
"Hummus is such an underrated food. It goes well with a lot of veggies and breads and chips or heck even cheese. All the time I hear hummus being listed as one of those weird, gross foods when its actually an amazing snack, or a meal if done correctly. It's not really unhealthy, either, especially if eaten with veggies (celery and carrots go great with hummus)."
Must Add Cheese
"Bread (any kind) plus cheese."
"Sometimes just the cheese. I eat the preshredded kind out of the bag at midnight, to hide from my shame."
Ready In Seconds
"All I do is get a paper towel, and put 5 Oreos on it."
"Then go back and get the whole package."
Rice Is Nice
"If you already have rice made and in the fridge: pop the rice in the microwave to heat up (covered, so it doesn't get weird), fried egg, add kimchi = yuuuuuum. The fried egg should be cooked enough that it's still gooey, but not totally runny. ...it's good cold, too. I've totes fried an egg in the morning, assembled my meal, and brought it for lunch. You do have to be careful about where you eat it, tho- not everyone likes the smell of kimchi. Tuna sandwich etiquette applies here!!"
"Edit to add a second one: Oh!! If you cut up half an andouille sausage, brown the slices in a pan while you steam some broccoli (in the microwave), then mix together and top w/a little Parmesan cheese. Suuuuper good."
– wrenwild
Peanut Butter Fantasies
"Peanut butter sandwich."
"If I'm feeling extra froggy I'll add nutella to the peanut butter and honey sandwich and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Goes down about as well as a popeye's biscuit though."
Nature's Candy
"Fruit."
"It's like cheating the system. You eat sweets and call it healthy."
Erotic Duo
"Watermelon with Mango. It's fruit sexy time on your tongue, super healthy for you, great pre or post workout/game, takes 2 minutes to make."
– GypsyJJJ
Better Than Dip
"Another really good one is mango and avocado cubed, sprinkled with salt and lime. Eat with tortilla chips. Simple and tasty."
Start your day without all the hassle of a fancy breakfast.
Put It In A Bowl
"Oatmeal or cereal."
– essa618
"Cereal is definitely underrated as a meal outside of the breakfast dynamic."
Thanks, Nonna!
"A very simple recipe my grandma prepared for me when i was a kid."
"It's basically scrambled eggs...but before adding the egg she would cook sweetcorn (from a can) with a little bit of butter, add the eggs and then when the eggs were almost ready, add small cubes of cheese and cook for a minute or until the cheese start to melt (she was using fontal, but any swiss or white cheddar will do). Just a little black pepper and salt."
"Takes 5 minutes to do but it's absolutely delicious, fill you up, not so unhealthy and I feel my late grandma with me."
'I tried variations with chives or spring onions, paprika or other stuff. Still good but nothing as good as a simple "uova strapazzate con mais e formaggio.'"
"Grazie nonna"
– Xelorath
I consider yogurt a healthy snack/lunch option.
I like having a bowl of non-fat plain Greek yogurt with raspberries, blueberries, sprinkled with granola and drizzled with honey.
It's packed with nutrients and gives me a nice boost of energy.
Yogurt also makes for a perfect chip dip. I sprinkle some onion soup mix and stir in the mixture. Who knew quick and easy food prep could be so delicious?
Every chef has that one item on the menu that they can't stand making. Wanna know what they are? Keep reading!
u/ShylocksBloodyBond asked: Chefs of reddit, what is that one dish on the menu you absolutely hate making?
Depending on which restaurant you go to, there are times when what may seem like the easiest dishes, are actually much more annoying than they look.
Eggs can be tricky.
Former chef, it's some of the simplest dishes that are the most annoying. I always hated working breakfast rushes, people are very particular about eggs, and it is very easy to accidentally break a yolk.
Outside of that, while pastry and desserts were some of my favorite things to make, working with phyllo dough is a major test of patience
Also f*ck cleaning mussels.
A lot goes into those tasty soufflés.
Animated GIFGiphySoufflés. We make the creme pate in advance but when it's ordered the process is: Warm creme pate over a double boiler, while that is warming you need to hand whip a fresh meringue. Once the creme pate is warm, you have about 3 minutes to fold in the whites, fill your molds to make sure you don't touch the edges(as it makes them rise crooked). Into the oven for 3 minutes, open oven and rotate for 2 minutes. In those 5 minutes you have to plate the rest of the tables desserts, which all have 8-10 components. Soufflé comes out to a waiting waiter, has to go to the table immediately or deflates.
While it's not the most difficult thing in the world, when you're busy and have 4-6 on order and each one needs to pass a 3 finger test(height above rim of mold or it gets sent back and you need to restart), it can get quite hard and demoralizing when they don't work.
And then you send out 4 at once and someone at the table gets up to go to the bathroom or have a cigarette and the tray comes back and you start again and cry inside.
Gross.
Slightly different take, but I was a chef at a nursing home and anything puréed for people who are on that dietary restriction was gross to me. I literally had to take whatever meal I made, throw in a blender and put it in a bowl. I always felt so bad.
Fancy dishes are even worse. If everything isn’t just right, it may be at risk for starting all over again, making for some very impatient customers.
Please don’t order this ten minutes before close.
Our German Apple pancake.
First you sauté Granny Smiths in clarified butter.
Then add three ladles of our German batter into sauté pan.
Throw in oven for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and add clarified butter and cinnamon sugar.
Flip delicate pancake with spatula and a dash of learning curve.
Return to oven and cook 5 more minutes.
Flip pancake onto plate and insure it makes it to the table in less than a minute as it deflates rapidly.
Bonus points for when it's ordered 10 minutes before we close.
Edit: those who are apologizing for ordering it, don't it's our job. Kitchen staff are gluttons for punishment.
Some customizations are actually impossible.
Seinfeld Soup GIFGiphyCustomizing the soups. I used to work at a Michelin star restaurant. WE ALREADY HAVE THE SOUPS PREPARED BEFORE YOU WALK IN. I can't just take out the shrimp taste of a paella soup that I prepped before you walked in here.
I don’t know what that is, but it sounds like a nightmare.
Not working in a traditional restaurant anymore but the f*cking ringmold stacked beet salad. It took like 3 minutes to make just one and if a table of four all ordered them it slowed down the entire salad line.
Even the chain restaurants have their own sets of issues when it comes to their dishes.
Don’t underestimate the fruit boxes.
I used to work at a grocery store and I was the person who made all those pre-cut fruit boxes. I didn't particularly mind any of them all that much except clementines. We had to peel clementines and put them in a box. First, it was a huge waste because no one ever bought them (why would you pay $5 for 6 peeled clementines when you could buy a whole bag unpeeled for the same price) except for old people who couldn't peel the fruit themselves, and secondly because the acid would eat through our gloves and then destroy our nails and leave orange smell on your fingers for days.
The only other thing I hated making was 5 mix. We have a mixture called "six mix" which is just 6 different kinds of fruit together, but this one guy would come in and ask for six mix without the cantaloupe in it. We actually started calling him 5 mix. When he walked in someone from a different department would ring us and let us know 5 mix was there and to start making some 5 mix. I hated it because when he asked we'd have to go get a whole watermelon, a whole honeydew, and 3 other fruits and cut them all up just so he could have like 5 cut up pieces of each instead of just eating around the cantaloupe. And he always showed up right as our department was starting to close down for the night too. So we had to them rewatch all our surfaces after five mix came in.
Microwaved McDonald’s is no bueno.
Food Drink Mac GIFGiphyI used to work at McDonalds. Years ago we had this promotional burger we called the 'lean beef burger'. It was aimed at people who wanted to be more healthy.
Normally the meat patties are cooked on the grill, but this one was nuked in the microwave. When it was heated, it looked grey, and it smelled so putrid no one wanted to work near the microwave so they wouldn't have to smell it.
Subway can be a tough gig.
Not a chef but I worked at Subway, whenever people wanted guacamole, we always spread it on one side of the bread before adding the rest of the veggies but the way the counter was designed the avocado was the last ingredient so people would always add all their veggies and then want avocado on top. This was a nightmare to spread across the uneven veggie surface and would generally just stick in clumps.
Some vegetarian customers also wanted us to change our gloves to serve them but everytime we change gloves we have to wash our hands which makes the gloves near impossible to wear - this would grind our whole production line to a halt while all staff members struggled to change their gloves. I mean I'm vegetarian too so I kinda understand but like if you're so strict about it you want fresh gloves then you shouldn't work at subway because the "contaminated" gloves from before still went in all the veggie boxes.
Peanut butter is tricky.
Worked in a sandwich shop for a bit in college. Not fine dining by any stretch of the imagination, but a couple steps above Subway.
Every time someone ordered a PB&J off the kids menu we had to clear off both lines, change our gloves, wipe down every surface the peanut butter got close to, and wash the knife we used to cut it. Like, I get it. But having to treat peanut butter like nuclear waste in the middle of a lunch rush was never fun.
Plus, the peanut butter was too thick for the bread we used for the PB&J, so the bread ended up tearing half the time.
Most of these chefs have made clear- it is 100% ok to order these items off the menu. But it doesn't make them any less of a pain in the butt.
Show appreciation for the chefs at the restaurants you go to! They work even harder than non-food service workers would expect