“What one group finds odorously offensive (cheese, pickled eggs, fermented fish) another enjoys with relish. Clearly from the anthropological literature of the past few centuries we can also accept that people have the physical ability to tolerate rotten and putrid meat. We also learn that the most nutritious parts of the animal were the staple foods for hunter-gatherers around the world. Caribou paunch stuffed with half digested moss, blood, fat and entrails, then roasted over a fire. Blubber, pounded until soft, and dipped into fermented seal oil. Fish eggs left to mature until they look like and taste like cheese. Frozen pieces of reindeer meat eaten with marrow and kidney fat. Such recipes were likely the sort of fare our ancestors ate, especially during climatic downturns. Some evidence exists for fermentation methods: Neanderthals submerging meat in water for long periods of time, a Swedish Mesolithic pit filled with putrefying fish…

While fitness gurus and dieters today argue about whether ketogenic or gluten-free represents the ideal prehistoric diet, you’d likely come much closer by eating a can of surströmming with some pickled cabbage.”

From Grey Goose Chronicles.