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Gotta hand it to our ancient ancestors and all those guys and gals who saw weird things in nature and said .... "I wonder if can eat this?" ... "This looks yummy." ... or that friend who said ... "Dare you to eat that"
And the foods we got out of it only account for those daring adventurous tasters who survived. No one counts all those unfortunate souls who died eating things they shouldn't have.
Like the first person who ate an egg or an oyster was a brave soul.
My favorite is the guy or gal who first discovered cheese
The first step is the guy or gal who decided .... "hmmm .. I drank milk from my mom, why not the cow? Or the goat?" ...... a few hundred years go by ... "oh no, the milks gone bad inside this animal stomach I've been using as a stone age water bottle .... and oh look, it's all turned into ugly lumps ... I wonder what they taste like?"
I never understood how people started using rennet to make cheese. That makes so much sense, thank you for making that comment
I never understood it either until I read about some research that suggested that this is probably the way the first people accidentally made the first cheese
It's not like humans were dropped on earth a la hitchhikers' guide to the galaxy, we evolved from animals that already ate most of this stuff
Imagine how many times those lessons were learned and lost.
Not many. A ancient person would be hyper-aware of what was safe and what wasn't.
As to fungus, it's not a big bet to try a tiny nibble, wait, see what happens. Learned that from a mycology book. Works for me so far.
That whole process is an essential factor in the diversity of life. Each species that has niche diets would have, at one point, tried those foods for the first time.
And knowing how pets and toddlers behave with exploring their world with their mouths, it's constantly happening.
With fungus you simply chip a bit off with your tooth, wait an hour. No problem? Rinse and repeat with bigger chunks. Pass it on to the kids.