15 of the strangest things people used to eat

Specifically, the dormice – you know, the Disney-like cuties with big eyes and a plump body – were a delicacy popular among the upper classes of ancient Rome. They would be fattened and sold to the rich, who would eat them cooked in honey and poppy seeds, or stuffed with other meat.

As if the black pudding wasn’t enough, the researchers revealed that The Spartans ate a simple broth of pig’s blood, salt and vinegar. It was known as Spartan black broth, and even dignitaries visiting Sparta could not stand it.

In the movie Lighthouse, both characters take in kerosene (lamp oil), but there is no official report of lighthouse keepers doing this. The sailors of World War II, however, consumed something called torpedo juice, which is basically a cocktail of lemon, pineapple juice and 180 resistant alcohol used as fuel in torpedoes!

In the 6th century, the Catholic Church declared that you could technically eating the fetus of a rabbit during Lent, which was traditionally a period of pescatarianism. Known as laurels, the fetus would either be cut from the rabbit or taken immediately after birth and served without entrails removed. Ew.

Another Lenten tradition was to eat beaver tails. In the 17th century, the Catholic Church clarified that since beavers were semi-aquatic, they technically counted as “fish” and could also be eaten during the 40 day period.

Americans of the last century concocted some really weird salads, but one recipe is still more heinous than them all – the “jell-o salad”. It was usually made with chicken or tuna, fruits and vegetables coated in lime jelly or some other sweet flavor.

Ambergris is mainly intestinal slurry a whale ejects from its body after digesting creatures like squid. It is probably secreted towards the rear of the whale and hardens in cold water. It was popular in modern Europe, where it became a luxury ingredient in things like ice cream.

the The Mayans loved those rich, all-yellow eggs which – unlike most bird eggs – have a leathery, rough exterior. The Mesoamerican people are said to cultivate black iguanas, which can stay out of the water longer than their green cousins, and harvest their eggs for food.

In Britain in the 1940s, food was scarce and people were forced to live on rations which unfortunately did not include exotic fruits from warmer climates. As a result, the British create simulated bananas in add banana essence to parsnips!

At the end of the 1970s, McDonald’s debuted “Onion Nuggets” – pieces of onion fried in a paste. Onion bhajis are one thing, but I’m personally happy that they were never considered. Maccy D finally decided to go back to the drawing board, and from there they came up with the chicken nuggets we know and love today!

It used to be quite common in the United States mix some Seven-Up with cold milk to make “soda milk”. In parts of the UK as well, people mix Coca-Cola and milk. I guess there are soda floats and egg creams too, so the sparkling dairy is still alive!

This bizarre medieval dish is often associated with the Tudor dynasty of England, and consists of a sewn piglet upper body on the bottom of a capon or turkey. It would then be stuffed and roasted on a spit. Similar chimerical items were all the rage during this period, including the “Roast Without Equal” which is a roast of 17 birds!

In 1861, English food writer Isabella Beeton chose to include a simple recipe for a toast in Mrs. Beeton’s Household Management Book. It’s basically two pieces of buttered bread with a piece of dry toast in the middle seasoned with salt and pepper. AKA the most British dish of all time.

The bizarre use of toast in cooking doesn’t stop there! Another 19th century English recipe calls for the British to toast a crust of bread, then immerse it in water for an hour until the water has a brown tint. Then just filter the water and drink it. I don’t know about you, but this one really feels like it might become a weird trend in the future!

I mean it’s not totally amazes me that our ancestors ate each other thousands of years ago, but I’m talking about Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, a time when people often ingested drugs made from human bone, blood and fat to cure all kinds of ailments!