You're not supposed to eat THAT part!

[Chris Amirault]

Fish eyes.

Works like a charm, every time.

Soba

Hey, Soba, what does "works" mean here?

[Radio7]

Lots of people throw away broccoli stems, but they're very good if prepared and cooked properly. My father has enjoyed cooking them ever since he learned an Indian way to deal with them: cut them in half or smaller, so that they will cook at the same rate as the flowers.

I always cook the stems. They taste just fine, and I hate to waste any precious brocc!

[jackal10]

beetroot leaves

radish, nasturtium seed pods

chicken feet

pork or ham rind

Ears, snout, tail

salmon skin (fried crispy)

soft cheese rind

rose petals and other flowers (chive, marigold,nasturtiam etc)

tangerine rind (dried as flavouring)

Citrus rind (marmelade)

Peach and apricot stone (kernals)

[petite tête de chou]

Dill pickle 'juice.' With a spoon. And occasionally I swallow my gum, probably not supposed to do that.

[Suzanne F]

What is this nonsense about "not supposed to"? All the stuff people have mentioned -- with the possible exception of eyeballs (although I've probably had them fried), all that stuff is edible, and between us HWOE and I will eat it all.

It breaks my heart, too, to think of all the good stuff people toss because they don't know what to do with it. Perfect example is beets: there are three parts -- root, stem, and leaf -- that alone and in combination make for goooooooood eating (if you like beets in the first place ). And I have never ever understood using only the florets of cauliflower and broccoli. In fact, the only veg leaves I would not use (besides rhubarb, if you think of it as a veg) is carrots, but even those have their partisans.

[Pickles]

I do believe that sauerkraut juice is a curative. It acts as a detoxifier, and natural laxative. It also has healthy bacteria in it. Much like yogurt. You can use kraut juice to start sour dough bread, as well. So...save that kraut juice....it's krautilicious.

[mrbigjas]

In fact, the only veg leaves I would not use (besides rhubarb, if you think of it as a veg) is carrots, but even those have their partisans.

Rhubarb's obviously a fruit; otherwise why would it be in a pie?

kidding.

carrot stems and leaves are delicious. they taste like carrots, in the same way beet greens taste like beets. I put them in salads and occasionally stir-fry them.

[Suzanne F]

In fact, the only veg leaves I would not use (besides rhubarb, if you think of it as a veg) is carrots, but even those have their partisans.

Rhubarb's obviously a fruit; otherwise why would it be in a pie?

kidding.

carrot stems and leaves are delicious. they taste like carrots, in the same way beet greens taste like beets. I put them in salads and occasionally stir-fry them.

Well, then, I guess I'll have to try them!

[picaman]

all that stuff is edible, and between us HWOE and I will eat it all

When I was growing up, my family ran a mom-and-pop grocery store in a small town. Just about everything we ate was the leftover stuff that we couldn't sell. The tops of carrots, celery, beets, etc.; the outer leaves of cabbage; any fruit or vegetable with a rotten spot that we subsequently cut out; past-date everything; broccoli and cauliflower stalks (we'd sell just the florets at a higher price and eat the rest ourselves); the meat that had turned grey; the ends and remains of every slab of bacon, log of lunchmeat, and wheel of cheese. We ate a lot of soup with broth made with scraps and leftovers. Perhaps not coincidentally, I didn't get sick very much either as a kid.

I guess this is where I get my obsession for peasant food

Jamie

[Laksa]

Fish eyes.

Works like a charm, every time.   

Soba

I prefer the small, glutinous, jelly-like disks underneath the fish eyes (in the eye socket) myself. And any fleshy part of the fish head, like the cheeks and the part just behind the top of the head.

[origamicrane]

;) heheh steamed fish eyes:)

haven't eaten them since i was a kid. They meant to be very good for your sight

and i'm not joking.

Just for the benefit of the non initiated the eye ball after steaming becomes this little solid white ball it doesn't have any taste of its own but it has a interesting chewy multilayered texture rather like chewying on a firm polystyrene ball

I also like eating apple seeds. Golden delicious or granny smiths, the seed have a almond taste.

deep fried sweet prawn heads are delicious.

deep fried fish bone crackers!!! hmmm....

[Devilkitty]

The thread title puts me in mind of a photo from Yakov Smirnov's America on 40 Rubles a Day: Smirnov is holding up a hot dog with his nose wrinkled. The caption?

Wait for it...

"In Russia we don't eat that part of the dog!"

[slkinsey]

Lobster tomalley, eschewed by many, loved by the chosen few...

what's that? (sorry, stupid question)

The tamale is the liver of the lobster.

I used to eat this, and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, lobsters are like little concentration machines for heavy metals, PCBs, etc. -- and just about all of that is in the tomalley. So, sadly, I don't eat it any longer.

Oh, just for general informational puposes:

Tamale = filled masa dough steamed in a corn husk

Tomalley = lobster liver

[patti]

When Mom peeled potatoes she'd give us kids a piece or two of raw potato to munch on. It's not as exciting as fish eyeballs, but I don't know very many people who snack on raw potatoes.

[Artichoke]

1. The cores of cabbage, cauliflower, and iceberg lettuce

2. Broccoli and artichoke stems (both trimmed of their very fiberous outer shell).

3. I use the oil from jarred or canned anchovies that are packed in olive oil to drizzle over salad or roasted peppers.

3. When a fish is well fried I will eat the tail, fins and most of the head.

4. Fish skin. It drives me crazy when I watch a cooking show and they skin a fish and toss away the skin. The more fatty a fish the better, the skin off a salmon for instance crisps up so nicely in a broiler or high heated oven.

5. OK, this may seem like a weird one, but one time after eating two turkey legs at a sitting I was facing a plateful of tendons. I just rubbed them with a little fat from the pan that I re-heated the legs in, and placed them in the oven until lightly browned. Not terribly filling, but very crunchy with a nice toasted flavor.

6. Any tough cartlidge from the ends of bones or that run through a piece of meat.

7. The skin that forms over the juices left in a pan when roasting meat or fowl.

8. The pockets of fat that pull easily away from a raw duck or chicken. Render that gold. Freeze the fat, and munch on the cracklings.

[hathor]

When Mom peeled potatoes she'd give us kids a piece or two of raw potato to munch on. It's not as exciting as fish eyeballs, but I don't know very many people who snack on raw potatoes.

You're kidding...right?? Of course everyone pops some raw potato in their mouth...!

[jgarner53]

I'm another pineapple core eater. In fact, that was always a great treat when mom cut up a pineapple. She'd quarter it, and we kids would fight over who got to eat it. I never thought of it as NOT edible.

And I really don't get people who dont' eat the rind of soft cheeses. yum yum! Parmiagano-reggiano rinds are a great flavoring agent (probably the salt & fat) in minestrone soup, though I pick 'em out before serving.

Shrimp shells, especially when they've been fried (along with the rest of the shrimp, of course). Good & crunchy!

[morda]

Peach and apricot stone (kernals)

Might want to think twice about that one, unless you have cancer:

Cyanide in fruit seeds

Apples are one such fruit: their pips (seeds) contain amygdalin, a cyanide and sugar compound that degrades into hydrogen cyanide (HCN) when metabolized. Cyanide itself is a poison that kills by denying blood the ability to carry oxygen and thereby causes its victims to die of  asphyxiation.

It goes on to say that you can't really eat enough apple seeds to for this to be dangerous. But...

Cherry, peach, and apricot pits also contain amygdalin; the latter two, at least, in potentially harmful amounts. Fortunately, peach and apricot pits are sufficiently large and hard that few people intentionally swallow or chew them. (The unapproved anti-cancer drug Laetrile is a semisynthetic derivative of amygdalin; a cheaper version of laetrile produced in Mexico came from crushed apricot pits.)

But my mom likes to eat them too

morda

[spaghetttti]

What about grape seeds? I like to eat them as well as watermelon seeds. I don't bother to spit out orange or tangerine seeds either, just swallow them down. Even though I'm told that an orange tree will grow out at the top of my head. Wait that one's for the food superstition thread, right?

[sparrowgrass]

Old maids--the popcorn kernels that don't pop, or, even better, the ones that partially pop.

I once found a can of "Half-pops"--commercially packaged half popped popcorn. Wonderfully crunchy, but I have never seen it again.

[Artichoke]

Old maids--the popcorn kernels that don't pop, or, even better, the ones that partially pop.

That is a great one, it is my favorite part of popcorn. I have always been on the look out for someone who produces those as a snack. Korean markets sell bags of roasted corn kernels that looked very promising when I saw them. They use them to brew a type of tea called oksusucha. However, being simply roasted and with no salt, they are pretty poor as a snack. Some oil and salt are a definite necessity.

[bobmac]

Lobster tomalley, eschewed by many, loved by the chosen few...

we are the few, the proud, the chosen

Round these parts, most people eat it.

[jayt90]

My mom and my grandmother (her mother in law) always savoured the tail when we had roast turkey, capon, duck or goose. Mom always called it "the part that goes through the fence last!" It was too strong for us kids, but I admit to trying it now and then. Mostly it goes into the stock pot.

[Pan]

Yetty, citrus seeds are bitter and I'm guessing they have cyanide in them. Despite that, I've never tried hard at all to avoid the seeds in candied kumquats...

[Daddy-A]

Peach and apricot stone (kernals)

Might want to think twice about that one, unless you have cancer:

My grandmother and great uncle both made this amazing apricot jam, to which they added the seed from inside the stone. They'd crack it open, dry the seeds out, sliver them and then add this to the jam.

The seeds really did have a bitter almond taste ... who knew??? Apparently not my grandmother or great uncle!

Still, it was good jam.

DA