Does human meat taste like chicken?

[Mr Rayon]

Is it true that human meat tastes like chicken? I heard that it does.

 

Have there been any scientific tests to confirm/deny this seemingly outrageous claim?

[lemur]

Pork seems a more likely candidate, imo. Pigs are mammals and omnivores. Chickens are birds and have a diet less like humans, I think.

[TonyMcC]

I don't know about the actual taste, but Sweeney Todd's customers seemed to find it palatable!

[Stefan-CoA]

I agree with lemur, I've heard say it's closer to pork. Maybe 'tis why it's banned by some religions?

[Klaynos]

I'm reliably informed that in at least one cannibalistic tribe they called if "long pig" due to its similarity to pork.

[ajb]

Again, like pork is what I have read.

[swansont]

So we're the other other white meat? Or, if you're a stranded rugby player, an MRE?

[insane_alien]

tastes like pork but sweeter according to 9/10 cannibals.

[rktpro]

Is it true that human meat tastes like chicken? I heard that it does.

 

Have there been any scientific tests to confirm/deny this seemingly outrageous claim?

 

My Biology teacher once said that Human Flesh is really addictive substance. This means it can be good in taste. Isn't it?

[insane_alien]

its not addictive.

 

the only way it might be addictive is if the consumer gets an adrenaline rush from breaking the taboo about it but it won't be from any chemical properties of the meat itself.

 

other wise pork would be very addictive as it is similar to human flesh.

[Marat]

I guess there are no forum members from Papua New Guinea to enlighten us -- or do they just eat the brains? Perhaps there are none left who can remember, now that they have been dissuaded from this practise by Westerners warning them of the dangers of Kreuzfeldt-Jakob disease.

[JohnB]

I have relatives from New Guinea and I'm anecdotally informed that "Long Pig" is accurate.

 

During the early 1940s meat animals were taken from the natives by the Japanese army so meat was in short supply. After a couple of decisive battles a new source of meat was available for the natives.

 

It might sound terrible, but what do you expect starving people to do? I should add that only some tribes in some areas were involved, it wasn't a general thing.

[hypervalent_iodine]

I have relatives from New Guinea and I'm anecdotally informed that "Long Pig" is accurate.

 

During the early 1940s meat animals were taken from the natives by the Japanese army so meat was in short supply. After a couple of decisive battles a new source of meat was available for the natives.

 

It might sound terrible, but what do you expect starving people to do? I should add that only some tribes in some areas were involved, it wasn't a general thing.

 

Cannibalism can arise form more than just starvation and is not always perceived as such a 'terrible' thing. Some cultures, for instance, practiced endocannibalism as a form of funeral rite. In PNG, the Korowai tribe did just that so as to reintegrate the life energy of the deceased back into the community (supposedly - it has been the subject of debate). In New-Zealand, the Maori people used cannibalism to serve as a fear mongering tactic to scare opposing tribes during times of war by eating their prisoners. This was particularly prevalent when they first occupied New-Zealand and engaged in numerous bloody battles against the former natives, the Mori Ori (all of whom are now extinct). Also, I suspect that with some of the cases where a person resorts to cannibalism as a result of hunger, the person that they eat is already dead. This would certainly be considered a crime and morally offensive in normal circumstances, but outside of that I don't think it is so bad if the person they consume is already deceased (not by their doing).

 

It is, however, a terrible thing where you get Hannibal Lecter type people who go around murdering people and eating the spoils.

Edited April 28, 2011 by hypervalent_iodine

[Marat]

There have been some well-documented cases in the Western world of cannibalism excused under the defense of necessity, such as R. v. Dudley and Stevens, when crew members adrift on a wreck in the South Atlantic killed and ate the dying cabin boy to allow the rest of the crew to survive until rescue. They were found guilty of murder and imprisoned, though pardoned after a short period. At the other end of the moral spectrum are characters like Albert Fish, who in the 1940s in the American Northwest like to murder and eat little girls. When he was electrocuted for his crimes the charge partially bled off because, as it was later discovered, he also had to the hobby of inserting metal pins into his scrotum.

[Moontanman]

My Biology teacher once said that Human Flesh is really addictive substance. This means it can be good in taste. Isn't it?

 

 

Quite possibly your biology teaxher was thinking of his or her experinces with tube steak

 

Marat, sounds like the perfect hobby for that guy... and I've heard that clowns taste funny...

Edited April 28, 2011 by Moontanman

[Stefan-CoA]

What about the case in Germany where a guy posted his desire to eat a human being, asking for volunteers, in a local newspaper. He got a response and the "dinner" was apparently quite alright with having parts of him eaten as far as I know. Would one be able to excuse such behaviour? I mean it involves two consenting adults who are wholly able to comprehend what they are getting into.

[hypervalent_iodine]

What about the case in Germany where a guy posted his desire to eat a human being, asking for volunteers, in a local newspaper. He got a response and the "dinner" was apparently quite alright with having parts of him eaten as far as I know. Would one be able to excuse such behaviour? I mean it involves two consenting adults who are wholly able to comprehend what they are getting into.

 

I think that's bordering on a euthanasia debate.

[rktpro]

Quite possibly your biology teaxher was thinking of his or her experinces with tube steak

 

Marat, sounds like the perfect hobby for that guy... and I've heard that clowns taste funny...

 

(Her). She got pregnant when I saw her next time after this incident.

[rigney]

(Her). She got pregnant when I saw her next time after this incident.

 

We may find out shortly what the other white meat tastes like. A good old Sci Fi movie from the seventies may well attest to that.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green#Plot

Edited April 29, 2011 by rigney

[Marat]

The Ancient Greek myth of Pelops involves someone serving a dinner of human flesh to someone else who eats it unknowingly ... until he is surprised by the news of what he has just enjoyed. I guess this theme of the unknowing violation of an essential taboo was important to the Greeks, since they repeat it in the Oedipus story.

[John Cuthber]

I don't know what we taste like but since I stood barefoot on a soldering iron I can attest that we smell like pork while we are cooking.

[JohnB]

Yes, the smell of cooking human flesh is quite distinctive, isn't it?

[Hal.]

Did anybody see Mike Tyson chewing the ear of Evander Holyfield . If ever there was a great attempt at cannibalism , this must be it .

[Marat]

Perhaps there is an account of this taste in the book, 'Alive,' which was written about the people who survived the crash of a plane in the Andes Mountains by eating the corpses of their fellow-passengers preserved in the snow. I know that they complained of suffering from alternate bouts of diarrhea and constipation, and I wonder whether this had something to do with the unique physiology of each type of person they were eating. Some survivors of the crash could not stand the thought of carving flesh from their dead friends (they were all members of a soccer team), so they relied on the more hard-hearted passengers who went to the corpse supply and cut off bits of flesh in such a way that their origin from a human body, as well as the person they were taken from, was disguised.

[--JW]

I am sure jeffrey dahmer could tell you if he was still alive.