How did people figure out how to prepare certain foods?

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I've read about foods that are inedible, disgusting or even toxic, unless you prepare them this exact certain way that makes them good. Well that's all great that we know this, but who's the one testing various specific preparation methods on toxic mushrooms and bitter berries? I just don't understand how people figure these things out.

If my friend died from eating a certain mushroom, I would say, "Hey guys, let's not eat that type of mushroom." Not, "Hmmm... Well, maybe if we cook it this way... Here Timmy, try this one!"

Either these people were idiots, or they were geniuses.

They were average for their day. Trial-and-Error is most likely how they figured out what was safe and what was not. Maybe they watched what the animals around them ate, or maybe they just fed it to the dog...

"Hmm ... dog not die. Red berries good. Me eat."

I've always wondered that myself, specifically regarding Japanese fugu fish, which can kill if prepared improperly. I always picture some guy in feudal Japan raving about how great the fish he's eating is right before keeling over, and his friends standing over the body, wondering if the fish was really that good...

Given what I know of feudal Japan, I wouldn't be surprised if they tried it on prisoners until they got it right, which still leaves the question of why they would go to all that trouble to eat a deadly fish.

I would assume that scientists or biologists were somehow involved. Maybe people who had reason to be dissecting or studying potentially toxic fish in the first place.

I've wondered the same thing but about basic recipes and meals that need a combination of ingredients. How did the first person to ever make bread, or a cake, figure out that putting this ingredient with that ingredient would make something edible, and why were they even mixing ingredients without an end goal to begin with?

We know the end goal now, but the first person who ever made a cake didn't. So how did that happen?

Pure trial and error.

It's funny that I've thought about all this (what L_Holmes, Dox47 and BirdInFlight said) many times. I think there must have been a lot of coincidences and accidents involved in coming up with how to prepare those foods. And coincidences, accidents and experiences must have given some people the motivation and abilities to discover more.

Same here...I've made "mistakes" which have turned out to taste great!