“Nature’s Spoils: The Underground Food Movement Ferments Revolution”, 2010-11-22 ():
[Discussion of food subcultures: dumpster divers, raw food enthusiasts, fermenters, roadkill, and ‘high’ (fully rotten meat) food advocates, with visits to gay commune Hickory Knoll and raw milk dairies. The author ultimately draws the line at trying high game, however.]
When Torma unclamped his jar, a sickly-sweet miasma filled the air—an odor as natural as it was repellent. Decaying meat produces its own peculiar scent molecules, I later learned, with names like putrescine and cadaverine. I could still smell them on my clothes hours later. Torma stuck two fingers down the jar and fished out a long, wet sliver. “Want a taste?” he said.
It was the end of a long day. I’d spent most of it consuming everything set before me: ants, acorns, raw milk, dumpster stew, and seven kinds of mead, among other delicacies. But even Katz took a pass on high meat. While Torma threw back his head and dropped in his portion, like a seal swallowing a mackerel, we quietly took our leave. “You have to trust your senses”, Katz said, as we were driving away. “To me, that smelled like death.”