Do you read food labels and nod in approval when you read the words “natural flavorings”? Do you like that your baked goods have that fresh vanilla aroma? Do you know where these flavorings and scents come from? Would it surprise you to learn that the sources for some of these vanilla-scented flavorings are the anal passages of beavers?
Close your mouth; it’s true–the anal passages of beavers.
“How can this be?” You ask. Well, it started with the Swedes, who as it turns out, are good at other things besides massages, meatballs and Volvos. They learned decades ago how to use the fragrant beaver’s anal passages to get those natural flavorings.
Honestly, I’m not sure how this came about. Did a Swedish chef wake up one day and say to his spouse, “I think I will go into the woods today and sniff some beaver butts and see if I can use the fragrance in my pastries”?
And what would his spouse’s response to this be?
“Okay, dear, but don’t be too late. We have to put together our coffee table from IKEA today.”
It does not sound plausible; yet, it is true – not the chef in the woods part– just the beaver butt part.
Anyway, before everyone jumps on the Swedes for being gross, know that beaver anal passages scent or the technical term, Castoreum, is in other countries as well, and in fact, the FDA in the United States has labeled it as a Generally Recognized as Safe food or (GRAS) additive. If you don’t know where the beaver butt expressions might be located in your food supply, think anything that has a vanilla flavor such as beverages and baked goods and for those of you who smoke–cigarettes.
So, what can we learn from this? (And before anyone thinks I am not aware of the plethora of double entendres that can come from this post, let me just interject and say this right now: I have cable… I get the smut jokes.)
We can learn three things:
1. Next time you see a beaver sitting in the woods, stop by and say thank you or at least give him a stick to help build his dams.
2. A cigarette habit is a lot easier to break knowing you might be inhaling beaver butt with each puff.
AND
3. We all better pray that the old adage “You are what you eat” is NOT true.
Vanilla flavor from Beaver butts.
The most expensive coffee in the world from Civet butts.
I’ll never look at vanilla extract the same way again.
And I had to read this just before dinner! Natural flavor, my butt! (at least if I was a beaver.)
BTW, I think my butt smells like chocolate! 🙂
So when a beaver poops is it considered to be a vanilla wafer?
I heard about this on the radio this morning. I’ll never eat another baked good.
Vanilla baked good. Go for the chocolate, but it can be in the strawberry, so avoid that too.
So if a tree falls in a forest, and no one hears it but they do get a whiff of beaver butt, then it happened, right?
You got it! You are just too smart for the world Tom!
What I want ti know is, who was the first Swede to realize that the fragrant beaver’s anal passages gives those natural flavorings?
I think it’s the guy who founded IKEA. It had to be someone smart! Or one of those Swedish filmmakers. We all know the type of stuff they are into.
OMG! I’ve never laughed so hard and been so grossed out at the same time!
It is a rather gross thing, isn’t it? Time to turn to chocolate!