East Lothian Incredible Edibles

I've had years of practice doing barmy food experiments,

but you should not try anything you see on Incredible Edibles,

especially if it involves knives, matches,

raw meat, ovens, unicorns or windmills.

If you don't like blood, guts, gore and entrails,

then close your eyes for half an hour

and think about fluffy pink kittens instead.

I'm Stefan Gates and I'm a food adventurer.

I've been travelling the world searching for the best,

the funniest and the strangest foods on earth,

and now I'm going to serve them to you,

because this is Incredible Edibles.

Guys, get ready for an adventure. Woo-hoo!

Today, I'm in brilliant Prestonpans in Scotland, home to haggis,

some brilliant beef and tasty tatties.

Guys, are you hungry?

CROWD: Yeah!

That's a good job, cos this is what's on today's specials.

Coming up, we lift the lid on some farty food facts.

Are you guys embarrassed about breaking wind?

-The smell and the noise, it just makes you uncomfortable.

-Yeah?

I find out how some meat comes from animals that are shot in the wild...

..and three plucky volunteers confront my mystery meal.

You have been eating...

CROWD: Eugh!

That is disgusting.

On this show, I push the boundaries of possibilities with food,

and do something so spectacular, it'll make you shout...

CROWD: That's incredible.

Today, I want to experiment with something that we all do,

something that can be loud and proud.

-What am I talking about here?

-Pass wind.

Exactly! Another word for it?

-Bart.

-A bart.

Biohazard.

A biohazard! I like that.

Yeah, parp, trump, breaking wind,

there are loads of different names for it, but the proper name

for the gas is flatus, and letting it out is called flatulence.

Some people get embarrassed by flatulence,

but it's a normal and essential part of digesting our food.

To help me find out more, please welcome Kimberley, Aaron and Lara.

Guys, make some noise.

CROWD MAKE FLATULENT SOUNDS

Thank you for joining me for the most embarrassing item of all time.

So, are you guys embarrassed about breaking wind?

The smell and noise makes you uncomfortable.

But it's something you do anyway, isn't it?

I think it may be the sound,

cos it sounds like a bit of a squeak or like a 'pfft'!

Exactly, it's a bit odd that we're embarrassed

by something that we all do, and we have to do it in order to survive.

So what do you reckon that flatus is made of, the gas that you make?

Carbon dioxide.

Hey, very good! Quite a lot of different things in it, but there's

carbon dioxide and nitrogen in it.

So, guys, which foods do you reckon make the most gas?

Shout out to me!

CROWD: Beans!

Yeah, OK. Kimberley, lift this green lid,

and we'll see what creates the most gas.

Oh, yeah! So what have we got there?

-Apples.

-Apples.

-Beans.

-Beans.

-Raisins.

-Raisins. All these food contain different types of a sugar

that our bodies have difficulty digesting.

When these sugars get to our intestines,

the natural bacteria already there go completely berserk,

feed on the sugars, and then produce lots of gas.

The good news is that they're high in fibre,

they prevent constipation.

But which foods do you reckon create the smelliest gas?

Cheese? All right, all right, all right!

Seems like everything does it for you guys.

Let's have a little look. Ho-ho, yeah!

-So what have you got there?

-Cauliflower.

-Yeah.

Eggs, Brussels sprouts, beef, and milk.

-Quite a strange bunch of things. Would you have thought milk?

-No.

-What about Brussels sprouts?

-Yeah.

-Oh, yeah!

Well, the bad smell in flatus is caused by a gas called sulphur,

which smells like rotten eggs.

These foods help the bacteria make all the really smelly stuff.

What do you think would happen if you tried to keep that in?

-Your body would go bigger and...

-You'd get bigger and bigger and...

Explode!

Even if you tried to keep them in all day,

they would still sneak out in your sleep.

You can't stop it.

Now, believe it or not, we release about half a litre

of gas on average in a day.

Here is half a litre of gas.

Just imagine that inside you.

It would be quite uncomfortable, wouldn't it?

Yeah, so Kimberley, let off a day's worth of gas without embarrassment.

Hey! Let's take a look at what a week's worth looks like.

-That.

-Eugh!

-It's a whopper, isn't it?

Imagine that clogging up your body.

Now, Aaron, hold it nice and tight so none of the air comes out.

I've got some fishing wire here. You go down that end, Aaron.

Kimberley, you come down this end.

This is a whole week's worth of gas. I want to see how far it will go.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Go! Oh, yeah!

That's not bad, is it?

I want you to get over the embarrassment about trumping,

by showing you just what could happen if we didn't do it.

Meet the world's most uncomfortable superhero.

-Pfft!

-Guff Man!

Quite a strange-looking fellow, isn't he?

Well, only a superhero would have the powers to

keep in a month's worth of gas.

We'll stimulate what would happen if Guff Man let it all out in one go.

Will our unconventional superhero fly,

or will he end up creating the world's biggest stink bomb?

Find out later on.

I want to talk about meat. Who loves meat?

CROWD: Me!

That will be most of them, then. So who knows where meat comes from?

Where does meat come from? What sort of animals? Pigs, yeah.

-Sheep.

-Sheep, yeah. And where do those animals live?

-A farm.

-Where else can you get meat from, other than farms?

The forest.

Yeah, you can get them out in the wild.

A lot of the meat that we eat is farmed, but there are still

a load of wild animals which are hunted for their meat in the UK.

To show you what I mean, I've got the help of...

Guys, give them a big hand.

Woo-hoo!

Now, the big difference between wild meat and farmed meat is that animals

for farmed meat are taken to an abattoir where they're

usually knocked unconscious, and then they have their throats cut.

Wild animals are hunted in their natural habitat and usually shot.

So, what sort of wild animals do we get meat from?

They're known as game sometimes.

-Wild boar?

-That's a really good one, yeah.

-Deers.

-Deer, yeah.

-Pheasant.

-Pheasant, yeah. Anything else?

It's a bit of a tricky one, isn't it? You think,

"What don't I normally get in the supermarket?"

OK, here are some of them.

What do you think of that?

Disgusting.

Here we have a pheasant.

-Would you be happy touching the pheasant, Kieran?

-Oh, my God!

No, you don't want to. OK.

Well, this is the pheasant, and it comes like this.

Ooh, that is disgusting!

It's a beautiful creature, but if you think about it, so's a chicken.

Anyone here eat chicken?

Yeah, pretty much most people.

Well, what we have over this side, with the tasting team,

is a little plate.

So, Abigail, would you mind picking up that green lid there?

What you've got in there is a stew of pheasants.

Would you try some and tell us what it tastes like?

-Liam?

-No.

-You don't want to have a try?

Abigail, would you have a try?

Have a little try.

Oh, I'll try a wee taste.

Yeah, go on then, Liam.

Abigail, what does it taste like?

It tastes a bit like chicken.

A bit like chicken, yeah.

Quite hard but it's nice, I like the sauce, whatever, gravy.

Brilliant for trying that, well done.

I think we should get somebody to meet this pheasant properly.

Anyone want to try this? Aaron, come up here, mate.

Lift that up so that everyone can see it.

-It's quite strange touching it, isn't it?

-Yeah.

I'll touch its tail.

Yeah, you can touch it there.

It feels really soft there.

Does it feel strange holding a dead bird?

A little bit, cos you can see the head

and everything wriggling around everywhere.

Yeah, pop it down there for us. Well done, Aaron, you're a star.

Next we've got a rabbit. It's very, very soft, do you want to hold him?

Do you think of it as meat, as something that you might eat

when you see it like that?

No, not really. Why's that?

Because it's, like, got all its hair and the eyeballs,

and the whiskers and everything.

But when you see it in the supermarket, it's all chopped up.

Is it easier to think of meat as something from the shop,

-rather than something hopping around a field?

-Yeah.

You know it's not got that on it, and hair and stuff.

Yeah, and the hair makes it seem... Why is it so different?

-A wee bit...

-More alive.

More alive. Yeah, I guess you're right, OK.

Taste-testers, in there you have some rabbit stew.

Tell us what you think.

It tastes a bit of chicken, but not as much taste.

-Yeah, so it's a bit blander than chicken, is it?

-Uh-huh.

-Oh, OK.

-I'd say pheasant's better.

There are really good reasons for eating game.

They're really low in fat, so a good healthy alternative to other meats.

Venison is meat that comes from deer,

and whilst some deer are farmed, many wild deer are also killed

to keep numbers down, and their meat finds its way into the shops.

Some people disagree with killing deer to reduce their numbers

and argue that, left alone,

deer numbers would balance themselves out.

I've come to Sussex to watch a deer cull happen and to see why

manager Darren thinks deer numbers do need to be controlled.

Deer are just stunningly beautiful creatures

and they're timid, they're lovely.

Why do you have to kill them?

The reality of it is, unfortunately,

there are just too many deer here in the UK now.

There are several reasons, really, that we have to manage the numbers.

Firstly, there's a lot of damage that they cause to crops,

both agricultural and also forestry.

The other thing is the fact that they cause an awful lot of

accidents on the roads.

Every year, people are killed in traffic accidents involving deer.

The fact that there are too many isn't really their fault at all.

It's because they don't have any natural predators any more,

and that is man's fault,

because we actually killed all of their natural predators off.

So they had natural predators like wolves to keep the numbers down

and now you have to step in to perform that role.

It's now our duty to go in there and humanely and professionally

manage the population, so that the balance of number is kept right.

The word "manage" sort of seems to take away from the fact

that, basically, you've got to kill these deer.

Couldn't you take them to the vet and have them neutered like a cat?

They're wild, they're free to roam, they're not contained.

They're not like a pig or a cow or...

So how do you go about it? How do you kill these creatures?

-Can you show me?

-Absolutely.

People like Darren argue that reducing numbers stops

deer starving if there isn't enough food to go around,

stops the spread of disease, and reduces the thousands of accidents

involving deer and cars each year.

Others see it as cruel and unnecessary.

Like a lot of people, I'm still a bit uncomfortable with the idea.

It's weird. I mean, I'll eat beef, pork and chicken,

but the idea of seeing a deer killed in front of me makes

me feel almost guilty in a way.

It's quite normal to feel like that.

I get no satisfaction out of shooting the deer,

but you do have to remember why you're actually doing it.

And, ultimately, it's not just for the benefit of the deer.

It's also for the benefit of ourselves.

Deer can only be shot at certain times of the year,

and only by someone like Darren with a firearms licence.

Just a few minutes later, movement in a field catches Darren's eye.

It's a male fallow deer, the one he's after.

The deer went off into the woods, so Darren decided to follow it.

He spots the deer and is close enough to get a clean shot,

ensuring the deer dies instantly.

Until Darren takes a shot, it's almost unreal in a way,

and then when he finally takes a shot,

suddenly it all becomes...

just a rush of drama and emotion.

The deer's been killed.

It's now time for me to take a deep breath

and go down to inspect the body.

There he is.

There he is.

Blimey. Aw, look.

I mean it... Phew.

You get this sort of roar of emotion, don't you?

What you have to remember is that the deer do need to be controlled,

otherwise the numbers would just multiply and multiply.

And, for me, to have it drop on the ground,

clean, precise shot like that, that's what my job's about.

Now what we need to do is to gralloch the deer,

which basically means to take its insides out.

The quicker we do that, the quicker it'll start to cool down,

and the better quality venison it will make.

This animal led a completely natural life, grazing in the wild,

until the very last minute.

And if you've got an expert like Darren doing the job,

then it happens cleanly and as humanely as possible.

Now this has become a meat that humans can eat.

We're going to take some away to see what it tastes like.

Well, I thought maybe we should try some venison,

but before we can try the venison, we need to wash our hands.

So, that is a beautiful piece of venison meat, OK?

Everyone grab a fork and take a whole piece.

That's it, Kieran, dig in there!

Aaron, grab a piece of that.

I think it's really chewy, but it tastes like beef.

It is sweet and it tastes really nice.

It's a bit of a shame it died, but I think it tastes really good.

There you go, there we have it.

We get our meat from very different places,

and some of it is bred especially for us to eat, some is hunted.

The most important thing is to know just what's on your plate

and how it got there.

Please give me my taste-testers a big round of applause.

Absolutely brilliant! Well done, guys.

It's not just dogs that like eating bones, it's humans too,

and the reason why is right here.

This stuff is called bone marrow.

Here is the cooked version.

Bones are used loads and loads in cooking.

They're put into stocks and soups a lot.

They're also a British classic, you should try them.

What you do is get the back of a teaspoon,

dig it into the middle, and pull out all that lovely stuff there.

That's the marrow. It's quite rich, quite fatty.

Mm-hm-hm-hmm! It's got this incredible texture.

It's like velvet on your tongue, so rich and smooth and creamy.

Quite fatty, but full of flavour.

Today we're in the East Lothian town of Prestonpans.

So far, we've seen what happens when you don't let your guts get out.

Go! Oh, yeah!

We've had a look at some wild ingredients.

-This is the pheasant.

-Eugh, that is disgusting!

Later, three volunteers step up to the plate for my mystery meal.

You have been eating...

It's just like eating its toes.

But first, we discover the amount of shock sugar in our breakfast bowls.

I want to talk about breakfast.

So, guys, put your hands up if you had cereal this morning.

About half of you.

Some cereals are a great way to start the day,

but others pack a little surprise.

To help me rip open the cereal box, and delve into the truth,

I've got three volunteers...

Give them a round of applause! Come on, guys.

OK, guys, what do you think the ingredients are in cereals?

-Wheat.

-Yeah, that's a good one.

-Cocoa.

-Barley.

-Yeah, there's loads of different types of grain.

-Honey.

-And honey.

-Chocolate.

Lots of things like that, yeah.

Cereals contain a grain, usually like wheat, rice, or oats,

and they sometimes have added vitamins and minerals,

but many of them also have something else added - sugar.

I've got a selection of cereals here. What I'd like you to do is

arrange these in order of which ones you think have high sugar in them,

medium amount of sugar and low sugar.

I want you to do it quickly and don't look at what's on the box!

Just guess which ones you think they might be.

Ready? We'll give them ten seconds.

-What?

-OK? We'll do a countdown.

Run around and do it as quickly as you can.

Stop!

Ah! OK, so why do you think these ones are high sugar?

-Well, all you have is like cocoa, so it's got a lot of chocolate.

-Yeah.

This one's Frosties and there's actually sugar already in this one.

-It's quite a sweet one to eat.

-So, that's what we think.

-What about the medium ones?

-Nesquik, we were going to put this as high.

We thought they would probably be the highest, so we just added this.

Very good, and how about the low ones? What have you got down there?

We thought Bran Flakes because they didn't look like they

would have lots of sugar in them, because they look quite plain.

Crispy Weetabix don't really have sugar in them,

It's just like oats and...

It's just a very basic kind of cereal?

OK, well, brilliant, brilliant guesses. Not quite there, though.

Shall I show you which ones are in which order?

-Uh-huh.

-Yes.

GIRLS GASP

Ha-ha ha-ha! You see?

-Oh!

-What?!

That is how they should be laid out. It's interesting, isn't it?

I can tell you that, in fact, all of these cereals are high in sugar.

They should all be over here. Is that a surprise to you?

Aye, Bran Flakes don't really... You see the salt.

You don't really think of them as a really sugary thing, do you?

They don't taste sweet.

They don't really taste sweet. They just taste normal.

OK. Well, to be classed as high in sugar,

a food needs to have more than 12.5 grams of added sugar per 100 grams.

If you look at the packets,

you'll see all of these contain that amount of sugar.

And some of them are a lot more.

It can be a little bit hard to know what high sugar means,

so I'm going to show you.

Can you grab that sign for me there?

Rip that out of the way, Louis.

Stick it underneath there for me.

OK, here's some sugar.

Kimberley, please can you spoon out three and a half teaspoons of sugar?

One...

two...

..three...and a half.

So, that is what 12.5 grams of sugar looks like. OK?

In here is 100 grams of plain porridge made up with water.

These are porridge oats and they have no added sugar.

To make the oats into a high-sugar breakfast, we need to add this.

12.5 grams of sugar will make it into a high-sugar breakfast.

Kimberley, you chuck it in there.

Stir that all in. Go on, right to the bottom!

Ohhh!

This is all gooey!

OK, guys, grab a little spoonful.

So, what does that taste like?

-Mm! A bit sweet.

-Is it good?

-A bit sweet.

-Quite sweet.

It's really sweet.

The thing is, some cereals contain a huge amount of sugar,

as much as 37 grams per 100 grams of cereal.

That's another five and half teaspoons of sugar on top of that.

One...

two...

three...

four...

Five...and a half!

There you go! Now stir that all in, right to the bottom.

Right to the bottom there.

Urgh, that's sugary!

Oh, there's sugar still on the top there.

Everyone take a chunk of porridge and tell me what it tastes like.

-That's really sweet.

-Is it?

-Really sweet.

-Is it really, really sweet?

It's gone everywhere.

A week's worth would give you 20 teaspoons of sugar.

That much sugar.

Now, just to give you that in a really easy-to-see form,

here we have six enormous lumps of candy floss.

What do you reckon your mum and dad would say if you ate all of this?

They'd go ballistic!

That much will get me into big trouble.

You'd get into big trouble?

If you want to know how much sugar you're eating,

get a low-sugar cereal, add your own sugar

to be sure of how much you're eating.

Let's give a sickly-sweet round of applause to our

fantastic breakfast cereal taste-testers.

Woo-hoo!

I'm crazy about cuisine, I'm fanatic about food,

and I'll try absolutely anything, because if you don't try it,

how do you know whether you like it or not?

Now it's time to share one of my tasty treats with three

volunteers who also have an appetite for adventure.

It's time for my mystery meal.

Up on the stage are...

Give them a big round of applause.

Oh, yeah!

So, Abigail, what's the most unexpected thing I could serve you?

What would really surprise you?

If it was alive.

Something alive. That would be surprising, wouldn't it?

Well, to keep my mystery meal a mystery,

I need you to put on your blindfolds.

Blindfolds down.

This is when it starts getting a bit more serious.

CROWD: Woo!

Now that you can't see a thing, it's time for us to look at

what they'll be eating.

They're going to be eating...

..this. So, guys, do you want to take a look?

-Eugh!

-I don't think... It's not "eugh"! I think this is delicious.

-What do you think this is?

-Chicken.

-Chilli?

-Chicken.

-Chicken, a bit of chicken.

-A dragon!

-A what?

-A dragon.

-A what, a dragon?!

The thing is, you're not going to be eating this.

Our very brave characters up there are, so I'm off.

We've had some interesting suggestions.

Some people said it was chicken.

Some people said it was a dragon, which is quite an interesting idea!

OK. So, before you tuck in, I'm going to reveal to everyone at home

what it is you're going to be eating.

They're going to be eating this...

OK. Now I'm going to give you a sample, so put your hands out.

It's quite warm.

OK, there you go.

And here we go.

It's in a sauce, which is why

it's a bit slippery.

Stephanie, whichever hand's best. There you go, grab that.

I don't like it!

Mm-mm! Have a little smell of it first.

It smells weird.

What about the texture of it?

What does it feel like in your hand?

-It's bumpy.

-A bit bumpy?

-Slimy!

Well, it's in a sauce, so that's why it's a little bit slimy.

-Oh, it's so gross!

-I can't tell you what it is yet, but what I can

tell you is it's very popular in Caribbean and Chinese cuisine,

where it's even steamed in a black bean sauce.

You have to be quite careful of the bones inside

when you're eating it, so all you do is chew the meat around it.

So, three, two, one, have a little nibble.

Oh, that's good!

It's a bit sweet.

It's quite sweet, yeah.

And what about the texture of it?

Slimy. To me, it's got a wee bit of a sweet sauce, and it's plain.

-Sweet and plain.

-I don't like the plainness.

It's soft.

-It is quite soft. Is it like anything you've tried before?

-No.

I like the sauce, but then I can't really taste anything else.

Mm-hm. Take your blindfolds off with your unsticky hand.

-Eugh!

-Oh, my hands are really sticky.

-Same here.

Have a good look at it. Would you like to know what you've eaten?

ALL: Yeah.

You have been eating...

ALL: Eugh!

..chicken feet.

Eugh! I'm not touching that again.

Now you know what it is, have you changed your mind about it?

It's just like eating its toes, it's... Eugh!

Oh, that is disgusting.

I don't want to eat it again.

This is what it looks like before it's stewed in black bean sauce.

-Eugh, it's like wee fingers.

-That is disgusting.

-It is quite strange but it's nice.

-Look at their wee nails.

-And then you go like that...

-Wait, was there nails in it?

-..and you just eat them like that.

-ALL: Eugh!

Shall I have some?

SCREAMS OF DISGUST GROW LOUDER

You might find it weird eating chicken feet,

but we eat chicken meat, so why not eat the rest of it?

It would be a shame to throw away parts of

the animal which don't look nice, but are pretty tasty.

Guys, make some noise for some of the bravest eaters in Scotland.

You've been brilliant, well done.

If you're trumping away regularly, it's a likely sign

that your digestion is in good working order, unlike Guff Man.

Give Guff Man a cheer, everyone.

Oh, yeah!

So here is Guff Man.

He's used all his superpowers to hold in a month's worth of parps

and we're about to see what happens

when you let it all out in one giant trump.

Come and take a look at this.

Here I have a pump,

and it's ready to fill Guff Man with one month's worth of air.

I'll put Guff Man right on here.

Ouch!

Now, this pressurised container represents his guts.

I'm going to pump it full of a month's worth of gas

and then let it all out at once. Here goes.

Ooh, I bet that hurts! I think that'll do.

He's primed and ready to go.

Now, I don't know what would happen

if you did one giant parp in one go, but let's find out.

Are you ready, guys?

Five, four, three, two, one, blast off!

Blast off!

The next time you think it's embarrassing to hold in your wind,

think about the consequences.

It's a sign of normal digestion.

And to hold it in could give you all sorts of trouble.

That's it for today's show.

My thanks to everyone here in Prestonpans

and to you at home for watching.

Join us next time on Incredible Edibles,

where meal times are always an adventure!