# What would a Dinosaur taste like?



## AstralCat (Oct 18, 2013)

In my book, dinosaurs roam around, and the locals call them Dragons. These Dragons are more or less the same as Earth's dinosaurs were long ago, except for a few minor details. Some of them are tamed and bred to be small and docile. Some of them are wild and grow to be properly gigantic. Some of them have magical abilities like fire-breath and stuff, but most of them are regular and non magical.

Since there's a lot of dino-dragons roaming arround, it makes sense that some people might eat them. Problem is, how do you even begin to guess what a dinosaur tastes like?

Would they taste like other kinds of reptiles? I ate fried alligator once, and it was sort of chewy and tasted like fish. But alligators eat fish, so did it only taste like fish because of it's diet? What would a plant-eater like a triceratops taste like then? Or what about a scavenger/predator like a t-rex? It eats rotting flesh all the time, so would it taste bad?

Any theories?


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## Jabrosky (Oct 18, 2013)

Did you know that chickens and other poultry are dinosaurs too? Maybe that would give you some ideas.


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## AstralCat (Oct 18, 2013)

I am not going to write "It tasted like chicken" XD


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## GeekDavid (Oct 18, 2013)

Everything tastes like chicken.


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## Ireth (Oct 18, 2013)

GeekDavid said:


> Everything tastes like chicken.



Everything BUT the chicken. XD


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## GeekDavid (Oct 18, 2013)

Ireth said:


> Everything BUT the chicken. XD



Chicken tastes like dinosaur.


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## TrustMeImRudy (Oct 18, 2013)

If their diet consist of chicken- i mean, dinosaur, all the time, then it doesn't really require an explanation does it? That's like writing a story in the real world and describing what chicken tastes like; he should be used to it already, the character wouldn't muse on it unless it were an exotic dish. If it is...well oil is dinosaurs right? Taste some


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## Asterisk (Oct 18, 2013)

I agree with the above post. If your characters eat dinosaur as a daily meal, you wouldn't have to pause the action to explain it to the readers. If, on the other hand, it's a new food or something, taste some squid or something strange and describe your thoughts when you eat that. 

*shudder*

Good thing we don't eat dinosaurs here! XD


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## KorbentMarksman (Oct 19, 2013)

I've had crocodile before. It tastes like chicken but has the consistency of beef, if that's any help.


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## Pemry Janes (Oct 19, 2013)

As others said, if the characters are used to eating dino's then they won't really think much about the taste.

As for the taste itself, it would be different depending upon the species and its diet. But the raptors, like velociraptor and such, they probably would taste like a bird. Doesn't have to be chicken, could be ostrich.

And no, I have no idea how ostrich tastes.


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## wordwalker (Oct 19, 2013)

Pemry Janes said:


> As others said, if the characters are used to eating dino's then they won't really think much about the taste.



One caveat here: everything's relative. If the MC is used to fruit and rabbits and only just managed to kill a dinosaur, then the difference means a lot to him. Or any contrast in meals could be a good way to dramatize adjustments in his life that day--

and what a way to dramatize it! Let's face it, who didn't rush over to this page when they saw the title?


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## Captain Loye (Oct 20, 2013)

KorbentMarksman said:


> I've had crocodile before. It tastes like chicken but has the consistency of beef, if that's any help.


This. Alligators and crocodiles are probably the modern animal that is most similar to old-fashioned dinosaurs, despite birds technically being dinosaurs. 

I agree that it's not necessarily important to understand what it tastes like if the characters are used to eating it, but it might be worth considering what sort of meal you might make with the meat. The texture, fattiness or toughness of the meat might change how the characters cook it to make it more digestible or palatable.

I think it depends on the dinosaur. Meat from raptor-like dinosaurs might resemble ostrich or emu meat, probably quite lean and tough. Larger dinosaurs might be more like what KorbentMarksman suggested above, something like crocodile. Let your imagination run wild...like a herd of ornithomimus with the delicious flesh of a turkey-duck .


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## TrustMeImRudy (Oct 20, 2013)

wordwalker said:


> One caveat here: everything's relative. If the MC is used to fruit and rabbits and only just managed to kill a dinosaur, then the difference means a lot to him. Or any contrast in meals could be a good way to dramatize adjustments in his life that day--)



Exactly. We're saying, if its normal to him, theres no need. If it isnt, or if he is introducing it to someone else, there is a need, cause who wouldnt comment on that?


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## Scribble (Oct 20, 2013)

Pemry Janes said:


> As others said, if the characters are used to eating dino's then they won't really think much about the taste.
> 
> As for the taste itself, it would be different depending upon the species and its diet. But the raptors, like velociraptor and such, they probably would taste like a bird. Doesn't have to be chicken, could be ostrich.
> 
> And no, I have no idea how ostrich tastes.



I think it is a pretty safe _guess _that dinosaurs (the popular ones we know and love) possibly tasted like ostrich. Domestic chickens have been bred by us over the past 10,000 years to taste the way they do. 

I've had ostrich. The texture was not unlike beef, and the taste was somewhere between beef and brown turkey meat. 

If a dinosaur would taste like any living animal it would be an ostrich. The family it belongs to, the _ratites_, are a very old branch of animals that were widespread _before_ Gondwanaland broke up. File:Giantbirds.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia They were everywhere, and were common in what became Australia, Antarctica, South America and of course Africa. Since they were successful, they haven't changed very much overall. However, duck tastes similar to turkey, but not exactly like it. So, one creature that is related can taste very different due to the levels of fat and other molecules in their flesh.

I would still go with ostrich.

Ratite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## GeekDavid (Oct 20, 2013)

Another point to consider...

How many of your readers are going to have eaten dinosaur? I'd bet zero.

So who's gonna be able to credibly complain, "that's not what dinosaur tastes like?" If they posted such a comment on your blog, would it not be laughable?

So why stress so much over something that you can't possibly be proved wrong on?


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## TrustMeImRudy (Oct 20, 2013)

-cue invention of time travel the day after the book publishes-


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## Lawfire (Oct 21, 2013)

The animal's (in this case dinosaur's) diet would change how it tastes. A carnivore is going to taste different than omnivore, and both will taste different than a herbivore. Free grazing cattle taste different than those mass produced and fed cow chow. An old swamp buck tastes different than one that lived next to a corn field.

That all said, I do not think that level of detail adds a lot to a story, but it could in the right situation.


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## Kn'Trac (Oct 21, 2013)

> I've had crocodile before. It tastes like chicken but has the consistency of beef, if that's any help.



Same goes for snake. The one I ate tasted like chicken, but had a consistency in between chicken and fish.
However, I could imagine the smaller ones tasting like chicken and the bigger specimens having a beef or deer quality to them.



> If their diet consist of chicken- i mean, dinosaur, all the time, then it doesn't really require an explanation does it? That's like writing a story in the real world and describing what chicken tastes like; he should be used to it already, the character wouldn't muse on it unless it were an exotic dish. If it is...well oil is dinosaurs right? Taste some



If a Brontoburger is really the staple meat, I wouldn't do much explaining about the taste either, it's like explaining to a vegan what broccoli tastes like.


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## Scribble (Oct 22, 2013)

Humans like the taste of fat because it is a good source of energy.

Meat is muscle, but it is fat that affects taste. Recently, the first meat grown in a vat from stem cells for the purpose of human consumption was tried. According to those who tried it, it tasted dull because it lacked fat cells. These were only muscle proteins. The scientists are looking at ways to interlace fat cells with the meat to achieve a more "natural" taste. Yum! 

By that consideration, a lean dinosaur, or lean section of a dinosaur, would be less tasty than a well-fed one or fatty part.


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## Scribble (Oct 22, 2013)

GeekDavid said:


> Another point to consider...
> 
> How many of your readers are going to have eaten dinosaur? I'd bet zero.
> 
> ...



On the contrary, I find those kind of details very important! That's a cool thing I want to know. That might be the one thing they remember about the story, they ate dinosaurs!

That's a great question - what does a dinosaur taste like? If you are going to have a dino-burger in your story, I think it is something worth the effort of researching and making the best guess you can based on all we have to try to understand the past - science. I would be let down as a reader if it was glossed over. 

The other consideration is that if you get the scientific premise of the taste completely wrong, you may lose the reader if they know a thing or two about evolution and biology, and sci-fi and fantasy readers, as a rule, know a lot of what the average person may consider to be "useless information". 

When I come across elements in a book that stray into areas of science I am knowledgeable in, as a critical reader I appreciate the effort that went into researching or thinking about it. They lose me totally when they don't make an effort to get things right. Recent let downs are Prometheus and After Earth - the science in those movies was utterly imbecilic, I end up laughing at it half way through. They could have hired a science adviser...


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## ebervalius (Oct 23, 2013)

It depend on the dinosaur in question. Considering crocodiles taste like chicken, I think at least Theropods might taste like avian meat, as well.as pterosaurs. However, Hadrosaurs, Ceratopsians or Sauropods could taste at least somewhat differently.


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## Bruce McKnight (Oct 23, 2013)

I think it would be mostly tough dark meat, unless you had dinosaur herders who kept them sedentary and raised them for their meat by keeping them contained, feeding them corn, and doing whatever other (possibly cruel) things we do in modern day to raise our livestock so they will taste delicious. 

Barring animal farmers, I would think they would be mealy and tough.

Maybe you could just add depth with the reference instead of getting specific:

_"He never had pterodactyl before, but it wasn't bad. It was as tough and stringy as stegosaurus, but it had the honey-sweet undertones of brontosaurus. Still, he would have really preferred a juicy, salty allosaurus."_


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