Can you eat Ork flesh?

[Slave to Darkness]

As Orks are fungus based lifeforms, would you be able to eat them and what would they taste like?? Yes this is a serious question, Ive been thinking about it all night... :/ 

[andes]

Could you? Probably. Should you? :cuss no.

[Slave to Darkness]

Not a fan of mushrooms then? :lol: 

[andes]

Not ones with regenerative powers ;)

[Grotsmasha]

Didn't the consumption of Ork flesh lead to one of the Kroots dead-end evolutions?

 

Side note, would it technically be vegan "meat"?

[Lord_Ikka]

Didn't the consumption of Ork flesh lead to one of the Kroots dead-end evolutions?

Kroot-ox I think is the Ork-fed kroot variant. So the kroot gained bulk, resilience, and strength, but lost a lot of intelligence. Not a great trade in my view, but everyone has different priorities...

 

I would assume you could eat ork flesh, but since they reproduce via spores it might be like biting into an unknown mushroom- possibly delicious, possibly fatal.

[Karhedron]

Proteins based on alien DNA would most likely be indigestible to humans and quite possibly poisonous.

 

Tyrannids can get away with it because their digestive systems are more like walking rendering plants than stomachs as we think of them.

[LemanPuss]

Probably taste like chicken, green chicken

[MithrilForge]

“Beyond Ork” the plant based alternative in the 41st millennium;-)

 

Mithril

[Magos Takatus]

Knowing that this is 40k I would expect anyone that ate Ork flesh would probably end up with Ork fungal spores growing within their digestive tract. I would expect cooking said flesh would have limited success making it safe to eat for humans. I imagine as said above that Tyranids and Kroot would be more robust in dealing with Ork-based dinner time.

[apologist]

Two related considerations here. Firstly, ork flesh has been described as fungal, but it's also been described as animal with a symbiotic algal or plant element. Waaagh the Orks! and Xenology are probably the most complete accounts of the physical nature and structure of orks for further reading.

 

In either case, I see nothing that would mean there's a physical reason that ork flesh couldn't be consumed. It's frequently described as tough and leathery; and given their omnivorous but mostly squig- and meat-based diet, I imagine they wouldn't taste very palatable. Personally, I don't think there'd be any huge problem with spores growing inside the consumer in the way that (say) eating Tyranid flesh might. The human digestive system is pretty efficient, after – we might not be orks, but we've got a pretty robust digestive system, all things considered. 

 

So, physically, you can get it inside you, and it'll pass through. Is there likely to be much nutrition in it for humans? There's a really interesting discussion here on the likelihood of humans deriving nutrition from alien plants. The short answer is 'possibly, but most likely no'. Alien organisms in general are likely to be either poisonous or toxic, or simply unable to provide us with the amino acids and other essentials that we require.

 

40k is a space opera rather than hard sci-fi, of course, so let's err on the generous side and assume that the Old Ones are responsible for both orks and humans, and there is some base similarity between us and orks. If we go down this route, then perhaps ork flesh might be consumable. I would suggest, given the concept behind orks as 'dark mirror to humanity', the flesh would be unpalatable – very, very tough, perhaps bitter or sour; a little like chewing on a particular unpleasant jerky. Besides that, I'd anticipate at least some difficulty in digesting in; perhaps resulting in indigestion, reflux, or simply passing it through.

 

Perhaps more importantly, however, we ought to consider that even if ork flesh can provide humans with some nutrition, there would undoubtedly be huge cultural taboos surrounding the consumption of xenos meat. Beyond any physical consideration, I would posit that this is the more insurmountable and large-scale problem for feeding humans with orkmeat.

Edited February 1, 2022 by apologist

[Xenith]

Don't orks eat runty grots is there's nothing else around? And I'm pretty sure in AoS/WFB ogres ate anything, including orcs, so they can probably be eaten.

 

While orks do reproduce from spores, they're still technically animals, with nerves, muscles etc. The spores they shed are probably gametes that then are fertilised and then mature into an ork, sans internal incubation. More like an egg that doesn't need sat on. 

[Karhedron]

Perhaps more importantly, however, we ought to consider that even if ork flesh can provide humans with some nutrition, there would undoubtedly be huge cultural taboos surrounding the consumption of xenos meat.

Possibly not. Grox meat is widely eaten and they are a xenos species.

[tychobi]

If they could grind em up into Soylent Green might revitalize the economy of Armageddon.  I would assume Ork spores could survive the digestive tract of a human and sprout tribes of snotlings battling for supremacy in the sewers and taking territory from the local rats.  

[Tyriks]

 

Perhaps more importantly, however, we ought to consider that even if ork flesh can provide humans with some nutrition, there would undoubtedly be huge cultural taboos surrounding the consumption of xenos meat.

Possibly not. Grox meat is widely eaten and they are a xenos species.

In the Eisenhorn books they explicitly say xenos strains of grains are illegal, whatever that means. But people do still buy them. But that's also Abnett who likes to play a little more fast and loose than most authors so take it how you will.

[MegaVolt87]

Orks are delicious, but give you gas thus making eating them a problem... but you then have more orks to eat later. 

[Brother Kraskor]

As someone who normally never goes into this part of the forum, I love that this is what Ork players discuss. 

[Evil Eye]

I keep having recurring dreams of eating my models/spare parts and this topic will NOT be helping!

[Slave to Darkness]

I keep having recurring dreams of eating my models/spare parts and this topic will NOT be helping!

Mmmmm cronchy plastic...

 

I keep having dreams that Im going to the dentist to have teeth pulled without any anesthetic for fun... The mind is a weird place.

[spessmarine]

What if people got high off orks like Psilocybins?

 

As someone who normally never goes into this part of the forum, I love that this is what Ork players discuss. 

Indeed.

[rookie40K]

I’m guessing it would taste similar to a shamrock shake.

[Bonekrusha]

 

Didn't the consumption of Ork flesh lead to one of the Kroots dead-end evolutions?

Kroot-ox I think is the Ork-fed kroot variant. So the kroot gained bulk, resilience, and strength, but lost a lot of intelligence. Not a great trade in my view, but everyone has different priorities...

 

I would assume you could eat ork flesh, but since they reproduce via spores it might be like biting into an unknown mushroom- possibly delicious, possibly fatal.

 

 

Heh, I didn't know that but now you mention it they do look quite... Orky.

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by Bonekrusha