Family traditions are important, for sure, but some households definitely practice weirder customs than others. And one Florida family’s tradition was undoubtedly on the more bizarre side of things when the father demanded that his daughter’s boyfriend eat some meat to take her hand in marriage. This wasn’t just any old slab of meat, but beef that’s almost half of a quarter of a century old.
“My girlfriend’s dad genuinely expected me to sit down and eat 12 year old beef that’s been rotting in his fridge for what is probably the same amount of time he’s owned the house,” the man exclaimed in a Facebook post, grossed out at the thought of even tasting the elder meat. After the bizarre reveal of the beef, the girlfriend’s father laid down the ultimate challenge for her boyfriend: “If I eat it, it’s the only way I’m allowed to marry his daughter.”
Allegedly, this consumption of the ancient beef was a “family ritual” that the father claims to have been in the household for generations. Unfortunately, the boyfriend backed out of the challenge, but he didn’t stop there. He backed out so far out that he claims to have blocked his girlfriend as a result, “because if this is the entrance exam, I don’t even want to see the final boss.” He concludes his post with, “Some families have traditions. Some families need therapy.”
All in all, this could have been a joke of sorts, but the Florida man took things a little too seriously or blew it all way out of proportion. While on Facebook, the poster claims the beef to have been “rotting” in the fridge, the same photo was posted on r/mildlyinfuriating, saying that all the meat was in the dad’s “deep freezer.” The reason the father handed it out was that he didn’t want any of it to go to waste. That said, regardless of whether the Facebook or Reddit posts are connected or even real, one thing is for certain: 12-year-old meat is 12 years too old to eat.
One Reddit commenter recalled how their grandfather grew up in the Great Depression, so he and his family were no strangers to eating “shoe leather” steaks. Another user chimed in, claiming to be a food engineer; according to them, the frozen meat should be just fine for consumption. Now, whether or not 12-year-old beef from the freezer is pleasant is debatable. But at the very least, it shouldn’t be a factor in whether someone should be able to marry your child.
