Eating Challenges Are All the Rage. But When Was the Last Time You Saw Someone Eat a Mutton Shoulder Bone?

Even earlier than the web, overindulgence was one thing of a spectator sport for many who reveled in gastronomic glory

Sonja Anderson

– Each day Correspondent

March 2026

People have lengthy sought to show gluttony right into a advantage—resulting in some exceptional episodes of aggressive consuming. Listed here are only a few: 

A hare-raising urge for food: Within the seventeenth century, an English farmer named Nicholas Wooden (above) was seen devouring 60 eggs and 1 / 4 of a lamb. It was a routine meal for Wooden, who was often called the “Nice Eater of Kent.” Based on the poet John Taylor, Wooden as soon as consumed seven dozen rabbits in a single sitting—a feast Taylor estimated would’ve fed 168 troopers. At any time when Wooden ate publicly at festivals and festivals, nobles delighted in betting on his abdomen. By the tip of Wooden’s life, he had only one tooth left. He’d misplaced a lot of the others whereas consuming a complete mutton shoulder, bones and all.

Dogged efforts: In Could 1972, Nathan’s Well-known—Coney Island’s famend sizzling canine restaurant—held its first Hot Dog Eating Contest. Native rivals stepped as much as swallow as many wieners in buns as they might in three and a half minutes, and a Brooklyn school scholar named Jason Schechter gained by downing 14 canines. Within the half-century since, requirements have skyrocketed. The present file belongs to Joey Chestnut, who took dwelling Nathan’s coveted Mustard Belt in 2021 after consuming 76 sizzling canines in ten minutes. Chestnut’s technique is to interrupt every sizzling canine in half, dunk the bun in water and set up a rhythm: “Meat, bun, swallow, breathe.”

Weight of the union: The late nineteenth century begat colourful associations shaped on the idea of poundage, which grew to become often called Fat Men’s Clubs. These teams disallowed any man below 200 kilos and hosted celebratory weigh-ins and socials. Unsurprisingly, the organizations spent a lot of the dues they collected on meals. At one assembly, the New England Fats Males’s Membership feasted on oysters, cream of rooster soup, boiled snapper, beef with mushrooms, roasted rooster, roasted piglet, shrimp salad, fruit pudding, cheese, cake and ice cream.

Parlor methods: In 1976, Chicago’s Physician Jazz Ice Cream Parlor introduced it could maintain a sundae-eating competitors, and eaters flocked from throughout. One competitor from New York Metropolis ready by jogging, having his throat massaged and swabbing his pharynx with mineral oil. He had the flawed concept. Chicagoan Hy Polansky, the competition’s sexagenarian winner, merely “skilled by consuming.” (His preparation started in childhood, when he purportedly ate 4 pints of ice cream per day.) At Physician Jazz’s, Polansky put away three gallons of vanilla ice cream, a pint of sizzling fudge, a quart of whipped cream and one cherry in 20 minutes.