amanuensis1 | "Woman's weapon," my ass.

I read an interesting fic this morning, and it made me think: if you're going to serve someone poisoned food--the kind that needs cooking and assembling--how can you tell if the food's cooked to palatability before you serve it? You can't very well taste it and see. So you'd have to put the poison in at the end. But then you'd have this pot sitting on the stove and what if someone came in and said, "Oh, stew!" and sampled some? So it'd be safer to put it in the individual bowl it was going to be served in. But then you'd have to mix it around in the bowl to mix in the poison. And be careful not to lick the spoon after. And what if it got sloshed around the edges of the bowl and didn't look pristine for serving; then you'd have to put it in another bowl. And wash the first one real quick, before you took the poisoned one out for serving. And what gets out poison residue from dishware? Do you just use regular liquid detergent? Maybe you should throw away the bowl. But what if someone finds it in the garbage; then that's evidence. And what if it's the kind of poison that needs to be cooked into the food a little so the victim doesn't taste it? Then we're back to the pot on the stove. Damn, this is tricky.

Yes, I think about this kind of stuff.

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What a lovely problem to solve! :-)

I guess I'd use some kind of pie or something else that is served in small units, but not so small that you would put several on one plate. There shouldn't be any chance for leftovers. So I would be able to put the poison in one particular piece of pie and this would be the pie I could easily refuse to eat myself, because I-don't-eat-meat OR I-hate-greens OR I'm-on-a-special-diet. A filling which the to-be-poisoned person would of course *love* to eat. This would also explain why I had to mark the different pies to tell them apart. ;-)

A second helping should consist of totally un-poisoned pies, just in case there would be leftovers.

I'm no expert on dishwashers, though. But I guess with some strong detergent or acid one should be able to clean almost everything. For a more detailed answer on the detection of small traces, please consult Scotland Yard. :-)

Ooh, I wonder if one can analyse one's kitchen disposal unit for traces of poison? There, that could make a good plot twist!

And in I, Claudius there was a poisoning done by poisoning just one part of a dish that was on the poisoner's plate (mushrooms) and when the victim said, "I'd like some more mushrooms," the poisoner said, "Here, take mine, I've eaten half and don't want any more."

poisoning just one part of a dish that was on the poisoner's plate

That's like in the fairy tale of Snow White, the poisoned apple!

Checking kitchen disposal for traces of poison - why not? If the poison is stable enough... If it were more something like a virus, for example, one could check for DNA traces. DNA is really hard to get rid of. But one would need a way to amplify the signal and also some specific marker, because you have DNA just everywhere. I'm not sure if some inorganic stuff would stay that stable, though.

Better still - put the poison in the one that's marked for you, that doesn't have the ingredient you're allergic to, then arrange for it to "accidentally" end up in front of your victim, and then "accidentally" not notice until he's eaten it. It will look like you were the intended victim, thus averting suspicion.

And if the victim notices and insists on changing the plates, you can always drop the plate. In that case, better keep the dog/cat outside the dining room. ;-)

Lord, this is turning into quite the plotbunny-fest, I swear! ^_^

"Oh, that was my steak! Look, this one's cooked too much for me."

"Woman's weapon," my ass.

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