During the German siege of Paris in 1870, residents had to eat whatever animals were at hand.
Daily News correspondent Henry Labouchère recorded his opinions:
Horse: “eaten in the place of beef … a little sweeter … but in other respects much like it”
Cat: “between rabbit and squirrel, with a flavor all its own”
Donkey: “delicious — in color like mutton, firm and savory”
Rat: “excellent — between frog and rabbit”
Spaniel: “like lamb, but I felt like a cannibal”
“This siege will destroy many illusions,” he wrote, “and amongst them the prejudice which has prevented many animals being used as food. I can most solemnly assert that I never wish to taste a better dinner than a joint of a donkey or a ragout of cat — experto crede.”
A more modern reference is the book Jungle Soldier, the true story of LTC Freddy Spencer Chapman of the British Special Operations Executive, who evaded behind Japanese lines in Malaya for 1226 days, cut off from contact or resupply from British forces, being hunted by the Japanese, being afflicted by malaria, scabies, typhus, pneumonia, dengue fever and ulcers before being evacuated to Ceylon by submarine in May, 1945. Rats were among his more conventional sources of protein.
And for something more scholarly:
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewco...text=vpc14
RODENTS AS A FOOD SOURCE, LYNWOOD A, FIEDLER, USDA/APHIS/S&T,
Denver Wildlife Research Center, P.O. Box 25266, Denver, Colorado 80225-0266.
ABSTRACT: Rodents, one of several kinds of vertebrates included in the human diet, are very suitable as human food. More than 71 genera and 89 species of rodents, mostly hystricomorphs, have been consumed by man. Some have even been domesticated for private or commercial production of food for human consumption. Rodents in the temperate world serve only as a supplement to the regular diet of humans; but in the tropical world, they are widely accepted and a popular source of protein. Although harvesting field rats for human food is beneficial, it is not an effective pest control strategy. Consuming rodents in pesticide-treated areas and handling rodents with potential zoonoses are two possible risks.
Proc. 14th Vertebr. Pest Conf. (L.R. Davis and R.E. Marsh, Eds.) Published at Univ. of Calif., Davis. 1990.
Some interesting extracts from the article:
At the University of Arizona, pack rats (Neotoma sp.) are consumed by a social club (Secret Order of the Neotoma Eater) that insists these rodents are a delicacy (Anon. 1987).
History of Rodent Eating
Peruvians have been consuming guinea pigs for centuries. The guinea pig, domesticated since at least 2500 B.C. (Lanning 1967), was the first rodent raised for food. By the 15th century A.D. (during the Incaic Empire), it was the principal meat consumed. Capybara (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris)may have been domesticated in Brazil as early as A.D. 1565 (Gonzalez-Jimenez 1984).
Early Chinese ate “household deer” [common rat (probably Rattus norvegicus or R. flavipectus) and bamboo rat (Rhizomys spp.)] and during the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-907) ate newborn rats stuffed with honey, conveniently snatching them with chopsticks (Hendrickson 1983).
Romans popularized the edible dormouse [Myoxus (=Glis) glis] by the 2nd century. It was caught from the wild in autumn when it was fattest and either roasted and dipped into honey or baked while stuffed with a mixture of pork, pine nuts, and other flavorings. Romans also raised dormice in special pots called “gliraria” and in large outdoor enclosures where they were fed walnuts, chestnuts, and acorns for fattening (Brothwell and Brothwell 1969). Southeastern Europeans still enjoy dormice.
The Maoris of New Zealand used snares and pit traps in family hunting territories to trap the kiore or Polynesian rat 149(R. exulans, Best 1942). In the 16th century, they introduced this rat to Polynesia as a food item by carrying it in their ships.
Elsewhere the Irula, a tribal group in India, has traditionally included rats in its diet and today is hired by Indian farmers to capture rodent pests.
More recently, a United States Army Quartermaster Corps survey identified 42 different societies in which people eat rats (Harris 1985). Traditionally we think of “rat eaters” (rodentiophagists?) as belonging to primitive societies–small groups living in remote areas with large, undisturbed land areas available for hunting and trapping small mammals. However, squirrel hunters in America today could be considered just as traditional. The gray squirrel is a rodent in the Sciuromorpha suborder, one of the most important game animals in the United States. About 40 million gray squirrels, popularly referred to as “tree rats” in the US southern states, (Sciurus carolinensis) and a lesser number of fox squirrels (S. niger) are harvested annually (Flyger and Gates 1982).
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