It’s unlikely that this fine-dining trend will catch on in the United States, but should you Google “rat recipes” online, you might be surprised at what you find.
From blogger William Van De Bogart:
Place about a cup of fish oil in a wok. When hot, add 1.5 cups of chili paste to the oil. Add ground rat meat. Add five diced hot green peppers and let cook for three minutes. Add half a tablespoon of salt and half a cup of holy basil leaves. Toss in the liver and heart. Stir for five minutes. Add four chopped garlic cloves and eight shredded bay leaves, and then let simmer for five more minutes. Serve with lime, liver and heart as garnish.
From Canadian naturalist and conservationist Farley Mowatt:
Drain the mice, dredge them thoroughly in a mixture of flour, pepper and salt, and fry slowly in the rendered fat for about five minutes. Add a cup of alcohol and 6-8 cloves, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Prepare a cream sauce, transfer the mice to it and warm them in it for about 10 minutes before serving.
Deku delight
From The Official Peace Corps C.A.R. Cookbook:
Place a dozen smoked rats (the small field-rat type) in fresh water and soak for 30 minutes. Drain the rats and remove skin and other inedible portions. Prepare a sauce of tomato, onion, piment (an allspice) and palm oil in a large skillet. Fry meat for about 20 minutes, turning occasionally until well-cooked.
Souris a la crème
From food encyclopedia Larousse Gastronomique:
Skin, gut and wash fat mice without removing their heads. Cover them in a pot with ethyl alcohol and marinate two hours. Cut a piece of salt pork or sowbelly into small dice, and cook it slowly to extract the fat.
Grilled rats a la Bordelaise
From food encyclopedia Larousse Gastronomique:
Rats inhabiting wine cellars should be skinned and eviscerated, brushed with a thick sauce of olive oil and crushed shallots, and then grilled over a fire of broken wine barrels.
I deliver chinese food for a restaurant in central Illinois, and rumors of what “actually” ends up in the food are endless – but I can definitely say they are unfounded. What I found here, however, sounds like a lot of what I would call “good eats” and I’d love to see a lot more “alternative meats” in print and media – maybe even get Alton Brown from the TV show Good Eats (on the Food Network) to do a show on Rats!!!
I would actually enjoy trying some rat-based twists on familiar recipies – BBQ rat meat sounds good!
Thanks,
Zach
Dear Elise
and Zach:
It took seven months for a single response to such a heady and challenging tidbit for foodies.
Aside from the fact that we well may be what we eat, along with what we savor/favor, “food” is both regional and cultural?
Also, what is available?
Check out that wondrously “researched” HBO series, “Rome,” of Caesar’s day, and whilst wallowing in the endless delights of this exemplary series, note well how often the protagonists are invited to the gustatory delights of “mouse.”
Maybe the mini versions are tenderer and tastier, barring vectors of epidemics?
I draw the subjective line at canine and feline, and, maybe, cockroach haunches.
Bunnies are Easter icons, but have you tried Gallic versions of “lapin”?
If it moves, catch it, skin it, eviscerate it, and cook it.
Although other animals go for the gut first, where the concentrated nutrients reside?
Frank Eng
P.S.: Humanoid rats are probably far too fat and gristly, although a few may soon be cornered. But price per pound may exceed the finest Caspian caviar. And did the Donner Party carry spices?