RAT as a food ???

[nickdutch]

Anyone ever killed and eaten rat? Is that even doable considering their reputation for disease or is their reputation for disease exaggerated?
Does it taste nice with garlic?
Are rats better farmed or got in the wild for food?

[the-gnole]

I guess you will need to ask Gino DeCampo that one, he did it on I'm a celebrity and ITV got big trouble over it

It would depend on where the rat lives, what it eats and what other environmental conditions might have affected it.

But meat is meat.

[TomW]

Properly cleaned and cooked it should be safe enough. It's talked about in a few survival books I've read ( Cody Lundin for one) so its nor way out there. Still, ill wait till I have to before I try it

[WhiteWolf]

I saw something years and years ago that said "ratty" was edible as long as nothing of the entrails were used.

Never had it and it would definitely be the last source of protein I would go for and then I would still be in two minds.

WW

[the-gnole]

A lot of it will depend on how hungry you are and for what reason, and will you still be hungry tomorrow/next week.

What we might not even contemplate eating today whilst we have a full belly we might scoff down when our bellies have been empty for a week or two. Just make sure it is well cooked

[TeeDee]

Properly cleaned and cooked it should be safe enough. It's talked about in a few survival books I've read ( Cody Lundin for one) so its nor way out there. Still, ill wait till I have to before I try it

I was going to mention the same , Cody's books are good reading , a little unconventional and unlike all other 'Survival' books I can think of.

The only thing I was going to mention was that the Rats that Cody catches and eats would SEEM to be desert / country rats. Which in my mind ( maybe wrong ) i would bet are cleaner and more healthy than City Sewar rats. I'm thinking along the lines of difference between Free Range chickens and Battery hens ( which can be a right state..trust me on that ) , so along with the general well being and welfare of the animal I would be concerned about possible connected diseases ( Weils disease which cooking should eradicate) and what the animal itself has been eating in the last 48 hours.

Gimme a squirrel any day of the week over a rat.



Anyway , found a vid for you:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J46qjt7T8RE


Notice the Piaute trap is NOT the typical figure four set up , this is how this trap should be set.

[luxor]

Anyone ever killed and eaten rat?

in the seige of paris they ate rats.

Due to a severe shortage of food, Parisians were forced to slaughter whatever animals at hand. Rats, dogs, cats, and horses were regular fare on restaurant menus. Even Castor and Pollux, the only pair of elephants in Paris, were not spared.

[TeeDee]

Eastern Footage.. Some Killing Shown. So theres the warning folks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urt87rK3_A0

[diamond lil]

Blackadder had Baldric cook him "trench rat lightly sauteed in muddy puddle"

[TomW]

And rat o van. Rat that had been run over by a van