Rat meat

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rat meat ( rice field rat ) in Vietnam
Grilled rats in Thailand

Rat meat is the meat of different rat- and mouse-like rodents . The meat of some of these species is used for human consumption.

Many rodents have the nickname rat in their name, such as tree rats , hamster rats , water rats etc. - but not all belong to the genus of rats , e.g. B. the muskrat or beaver rat (see nutria meat ).

Rats are a staple food in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, parts of the Philippines and Indonesia, Thailand, Ghana, China and Vietnam. In West Africa , where there is a protein deficit in the population, rodents play an increasingly important role in the diet, various types of rats and mice are consumed.

Rat meat is seldom consumed in western cultures, here it is more likely to be a pest and consumption as a food taboo . Rats, dogs and cats used to be eaten in times of need, for example during wartime, but there are also said to be culinary records of rat dishes consumed in Paris or Bordeaux .

Importance, consumption and risks

In most of Europe and the US, the consumption of rat meat is taboo, which is attributed to the cultural memory related to the Black Death . In the 14th and 15th centuries, rats in Europe were closely associated with the plague (see History of the Plague ), and since then the consumption of rat meat has been considered unsanitary and dangerous in these regions. For human nutrition in the temperate climate zone , the black house rat and the gray brown rat were mostly considered.

However, consideration is being given to feeding the world with rodent meat in a sustainable way, as is already a long tradition in many parts of the world. However, the health risks of slaughtering and eating wild rats have not yet been researched. A study in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, where up to 3,600 tons of rat meat were produced per year in 2001/2002, found that none of the workers knew about the health risks or used protective clothing. The disease-causing bacteria Clostridium perfringens (cause of the gas fire ) and Enterococcus faecalis (cause of diarrheal diseases) were found in and around the processing areas of the rat meat .

In West Africa , rodents are among the most promising commodities, their meat is coveted and accounts for 20% to 90% of the total animal protein consumed by most rural West Africans. In southern Nigeria, up to 71% of residents, especially those with a low socioeconomic status, feed on the giant rats. Bush meat - like the giant rat - is a staple food with a share of around 20–90%. The Gambia giant hamster rat , the great tube rat , the house mouse and other types of rats ( grass rat , bare-soled gerbil ) and mice ( multi-teat mice ) are eaten .

In rural Thailand , especially in the Pathum Thani province , rice paddy rats , which weigh just 90 g, are particularly enjoyed when the prices for pork and chicken are seasonally high. There are nearly 200 species known as rice rats in the Americas , some of which are not valued as food.

Rat meat is canned in the Philippines when it is sold as STAR meat ( rats backwards) in supermarkets. Cambodia exports up to 2 tons of wild rats to Vietnam every day during "rat season". In South Vietnam, rat meat is an integral part of a traditional wedding meal or in restaurants.

With the Adi tribe in northeast India, rats are valued not only for their meat, but also as a cultural asset. Every year on March 7th they celebrate Unying-Aran, a popular rat hunting festival, and rats are a custom as gifts at weddings.

Bush rats are eaten in Papua New Guinea , especially the giant tree rat Mallomys rothschildi .

description

Rat meat is low in fat if it comes from wild animals. As the rodents feed on the rice fields, fruits and vegetables, their meat is rich in omega-3 fatty acids . The taste is described differently. The meat of the rice-fed rats is said to taste like rabbit meat . Cane rats have a sweetish, white meat, the taste is somewhere between pork, partridge or hare meat. In the 19th century, the well-fed rats from Gironde's wine cellars had delicious meat with a musky taste that was not unpleasant, it was said.

Preparation and preservation

The slaughtered animals are usually decapitated and skinned. Often the fur of the slaughtered animals is singed over an open fire, then the intestines are removed and the skin is peeled off, in order then either to cut up the carcasses or to process them completely. According to other methods of preparation, the animals for slaughter are first kept in boiling water so that the hair can be removed, then they are disemboweled, the skin is rubbed with oil and spices on the outside and grilled.

In Mozambique , the little rice rats are eaten with their fur, muzzle and feet, what remains are their teeth and tails. For this, the rats are boiled whole so that they can later be dried on skewers over the fire. If skewered and dried, they can be kept for several days.

In Thailand, rats are grilled whole (with shallots and chillies) or small rats are half-cooked, chopped and served with the hearts and livers in a chili paste with rice.

In China, soups made from rat meat are said to have special health effects (supposed to help with baldness , kidney diseases and skin problems).

In West Africa , cane rats are prepared as a stew. The African giant hamster rat is one of the most popular rodents consumed in Nigeria (alongside squirrels and porcupines). The average weight is 1.2 kg for the females and 1.3 kg for the males.

In New Zealand, the Māori keep the Kiore rats in their own fat. A report by Elsdon Best of the Māori explained how they fattened the native rats with berries and beechnuts . When the rats were to be canned , they were placed in a large wooden bowl or trough (kumete), where they remained for a while; when the rats were quite fat, the fat soon began to separate from them, and when a certain amount had accumulated, red-hot stones were placed in them and occasionally renewed. This resulted in more fat building up in the jar while the fat and rats were being cooked together, or at least in a way that suited the Maori taste. The rats were then packed in pumpkin or wooden jars and the melted fat was poured over them as a preservative.

According to Prosper Montagné's Larousse Gastronomique (1961) , rats were once highly valued in France. Entrecôte de tonnelier is a haute cuisine recipe for rats that is made with oil and lots of chopped shallots. Entrecôte à la Tonnelier made from rat meat is said to be the predecessor of the entrecôte à la Bordelaise , it was prepared with rats fed in the Gironde wine cellars and, after gutting and skinning, grilled on a fire made from rubble from barrels or grapevines. With the addition of wine, the musky taste of the rats should be masked. Other reports from 1870 mentioned a preparation of the rats as a terrine with a filling of minced meat and fat from the donkey, or such as pigeons à la crapaudine (French: " Toad-style pigeons").

history

Rats were eaten in China during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) and called "domestic game".

Debris on Easter Island has more rat bones than fish scraps, evidence that the islanders' diet has been adversely affected by the environmental damage they themselves caused, including the rats brought in on the first canoes as stowaways and all kinds of land birds had eliminated.

Gnawed rat bones with knife notches can be found in the Kökkenmöddinger , which is an indication that prehistoric humans ate rat meat .

It is known that around 1859 the cooperatives of Bordeaux prepared grilled rats and the Parisians ate rats during the famine when the city was besieged by Prussian troops in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Even on long sailing voyages, the rats that always populated the ship are said to have been eaten sometimes, but only in extreme need.

  • Rat meat in Thailand

  • Grilled rats and frogs in Vietnam

  • Mice roasted on skewers in Malawi

  • Cooked field mice in Van Giang, Vietnam

  • Fried field mouse in Van Giang, Vietnam

Web links

See also

literature

  • Jonathan Deutsch, Natalya Murakhver: They Eat That ?: A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from Around the World . ABC-CLIO, 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-38058-7
  • Karl Gruber: Rodent meat - a sustainable way to feed the world? In: EMBO Reports. Volume 17, No. 5, 2016, DOI: 10.15252 / embr.201642306

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan Deutsch Ph.D, Natalya Murakhver: They Eat That ?: A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from Around the World . ABC-CLIO, 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-38058-7 , pp. 159 ( google.de [accessed on August 16, 2019]).
  2. ^ A b c Alan Davidson: The Oxford Companion to Food . OUP Oxford, 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-104072-6 , pp. 673 ( google.de [accessed on August 16, 2019]).
  3. ↑ a b c Karl Gruber: Rodent meat - a sustainable way to feed the world? In: EMBO Reports . tape 17 , no. 5 , 2016, ISSN  1469-221X , p. 630–633 , doi : 10.15252 / embr.201642306 , PMID 27113761 , PMC 5341521 (free full text).
  4. ↑ MA Oyarekua, AO Ketiku: The Nutrient Composition of the African Rat. Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Science and Tecnology, Ifaki-Ekiti Nigeria / Human Nutrition Deparment, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, November 30, 2010, accessed on August 19, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Rhodes H. Makundi: Neglected and Underutilized Rodents. In: Africa Center of Excellence for Innovative Rodent Pest Management and Biosensor. Technology Development - Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania, p. 1 , accessed on August 25, 2019 .
  6. ^ Rodent Outbreaks: Ecology and Impacts . International Rice Research Institute, 2010, ISBN 978-971-22-0257-5 , pp. 281 f . (English, google.de [accessed on August 25, 2019]).
  7. ^ A b c Alan Davidson: The Oxford Companion to Food . OUP Oxford, 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-104072-6 , pp. 673 ( google.de [accessed on August 16, 2019]).
  8. ↑ a b c d Jonathan Deutsch Ph.D, Natalya Murakhver: They Eat That ?: A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from Around the World . ABC-CLIO, 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-38058-7 , pp. 159 ( google.de [accessed on August 16, 2019]).
  9. ↑ a b Christian Guy: Une histoire de la cuisine française . La viande de advice? … Mais c'est trés bon! Les Productions de Paris - Bibliothèque de l'Étoile, 1962, p. 185-186 .
  10. ↑ a b Rodent Outbreaks: Ecology and Impacts . International Rice Research Institute, 2010, ISBN 978-971-22-0257-5 , pp. 281 f . (English, google.de [accessed on August 25, 2019]).
  11. ↑ MA Oyarekua, AO Ketiku: The Nutrient Composition of the African Rat. Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Science and Tecnology, Ifaki-Ekiti Nigeria / Human Nutrition Deparment, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, November 30, 2010, accessed on August 19, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Lolis Eric Elie : Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue . University of North Carolina Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8078-6805-8 , pp. 24 ( google.de [accessed on August 20, 2019]).
  13. ^ Karl Gruber: Rodent meat - a sustainable way to feed the world? In: EMBO Reports . tape 17 , no. 5 , 2016, ISSN  1469-221X , p. 630–633 , doi : 10.15252 / embr.201642306 , PMID 27113761 , PMC 5341521 (free full text).
  14. ^ A b Ernst Mayerhofer, Clemens Pirquet von Cesenatico: Lexicon of Nutrition: 4th delivery . Springer-Verlag, 2019, ISBN 978-3-7091-2172-6 , pp. 856 ( google.de [accessed on August 16, 2019]).
  15. ^ New Larousse Gastronomique . Octopus, 2018, ISBN 978-0-600-63587-1 ( google.de [accessed August 19, 2019]).