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Rat meat is themeat of various species ofrat: medium-sized, long-tailedrodents. It is afood that, whiletaboo in some cultures, is a dietarystaple in others.[1][2] Taboos include fears of disease or religious prohibition, but in many places, the high number of rats has led to their incorporation into the local diets.
In Malawi of East Africa, people there hunted field mice in corn fields for food: they strung the mice on sticks and cooked, salted or dried the mice as a popular delicacy in markets and roadside stalls.[3] InSub-Saharan Africa wherecane rats are found, some people have the habit of eating them.[4]
Rat stew was once consumed inWest Virginia, the dish having originated during economic hardship due to a collapse in the mining industry.[5] The dish is an example ofroadkill cuisine and has appeared in theMarlington Roadkill Cook-off.[6]
In some cultures, rats are or have been limited as an acceptable form of food to a particular social or economic class. In theMishmi culture ofIndia, rats are essential to the traditional diet, as Mishmi women may eat no meat except fish, pork, wild birds and rats.[7] Conversely, theMusahar community in north India has commercialisedrat farming as an exotic delicacy.[8]
Ricefield rat (Rattus argentiventer) meat is eaten inVietnamese,[9][10][11][12][unreliable source?]Taiwanese,[13][14][15]Cambodian and[11]Chinese cuisines.Rat-on-a-stick is a roasted rat dish consumed in Vietnam and Cambodia.[16]
A 2020 study on wildlife trade in three southern Vietnamese provinces found that 55 percent of the field rats sold in tested restaurants were carrying acoronavirus.[17]
InVictorianBritain rich and poor ate ratpie.[18] Duringfood rationing due to World War II, British biologists were known to eatlaboratory rats, creamed.[19]
A recipe for grilled rats,Bordeaux-style, calls for the use of alcoholic rats who live in wine cellars. These rats are skinned and eviscerated, brushed with a thick sauce of olive oil and crushed shallots, and grilled over a fire of broken wine barrels.[20][21][22][23][24]
InValencia,Spain, Ricefield rat (Rattus argentiventer) meat was immortalized byVicente Blasco Ibáñez in his novelCañas y barro. Along witheel and localbeans known asgarrafons,rata de marjal (marsh rat) is one of the main ingredients in traditionalpaella (later replaced by rabbit, chicken and seafood).[25]
In the traditional cultures of theHawaiians and thePolynesians, rat was an everyday food for commoners. When feasting, the Polynesian people ofRapa Nui could eat rat meat, but the king was not allowed to, due to the islanders' belief in his "state of sacredness" calledtapu.[26] In studying precontact archaeological sites inHawaii, archaeologists have found the concentration of the remains of rats associated with commoner households accounted for three times the animal remains associated with elite households. The rat bones found in all sites are fragmented, burned and covered in carbonized material, indicating the rats were eaten as food. The greater occurrence of rat remains associated with commoner households may indicate the elites of precontact Hawaii did not consume them as a matter of status or taste.[27]
Elsewhere in the world, rat meat is considered diseased and unclean, socially unacceptable, or there are strong religious proscriptions against it.Islam andKashrut traditions prohibit it.
Both theShipibo people of Peru andSirionó people of Bolivia have cultural taboos against the eating of rats.[28][29]
Rats are a common food item forsnakes, both in the wild, and as pets. Adultrat snakes andball pythons, for example, are fed a diet of mostly rats in captivity. Rats are readily available (live or frozen) to individual snake owners, as well as to pet shops and reptile zoos, from many suppliers. In Britain, theAnimal Welfare Act 2006 "legally required that prey be killed before feeding unless absolutely necessary for the health of the predator."[30][31] The rule was put into place mainly because of the pressure of theRSPCA and people who said the feeding of live animals was cruel.
Rat stew was born out of lean times as a result of the collapse of the mining industry
There were other [people] who actually celebrated the eating of rat as a culinary cultural inheritance, to the point where in Marlinton, West Virginia, for instance, they hold this annual roadkill cookoff in order to celebrate the eating of roadkill in West Virginia. When I visited the annual roadkill cookoff in Marlington, there were two folks preparing rat dishes.
XXII BREAKFASTING ON RATS
the percentage that tested positive for at least one of six different coronaviruses jumped significantly. It increased from 20 percent of wild-caught rats sold by traders, to slightly more than 30 percent at large markets, the next step in the supply chain, to 55 percent of rats sold in restaurants that tested positive.
creamed rat.
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