I had heard about this book some years ago and finally got around to ordering a copy through www.half.com. It is basically on the use of animal, fish or fowl parts for which most would show a distain for if they knew what they were eating.

James Beard (a name which should ring a bell or two) wrote about it: "I read from cover to cover with huge enjoyment. It is a remarkable and fascinating treatise...I can recall no other book that has covered the subject of strange foods with quite his flair and authority, and I consider the book required reading for anyone interested in the lore of food."

For those who process their own animals, it contains a number of recipes from around the world on how normally discarded parts can be prepared. For example, on pig's feet, there are recipes from Denmark, China, Japan, France, Poland, Italy and Germany. Hey, never knew what to do with the tail, there is a French recipe for them.

Now, this isn't a book for the squimmish as it does include recipes for dogs, cats, rats and a number of other critters which are normally not a part of the standard American diet.

None of these are recipes you might want to serve to guests (well, Renee, maybe your in-laws), but there may well be alternatives in here for how you either can cook different or how to cook what would normally be discarded.

I think there is a book along the same lines titled something like Butterflies in my Stomach.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 16, 2001

Answers

Ken, I think folks would be surprised if they traveled much outside of the U.S. to see what "parts" are used in other countries! I was looking through the Carla Emery book the other night, and she even shows how to cook beaver tail. Not exactly on our menu, but I guess you could eat it. Also snake, turtle, etc. I'm just glad I don't live in Scotland, as I don't think I could eat haggis.... Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), February 16, 2001.

Pot luck meals could take on a whole new meaning.....

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), February 16, 2001.

Hi Ken, I have eaten every animal you mentioned, with the exception of cats, here in the good ol' USA.

-- Lynn Goltz (lynngoltz@aol.com), February 16, 2001.

Ken, Iwas just reading an article yesterday on the internet about the decline in populations of monkeys in certain parts of Africa. Various parts of Africa are in civil war and the soldiers have been hunting them in large numbers to suppliment their diets. The pictures showed bar be qued Gorilla and fried monkey feet! They have eaten so many of the gorillas that certain types are now on the endangered list. Sincerely, Ernest

-- Ernest in the Ozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), February 16, 2001.

Ken;

I've eaten snake, gator, horse, dog, guinea pig, several different kinds of lizard, but not cat (at least not that I'm aware of). The big difference is culture. Personally I love chicken gizzards and a lot of people I know think that they are disgusting. I guess it's what you're used to. It would interesting to see your cook book.

God Bless

Jim Tanner

-- Jim Tanner (tanner_jim@hotmail.com), February 16, 2001.

Jim yuck dog and horse how could you ?

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), February 16, 2001.

Can you post a good recipe for rat? We need to help our brothers and sisters in the city. Those poor people are not allowed to raise domesticated meat.

-- lyndsey (lyndsey@spazmail.com), February 16, 2001.

In a asian restaruant in Springfield, Mo the health dept. closed it down for using cat in there sweet and sour chicken. And I may have eaten some because it was a place that i would go to when in Springfield. If so it was white meat and wasnt bad. dale (Yuck)

-- dale (dgarr@fidnet.com), February 16, 2001.

Haggis is really quite good. Ate Larvettes once; high on chitin, low on substance. Every time you eat commercially prepared foods you're probably consuming some insects and bugs, maybe a rodent or three. As noted on an earlier thread,people who work for one of the best known grape juice bottlers in the US report seeing rats riding the conveyor belts up to the juicing machine. Every time I see their commercial on Tv, I think 'Mm-mm!! Rat-Juice!!"

This sounds reminiscent of the 'Road Kill Cookbook'. Anything on the Donner Dinner Party?

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), February 17, 2001.

Julie:

I believe the Donner Family Cookbook contains recipes for such items as brains and eggs, tongue sausage, head cheese, shoulder roasts, spare ribs, back fat, bacon, rump roasts, Lady Fingers, drumsticks and vegetable soup with feet. What's left would be hamburger or sausage. If the Donners invited you to dinner, try not to be the guest of honor.

Old joke: Cannibals capture a missionary and he is their guest of honor. Next day the chief approached the cook and said the meal was a bit off normal and asked how it was cooked. The cook said it was boiled. "Ah," said the chief, "he was a Francisan and they are all friars."

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 17, 2001.

P.S. This is a true story. The Department of Agriculture built a new building and had an employee contest to name the dining room. The Alfred Packard Memorial Dining Room got the highest vote and it was so named, until who Alfred Packard was was brought to their attention.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 17, 2001.

The last time I was in France, about 1985, horse meat was common at restaurants. Good lean meat.

-- Lynn Goltz (lynngoltz@aol.com), February 17, 2001.

Q:What did one cannibal say to the other, while dining on a clown?.......... A:"Hey, does this taste funny?"

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), February 17, 2001.

Isn't there also a book about 101 Ways to Wok Your Dog?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 17, 2001.

A few years back, I heard an interview on the radio concerning the Lewis and Clark expedition. After three years of eating little other than meat, the men were asked which was best. About half said buffalo tongue and the other half said beaver tail. But they were unanimous on their third choice: dog.

On thinking about it, it made sense. Dogs were probably domesticated for several reasons, one of which was probably to scavenge up odd bits of food. When times got tough, they would have been available. Seems reasonable to keep track of the tastier ones. A hard trip by dogsled was one where you were "down to the last dog."

Take care

-- Marty Boraas (boraas@miliserv.net), February 17, 2001.

I suspect it would be difficult to tell the difference between a headless rabbit and cat carcass through appearance or taste. And, yes, combination cat and chicken dishes are popular in the Orient.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 17, 2001.

I like the joke about the clown -- so they ARE good for something after all? (A Mime is a terrible thing to waste)

I'd been warned about eating in France that if they had a horsehead (marble, or plaster) over the door of the restaurant that that was notification of what you were going to be eating. Horsemeat consumption has risen 30% in France in recent weeks -- while beef consumption fell off by 30%. Wonder if there's a connection.(hah) Wait til they get some of those EPM horses out of the US on their dinner tables, or the ones with all the deworming agents still in effect. That should be interesting to see what happens and what they eat next.

I also have an antique cookbook around here somewhere that has instructions on the proper cooking and serving of a whole calf's head, which was the height of fashionable table during the Victorian era, with instructions on how to cut off the various bits, gouge out the teeth to serve with the jelly they contain, spoon out the eyeballs to serve to honored guests, and if you have more honored guests than eyeballs, to halve or quarter them....

Me? No thanks, I'll be having the potato soup...that's the only eyes I want to deal with.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), February 17, 2001.

Hey Ken, did you know that there's an old law still on the books in Tennessee, that you can still "retrieve" road kill to take home to eat!? My husband read that in the Orient, they take a live monkey, a table with a round hole in the middle, and stick the monkeys head up through the hole. They then take a saw and cut the monkeys head, and proceed to chow down on the brains, while the monkeys still alive! I think I'd become a vegetarian!

-- Annie (mistletoe@earthlink.net), February 17, 2001.

Years ago I used to work for the Florida Dept. of Natural Resources. We got a grant request from a group in Mexico seeking funding to do an educational booklet about manatees, a species highly endangered in Florida. FDNR was all for supporting the project until I translated the part for them that contained the manatee recipes. They denied the request!

-- Lori in SE Ohio (klnprice@yahoo.com), February 17, 2001.

Who says you have to travel outside the good ole US of A to find DOG! Did somebody mention bologny? How about the slick slimy "hog hair and grease" varity? Store brands usually. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), February 17, 2001.

While working in Korea, I once asked the Korean Laison, Mr Pak, how to tell if a dish contained dog at the restaurants, because to me they were pets,and I didn't want to eat one. He very graciously told me that only certain places served dog, so unlikely that I would get any by mistake. He told me the custom was for farmers to have a dog for "protection" and then in the spring, when the farmer needed energy to work hard, he would eat the dog. Yuk. I saw on several occasions, trucks with cages filled with large reddish dogs--on their way to market. One of the hardest things for me to accept when I lived there. Those dogs were crammed into the cages, unable to even stand up. But to them, things we did were horrible, too. All a matter of culture. Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), February 17, 2001.

Overheard in various restaurants:

To two waiters: "Would you guys stop horsing around and bring me my entree."

"I'll be dog-goned if I can figure out what meat this is."

"Isn't this dish just the cat's meow?"

"Rats, I just found a small bone."

"This meat is so good, I can hardly bear it.

"I guess I'll be a guinea pig and try their roasted suckling pig."

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 18, 2001.

I told myself I wasn't even going to look at this thread, lost control today and looked at it. I wasn't missing much! Barf. I won't even eat liver!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@hotmail.com), February 18, 2001.

Almost 30 years ago, several local people went on a mission trip into Zaire. Five of us spent 2 weeks in a small village in the Itira Forest, home of pygmies. One day we were served monkey in palm gravy over rice. The gravy was really good, but I didn't have the nerve to try the monkey. My husband killed a cape buffalo and as the Congolese were butchering it (in the forest) they shook the grass out of the stomach. The next day, the stomach (tripe) was served to us, as guests of honor. We passed that one up, too. A few years ago we were visiting our daughter in Switzerland and were surprised that horse meat is readily available in grocery stores and restaurants. Hubby ate some horse lunch meat and thought it was OK. I wasn't that brave. We went to a castle for dinner one evening and had meat fondue. We had a choice of several kinds of raw meat to cook in the pot on our table. I did try ostrich but couldn't go the horse! That same daughter now lives near New Orleans. Last year, for the first time, I ate crawfish. Don't like the idea of eating the boiled ones with insides still intact, but cooked in other dishes, crawfish is delicious.

-- ruth in s.e.IL (bobtravous@email.com), February 19, 2001.