It’s processed meat; they say it’s mutton—
And that, of course, is that.
No need to worry over nutton—
It’s not (or is it?) rat.
But rat it is, or fox, or mink,
(And some of it’s diseased)
Chinese officials made a stink
And now it’s all been seized.
Some twenty thousand tons of meat
Were seized in raids this year
From bogus beef to chicken feet
It’s not quite right, they fear.
So have some tart, with not much rat…
It’s safe–but just not very
And if you please, have cheese with that…
Cos next, they’re checking dairy
Yup… via CNN, a story bound to leave you peckish…
Police in China have spent three months seizing bogus meat, some of it fake beef or mutton made out of fox, mink and rat.
They snatched up around 20,000 tons of illegal products, according to state news agency Xinhua.
In 382 cases, officials arrested 904 suspects for passing off counterfeit meat, meat injected with water or diseased flesh to consumers, the news agency said.
I’ve never had rat, but I do have recipes (I collect recipes; if you have some you think I might like, please send them along!), and I would not be in the least hesitant to try them. But. I want my rat meat labeled as rat meat. (More likely, I’ll butcher my own.) If my recipe calls for mutton, I want mutton, and if my recipe calls for rat, I want rat.
It occurs to me that my last comment on Taslima’s blog linked to a cannibalism site. Like I said… I collect recipes.
From Wikipedia: Adulterant
This might have been quoted in “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, since I remember it from about the time I read the book in high school.
Wonderful! *eeeewwwww*
I love your poetry, Cuttlefish.
As a thanks, here a recipe. http://tinyurl.com/ckcpjsb
Oh… my… that looks wonderful!
I have a cookbook with recipes for possum and other “game”, It even tells you how to clean them.
My father (1911-1982), who was a pretty fair cook for an old bachelor, was partial to beef but if pressed would admit that he thought moose was nearly as good. He never turned down venison as near as I could tell. If he’d ever been hungry enough to eat rat I’m sure he would have told me. Would have made an object lesson out of it about being poor and cold and hungry but never giving up. Anyway, he told me that he learned to cook from a recipe book written by an even older bachelor cook (name lost to time, alas). Each recipe started out the same:
“You take an onion . . .”
I’ve no idea if rodents were mentioned anywhere in said cook book. For that I’d turn to Farley Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf.
@#3
That was the best nativity scene ever. Also, reading go Terry Pratchett having alzheimers is going to ruin my year, That disease as far as I’m concerned is all the proof you could ever need to show there is no loving god. What a horror for anyone to deal with, sympathy for those whose lives it “touches”.
On our side of the pond we have recently been having a scandal concerning horse meat being labelled as beef.
This is my ‘go-to’ recipe; it always works. NOTE: if your mushrooms are ones with a
high water content (chanterelles, oyster mushrooms, etc.) be sure to dry-saute them
(Google that) before using in this recipe to get that excess water out.
Mushroom Pie
Filling:
One onion, diced
2 TBSP butter
8 cups chopped mushrooms
(dry-saute’ first if high-water content type – and drain off juices)
8 oz. block of cream cheese (room temp.)
½ TBSP Thyme (optional depending on mushroom flavour)
Saute’ onion in pan w/butter until translucent; add mushrooms and saute’ until mushrooms give off their juices; chunk the cream cheese into this and stir on low heat until melted – set aside from heat after this.
Pie Crust:
2 ½ cups unbleached flour
½ tsp baking powder
2 sticks of butter (room temp.)
1 cup sour cream
egg yolk
2 TBSP milk
Mix flour & baking powder in a bowl. Hand-mix in the butter until crumbly. Stir in the sour cream to form a soft ball, adding small amounts of flour if needed. Roll-out ½ of the ball for the bottom crust & put in pie pan (9-inch or larger). Spoon filling into bottom crust. Roll out 2nd ½ of ball and cut ½ to ¾ inch wide strips and lattice-top the pie, pinching ends into edge of bottom crust as you lay each on. Mix together egg yolk and 2 TBSP milk (give egg white to the cats) and use a pastry brush to paint that over the lattice crust.
Bake at 375-degrees for 40-45 minutes until crust is golden brown.
NOTE: very rich, so serve in small wedges after it cools.