Predators as food...was :Re: SC - Wolves are our cute furry friends..

[WyteRayven at aol.com]

I have always been told that predators don't taste very good. They are supposed to be tough, and "strong tasting".

I havent ever tried one. I dont really have the desire to. But it does make sense to me that a predator would taste different than a prey animal. 

I have also heard that most predators, given a choice, wont eat another predator. Kill yes, eat no, not unless they are really hungry.

My father told me that bear was generally very gamey and tough. Someone had mentioned eating weasels earlier (I think in jest) and even with the scent glands removed, I dont think that they would be particularly pleasant. But I am also not a fan of strong tasting meat.

Also, in regards to " animals killed by their predators are particularly tasty.  
Something about fear making the blood rush to the heart... or out of 
the heart.  ...." There seem to be some cultures that still practice this type of thing. I remember hearing a report (2nd or 3rd hand, so not verifiable) of a chinese restaurant here getting into big trouble for serving a Koatamundi.(an endangered species, I believe) To prepare it, it had to be placed alive in boiling water, the theory being that the adrenalin caused by doing such a thing, made the meat sweeter. This story may or may not be true, but there are cultures that believe that certain organs of animals must be harvested while the animals are still alive or the benefit of the organ is compromised. So I would not be surprised in the slightest to find that this belief would also be present in our period of study.


Just my 2 cents,

Ilia



In a message dated Mon, 16 Apr 2001  8:16:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time, "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net> writes:

<< On 16 Apr 01,, Laura C. Minnick wrote:

> Do we have any period recipes for wolves?

recipes for predators seem to be generally lacking from the 
medieval cookbooks.  Elizabeth David wrote "How to cook a wolf", 
but she used the word metaphorically, and it's a 20th century book. 
 This seems a good place to mention that Granado (1599) says 
that animals killed by their predators are particularly tasty.  
Something about fear making the blood rush to the heart... or out of 
the heart.  I don't have time to check right now.
 
> Do we have any evidence that they are wolves in period?

Bisclavret?  :-)