Oh, Rats!

[MRG]

I believe the answer to that is "just about anything". I learned that decades ago in US Air Force survival training. But for most people it seems to be simply a matter of what your culture accepts.

+1
Sometimes it's learned. I remember when I was working in the sawmill a guy was eating something deep fried that smelled great. He offered me one of these awesome smelling things but wouldn't tell me what it was. Oh my what a delicious meaty treat I was enjoying. Crispy deep fried coating on a wonderfully chewy meaty treat.

Then he told me they were chicken gizzards. I remember my mom cooking giblets for the dogs. OMG I ate dog food! You bet and if chicken gizzards are on the menu I'll be having some more.

 

[arbeadub]

What I wonder about, they were on a "desert island", how did the rats get there? And if the rats migrated from elsewhere, who knows whether they were "city" rats or field rats.

They had coconuts and conch meat, wasn't that enough?

In these times of restrictions it's all about variety, you could get tired of eating the same old things, with the right brining method and proper choice of wood for smoking a nice substitute Jabon Iberico from rats fattened on coconuts might be just the treat that makes life bearable.

 

[jimbee]

Had plenty of squirrels in my younger days. No wonder I moved on from the hills of Pennsylvania.

Eastern gray squirrels are tasty.

 

[Helen]

They had coconuts and conch meat, wasn't that enough?

It would be for me.

 

[Alectoris]

I believe the answer to that is "just about anything". I learned that decades ago in US Air Force survival training. But for most people it seems to be simply a matter of what your culture accepts.

Yep, USMC mountain survival course in 1990 (sheet, that's decades ago....) at Bridgeport, Ca.

You did yours at Fairchild?

Also, gizzards are awesome when prepared correctly.

 

[easysurfer]

What I wonder about, they were on a "desert island", how did the rats get there? And if the rats migrated from elsewhere, who knows whether they were "city" rats or field rats.

They had coconuts and conch meat, wasn't that enough?

OP here. Sorry about the typo. Meant to type "deserted island", not "desert island". Thus, not in the desert.

I had the same thought. If there were coconuts and conch meat, one had to have a pretty large protein craving to go for the rats.

I bet rats were plentiful there. Otherwise, I'd wonder how easy it was to catch them.

 

[NW-Bound]

I'd eat rats if I was stranded like that. Basically squirrels without a fuzzy tail. They'd be eating vegetation and small insect/critters. Not human trash like city rats.

When I had rat infestion in the attic, I researched a lot of videos on Youtube to learn about them. I ran across a channel by this rat catcher, who showed how he ate a rat that he trapped. No field rat here, I don't think.

Warning: Not for the faint of heart.

A bonus can be found at 5:50, where he skewered and roasted the heart and nuts of the rat, then ate them. A viewer commented "Rat nuts roasting on an open fire!"

 

[latexman]

Mmmm, tastes like chicken!

 

[NW-Bound]

Shawn Woods, the fellow in the above video, also had a video on trapping and cooking nutria.

Now, this is a bigger animal, and much more appetizing than a rat. Upon tasting it for the first time, he commented that the dark meat was like pork, with the lighter meat like chicken (at 8:50).

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

OP here. Sorry about the typo. Meant to type "deserted island", not "desert island". Thus, not in the desert.

It wasn't really a typo. It is a quirk of a language that changes, i.e., it is a somewhat archaic term that we still use today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_island

Uninhabited islands are sometimes also called "deserted islands" or "desert islands". In the latter, the adjective desert connotes not desert climate conditions, but rather "desolate and sparsely occupied or unoccupied". The word desert has been "formerly applied more widely to any wild, uninhabited region, including forest-land", and it is this archaic meaning that appears in the phrase "desert island".[3]

 

[easysurfer]

It wasn't really a typo. It is a quirk of a language that changes, i.e., it is a somewhat archaic term that we still use today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_island

Interesting tidbit. Thanks.

While we are on the topic of rats and islands, I remember in an episode of "Survivor Man". Must admit, that show seemed staged like many reality shows. But in one episode, the guy who has to survive each episode was in an island that has a big rat population. He'd do his usual status video on how he's doing and in the background, were rats crawling about .

 

[Koolau]

ca. 1965 I read the book (James Clavell) and also saw the movie KING RAT (George Segal and James Fox.) A group of WWII soldiers (mostly UK but with a few Americans) are prisoners at a Japanese camp. Picture BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI and the scene is pretty much set - except the deprivation is even worse. SO, some enterprising guys decide they will breed the local rats and sell them to their fellow prisoners. At first, no one feels too good about it, but then they arrive at the perfect solution. They will ONLY sell to officers.

 

[Nick12]

I believe the answer to that is "just about anything". I learned that decades ago in US Air Force survival training. But for most people it seems to be simply a matter of what your culture accepts.

The US Air Force acquired a lot of rabbits over the years. During survival training the troops learned to kill and live in the wilderness eating their meat.

 

[Nemo2]

ca. 1965 I read the book (James Clavell) and also saw the movie KING RAT (George Segal and James Fox.) A group of WWII soldiers (mostly UK but with a few Americans)

And ANZACS plus some Dutch, IIRC.

 

[jollystomper]

In days of yore, rat merchants existed in many localities: