Carne de rata

En Malawi, en África Oriental, la gente cazaba ratones de campo en los maizales para alimentarse: los ensartaban en palos y los cocinaban, salaban o secaban como un manjar popular en mercados y puestos callejeros. ^{[ 3 ]} En el África subsahariana, donde se encuentran ratas de caña , algunas personas tienen la costumbre de comerlas. ^{[ 4 ]}

En Virginia Occidental , el estofado de rata se originó durante una época de dificultades económicas debido al colapso de la industria minera. ^{[ 5 ]} El plato es un ejemplo de la cocina de animales atropellados y ha aparecido en el concurso de cocina de animales atropellados de Marlington . ^{[ 6 ]}

En algunas culturas, el consumo de ratas está o ha estado restringido a una clase social o económica específica. En la cultura Mishmi de la India , las ratas son esenciales en la dieta tradicional, ya que las mujeres Mishmi no pueden comer carne, excepto pescado, cerdo, aves silvestres y ratas. ^{[ 7 ]} Por el contrario, la comunidad Musahar del norte de la India ha comercializado la cría de ratas como un manjar exótico. ^{[ 8 ]}

La carne de rata de arrozal ( Rattus argentiventer ) se consume en las cocinas vietnamita , ^{[ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ]} taiwanesa , ^{[ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ]} camboyana y ^{[ 11 ]} china . El rat-on-a-stick es un plato de rata asada que se consume en Vietnam y Camboya. ^{[ 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 a coronavirus.^[17]

In VictorianBritain rich and poor ate rat pie.^[18] During food rationing due to World War II, British biologists were known to eat laboratory 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]

In the traditional cultures of the Hawaiians and the Polynesians, rat was an everyday food for commoners. When feasting, the Polynesian people of Rapa Nui could eat rat meat, but the king was not allowed to, due to the islanders' belief in his "state of sacredness" called tapu.^[21] In studying precontact archaeological sites in Hawaii, 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.^[22]

Both the Shipibo people of Peru and Sirionó people of Bolivia have cultural taboos against the eating of rats.^[23][24]