[BBQ] Almost cooked a mouse

[ztirffritz]

Sounds like a rat to me. That would be a BIG mouse otherwise.

[deckeda]

M A V I C wrote:
[quote=deckeda]
6" length sans tail sounds more like a rat to me. 6" length avec tail would be a mouse.

It's face, fur and shape sure looked like a quintessential mouse... but I don't really know the difference.
All I know is rats are typically twice as long, and the mice bodies I've seen (house or field mice) are only about 3" or so. Both have tails usually longer than their combined body+head I think.

But proportionally, a rat's head is larger to its body (more separate/distinct, like a squirrel's) whereas a mouse's head is more of a little wedge on the end and less distinct. Again, not positive about that.

[Mike Johnson]

Yeah, mice are really small. You could pick just about pick one up with a tablespoon. Also, they're impossibly cute.

I've eaten barbecued rat. It was tasty. But it was probably Makalata rhipidura, not actually in the Rattus genus.* If you've got Rattus norvegicus, you probably don't want to grill them. Make them into sausage, serve with sour cream and potatoes.





*Also, I was drunk.

[M A V I C]

So looking into it some more, it was a rat then. The rats I've seen around here are generally bigger (neighbor landscaper said he found one that was ~18" ), they usually have some fairly large front teeth and a striped tail.

[GeneL]

FWIW…

"Cooking Rats and Mice Calvin W. Schwabe in his book Unmentionable Cuisine (Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 1979, available from Amazon Books), says that North Americans should be using many forms of protein which are routinely consumed in other parts of the world. The following exerpts are from a section of the book giving recipes for cooking rats and mice.
"Brown rats and roof rats were eaten openly on a large scale in Paris when the city was under siege during the Franco-Prussian War. Observers likened their taste to both partridges and pork. And, according to the Larousse Gastronomique, rats are still eaten in some parts of France. In fact, this recipe appears in that famous tome.

Grilled Rats Bordeaux Style (Entrecote à la bordelaise)
Alcoholic rats inhabiting wine cellars are skinned and eviscerated, brushed with a thick sauce of olive oil and crushed shallots, and grilled over a fire of broken wine barrels.

What won't the French do next?

In West Africa, however, rats are a major item of diet. the giant rat (Cricetomys), the cane rat (Thryonomys), the common house mouse, and other species of rats and mice are all eaten. According to a United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization report, they now comprise of over 50 percent of the locally produced meat eaten in some parts of Ghana. Between December 1968 and June 1970, 258,206 pounds of cane-rat meat alone were sold in one market in Accra! This is a local recipe that shows the South American influence on West African cuisine.

Stewed Cane Rat
Skin and eviscerate the rat and split it lengthwise. Fry until brown in a mixture of butter and peanut oil. Cover with water, add tomatoes or tomato purée, hot red peppers, and salt. Simmer the rat until tender and serve with rice.

Stuffed Dormice / Ancient Rome
Prepare a stuffing of dormouse meat or pork, pepper, pine nuts, broth, asafoetida, and some garum (substitute anchovy paste.) Stuff the mice and sew them up. Bake them in an oven on a tile.

Roasted Field Mice (Raton de campo asado) / Mexico
Skin and eviscerate field mice. Skewer them and roast over an open fire or coals. These are probably great as hors d'oeuvres with margaritas or "salty dogs."

Farley Mowat also gives this innovative arctic explorer's recipe for souris à la crème.

Mice in Cream (Souris à la crème)
Skin, gut and wash some fat mice without removing their heads. Cover them in a pot with ethyl alcohol and marinate 2 hours. Cut a piece of salt pork or sowbelly into small dice and cook it slowly to extract the fat. Drain the mice, dredge them thoroughly in a mixture of flour, pepper, and salt, and fry slowly in the rendered fat for about 5 minutes. Add a cup of alcohol and 6 to 8 cloves, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Prepare a cream sauce, transfer the sautéed mice to it, and warm them in it for about 10 minutes before serving.

Sounds like a gourmet's survival meal to me.

Collected by Bert Christensen
Toronto, Ontario"

[GeneL]

Ewwww!

[Racer X]

well, since my GF and her two rat/mice eating machines moved in with me MAVIC's neighborhood rodent population have had 2 years to bounce back. She lived 1/2 a block away. His yard was part of their territory, and the boy cat Ash would be gone for days in the spring and summer. He came home for loving, but he was well fed. Ducklings were an option when he devastated the rodent population.

[M A V I C]

and a rodent nest down the street was recently destroyed (that ivy that was eating those trees.)

[M A V I C]

Then it hits me... 2yrs... wow, that's great to realize. Hope it's goin' good.

[Mac-A-Matic]

Rats.

I would have grilled that pucker for sure. I hate rats and since I'm down in the city, the War Against Rats is a non-stop battle.