Random Ramblings

Random Ramblings: Personal observations on a wide variety of subjects. Photographs of creatures and things that are taken on seeing the unusual as well as everyday things.

Rat recipe

I love the smell of brand new books. It’s a smell that is different to anything else on earth. Over the last week I have begun to look for Christmas presents and as usual, ended up glancing over neatly packed shelves of books in a variety of book shops.

Whilst my eyes were drawn to cookery books, fiction, autobiographies and a spell binding number of many others, I spied a little inconspicuous book entitled ‘Mrs Cooks Book of Recipes for Mariners in Distant Seas.’ In the corner in small print it stated ‘Boiled Jellyfish, Stewed Albatross and Other Treats for Sailors.’ The book, quite interesting, contains the recipes of Elizabeth Cook (1741 – 1835) and is compiled by John Dunmore. Many of you will have heard about her famous husband James Cook.

Whilst glancing through the pages I noticed in between simple staples like Yorkshire pudding there were other recipes which, brought a smile to my lips as I never imagined that anyone could have written out anything so desperate as “Rat Stew.” I suppose if you posses a recipe that describes how to cook a rat then you would be able to cook almost anything as a mariner in a time of need.

11 comments:

Kikey Loo said...

the recipe is abt cook the rat?
scary!!

mystique said...

nice blog...got something for u http://www.mystique21.com/

Carol said...

If it were any good, all our politicians would start disappearing over here. We can't have that now, can we?

capybara said...

We have an old cookery book that actually has a recipe on how to cook a Guinea Pig. Never heard of a Rat recipe before though!

Kerrie Slade said...

Ewww, don't fancy boiled jellyfish much either. My OH is working his way through the Patrick O'Brian books and there are some pretty strange things on the menu in there too!

Thanks for the comment on my blog by the way :0)

Sandi said...

that is pretty gross. I guess you'd have to get fairly desperate to eat it. It reminds me of a movie with Sylvestor Stallone....I forgot what it's called! With Wesley Snipes. Sly eats a rat burger and Taco Bell is the only restaurant left on earth. Anyway. Strange. It reminded me of that. haha

Barb said...

Well, out on the rough seas, protein is protein, I suppose! Maybe it tastes like chicken!

MaricrisG said...

so funny. This reminds me of the movie ratatouille :)- dropping by via EC drop- come say HI sometimes! :)

HEALTH NUT WANNABEE MOM said...

yuck but very interesting and I imagine if you are at sea and there is nothing to eat...
I love the smell of new books too!

Anonymous said...

rat stew. imagining it scares me to death! ewww....

Anonymous said...

Please be advised that in some of our country region, there are people that consume rice field rat as their primary meat sources 'cos the can't afford to buy beef meat.