Eat Badgers Says the Fat Lady – I agree & Foxes too

Fat Lady Clarissa Dickson Wright is in the soup for suggesting that badgers which are despatched in the forthcoming cull should be eaten. I am with her all the way. Indeed I would go further and reintroduce fox to the menu as well.

We are terribly squeamish about what we eat and indeed our relationship with death and animals is utterly out of kilter. I have eaten guinea pig (it was crispy and delicious) and horse and would have no problem with a bit of roast dog if it was offered to me.

Obviously I could not eat a cat. But why do we accept that it is okay to eat rabbit but not guinea pigs? It is just a cultural norm we have here. In South America it is different.

But back to the badgers which are being culled to prevent the spread of TB. A bunch of townies are up in arms to protect the badger. The same sort of folk that got fox hunting killed. Having grown up in the countryside on a farm where we kept chickens, ducks and geese I regard both animals as vermin. Foxes would kill the lot. Badgers will steal eggs and might go for a chick. Both can break into pens. They should both be fair game.

But of course the sort of folk who think that eggs come from Tesco and chickens from Colonel Sanders think that sweet little foxy woxy and Brock the badger are cute furry little creatures. I remember seeing a kids clock at a toy shop in Hampstead with a sweet farmyard animal for each of the hours: a sheep, a cow, a chicken, etc and a fox. Hampstead is Hampstead but kids grow up there thinking foxes are sweet not evil killers.

And so hunting with hounds was banned and since 1992 badger killing has also been banned. I would repeal both bans like a shot.

As to eating badger – why not? If these creatures are to be shot in a cull why chuck them into a landfill heap. As the Fat Lady says:

‘Rabbit in the middle ages cost a man’s week’s wages for a single rabbit. People ate badger because badger was plentiful.

‘When I was a teenager most of the pubs in the West Country had badger hams on the bar just like a jamon iberico. And it was delicious. It tasted like young wild boar.

‘Either make a ham or treat it like pork – very lean pork because it’s got no fat on it. Baste it properly and marinade it properly and cook it in a casserole or whatever.’

Delicious. And so much better than wasting the meat in a landfill site. Fox, apparently does not taste so good. But I have found a few recipes and if anyone does shoot a fox and has a spare carcass I am itching to try them out and serve it up as a special at The Real Man Pizza Company. Feel free to get in contact. And as I work on a new Christmas menu, does anyone have a few spare fat guinea pigs?