Rodent Cheese

image The French eat many unusual things (unusual from an American perspective). For instance, just a few months ago I tried a French cheese that had a layer of ash in it. I thought it was disgusting. Kind of like eating cheese mixed with cigarette butts. However, I'm pretty sure not even the French have refined the art of Rodent Cheese:

Welcome to the fascinating world of rat cheese. The art of making cheese from lactating rodents has never been more alive than today. Still considered by some to be a luxury of the few, fine rat cheeses are becoming ever more popular. Technological advances and mechanisation have made rat-milking a relatively simple task nowadays. All the same a herd of a five hundred or so dairy rats may still only produce about a pint (568ml) of milk a day. It is little wonder then that premium rat cheeses cost as much as 80 euros a gram in some Parisian restaurants.

A clue that the site is a joke comes in this bit of political humor found under Cheese Facts:

Famous Cheese-eaters
Perhaps the most famous consumer of rodent cheese is US President, George W Bush. And although he cannot spell, pronounce, or even remember it, Fromage des Merdes is said to be his favourite.

Thanks to Dave for the link.

Food

Posted on Tue Apr 19, 2005


Comments

The vision of a bunch of rats standing around with milkers hooked up to their teets caused me to bust out laughing while drinking my soda. Thanks, Alex, now I have to clean my computer screen.
Posted by Myst  on  Tue Apr 19, 2005  at  11:28 PM
Reminds me of the Simpsons episode when Fat Tony was selling rat milk to Springfield Elemenntary.

Yes, I know I watch too much TV...
Posted by Wally  on  Tue Apr 19, 2005  at  11:38 PM
Thanks Wally, I was just thinking the same thing! :lol:
Posted by Smerk  on  Tue Apr 19, 2005  at  11:45 PM
ToT the poor rats!! I hope they were killed humanely. I love rats and all rodents....sniff
same goes for all food animals
Posted by Yushi  on  Tue Apr 19, 2005  at  11:51 PM
Animals must have recently given birth in order to be lactating, right? What happenes to all those baby rats? :( I don't know exactly how long a rat's gestation period is and how often they can breed, but it seems like the rats would have to get pregnant, have a baby, lactate for a few weeks, and then stop becaue they're ready to be pregnant again. It sounds like a very wasteful idea...
Posted by Katey  on  Wed Apr 20, 2005  at  06:47 AM
Once an animal starts lactating, it doesn't stop unless the baby is weaned. If a machine takes over (even in the case of rat teets), the animal would continually produce milk.
Posted by Maegan  on  Wed Apr 20, 2005  at  08:23 AM
Milking rats isn't so hard; the difficulty is in getting up again after sitting on those really short little milking stools. . .
Posted by Accipiter  on  Wed Apr 20, 2005  at  09:19 AM
"Famous Cheese-eaters Perhaps the most famous consumer of rodent cheese is US President, George W. Bush." I warned you about the GWB/Ratmunch thing months ago, right here: http://www.geocities.com/pnttheleb/Rats Once again, I'm ahead of the mob.
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Wed Apr 20, 2005  at  04:25 PM
Cute about the 'Fromage des Merdes', but that strikes me as the key clue to this being a hoax. Rodent Cheese would translate as 'fromage de rongeur', what they have says Diarhea Cheese.
Posted by tiker_tape  on  Wed Apr 20, 2005  at  04:34 PM
I got a pair of pet mice for last Valentine's Day, and seeing the eight little teet-spots on their undersides, I suggested to my girlfriend that we try to milk them and make cheese. I should have known I wasn't the first person to come up with the idea, huh?

The notion led me to ponder the fact that technically, you could make cheese from the milk of any mammal. I really sincerely wonder what human cheese would taste like.
Posted by Barghest  on  Wed Apr 20, 2005  at  09:19 PM
"What happenes to all those baby rats?"

They grow up to be members of the Bush administration, of course.
You're welcome, Hairy.
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Thu Apr 21, 2005  at  04:31 PM
I'd guess the unwanted baby rats would be made into rat veal...better call PETA!
Posted by hippievet  on  Thu Apr 21, 2005  at  06:00 PM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.