Unthinkable? No better dinner than ragout of cat

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/08/unthinkable-dinner-ragout-of-cat

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Eating horse meat raises delicate issues. Yet Henry Labouchère's 1871 diaries of the siege of Paris make today's concerns seem unduly sensitive. "I dine habitually at a bouillon; there horse-flesh is eaten in the place of beef, and cat is called rabbit. Both, however, are excellent, and the former is a little sweeter than beef, but in other respects much like it; the latter something between rabbit and squirrel, with a flavour all its own." Here is another entry: "When one is asked to dinner, as an inducement one is told that there will be donkey. The flesh … is delicious – in colour like mutton, firm and savoury." And here a third: "I own for my part I have a guilty feeling when I eat dog. I had a slice of a spaniel the other day, it was by no means bad, something like lamb, but I felt like a cannibal. Epicures in dog flesh tell me that poodle is by far the best, and recommend me to avoid bulldog." Another entry: "This morning I had a salmis of rats – it was excellent – something between frog and rabbit." And another: "I had a slice of Pollux for dinner. Pollux and his brother Castor are two elephants, which have been killed. It was tough, coarse, and oily, and I do not recommend English families to eat elephant." This was a rare discouragement. "I never wish to taste a better dinner than a joint of donkey or a ragout of cat." Labouchère was confident that the siege "will destroy many illusions, and among them the prejudice which has prevented many animals being used as food". An idea whose time has come?