Roadkill cuisine

Roadkill cuisine is preparing and eating roadkill, animals hit by vehicles and found along roads.

It is a practice engaged in by a small subculture in the United States, southern Canada, the United Kingdom and other Western countries as well as in other parts of the world. It is also a subject of humor and urban legend.

Large animals including deer, such as elk and moose, and bear are frequently struck in some parts of the United States, as well as smaller animals such as armadillos, raccoons, skunks and birds. Fresh kill is preferred and worms are a concern, so the kill is typically well cooked. Advantages of the roadkill diet, apart from its low cost, are that the animals that roadkill scavengers eat are naturally high in vitamins and proteins with lean meat and little saturated fat, and generally free of additives and drugs.

Almost 1.3 million deer are hit by vehicles each year in the US. If the animal is not obviously suffering from disease, the meat is no different from that obtained by hunting. The practice of eating roadkill is legal, and even encouraged in some jurisdictions, while it is tightly controlled or restricted in other areas. Roadkill eating is considered unglamorous and mocked in pop culture, where it is often associated with stereotypes of rednecks and uncouth persons.

In the United Kingdom, various casseroles may be prepared from badger, hedgehog, otter, rat, rabbit or pheasant where available. Others recommend preparing fox cub or hedgehog in a fricassee. Hedgehog was traditionally eaten roast with a nettle pudding. Badger must be cooked thoroughly to avoid the risk of trichinellosis (alt. trichinosis, trichiniasis). Roadkill enthusiasts in Canada recommend roasting beaver, which should first be soaked in salted water overnight after removing all fat. There are several roadkill cookbooks, typically with a tongue-in-cheek treatment but containing sensible advice, not least of which is ensuring that the flat meat is fresh and free of disease, and is adequately cooked to destroy bacteria and other contaminants.

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