Donald Trump and roasted cat for dinner
One of the many outrageous statements Trump's made is that Haitian immigrants eat cats. What the orange-skinned man might not have known is that well-off Catalans may have eaten them… in XVI century!
One of the outrageous claims you've surely heard Donald Trump make in this campaign is that Haitian immigrants eat their neighbors' cats and dogs. What this orange-skinned fanatic may not have known when he said this nonsense is that Catalans have a bit of history, and legends, when it comes to eating cats.
During the dark years of the post-Spanish Civil War, when hunger bit harder than four-legged rats —the two-legged ones in grey uniforms were much worse— a story emerged that still raises eyebrows and wrinkles noses today: the legend of 'cat for hare' in restaurants.Josep divagatio is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Imagine the scene: a humble establishment with faded walls and wobbly tables. The diners, with empty stomachs and even emptier pockets, eagerly await their grilled, roasted, or hunter-style "rabbit" dish. The waiter arrives with a suspicious smile and serves meat that, while smelling delicious, looks somewhat... feline.
This story, passed down through generations, suggests that some unscrupulous restaurants served cat instead of rabbit to unsuspecting or hungry customers. Considering the desperation of those times, this idea isn't so far-fetched. With ration cards and widespread scarcity, culinary imagination soared, leading to creative recipes like potato omelets without eggs or potatoes and sad situations like renting ham bones to enrich several soups in different homes with the same bones or the lathyrism epidemic due to high chickling pea consumption.
However, was it really a widespread practice? Or is it simply an exaggeration born from the misery of those years? The truth is that there is no solid historical evidence to confirm this practice was widespread. Nevertheless, the phrase 'to sell a cat for a hare' has existed long before the Civil War and refers to the act of deceiving by giving something of lesser value while making it appear as something of higher quality.
What we do know for certain is that during the post-war period, people had to resort to unexpected ingredients to survive. They ate things they never would have imagined, from bread made with chestnut flour to 'chocolate' made from carob, and even 'white' bread that was actually whitened with lime. However, cat had also been eaten at some point in Catalonia's history. In fact, one of the most important cookbooks in the history of Catalan cuisine, El Llibre del Coch by Mestre Robert (Robert de Nola), already contains a recipe for cat.
The “Llibre del Coch” was published in Barcelona in Catalan in 1520, making it the first printed cookbook on the Iberian Peninsula. It was translated into Spanish in 1525, becoming the first printed Spanish cookbook on record. It is the fourth known Catalan-language cookbook, following the “Llibre de Sent Soví” (1324, based on a 1313 manuscript), the “Llibre d’aparellar de menjar” (third quarter of the 14th century), and the “Llibre de totes maneres de potatges” (mid-15th century).
But we were talking about eating cats… As Raquel Parera explains in this article, «the most unusual recipe in Robert de Nola’s book is, without a doubt, roasted cat (chapter 122). Experts from the Alícia Foundation suggest it was likely a wild cat. In any case, if you’ve been served cat instead of hare, the Llibre del coc explains in detail how to prepare it. It was believed that eating the head would make you go mad, so it couldn’t be eaten, no matter how hungry you were. The cat had to be buried for a day and a night, then roasted on a spit, coated with garlic sauce, and cut like a rabbit. ”Mestre Robert” ends the recipe description with: “Eat it and you’ll see what a unique dish it is.”»
In this context, it occurs to me that perhaps someone familiar with Robert de Nola’s recipe book may have invited Donald Trump to dinner, and he, maybe unknowingly, ate the head of a roasted cat. Of course, that would have been a long time ago, as it’s no secret that this man has been losing his sanity for some time.
So next time you order ‘grilled rabbit’ at a restaurant, you might want to take a second look before digging in with your fork. Just in case, don’t eat the head. You never know if they’ve served you cat instead of rabbit!
A recipe
I know, I couldn’t leave you without a recipe.
Prepare a garlic sauce with olive oil, salt, lemon juice, fresh thyme, rosemary, and a couple of mashed anchovies. Use this mixture to baste the cat rabbit (or chicken if you want), well seasoned with salt and ground pepper, and placed on a spit. Stuff the inside with rosemary, thyme, and a bay leaf. Wrap in foil and cook slowly, then remove the foil near the end for a roasted finish. Baste again and enjoy.
Bon appétit!
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