While dormouse hunting (because of their furr) used to be a Slovenian tradition, I’ve never heard of anyone eating them… until a couple of moments ago.

After using google to find out what a “dormouse” is in the first place I came across this page where it says: “People eat edible dormice even if they are very similar to mice. Their meat is tasty and greasy.”

I don’t know about other people but I’m pretty sure dont’t want a dormouse for lunch today.

     by a-- on June 30, 2004 at 10:14 am

There is or was a restaurant in Hong Kong that specialised in rats. Curiously, although the Cantonese characters on the menu stated unequivocally that the meat was rat, the English translation described the rat dishes as “Super Deer”. Despite this, I believe that most of the anglophone diners were well aware of the true content of their dinner, it being the place’s unique selling point.

     by Alex on June 30, 2004 at 2:59 pm

i’ve actually heard about some slovenian groups of dormouse hunters who do eat the animals they primarily hunt for their fur.
browsing the internet however, i’ve only found an ancient roman dormouse recipe(www.glirarium.org/bilch/rezept.html)and some creepy croatian eating habits (www.glirarium.org/dormouse/cult-croatian-speciality.html). yummy! (both sites are in german.)

     by ZK on June 30, 2004 at 3:52 pm

Dormouse has a “good fur and tasty meat” says a Slovenian encyclopedia. Eating dormice was usual in certain regions in Slovenia (Notranjska, Dolenjska). The name in Slovenian “polh” doesn`t imply any connection with mouse or rat (mis, podgana). The encyclopedia says it is similar to squirrel.
I found at Google`s Souping through Slovenia (an interesting and funny site) a recipe.
“Chef Slavko Adamlje has the recipe:
4 dormice fried in oil, sprinkled with flour then stewed in water with potatoes, herbs, salt, pepper, and lemon peel - flavored with vinegar just before serving.”

A.

     by Anonymous on July 1, 2004 at 1:50 am

I don`t believe dormice has ever been raised and fattend just for cooking in Slovenia.

David

     by Anonymous on July 1, 2004 at 2:10 am

Thanks to everyone for the great comments.

Here’s the site that A. kindly mentions: Souping Through Slovenia. It’s a good read.

Somewhat related: One of the first words I learned in Slovene came from the menu of a restaurant in Gorenjska (Upper Carniola): bikova jajca, i.e. bull’s balls. I regret that I didn’t try them, as they’re considered to be quite a delicacy. (In the U.S., the dish is more commonly known as “Rocky Mountain Oysters“.) Next time, I’ll be more brave.

     by Michael M. on July 1, 2004 at 11:28 am

“Bikova j.” is a folk term for that food. It used to cause (both the food and its name) a lot of amusment and teasing, especially in relation males - females. More elegant term is “prasniki” (in “better” restaurants). I don`t know who invented “prasniki” which is also funny, since “prasnik” means “stamen”.

Literally translation of “bikova j.” is “bull`s eggs”. I remember my nephew (when he was very young) once said very seriously in a restaurant “I didn`t know that bulls lay eggs”.

Andreja

     by Anonymous on July 2, 2004 at 8:19 am

I know this is quite late, however I’ve come across this site just a few days ago.

I took a look at my grandmother’s cookbooks and found another recipe for dormice. I can’t tell you which cook-book I’ve found this in, since it had no front page, but it was pretty old.

So, here it goes:

Chop the cleaned dormice to four parts, place them in the frying pan, add minced bacon and onion, sprinkle on salt and parsley and roast it to half. Then add ¼ l of washed rice, stir it several times and pour ½ l of warm water or soup over it and cook till softness.

However, while I was looking for this recipe I found one, to me even more peculiar - it was a recipe for bear paws! But that’s another story

     by Bozidar on July 17, 2004 at 7:18 pm

Dormice was partly the reason I went to SLovenia in the first place (and to hear someone actually say ‘Three HUndred Hairy Bears!’ instead of swearing). My source was those nice people at the Independent: travel.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=379149&host=2&dir=31

Suffice to say I shall be going back in September, so expect a report then!

     by Duncan on July 25, 2004 at 5:30 pm

Actually, Ancient Romans used to eat Dormice as well as many other
strange things. If you want to look at some wierd food, check out
ancient Roman ones… especially the popular sauce called Garum made
from fish that they used in almost everything.

     by Roman on September 22, 2005 at 8:54 am