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Bat or badger? It's the roadkill recipe book Steven Morris Guardian Weekly For most, a squashed hedgehog or flattened badger lying on the side of the road is a tragic sight - for Arthur Boyt it is an opportunity for a free, tasty and nutritious meal. Mr Boyt has spent the past 50 years scraping carcasses from the side of the road and chucking them, together with a few herbs and spices, into his cooking pot. The retired civil servant has sampled weasel, rat and cat. His most unusual meal was a greater horseshoe bat, which he reckons is not dissimilar in taste to grey squirrel, if the comparison helps. Fox tends to repeat on him. He has tucked into labrador, nibbled at otter and could not resist trying porcupine when he came across a spiky corpse while on holiday in Canada. Article continues This week Mr Boyt (favourite snack: badger sandwich) announced that he is writing a roadkill recipe book. He has also been approached by Gordon Ramsay's people and may cook with the celebrity chef later this year. Mr Boyt, 66, from north Cornwall, insisted that the creatures were not a health threat if properly butchered and cooked. He said: "It's good meat for free, and I know nobody has been messing with it and feeding it with hormones. By writing a book I hope to show people it's perfectly normal and healthy to eat." Mr Boyt first tasted roadkill as a 13-year-old when he found a pheasant on the road, took it home and asked his mother to cook it. His argument is that people don't turn up their nose at an apple which falls out of a tree - so why should they recoil at the idea of meat that they chance upon? He said: "If the animal has been dead a while and has gone green the taste is a bit bland, but if you cook them thoroughly, you can still eat it. I've been doing it all my life and never been ill once." Mr Boyt has no regrets about eating the labrador, which he emphasises was without a collar when he found it. "There was nothing on it to show who its owner was even though it was in good condition, so I took it home and ate it. It was just like a nice piece of lamb." +++++++++++++++++++++++ scott plimpton london, uk t +44 7791 624 394 e scott@xxxxxxxx.xxx w www.plimpton.org +++++++++++++++++++++
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