this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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Mildly Interesting
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My guess would be the meat to prep work ratio. Smaller game seems like it would be more effort to skin and clean vs. larger ones like turkeys and deer. Just a guess however, anyone know for sure?
It's surely not any different than a squirrel, ground hog, or wild rabbit. People eat those all the time. Even meat rabbits seem comparable in size to a guinea pig. You can also just put them in a stew.
Also, as I mentioned, larger animals are also more difficult because you can't just kill one for dinner. If you kill a deer, you have to process it to preserve it or share it with a larger community. Ain't no freezers.
Side anecdote: My grandfather, as a 9 year old, used to go squirrel hunting and bring them home for his mom to cook. Before you go thinking this is some redneck thing, it was long island, less than 50 miles from Manhattan. It would have been during the war though.
In hindsight my hypothesis seems pretty silly now yeah. Squirrel and rabbit aren't really considered rich people food here in Pennsylvania, that's for sure :P Rabbit is delicious. Still have yet to try squirrel as I don't know any hunters (I'd gotten the rabbit from a farmer's market)
Your gramps was a champ. The most useful thing I ever brought home around 9 years old was wild garlic.
He was a really cool guy.
What's amusing to me is that lobster is now (sort of) considered rich people food, but it used to be the food fed to slaves and the extremely poor.