IT IS a brave soul — and someone with a strong stomach — who accepts an invitation for dinner with Arthur Boyt.
For this man is a connoisseur of roadkill flesh and among the dishes likely to be served in his kitchen are casseroles made from squashed badger, hedgehog, otter, rat, rabbit or pheasant. His recipes may in future garner a wider following because he is writing a roadkill cookery book that he hopes will rival the bestsellers of the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.
Mr Boyt, 66, who used to work for the fire protection industry, has also tucked into a labrador, “which was just like a nice piece of lamb”, two lurchers, cats, a great horseshoe bat, as well as squirrels, foxes, mice, deer, pigeon and carrion. He even once brought a dead porcupine back from a holiday in Canada.
He has a weasel in the freezer but thinks that it is too smelly to eat, and he has just picked up a dead barn owl that he is keen to taste.
His favourite snack, however, is a badger sandwich. He is partial to the badger head, which he says includes four distinctive tastes; the jaw muscles, salivary glands, tongue and brains.
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Mr Boyt started collecting roadkill animals as a teenager in Watford, bringing home a dead bird found in a local park. For the past 50 years he has regularly eaten animals run over by cars and lorries near his home in Cornwall. He is also a keen taxidermist and keeps various cadavers for food or his hobby.
His taste for roadkill food started as a way of saving money. In the past ten years after his second marriage to Sue, a vegetarian, he has slightly mellowed his menu and now refuses dog meat out of deference to his wife’s views.
He said last night: “I know people think I’m bizarre but I had a cousin who died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (the human form of BSE) and I am sure that was from some kind of supermarket meat. Everything I eat is natural, wild and fully organic. If the meat is cooked properly there is nothing wrong with it. Cat, though, is a bit bland and it’s not my favourite.”
He added: “People are happy to eat an apple that has fallen out of the tree and is lying on the floor, so what’s the difference? Just because it hasn’t got a label does not mean it’s not edible.”
He said he did not worry at all about any diseases he may pick up and declared he had never once been ill.
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“People may laugh but it’s perfectly healthy food with no additives and is full of nutrition. Lots of my friends are happy to eat with me.”
On Christmas Day he ate a stew of roadkill pheasant, badger and rabbit and added onions, potatoes, parsnips, sprouts, walnuts, chestnuts and mixed herbs, salt and pepper, which were then cooked in a pot for two hours.
Mr Boyt accepts that he has to change his diet when he eats out and will settle for chicken Kiev, otherwise he never touches meat from a butcher or supermarket.
Mr Boyt is in contact with two publishers but so far no deal has been signed. He says he is even willing to publish his cookery book himself.
HEDGEHOG SPAGHETTI MARINARA
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Serves 4. 500g spaghetti, 30ml olive oil, 250g lean hedgehog, 1 medium onion chopped, 125ml water, 60ml dry white wine, 4 eggs, 60ml double cream, 100g Parmesan cheese (grated).
Chop hedgehog into small chunks. Beat eggs and cream with a fork in a bowl. Add half the Parmesan. Put pasta in boiling water. Put onions and hedgehog chunks in a pan with olive oil on medium heat until onions are almost clear. Add wine and reduce heat. Do not let meat crisp. Drain pasta when cooked, then combine with egg, cream and cheese mix. Add meat, onions and wine without draining fat and mix. Garnish with rest of Parmesan and serve immediately.