Cat Casserole
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Celebrity chef Beppe Bigazzi upsets viewers with his cat casserole
A top Italian food writer has been suspended indefinitely from the country’s version of the television programme Ready Steady Cook for recommending stewed cat to viewers as a “succulent dish”.
RAI, the public broadcasting network, said that it had dropped Beppe Bigazzi, 77, for offering the recipe on La Prova del Cuoco, which is broadcast at midday on the main channel. Its switchboard was inundated with complaints from viewers and animal rights groups. Bigazzi said that casserole of cat was a famous dish in his home region of Valdarno, Tuscany.
“I’ve eaten it myself and it’s a lot better than many other animals,” he told viewers. “Better than chicken, rabbit or pigeon.” He said that for optimum flavour the meat should be “soaked in spring water for three days” before being stewed.
Elisa Isoardi, the programme’s presenter — who has a cat called Othello — tried to steer Bigazzi off the subject. Reports said that during the commercial break she and the show’s producers tried to persuade him to apologise to viewers but he refused.
Carla Rocchi, the head of ENPA, the Italian society for the protection of animals, said that killing cats was illegal. Francesca Martini, the Deputy Health Minister, said it was “absolutely unheard of for a public service broadcaster to tell people how delicious cats are to eat”. She called for the producers to be investigated for criminal offences involving incitement to mistreat animals.
Bigazzi, a consumer affairs journalist and author of Cooking with Common Sense, has been one of the stars of La Prova del Cuoco for the past ten years. He is noted for his exuberant style and previously caused uproar by boiling lobsters live on the show. Yesterday he said that he had only been joking about the recipe, and he had been misunderstood.
He added: “Mind you, I wasn’t joking all that much. In the 1930s and 1940s, when I was a boy, people certainly did eat cat
in the countryside around Arezzo.” Food historians said that Italians in cities such as Vicenza devised cat recipes in times of economic hardship. Inhabitants of Vicenza are still nicknamed magnagati (cat eaters), and in some butchers’ shops rabbits are sold with their heads to assure buyers that they are not cats.
From pet to pot
• In his 1529 treatise on cookery, Ruperto de Nola recommended spit-roasting cat basted with garlic and olive oil. He wrote: “Take the garlic with oil mixed with good broth so that it is coarse, and pour it over the cat and you can eat it for it is a good dish”
• The Spanish expression pasar gato por liebre derives from the practice of hunters trying to sell skinned cats as hares. When butchered, the animals are supposed to look almost identical
• In 2007 Australians at a cooking contest in Alice Springs sought to curb the feral cat population by using them in a dish. One judge found the cat casserole so tough that she had to spit it out
• Last month legal experts in China responded to pressure from the country’s middle class and proposed a ban on eating cat and dog meat. Both are traditional Chinese dishes but if the law is passed people caught eating cats could face 15 days in prison.
Personally I enjoy a Good Cat Casserole with a chilled Chianti.
Cat Casserole
- droptmcguts
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Cat Casserole
Men have only 2 emotional states, hungry and horny.. So ladies, if you see me without an erection, make me a sandwich.
- black duck
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Re: Cat Casserole
Theres a whole swag of replies that I could make about......pus.......I mean cats and eating, but I wont!
"It's wabbit seathon! It' duck seathon! I dare you to shoot me now!"
- skypig
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Re: Cat Casserole
I'd rather eat a Cat Casserole, than fly a Brantley
Sky "you wont like what happens if you turn downwind" Pig
Sky "you wont like what happens if you turn downwind" Pig
- black duck
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Re: Cat Casserole
Have you flown one piglet? I'd like to hear about it, don't know anything about them. I've always thought that tacking a flapping hinge on the end of a stick and then nailing a pissy little blade to it was a dumb idea though . Theres great footage of one on u tube, sitting on the deck of a greenpiece boat (I think). It gets kicked off the deck by a wave lifting the stern and the pilot did a majicians trick to get it back down without a scratch!
Cheers, BD.
Cheers, BD.
"It's wabbit seathon! It' duck seathon! I dare you to shoot me now!"
- Pegs
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Re: Cat Casserole
Hey BD, don't tell us about it, Link it so we can see too
Would have to be the uglist helicopter I have ever seen! Beats Robbies out of the water that one!
Would have to be the uglist helicopter I have ever seen! Beats Robbies out of the water that one!
A good idea needs landing gear as well as wings to get off the ground.
- skypig
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Re: Cat Casserole
I have flown one. I haven't eaten a cat casserole, but I stand by my statement (especially if they soak the cat for a few days..)
There is a reason they are obscure, while B47, H300 etc are relatively common. I can’t remember anything good about them at all from my brief (at my request - “enough!”) flight.
They have a clutch and rotor brake system that allows you to stop the blades with the engine running. Embarking/disembarking with the rotors turning is not permitted (flight manual) with the blades turning. As the blades are about 3mm above the bulge in the bubble where your head sits, this is understandable.
The TR is as about effective as Rudds proposed ETS, ie it does something, in theory. Unlike man made climate change however, MR torque not only exists, but its effects are clear.
The low power to weight is no problem as they are so ugly, the Earth rejects them. I think you need slight negative pitch to counter this phenomenon when landing.
Sky "Draw the line" Pig
There is a reason they are obscure, while B47, H300 etc are relatively common. I can’t remember anything good about them at all from my brief (at my request - “enough!”) flight.
They have a clutch and rotor brake system that allows you to stop the blades with the engine running. Embarking/disembarking with the rotors turning is not permitted (flight manual) with the blades turning. As the blades are about 3mm above the bulge in the bubble where your head sits, this is understandable.
The TR is as about effective as Rudds proposed ETS, ie it does something, in theory. Unlike man made climate change however, MR torque not only exists, but its effects are clear.
The low power to weight is no problem as they are so ugly, the Earth rejects them. I think you need slight negative pitch to counter this phenomenon when landing.
Sky "Draw the line" Pig
- Pegs
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Re: Cat Casserole
skypig wrote:I have flown one. I haven't eaten a cat casserole, but I stand by my statement (especially if they soak the cat for a few days..)
They have a clutch and rotor brake system that allows you to stop the blades with the engine running.
Holy CRAP!!!! What sort of death wish is that design?????
Peg (likes to keep the blades spining) flying horse
A good idea needs landing gear as well as wings to get off the ground.
- black duck
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Re: Cat Casserole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6LgblKIZT8 Da! Enstrom not Brantley and he did have a tail rotor strike, don't worry about me I know what I'm talking about???
Last edited by black duck on Mon Feb 22 2010, 07:52, edited 1 time in total.
"It's wabbit seathon! It' duck seathon! I dare you to shoot me now!"
- Pegs
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Re: Cat Casserole
black duck wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6LgblKIZT8 Da! Enstrom not Brantley and he did have a tail rotor strike, don't worry about me I know what I'm taking about???
saturday itis LOL
just to make u feel even worse this vid is actually in the videos section on slapper, see link http://www.bladeslapper.com/content/bb/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=809
A good idea needs landing gear as well as wings to get off the ground.
- black duck
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- skypig
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Re: Cat Casserole
For those wondering what a Brantley looks like:
This is to make it possible to disembark without decapitation - not a feature recomended to be used during flight.
Holy CRAP!!!! What sort of death wish is that design?????
This is to make it possible to disembark without decapitation - not a feature recomended to be used during flight.
- Pegs
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Re: Cat Casserole
Sky Pig,
the profile of the Brantley is exactly what they look like! Nice Work
Yeah well i didn't think you would apply it in flight , would put a whole new spin (pardon pun) on Auto rotation if u did......
the profile of the Brantley is exactly what they look like! Nice Work
Yeah well i didn't think you would apply it in flight , would put a whole new spin (pardon pun) on Auto rotation if u did......
A good idea needs landing gear as well as wings to get off the ground.
- black duck
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Re: Cat Casserole
You nailed it piglet!!!! I'm laughing that hard that tears are dropping on the key board. I've been scratching my head all day trying to think what it looked like. [url][/url] Left are the Chief design engineer (zig) and test pilot (zag) of Peters Icecream (aviation division) at the roll out of the Peters Brantley B2B helicopter. years of research have gone into the developement of this mission specific machine. It is envisaged it will revolutionise the supply delivey of ice cream and related confectionary. The days of the Mr Whippy van are surely numbered it would seem.
Last edited by black duck on Sun Feb 21 2010, 00:25, edited 1 time in total.
"It's wabbit seathon! It' duck seathon! I dare you to shoot me now!"
- black duck
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Re: Cat Casserole
I'm still cracking up every time I think of that post of yours skypig, every one here's thinking I've finally fell off my bike!!
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