No Gnus

These days, people go on safari for the chance to see the larger African mammals, most of which are in some danger of extinction. But back when big game hunters went on safari to collect heads and skins, they naturally considered them potential food.

Not that big game was big fun to eat, to judge by a South African cookbook written earlier in this century. The writer approved of eland, especially the hump; he felt the ox-like antelope made good pot roast. But kudu and hartebeest were considerably inferior (true, kudu filet, well larded, was “tasty enough”) and gnu was stringy and insipid, though its liver, brains, kidneys and tongue were delicate.

For that matter, the giraffe, which also had coarse and stringy meat, had a tongue that was succulent “when properly cooked,” and a very, very long tongue at that. But giraffe bones were disappointing from the standpoint of marrow: “With every care, all that results when such a bone is boiled or baked is a mess of yellow, unappetising oil that cannot be cooked to a consistency that will enable it to adjust itself to a piece of toast.”

The biggest disappointment, as it were, was elephant. Apparently, hunters would give away most of the elephant meat to the impoverished local people who followed the safari around. “The foot, baked in an improvised oven or under the ashes, is regarded by many as a delicacy, but actually has little to commend it,” the author wrote, adding that it compared poorly to sheep’s trotters.