Meet the man who cooks and eats road kill (From Bournemouth Echo)

Meet the man who cooks and eats road kill

JONATHAN McGowan likes healthy meat. So he only eats animals that have been run over.

BADGER HONOUR: Jonathan McGowan at home among some main courses

The 42-year-old from Bournemouth patrols Dorset for dead deer, badgers and toads.

“Rats are lovely,” he said as the Echo joined him for a day around Wareham and Bere Regis.

“They are a bit like pork and they taste salty. They are delicious in a stir-fry.”

Jonathan’s Fox Curry

Fry strips of fox tenderloin with chopped shallots, garlic, celery, red peppers and wild Dorset mushrooms in olive oil for five minutes. Then put the ingredients in a saucepan with a dash of water before adding salt and pepper, and a jar of Tikka Masala sauce. Simmer for ten minutes then serve with Pilau rice and home made elderberry and blackberry wine.

Jonathan is a naturalist and got curious about the taste of the animals when he looked for specimens to stuff.

His freezer is full of his favourite meats like freshly killed muntjac deer.

He said: “I am a scavenger, a hunter gatherer like man used to be. I don’t buy commercial meat. I find modern farming methods cruel and unhealthy.

“The animals get BSE, they are full of hormones and steroids and additives.

“I try to eat healthy meat from animals that have lived a good life in the world and not been contaminated.

“They don’t live long and because they are active, the meat is leaner and more tasty.

“To waste it when there are people starving in the world seems crazy to me.”

He only picks up freshly killed animals that are not too “mashed” by passing cars.

We passed a thoroughly squashed badger that had been dead for a few days.

Apparently the interior flesh might still be edible once the animal had been washed and the grit removed.

But Jonathan finds so many animals that he does not need to bother with such poor finds.

We found a pheasant near Wareham and a young male fox that had been killed overnight in the bus lane of Bournemouth’s Christchurch Road.

Back at his Pokesdown flat, Jonathan cut a strip of purple tenderloin meat from the fox’s back, ignoring the musky smell.

He fried it up with beansprouts and Hoi-Sin sauce, and the meat was a bit chewy but otherwise unremarkable.

He said: “Fox is usually very tasty and more-ish. It’s not fatty. It’s lovely and sweet and tender. I put it in curries and spaghetti bolognese.”

There is little he has not tried.

Blackbirds have rich, dark meat. Owls are quite bland, while cormorants are excellent with cranberry sauce.

Badger and otter are muttony with a slightly bitter flavour.

The flesh of stoats and weasels can be contaminated with their defensive anal scent, and hedgehogs are very fatty with an unpleasant rancid flavour.

He is a taxidermist and member of Bournemouth Natural Science Society, and many of his finds are stuffed for educational use.

He grew up in the countryside and his real passion is conservation. He records the levels of roadkill, and said it shows the damage we do to the animal world – he would not kill one of these animals himself.

Jonathan said his friends are often reluctant to try his meat but when they give it a go are usually won over.

“My boyfriend doesn’t give a damn. He eats venison and likes it. A lot of my friends who come for a meal trust me and know the meat will be fresh.”

What would his menu be if he appeared on the dinner part themed show Come Dine With Me?

“A frog and watercress soup to start. Then mayfly sorbet – they taste like toast. And for the main, roast hare with parsnips and gravy.”