Small pleasures: The edible dormouse in Ancient Rome
The edible, or fat, dormouse was a delicacy in ancient Rome, where it appeared on the tables of the wealthy as a delicious dish and symbol of prosperity. Bigger than you might think, they’re about the size of grey squirrels, and apparently taste similar too, though their flavour has also been compared to rabbit and chicken.
Rich people food
The Romans were the first civilisation to develop a taste for edible dormice (or at least the first to record it). The ancient Greeks didn’t show much interest, with none of the classic authors commenting on them as a food source. This seemed to hold true for Greeks even into the Roman Empire, with Oribasius (c.320-400 CE), a Greek medical writer and the personal physician of the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate, describing their meat as unpalatable and purgative.
In Rome, however, Oribasius was in the minority. From at least the Late Republic and into the Early Roman Empire, the edible dormouse was an important part of elite life, with the rich eating the rodents in considerable quantities.
Fat farming
Great lengths were devised for ensuring enough dormice were available for consumption. Chestnut trees, the natural habitat of edible dormice, were introduced across the empire, to support healthy populations of the rodent, as well as being a food source themselves.
Dolia, sometimes called Glirarium, used to fatten dormice. Source: Wikipedia
Special outdoor pens were used to raise edible dormice, where they’d be fed acorns, chestnuts and walnuts. When it was time to fatten the rodents, they’d be moved to terracotta containers called dolia. These jar-like vessels were specially designed to replicate the hollow of a tree, with limited space to discourage movement and encourage the storing of fat. (The edible dormouse can double in size before hibernation.)
Once fat enough to feast upon, dormice were prepared in a variety of ways. Petronius advised sprinkling them with honey and poppy seeds, while Apicius recommended stuffing them with pork, pepper, liquamen (fish sauce), nuts and their own entrails.
Excessive consumption
Consumption of dormice was considered so excessive that eating them was explicitly banned in Roman sumptuary laws. These laws were introduced from the 2nd century to curb the excesses of the wealthy and avoid social upheaval. Other condemned meats included pheasant, peacock, and the ever-popular hog’s testicles.
Today, the edible dormouse is still eaten in Slovenia and Croatia, where it’s part of the traditional peasant diet, as well as in Calabria, Southern Italy, where dormice are smoked out of their hollows at night, so they can be shot and eaten.
Most recently, in October 2021, a stash of 235 frozen dormice were found by police in southern Italy during a police drugs raid. According to the BBC, after discovering over 700 cannabis plants, police then searched the outbuildings where they found freezers filled with the rodents and cages containing live dormice. Apparently the edible dormouse is served at banquets of the 'Ndrangheta mafia clan to help restore the peace between warring factions and ahead of big decisions.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for these delectable rodents. In 1902 in Tring, Hertfordshire, a number of dormice escaped from the menagerie of Walter Rothschild, becoming a successful invasive species. In 2010, it was reported that there were now around 30,000 of them in Britain.
Unfortunately, Brits can’t go out hunting for edible dormice to roast up and devour because all species of dormice are protected under EU law. So for now, we’ll just have to trust Roman accounts of their deliciousness.
