Скачать или смотреть Cannibalism Explainer: What Does Human Flesh Taste Like?

Police in Berlin have apprehended a Canadian man accused of killing and dismembering a Chinese student. According to some accounts, Luka Rocco Magnotta ate part of his victim's body. It's one of a number of cannibalism incidents recently reported. What does human flesh taste like?

Veal. In his 1931 book Jungle Ways, American adventurer and journalist William Buehler Seabrook provided the most detailed written description of the taste of human flesh. He noted that, in raw form, human meat looks like beef, but slightly less red, with pale yellow fat. When roasted, the meat turned grayish, as would lamb or veal, and smelled like cooked beef.

Seabrook even said most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between veal and human meat. But there are reasons to doubt him. He traveled to West Africa to get the inside scoop on cannibalism from the Guero people, but he later confessed that the distrustful tribesmen never allowed him to partake. In his autobiography, Seabrook claims to have obtained the body of a deceased hospital patient in Paris, which is where his description likely came from.

Many commentaries on the taste of human flesh come from madmen like serial killer Karl Denke, or the German murderer Armin Meiwes. So they're probably unreliable. Other descriptions are vague and contradictory. Most consistent is the unsurprising fact that young children are more tender than adults.

Cannibal tribes (mostly from Africa?) have described meat as sweet, bitter, tender, tough, and fatty—mixed reviews probably coming from mixed cooking habits. Some tribes eat the meat of deceased humans only after it has rotted slightly. Roasting and stewing with hot peppers and seasonings is common. What a person's liver tastes like with some fava beans and a nice chianti? hopefully we'll never really know.