Steamed Beaver

It’s hard to imagine nowadays, but beavers used to be considered a delicacy on fast days. Christians were not allowed to eat meat on fast days, so the church declared the beaver a fish because of its flat tail! And there were no restrictions on eating fish while fasting. As the Jesuit priest Pierre de Charlevoix noted in a report in 1754: "Regarding its tail, it is wholly a fish, and it was declared such by the Medical Faculty in Paris. Pursuant to this finding, the Theological Faculty decided that its flesh may be eaten on fast days."