Hi Dr. P --

Here's my question.

If you were a member of the Donner (Dinner) party crossing the Sierras, and your traveling party met with such devastating circumstances that you were forced to eat the dead members of your party in order to survive...

A) What body part(s) would you cook and why?

B) How would you prepare them?

Let's assume, for the sake of discussion, that you have a full arsenal of spices available to you (which they likely did).

Just curious...

TK

The serious answer to the question is that I could probably eat someone if I had to, but that I wouldn't want to do more than boil the meat, since enjoying human meat seems detestably immoral.

That qualification made, let's have some fun with the idea. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

1) Beggars can't be choosers - I would eventually serve everything. Liver first since it spoils, then kidneys (I can't believe I forgot those for the menu). The heart will keep and could probably be used as the basis for a flavorful stock, along with other pieces described in #3.
At this point I'd start with the muscle meat. Later, every big bone (thigh, pelvis) for the marrow, which would be great during cold weather. Totally serious about the blood sausage, using the intestine as casing.
If we have leftover intestine, then we could have tripe too, though I think that's on the border -- the human-inedible stuff goes to any dogs we have left, though chances are by this point we've already done "Korean night."

2) A note about my assumptions about human meat - Cannibals in the past who had access to pigs often referred to human meat by the slang/euphemism "long pig". I think this means that human would cook up like very tough pork.

3) Leg of Pam: After the unstable offal cuts (see #1), the first piece I'd work with would be the thigh. It's bone-in; there's a lot of it; it has a nice symmetry and would probably cook well. I would definitely skin it for aesthetic reasons, and then do a pretty typical brown-and-braise approach. Cooking liquid would be a stock made from small-boned pieces that would be otherwise hard to eat (hands, feet) and whatever low-alcohol fermented beverage we had handy. Lots of herbs, hopefully rosemary.

Well, there's another hour of my life I'll never get back. :-) Seriously -- thanks for asking. That was fun.

Hugs to all you ladies -- can't wait to cook you, I mean, cook for you, sometime soon.