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I know that Harry and his friends eat meat but do they eat magical meat?

Are there edible magical creatures, or do they only eat non-magical meat?

alexwlchan
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curiousgeorge
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    Do you mean "can they", or "are they"? I imagine most magical creatures can be eaten (for example Voldemort drinks unicorn blood). Are you looking for magical creatures that are commonly eaten? – Nerrolken Jun 02 '15 at 18:23
  • right, i mean, the blood and pieces of many are regularly ingested, aka eating, so do you want to know if some magical creatures are raised as livestock? haha – Himarm Jun 02 '15 at 18:32
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    A unicorn's blood is drinkable. Your cursed after you drink it, but people do drink it... – Daft Jun 02 '15 at 19:42
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    Does magical fruit count? Because even muggles eat beans :-) – Karl Bielefeldt Jun 02 '15 at 20:15
  • Just point your wand at the creature, and say "Delicious!" –  Jun 03 '15 at 00:32
  • waiting for slytherincess to shed some light on this one.. – RicoRicochet Jun 03 '15 at 03:33
  • Do mandragoras count? – DevSolar Jun 03 '15 at 08:01
  • Unicorn is perhaps the most versatile of magical creatures for consumption. http://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/8889/1148 – Jack B Nimble Jun 03 '15 at 13:07
  • @JackBNimble - KNEW it! You paid this person to ask the question, didn't you, you unicorn eater! – DVK-on-Ahch-To Jun 03 '15 at 15:34
  • Though this is never said, an Augurey can probably be eaten. It's basically a vulture, with no special powers, and not much to even make it a magical creature. It's rather unremarkable, unlike a phoenix or a Golden Snidget, so no one would feel particularly broken up about killing and dismembering them to eat them. – Obsidia Sep 07 '17 at 05:09

3 Answers3

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I don’t recall any instance in the main books where they ate anything from magical creatures (Voldemort’s unicorn snacks aside), but there are a few examples in the wider Potterverse.

  • We’ve seen several instances of people eating bits of dragon.

    • In the Half-Blood Prince movie, Slughorn's Christmas party has "dragon tartare". There's a clip on YouTube.
    • According to the notoriously dubious HP Wiki, Neville tells us that dragon meat is “comparable to pheasant” in the Half-Blood Prince game, but I haven’t found a clip to back up their claim.
    • In Order of the Phoenix, Hagrid has a dragon steak. Since a steak is typically a good cut of meat, we can presume that (if you so wanted), you could prepare a dragon steak for eating. But perhaps not one that’s been in Hagrid’s eye.

  • You can eat Flobberworms, although apparently people choose not to.

    Again from the HP Wiki:

    Flobberworm fritters are flobberworms fried in batter. This dish is served at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, however the student body did not seem to care for it.

    This apparently comes from the Philosopher’s Stone game, but I’m not digging up a clip.

  • You can eat (part of) a Murtlap.

    Quoting from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them:

    The Murtlap is a rat-like creature […]. It has a growth upon its back resembling a sea anemone. When pickled and eaten, these Murtlap growths promote resistance to curses and jinxes, although an overdose may cause unsightly purple ear hair.

  • You can drink the blood of a Re’em.

    Again quoting from Fantastic Beasts:

    Re’em blood gives the drinker immense strength, although the difficulty in procuring it means that supplies are negligible and rarely for sale on the open market.

alexwlchan
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9

in HP: GOF Ron expresses his desire to eat off-menu. There's no special indication that he's joking:

‘Oh, hurry up,’ Ron moaned, beside Harry. ‘I could eat a Hippogriff.’

and Hagrid serves a casserole that contains a talon. There's no indication that this comes from a magical animal, though I'm at a loss to name any non-magical bird that tastes of beef.

They ended up having lunch with Hagrid, though they didn’t eat much – Hagrid had made what he said was a beef casserole, but after Hermione unearthed a large talon in hers, she, Harry and Ron rather lost their appetites

Valorum
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    I always wondered which part of a buffalo was its wings. – Valorum Jun 02 '15 at 19:24
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    I'm at a loss to name any non-magical bird that tastes of beef Ostrich? It's a lean red meat. – briantist Jun 02 '15 at 20:15
  • @briantist - I've eaten ostrich. It doesn't taste of beef. – Valorum Jun 02 '15 at 20:16
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    "I could eat a Hippogriff" simply comes across to me as "I could eat a horse": not a joke, but nothing more than an expression, commonly said by people that would never even consider eating Hippogriff meat / horse meat. – hvd Jun 02 '15 at 22:36
  • @hvd - Notably, people do indeed eat horse... – Valorum Jun 02 '15 at 22:46
  • Sure, but you can't tell from that expression whether the person using it eats horse meat, nor whether horse meat is still eaten at all. So I don't see it as an indicator of whether Hippogriffs get eaten either. – hvd Jun 02 '15 at 22:50
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    @hvd - Surely the essence of the expression is "I could easy a thing that's technically edible but implausibly large**" – Valorum Jun 03 '15 at 03:20
  • @hvd: Horse is eaten in many countries, especially in Europe. I have eaten horse many times (smoked horse meat is one of my favourites on toast for breakfast). I had the horse fillet here just a few months ago: http://broncosbar.se/meny/kottratter/ – Karl-Henry Martinsson Jun 11 '15 at 21:34
  • @Karl-HenryMartinsson Right, Richard had pointed out the same thing. Please read my comment as if I had written "commonly said *even* by people that [...]". That better expresses my intent anyway. :) – hvd Jun 11 '15 at 21:45
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The other answers are excellent, but the first thing that came to my mind was the Lovegood family and how they love Freshwater Plimpy Soup and how it is claimed that others are always requesting the recipe. The exchange happens in The Deathly Hallows.

In lieu of an exact book quote (which I am unable to source for right now), here's a quote from the HP wiki:

When Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger visited Xenophilius Lovegood in 1998, he covered the kidnapping of his daughter Luna by saying she was out fishing for freshwater plimpies near Bottom Bridge. Xenophilius later notes that people are always requesting the Lovegood's recipe for freshwater plimpy soup after he explains the Deathly Hallows to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Plimpies are definitely magical creatures, albeit not very "impressive" ones: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Plimpy

Deepak
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  • '"You will stay for dinner?" [Xenophilius Lovegood] called, as he vanished downstairs again. "Everybody always requests our recipe for Freshwater Plimpy soup."' Deathly Hallows Chapter 21: "The Tale of the Three Brothers". Although bear in mind that Xenophilius is being very deceptive in this scene, so he may be making this up – Jason Baker Jun 03 '15 at 01:32
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    @JasonBaker I considered that, but while the statement he made about Luna having gone looking for Plimpies was a lie (she was being held hostage by the Death Eaters), the part about the use of Plimpies in soup was not necessarily so. – Deepak Jun 03 '15 at 01:57
  • @Deepak exactly. IRL if you were to lie about the location of someone you wouldn't say they are playing with their dinosaur pet. – Alfredo Hernández Jun 03 '15 at 08:24
  • Why the downvote? Do let me know, so that I can improve my answers. – Deepak Sep 16 '15 at 02:54