Ever wondered what human flesh tastes like?

One man decided to find out by getting a small chunk of flesh removed from his leg and cooking it up.

And the result, he says is somewhere between pork and lamb, with a smell that 'similar to beef and ale stew.'

Scroll down for video

Ever wondered what human flesh tastes like? BBC science journalist, Greg Foot (left), decided to find out by taking a chunk of his own flesh from his leg (right)

A gruesome video shows journalist Greg Foot having a piece of muscle taken from his calf, before processing it in a lab.

The analysis revealed the muscle contains similar fibers similar to those found in both chicken breast and some cuts of beef.

Because eating human flesh - even if it's your own - is illegal, the BBC science journalist cooked his biopsy for chemical analysis of the aromas.

Smell is a huge component of taste, and Foot says sniffing his cooked meat will give him an accurate idea of what it would be like to eat it.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Using the aroma from his flesh sample, Greg Foot then made a replica burger using lamb and pork. 'It's good, it's like really beefy, a bit lamby,' he said

After initially recoiling, Foot says: 'That actually smells quite nice. It's really meaty... a lot richer than pork or chicken.'

A chemical analysis places his flesh as somewhere between pork and lamb.

Using the aroma from his flesh sample, Foot then made a replica burger using lamb and pork.

'It's good, it's like really beefy, a bit lamby,' said Foot.

'I think it's the closest I'm ever going to get to tasting human, and I tell you what, it's pretty good.'

While eating human flesh now is illegal this wasn't always the case.

BRITISH ROYALTY DINED ON HUMAN FLESH, CLAIMS NEW BOOK They have long been famed for their love of lavish banquets and rich recipes. But what is less well known is that the British royals also had a taste for human flesh. A new book on medicinal cannibalism has revealed that possibly as recently as the end of the 18th century British royalty swallowed parts of the human body. Even as they denounced the barbaric cannibals of the New World, they applied, drank, or wore powdered Egyptian mummy, human fat, flesh, bone, blood, brains and skin. Moss taken from the skulls of dead soldiers was even used as a cure for nosebleeds, according to Dr Richard Sugg at Durham University. Whilst James I had refused to take human skull, his grandson Charles II liked the idea so much that he bought the recipe. Having paid perhaps £6,000 for this, he often distilled human skull himself in his private laboratory. Dr Sugg said: 'Accordingly known before long as 'the King's Drops', this fluid remedy was used against epilepsy, convulsions, diseases of the head, and often as an emergency treatment for the dying. 'It was the very first thing which Charles reached for on February 2 1685, at the start of his last illness, and was administered not only on his deathbed, but on that of Queen Mary in 1698.' Advertisement

A new book on medicinal cannibalism recently revealed that at the end of the 18th century British royalty swallowed parts of the human body.

The author claims that this was not a practice reserved for monarchs but was widespread among the well-to-do in Europe and in America.

Dr Richard Sugg at Durham University, said: 'The human body has been widely used as a therapeutic agent with the most popular treatments involving flesh, bone or blood.'

'Cannibalism was found not only in the New World, as often believed, but also in Europe.

'One thing we are rarely taught at school yet is evidenced in literary and historic texts of the time is this: James I refused corpse medicine; Charles II made his own corpse medicine; and Charles I was made into corpse medicine.

'Along with Charles II, eminent users or prescribers included Francis I, Elizabeth I's surgeon John Banister, Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent, Robert Boyle, Thomas Willis, William III, and Queen Mary.'

Because eating human flesh - even if it's your own - is illegal, the BBC science journalist cooked his biopsy for chemical analysis of the aromas. After initially recoiling, Foot said: 'That actually smells quite nice. It's really meaty... a lot richer than pork or chicken'