DETROIT -- As Catholics across the globe continue to observe Lent their options for abstaining from meat on Fridays are fairly limited. However, in the Metro Detroit area there is one extra option that is not off limits to devout Catholics; muskrat.

According to the Associated Press, an exception to the rule was made for Catholics in the area in the 1700′s. It allows for Catholics to eat the rodent “on days of abstinence, including Fridays of Lent,” according to the Archdiocese of Detroit.

According to Edward Peters, an expert on canon law who is on the faculty at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, the decision was based on limited food supply in the region at the time. "(Many preists) realized that food was especially scarce in the region by the time Lent came around and did not want to burden Catholics unreasonably by denying them one of the few readily available sources of nutrition — however unappetizing it might be for most folks,” Peters said.

Since then, the rodent has been the main dish around dinners tables for many Catholics in the region during Lent. Rev. Tim Laboe recalls eating it several times with his grandfather.

“I don’t know if I enjoy more eating the muskrat or watching people try it for the first time, because it doesn’t look in any way appetizing,” said Laboe, dean of studies at Sacred Heart.

While some people say muskrat tastes like duck, Laboe says it has a taste unlike any other meat. And while times have changed and people now have access to many other nutritious meatless foods for Lent, Laboe says eating the rodent still has a place for Detroit Catholics.

“The people that ate muskrat many, many years ago were poor, and they didn’t have much,” Laboe said. “And so, in terms of people that do eat it, it does remind us, at least it reminds me, of the poor.”