"Strange" animals, "strange" cuisine

[jimmy]

  What kind of (non-typical) meat have you guys hunted for and ate?  For example, coon, opposum, armadillo, crow, gar.   I want to expand my choices, I just don't know if it is worth it.  Like bow wood, there are lot's of options where I live.  It seems a shame to be limited to just one or two types. 

[PrimitiveTim]

I'm also interested in this topic.  Interested in method of preparation too.

[osage outlaw]

I like frog legs but that's fairly common

[hedgeapple]

Groundhog is pretty yummy.  Just make sure you remove the glands from its armpits.  Quarter it, cut up some potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, can of kernel corn and a can of green beans.  Put it in a roasting pan covered at 300 degrees for about 90 minutes.  It really does taste similar to pot roast.

Fried rattlesnake is good.  It tastes like alligator.

When I was vacationing in Zambia, I ate anything strange on the menu.  I had warthog, gazelle, cape buffalo. The gazelle soup was my favorite, but the warthog bbq was a close second.

[JackCrafty]

The only unusual things I have specifically hunted for and eaten, that nobody else seems to like, is carp and jackrabbit.

If you marinate the meat and then grill it with plenty of smoke, almost anything can be eaten.

[crooketarrow]

  I was raised next to my granddad. Spent a LOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT of time with him.He was raised at at time when you just did'nt ride down to wallmart and pick up dinner. Theyed eat everything and everything they could trap or kill. It pertty much ran over to me.
 So things like rabbits,squirrels,coons, ground hogs.turtles,frogs, rattle snakes were all fair game and no that bad. It's all really good exspecially in a cooking bag BQ. I grew up eating lots of snaping turtles. We'd also gig ,shoot frogs but we never just eat the legs we'd skin and deep fry the whole frog. It their big the tenerloins as big as the legs. And the front legs as good as the back ones.
  My granddad as a for real gobbler hunter. He hunter every spring in NC. at a place called DARK HOLLOR. The old guy he was friends with owned a mountain (miles and miles). They aways had a big turkey camp. I use to go with him growing up. They alway have a big frog fry couple 100 or more. The also eat the whole frog.
  Growing up all fish were fair game to gig,arrow or set gill nets ,traps. Even a couple really illeagle ways of fishing were used at times.

[jimmy]

Well, I've giged frogs and they are good to eat.  But I have access to tons of carp and gar.  My dad ate a lot of carp growing up.  They used walnut husks to stun them in the creeks, then his mother would pressure cook them and can them.  I had iguana down in Mexico once, but I don't think I'll see any around here.  Squirrel, rabbit, frogs are all normal.  I am interested in other critters.  Like armadillo for example.  Is it really dangerous to eat?

[Ed Brooks]

I have not hunted or even seen one in the wild. however I can tell you cougar is really good, we had the back straps given to us. it was cut thin rolled in flower fried in grease and seasoned salt & pepper. Ed

[lostarrow]

Gopher pie!  Stew like hedgeapple said and  then bake it in a pie. Just like tiny beef! Stay away from ones that may have been grazing on pesticides.

[aaron]

nutria tacos!

[stickbender]

     Armadillo, is good.  Tastes like pork.  We would par boil it, and then dry it off, and season it, with salt, pepper, and garlic, and onion powder, and roll it in flour, and deep fry it.  Just be careful handling them, as they are the only animal, other than humans that can contract leprosy (Hanson's Disease).  They were used as test animals, in Louisiana, and many escaped.  It is mainly contracted from contact with nasal discharge. There have only been a few cases of people getting Leprosy from them.  Still not something to take lightly.   My Buddies and I used to catch a couple for camp when we were deer hunting in Gulf Hammock, in north Florida.  That is the only time when I would go out of my way to catch one and eat it.  But it was quite tasty.  Especially with some biscuits, and rice and gravy.  As Jerry Clower would say, when asked what that was on the platter on the table, ......."Possum on the half shell".

                                                   Wayne

[JW_Halverson]

I was visiting a village up in Manitoba, close to The Pas. It was during the Trappers Festival and they were putting on a wild game feed.  I went down the line turning nothing down, making sure no animal felt that I was prejudiced against it.  When I got to the end of the line there was an Aboriginal Canadian about 6'4" tall, 111 lbs, and three teeth...no two meshed together. 

He had a huge cast iron kettle he was stirring and he pulled up a ladle and said with glee, "Rat soup!"  I stuck out a bowl.  He repeated, "RAT soup."  I pushed the bowl closer to him and he lost a bit of his smile as he said, "Aw, it's just muskrat." 

Since then I have failed to turn down anything. Rattler, dog, smoked porcupine, smoked squirrel, snails, french toast made with ostrich egg and the rest of the egg scrambled on the side, buffalo tongue-kidneys-sweetbreads, and endless pots of stuff my friend Jerry just labels as "Meat?".

Once we were visiting this same subject around the campfire at a Rendezvous.  A young feller about 14 was wide eyed as folks traded their favorite recipes for beaver, finally he could hold out no longer.  He blurted out, "Someday I am gonna eat a beaver!"  I patted him fondly on the shoulder and said softly, "You will, son, someday you will."    

[steven.nance]

I work on the Cherokee Indian reservation in western NC; folks there eat a lot of bear meat and coon meat. Bear meat is usually canned. For coon meat, I hear it's best to boil it down quite a bit. Haven't yet had either, myself. Rabbit is well loved in classical cuisine, though I hear it's quite a challenge to prepare it well.

[stickbender]

     J.W, ;
   

    I was at a small ranch owned by a good Friend of mine, and he and his wife, and his Wife's two elderly Aunts were visiting.  My Buddy had a bumper sticker on his truck, that said, " Save a tree, eat a Beaver".  I don't remember the Aunts names, but one turned to the other, and said look, ____ save a tree, eat a Beaver....the other one said, I wish someone would eat our Beavers!  My Buddy's Wife turned beet red, and I had to go stand by the side of the barn, and my Buddy walked away a few yards, while his Wife's aunt said, oh, yes, they come out of the creek, and eat our hedges, and roses, and all the plants!


     Steve;  Good ol "Hassenpeffer!"  Should be a lot of recipes on the internet for it.


                                                      Wayne

[Dharma]

Jackrabbits. I've brought the meat to work and only my Navajo friends would eat it. Everyone else was totally freaked out. Traditional Navajos here will eat prairie dogs and I have made mention I'd like to try it the next time they prepare one.