Going to try Fox! your thoughts?

[BowSlayer]

hey everyone. i'm going to try roasting a leg of fox tonight. this morrning i got a fox and after skinning it i looked at it and thought it would be interesting to see how it tastes. after eating squirrel a few times ive noticed that game can be tough so i have it sitting in some salt water for 6 hours to help tenderise it. i plan on roasting it for 2-3 hours. what are your thoughts?

[Marks]

A little Google search says it doesn't taste very good. It said it is tough and gamey and easy to dry out since It has very little fat content.

My only suggestion is to make sure it was fresh. It seems like a while back you said you get em road kill style. Also use lots and lots of BBQ sauce. haha. yuck.
Finally, be sure it is cooked well. Cooking it well may mean it dries out but those guys feed on carrion.

Let us know how it turns out. I won't be trying it anyway but I'd still like to know.

[keef]

  I have tried cooking it once to satisfy my curiosity and it was a forelimb just like that one. Mine came from a yearling vixen that I shot and skinned out for a taxidermist friend of mine.

I cubed the meat and cooked it in a stew very slowly with onions ,stock , wine etc as one would cook a Roe deer venison stew..... The verdict on the dish was that it was almost indestinguishable from roe deer...Really it was fine

Where did you get the fox from though, as I understand you are just a boy and I doubt that you shot it yourself?...If its raoadkill, are you sure that its guts havent contaminated the meat???... Correct field preparation and hygiene are seriously important if you aim to eat an animal and experience is advised.

Please post photos of the finished dish.. so we know !!

[WillS]

Oh man.  You're aware of what UK foxes live on, right?  In all honesty, if you found that dead fox anywhere near an urban area I'd leave well alone.  Do you know how it died, and when?  If you killed it yourself that's stupidly illegal, and you can't be that stupid so I'm assuming you just found it dead.  If it's roadkill you have no idea where it was living/scavenging, and if it was just found dead somewhere you have no idea what it died of, so....

G'luck. 

P.S.  Probably worth mentioning I have no problem whatsoever with the consumption of wild hunted food.  But I wouldn't touch a dead fox from this country with a 7ft bow stave.  I wouldn't feed dead mice, rats or game that I just found to my snakes, let alone eat them myself.

[BowSlayer]

A while back I contacted a pest exterminator and he caught this one this morning and delivered it to me in a plastic bag. He dispatched it at 9:00 in the morning and I started skining it at 10:30 he said it was caught on a farm so im asuming it was not an urban fox. When skinning it, it seemed healthy.  Im going to start cooking it in about an hour.  Ill post pictures of it and tell you guys how it goes. I have some squirrel in the freezer so when my GF comes round on Thursday I may cook her squirrel and chips for starters and if this works out roast fox for main but being serious if you don't hear from me in a week......

[keef]

WillS.. I appreciate that most of the points you made are true, and I poined  out to Bowslayer that game preparation etc is paramount.
However, Shooting a fox in the UK is not illegal provided you have landowners permission and the correct firearms or shotgun certification.

Also, fox is definitely a carrion eater and a predator , but it also will eat fruit and insects etc, etc..... folks in the US eat bear...Is that much different?

Please dont dismiss this offhand as I tried it and I lived !!!...Psstt....it werent bad either...LOL I have been preparing game that I've shot with my catauplt, airgun, shotgun, and rifle  since I was a nipper so I know whats fit for the table.

Just to say that its not something I plan to try again, but heck, If I needed to find food it would be an option for absolute sure.

All the best mate and just pointing out my thoughts....

[keef]

" so when my GF comes round on Thursday I may cook her squirrel and chips for starters and if this works out roast fox for main"
And we plummet into the realms of fantasy again.........HHHmmmm
 

[BowSlayer]

" so when my GF comes round on Thursday I may cook her squirrel and chips for starters and if this works out roast fox for main"
And we plummet into the realms of fantasy again.........HHHmmmm

Im not joking.  If all goes well I don't see why not?  I've cooked her rabbit and pigeon before.

[Mike_H]

It's not too bad. Just about the same taste as coyote.  Both are best stewed anyway.

[BowSlayer]

welcome to the first ever episode of... Cooking with bow slayer. on todays show we will be cooking a haunch of fox!
ok so ive just put it in the oven so i think i will upload some pics. got kinda scared because my camera battery died. luckily i had a spare one ok here are the pics.


i wanted to brown it of first in the pan to seal in all the jucies as i have read it can become dry quickly.


here i have added the meat to the pan.


then i turned it over.


after 2 mins of cooking on each side i placed in a roasting dish.


then i covered it with Bacon


then i peeled an onion, cut it in half and placed it in the roasting dish.


up until now i was following a recipie for roasting deer, it said to use red wine but we didn't have any so i used beer.


hmmm. how did this picture get here?


finnaly got it covered with tin foil and put it in the oven for 3 hours on a low heat.

thanks for looking.

[WillS]

WillS.. I appreciate that most of the points you made are true, and I poined  out to Bowslayer that game preparation etc is paramount.
However, Shooting a fox in the UK is not illegal provided you have landowners permission and the correct firearms or shotgun certification.

Also, fox is definitely a carrion eater and a predator , but it also will eat fruit and insects etc, etc..... folks in the US eat bear...Is that much different?

Please dont dismiss this offhand as I tried it and I lived !!!...Psstt....it werent bad either...LOL I have been preparing game that I've shot with my catauplt, airgun, shotgun, and rifle  since I was a nipper so I know whats fit for the table.

Just to say that its not something I plan to try again, but heck, If I needed to find food it would be an option for absolute sure.

All the best mate and just pointing out my thoughts....

S'alright, I agree with you! I know shooting foxes with a licensed firearm is legit over here, but as far as I'm aware using anything else is pretty much illegal.  I'd be doing it with a bow if it was allowed!  Like I said, nothing wrong with eating fresh caught wild meat either, but I'd still avoid urban foxes as the chances of it having eaten something dodgy and contracting various diseases from other animals would put me off.  You also never know about pesticides etc etc.  It's always wise to be cautious as far as I'm concerned.

[BowEd]

LoL......I'll quote the fella from Australia in his movie.....YEEEAAA you can live on it but tastes like dung.Have fun.That's gonna be tougher than a 2$ steak.That's got to be sloooowwwly boiled and stewed in a crock pot for 4 hours before it'll get even close to tender.Been through that in the past.

[Marks]

" so when my GF comes round on Thursday I may cook her squirrel and chips for starters and if this works out roast fox for main"
And we plummet into the realms of fantasy again.........HHHmmmm

Im not joking.  If all goes well I don't see why not?  I've cooked her rabbit and pigeon before.

You are such a romantic. HAHAHAHA!!

I'm glad to hear it was fresh. I hope all goes well.

[mullet]

Wrap it in bacon. Everything taste good with bacon.

[Thesquirrelslinger]

I hate the taste, smell, and look of bacon.