Trad Gang

I have a naive question. What North American animals are considered edible?

I know the quick answer is it depends on how hungry you are...just ask the Donner party.

For example, within the last year I found out that mountain lions are considered good table fare. That was a surprise to me because I had never heard of anyone eating mountain lion. I also read in the book Hunting the Hard Way that Howard Hill fed a group of guys a fox that he had put in a stew. Was this just a joke or are fox considered an edible game animal?

What other animals are harvested for their meat? We all know the usual animals: deer, turkey, rabbit and squirrel but what about groundhog, raccoon, possums and bobcats?

What unusual animal have you eaten?

Depends on what side of the Mason-Dixon line you're on.   :)

All are edible...some just better than others. Personal tastes pretty much dictates what you consume.

Growing up during the Great Depression, my dad told me he ate just about everythingt he could catch or kill.  That included raccoon, possum, carp, blackbirds, etc.

For me, elk is a favorite.

Nothing out of the norm for me with the exception of racoon... and some don't consider that "out of the norm"!

I think everything is pretty much edible. I've even made meals of coyote and crow. Not saying they were tasty, or even good, but they still went down...
Must say, my two favorite wild meals are roasted groundhog and fried frog legs. Neither of which probably fit the average persons ideal of normal table fare...

the ones with fins, fur, or feathers   :smileystooges:

David

all of em

Pretty much anything that don't eat me first  :goldtooth:

Cougar was one of the finest meats I ever ate.I've heard of people eating muskrat,and beaver,but I never did. I won't eat a possum,but that's just me.I've had frog and turtle,and neither one was anything I'd hunt for to eat.I've never eaten snake,but I wouldn't turn it down if I had the opportunity.   :campfire:

You CAN eat any animal. Some, however, you would probably rather not. I've tried most of the stuff that lives around here except fox, coyote and possum. I never thought about eating fox or coyote. I skinned a possum once. After that, I'd never eat one!

Coon is kind of greasy for me. I didn't care much for it. Beaver is good. Muskrat not bad.

Like the ancient Chinese said in their wisedom. Any animal that the noon day sun shones on their back and not the top of their head is edible. In other words anything but human beings.

I have eaten muskrat; and its good; I believe there is a gland under the arm you need to take off; but its good meat; they have a good diet  :)

Mountain lion meat is really good; probably the best meat in the woods; tastes like veal. Guides commonly say its nasty tasting; but ...

There was a man who said we could end world hunger by teaching people to raise zucchini and possums; the idea being the scraps from the zucchini would feed the opossums- and I have eaten them; and they are a good white meat.

I have never eaten fox or coyote.

Raccoons are really good when they are young; and their flesh is white. When they get older you boil them and then pour off the grease and bake them.
I have eaten young raccoons; but always gave away the older ones.

Carp are really good in the spring; you need to cut off the 'mud line' down their side. They were brought here as a food fish; and they are traditional table fare for Christmas in some countries.

Snapping turtle is really really good; with each muscle it seems; tasting different. Some have a slight fishy taste; some like pork; some like beef; some yes- like chicken.. its great on a stick over a fire.

I like deer and elk best; and bear and rabbits.

Nobody mentioned birds. Robins used to be eaten for food all the time. Grouse and partridge; and quail and ducks and timberdoodles and doves; and of course pheasants.

I just built a smoker; and now nothing is sacred.

   :bigsmyl:

While I was in the Army I ate a lot of different things including cat, rat, dog, horse, goat, and camel to name a few.  I have also tried at one time or another just about every 4 legged fur/hair covered critter running around Montana except for Mountain goats and I haven't met one yet I didn't like except for what we call gophers (ground squirrels).  There are exceptions to everything like a bear that has been eating fish for weeks on end, smells and taste like canned cat food!!!!  The stuff I ate in Africa was out of this world good    :bigsmyl:    Ostrich Pot Pie, Kudu, Impala, Gemsbuck, Zebra, and the best of all, ELAND!!!!  I have a very good friend who hales from Texas originally and he told me that they purpose hunted Robins down there because they are better than doves.  Haven't tried them yet but dove is mighty fine eating so I guess the short answer after the long one is yes with a few exceptions.  Good cooking, Joseph

Used to hunt Robins as a kid all the time,as soon as they started showing up in the Spring.Mom always gave my friend and I a weird look,but would fry them up for us.......

Only thing I've found that I don't much care for so far is Gator............tastes "lizzardy" to me.......is that a word??

Just about everything else listed,with a few exceptions(rat,muskrat,beaver,and African game)I have had at one time or another,including horse,dog,cat,and monkey........can't really say any of it was bad.

I used to have a cookbook that covered just about every animal you could name, including skunk!  :scared:

It is conversations like this that make this such a special place. I can picture this conversation around a campfire.

I agree with the prevailing opinion that most animals are edible. When I was young my grandfather cooked possum and when I made a funny face about eating it, he told me that all animals were meant for eating, that was why they were made of meat.

When I was a kid I had two uncles that were coon hunters.... actually they hunted just about everything. In my Grandma's house there was always some kind of wild meat on the table so I grew up with the notion  that everything was edible.

There's not much I haven't eaten except fox and coyote.

Years ago Nancy and I were hunting on state land in Northern Michigan. We were hunting with our longbows and camping in a tepee. I had shot a porcupine out of a tree with my bow and dressed it for eating.

A Game Biologist from the local DNR station was in the area and came across our camp. He stopped to visit and noticed the porky hide hanging in a tree and ask, "is that whats in the pot?" When I told him it was and that I had shot it with my longbow he said he could hardly wait to get back to the office and that they weren't going to believe him when he told them there was a man and women camping in a tepee, hunting with longbows and eating porcupines.    :biglaugh:

Here's a pair of raccoons that I shot out of a wild apple tree that ended up as table fare. This was our Deer camp, Nancy and I in 1959.

  (http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/deer%20camp%201959.jpg)

QuoteI've heard of people eating muskrat,and beaver, but I never did.

Beaver was considered highly desirable during the Middle Ages in Europe, when people treated it as a fish and ate it during Lent. And while many North Americans find the notion of eating carp revolting, it's a rather expensive fish to buy in a food store over here in Europe.

On the other hand, you eat squirrel and we generally don't (ours are smaller, by the way). And I suspect very few people in Europe have ever tasted bear.

Of course, frogs are very popular in France. But they are not often killed in a humane manner and I don't eat them myself.

Best,

Martin

My dad has a great carp receipe. 1.clean a 4 to 6 lb. carp and place on a cedar shingle. 2. season with olive oil, garlic,salt,and pepper. 3.place in preheated 350 deg. oven for 35 to 40 min. 4. let stand for 5 min. 5. throw away carp and eat the shingle

A few years ago during a mule deer hunt, my partner and I encountered a large number of grouse on a particular hilltop. When we reported the occurance on returning to camp, my partner's young grandson declared he want to go hunt them.  So we equipped him with a 20 ga., directions to the spot, and a description of a grouse.  He loped off, and returned a few hours later with a big grin, and a flicker in his game bag.  
I told him "You shot it, you eat it"---helped him clean it and broil it over coals (like I did with every kind of bird I killed as a kid).
That young sproat is now a police officer somewhere in CO---but every we talk, he gets asked if has shot any "Orange-tailed grouse" lately.

This reminds me of a story I heard a few years ago. Seems a distant cousin of mine from Texas was arrested and subsequently tried for poaching a Whooping Crane. At his sentencing the judge offered to commute Cuz's sentence if he would explain why anyone would kill a Whooping Crane.
Well, said Cuz, to be honest yer Hon'r it taste jus like Golden Eagle....

John

Genesis 1:29-30 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain

 

29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Seems to set a Precedant, doesn't it?

Our clean water sand pits have huge blue crawdads come into the shallows after ice out.  Fry 'em in butter and mushrooms and a pinch of garlic, scary good.  Oh yeah, try for head shots.

QuoteOriginally posted by Tom Mussatto:
Depends on what side of the Mason-Dixon line you're on.    :)  

I-80?   :saywhat:

Jason, you're on the civilized side of the line where only food stuffs God intended for human consumption are put on a plate.  However, being from Cook County you have other issues.   :)  

Never could understand how years ago folks who ate coons and 'possums (nasty, nasty animals) would question my eating groundhogs. Strange.

I tried one of those piliated wookpeckers one time. Tast wasnt bad but it was to tough to eat.
I like gator if its cooked right. no way would I try yote.I have heard robin is good eating. Might try some this spring.

My dad worked with a feller who enjoyed catching possums live and feeding grain a few days before eating them.  One cold eveing under a moonlite sky he happened upon a half eaten horse.  Upon giving it a kick out rolled a possum.  The two in his sack were let out and he never et possum again.  You would have thought he knew they eat rotten meat.?.

Once Iowa game warden, Ron Ely, caught some Mong with 72 robins in the trunk of their car.  One of them almost shot me earlier that same day shooting at a hen pheasant two weeks before the opener.  the judge basiacally chewed him out for getting in the way of their food hunting. When they got to court suddenly they all forgot how to speak english.  they were being supported by the local churches at the time.  Politically correct isn't always correct.  If it ain't legal don't shoot it, even if you think God gave you every living creature to use as you seem fit.  I will turn you in.

No offense intended to anyone, but don't kill it unless you plan to eat it or it's a danger to you or yours, or it's a pest. (ie;, vermin, dangerous, etc.

I've eaten coon, possum, beaver, (get your mind out of the gutter guys ),turtle,carp, ground squirrel, rattle snake, crawdads, frogs etc.  it's all good if you know how to fix it.

Just my opinions.

QuoteOriginally posted by Ia Hawkeye:
...but don't kill it unless you plan to eat it...

Absolutely, couldn't agree more. As much as I would like to try bowhunting geese I don't for that reason. Anybody silly enough to eat a goose is probably crazy enough to eat a duck.

Looks like we have some really, really hungry people on here.

I once ate dog and a smelly fermented weed thingy but in my defense I did not do so knowingly. Seemed like my internal body temperature rose about 10 degrees. Don't know if it was the meat or the spices. I suspect Dau Do Thei is still laughing over that one, she was quite the prankster. Only upside is that even after almost 40 years I still use that incident as an excuse for some of my odd behavior.

rattlesnake fajitas, frog legs--all good. goose is good table fare and duck, I grind it into sausage links---good stuff. Like it was said earlier if prepared correctly then good.

I have found that snow geese are very difficult to prepare.  Next time I will try creamed snow goose on bread.

We shoot alotof geese around here.   The young ones are good table fair.  The older ones we cut the breasts out and make jerky out of them.  It makes a great jerky meat and a fun conversation piece.

 I had BBQ'ed beaver once and I went back for seconds.

 Grandparents talked about eating coons and opposums back in the day.

we eat alot of doves, rabbits and squirrels.

 Some guy was talking about eating deer kidneys.  he said they were great.  I asked how he fixed them and he stated "The first thing you do is boil the piss out of them"   LOL

702plmo, that is too funny.  I'm really enjoying this thread guys.  Keep it up.

QuoteOriginally posted by Tom Mussatto:
Jason, you're on the civilized side of the line where only food stuffs God intended for human consumption are put on a plate.  However, being from Cook County you have other issues.    :)    

Cook County!?!?!? Well heck, why don't you just go ahead and insult my dog next? Born in Kane, moved to Kendall then Dekalb. I don't even like driving through Cook.

Cook County? Good Lord man. I didn't know you hated me.   :saywhat:

Breast the goose grind the meat and mix with a little pork,egg,grated cheese,and bread crumbs a meatball mix and fry very edible.   I don't feel compelled to eat everything I catch or shoot. Have taken carp,woodchuck,crow,fox,coyteetc no remorse good for you if you can eat them. I'm pretty picky when it comes to food.

If it don't bite me first,,,it's lunch.

There was a gentleman and is family that used to live near here that would eat your cat for lunch and your dog for dinner.  He shot them with a bow, so I guess that would make him a domestic bowhunter.  NO, I am not surfing to see if anyone has got a good recipe for Jason's dog!!

QuoteOriginally posted by Jason R. Wesbrock:
Cook County!?!?!? Well heck, why don't you just go ahead and insult my dog next? Born in Kane, moved to Kendall then Dekalb. I don't even like driving through Cook.

Cook County? Good Lord man. I didn't know you hated me.     :saywhat:  

Oops, my bad. From way down here we think everyone from northern IL is from Cook County.

I should have known better. I doubt there is a single squirrel hunter in all of Cook County. Do they even have trees there?

Robins??? Aren't they protected song birds? I think all we're allowed to take here is pigeons and starlings. Don't know about starlings but pigeon is good eating.

Primarily I won't shoot what I will not eat.    I have however taken a few nuisance animals over the years.

I also tend not to eat carnivorous animals. Pretty much anything else I'll try at least once.

No way am I eatin' a Starling or some of the stuff I've seen Mussato eat that he got out of a foil pouch!!

Tom, I thought everything north of I-80 was Cook County, also!   :D

While living in MT, an associate would follow the "coyote killin" contests and grab up backstraps off yodel dogs... made em into sausage and sold it..."told folks...think of it as "recycled sheep""  He sold heck outa the sausage! It ate ok!  :scared:  

Does memory serve me the furtrapers used to covet beaver tail as they were "fat poor" in their winter diet and the tail was loaded? I forget how it was made...but peeled skin off after roasting in fire comes to mind...  :)

In the day, there were companies makin and selling chocolate covered ants, grasshoppers, roaches, worms... I ate ants and grasshoppers.. never the others...  :scared:    :eek:  

Grandad made us kids eat what we shot w/ slingshots or .22's till he told me to shoot a "corn theiving crow". He gave me a "bye" on that one. And rats in the chicken coop...they went to the manure pile.

I've skinned enough fox and coyotes to know I wouldn't eat those smelly things!  But I will lift their hide if it is good.
Groundhogs are greasy and strong to eat, at least the old ones are, and if they are tearing up a soybean field I have no compunction to dropping them back down into their holes.

QuoteOriginally posted by Tom Mussatto:

I should have known better. I doubt there is a single squirrel hunter in all of Cook County. Do they even have trees there?

They had a coyote at Navy Pier a few years ago. But I think the subway rats are the only real big game there.   :D

What about Grizzlies. Whenever I see them hunted they pack out the hide and head but no meat. Are they inedible ?

Crow ain't much fittin' to eat but I sure get to eat a lot of it sometimes. When it comes to something good, Axis deer can't be beat in my opinion.

I hope I`m never hungry enough to eat a coyote.
And possum? Doesn`t sound too good to me.

But then, some of us eat hot dogs, and if we knew what was really in them, we would have to at least pause and think about it.

If the Michigan economy gets much worse, possum and coyote may start sounding better.

I have eaten about everything that I have killed at one time or another except coyote and fox. I have had beaver and it was very good, I had it another time and it was lousy. Shawn

Usually on my side of the Mason-Dixon line everything is edible.I've heard of people eating wildcat liver.

Possum?  Wouldn't touch one.  As a kid, I saw one crawl out of the stomach of a dead horse (and it was dead for a long time).  A lot of things got my curiosity about "I wonder what that would taste like?"  Possum not one of them...

Down in jawja, its all good to eat. Hell, I didn't know until a while ago that if you kill a black bear your supposed to eat it. I've heard of coon, possums, and bout everything being eaten. Never coyotes, foxes or bobcats though.

I don't see whats so weird about eating other animals. Its not like their is a rule stating that deer are the only animal to eat. They are just one of the biggest, and tastiest.

Years ago I went through US Army Jungle Survival school at Ft Sherman Panama....

#1 lesson; If it's got hair on it"s A$$ it's edible.  

#2 lesson if it comes down to eating a "3 toed sloth" or dying, consider dying as the better option.  All other animals are table fare.

everything has a recipe

Grandpa would catch a possum live and keep him in a cage on top of the house feeding him to fatten him up and clean him out.  I am sure we ate it there as kids but would not today unless I was in a bad bind!

He would also crack squirrel heads and pick out the brains for me whie I sat at his feet when I was About 4 or 5 years old.  Cooked mind you!

Now that you mention that, I remember my grandma telling me that my great grandpa use to eat squirrel brains.

Thanks for all the comments. I have really enjoyed this thread.

I shot a porcupine 2 seasons ago, and my rule is...If I shoot it, I eat it.  Well, I'll just say I will not be shooting anymore porcupines. Funny part of the story is that My oldest who was 5 at the time asked me if he had just ate the butt when he had a bite.  LOL  I still laugh when I think of that one.

You can eat most insects and arachnids too. Not that you'd want to.

I think it depends on the trailer park.Just kidden

All animals are edible, just not necessarily palatable.
I use to eat squirrel brains and eggs often for breakfast in South Carolina.
I've probably eaten as many strange to this country foods as Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods on Travel Channel.
I'm sure if you look hard enough You can find some country where anything you can think of would be considered table fare.

Don't eat anything with a frisbee in its mouth.

Tom those big rabbits at the Bear camp are edible,and the red sqs.and I guess even the buzzard that came eat some meat scraps one nite.Have fun and good luck.Kip

I've read that Griz and Brown bear are dangerous to eat... is this true?  Anyone had the big bears?

I'm in for elk and wild boar. Best tasting wild meat I have eaten!

anything i kill i eat.  i do have to say, some spring bears (only early spring) ive eaten tastes really bad and tough which i assume this is due to just coming out of hibernation and just starting on natural foods again.  my 2 cents

this is something that I actually get a lot of crap for, lol.  I like a lot of you are going off the rule if I kill it I need to eat it.  My rule has gotten slack after the neighbor farmer asked me to try and thin the groundhog heard.  I like the little ones, but when it takes longer to skin a groundhog than it takes to skin a deer something is wrong!!!  So another rule of mine is that you cant cross something off the "food" list until you have tried it!!!  

Another common theme here is that a lot of you guys wont eat possum because of their diet!?!?!  Would you guys eat these>>>
(http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae73/Guitararcher/FILE0003.jpg)
They are caught on chicken necks that have sat out on the porch for a couple of days, lol

I just had my first possum this season, I boiled it for a bit then fried it, feed it to dad.  Then asked what he thought it was . . . he looked at me and said its chicken right, lol.

As a trapper the occasional possum gets caught in my coon sets.  So that is just something I have to get used to, or I could let them go, but I just don't think that is ethical.  So I eat them.  Ya got to try everything at least once.

God has given us a huge variety of good foods to eat. When serving in the U.S. Army I learned in jungle school that anything that has fur or hair on it is edible. So I've eaten and liked tons of what some would consider "bad" food. Top of the list thats really good:Cougar, muskrat, rattlesnake, all the squirrels, dog, redtailed hawk,(before they were made illegal)crow, myna birds,coon, the list goes on and on. What you have to worry about is the veggies. Many of them will make you very sick or KILL you.In many fine restaurants "marsh hare" is on the menu. What is it? Muskrat!! Frank

I've eaten a lot of the things covered here except coyote and fox and most of it not to bad. Also tried a prairie dog once and I think a crap sandwich would have been better.

My folks both live during the depression. My dads family ate any available protein. My dad would collect common birds, bullfrogs, anything; they even had a pidgin coup...

James Clavell's book King Rat about an Australian POW camp where the main character sold the officers rats they raised. They were told that it was some kind of exotic deer meat. The officers ate it in ecstasy. "I guess it's a state of mind" .. People will eat anything if they are hungry enough...

Good short read  :)

Chris, whens the crab boil I'm in.... Yummmmmmm !!!

 :coffee:

I've heard the best meat one could ever taste is of the Giant Turtle! It took many, many voyages to get one alive from its natural habitat and have it brought to England bacause the sailors kept eating them! They all, including Darwin, said it was impossible to stop once you've had a bite!

If it walks,crawls,flys or swims it's edible. Just depends on how hungry You are Tom.

Personally I won't eat Possum again but I have tried it. Muskrat and Beaver are very good if cooked properly.

Having 2 sets of Grandparents who raised families during and after the Depression I was treated to many non-traditional meals. Some much better than others.

So keep an open mind and don't knock it til You try it.

bretto

My Dad tells a story, back in the depression my great uncle came into his aunts house, no one was around and there was a critter boiling in a pot on the stove, he got him a plate and had some. he went out into the Garden and found his aunt and told her that he had ate some of the ground hog she was a cookin. she said ground hog? all I have is that skunk I was a rinderin. I guess he said it was not that bad but did not go for 2nds. Had a teacher that said he would stomp every skunk he saw to death when he was young, Said you could sell the hide for enough to buy a new pair of shoes and as a bonus you got a week off of school.

Being raised in Tennessee, going to college in Kentucky, and now living in Illinois I have eaten on both sides of mason and dixon...My grandmother used to make squirrel brain stew and would throw a fit if I shot squirrels in the head. I ate it but couldn't get past it. Chittlins' are a regular Sunday lunch item back home and I ate it too even though it smelled up the house like poop...Guess I am a full blown yankee now 'cause I don't look at 'possums in the same light as I once did   :D  

I shot a pine squirrel in CO a couple of years ago 'cause it wouldn't shut up. I dressed and ate it 'cause I felt like it was the right thing to do and I felt guilty. THAT will never happen again. They can just keep yappin' 'cause I ain't given in again. I can still taste that nasty rodent  ;)

When younger I had grasshoppers, worms and bees. There was a neighbor that shot robbins in her garden and then would eat them. As a teenager I shot some Bandtail pigeons during hunting season, and tried to cook them like any game bird. Bad idea, the birds lived near salt water and tasted worse than escargo, really bad. Most birds, including waterfowl around salt water don't taste good, unless they are marinated.

My dear mother cooked a big old Blue Grouse, I shot while deer hunting, thinking she would fix it like pheasant. Once again, buy some cheap wine and marinate it over night. Otherwise those tough old birds will taste like old sneakers and chew worse than boot leather.

Hope to never be so hungary to eat possum, skunk, badger, coyote, dog, cat, rat, snake, ground squirrel, most sea birds, and parts of animals considered a delicacy like brains, tongue, intestines and mountain oysters. Think I fix some chicken.

I shot a large pesky possum once.  It had an attitude problem like a badger, it would not let us get into our house. I thought they were suppose to play dead.  I put on rubber gloves to skin it.  I gagged until I threw up. The fur was worth a little money though.

I am sure you can eat any animal or at least parts of it.I am just a bit pickier than some of you and will save a lot of critters until I get into the starvation mode of hungry.   :scared:      :D

QuoteOriginally posted by coaster500:
Chris, whens the crab boil I'm in.... Yummmmmmm !!!

  :coffee:  

haha, its a bit early yet, the crabs are still a bit far down the bay.  About the end of June we will start catchin them pretty good.  I guess Maryland's economy will boom this year, as long as the oil doesnt somehow come up the east coast.  I dont think there will be much gulf crabs this year