Quote"Grown particular?"
If you haven't eaten porcupine, you may have missed out on one of Natures finest meals.
I ate my first porky when I was about 15. I lived with my grandma in Northern Michigan for a couple years when I was 15-16. Grandma used to cook in the lumber camps when she was younger and later cooked for the High School in the small town of Ellsworth.
Anyway at that time I had a single shot .22 rifle and a single shot 12ga shotgun and I'd slip off to the woods behind the house every time I could and hunt for anything that was in season. I brought my game home to grandama, rabbits, squirrels, partridges, raccoon and porcupines and she was glad to get any and all meat for the table. The coons and porkies she roasted in the over until the dark rich meat was tender then she's coat it with barbecue sauce the last 10 minutes of cooking, it was mighty tasty hot or cold.
Since those days I've sat down to many a meal of coon and porky.
the picture is of a friend of mine some years back skinning a porky that I had killed and brought to camp. The question is always, "How do you skin a porcupine." the answer? "Very carefully"
(http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/Porkie.jpg)
I shot one last fall scouting/small game hunting because a buddy and his Dad always told me it was good eatin'. They baked it and pulled the meat with some home made BBQ sauce and we put it on some toasted rolls. I left the skinning to those guys.
(http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l502/MrDwood/DSCN2949.jpg) (http://s1121.photobucket.com/user/MrDwood/media/DSCN2949.jpg.html)
Interesting. Loggers down East here always said they tasted like boiled pine bark! They surely are destructive li'l pikers!
I wouldn't mind giving it a try :thumbsup:
As ole Jeremiah use to say..."Meats meat when yer in the mountains"
:saywhat:
Cool post, Ron! Shot one a couple years back for eatin'. Never got the chance though. Had him cleaned up and in the freezer. Unfortunately a power outage doomed that frozen porcupine to the garbage bin. As I remember, there's a lot of guts to them. Not a ton of meat for how big they look. Thanks for bring back the thought.
Cheers, Matt
PASS
I shot one a few years ago with my Wesley Special to see what it tasted like and because I was small game hunting. I tried a recipe I found online. My oldest son, Nick, 4 at the time (He's the one who walked up to you at Marshall this Spring Ron), wanted to be the first to try it. So I cut off the best looking piece and immediately once he got about 3 or 4 chews done, he stated "Is that the butt, because it tastes really bad!" I have not shot another one since. I'm thinking I need to try a new recipe. (http://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab28/miklvines/Tradgang/007.jpg) (http://s846.photobucket.com/user/miklvines/media/Tradgang/007.jpg.html)
Quote"Is that the butt, because it tastes really bad!"
That doesn't say much for your cooking Mike...
:biglaugh:
Gotta be better than "creamed chipped beef on toast", right guys?
Italians...well...we'll eat almost anything that crawls or walks across the back yard....but I will draw the line on Porky Pines...
I always enjoy reading your posts Ron! Never tried porky, but wouldn't mind if I knew someone who was experienced In making it. :thumbsup:
Can't say I've ever tried armadillo but porky's gotta be better! ;)
Ron that was funny. :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
QuoteOriginally posted by Ron LaClair:
Quote"Is that the butt, because it tastes really bad!"
That doesn't say much for your cooking Mike...
:biglaugh: [/b]
Why do you think I'm REALLY happy Roger will be with me in Wyoming. :biglaugh:
I'm sure it has to taste better than grits...lol So, yes I'd give it a go.
God bless,Mudd
No way No how Yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One fall back in the late 90's in deer camp, I was telling the "Shrew Crew" about how good porcupines were to eat. Of coarse they didn't believe me and to a man said, "NO WAY" :campfire:
I made a lucky shot throw the shoulders and when the porkie hit the ground the cedar arrow was sticking straight up unbroken. I put the arrow back in my quiver, skinned him out and slung the spinney hide back up in the branches of the tree so it wouldn't harm an unsuspecting scavenger.
I slipped a stick through the gambles and carried my prize back to camp. After trimming off all of the fat that I could and removing the glands under the arm's, seasoning with salt and pepper he was ready for the roasting pan. I fixed him just like grandma used to with the final barbecue at the end of cooking and let the boys have at it. There was not a morsel left and they sucked the bones to get the last of the flavor :D .... try it, you might like it... :dunno:
(http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/Inside%20ShrewHaven%20Lodge.jpg)
Boy do they stink but I guess hogs and rutting bucks do too and they're good vittles.
I forgot to mention to soak the meat in salt water for a couple hours then rinse before you season it. It helps to "freshen" it. :)
When I was growing up I was told not to shoot porkys because they were lost mans food. Easy to kill for a starving pilgrim.
I hear that porcupine is the ultimate survival food, it's the only meat you can eat raw and not worry about diseases .
Quote
it's the only meat you can eat raw
I bet it would be better then the recipe I tried.
Ah, Ron. You and I have the same pallet. Creamed chip beef on toast is a favorite of mine, grits are another. Groundhog, porky, coon, possum. MMMMMM. I have dined on alot of the small game bounty and they are all good eats.
P.s. try you chip beef over grits next time.... It is heaven on a plate
Don't have them here in Mebane, NC
I would try one though....
Cant get any diseases from Porkypine?
Maybe but as a teen in VT my friend and I were eating some lunch during a fall squirrel hunt when we were charged out of nowhere by a very angry Porcupine. We both unloaded our 12 guages on the "Mad" critter. That things insides were crawling with huge tapeworms. I mean gigantic. Grossest thing I have ever seen. Poor thing was goin crazy with all them worms wriggling around his insides. Probably was starving to death as well. Couldnt eat one for that reason alone...less I was starvin.
A few years earlier my brother was charged for no reason by a angry porcupine during a grouse hunt in an old apple orcherd. I wonder if that one too had been writtled with intestinal tapeworms. Not saying you couldnt cook it up and be safe but I always found these two incidents interesting.
I'd like to give that a try!
I know someone who shot and ate one. I'll take his word for it. Not that I fear the flavor, just too dang lazy to skin one.
QuoteOriginally posted by Cyclic-Rivers:
I know someone who shot and ate one. I'll take his word for it. Not that I fear the flavor, just too dang lazy to skin one.
That was the fun part Charlie. The neighbors came over to see it because they had only seen them on TV. Actually, the neighbors come over quite a bit when I come home, just to see what critters we came back with.
Leather gloves are a requirement.
I killed one once with my belt knife, it was coming at me making an aggressive sound. I chucked the 6" blade into him from just a couple feet away. It took him a few minutes to die but it took the fight out of him. I didn't eat that one.
Frassettor, I think there's more than enough porcupines in the woods to feed all of the lost hunters.. :rolleyes:
Chipped beef on grits???? Grits, eggs, butter and cheese with some pepper!! I've eaten raccoon, armadillo, flying squirrel, groundhog, rattlesnake, and all sorts of other stuff. In Florida, I helped a guy catch possum one time using a burlap sack over the large opening at the hind end of a dead scrub cow and beating the sides with a stick. Got 3 possum like that-lost my curiosity about how possum taste!!!!
Ron is the Ultimate Woodsman killin a Porky with his knife. I bet Badgers are scared of him
<<<<<< This guy dont mess wid Porkys
QuoteRon is the Ultimate Woodsman killin a Porky with his knife. I bet Badgers are scared of him
Just the opposite, I got charged by a badger once. It was in the spinng of the year and I had ridden my Honda Trail 90 to check out some fox dens that I knew about. This one den was in the middle of a big grass field and the grass was several feet tall. I parked the bike and walked in to see if the den was occupied. When I got to the den the grass was all matted down in a 30' circle. I was checking out the den entrance to see if there was any fox tracks in the sand. I heard a rustling and saw the grass moving in a line towards the den. As I watched a big badger popped out into the opening. I just stood there looking at it and it had stopped and when it's eye's met mine I said, "Hello there". It came at me as fast as it's short legs could carry it growling as it came. :scared:
I was wearing shorts and sneakers, all I could think of was those long claws on my bare legs. I jumped straight in the air and when I landed I was 8 feet away. Every jump after that carried me 10 feet or more and I didn't stop to look back until I got to me bike 100yds away ... I probably set some kind of record for the 100 yard dash.. :biglaugh:
This sounds like another one of Ron's stories, or rumors'n recipes. Bring em on. :biglaugh: :jumper:
Ron, I'm not sure if they all are like the one I watched a guy dress out for a meal but in the case of that one I had never before seen so many parasites inside and outside of an animal in my whole life. I relies that a good hot fire will kill anything but that was a little much.
I would eat porky to survive.....and maybe try it if someone had a knack for cooking it. However, I would always have in the back of my mind, the fact that Porcupines eat their own feces to obtain maximum nutritional value from what they take in as "food". :saywhat:
LMNS, I don't know where you heard that they do that but I don't believe it. Anyone that has spent much time in the woods where there are porcupines has seen piles of porkie pellets at the base of a hollow tree where they have denned up for a period of time.
read a little more about them in this link.
http://bobarnebeck.com/ppines.htm
about their eating habits
http://www.allstateanimalcontrol.com/animals/porcupines/porcupine_eating.php
Opinions from those that have tried it
http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/68847-Eat-Porcupine
.....it's actually very interesting!!! A porcupine is what is know as a "hindgut fermenter". They will consume up to 60% of their feces. The practice is called coprophagy....
This is just one small bit of info below....
you may have to print it to read it. Check out the 4th page, right side and read on! Very interesting!
http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR_203.pdf
"They will consume up to 60% of their feces"..... as in re-ingest? Or the waste will just hang out in the lower gut until 60% is absorbed?
I'm gonna stop eatin rabbits and squirrels... :scared:
:D
Thats a great story Ron would have liked to seen that! :D Ive heard of rabbits eating their own feces but never a Porky. Learn something new everyday. We got them here but dont see them often ive never seen one myself. I hear their a Nusiance animal but personally I think their cool. :thumbsup:
QuoteOriginally posted by Mudd:
"They will consume up to 60% of their feces"..... as in re-ingest? Or the waste will just hang out in the lower gut until 60% is absorbed?
Mudd, they are re-ingesting! Kind of puting the "food" through the process for a second time around :eek: ! Beavers and many other rodents do the same thing, though I personally have never witness this myself. Id bet you'd need to have 24 hr surveillance on a critter, the right time of the year, to see them doing this! Hey, its just one of those things I guess....nature is fascinating! And Ron, Ive also heard the Lobster referred to as "the cockroach of the sea", but Im not about to stop eating those tasty buggers! :biglaugh:
cockroaches on the grill done crispy brown with a bit of Sweet Baby Ray's BB sauce....bet they'd be Lip smackin good... :p
:laughing: Sweet Baby Ray's or even some Cajun seasoning....maybe a little garlic butter.... :laughing:
One of my buddies shot a porcupine whilemon a mule der hunt. He brought it back to camp and the threeof us were standing there looking at it whe the third guy in our group says "Hey, lets eat it!". They skinnedmit out and cooked over an open fire and we ate it for lunch. Not the bestmeat I have ever eaten but I learned that if I was ever hungry in the woods and a porcupine happened by, I would have food!
Bisch