UH......I got one in mind

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too TOO young!!

Muskrat was still consumed by old timers back in Michigan when I was a boy, it was somewhat looked down upon though, even by the mid 80s, as not being very good culinary fare. Rabbit of course was tasty, and served at some rural diners when I was growing up.

One of the Marine armorers that is a friend of mine - the guy who ended up with my Gew 88 - kills and eats all sorts of small animals. His theory is that if it has fur and runs around, just cook it enough.

The usual problem with some of the creatures that eat... well less savory things... is a gamey taste. Slow cooking can help. Or tabasco sauce I suppose.

Cats don't have a lot of meat on them. They don't taste exactly like rabbit, but the meat tends to be fairly good quality. You do have to worry about rabies. Ground up with some spices, eh, you wouldn't really think it was cat. That is of course if you were the sort of person bothered by eating cats. I only remember having it once, made into sloppy Joes - long story. I didn't notice anything odd about the taste at the time. If you want to try some, Pounces brand kitty treats work well as bait. That stuff seems like crack to strays.

Season it up and you might think dog meat is some sort of other meat. It does go into the mystery meat category since you find yourself wondering - depending on how it was prepared - whether that is beef, or lamb, or what is that... Bit tough, but no worse than some steaks at the buffet. Might have been an old dog too. I don't imagine that the cute and useful/spry ones end up on the table, but I could be wrong.

Rat on a stick, if they were domestically raised rats, is a lot like a mystery chicken kabob on a stick. All meats are better for being on a stick though. It's sort of like the dark meat on factory raised chickens that isn't really that dark but isn't white meat either. Teriyaki flavoring works well, or something to give it a smokey taste. If you don't know what it was - ie you're just eating a nice chunk of it (filet of rat?) and not a carbonized furry critter with a shaft threw it, eh, you wouldn't know you were eating it. I suppose you could get rabies or worms or something, which might be why I've only seen it served as well done gray mystery chunks.

I remember bear being greasy, squirrel unremarkable. Alligator and snake and frog legs... not exactly like chicken, but yeah, sort of.

......

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Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired

Aloha,

While in Japan, I've had horse sashimi, puffer fish sashimi, chicken-raw.

In Australia, emu, ostrich and crocodile.

Alligater and rattlesnake in Arizona.

Of course being in Hawaii, all kinds of raw seafood. Including shark,

which was cooked. Also properly prepared wild goat and mouflon sheep.

Hairy Bikers TV show had a lot of this in it. Including nutria. They tended to use a lot of butter and garlic, which makes darn near anything palatable. (E.g., escargot, a favorite of mine.)

There was one show that featured a guy in North Carolina who is into road kill. His thing is to get out there earlier, before the sun rises to high, to get it nice 'n fresh...

I had a great shark steak at a place on Fisherman's Wharf in SF one time. I went back a year or so later expecting the same, and it was really, really bad. Maybe it was out of season.

If you have something tough, stringy, greasy or gamey, just run it through the meat grinder, add some Williams seasoning mix, and make taco meat out of it. Of course, by giving this information, I'm going to get hate mail from thousands of taco truck proprietors.

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Insert short witty words here

handejector likes this




THANKS for the Cat's Meow recipe. The goldfish really made the dish. In a pinch, snail darter might be as good.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

I this!

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Isaiah 55:8-9
Phil. 4:13

An acquaintance ate Rockchuck [western marmot] on a bet. he would not skin it as most are really lousy. His comments were that it was really greasy and had a lot of silver skin. Most animal that live close to the ground, fox & coyote are full of fleas. I made sure any that I skinned were cold before I put a knife to them.

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Front sight and squeeze

I reckon if your hungry enough, you'll eat anything and be thankful.

My Grandma used to fry the squirrels we killed and they were good.

You have to use the proper amount of Crisco,.....among other things. I heard stories that in hard times she canned them. Sorta like Spam but Spuirrel? Like what Grandpa said and others, "when the going gets tough,...the tough get going. I would if I had to.

Give me sirloin, porterhouse, t-bone or a pork chop!

Best, Rick

My mother grew up on a farm in East Texas during the Depression. By most standards, they were dirt poor, but that's a relative thing. Her father was a pretty fair farmer and they always had enough to eat. On Sundays they always had a crowd of neighbors to dinner. For some of those folks, it was the only square meal they got in the week. Those as had a little something, brought it.

One Sunday, an old lady who was a regular brought a big bowl of "stew". My mother, being ten years old and having big ears, knew what was in it. When the bowl got to her, she passed it directly to her father, "Here Daddy, have some stew". Well that put old Silas on the spot, so he took a big helping. A couple of spoonfulls later he realized he was eating Hoover Hog (armadillo).

Fifty years later, the old man still held a hateful grudge over that bowl of "stew".

In some places in America you'd better be real sure the small wild animals are cold and all the fleas have left them before you skin them. In New Mexico, for instance, bubonic plague is still found in the wild. Most New Mexican doctors are on the alert for it, but if you're a visiting New Yorker, you might have trouble getting it diagnosed in the Big Apple.