What have you eaten?

[steve white]

What about marinades, recipes, or methods to eliminate gaminess? A friend fed me a pork chop--I thought it was domestic hog, but it was wild without tasting wild. The only thing he did was hang it in a locker for 3 weeks, letting any fluids drain into a pan. Amazing that that was all. Comments? Other secret preps?

 

[ofbiro]

Marinades was very popular in the past centuries, when the aristocrats were hunting for weeks away from home and without fridges. The meat was marinated in wine (or vinager) together with several spices (cinnamon, cloves, pepper a.s.o.). There are several traditional venison recipes based upon those ingredients and somebody is using them still today. The result is rather difficult to digest (someone said that certain marinade send you a postcard one week later) and the venison taste is ironed flat (better, steamrolled) and you cannot tell chamois from fallow.
To the best of my knowledge gaminess is strongly reduced by hanging in a suitable fridge at 2-4 °C for at least 5 days.

 

[Daveboone]

I am not as well traveled as some of you, but...
Closer to home in NY,...Woodchuck and porcupine, several times(very clean animals, best barbequed or on the grill), frog legs, squirrel, rabbit, snow shoe hare, pheasant, grouse, woodcock (tastes like a turd), bear frequently (think beef pot roast), whitetail deer, pronghorn antelope (I will pass, very sagey), moose, caribou.
On our first (so far) trip to SA (Eastern Province) we had lots of game. Kudu, impala, warthog sausage, ostrich, springbuck if I recall. Favorites were kudu biltong and grilled ostrich.
on the off side...I commented to our guide wondering what all the insects were we saw flying around after a heavy rain. He said they were termites leaving the nest, and they used to eat them...tastes like peanut butter. Really? lets try some! And they absolutely tasted like peanut butter, and were not at all unpleasant. For the next several days I often snatched a few out of the air for a snack.
In the US lamb is rarely eaten, most prerring pork, beef or chicken. I love it though, and we had lamb several times, any of which was much better than what was served in the U.S.

 

[spike.t]

I’ve eaten african lion backstraps grilled on the braii. They were actually very good. And I’m not actually sure what all I’ve eaten around the campfire as appetizers, but many came from inside the animal. Some very good, some not so much.
Cape buffalo balls, also very good! Klipspringer backstraps also on the braii. These were very good, but had a unique flavor. Best I can describe they had a hint of flavor like the vegetation in the area the klipsringer were living. Kind of natural seasoning I guess!
Reedbuck is also incredibly good.
I’ve eaten North American Mountain Lion on a number of occasions and have never spit it out. The bobcat I have attempted to eat I have spit out! Tasted like the smell of cat piss.
Beaver is very tasty! @spike.t , I have Tee’d that up just for you! If you use your imagination it’s a bit like a cross between venison and waterfowl, but very tasty.
Porcupine is ok but can be greasy.
One of my very favorite wild game meats is black bear. Fall black bears that have been eating berries for several months are a delicacy. Wonderful!

Yup.....nothing like a nice juicy beaver to wrap your mouth around.......

 

[1dirthawker]

i ate bobcat, it was just ok

lynx is very good

beaver is very good

muskrat, not very good

raccoon was very good roasted

snipe was good

have not eaten beaver tail, i cooked one once, skinned it, did not like the look and took a pass!

i watched steve rinella of meat eater fame eat a coyote once, i'm gonna pass on that! he was underwhelmed as well.

i need to try porcupine just need to get my ambition and a porky in the same place at the same time

 

[steve white]

i ate bobcat, it was just ok

lynx is very good

beaver is very good

muskrat, not very good

raccoon was very good roasted

snipe was good

have not eaten beaver tail, i cooked one once, skinned it, did not like the look and took a pass!

i watched steve rinella of meat eater fame eat a coyote once, i'm gonna pass on that! he was underwhelmed as well.

i need to try porcupine just need to get my ambition and a porky in the same place at the same time

+1 on snipe!!!

 

[Doug Hamilton]

I have eaten about everything from cane rat in West Africa, to milk curdled with fresh cow urine in Southern Sudan with the occasional dash of fu-fu, in the west, and sadza in the southern camps of Africa.
Stateside, I was tempted to try bobcat the other day, but didn't--would it be good/safe (I remember that gutting a fox bare handed can incur liver worms/death in infected cases)
what have you adventurously eaten overseas or stateside. What can you recommend that most have not tried, but should?

In the US and Canada I've eaten most of the usual critters. Blacktail and mule deer, pronghorns (which I liked a lot, but some people say they aren't fit for dog food), elk, moose, and caribou (which I didn't care for), fat blueberry fed black bear (which didn't really taste as good as I had hoped), wild hogs, and mountain lion (which was delicious).
In Zimbabwe I have eaten eland and buffalo a lot, nyala heart and other parts, impala, reedbuck, and crocodile, probably other things too, but they aren't coming to mind.
As I'm sure everyone here knows, how the animal is taken care of from the time of the shot and how it is prepared makes all the difference in flavor and texture. Something I didn't expect to like was buffalo liver, but the camp cook turned it into one of the best things I've ever eaten!

 

[Safari Dave]

Back when my son was Boy Scout and I was his Scoutmaster, I took the Troop on a "Wilderness Survival Camping Trip".

They were not allowed to bring any food (only two nights). Anything they found that was edible they could either eat (if they could legally kill it) or I would give them the equivalent weight of hotdog.


I wanted them to be able to clean, cook, and eat a bird, a mammal, and a fish before the camping trip was over.


On Thursday before the trip, I caught 3 trout, bought a live "meat-rabbit", and talked a neighbor into giving me a large White Leghorn rooster (he produced fertilized eggs for a poultry company).

Friday morning, my 11-year old daughter found the rabbit in a cage in the basement and thought it was her birthday present..... (So much for killing the rabbit).

We left for camp on Friday afternoon.

(All of the animals were going to be supper on Saturday night)


We camped about 30 minutes away from my house, so at 1:00 PM on Saturday, I left camp for home to gather up the food stocks.

As I was driving out, thinking about how to get another mammal (it was May, small game season had closed for the year), the only thing I could think of was to drive to a small pet store in a small town along the way to see what they had.

The only thing that I could reasonably afford was 3 "feeder-rats" like someone with a large boa constrictor might feed their snake.


When I got home, I grabbed the Ruger 10/22 fired 4 shots and had 3 dead rats, a huge dead rooster, and the 3 trout that were already on ice.

Everything joined the trout in the cooler and I raced back to "Survival Camp" to demonstrate to the lads and let them try their hands at preparing the bounty.



When I opened the lid on the cooler, I had to deal with almost every human emotion simultaneously... Fear, shock, euphoria, laughter, cries of pleasure, cries of sadness, cries of outrage, whoops of joy, screams of terror, you name it!



I showed them how to clean a trout. They did the other 2.

I showed them how to gut, skin, wash, and prepare a small mammal carcass for the grill. They did the other 2.



Then, I attempted the rooster...

No way could I pluck it, so I just skinned it.

(I had worked as a butcher in high-school and during my first 2 years of college and had cut up at least a thousand chickens with just a knife). Not this monster.

I had to dig the razor-sharp Gransfor-Bruk Small Forest Axe out of my truck toolbox and find a stump to use as a chopping block for this beast. I reduced it to 2 - 1/2 breasts, 2 wings, 2 legs, and 2 thighs and gave everything else to the foxes and racoons.



Everything was cooked with no seasoning on a steel grate over a bed of coals next to the campfire.


The trout were devoured immediately.

The rooster was so big, that it had to keep cooking to keep from being eaten raw...


Now everyone was faced with the 3 rats...

Being the "leader", I ripped off a piece of thigh and put it into my mouth. As I began to chew, it dawned on me that it was better than most squirrel and a couple of other small game animals that I had eaten before. I swallowed and said "not that bad". (probably because they had been fed their whole lives as good as a any calf destined to become Kobe beef)

The boys (and a few parents) devoured the rats!


We then chewed on tasteless, extremely tough, rooster meat until our jaw muscles couldn't take it any more and fed the remainder to the creatures of the night.


We had a year-class of Webelos from another Cub-Scout pack visiting with us on this camping trip. Every single one didn't go back to there old Pack and affiliated with us immediately!





It's probably best that the Boy Scouts left me.

I don't think they let Neanderthals be Scoutmasters anymore...

 

[gbflyer]

A McDonalds Quarter Pounder will put this bush dwellers ass on the throne quicker than a rotten fish head.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Yup.....nothing like a nice juicy beaver to wrap your mouth around.......

@spike.t
How does a juice beaver compare to wet pussy.

 

[ofbiro]

Forget the beaver.
Ages ago, when the sea was less polluted, I ate sea urchin inside (bowel and gonads I guess) with a small piece of bread. I also ate live young shrimps (so young to be transparent), taking care of putting the tail in my mouth, to cut away the antlers.
However, I wouldn't dare to touch a rat with may skin. Aren't you afraid of leptospirosis?

 

[PeteG]

@spike.t
How does a juice beaver compare to wet pussy.

close your eyes and you cant tell the difference

 

[Randy F]

I've heard that mountain lion is good eating.

I've always kept my expectations low when trying something new to me, especially based on someone else's opinion or urging. You never know if they truly liked it or are just trying you get you to barf. Maybe I just need different friends.

Having said that, of all the critters I've tried, the most surprising was how good the mountain lion tasted. Lighter colored meat cooked slow and long in a roaster. That's one I would go for again any day.

 

[CBH Australia]

@Randy F yes, I think some of this stuff would make me Barf.

I'm have pretty simple tastes. I'm not excited by seafood and I only try something new with caution or out of curiosity. Mostly happy with normal food.

I'm surprised so many eat Black Bear, and plenty have eaten Mountain Lion.

I guess it's like swamp people, they are in secluded areas so the only fresh meat comes from the swamp and America was settled long before Australia so it's hunting lifestyle came from settlers moving into new territory etc.

All Australian Native animals are protected so off the menu as far as hunting for table fare.

Kangaroo is ok , it's Red Meat. Done right it's fine but expensive if you buy Human Consumption grade on the retail market

Pigs and goats were released by the sailors for survival food, survive, they bloody prospered and spread across the land.

We are big on agriculture and beef, lamb and pork are the main meats for Aussies.

I enjoy butchering and meat processing but even then I'm in semi arid desert country so I have to travel for introduced "game animals"

 

[Randy F]

@Randy F yes, I think some of this stuff would make me Barf.

I'm have pretty simple tastes. I'm not excited by seafood and I only try something new with caution or out of curiosity. Mostly happy with normal food.

I'm surprised so many eat Black Bear, and plenty have eaten Mountain Lion.

I guess it's like swamp people, they are in secluded areas so the only fresh meat comes from the swamp and America was settled long before Australia so it's hunting lifestyle came from settlers moving into new territory etc.

All Australian Native animals are protected so off the menu as far as hunting for table fare.

Kangaroo is ok , it's Red Meat. Done right it's fine but expensive if you buy Human Consumption grade on the retail market

Pigs and goats were released by the sailors for survival food, survive, they bloody prospered and spread across the land.

We are big on agriculture and beef, lamb and pork are the main meats for Aussies.

I enjoy butchering and meat processing but even then I'm in semi arid desert country so I have to travel for introduced "game animals"

I do like black bear meat as well. However, the last one I got was a big ole boar so although I liked the flavor of the steaks, it was so tough no matter how I prepared it, I had to give up and grind it all up for sausage. That really turned out well. Loved it.

 

[Reed Thoma Outdoors]

Ive haven't anything too exotic. The weirdest would be ostrich, raccoon, beaver, gator, and coot

 

[steve white]

Forget the beaver.
Ages ago, when the sea was less polluted, I ate sea urchin inside (bowel and gonads I guess) with a small piece of bread. I also ate live young shrimps (so young to be transparent), taking care of putting the tail in my mouth, to cut away the antlers.
However, I wouldn't dare to touch a rat with may skin. Aren't you afraid of leptospirosis?

When I mentioned cane rat--it is more like a guinea pig.

 

[Safari Dave]

1. rat
2. squirrel
3. rabbit
4. black bear
4. Mule deer
5. Whitetail deer - by far the most
6. Pronghorn
7. Elk
8. American Bison
9 -100. - Any any fish that I have ever kept (FW and SW) - yellow perch to shark, to yellowfin tuna, to swordfish
10. In Africa - Impala, gemsbok, buffalo, kudu, blue-wildebeest, yellow duiker.

I'll try any muscle meat.

I'll have to give thought to organs.



I don't see any polar bear liver in my future...

 

[Capnjackv]

Tree squirrel...love em
Black Tail...not bad
Mule Deer...ok
Pronghorn....love it
Elk.....love it
Moose...love it
Cape Buffalo.......love it
Blesbuck........love it
Giraffe.......not bad
Monster mako.....tough but good flavor
little make.........delicious
swordfish......delicious
blue marlin.....good
black marlin.....good
striped marlin.....sucks
All the tunas......good
Thats all I can think of now.

 

[Bule Jagter]

Impala balls. Awesome.

I ate impala balls in South Africa. They came from the impala I shot earlier that day