What have you eaten?

[Banditto]

My hunting partner of nearly 10 years is quite a bit older then me, actually he is older then my dad. But we get along really well because we are both die-hards and if any of you are die-hards, then you know how hard it is to find somebody who is willing to hunt whenever, where-ever possible.

Anyhow, he grew up poor living in Wayne when it was still mostly farms. He learned to hunt by necessity and has stories of eating just about any animal I can name. There is only 1 animal he didn't like and that was a coot.

What animals have you eaten? any exotics? anybody like coot?

[mechanical head]

muskrat is pretty good....

[Salmonsmoker]

Bandito,

Over the years (and for me that amounts to many) I have tried a wide variety of wild foods. After returning from Veit Nam (where I learned that Number 1 chop chop was fresh raw snails picked up as the tide went out) in the late 60's, I went to MSU for several years. While there I got a job as a lab tech in the Wilderness Survival Lab. During that time, anything and everything was eddible and that was when I learned that if it moves, it can be made into GOOD FOOD if it is prepared right.

As for Coot. Quite a few years ago, we (my Wife and I) were hunting Woody's one evening. Suddenly they were coming in. When we retrieved the downed ducks, we had hit one Coot. We are both firm believers in eating what we kill. So, we found a recipe for Coot. It turned out very good.

First, Coot eats fish - so it has a tendency to take on a fishy flavor. To eliminate this, after skinning, soak it overnight in salt water (1 Cup per gallon is plenty).

Then wipe the Coot dry.

Place in the body cavity, 1/4 of an apple, 1/4 of a potato, and 1 celery stalk top, with leaves (this step eliminates any remaining fishy flavor).

Sprinkle the Coot with seasoned salt and pepper.

Wrap the Coot completely in fat bacon.

Roast the Coot in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove fat strips and cavity contents.

Take pan drippings and make a gravy.

Serve the Coot (You will need one Coot per person being served) over brown rice covered with gravy.

What most people object to with Coot is the fishy flavor. The salt water and body cavity stuffing removes that.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

ss

[trout]

S.S,
You remind me of A.D. Livingston who writes for Gray's Sporting Journal.
Strangest thing I ever ate was a cockroach
live! Long story.
I can't imagine not trying anything in a survival situation that would not kill me.
Never mind cleaning them you will lose too many nutrients.
In the kitchen almost anything can be made good'nough to eat. ;)

[Banditto]

I have taken several long survival classes with the ROTC's and nearly did a NOLS before learning that the governement was paying the way of junkies and their likes. I heard that NOLS is pretty much an 'AA' type atmosphere now.

Anyhow, the only exotic meats I have eaten are maybe caribou and bear--lame I know. My group does western hunts annually, but I never seem to have the time or money to go.

That recipe for coot sounds good enough to try. I duck hunt those reserves on the Tittabawase (spelling?) and nobody but nobody keeps coots. They let you take 5/day I believe and many people were limiting out and just leaving the birds at the ranger station. In fact I remember the C.O. saying that we could dump the coots in a special barrel after they counted them.

This year beavers invaded my tree stand area and the pond is full of wood ducks and coots. There were a couple teals too. It is probably 8ft deep so it is really a huge pond. There is a flock of coots that must number into the 30's. Sounds tempting doesn't it!

[YpsiDave]

Last year I had the pleasure of going to Arica for a month and was able to try some exotic food there. I had hartebeast, zebra, ostrich, and impala to name a few. A lot of peolpe have commenyed on the zebra being "almost a horse" but it was pretty good. I was told that warthog is good but they are pretty darn ugly. Ate at a restaurant in Nairobi called "Carnivore"! An all you can eat meat-fest!

[Erik]

Does es cargo (big slugs) count? I thought it was pretty strange, but they taste really good broiled in casino butter.

------------------
Phish

[Salmonsmoker]

To my way of thinkng, it all counts. We have been living in a store-bought processed-food environment for a hundred or so years now (as a species, not individually.) We have natural instincts that date back several million years. Our outdoor activities - hunting, fishing, outdoor cooking, eating wild game, camping, nature-photography - all reconnect us to that natural part of who we are. That is why we feel so at home when we are participating in outdoor activities. YES. Eating snails, slugs, insects, opossum, woodchuck, coot and any other wild food, ALL COUNT.

For most of our species, life is the city - far removed from our natural roots. Instead of living with the land, they live with shopping malls and video games. Its no wonder that crime is such a popular activity.

Sorry about my divergence into natural philosophy, but this chain of posts seemed to be leading in that direction.

ss

[Oct.1]

I guess S.S. about covered all the basis for differant food sources. Survival can cause anyone to change there eating habits. Even the Anti's.
While in Nam I tried dog, rat, and monkey, but I could'nt muster the grubs the locals ate.
I have tried the majority of things like
Grasshoppers, Bees, ants, and of course the common things to this country like Moose, Elk Bear, Turtle, Beaver, Muskrat, Ect Ect. but have never heard of a Coot till now. Gona have to look that one up.

I just made some bear jerky from the spring bear I got in Manitoba. It came out real good. I have also BBQ'ed bear back strap, again, no complaint here.

Caribou tastes like beef to me.

I will try some crow later this year. I have heard it is pretty good. Anyone got any recipes for crow?

------------------
Every day spent outdoors is the best day of my life.

[Salmonsmoker]

I agree with what Trout said a few posts back on this chain: "In the kitchen anything can be made good'nough to eat." It's all good - just some is better.

With the more exotic foods, it's just a matter of finding the right cooking technique or recipe to make it eddible.

Often, if we look to the Native people of various lands, we find that they have used many of what we consider exotic wild food sources and know how to prepare them. A good example - in Viet Nam snails were a staple food source. In France snails are called es cargot (sp?) and served as a delicacy in expensive restaurants.

Crow is one game species that I have never tried. I will do some looking in my survival and outdoor living books to see if any recipes are listed.

ss

[Salmonsmoker]

Redtoads,

After looking through a lot of references, I found only two items that were even close to preparing Crow.

1. "Eating Crow" is a saying that generally means having to accept something that one has been resisting: not hardly what we want here (however, these old sayings usually came about through some kind of real experience.)

2. "Black-bird Pie," similar to what we know today as chicken pot pie. The meat of a "black bird" is cooked off the bone then added to vegies and a gravy and used as a filling that is baked between two crusts. A Crow is certainly a "black bird." However, that recipe may also be referring to a black chicken or other kinds of birds.....don't know.

This will be an interesting experiment. You may be onto a whole new eating experience, just waiting to happin. Keep us posted.

ss

[Banditto]

SS, from a biology/ecology class I had I remember reading something about crows. A city in the south had an annual crow infestation. They proposed a season to kill the pest and in the process local cook came up with a recipe that was irresistable. People started mail-ordering crow, but they needed more crows so they got serious about it. Well a couple months into it people started getting sick and they had a terrible locust invasion. When the crows were not able to do their job of eating carion and insects the problems associated with them got out of control.

So that may be why you don't hear much about eating crows?

[Salmonsmoker]

Making current

Salmonsmoker

[MSUICEMAN]

i have ate warthog... tastes really good. That is what the guide said to take to eat that night... also makes one hell of an interesting mount. I have had raw deer heart... it was alright, though now i think about it, i don't feel like doing it again now that there are so many diseases out there.

last year i was able to procure some musk ox through a friend's dad that went on a hunt (amazing pics of that hunt, I really want to do that sometime) and it tasted good, but was really tough. Thinking that if i marinated the roast in a tenderizer, it would have been better.

Hopefully this summer I will have some chamois and tsar (sp.) from new zealand in the freezer and I'll see how that tastes.

Had carp in Europe, tasted fine, didn't know it was carp til i was told.

Iguana tastes alright... sorta like chicken, had so many spices on it, i couldn't tell the difference.

Worst thing I've ever eaten was this shark speciality of I think it was Norway, though it might have been Sweden. Anyways, it was in Scandinavia, and the local thing is to have fermented shark, maybe its just cuz I'm used to "American food" but it was horrible... I wouldn't recommend it.

I think thats about it.

[SKUNK]

Bluejay, it wasn't very good or very filling

[bogwalker]

hEY...My grandpa called me out to the farm one day for dinner and when I got there I looked in the oven and there was a roaster full of breasts!Well we had breasts with bacon and onions and mashed potatoes.LATER,I found out they were blue jay and red wing blackbird,and...tasty!