Among animals commonly trapped in northern Idaho and Montana west of the divide, which are among the best eating -- tasting?

Beaver and coon, but I am going on heresay on both.

quote:

Originally posted by Naphtali:
Among animals commonly trapped in northern Idaho and Montana west of the divide, which are among the best eating -- tasting?

Beaver (both kinds)

imo beaver is the better of the 2
i seen the coons scavanging garbage cans and roadkills and just can't get past that

quote:

Beaver (both kinds) Wink

I have to totally agree with you on that!
Jokes aside;
Here in Maine we are know for our wild beaver. Just don't eat the tail! Look up Louis&Clark and find out why not to eat it!
But in a survival situation beaver tail is nasty but it best to eat it!

Muskrats are very good eating I would use just the hind legs as they have the most meat on them and I usually had alot of them stewed with onions and dumplings OH Boy. Beaver makes excellent jerky and the backstraps and hindlegs are good in chilis, stews and great for sausage both smoked and fresh (polish and Brats). If you a liver and onions fan beaver liver is fantastic, up on a bush line we would start are days with beaver liver onions and eggs then put just made peperred beaver jecky in our packs for lunch and beaver chili or stew for dinner, no sense pack in meat when it was all free for the takeing. Stuffed roast raccoon was a real treat at our place and all the young ones were saved.

375Win

Beaver good (only quadraped), bear awful, lynx delicious, muskrat good, porcupine .....some good/some not, rat good, fox not good, raccoon ok. Pass the ketchup.

We have had muskrat and porcupine. Both real good eating.

Watson lake

quote:

Originally posted by conifer:
Beaver good (only quadraped), bear awful, lynx delicious, muskrat good, porcupine .....some good/some not, rat good, fox not good, raccoon ok. Pass the ketchup.

Also add to the list cougar-bobcat-mt. lion or any relatives, nutria, javelina if cooked correctly, crow (but not ravens), all songbirds (don't get caught) and last but not least (watch out for the gag-factor)... coyote.

As bad as coyote sounds, there's a good reason Chinese like dog.

Can you tell I lived in South Louisanna a little too long?

Tigger next time we shoot I should tell you about all the things I ate growing up in Metairie. I still have relatives in Houma and Fuschon. There ain't much that swims, crawls, flies, walks, slithers, or has other means of locomotion that I ain't eaten. Some great, some really nasty!

Formerly known as Honey Island Swamp Monster now transplanted as South Texas Sasquatch.

We can dicuss it in April! I can point out a few critters on the ranch that even I won't admit (in print) to trying...

My first job out of Morgan City was deckhand on an anchor handling tug. The Capt was from Stephensville and english was his second language. He used to to invite to his home for dinner on occaision; I bet I can name a dish or two they won't even try in Metairie, lol. Dang good stuff, just don't want to remember what was in it!!!

Conifer,
I beg to differ with you. Bear is delicious. Hang it for 2-3 weeks, make sure you take all the fat off and out that you can get, remove all the bone and it tastes like Pot Roast. Shoot one every year just for the meat.

If you catch a coon live, put in in a SECURELY locked/reinforced cage & feed in cornmeal mush & fruit for a month or so...then skin it, stuff it (w/bread or potato filling) & slo-roast...hillbilly heaven!

I like beaver but I keep getting those little beaver hairs caught in my teeth

Seriously it's good meat, why wouldn't it be beavers are herbivores. Bear meat can be pretty darn good too, if you shoot on in a blueberry patch you'd be well advised to take the backstraps and hind quarters.

I have eaten the meat from several different balck bears taken in Montana, Idaho, and Canada and they were all very good.
I have eaten grey fox, it was good. I had a lady in Idaho ask me to please bring her any of the mountain lion meat i did not want. Sadly I did not kill one. I did take her all the fat off of a black bear I killed. She said it makes the best pastry. I have read that in old frontier books as well.

Basically you can safely eat any animal with hair[fur], feathers, or scales, without fear of dying...

I have been told...
There is the liver of one animal that a human cannot eat, it has so much vitamin A that it can be posionous to humans.

Guess what it is.

Tiggertate

University of Tennessee Ag Extension used to publish a cookbook and it had one or two (at least one) recipes for crow. I'll pass, they are too much of a scavenger.

Lots of folks here (TN) eat young of the year groundhogs though the generation that savored them are slowly disappearing to be replaced by those hunter/gatherers that hunt at kroger's and publix. The turuly sophisticated among them hunt the Whole Foods meat counter.

Way back when while I was working in the Datil (NM) area I learned that many of the locals savored a good lion. chops were said to be comparable to lamb.

I grew up with a guy whose father had grown up in the plains of NW TX and his dad said meadowlark was the only bird they ate growing up.

That all said, does it not strike you as funny what is considered good and bad table faire.

Polar bear liver is known to be so high in Vitamin A that it is toxic to humans.