Has anyone ever eaten coots? Do they taste the same as ducks or are they different?

Never tried them myself, but here's a link to some recipes for coot. Someday, try Peking Duck if you ever get the chance.

http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=143694

I shot a couple one day with the intention of trying one. I worked late and when I got home, I was met at the door by one mad wife! She assumed they were ducks and had begun to prepare them per the usual recipe - and said the smell was overpowering. The only other thing she has ever refused to cook (a second time) was a boar javalina.

Not exactly first hand info - but close enough...

this part of the sindh province in pakistan its the no,1, rating in order to eat coot,its most delicious if cooked properly.though its not good in shooting cause its a lazy flyer.

quote:

Originally posted by AzDeerSlayer:
Has anyone ever eaten coots? Do they taste the same as ducks or are they different?

We used to eat the gizzards when other meat was scarce Marjorie Kinan Rawlings had a recipe in her "Cross Creek Cookbook" called "Coot Surprise". Never tried it but it looked pretty appetising.
Greg

I love coots .The breast is like a dove and the legs like frog legs.I love to shoot my 15 limitor better take a friend and get 30.

Coots or Poule D'eau are good if you cook them correctly. In a Gumbo parboil them first and change water a couple of times. Save the gizzard, they are extremely large and used in the classic Cajun recipe "Dirty Rice".

Ah, you do not disappoint me! Finally, a conjoining of the coot and the Cajun. Brings to mind a story of long ago. (Don’t Cajuns always have a story?)
Bunch of us, hunters and guides, were sitting around chewing the fat and taking our cough medicine when the subject of eating coots came up. After a while, one of the half-bleed Cajuns said that, yes, you could eat coots and they are not so bad if done right. And one of the other guides then responded, “You damn Cajuns put so much pepper and hot sauce on everything you could eat gumbo mud and think it taste good!â€
Sort of ended the discussion.

I made a stew using cubed coot breast. The veggies were OK but couldn't stomach the coot. My Lab thought they were great, though.

Trapper, we need to resurrect your pickled fish recipes.

Regards,

quote:

Originally posted by Parker12SSS aka BigJohn:
I made a stew using cubed coot breast. The veggies were OK but couldn't stomach the coot. My Lab thought they were great, though.

Trapper, we need to resurrect your pickled fish recipes. ,

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To what recipes do you refer - canned fish or smoked fish? I don't recall any that I have for pickled fish per se but I think I did put up some from an article I had published dealing with smoked fish and I have given my recipe[s] for canned fish several times.
Just let me know and I'll share any that I have.
Regards,

With a half sharp knife you can roll those coot gizzards out of their skin and slice and quick fry. I have always been able to find something else to put in my gumbos but in a pinch I guess I would use coot. Many a coot has found it's way into a gumbo South of I-10 in the Basin.

Alan

coots r very tasty specially the breast,and also if cooked well,regards

Agree coots are good eating but we always skinned ours (South Texas). The gamey flavor is in the fat under the skin, not the meat.

This assumes these are good 'ol pond coots that haven't been slumming with the crows and gulls at the land fill.

Coots are great if cooked in a way that the juice from the meat is removed from the final product. I like to breast out the coot, then quarter the brest, season and flower and fry until medium. Then make a saudage gumbo and add the fried / drained coot breast.
The gizards are as large as a goose gizard and eat extremely well. They make a fine gumbo by themselves or a good gizard-heart gravy over rice.
The guts are superior catfish bait, save and freeze for future use when the kitties are bitting.
I like them best when they are feeding on hydrilla, duckweed, coontail moss etc. Kill one and cut its crop open, if full of grasses then go for your limit. They will taste good.

No coots in my area and so I had to look up what they were...... I would feel like I am eating a seagull.

I have had pickled coot that was very good. When I was a kid I would shoot a few and take them to an old man down the street who would can them and they turned out great! sadly the old man passed away and I never found out the recipe. I have tried them other ways and they always tasted like mud.

Along with bluebills, this is "mother-in-law meat". Fix it for dinner when she comes to visit and she won't come back. Made the mistake of labeling a package in the freezer that way and had to explain to my wife when she asked what this was. The reaction was as expected.

A guy would have to be a pretty poor duck hunter to need to wonder what coots taste like!

We used to paddle a canoe into a flock and bust a bunch when the flushed. Their diet was mostly duckweed and we found them very good to eat.
The only better were teal and wood ducks. I don't remember how we cooked them but it was nothing special.
I have tried mallards and black ducks that got to eating fish and they went into the garbage, even a cat sneered at them.
I killed a lot of geese that came over from Canada and they were super. Might have been a wild rice diet. Local geese here suck and taste like crap. I will take a pile of coots anytime.
Have to remember, what they eat is what counts.

The only coots I tried I thought it would have been better to try and eat a handful of lake mud.