Carving Up a Thanksgiving Racoon ?

[peakbagger]

This is new one to me

Raccoon Was Once a Thanksgiving Feast Fit for a President

Calvin Coolidge refused to cook the raccoon sent to him, but the critter was a beloved staple for many Americans.

getpocket.com

It would be interesting top hear the parts folks fight over

 

[begreen]

Back in CT I lived close by folks that would regularly hunt raccoons to eat. And yes, they had a coonhound to chase them.

 

[PaulOinMA]

I buy old cookbooks at library book sales. Lots of foodstuffs that are unusual nowadays.

 

[johneh]

Well any good moonshiner wants the pecker bone

 

[CincyBurner]

Cy Littlebee's Cookbook
It's a classic ! Includes recipes for raccoon.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Well any good moonshiner wants the pecker bone

We always have it out to stir coffee.

 

[mcdougy]

swizel stick is the unofficial name i believe

 

[SpaceBus]

Perhaps many alternative meats will be on the table this winter as folks turn to hunting and trapping to help bolster their food stores.

 

[Sawset]

Kind of like when my daughter thought it was funny when I got out a book of maps to navigate with on our last cross country trip. My son still laughs at the fricasaed squirrel recipe I have. Thomas Jeffersons quote on his favorite food was stewed squirrel. And Turkey's back in the day were also, "wild".

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Perhaps many alternative meats will be on the table this winter as folks turn to hunting and trapping to help bolster their food stores.

I think most around me would starve before it occured to them to eat the grey tree rats running around their front yards.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Actually we eat squirrel stew here. Squirrels, being vegetarians, the meat (what there is) is good but it takes about 10 to make a pot. We also eat woodchuck (not racoon). Woodchuck, like bear meat is naturally greasy so it has to be prepared correctly by roasting in a roaster and removing the lid about an hour before done to crisp the fat and get the grease out. Woodchuck is best prepared by marinating it in a tomato paste, Worchestershire sauce overnight and then roasting it in a hot oven until tender.

Thanksgiving for us will be an Elk roast with potatoes and carrots. In my opinion (maybe not yours), Elk meat is by far the most tasty eating there is with bear coming in second and Whitetail deer and Mule Deer a distant 3rd and 4th.

We are meat eaters here but that don't mean from the grocery. I hunt so my freezer is usually full of wild game and my wife, being born and raised in the country, knows how to prepare it. Of course I get the task of prepping it for the freezer, skinning, boning and -prepping various animals is all about me.

Racoon is pretty much off the menu because Racoon's are scavengers so you have no idea what they consumed, or when and the flavor of the meat is always directly impacted by what they eat.

if you came to our house and I didn't tell you what you were eating, you'd probably never know. It all tastes like chicken......

 

[Montanalocal]

Anyone who wants to mess with Raccoons should familiarize themselves with Raccoon Roundworms. This is a parasite in Raccoons that lays eggs and can infect people with devastating results. If it gets into your system it will migrate to the brain. Treatment is very iffy.

(broken link removed)


170724142035.htm

 

[SidecarFlip]

Anyone who wants to mess with Raccoons should familiarize themselves with Raccoon Roundworms. This is a parasite in Raccoons that lays eggs and can infect people with devastating results. If it gets into your system it will migrate to the brain. Treatment is very iffy.

(broken link removed)


170724142035.htm

Maybe raw but cooked well, I doubt it. Worms don't survive above 125 (F) anyway. Not that I'd eat one. I tend to eliminate them, they reek havoc in the barn and leave piles of dung everywhere. Not my idea of a scrumptious meal anyway but if you were starving it might be okay.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

roundworm is found in the feces.

 

[SpaceBus]

roundworm is found in the feces.

More importantly in the digestive tract which can easily be ruptured while cleaning/butchering the animal.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

I hear they are exploring making impossible racoon, groundhog, and squirrel meat after the recent success of the impossible burger.

 

[Sawset]

I hear they are exploring making impossible racoon, groundhog, and squirrel meat after the recent success of the impossible burger.

Wonder what concoction would be the "essence of coon".

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The smell you get skinning the real thing... why would you want to duplicate it? Lol

 

[SidecarFlip]

Anytime I field dress anything it has an odor, but then I worked in the meat industry years ago and take my word for it, a freshy slaughtered steer smells too. What you buy wrapped in a package at the grocery and a fresh killed animal are 2 entirely different things. Don't bother me at all unless I sever the gut when I'm dressing an animal. Then they stink.

 

[ispinwool]

....this is a good thread!

I remember eating a few groundhogs when I was a kid if the farm dog didn't kill and eat them first. Squirrels too--but not
many cause my two brothers could eat a dozen each and we never got that many at once. Skinning them was a
bother for so little meat. As for Raccoons...considering they are scavengers...I don't think I could...maybe if I
was hungry enough...?

A little while ago, in the Pennsylvania Game News magazine, there was a nice write up about cooking/eating
groundhog---I've since challenged my menfolk to bring some home to cook for supper. No luck yet though. LOL
I don't know if they just haven't seen any or they're concerned about me cooking them!

Hubby currently has a nice sized buck hanging in the garage. Son #3 is in the woods looking for another. Venison is
generally on the menu here. Sometimes we contact a local farmer and get a few chickens, 1/2 a pig and 1/2 a cow but not always.

 

[SpaceBus]

....this is a good thread!

I remember eating a few groundhogs when I was a kid if the farm dog didn't kill and eat them first. Squirrels too--but not
many cause my two brothers could eat a dozen each and we never got that many at once. Skinning them was a
bother for so little meat. As for Raccoons...considering they are scavengers...I don't think I could...maybe if I
was hungry enough...?

A little while ago, in the Pennsylvania Game News magazine, there was a nice write up about cooking/eating
groundhog---I've since challenged my menfolk to bring some home to cook for supper. No luck yet though. LOL
I don't know if they just haven't seen any or they're concerned about me cooking them!

Hubby currently has a nice sized buck hanging in the garage. Son #3 is in the woods looking for another. Venison is
generally on the menu here. Sometimes we contact a local farmer and get a few chickens, 1/2 a pig and 1/2 a cow but not always.

My chickens will eat just about anything, but so far they are delicious. Seems like raccoon is no different. I've yet to eat an animal that did not taste good.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Try antelope sometime....lol Animals tend to taste like what they forage on and antelope and western mule deer graze on sage brush and pinyon trees so they tend to taste like them. Antelope has to be the toughest meat I've ever eaten, next to wild turkey. Like I said earlier, Elk is my favorite wild game to eat (and hang on the wall) too with B&C Mule Deer second.

If I want fresh beef, all I need to do is go out to the pasture and get one, slaughter it, dress it, cut it up and pop it in the freezer for later.

We had standing rib and an Elk roast for Thanksgiving dinner and we are 'polishing' off the elk roast now. Makes great cold sandwiches.

 

[ispinwool]

My chickens will eat just about anything, but so far they are delicious. Seems like raccoon is no different. I've yet to eat an animal that did not taste good.

Good point. Chickens are quite un-picky with their food choices...hadn't thought of it like that.

 

[SidecarFlip]

No chickens here, never will be. I have histoplasmoses' or chicken poop disease and once you get it, you have it forever. All the chicken eaten here comes from the grocery. I put chickens and turkeys in the same boat. Dumber than a box of rocks.

 

[firefighterjake]

A few years back the Union at the firehouse decided to do a fundraising cookbook with recipes from the guys . . . one of the more notable entries was Squirrel Pie from "Jethro."