Animals that are NOT good to eat

[rc135]

Read a coupla threads recently about whether coyotes were edible (most didn't want to try it - some liked it). My question is this:
1. what animals out there are definirely BAD to eat (unsafe/disgusting taste, etc.);
2. which are borderline (edible in emergencies only/only if very, very carefully prepared); and
3. Which are generally okay to eat.

I've had porcupine (except for the belly meat, it's fine), and pigeon/dove (good!).

Comments?

"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -- Winston Chruchill"

[Biker]

The only wild meat I've ever tried that I didn't care for was bear and rockchuck. I'd eat both in a pinch, just ain't my favorite. Besides the nasty taste, they both gave me gas that melted the windows and peeled the wallpaper. My stereo quit working. I ran the Ol' Lady outa the house. I ran the dogs outa the house. Hell, I tried to *run from myself* but I couldn't get away.
It was horrible.

After elk and deer, my favorite is cougar.

Biker

[Seismic Sam]

African Pygmy hedgehogs - impossible to clean without getting your hands all stuck up, negligble meat on whatever's underneath, and it probably tastes as ridiculous as it looks....

http://img350.imageshack.us/img350/361/lucretia5os.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[ID_shooting]

Hey Biker,

Is that the week they evacuated the whole southern half of the sate a few years back? LOL

Seriously, I guess the deffenition of "edible" depends alot on where you are from and what you are used to. Growing up I had everything from moose to rattle snake. Some good, some bad. The only thing I didn't like were squirrels (tree or ground). I think most critters will sustain life depending on how hungery you are.

[Mornard]

I've liked almost every animal I've tried. Even Raccoon is great. Beaver was not so great though [NO JOKES HERE, DAMMIT...:evil: ] It tasted kindof fishy. Never had muskrat, wonder if it tastes the same.

[Deanimator]

There's no critter I wouldn't rather eat than what they sell at Hardees.

There are whole stretches of the Ohio Turnpike where there's nothing ELSE...

[JJE]

Eating fish or garbage is a great way to make yourself taste bad. Supposedly bear meat is tasty when they've been eating nuts & berries, but pretty nasty if they're gotten into a dump or scored some salmon. I suppose that same principle applies to most animals.

Edit: For some reason the trash & fish theory doesn't apply to lobster, crab & other crustaceans which taste good and pretty much just eat dead stuff off the ocean bottom.

[learn2shoot]

Well Lobster and Crab taste great. Catfish tastes great. They all eat the garbage at the bottom of the ocean. I bet that Seagull is fantastic!!

[torpid]

Always pass on "long pig" unless you are at death's door.

[BryanP]

I'd have to be pretty hungry to try buzzard.

[HankB]

I don't think I'd care to try either hyena or baboon.

Skunk doesn't sound appetizing, either. Nor do armadillo, vulture, or sewer rat.

Some may find this to be heresy, but I'm not particularly fond of waterfowl.

The one time I had an opportunity to sample Cape buffalo it was so tough it bent the tines of the fork. (The camp cook was excellent on everything else served, so maybe it was a bad buff.) The bear meat a buddy tried cooking up STANK so bad I was having none of it, and some wild boar I tried was really "gamey."

I've eaten (with gusto) moose, deer, impala, sable, warthog, tsessebe, klipspringer, kudu, wild turkey, pheasant, and - the best of the bunch - bushbuck.

[Biker]

Yes, that day warranted an extreme air quality alert in my neck o' the woods. I hopped on my scoot and tried to outrun me but just couldn't do it...even at 90mph on the freeway. I'm still waiting for the civil suits to begin and Homeland Security to come after me as a WMD.

Biker:uhoh:

[Biker]

Another of my favorites is cottontail fried up in country gravy with mashed red spuds (unpeeled) on the side. Throw in some garden fresh fried green 'maters and I'm in heaven.

I'm hungry...:)

Biker

[PressCheck]

Bald Eagle & Spotted Owl are very tastey.

[hossdaniels]

duck is the worst i've tried with dove's being #2. not at all like quail.

[BryanP]

Oh, I want to fry up an eagle,
just to see
Fry up an eagle
use the Colonel's recipe.

With apologies to Steve Miller ...
(stolen shamelessly from a comedian whose name escapes me at the moment

[rustymaggot]

peacock sucks. so does bluejay.

[Seismic Sam]

How bad the taste would be of Personal Injury Lawyer Stew?? :barf: :barf: :barf: :barf: :barf: :barf: :barf:

['Card]

With enough effort (spices, marinating, preparation, etc.) just about any critter can be made edible, but there are several (raccoon, possum, beaver, bear, catfish, carp, ducks) where I don't think the end result justifies the labor involved.

Sometimes it just makes more sense to let the dog eat it and order yourself a pizza.

[rbernie]

Fried catfish isn't bad, but I've been cured of EVER wanting to go duck hunting after eating some of that nasty greasy stuff. :what:

[DWARREN123]

#1 on "LONG PIG".:neener:

[1 old 0311]

Had alligator in Louisana. The tail is all you can eat. Cooked slow it tastes like lobster.

[GMAN]

There is a bar/resturant by me that serves muskrat every friday for years. Years ago, Chatholic could only eat fish on Fridays. The city tried to shut them down for serving meat and they went to court and the court agreed it was aquatic, so they still serve it.

[Bodo]

Gator meat is terrible if you dont remove all fat before cooking.
[ WAKE UP AMERICANS WE ARE LOSSING ARE COUNTRY]

[redneck2]

Never ate crow (literally) but I talked to one guy that tried. Said it was nasty beyond belief

I "tried" a buffalo steak once. So tough you could use it to re-sole shoes.

[Cosmoline]

Long pig...

It's what's for dinner

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b52/Gussick/hupbite.jpg

[Nathan Williams]

peacock sucks. so does bluejay :confused: Why were you eating bluejay? I can kinda understand peacock but bluejay. Anyway gatormeat is good breaded up and deepfried, and buffalo roast slow cooked is delicious. As for me I cant stomach squirrel theres no reason to bother with cleaning them you get all of two bites off the little critters.

[Oregongundude]

Has anyone ever eaten Raccoon, or Shunk? I don't find either of them that appealling.

:barf: :barf: :barf: I have eaten Rabbits before and I actually like them.

:)

[usmccpl]

Camel sucks as does knagaroo. That is the only critters I have eaten that i didnt like. But after living off of chicken and rice for 7 months you couldnt get me within a country mile of one of the birds. Maybe I just aint picky or maybe after eating MREs I feel that anything that aint poison is etable.





one shot one kill

[FortyRodRay]

Son, you have to come west to the river (Miss). Not sure who's been cooking your duck and dove, but let me tell you, you just haven't lived till you had a woodie (old folks call em' summer ducks) with orange and apple slices or grilled mourning dove wrapped in bacon....wild rice and pan gravy... sweet taters...yum.... yum.... oh you'll fight your momma for seconds... Call the next time you come through town and we'll see what's left in the freezer...


__________________________________________________

"the less you bet, the more you loose when you win..."

[zoom6zoom]

How bad the taste would be of Personal Injury Lawyer Stew??

I'd imagine they'd be like catfish... they're both bottom feeders, after all.

[Tactical Ninja]

Ostrich (at least in hot dog form) is so tough as to be practically inedible. Just trying to bite through the thing was a chore, much less chew. Had one bite, threw the rest away.

It didn't taste terribly different from pork, though.

[Oldnamvet]

For a while a local restaurant was serving "emu". Looked like very coarse beef and tasted like very coarse cardboard. No real taste at all, just the texture. Spent 30 minutes with dental floss getting it out of my teeth. Needed a lot of bbq sauce to make it palatable.
Tried dried squid in SE Asia many years ago. It swelled as you chewed. Felt like shoe leather, tasted OK as I remember -- or maybe it was the southern comfort I was washing it down with. Longer you chewed, the bigger the piece got. Some had to practically pry it out of their mouths. A small bite lasted you half the evening. It did give me a headache the next morning - or maybe again it was the southern comfort chaser.

[carnaby]

I heard squirrel was pretty good, supposedly even Julia Child went on about how great it was. Just none of those garbage fed urban ones.

I also heard you gotta get every smidge of fat off the duck before cooking it or it will be nasty. Had duck once and it was gross, but some folks tell me it was likely just prepared poorly.

[Biker]

You don't want fat on any wild meat. That's where the "gamey" taste comes in.

Biker

[cnyankee]

ostrich steak (never ground) is great bbqed rare, very lean. if its a varmit (Rats,skunks, possom,etc) im not interested.
excuse my ignorance but what the heck is long pig?

[Biker]

"Long pig" is how cannibals refer to humans. Apparantly, we taste like pork.

Biker

[Geno]

Biker:

PM sent. :evil:

Doc2005

[swampdog]

I thought "long pig" referred to the smell of it cooking?:confused:

I've eaten bear many times. If it's prepared properly it tastes like a good pot roast. The bears I've eaten have been woods bears, though, not dump. You do need to make sure you trim all the fat.

I've found that how good some game tastes depends on how hungry you are. Some game, like whitetail and rabbit are pretty good anytime. Some game, like raccoon, I need to fast for a day or 2 in preparation. I quit hunting turkey because I just didn't like eating them. You don't want to eat a tough, old rooster, so why would anyone want to eat a tough, old tom? The last one I ate was deep fried and had so much cajun seasoning injected in it, it might as well have been marinated shoe leather, for all I could taste the bird. On second thought, that was probably a blessing.

I tried some sea urchin (uno) at a sushi bar one time. It looked like something that came out of a sick baby's diaper and tasted about as bad. It's the only thing I've ever eaten at a sushi bar that I spit out. The waitress told me when I ordered it that only "experienced" diners liked it. I guess I'm still a rookie.

For those that dislike catfish, catfish taste like the water they come from. I don't care for freshwater cat of any kind, but channel cat from brackish water is pretty tasty. Please don't insult it by comparing it to lawyer. :D

[TIMC]

I've eaten most creatures that can walk, slither or fly in the Texas woods. No Skunk, coyote, bobcat or buzzard though. Armadillo isn't bad or rattle snake, possum, squirrel, rabbit, raccoon. I don't care for javalina too much. I do like whitetail, axis and sika deer. Doves are great wrapped in bacon with jalapenos and cooked on the BBQ. Ducks are good if you know how to prepare and cook them, I don't. Buffalo steaks are not bad at all if cooked right but anything over rare and they are tough as leather.

[03Shadowbob]

agree with Swampdog, sea urchen is just nasty.

[Browns Fan]

Carp! I'm surprised that no one has mentioned carp yet. I tried it... has a nasty oily taste with a bone hidden in each flake of meat.:barf:

[Bwana John]

I would not reccomend Puffer Fish.:eek:

[Karbon]

Avoid any fish ducks (mergansers) and any shovelers. Yuck.


Now Mallard and the like...yummmy.

Bear also...greasy nasty crap. :barf:

[Troutman]

Their is a lot of game I don't care for. One thing I will not eat is the vital organs of any animal.
But when I ate beaver, I got hooked on it. I guessed it’s what you were brought up on and what your preferences are.

[rustymaggot]

why did i eat bluejay? cause when i was a kid my parents said i should eat what i kill. i was like 10 years old. it sucked so i didnt eat any more of em.

[orionengnr]

Well Lobster and Crab taste great. Catfish tastes great. They all eat the garbage at the bottom of the ocean. I bet that Seagull is fantastic!!

Boy, oh boy, do you lose that bet! Absolutely the worst thing I ever ate. Next to no meat at all, and what was there was fish-flavored string.

Buffalo burgers are fine. Buffalo steak (especially filet wrapped in bacon and cooked rare...yum!)

[Selfdfenz]

I have wanted to shoot a bear like forever but the idea of trying to eat it is so repellant it has compelled me to pass on plugging one.

I like the idea of the rug but rolling the carcus in a whole seems very wasteful.

S-

[Geno]

Anyone else here ever eat pig tail? After “harvesting”, you roll up a newspaper, ignite it and burn the hair off. Then, wash them, then fry them in lard until crispy. Next, salt them lightly and set them on a paper towel for a minute to drain the lard. They taste like, you got it, pork rinds, but warm. I haven't had them since about 1965 out on the farm.

Doc2005

[itgoesboom]

Call me a wuss, but I am damned picky about what I eat.

Won't go near fish. Would rather starve than eat fish. Infact, don't bother eating fish near me, cuz I will be in the other room. The smell just makes me wanna :barf: . This includes lobster, clams, crab, shrimp etc. If it can't drown, I won't eat it.

Not real big on poultry. I am okay with chicken, if it is prepared certain ways, and I can occasionally manage some turkey, but thats just about it. So you won't find me hunting ducks or geese anytime soon.

Some things just sound nasty, but that's because the way I was raised. But you probably won't find me eating squirrel, mountain lion, bear or gator. Went bear hunting this year, I would have tried it, my friends swear I would have loved it, so atleast if I didn't, the meat wouldn't have gone to waste, they would have taken it. In the end, I was glad I didn't get one though, cuz I don't think I would have liked it.

Love beef, love some types of pork (bacon, sausage, ham, can't stand pork chops), have had bison/buffalo a few times, and enjoyed that as well, probably as good as beef to me. Venison and Elk are good as well, especially as jerky.

I.G.B.

[MDMadrid]

Rocky Mountain Oysters!!!

I grew up in Wyoming and every year during branding season we would fry us up a plate of fresh cut oysters! I perfer them cooked, but have had one raw...taste like a chunky piece of snot. BUT if you cook them on the grill they are quite tasty!

[steveracer]

..you have to cook duck on a rotisserie. No other way to get the greasy out.
Buffalo only good as stew, in my opinion, same as bunnies.

[Art Eatman]

steveracer, I'll bet that if you took the backstrap from a buffalo, cut it to about 3/4" steaks and grilled them slowly and used a butter/vinegar baste, it would be plumb scrumptious!

:), Art

[30-06 lover]

The worst meat I ever had was Lamb. :barf:

-Mike

[Cosmoline]

Lamb?! The best meal I've ever eaten at a restaurant was lamb saag, an Indian dish. Lamb korma is also excellent. I've never heard anyone dislike lamb.

"Are the lambs silent for you now?"

"Yeah, and damn tasty too!"

[Starter52]

Red squirrel is the worst game animal I've ever tasted. Horrible. I took one bite and throw the #!@#! thing out.

[Selfdfenz]

I just remembered once when I was a child someone gave my Dad a hunk of mutton, not lamb, but mutton. We (my sister and I) had never had mutton before and were somewhat happily expectant to give it a try.

That is until Dad tried to roast that stuff. The smell was so G-awful bad we made Dad load it in the car and take it over to the Uncle's house right now. It wasn’t even finished cooking.

S-

[Pafrmu]

I have a strict policy against eating anything that I recognize. That means no organ meats.

[H&Hhunter]

Not good to eat,

Waterbuck, javalina, Some pronghorn if they've been running and are all hyped up. I've had elk that wasn't fit for human consumption.

And the all time most gamey, stinking rotten, cat piss smelling ,evil meat in the world has to be Persian Ibex billy. That old billy smelled like the most concentrated rotten goat musk on the planet he tasted like it too. My dogs wouldn't eat it! Hell the shoulder mount stunk so bad I donated it to a local sporting goods store. Every time I walk in there I catch a faint whiff of that now 23 year old billy hanging on the wall. :barf: :barf:

[usmccpl]

I have had all sorts of critters but never have two different one taste the same. How do ppl figure rattler tastes like chicken. Or alligator like lobster.Even whitetail and muley have a different taste.






one shot one kill

[torpid]

Rocky Mountain Oysters!!!

I grew up in Wyoming and every year during branding season we would fry us up a plate of fresh cut oysters! I perfer them cooked, but have had one raw...taste like a chunky piece of snot. BUT if you cook them on the grill they are quite tasty!

Wait 'till you try a foamy mug fresh from the tap!

.

[Bobhwry]

Beaver has a nice taste.

[Metapotent]

But anyways, I'd say my absolute favorite game animal to eat was American Buffalo. I ate a huge slab of prime rib and it was soooo good.

My least favorite I ever ate was Coyote. First off, it was kind of weird eating an animal that looked similar to my dog, plus the meat was greenish even though it was cooked only about an hour after the kill, and it tasted like what I can only describe as rotten bacon. I will NEVER eat coyote again in my life.

What I don't understand is people here saying that bear is bad. I've never had bear steak, but I had black bear sausage and ate it as a hotdog and it was DAMN good.

[Chuck Dye]

Rather a lot depends on the recent history of the critter. In high school, I hunted duck on San Diego Bay. Early in the season when the birds were fresh from the stubble fields of the central valley, they were very good eating. After a short time of feeding on the bay, they became nasty. So far as I know, coots are nasty always.

I have been subjected ("orientation" for first time hunters) to a taste test comparing head shot, dead-right-there whitetail and wounded, ran for miles venison. Wonderful and nasty, respectively.

Handling has a lot to do with flavor, too. Look at the extremes experienced elk hunters go to cooling carcasses in a hurry.

[mohctep]

I heard Gar was nasty to eat-although I have spoke with some folks around here who said it was good.I have read that eating Gar eggs is deadly,though.:barf:

[PCGS65]

by Bwana John, I would not reccomend Puffer Fish.
Oh to the contrary, blowfish tails are very good. Gone is the myth it's poisonous. Well it is but not the tails. My grandfather(an avid fisherman)gave me some back in the mid '80s when he was still around. Ummmm gooood.
Now snipe, no way.:eek:

[swampdog]

Atlantic Blowfish are easy to clean, too. Make a cut straight down, behind the head, until you hit the backbone. Turn the edge of the knife towards the fish's tail and filet the meat off the top of the tail. Throw the rest away. This will leave you 2 boneless chunks of very good meat. They call it "chicken of the sea" in NC.

These aren't the only fish that's known as a puffer fish, btw. I've read some varieties are definitely poisonous.

[MCgunner]

Rattlesnake is good. At school, the Wildlife and Fisheries science department had a wild game dinner every spring. That's where I first ate it, and yeah, it tastes like chicken. :D

Tried to cook buffalo sucker fish once, too many interstitial bones. Don't care much for gar unless it's ground up into gar balls. Gars don't have balls, but you grind the meat up and roll it into balls to fry.:p Just thought I'd stop the wise cracks.

There are lots of poisonous plants and some poisonous fish. Not sure about mammals, though. Read once that any bird (though I'd not eat a buzzard) is edible. And, I also read that LaSalle, when he landed here in the late 1500s, shot and ate rosiate spoonbills and commented on how good they were.

I've eaten sandhill crane and it's great! I can only assume whooping cranes are equally good. Someone should cook what's left up and save the tax payers some major governmental waste. :rolleyes: Don't get caught, though.

[raytracer]

The absolute best steak I ever had was a 23 oz. Buffalo ribeye served medium rare. Much leaner than beef, it tasted like a superbly aged filet.

Joe

[MCgunner]

Too each his own on the gar. I don't like fish meat I have to carve like a steak. I'd rather have a flakier meat. Don't get no better than a mess of channel cat for my money!

[Biker]

Channel cat fried up in cornmeal!:)

Biker

[NailGun]

..it does not seem to matter what it is, where it came from, or how long it has been dead....when my wife cooks it, it tastes just like chicken.:D

[Metapotent]

..it does not seem to matter what it is, where it came from, or how long it has been dead....when my wife cooks it, it tastes just like chicken.

Was she over your shoulder when you said that? Or does she used Gold Builion chicken seasoning on everything she cooks?

[DutchmanDick]

Nastiest thing I ever had was an old boar coon, weighed about 30 pounds or so. Thing tasted like rotten fish, and tougher than all get out.

Porcupine is pretty good, but a real pain (LITERALLY!) to clean and skin.

I've had red squirrel once, and it didn't taste too bad, but it takes two to make a decent sandwich so I decided they weren't worth the effort.

[Cousin Mike]

Best:

Buffalo, by far... I envy anyone who gets to eat it on a regular basis...
Lamb is a tie, I guess.

Worst:

Swordfish... I tried some once and couldn't get the first bite down. I took it home and gave it to my dog, who promptly threw it up not 10 minutes after she ate it. Simply the greasiest fish I've ever tasted... Bad flavor and a wierd consistancy as well.

Goat wasnt the best thing on earth either.

I haven't had the chance to try a lot of things mentioned in this thread.

[Art Eatman]

Cousin Mike, that's sorta odd about swordfish. I've only eaten it in restaurants, and it was quite good. Very much like king mackeral, another good tasting fish.

Art

[Karbon]

That's my take on Swordfish as well, not as good as some but still quite tasty.

Summertime largemouth bass...now that's just sick, and I like fish.

:barf: :barf: :barf: :barf:

[spooney]

I ate a duck one time that tasted horrible...I didn't really like moose. I really want to like buffalo but have never had any that was good, all of it that I have had was very tough. I love swordfish though, I didn't think it was greasy at all.

[MCgunner]

King Mackerel is pretty nasty tastin' to me, too strong. Only way to cook it is grill it and it still sux IMHO. Fun fish to catch, though.

[MCgunner]

I've had red squirrel once, and it didn't taste too bad, but it takes two to make a decent sandwich so I decided they weren't worth the effort.

You could say the same about any small birds, but to me, the eating is just a bonus. The huntin' is what I'm after. I love to hunt squirrels with a .22. Now days, I prefer a handgun.

Lamb?! The best meal I've ever eaten at a restaurant was lamb saag, an Indian dish. Lamb korma is also excellent. I've never heard anyone dislike lamb.

I ate lamb my cousin cooked, tasted like candle wax.:barf: I reckon that's one of those meats you have to know how to properly prepare.

[borrowedtime69]

Best ive had:

Crappie
Squirrel "hot wings" that my wife makes with the small pine squirrels here in the rockies
crawfish, boiled & dipped in butter
walleye
yellow perch

Worst ive had

Merganzer (i think coot) terrible fishy taste!
carp, my GF, now wife, wanted to try it
jackrabbit, nasty tasting and tough as vulcanized rubber!
Abert Squirrel, nasty and bitter tasting

-Eric

[Nathan Williams]

Rocky Mountain Oysters!!!

I grew up in Wyoming and every year during branding season we would fry us up a plate of fresh cut oysters! I perfer them cooked, but have had one raw...taste like a chunky piece of snot. BUT if you cook them on the grill they are quite tasty!


Yum whats for dessert a Bobcats :cuss: hole? Honestly thats just plain nasty :barf: :barf: :barf: . And to all the people who say they didnt care for Buffalo you just aint had it prepared right. My first encounter with buffalo was when I was living with a roomate in Minnesota, his dad shot a Buffalo on a hunt and invited us over for dinner one night. Simmered slow as a roast it wasmelt in your mouth good.

[Beav]

I laughed so hard I was crying when I saw the following video. It may gross some people out, so be warned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGdHYeZT5ow

[dragongoddess]

Ahh the perfect video if you want to lose weight.

[EVIL5LITER]

Cousin Mike, that's sorta odd about swordfish. I've only eaten it in restaurants, and it was quite good. Very much like king mackeral, another good tasting fish.

Art


I've got a freezer full of it. I've been too scared to cook it up because of all the people saying it tastes so bad.

I do agree though, they are fun to catch. Toothy lil' critters.

[Art Eatman]

I always cut my kings into 1" steaks. Broil or grill. A little lemon juice; a bit of dill and/or maybe some paprika. Anyway, light on the seasoning. Good! Just eat the four muscle-pieces, of course.

Some folks trim out the dark stuff and the spine before cooking. Whatever...

All fish taste better when eaten fresh. Snapper is popular because it's the least harmed by freezing.

Art

[ambush]

French Fried Skunk

2 Skunks, skinned and cleaned
1 tb Salt
Water to cover
2 c Bear fat or lard
2 Egg yolks, beaten
3 c Milk or cream
1 1/2 c Flour
1/2 ts Salt
2 tb Baking powder

Clean and wash the skunks, making sure that the scent glands are removed. Cut up into small serving pieces. Put a soup kettle on the stove and add the meat. Cover with cold water and bring to a boi over high heat. Lower the heat and boil until the meat is tender, about 40 minues. Remove all the scum that rises to the surface. Make a batter by mixing together the egg yolks, milk, flour, salt and baking ppowder. Mix real good until the batter is about like cake batter. Heat the bear fat or lard in a deep fryer to about 360 degrees. Dip the ppieces of skunk in the batter and then fry them in the deep fryer until golden brown. Drain well and serve.

[swampdog]

Art,
You are obviously a man of excellent taste, kingfish is one of my favorite offshore fish. I like fish that taste like fish, though.
The smaller ones are less fishy tasting than a big one. I'll steak a small one then cut the 4 pieces of meat out and deep fry them in hot breader. Yum.
Larger ones either get "Italian dressing" marinade or I'll coat them with mayo and cover them with cajun seasoning. Put it on a hot grill and YUM!
King mackeral is also excellent smoked and makes a good salad or dip, smoked or grilled.
The mayo treatment above is also excellent on wahoo, which happens to be my favorite offshore fish.
Did I mention deep fried or blackened mahi-mahi? :D

[Oldnamvet]

Porcupine is not too bad. Some Native American friends taught me how they "fix" it when I was a kid. I shot one and they picked it up with a shovel, dumped it into the cut off bottom of a barrel, poured about a cup of gasoline on it, and lit it. When the quills were burnt off, the gutted it, skinned it, and grilled it. Not bad, but I could taste gasoline which is not my favorite condiment.

[M2Pilot]

The worst wild meat I've tried to eat was kangaroo. It was in a nice resturant so I assume it was prepared properly. Do any of you remember enough about the neurological disease reported a few years ago that was linked to eating squirril brains?

[Oldnamvet]

http://www.greysquirrel.net/brain.html

Sure do. Didn't bother me since I had never tried it.

[gezzer]

Sounds like some of you guys have tried eating carrion.
When meat is spoiled it sucks and can make you barf.

Bear,racoon, beaver, muskrat are good eating when the meat is taken care of from the time of the kill.

Skunk?, coyote?, red squirell? YUCK!!! I would have to be starving and unable to shoot anything else.

[Art Eatman]

gezzer, I skinned out a coyote, for a friend's vest-making effort, and the little devil was fat as butter. The hams looked plenty good, although I wasn't particularly interested in eating them. But, freshly butchered and slow-cooked, I don't see why it would have been bad eating.

Art

[NRA4LIFE]

A buddy of mine and I tried to eat a drum that we caught in the Lake of the Ozarks. Neither of us could stomach that. Possum is nasty too.

[duck_god1982]

The only meat that I know to be unedible is wolverine and the weasle.
all others I have tried are good everything from coyote to crow. I have to admit that sea gull is not that great we had it at a wild game feed.

[Glockfan.45]

Woodchuck :barf: , I took up residence in the bathroom the rest of the night. My wife made me sleep on the couch, the dog wouldnt come anywhere near me, and I was told if I ever ate that again the divorce papers would come in the mail :uhoh: .

[gezzer]

Art just the smell of the Coyotes I have shot up here in NH puts off any thoughts of eating one.

[Art Eatman]

I don't reckon I'd be thrilled by a bad smell, either...

:), Art

[Cousin Mike]

Cousin Mike, that's sorta odd about swordfish. I've only eaten it in restaurants, and it was quite good.

That's my take on Swordfish as well, not as good as some but still quite tasty.


Maybe I should eat where you guys do, or try to cook it myself. The only time I thought to try it was a few years ago, on a date. My girlfriend at the time wanted to go to Red Lobster. At the time, both of my little brothers worked there, so meals were free... Didn't tell her that, though :D

Anyways, I ordered the swordfish. Worst $25 I've ever spent! :barf:

I'd be willing to give it another try, just not at Red Lobster... and I'm definitely not paying for it again. I'll have to try it on someone else's dollar.

OH!!!

I forgot... BEST seafood I ever had - or best meat in general... escargot.

Yep.. snails... parents took me to dinner for my 14th birthday and let me order whatever I wanted... I got a lobster tail, and a side of escargot to gross my parents out. :D Turned out to be the best tasting thing I've ever had the pleasure to eat. If you've never tried it, you HAVE to sample it just once. I still get weak-kneed thinking about it all these years later.

And what's up with all the folks who don't like lamb?! Y'all must be doin' SOMETHIN' wrong. Lamb is a big favorite of mine... Lamb steaks and mint sauce... :) If my grandmother was still alive I'd drive to Detroit right now for her lamb w/mint jelly. OK, I have to go eat now..

[Tom Bri]

Armadillo is really good eats. Best meat I ever ate. No joke.

Duck is good but really greasy. Cook it so it drains and save the drippings for gravy. Mmmmmm.

Ate a lot of strange things in Japan. Had whale once. Awful in the extreme, very oily and fishy. The whale blubber was crunchy and not so great.

Horse was pretty good. I ate it raw, Japanese style, dipped in sauce.

Eel is super nasty, oily fishy taste.

I saw a kid shooting starlings with a BB gun. Asked him why. He just said 'meat'. That was a pretty poor town. I believed him. Even the cats when I was a kid wouldn't eat the starlings we shot. Must be pretty nasty.

Had an alcoholic drink with a snake in the bottle. Took many beers to get the horrible taste out of my mouth.

[danurve]

Duck cooked up right - toaster oven perhaps is mighty tasty. Grey squirrel in sweet baby rays sauce is down right excellent.
I don't care for goose. Tried to q-one up, must have goofed it up bad. Tasted like a rubber boot and to top it off it locked me up for 3 days.

[hobbeeman]

I think a lot of the tastes are a matter of perspective. In college a coworker of mine gave me 10-20 lbs of elk from his freezer. It was very good...for the first 4-5 lbs. By the time I had finished it (poor college student that I was), I could not stand the smell of it. However, the other poor college students that I fed it to were more than happy to eat it.

[AustDave]

Stay away from possum! He tastes as bad as he smells.

[duckslayer]

I wouldn't recommend grennel (bowfin) or coot.

[oldhammy1]

Yet another thread to introduce Mr. Hammy.


Mr. Hammy

I am Hammy, Hammy is me, would you like to try some coyote?
I do not like to eat coyote.

Would you eat it in a box, would you eat it rather than fox?

Not in a box, surely would rather have fox.
I do not like that coyote, I do not like it Mr. Hammy.

Would you like it in fondue, could you eat it in a veggie stew?
I’ve heard BBQ is good, or maybe over mesquite wood?

Not in fondue, not in a stew,
Not BBQ, and not over wood.
I will not eat that coyote,
I’m sure I can’t stand it Mr. Hammy.

You say you don’t like, you tell Hammy,
But taste it taste it, you will see.

Hey this is quite tasty, this coyote
I can really stand it, Mr. Hammy.

So I will eat it in a box,
And I would rather have IT, than fox.
And I will eat it in a cheese fondue,
Over mesquite wood on a BBQ.

Oh how wrong I was, I now can see,
Thank you, thank you Mr. Hammy.

[Newt]

Bear meat, I've had it several times before. It was great everytime I had it. Just a little greasy, but still good. It was a good ol' Arkansas woods bear that had been living off acorns and berries.

Had gator once and it wasn't too bad, but a little stringy.

I could live off squirrel, rabbit, and deer.

I had duck once and that's all I needed of it. Some tell me I needed to try it cooked different. I'm not opposed to trying it again cooked some other way.

I'll eat just about any kind of fish you put in front of me... as long as it's fried.

[tim582001]

i lived in a cave one summer, rent free, so i could drink, and party, well things got tough. HA. i cooked the crow on a stick. shot with my .22 so tough that my teeth just dented the meat. had to cut small pieces and swallow them with out chewing you just couldnt ~! Taste like CHICKEN ever heard that guys name all the things that taste like chicken ,FROG LEGS are very very good ,a little rubbery but TASTE LIKE CHICKEN

[High Planes Drifter]

i lived in a cave one summer, rent free, so i could drink, and party, well things got tough.
-------------------------------------------


Good Lord, You moved into a cave - THEN s**t got tough ???
:confused:

My friend, not criticizing, but you may want to pay a little closer attention to signs that stuff is heading in the wrong direction.

[cannibal4]

Heck,
Beef tastes like dead cow!

[MatthewVanitas]

@cannibal: you rock!

In response to previous complaints:

Lamb: I can't believe anyone doesn't like lamb. Heck, I even like mutton, which is even gamier. Ben's Longbranch BBQ in Austin does Mississippi-style barbecue, and cooks a mean barbecued mutton. Gamey, fatty meat with a black crust of rub spices. If lamb is too gamey, goat (surprisingly) is a little less so. Lots of Mexican places in Austin serve "cabrito", "little goat". I'm drooling already.

Alligator: tastes beefy with a shellfish texture. Not bad but not amazing.

Buffalo: the absolute, hands-down, best burger I ever had was a Ted's Montana Grill (the chain run by Ted Turner of colorized-Casablance infamy). For food that good, I will forgive the man who gave $1billion to the U.N. Easily one of the better meals of my life. No condiments, just meat, bread, a little mushrooms for garnish.

Duck/goose: incredibly rich dark meat. Went duck-hunting with my uncle, brought the take back to the barracks. My buddies and I cut the breasts into chunks, wrapped in bacon, dropped in a pot full of sauerkraut and simmered long. Ate it with crusty French bread and some Irish whiskey. Then lay on our backs for about an hour paralyzed with bliss.

Weirdest one:

Sea Urchin Tongue: I was only vaguely aware that there are such creatures, never stopped to think that they had tongues, and never once imagined that anybody would bother to seek them down, cut out their tongues, and eat them. Decided to splurge, so went to Bistro K in Pasadena. Got the "tasting menu", and one of the palate cleansers was a thin cordial glass of green-tea foam, tapioca pearls, and sea urchin tongues. I ate half of it and decided that a little sea urchin tongue goes a long way, and that I needed to save room for the other six courses. Still holds the record as most expensive meal I've eaten.

-MV

[JShirley]

I've eaten a lot of different stuff. I'll put what I can remember of the more esoteric. Shellfish, especially can be great or awful, depending on freshness and how cooked. Army cooks can ruin even lobster. :(

Oysters- yuck. Not even good when really hungry.
Clams-good in soup or stew
Lamb-good or awful
Shark-good
Frog legs*
Alligator-good or okay
Swordfish steaks- Yum!
Duck-usually good in Asian food
Goat-yum
Rattlesnake*
Shrimp-good, okay or awful
Rabbit*
Quail*
Gray squirrel*
Venison*
Buffalo- excellent
Beefalo (cow/buff hybrid)-great
Lobster-good, decent or awful
Rock lobster-:barf:
Scallops-yum!
Escargot-buttery and garlicky

*Can all be good or greasy, depending on how prepared

Uni- sea urchin roe- horrible
Salmon roe (ikura)is bad too, though not quite as nasty as uni
Masago- smelt roe- excellent
Tobiko- flying fish roe-good
Unagi-eel- okay

John

[Biker]

Considering my love of seafood - lobster most of all, I'm surprised that I didn't really care for crawdads which I thought would taste like lobster.

Biker

[Odd Job]

I'm a typical South African: if it has meat I'll go for it!
However, I tried rhino once and I didn't like it. It was tough and had a nasty taste to it.
Top three meats I have had:

1) Ostrich steak (unbeatable if prepared properly. I had mine in the Drakensberg)
2) Crocodile (I was forced to eat it, but found it was delicious)
3) Kudu biltong

Of course a really nice lamb chop has its place on the menu too.

There is much I still have to try...

[Selfdfenz]

Ostrich :)

Had it once and by golly if was excellent. ThHe store only had it one time. That was in TX.

S-

[Odd Job]

@ Selfdfenz

I concur, sir. In fact I am sitting here in London pining for that ostrich steak. I would gladly pay the sum of £100 for that meal, just as I was served in SA.

[Biker]

$100 for a damn steak? I think not...:scrutiny:

Biker

[Odd Job]

$100 for a damn steak? I think not...

No sir, not $100...$190 ;)

And yes, I will pay it...but then again, I know what it is and I value the experience highly. I wouldn't spend that on an 'unknown quantity'

[Biker]

$190!!! By God, I'm still bitchin' 'cause they raised the price of the Farmer's Omlette at my local Elmer's Resteraunt from $6.90 to $7.45!

Biker

[EatBugs]

My father once attempted to "live off the land" for a few weeks with some buddies. They came home starving after a week and after resorting to eating a porcupine the night before. He described it as tasting like turpintine.

[HEAVY METAL 1]

I had bear done in a slow cooker and it was great; crawfish tasted like a cross between lobster and shrimp, muskrat was pretty good, freshwater clams were absolutely disgusting. Rabbit-oh yeah! Just like tiny veal.

[geekWithA.45]

Was delivered to the table across from me.

I was in a seafood restaurant in Japan. The waitress brought me some sashimi, about an index card size slab of fish.

That was yucky, but not horrifying.

While I'm trying to figure out how to deal with the raw slab of dead fish, the waiter delivered a platter that was something straight out of a horror movie.

You know how kosher cooking prohibits mixing beef and dairy, so as to avoid cooking the calf in its own mother's milk?

That sort of makes sense. You want to eat your food, not insult it.

So anyway, the guy had ordered a lobster. The claws, legs and tail had been cooked red, and artistically arranged and presented.....with the uncooked, still living head and torso presiding over the thing, waving it's antenae around....

That's just wrong.

So wrong in so many ways I can't even begin to count them.

That was the end of my appetite.