And they eat bats. Look where that got us.
Hunting and Eating Nutria AKA Coypu.
- Thread starter whm1974
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And they eat bats. Look where that got us.
Well bats are vectors of diseases that are quite deadly to humans including but no limited to Rabies. The ones in Asia and Africa are the worst carriers from what I read.
Shanghai McCoy
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Read the book "King Rat", set in a WW2 Japanese prison camp.
The author was James Clavell.
FL-NC
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As for me, if I was hungry enough that a nutria was the only think between me and starvation, sure- otherwise, no thanks. I have observed people in Latin America hunting and eating capybaras, which I think are similar swamp rats.
In the past, some seafood restaurants were found to be serving skate / ray wings cut with a cookie cutter to patrons that ordered scallops.
They're a branch of the group that includes sharks, with carteliginous skeletal structures. No bones to get caught in the throat or poke soft tissues of diner's mouths.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chondrichthyes
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DocRock
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I have eaten capivari in Brazil a number of times and have both a very nice weekend bag and a pair of gloves in capivari hide. I imagine they're related?
Nature Boy
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I grew up in south Louisiana. Cajuns don't eat a lot of Nutria and for good reason: it's damn near impossible to make them edible
Watch out where the nutria come from. I lived in Missouri for 35 years where clusters of houses or perhaps an apartment building would share a sewage impound pond. (These were cheaper than a septic system and legal) These ponds often were shared by nutria or sometimes muskrats. There is a chemical that is put on the surface water to keep it from stinking.
One day we couldn't stop laughing when we discovered frog gigging season had opened and some naive giggers were getting their supper.
Go figure!
One day we couldn't stop laughing when we discovered frog gigging season had opened and some naive giggers were getting their supper.
Go figure!
Did Missouri changed it's laws on allowing sewage impound pools instead of requiring proper septic tanks? Thanks for the warning.
What about soaking them in Seasoned Brine like you can do with raccons and grill them? An older guy I used to know when I was kid told me that is how his parents and grandparents used to do when he was growing up...
troy fairweather
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Guess they have that nasty grease in the meat? Weird how animals that only eat vegetables get like that.
Patocazador
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There's a rodent in Central and So. America that they call a "paca". Everyone who has eaten them raves about how good they are. An agouti is similar and I have heard the same about them.
Pacas
Pacas
troy fairweather
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Maybe they have to eat banana to taste good lol.
I lived in Jefferson City Mo.
It's been about 20 years ago since I moved back to Michigan. I fail to see how Missouri could have demanded the building of a million or two septic systems with new laws without causing a riot. The sewage ponds were everywhere out side of towns. They worked fine and caused no stink so to speak.
Why mess with something that is so perfect and cheap?I wonder if the frog legs tasted kinda' funny?
chickasaw_hunter
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The state of La. had a program trying to encourage people to eat them. I think they even hired a Chef to develop recipes starring nutria. The wanted them gone and hoped they would get popular to eat. So far I don't think it has worked. I think they were introduced for their fur, but that didn't take off either. I've never eaten one and don't expect to on purpose.
On a trip to Mexico I saw a lot of big rodents. I think they are the critters pictured above. I asked the locals about them and they told me they called them sir-reck-ees. In Spanish it starts with a C, but I've forgotten how to spell it. They were some really big rodents, the kid I was talking to worked for the resort I was staying at and he said "oh you mean like big rabbit" I said not like a big Rat, he stuck with rabbit, pretty sure his employer had coached him to stick with rabbit and discuss rats of any sort with the guest. However, after that the local street taco stands sort of lost their magic for me.
On a trip to Mexico I saw a lot of big rodents. I think they are the critters pictured above. I asked the locals about them and they told me they called them sir-reck-ees. In Spanish it starts with a C, but I've forgotten how to spell it. They were some really big rodents, the kid I was talking to worked for the resort I was staying at and he said "oh you mean like big rabbit" I said not like a big Rat, he stuck with rabbit, pretty sure his employer had coached him to stick with rabbit and discuss rats of any sort with the guest. However, after that the local street taco stands sort of lost their magic for me.
In Belize the gibnut (agouti) was considered good eating and served to European royalty.
In Ecuador guinea pigs are a significant part of the meat raised and eaten.
To my knowledge I've never eaten either but who knows? When in Rome, or elsewhere . . . I consider myself reasonably culinarily adventurous but some of the Asia Pacific stuff is well outside my desire to even try, especially insects and other land based arthropods. From the sea I'm plenty happy with lobsters, crabs, shrimp, prawns, and fresh water varieties including crawfish.
In Ecuador guinea pigs are a significant part of the meat raised and eaten.
To my knowledge I've never eaten either but who knows? When in Rome, or elsewhere . . . I consider myself reasonably culinarily adventurous but some of the Asia Pacific stuff is well outside my desire to even try, especially insects and other land based arthropods. From the sea I'm plenty happy with lobsters, crabs, shrimp, prawns, and fresh water varieties including crawfish.
Nature Boy
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I guess it would be something to try, but for those of you who are cooks you'll probably get this. When you're trying something new, even if you don't get it quite right the first time, you get a sense that there's potential there for a good dish and you keep tweaking it until you nail it. Then there's experiments that fail from the get go and you know that it would be a waste of time to keep trying. That's Nutria.
The best way for me to describe Nutria is the meat is rubbery, doesn't have a flavor and doesn't absorb the seasonings that you add to it. What you're left with is a bland tasting substance with a strange and unfamiliar texture. Not worth the effort.
Does the meat of an animal depends on what it's diet is?
Nature Boy
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Absolutely. As an example, grass fed beef tastes very different from corn fed beef.
Nutria are tough and tasteless just like their bigger brethren... Congress men... but Nutria are generally considered much less destructive and usually don't smell as bad.
20 years ago Hyundia was building a semi-conductor manufacturing plant in Eugene, OR. A nutria was getting into and tearing apart the building supplies. A foreman finally caught the nutria and beat it to death with his hard hat... the foreman was arrested for cruelty to animals.
The story I always heard was that nutria were imported from South America and raised in captivity for their hides. From there they escaped into the wild and are a very invasive species that cause a lot of damage to native wildlife.
20 years ago Hyundia was building a semi-conductor manufacturing plant in Eugene, OR. A nutria was getting into and tearing apart the building supplies. A foreman finally caught the nutria and beat it to death with his hard hat... the foreman was arrested for cruelty to animals.
The story I always heard was that nutria were imported from South America and raised in captivity for their hides. From there they escaped into the wild and are a very invasive species that cause a lot of damage to native wildlife.
.308 Norma
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Oh yeah. I learned many, many years ago that mule deer shot alongside, or in some farmer's grain field are generally a lot better eating than mule deer shot way up on the side of a mountain, 5 miles into the sagebrush. Grain fed mule deer are often fatter than the others too.
Sounds like the yield is like tofu but from a mammal, at best! Thanks for the first hand experience.
Highland Lofts
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Forty years ago I use to hunt coons with a pair of bluetick coon hounds in Upstate New York. At that time I was trapping muskrats too. I would skin the muskrats and then boil them up to feed to the dogs.
They actually smelled good enough to eat, but I never tried. I'm sure there are people who do eat them.
They actually smelled good enough to eat, but I never tried. I'm sure there are people who do eat them.
buck460XVR
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....and that taste generally comes from fat. Most folks around here that raise beef "finish" them on a high grain diet. This gives them the fat and the marbling folks like for taste and tenderness. Grass fed beef do not get this and generally are leaner with much less fat and marbling. Thus they are considered more "healthy" to eat. When I butcher my deer, I always remove as much fat as possible from the meat, not to make it lean and more healthy, but because their fat/tallow has a higher melting point and a very strong and distinct flavor. Removing this fat tends to make the meat(at least to me) have a better taste. Folks I know that eat raccoon claim you need to remove all their fat to make the meat palatable. Heard similar about beaver.
Culture, where you live and upbringing makes for a lot of what folks think is edible. Regional things like boiled peanuts and grits are loved by some and rejected by others. Same could be said for Liver. I would assume if one was brought up on Nutria, they would consider it good table fare. Maybe if one didn't know what it was before they ate it, might make a difference too.
I've had some nasty gator & turtle (prepared by others) at times and put it down to mishandling until I saw someone write this about gator: "If you get any of the fat in your mouth you can't spit it out fast enough!". Suddenly that made a whole lotta sense. I've never tried cooking, much less butchering, either one myself.
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