# Possums, beavers and groundhogs



## Magus

Real post.sorry weak stomachs.
Has anyone thought about encouraging these edible pests in a convenient area as to make them a food source? like planting what they naturally like to munch on and harvesting the lil buggers?


I hear guinea pigs and hamsters are lunch fare in China too.wonder if they'd eat prairie dogs?


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## Riverdale

Magus said:


> Real post.sorry weak stomachs.
> Has anyone thought about encouraging these edible pests in a convenient area as to make them a food source? like planting what they naturally like to munch on and harvesting the lil buggers?
> 
> I hear guinea pigs and hamsters are lunch fare in China too.wonder if they'd eat prairie dogs?


I've eaten both beaver and woodchuck (groundhog, whistlepig, etal). One needs to make sure to remove the scent glands. Parboiling helps, too. Since both these are vegetarians, they don't have as much chance of parasites.

Possum and raccoon. These blighters are omnivores, and as apt to eat out of a garbage can as anywhere else. I have read about people who will feed them both dogfood for a while, to "clean them out". :nuts:

I have eaten young raccoons, but as they get older, they get greasier. Also, raccoons can (and have) contracted rabies.

Possum, I would need to be pretty hugry to eat something that looks so much like a rat. IMO, it would rate with seagull.....

Cavies (guinea pigs) were raised as food in pre-Columbian South America.


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## lovetogrow

Beaver is great eating!! I haven't prepared any, but have been on the receiving end of some amazing potluck dishes up here.

I experimented with racoon one year, and a friend and I make jerky (must flesh fat really well) that was just deelish (with the right marinade) - tasted like beef :2thumb:


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## Marcus

Raccoon is okay if cooked right.
Possum is for the buzzards and worms.


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## Emerald

I've had raccoon but never cooked it myself. 
but watching an episode of Bizarre foods America. One lady in Savannah said with older raccoons you have make sure to find and get rid of the little oil glands in the muscles. it makes a total difference in the taste.
He also dined on ground hog.. said that once you take the fat out it was a very nice tasting animal.
I have a fat old ground hog that may be on the menu if he keeps climbing to the top of the trellis and chewing on the growing tips of my pole beans.. and yes we know it is him/her doing it. I first thought deer.. but boy was out there the other day and said.. "you're not gonna believe this! the ground hog climbed your fence and was eating your beans!"
If I lived down south I'd try the Nutria too. Watching swamp people and the bizarre foods they both claimed that nutria is fine eating. 
Oh and snapping turtle. Scary buggers that could take off a finger with one bite but oh so yummy if done right. In stew you'd think it was beef.


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## mdprepper

I haven't eaten Groundhog in years. IIRC it was good, but on the tough side. I remember Daddy saying that if he had boiled it a while first it would have been better.


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## Magus

I like beaver "Bacon" or tail cooked in navy beans.


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## BillM

*Marcus*



Marcus said:


> Raccoon is okay if cooked right.
> Possum is for the buzzards and worms.


Marcus, I don't think I ever ate a Possum and I hope I never ate one but we were poor.

Mama may have cooked one and told us it was a Lobster ! :dunno:


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## Davarm

*Possum and Sweet Taters*

I made this post back around Thanksgiving/Christmas, though someone may want to use it for the holidays.

Here it is again just in case anyone is hungry.

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Was reading my Orange Judd Cook Book 1914 edition for some Thanksgiving recipes and came acoss this one and thought some may get a kick out of it.

Possum and Sweet Taters

Pour a large ketleful of hot water in a convienient vessel,
add a small shovel of ashes, and then put the possum in
this, but do not have the water as hot as for scalding chickens.
Turn the possum around until the fur is loosened, and you
will have no trouble in skinning him perfectly clean. Remove
head, feet and entrails, wash thoroughly in cold water, salt in
and outside and let hang over night. In the morning wash
again and put in a baking pan with a little water. Cover
closely with another pan, and put it over the fire. When
tender remove the top pan and put he possum in the oven to
brown. Dust with black pepper and baste with lard. While
it is baking, peel sweet potatoes, cut them in thick slices, and put
them in a skillet over the fire with salt and a little water and
lard. Cover, and let steam until tender. By that time the
possum will be nicely brown. Turn the prepared potatoes
over him, return to the oven, and when nicely brown, put
the possum on a platter, arrange the sweet potatoes around him,
and serve.

The Orange Judd Cook Book 1914 edition


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## Marcus

BillM said:


> Marcus, I don't think I ever ate a Possum and I hope I never ate one but we were poor.
> 
> Mama may have cooked one and told us it was a Lobster ! :dunno:


We had it at work one fine Xmas evening. The **** was picked clean to the bones, but most of the possum went in the trash (very,very chewy.)
Now rabbit or rattlesnake OTOH makes for some good eating.
There's a reason the Plains Indians hunted buffalo. It's lean meat and the hides make good cold weather clothing.


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## Magus

Possum needs cooked on a rack.it will be 1/2 size after the lard drips out of it so stuff it with carrots and potatoes.it tastes like...well it tastes like a damned possum.


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## pixieduster

Nutria and Squirrel are popular down here, and plentiful. Never ate either but I hear its good.


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## FrankW

City boy here: What are those funny looking animals that burrow and look like big walking sausages?


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## weedygarden

*not sure what you mean*



BlueZ said:


> City boy here: What are those funny looking animals that burrow and look like big walking sausages?


Gopher?

*Big* walking sausages? How big? Where are they? Can you find a picture and post it?


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## FrankW

maybe 1.5 to 2.5 feet long, brown, kinda cute and funny looking, thick, furred , a bit of a beaver face, kinda the shape of a big walking polish sausage except for little legs sticking out.

Seem to live and flee to burrows.
Lots of 'em on military posts


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## stayingthegame

pixieduster said:


> Nutria and Squirrel are popular down here, and plentiful. Never ate either but I hear its good.


I fixed squirrel before. dip it in egg wash, coat in seasoned flour and fry in a skillet with some oil. make a brown gravy out of the drippings and serve over wild rice. gooood eating.


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## Magus

Prairie dogs.
NOT edible due to black plague.


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## FrankW

Magus said:


> Prairie dogs.
> NOT edible due to black plague.


Prarie dogs!

Good point about th plague.
The bacteria can be killed by cooking/roasting but the living fleas might jump on you and bite when you grab one of those things.

You gotto admit they look like a big sausage with legs though...
Not a good appearance to have among hungry people..


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## Jimmy24

Have had roast '**** with sweet potatoes and collards many times. Big boars are just too rant. 1 to 2 year old animals are the best, boars or sows. 

It is greasy, but very good. 

If you trap one, it needs to be dispatched quickly. They can get very worked up and the adrenalin or whatever chemical imbalance happens makes them pretty much uneatable.

Jimmy


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## Magus

I have a marinade for an old Russian hog that tenders it up nice, but you have to take that thin, plastic looking skim off the muscle first.

In a gallon pot of water put:
1/4 cup of minced garlic, the juicer the better.
2 tablespoons of season all
1 table spoon of red pepper.
1/4 cup of white vinegar.
1 cheap beer,the cheaper the better!

set soak 24 hours, dry well and slow roast.


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## *Andi

Wild critters are good to eat ... you know "most" of them are not full of this, that and the other.

I remember my dad and Grams fighting over squirrel brains. (which we are told not to eat today... they are bad for you. <sigh>)


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## Possumfam

Davarm said:


> Possum and Sweet Taters
> 
> Pour a large ketleful of hot water in a convienient vessel,
> add a small shovel of ashes, and then put the possum in
> this, but do not have the water as hot as for scalding chickens.
> Turn the possum around until the fur is loosened, and you
> will have no trouble in skinning him perfectly clean. Remove
> head, feet and entrails, wash thoroughly in cold water, salt in
> and outside and let hang over night. In the morning wash
> again and put in a baking pan with a little water. Cover
> closely with another pan, and put it over the fire. When
> tender remove the top pan and put he possum in the oven to
> brown. Dust with black pepper and baste with lard. While
> it is baking, peel sweet potatoes, cut them in thick slices, and put
> them in a skillet over the fire with salt and a little water and
> lard. Cover, and let steam until tender. By that time the
> possum will be nicely brown. Turn the prepared potatoes
> over him, return to the oven, and when nicely brown, put
> the possum on a platter, arrange the sweet potatoes around him,
> and serve.
> 
> The Orange Judd Cook Book 1914 edition


HEY! HEY! HEY! I RESEMBLE THAT REMARK!!! :gaah:


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## MOPrepper

A well feed '**** will have a fair amount of grease/backfat, it's true, but if you're talking survival here, don't discard it! We need fat in or diets for energy and survival (Google "rabbit starvation" to see what a real lean diet will do ya!). Trimmed fat could/should be collected for other uses, unless you have fat swine, cattle or a cooperative bear to use. Has anyone here tried rendering it for "lard" or other products made from rendered fat? Something to try this winter perhaps? Add a little beeswax/parafin for **** Candles?

If you keep chickens, grow corn (et al), or feed cats and dogs outside, I suspect you will be supporting a population of the little bandits just fine. I would not encourage more to join the party out of fear of disease and any additional pilferage raids.


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## kappydell

I have recipes for all of the above, courtesy of a cookbook written by a trappers' wife. I would not encourage woodchuck though, unless ypou like a demolished garden. They ate whatever they wanted and left destruction in their wake. I was sooooo happy to get rid of them. But I ws considering eating them, since I had fed them, after all....Looked for a guinea pig recipe on the net, but they seemed to all have been written by liberals who emphasized the yuk factor rather than how to make them edible. So if anybody has some, please post...so I can add to my notebooks! (I did find some recipes for rat though, they are reputed to taste similar to squirrel, another rodent.) To the scoffers I say...aren't you the one that said you would do whatever it takes to feed the family, when it comes to stealing or looting or killing? Yet you wont try eating known edible, albeit non-game critters? Methinks you need to rethink your definition of 'whatever it takes'.


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## ONEOLDCHIEF

Possumfam said:


> HEY! HEY! HEY! I RESEMBLE THAT REMARK!!! :gaah:


Now that's funny:lolsmash:


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## Jezcruzen

We all read posts from folks who think they are well prepared food-wise because of all the big game in their area. Most don't take the time to think that 5000 other people in their area have the same idea! Instead of elk steaks or venison fillet, most will soon be eating those animals that are the subject of this thread.

Guinea pigs are native to Peru, I believe, and they are common table fare in that culture.

Young groundhog is good eats. I have only eaten the hind quarters. Spring and early summer is the time to add these to your diet. The old ones become a bit too gamey.

A **** hunting friend swears about how tasty **** hind quarters are. He has even brought them already prepared into work before, but cold, and with all that grease floating on top, I refrained from his invitation.

Once, while rabbit hunting, I watched a opossum crawl up out of a dead cow's butt after it had been dining on the innards. I don't think I would eat any opossum! 

Never eat beaver. Well... the animal! 

I've been reading this book titled "Opossum Living" that goes into some detail about alternative fare. Interesting even if it doesn't get my taste buds going.


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## jadedsoul

As I recall as a youngin' on my grandparents farm. We had quite a few meals of beaver. I don't know how many other critters we had eaten but I know we never went to the store for more than sugar and the occasional soda. Where I live there is an abundance of these critters for trapping and hunting. I know around where I live the local reservation has a bunch of wild game that can be had for a song. I may see what some of the local recipes are for critters such as these.


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## wolven

Squirel...yum,,yum... a little flour, salt and pepper . make a gravy and it is great

ground hog...crockpot with a can of tomatoes, some onion, peppers and some spices and its a great meat also. I use a jar of itialian peppers I can at home and cook in crockpot for 12hours . Falls apart, it is a little stringy if its an older one.

opossum...didn't like it but some of my family members did, ate it anyway...when your hungry most anything will do. My grandma baked it on a rack stuffed with patatoes, onions carrots and such.

Racoon...don't eat it rabies on the rise in that population


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## *Andi

wolven said:


> ate it anyway...when your hungry most anything will do.


My dad always said when you have 12 brothers & sisters but didn't bitch about what was put on the table, you ate because if you didn't someone else would.  lol


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## mojo4

Note to self, raise plenty of bunnies and chickens for eating. The alternatives are super sketchy!


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## *Andi

mojo4 said:


> Note to self, raise plenty of bunnies and chickens for eating. The alternatives are super sketchy!


Thanks for the smile! LOL


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## Magus

Roast rat...tastes like an old squirrel.


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