I ate roadkill raccoon
October 23, 2014 11:10 PM Subscribe
Reanna Alder eats roadkill raccoon so you don't have to. (Article has no images except a highly processed one of a live raccoon.)
The bit about the burdock and dumpster mustard immediately put me in mind of an old army quartermaster in Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment: "If any of you run across a pot of mustard, you hang onto it, it's amazing what mustard'll help down."
Mind you, this was a fellow nicknamed Threeparts after surviving "the old leg rota" during an extended siege.
posted by darksasami at 11:51 PM on October 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Mind you, this was a fellow nicknamed Threeparts after surviving "the old leg rota" during an extended siege.
posted by darksasami at 11:51 PM on October 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
First time I killed and butchered a chicken on my friend's farm I made myself sit and watch it's final moments. And then I wandered off to chain smoke a great many cigarettes. Second time I didn't look it in the eye as it passed away, but I made a few silly jokes and later helped in the plucking and butchering. Third time I happily chatted with one of the farm's stewards as the bird thrashed out it's death in the killing cone.
My friend's farm is a pagan community that gives thanks to the birds before we begin the harvest. "A short life, for long lives," as their worship goes. In addition to raising poultry, we hunt and forage throughout the Rio Grande valley. Most importantly, we teach whenever we're asked.
I wouldn't trade the knowledge they've given me for all the whiskey in Scotland.
posted by endotoxin at 11:58 PM on October 23, 2014 [3 favorites]
My friend's farm is a pagan community that gives thanks to the birds before we begin the harvest. "A short life, for long lives," as their worship goes. In addition to raising poultry, we hunt and forage throughout the Rio Grande valley. Most importantly, we teach whenever we're asked.
I wouldn't trade the knowledge they've given me for all the whiskey in Scotland.
posted by endotoxin at 11:58 PM on October 23, 2014 [3 favorites]
Guess this wasn't one of those smart urban raccoons, then, huh? Just another dumbfuck country raccoon who didn't have the sense to get his ignorant country raccoon ass outta the goddamn road.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:03 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:03 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
"I think wild foods are more nutritious," she says, "and I also think that it's a lot more sustainable."
Maybe as an unpopular hobby. But on a larger scale, market hunting of wild populations is hugely destructive. Market hunting of land animals is mostly banned. Where it's still allowed, such as commercial fishing, it's driving entire ecosystems to extinction.
posted by ryanrs at 12:42 AM on October 24, 2014 [12 favorites]
Maybe as an unpopular hobby. But on a larger scale, market hunting of wild populations is hugely destructive. Market hunting of land animals is mostly banned. Where it's still allowed, such as commercial fishing, it's driving entire ecosystems to extinction.
posted by ryanrs at 12:42 AM on October 24, 2014 [12 favorites]
Just thinking of all the diseases that people get from eating bushmeat. Serious question: how is this different?
posted by YAMWAK at 12:50 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by YAMWAK at 12:50 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
There are a number of serious diseases you can catch from wild game in North America. Tularemia from rabbits. Rabies (more an issue in the Eastern and Southern US). Trichina (as mentioned in the article) and other parasites. I suppose you could get Lyme disease or bubonic plague from ticks and fleas on game. Maybe even hantavirus if you're eating rodents?
The general defenses against these diseases is to avoid hunting animals that are acting strangely (hard to do if you're eating roadkill), wear gloves while handling the carcass, examine the animal carefully for sores and other signs of disease, and cook the meat well. Your state's fish and game department should have a web page listing precautions and risks specific to your area.
There is risk, yes, but you can do a lot to reduce it.
posted by ryanrs at 1:06 AM on October 24, 2014 [10 favorites]
The general defenses against these diseases is to avoid hunting animals that are acting strangely (hard to do if you're eating roadkill), wear gloves while handling the carcass, examine the animal carefully for sores and other signs of disease, and cook the meat well. Your state's fish and game department should have a web page listing precautions and risks specific to your area.
There is risk, yes, but you can do a lot to reduce it.
posted by ryanrs at 1:06 AM on October 24, 2014 [10 favorites]
Just thinking of all the diseases that people get from eating bushmeat. Serious question: how is this different?
It isn't (although the bushmeat thing is a bit overblown from my understanding).
A close friend of my family, someone I considered an uncle, recently died horribly and with great length from a spore he picked up, presumably, by eating wild game at some point in his life. So said his doctors.
Another story (which leads me to believe the bushmeat thing is not overblown): I once flew into Terrace en route to Kitimat, arriving at around 11 pm. I was to install a POS system at a bar. One of the owners picked me up at the Terrace airport and we set upon our 45 minute journey to Kitimat. As is common in northern BC, we happened on a dead moose. He thought it would be a good idea to throw that carcass in the back of his truck (y'know, where my luggage is) for later butchering.
I pointed out to him that an owner of one of the few establishments offering food in the town driving through it with roadkill is not something that induces continuing business.
I'm sure he went back and picked it up after dropping me off. The north is odd.
posted by converge at 1:17 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
It isn't (although the bushmeat thing is a bit overblown from my understanding).
A close friend of my family, someone I considered an uncle, recently died horribly and with great length from a spore he picked up, presumably, by eating wild game at some point in his life. So said his doctors.
Another story (which leads me to believe the bushmeat thing is not overblown): I once flew into Terrace en route to Kitimat, arriving at around 11 pm. I was to install a POS system at a bar. One of the owners picked me up at the Terrace airport and we set upon our 45 minute journey to Kitimat. As is common in northern BC, we happened on a dead moose. He thought it would be a good idea to throw that carcass in the back of his truck (y'know, where my luggage is) for later butchering.
I pointed out to him that an owner of one of the few establishments offering food in the town driving through it with roadkill is not something that induces continuing business.
I'm sure he went back and picked it up after dropping me off. The north is odd.
posted by converge at 1:17 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
Ah, a processed picture of a live raccoon. Not a picture of a processed live raccoon.
As someone who does it meat, there's a big part of me that thinks I should learn how to process it (not that that would teach me where most meat in our diet comes from, but it's a start). Props to the author for learning.
posted by nat at 1:17 AM on October 24, 2014
As someone who does it meat, there's a big part of me that thinks I should learn how to process it (not that that would teach me where most meat in our diet comes from, but it's a start). Props to the author for learning.
posted by nat at 1:17 AM on October 24, 2014
I abhor the butchering of animals, with one exception: you all can help yourselves to the dogs running around unsupervised in my neighborhood.
posted by univac at 2:40 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by univac at 2:40 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
One little black eyeball is missing, but the other still looks moist, a sign of freshness.
Like, duh, you always check the eyes for moistness.
posted by univac at 2:44 AM on October 24, 2014
Like, duh, you always check the eyes for moistness.
posted by univac at 2:44 AM on October 24, 2014
Roadkill is usually going to be pretty bruised and beat up, as well as not always fresh. It would not be my preferred meat source.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:49 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Dip Flash at 4:49 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
Roadkill is usually going to be pretty bruised and beat up
You mean pre-tenderized.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 4:58 AM on October 24, 2014 [6 favorites]
You mean pre-tenderized.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 4:58 AM on October 24, 2014 [6 favorites]
It's the motor oil and hint of gasoline that it's marinated in that really make it a gourmet treat.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:17 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:17 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
When I worked in Arkansas, Don, the building manager--who had recently moved up the ladder after a long period of hard times--still trapped. On one large project, the Canadian equipment manufacturer sent their VP down for the line commissioning. Peter was a bit uptight, made his own wine, really a perfect yuppie.
We had a cook out in his honor. Don brought coon and possum. They gave me an arm from a raccoon.
Now, I'm the weirdo that has Gray's Anatomy in the bathroom for light reading. I'd *just* gone through the musculature of the (human) forearm.
The meat I was served? Identical, only smaller. I couldn't touch it.
posted by notsnot at 5:51 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
We had a cook out in his honor. Don brought coon and possum. They gave me an arm from a raccoon.
Now, I'm the weirdo that has Gray's Anatomy in the bathroom for light reading. I'd *just* gone through the musculature of the (human) forearm.
The meat I was served? Identical, only smaller. I couldn't touch it.
posted by notsnot at 5:51 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
Looking through various raccoon recipes, many call for the carcass to be boiled for a while then roasted. Your raccoon could be infected with every disease and parasite under the sun and it'd be fine to eat after boiling for an hour.
posted by ryanrs at 6:20 AM on October 24, 2014
posted by ryanrs at 6:20 AM on October 24, 2014
Growing up, my dad used to tell me - all animals are made of meat.
I used to think that was some grade-A, too-much-time-in-Vietnam, nightmare-inducing bullshit. And then, as a boy, we butchered and ate a large turtle and it was pretty good.
When I introduced my current group of friends to marinated, grilled woodchuck it was an interesting experience.
There were two responses. The first, "oh, hell no," typically came from the individuals who had never butchered an animal, visited their CSA, or even picked out a thanksgiving turkey.
The second, a sort of thin-lipped, squinty-eyed, "is that safe? well. okay," came from the kids who grew up around hunting, or the ones who prayed for the animals they ate, or the hippies who still ate meat.
Around here, woodchucks are dispatched daily with small caliber rifles because they destroy gardens. Their carcasses are thrown out into the mulch or dumped behind barns. A fully-grown woodchuck can feed a family of four and it's not a difficult animal to prepare - it's akin to a large squirrel.
If you can eat a cow, you can eat a woodchuck. If this bothers you - I suggest you rethink your relationship with meat.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 6:45 AM on October 24, 2014 [6 favorites]
I used to think that was some grade-A, too-much-time-in-Vietnam, nightmare-inducing bullshit. And then, as a boy, we butchered and ate a large turtle and it was pretty good.
When I introduced my current group of friends to marinated, grilled woodchuck it was an interesting experience.
There were two responses. The first, "oh, hell no," typically came from the individuals who had never butchered an animal, visited their CSA, or even picked out a thanksgiving turkey.
The second, a sort of thin-lipped, squinty-eyed, "is that safe? well. okay," came from the kids who grew up around hunting, or the ones who prayed for the animals they ate, or the hippies who still ate meat.
Around here, woodchucks are dispatched daily with small caliber rifles because they destroy gardens. Their carcasses are thrown out into the mulch or dumped behind barns. A fully-grown woodchuck can feed a family of four and it's not a difficult animal to prepare - it's akin to a large squirrel.
If you can eat a cow, you can eat a woodchuck. If this bothers you - I suggest you rethink your relationship with meat.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 6:45 AM on October 24, 2014 [6 favorites]
I hunted small game as a kid and cleaned and butchered it. But then I moved to Texas where hunting is a rich man's and a local person's sport (public land is pretty thin on the ground here, huntable public land even more so).
So I went two decades between the last time I cleaned a squirrel and when I shot my first ungulate. My hunting party had separated. I saw my brother and friend cleaning their kill 3 miles away across the desert valley. The guy I was partnered with had dropped over the other side of a ridge to flush game and hunt there. He claimed he would come help when he heard me shoot.
He didn't hear me shoot.
I found myself all alone, in the desert, four or five miles from the truck with my knife and a game bag. I spent some time sitting next to the doe calming myself down, put on some gloves, took a deep breath and started.
Cleaning an ungulate is totally different from cleaning squirrels and rabbits, except for one thing. Once you get inside the skin, the process turns from being a very personal and emotional experience into a culinary experience. The animal goes from being this creature who you have stalked, watched it live and then deprived of its life for a purpose to being a series of muscle groups and bones (that you have deprived of its life for a purpose) to be broken down. The emotion is still there, but you more readily able to put it in the perspective of the end goal, securing months of food for the family. That hyperfocus on the brutality is tempered by a larger picture.
My vegetarian friends do not understand this, but all of my hunting companions have mentioned something similar.
My family doesn't buy meat all that often, but occasionally we get some grass-fed beef from a friends family and the way I feel about those meals is totally different than the way I feel about the meat I helped secure.
The thing I found most odd about this article was that the writer was a vegetarian. I think the leap from veg to eating meat is a bit harder than the eater of commercial meats jumping into hunting or scavenging wild game, but it seems like hunting and scavenging falls somewhere between the two.
As for "all animals are made of meat" I sort of have that attitude. I love squirrel and most people shudder at it. I love hare and rabbit and one of my hunting companions likes to state that those were "Depression-era food for a reason". One woman who allows us to hunt her ranch has insisted that we shoot any coyote we see. My friends, being conservation-minded pinkos, hate the idea of "varmint hunting" but . . . coyote meat is edible. I don't have a problem shooting and eating a coyote. But I would probably be eating all alone. And shooting coyotes does essentially nothing for a ranch; before you could bark, another coyote will have taken its place. So I am left wondering, if I ever see a coyote on the ranch do I shoot it? Meat and a nice fur vs. the pointlessness of it all. I don't know. Probably not. But that brings the whole point of my hunting into question. Why do I want one kind of meat over another? I would have a hard time getting my family to eat coyote or raccoon or muskrat. But I would in a second.
posted by Seamus at 7:36 AM on October 24, 2014 [3 favorites]
So I went two decades between the last time I cleaned a squirrel and when I shot my first ungulate. My hunting party had separated. I saw my brother and friend cleaning their kill 3 miles away across the desert valley. The guy I was partnered with had dropped over the other side of a ridge to flush game and hunt there. He claimed he would come help when he heard me shoot.
He didn't hear me shoot.
I found myself all alone, in the desert, four or five miles from the truck with my knife and a game bag. I spent some time sitting next to the doe calming myself down, put on some gloves, took a deep breath and started.
Cleaning an ungulate is totally different from cleaning squirrels and rabbits, except for one thing. Once you get inside the skin, the process turns from being a very personal and emotional experience into a culinary experience. The animal goes from being this creature who you have stalked, watched it live and then deprived of its life for a purpose to being a series of muscle groups and bones (that you have deprived of its life for a purpose) to be broken down. The emotion is still there, but you more readily able to put it in the perspective of the end goal, securing months of food for the family. That hyperfocus on the brutality is tempered by a larger picture.
My vegetarian friends do not understand this, but all of my hunting companions have mentioned something similar.
My family doesn't buy meat all that often, but occasionally we get some grass-fed beef from a friends family and the way I feel about those meals is totally different than the way I feel about the meat I helped secure.
The thing I found most odd about this article was that the writer was a vegetarian. I think the leap from veg to eating meat is a bit harder than the eater of commercial meats jumping into hunting or scavenging wild game, but it seems like hunting and scavenging falls somewhere between the two.
As for "all animals are made of meat" I sort of have that attitude. I love squirrel and most people shudder at it. I love hare and rabbit and one of my hunting companions likes to state that those were "Depression-era food for a reason". One woman who allows us to hunt her ranch has insisted that we shoot any coyote we see. My friends, being conservation-minded pinkos, hate the idea of "varmint hunting" but . . . coyote meat is edible. I don't have a problem shooting and eating a coyote. But I would probably be eating all alone. And shooting coyotes does essentially nothing for a ranch; before you could bark, another coyote will have taken its place. So I am left wondering, if I ever see a coyote on the ranch do I shoot it? Meat and a nice fur vs. the pointlessness of it all. I don't know. Probably not. But that brings the whole point of my hunting into question. Why do I want one kind of meat over another? I would have a hard time getting my family to eat coyote or raccoon or muskrat. But I would in a second.
posted by Seamus at 7:36 AM on October 24, 2014 [3 favorites]
A fully-grown woodchuck can feed a family of four
There's a dead wombat under my tomato plants that will be feeding this family of four all summer.
posted by flabdablet at 7:42 AM on October 24, 2014 [3 favorites]
There's a dead wombat under my tomato plants that will be feeding this family of four all summer.
posted by flabdablet at 7:42 AM on October 24, 2014 [3 favorites]
flapjax at midnite: I wonder about that too. Purslane is very nice in a yogurt-based salad back in my home country, but does not seem to be a popular food plant here in Maryland. I see it growing wild all over the place, though---but I have never dared to pick any to eat it, because this is Suburbia Central and there's all kinds of spraying for mosquitoes and whatnot, and besides most of it is next to suburban roads so whatever's being left by the exhaust gases is right there.
Appealing to the MetaMind: How would I go about washing off whatever could be on plants that I pick around here? I would be interested in trying young dandelion leaves in spring too---I've heard they are nice---but the same reasons have stopped me.
Regarding roadkill meat, I'd pass---no way to gauge freshness or whether it was a healthy animal in some of the cases. I am fundamentally ignorant about how to hunt, but believe that I would have no emotional trouble hunting if it was for eating. I might be fooling myself; I don't know. And I can see why people would balk at eating coyote---there's something ingrained against eating carnivores, and something seriously ingrained against eating what's known as a scavenger---but I don't understand why people would hesitate at woodchuck, unless we're not talking about the bird but instead some animal I don't know about.
posted by seyirci at 7:49 AM on October 24, 2014
Appealing to the MetaMind: How would I go about washing off whatever could be on plants that I pick around here? I would be interested in trying young dandelion leaves in spring too---I've heard they are nice---but the same reasons have stopped me.
Regarding roadkill meat, I'd pass---no way to gauge freshness or whether it was a healthy animal in some of the cases. I am fundamentally ignorant about how to hunt, but believe that I would have no emotional trouble hunting if it was for eating. I might be fooling myself; I don't know. And I can see why people would balk at eating coyote---there's something ingrained against eating carnivores, and something seriously ingrained against eating what's known as a scavenger---but I don't understand why people would hesitate at woodchuck, unless we're not talking about the bird but instead some animal I don't know about.
posted by seyirci at 7:49 AM on October 24, 2014
This reminds me of my favorite roadkill-related news story, where a Red Cross blood van hit and killed a moose in Maine. I know it's not really comparable to eating a racoon you found on the side of the road, but I just love how they casually talk about this roadkill moose like it's a valuable resource (which, when you think about it, it sort of is):
No one at the scene wanted the dead moose, which was dragged by Fiske and two passers-by who stopped to help into the woods. A calf was also seen with the cow, but was not hit, and wandered alone into the woods.posted by gueneverey at 8:24 AM on October 24, 2014
“Unfortunately, there isn’t any official program for giving the moose to a local family or someone who can use the meat,” said Fiske. “The driver usually gets first dibs on taking the moose or deer.
“It’s difficult only because of the time and remote locations they’re usually hit, there’s not usually anyone handy to give them away to.”
seyirci, eat the purslane! Here in the US it's seen as a weed unless grown specifically for food. We have lost the will to forage, as a country. I would try and pick plants only from places where I have a pretty good idea of what might be on the plants. But I never am a hundred percent sure, so always wash your produce, foraged produce too.
I keep a spray bottle full of full strength white vinegar in the kitchen. I toss and spray produce with the vinegar until coated and let it stand for 10 minutes, then wash with water and spin dry. Some people soak in a 3:1 water to vinegar mix.
You will be fine
People eat scavengers all of the time; bears, pigs . . . deer. Coyotes have the additional taboo of being canids. But people around the world eat dogs, so . . . sometimes taboos are taboos for a reason and sometimes not. If I at a coyote, I would cool the hell out of it.
A woodchuck is a rodent, sometimes called a groundhog. There is a rodent taboo in the US too. Plenty of people shoot woodchucks. A *lot* of people shoot woodchucks (and ground squirrels and . . . , varmint hunting is a thing) but they rarely eat what they kill. Oddly enough, plenty of people in Texas are convinced that you can't eat the wild hogs around here. "They're not like regular pigs." "Yep, you're right. They're leaner and healthier to eat." Those people shoot the hogs, dump them in a ditch and then spent a lot of time and effort shooting the coyotes that come to eat the carcasses. And then they dump the coyotes in the ditch.
Anyway, woodchucks. Anyone want to blast freeze one and overnight it to me?
posted by Seamus at 8:33 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
I keep a spray bottle full of full strength white vinegar in the kitchen. I toss and spray produce with the vinegar until coated and let it stand for 10 minutes, then wash with water and spin dry. Some people soak in a 3:1 water to vinegar mix.
You will be fine
People eat scavengers all of the time; bears, pigs . . . deer. Coyotes have the additional taboo of being canids. But people around the world eat dogs, so . . . sometimes taboos are taboos for a reason and sometimes not. If I at a coyote, I would cool the hell out of it.
A woodchuck is a rodent, sometimes called a groundhog. There is a rodent taboo in the US too. Plenty of people shoot woodchucks. A *lot* of people shoot woodchucks (and ground squirrels and . . . , varmint hunting is a thing) but they rarely eat what they kill. Oddly enough, plenty of people in Texas are convinced that you can't eat the wild hogs around here. "They're not like regular pigs." "Yep, you're right. They're leaner and healthier to eat." Those people shoot the hogs, dump them in a ditch and then spent a lot of time and effort shooting the coyotes that come to eat the carcasses. And then they dump the coyotes in the ditch.
Anyway, woodchucks. Anyone want to blast freeze one and overnight it to me?
posted by Seamus at 8:33 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
"Just thinking of all the diseases that people get from eating bushmeat. Serious question: how is this different?"
Well, I think there are four easily identified elements here.
Bushmeat is usually butchered by the direct consumer as opposed to a factory farmworker and that results in more exposure to the direct consumer. I'm less likely to be exposed to disease from Tyson Chicken because I don't cut it myself. [cite]
The second is that what is referred to as bushmeat is usually from a tropical environment where disease doesn't have an annual die-off. [cite]
The third is that a lot of what is identified as bushmeat is closer in species to humans than say, for example fish. There are very few fish-> human virus vectors. This is not exclusive to any region or continent but it exacerbated by contact. "Animals used as bushmeat may also carry other diseases such as smallpox, chicken pox, tuberculosis, measles, rubella, rabies, yellow fever and yaws. The bubonic plague bacteria can transfer to humans when handling or eating prairie dogs."
The fourth is burial practices. [cite]
posted by vapidave at 9:37 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
Well, I think there are four easily identified elements here.
Bushmeat is usually butchered by the direct consumer as opposed to a factory farmworker and that results in more exposure to the direct consumer. I'm less likely to be exposed to disease from Tyson Chicken because I don't cut it myself. [cite]
The second is that what is referred to as bushmeat is usually from a tropical environment where disease doesn't have an annual die-off. [cite]
The third is that a lot of what is identified as bushmeat is closer in species to humans than say, for example fish. There are very few fish-> human virus vectors. This is not exclusive to any region or continent but it exacerbated by contact. "Animals used as bushmeat may also carry other diseases such as smallpox, chicken pox, tuberculosis, measles, rubella, rabies, yellow fever and yaws. The bubonic plague bacteria can transfer to humans when handling or eating prairie dogs."
The fourth is burial practices. [cite]
posted by vapidave at 9:37 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
gueneverey: I just love how they casually talk about this roadkill moose like it's a valuable resource (which, when you think about it, it sort of is)
It absolutely is. Beef is something like $4-$10/lb. 300 lb of moose meat is therefore the equivalent of at least $1500.
If you saw a $1500 item lying by the side of the road, it wouldn't be strange to think of it as a valuable resource.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:10 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
It absolutely is. Beef is something like $4-$10/lb. 300 lb of moose meat is therefore the equivalent of at least $1500.
If you saw a $1500 item lying by the side of the road, it wouldn't be strange to think of it as a valuable resource.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:10 AM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
“The driver usually gets first dibs on taking the moose or deer."
If you hit a moose and can still get it home, be thankful that you aren't dead and your car isn't totaled. One small dog took my Prius out of action for a month.
(But . . . bringing a moose home in a Prius? That would be priceless. The neighbors are already weirded out by antelopes and hogs.)
posted by Seamus at 10:41 AM on October 24, 2014
If you hit a moose and can still get it home, be thankful that you aren't dead and your car isn't totaled. One small dog took my Prius out of action for a month.
(But . . . bringing a moose home in a Prius? That would be priceless. The neighbors are already weirded out by antelopes and hogs.)
posted by Seamus at 10:41 AM on October 24, 2014
What IAmBroom said and gueneverey agreed with.
I was married to a Canadian, she had been in their Air Force, she was also a long-haul trucker before I met her.
One time she was driving on, you know, the icy road in the winter and there was a baby moose splayed and paddling on the ice with the Mom moose looking on.
With some drastic maneuvering the baby moose and the mother moose survived but I'm pretty sure it took a few years off of my ex-wifes life.
She went on to become a lawyer, I don't know about the moose.
Her being a lawyer involved her representing Inuit and First Nations so moose meat for a gift.
Anyway, use thin cuts and cook them low and slow and make sure you are thankful.
posted by vapidave at 11:00 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
I was married to a Canadian, she had been in their Air Force, she was also a long-haul trucker before I met her.
One time she was driving on, you know, the icy road in the winter and there was a baby moose splayed and paddling on the ice with the Mom moose looking on.
With some drastic maneuvering the baby moose and the mother moose survived but I'm pretty sure it took a few years off of my ex-wifes life.
She went on to become a lawyer, I don't know about the moose.
Her being a lawyer involved her representing Inuit and First Nations so moose meat for a gift.
Anyway, use thin cuts and cook them low and slow and make sure you are thankful.
posted by vapidave at 11:00 AM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
New Hampshire has bumper stickers and signs that say "Brake for Moose: it could save your life!" that you can get at the state liquor store/highway rest stop combinations. There's a variant I've seen a few times - "Don't Brake for Moose: fill your freezer."
posted by ChuraChura at 12:23 PM on October 24, 2014
posted by ChuraChura at 12:23 PM on October 24, 2014
Just thinking of all the diseases that people get from eating bushmeat. Serious question: how is this different?
Luckily the diseases are rare, because everyone I know who hunts large game has at some point cut their hand during the butchering process, providing direct blood to blood contact.
posted by Dip Flash at 3:29 PM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
Luckily the diseases are rare, because everyone I know who hunts large game has at some point cut their hand during the butchering process, providing direct blood to blood contact.
posted by Dip Flash at 3:29 PM on October 24, 2014 [2 favorites]
The first time I ever butchered antelopes, after a few hours of butchering, I took a break and forgot to put on my glove upon my return to the table. Of course, within 5 minutes I nicked myself. I cleaned it up, put on a band-aid, a rubber glove and my kevlar glove and went back to butchering. That night we rolled out of Denver and headed toward Austin. In the middle of the night I woke up at a gas station in Dalhart (my buddy was driving) to find that my hand had swollen to double it's size and the nick was horribly infected.
I put up with the pain and the feverish feeling knowing, KNOWING, that the end result would be a Mutant Seamus, Antelope Man; fleet, swift, graceful.
Sadly, to this day I am still fat and clumsy.
Denied what is, by right, mine.
(The swelling went down before we got home and the infection cleared up right quick.)
posted by Seamus at 5:31 PM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
I put up with the pain and the feverish feeling knowing, KNOWING, that the end result would be a Mutant Seamus, Antelope Man; fleet, swift, graceful.
Sadly, to this day I am still fat and clumsy.
Denied what is, by right, mine.
(The swelling went down before we got home and the infection cleared up right quick.)
posted by Seamus at 5:31 PM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
Dip Flash: Luckily the diseases are rare, because everyone I know who hunts large game has at some point cut their hand during the butchering process, providing direct blood to blood contact.
Flash back to my first butchering, on a roadkill raccoon. The knife slipped (of course), and nicked my finger. I thought to myself, (stage overacting voice) "Oh noes! I might get rabies!"... and then realized that's EXACTLY what could happen. Rinsed, squeezed more blood out, peroxided the cut, then put on rubber gloves.
Roadkill isn't your mother's ground chuck.
posted by IAmBroom at 7:13 PM on October 24, 2014
Flash back to my first butchering, on a roadkill raccoon. The knife slipped (of course), and nicked my finger. I thought to myself, (stage overacting voice) "Oh noes! I might get rabies!"... and then realized that's EXACTLY what could happen. Rinsed, squeezed more blood out, peroxided the cut, then put on rubber gloves.
Roadkill isn't your mother's ground chuck.
posted by IAmBroom at 7:13 PM on October 24, 2014
bringing a moose home in a Prius? That would be priceless.
It doesn't end well.
posted by flabdablet at 8:19 PM on October 24, 2014
It doesn't end well.
posted by flabdablet at 8:19 PM on October 24, 2014
I can only get as far as
Roadkill Raccoon went into the room,
Only to find he was dinner...
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:03 PM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
Roadkill Raccoon went into the room,
Only to find he was dinner...
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:03 PM on October 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by ryanrs at 11:45 PM on October 23, 2014 [2 favorites]