Yes, that's beaver, not beef. And yes, that is what we had for dinner tonight.
Hold up, you say. Beaver? Who eats beaver?
Well, people that trap them, I guess. Like A.
Long back story there, but the upshot of it is, A. caught a beaver in a trap yesterday and brought it home.
Don't worry, it was dead. We weren't trying to give Jack a ride on a live bucking beaver.
Now obviously, beaver hides are valuable, and that will certainly be saved, but what about the meat? Can you eat beaver?
But of course.
I mean, you can eat anything, really, the question is, will you want to?
Well, let's find out!
First Cubby requested that the tail be frozen for future roasting over a campfire, as described by Steven Rinella in his book Meat Eater. (Good book, by the way.)
Roger that. One beaver tail is now in the freezer with the raccoons*.
And what about the rest of the meat? Well, according to the all-knowing Internet, beaver meat is more or less interchangeable with beef.
Sure it is.
I always have my doubts about those claims, but I was willing to try it. So A. cut off the front and back legs and the backstraps, and put them to soak in salt water last night.
This morning I dumped out the salt water, dried the pieces, browned them, and simmered them for several hours in a mixture of tomato juice, onions, and garlic.
When the meat was coming off the bone, A. stripped the meat off and we tasted it.
A. thought it tasted like a cross between beef and dark-meat chicken. I think it's more like the dark-meat chicken, but it's definitely not exactly either of those. It tastes like . . . well, like beaver.
Not bad, though. Certainly no gamier than venison.
I mixed the shredded meat and some of the tomato juice mixture with more onions, garlic, chili powder, and cumin and we ate it in some corn tortillas.
Everyone ate it and enjoyed it. Cubby and Charlie even gave it two thumbs up, and Cubby had two helpings.
So, can you eat beaver? Yup. You just might have some trouble procuring one . . .
* People have asked if we eat the raccoons, and the answer is, so far, no. I know you can, and people do, but I'm always a bit wary of eating something even the dogs won't touch. Maybe someday we'll try it, but I'm in no hurry.
7 comments:
You should have saved it for Friday. Considering that it is Lent, and beavers are considered fish by the Catholic Church. Just your random fact for the day. Glad it was good, Shannon said he's had beaver in the past and enjoyed it.
-moi
We have a 1958 cookbook MODERN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COOKING has recipes for and descriptions of the meats of bear,beaver,antelope,venison,raccoon,opossum,
woodchuck (which they describe like beaver woodchuck has dark tender meat, but it's flavor is milder).
Beaver meat is described as very similar to muskrat. The two recipes for beaver are Roast beaver a la Michigan ....and Roast Beaver.
That is why I asked about if you ate the raccoon.
First trout, then beaver! A. is doing very well developing a subsistence lifestyle.
Fascinating. Simply fascinating!
Great fact about the beaver/fish thing, not that I'll ever get to use it. Will have to share that one with the choir to see if anyone else is beaver knowledgable. Who'd have thunk.
Do you have alot of beavers in your area and what kind of trap do you use? Hopefully not one of those steel jaw traps that are so inhumane. :( Anyway, interesting to know that beaver meat is edible...at least it wasn't killed just for it's pelt!
it's sort of like when you eat alligator.
no, it doesn't taste like chicken. it has a texture like chicken, but it tastes more... aquatic.
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