Does Anyone Eat Raccoon

DougK

New member
I think I am going to pass on eating Raccoon, but I got to know if anyone eats it and how it tastes.
Thanks
Doug
 
It's been a few years since I ate raccoon but I liked it. It reminded me of muskrat a bit, very dark meat and quite fat, much finer grain but kind of like black bear in the dark color. I'd trim off all of the fat that I could before cooking, which we did as I recall. We ususally baked/roasted it in a nest of potatoes and carrots, but we fried up some young raccoon once, like squirrel.

It is probably one of the only meats that nobody will describe as, "It's kind of like chicken."
 
Young ones are good; old boar coons are greasy, tough, and nasty.

Same same with groundhogs.

The young ones are FINE eatin'.

Oh, and do get the fat off the 'coons. Otherwise, not even a 'yote will eat it cooked up... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Helps to boil them first, kind of like bear. Greasy but tasty dark meat if done right. Use to eat groundhog too as a kid but my standards have moved up a notch. If I'm hungry I'll go back to them.
 
There was an old man I met at the Waxahachie Gun Show that has a standing order of 40 raccoons for a super bowl party every year in the old project area off Singleton Ave in Dallas. The black guy throwing the party gives him $5.00 a piece for them. He shoots them in a secret place on the Trinity River bottom. I ate coon at my grandad's when I was little. He was a trapper and didn't like to spend money on meat at the food store. I guess it was alright, but I didn't know what I was eating till later.
 
When I was a kid we ate coon all the time. We always had a few in the freezer. Roast it in the oven over potatoes similar to a pork roast and near the end of cooking time turn up the heat so the what fat is on it gets crispy. I never ate a strong tasting one so I'm not sure about the boar or sow thing. They all tasted fine to me. The only reason we stopped eating them was because of a big rabies epidemic where I lived in the 70's and the old timer that used to take me along coon hunting died in that time frame also.
Don't knock until you try it. If they can eat bugs, slugs and roaches on those reality shows then whats wrong with trying a little coon meat?? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
coonhounds will /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif might have to fight'em for it if you want it that bad. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I prefer the grocery store.

Although "cajun coon special" almost sounds do'able. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

There are probaly some jokes that could come from this.

I don't drink cheap beer, I don't date fat women and I don't eat coon

Show me the beef,........ It's 2006 not 1706.
 
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Lets just say that .........along with

prairie dogs
crows
rats/mice
blackbirds
snakes
dogs
groundhogs
marmots
cats

racoons are on a different rung of the food chain than I am accustomed to eating off of.
 
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racoons are on a different rung of the food chain than I am accustomed to eating off of.



Accustomed is the operative word here. I'm in general agreement with the list but what my palette is accustomed to has nothing to do with how good or bad the culinary qualities of things that I don't eat. The mountain men rated cougar as the best meat in N. America, better than buffalo, elk or wild sheep. I'd have to agree though I've never totally gotten over a brain quirk once in awhile when I remember that I'm eating cat.

As to others on the list, marmot is superb, though I've only eaten golden marmot and not the hoary. Muskrats are very good to my taste as are groundhogs and various larger ground squirrels. (Added later: I think the correct name is yellow bellied marmot rather than golden. Indians considered them top eating.)

Of snakes, I've only eaten rattlesnakes and they are very good tasting meat if it weren't for all of the bones. Like frog meat on a long chicken neck.

For a lot of these,it is just good to know what we could fall back on if needed.
 
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In the early eighties we employed an older gentleman from south of the border and when we would go spotlighting he would help us skin the nights take and then bbq the coon carcasses. It wasn't half bad but I needed mine pretty salted up. He told us that he survived the walk north (he was from deeeep mexico) by eating coons, possums, and cats. He also taught me and my brother how to make handmade tortillas (lard and flour, no preservitaves) that were better than any store bought tortilla. He was a pretty cool old dude, especially to a 14 year old kid.
Trashcan
 
"mountain men" died young. Native Americans (Indians) lived fairly long. I don't remember reading nor hearing that they ate much "coon" nor had too.
 
I ate coon when i was a youngster.If i recall right,i think it was one of the best roasted meats i ever ate.The only thing i noticed,when the meat got cold,it tasted like what a smelly old wet dog smelled like.
 
I went to a Chinese market one time. Don't remember seeing any coon though.

I traped them as a kid for fur. Guess I should have sold the meat too /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
good grief - hasn't anybody here ever heard of a coon feed??
they used to be all over the place years ago, but I haven't seen one for awhile. Coon is much like eating a black bear. quite fat and rich and dark.
 
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