Post by Jenny at Sagehill on Jul 25, 2012 18:48:46 GMT -5
Nearly two weeks ago, I caught a coon, skinned him, etc. then plastic-bagged him into the fridge. A week later I got around to cutting him up. Forgot to weigh him, forgot to take a picture after "processing," but did take two pictures of cuts.
Coon has the shape of an oversized rabbit, but it's definitely much darker than rabbit which is very white like chicken. Coon looks like venison in color and probably in taste. Guess I'll find out soon!
The front legs and shoulder, weighed 2.6 lbs together:
And the hindquarters weighed 2lbs each... most of the fat was cut off here:
The rest of the cuts (no pictures) were the neck and loins, which weighed 2 lbs together, so over eight pounds of meat (and bones). Discarded skeleton weighed 3.6 lbs, and discarded fat weighed nearly 2 lbs. He was a big FAT coon!
Since many recipes were hysterical about cutting off every possible scrap of fat, I cooked up a little fat in a skillet to taste. It tasted fine, a little different but not bad, but I could see how would freak out low-fat people, especially if they have a bias against eating non-grocery-store meat anyway.
While reading recipes on coon meat, I came across an interesting site: What to do with coon fat.
Wish I hadn't thrown away all that fat now.
Plus coon fat soap! I used to make a lot of soap on the Missouri farm... haven't made any since moving back to Michigan though.
More coon recipe links:
www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,raccoon,FF.html
thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum/index.php?topic=7312.0
www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1404710/Raccoon_Barbecue_raccoon_recei
and the best link for last... recipes for all kinds of wild critters: www.ces.ncsu.edu/martin/wildrecipes/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today, nearly two weeks later....
Okay, I have been lax about cooking the thing, but no harm as long as it's in the fridge... I figure he's aging.
Anyway, the front half of the critter has been in the crockpot all morning, stewing in a little water, onions, garlic and Adobo spice. I left a fair amount of fat on, contrary to most most recipe recommendations. However, I almost never follow recipes as given, unless they're mine. ;D
Halfway through I couldn't resist tasting a little snippet and even daringly tasted several tablespoons of the fatty broth:
And I have to say.........
.......... it's pretty good! Coon tastes sort of like beefy venison. yum!
I'm REALLY looking forward to roasting the hindquarters like I would venison... maybe with herbs de Provence. mmmm!!
The broth was plenty acceptable too. Anyway, the bites I had were good enough that I'm sorry I threw out the first two I caught.
Anyway, I'm thinking a lot of the hysteria and worry about coon fat and meat flavor have much more to do with tastebuds raised on bland food and with odd, unchicken-like bones than with coon fat and meat tasting horrible. Seems like most coon recipes recommend a lot of processing and/or covering up until the meat has zero flavor:
"Remove every scrap of fat from the carcass and boil for two hours in lots of water with baking soda, replacing the water three times; then shred the meat completely, put in baking dish, cover with three jars of barbeque sauce and bake another 2-3 hours until all you taste is barbeque sauce." Are they kidding?? Okay, not an exact recipe, but sorta close.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, by 4:30 the critter in the crockpot was falling off the bone.
Here's a shoulder and upper back before baking with LC bbq sauce that needed using up:
The other half stayed in the crockpot broth to eat plain tomorrow.
Verdict: VERY delicious. Highly recommended!
With bbq sauce, it tasted and looked like beef. The fat had no flavor, before or after bbq sauce....
what a shame I threw most of it away per most recommendations.
Hmmmm... another coon has been rattling around the feed bins again....
Coon has the shape of an oversized rabbit, but it's definitely much darker than rabbit which is very white like chicken. Coon looks like venison in color and probably in taste. Guess I'll find out soon!
The front legs and shoulder, weighed 2.6 lbs together:
And the hindquarters weighed 2lbs each... most of the fat was cut off here:
The rest of the cuts (no pictures) were the neck and loins, which weighed 2 lbs together, so over eight pounds of meat (and bones). Discarded skeleton weighed 3.6 lbs, and discarded fat weighed nearly 2 lbs. He was a big FAT coon!
Since many recipes were hysterical about cutting off every possible scrap of fat, I cooked up a little fat in a skillet to taste. It tasted fine, a little different but not bad, but I could see how would freak out low-fat people, especially if they have a bias against eating non-grocery-store meat anyway.
While reading recipes on coon meat, I came across an interesting site: What to do with coon fat.
Wish I hadn't thrown away all that fat now.
If you are eating the coon, then you can also eat the tallow. Render it down just like you would for beef or pig and use it instead of lard for whatever recipes you are working on.
Plus coon fat soap! I used to make a lot of soap on the Missouri farm... haven't made any since moving back to Michigan though.
NaOH SAP value for raccoon falls between .135 - .140
Render at a low heat. Plug the amount of raccoon oil into space for 'lard' and you should be fine.
Render at a low heat. Plug the amount of raccoon oil into space for 'lard' and you should be fine.
More coon recipe links:
www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,raccoon,FF.html
thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum/index.php?topic=7312.0
www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1404710/Raccoon_Barbecue_raccoon_recei
and the best link for last... recipes for all kinds of wild critters: www.ces.ncsu.edu/martin/wildrecipes/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today, nearly two weeks later....
Okay, I have been lax about cooking the thing, but no harm as long as it's in the fridge... I figure he's aging.
Anyway, the front half of the critter has been in the crockpot all morning, stewing in a little water, onions, garlic and Adobo spice. I left a fair amount of fat on, contrary to most most recipe recommendations. However, I almost never follow recipes as given, unless they're mine. ;DHalfway through I couldn't resist tasting a little snippet and even daringly tasted several tablespoons of the fatty broth:
And I have to say.........
.......... it's pretty good! Coon tastes sort of like beefy venison. yum!
I'm REALLY looking forward to roasting the hindquarters like I would venison... maybe with herbs de Provence. mmmm!!
The broth was plenty acceptable too. Anyway, the bites I had were good enough that I'm sorry I threw out the first two I caught.
Anyway, I'm thinking a lot of the hysteria and worry about coon fat and meat flavor have much more to do with tastebuds raised on bland food and with odd, unchicken-like bones than with coon fat and meat tasting horrible. Seems like most coon recipes recommend a lot of processing and/or covering up until the meat has zero flavor:
"Remove every scrap of fat from the carcass and boil for two hours in lots of water with baking soda, replacing the water three times; then shred the meat completely, put in baking dish, cover with three jars of barbeque sauce and bake another 2-3 hours until all you taste is barbeque sauce." Are they kidding?? Okay, not an exact recipe, but sorta close.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, by 4:30 the critter in the crockpot was falling off the bone.
Here's a shoulder and upper back before baking with LC bbq sauce that needed using up:
The other half stayed in the crockpot broth to eat plain tomorrow.
Verdict: VERY delicious. Highly recommended!
With bbq sauce, it tasted and looked like beef. The fat had no flavor, before or after bbq sauce....
what a shame I threw most of it away per most recommendations.
Hmmmm... another coon has been rattling around the feed bins again....
When I think of all the coons I have given to the dogs and vultures over the years. Never even thought about eating one even though they ate lots of my chickens and guineas and ravaged my garden. 
Thanks!
