Chicken Fried Beaver

[Ladobe]

Chicken Fried Beaver

1 beaver, cut to serving portions

2 Italian sweet onions

4 oz. saltine crackers "1 sleeve"

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup bacon drippings

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon paprika

salt & pepper to taste

Parboil beaver in salted water with onions until tender. Heat shortening and bacon grease in a large heavy skillet. Mix thyme, paprika, salt, and pepper, rub into beaver, coat well. Crush crackers to fine crumbs. Roll beaver pieces through cracker crumbs to coat well. Cook real slow with pan 1/2 covered until browned and tender. Serve.

Serves 6-8

Larry

[Hawks Feather]

Larry,

I supposed that beaver tastes like chicken, but if you used another meat to describe it, what would it be.  Never skinned out a beaver to see what the meat is like.  Is is similar to muskrat or a tighter muscled meat?

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

  :roflmao:

I'm just gonna slowly back away and click the back button and pretend I never even come in here

[Ladobe]

Fried chicken Hawk... (everything new someone is trying to get you to try tastes like chicken doesn't it?)   :roflmao:

Just like any other new eating experience, taste is in the palate of the feaster.    Have always been one to try anything once.    Even though I have traveled a lot of the world and ate many things most civilized folk wouldn't even consider, I can safely say few things have really turned my head (and/or stomach) when prepared as it was intended to be prepared.   Will admit that even though I like hot and spicy, some dishes in Nam were about the limit for me and some of the stranger aboriginal things I've tried on a couple of other continents where kind of hard to swallow.

The freetrappers ate beaver in the old days - I would no problem in a survival situation, but its never been regular table fare for me... not even back in my trapline days.   This is the recipe followed by the reenacting pards I've had it with several times while at rendezvous.   BTW, washes down real well with a couple of tankards of Apple Pie.

Some may call it an acquired taste (like Jim).

[FinsnFur]

I think I'd have to use Coleman White lantern fuel to wash it down. 

[Ladobe]

I think I'd have to use Coleman White lantern fuel to wash it down. 

Lit or unlit?   

[FinsnFur]

Preferably straight, unlit....man that sounds nasty 

[Hawks Feather]

Unlit Colman fluid sound like a good way for the beaver to make a quick exit to me.

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

That's the idea Jerry 

[Jrbhunter]

Oh come on Jim!  Don't be a puss... beaver is actually very good meat.  I wouldn't associate it with chicken personally... more like very tender deer meat.   Of course it has a different flavor than big game, but it's not bad at all.

We cook a few beaver every year at the various trapping conventions and Rendevous that I attend.   The best I've had was slow roasted like a hog, man that stuff was tender and smokey flavored.   The worst was a sausage, just ground up meat with some spices mixed in.... the main thing I hated about that preperation was the smell.  It smelled just like a beaver carcass hanging in my fur shed- not appetizing at all.

Muskrat, Beaver, Coon, Moose, Deer, Fallow, Elk, Waterfowl... you never know what you're going to have on your plate at a good ole' trapping conveniton!!

I will try the chicken fried beaver thing- it would probably also be a good recipe for groundhog.

[Bopeye]

Eating Beaver fried??? 

:roflmao:

[FinsnFur]

I just saw Google looking at this thread. Fins and Fur's future is looking grim
  :roflmao:

[bowjunkie]

zipped my mouth shut on this one  :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

[Chuck]

I don't see how any right thinkin' human could compare GM chicken to beaver. Beaver and black bear are main stays at our house. My boys can't stand store bought meat. I forgot you got to eat beaver with fiddleheads.

[cb223]

What is a fiddlehead or don't I want to know?

[Chuck]

What is a fiddlehead or don't I want to know?

It's the new growth on ferns, they are some of the first greens we get in the spring on our Alaska homestead. You fix them like asparagus, steam them and eat them with vinegar dressing. You can't beat them. The reason they are called fiddleheads is because they look like the thumb nuts you use to tighten the strings on your fiddle.

[R Buker]

That recipe sounds great!  I may forego the parboil though.  Beaver doesn't tend to be a tough meat in my experience.  Living in the water like they do doesn't tend to make their muscles tough.

It's actually a very sweet meat, I think.  I've always cooked it on the grill to medium rare.  Very, very good.  I'm going to try your recipe next chance I get.  Now that I quit trapping, beavers come pretty slowly.