Realy dumb question?

[Tengu]

A bison would be no good to me as I have no freezer.

Id like to be able to afford something thats `not` chicken. (Much as I love chicken...)

I dissapointed the butcher today by asking for a couple of inches of black pudding...Which might seem frugal, but hey, I like black pudding and thats just enough for a serving.

Robson Valley, the blackbirds were live. The pastry was blind baked, possibly with a dry bean filling to hold its shape, and the birds placed within. When the pie is cut they fly out and some poor servant has the task of rounding them up all over again. (But what a conversation piece at dinner!)

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks, santaman. Would take a week and cost a bundle to get anywhere near that herd. Equally, very difficult to spread from those isolated locations.
I like the 2 yr-olds which are 10 minutes from my house!

Bison pemmican does not require even refrigeration = trail food in 90lb bison hide bags.
In the fur-trading days, Hudson's Bay Company records show that Rocky Mountain House
fur trading post had an annual quota of 40,000lbs of pemmican to prepare. 20 tons of it (dried meat & rendered fat).
They knocked that off in 10 days work.

You call it biltong as I know it as "jerky." My poor kitchen oven would have a hernia, trying to dry
a side. . .. . will be some 300-400lbs meat on 100-150lbs bone.

 

[santaman2000]

Thanks, santaman. Would take a week and cost a bundle to get anywhere near that herd. Equally, very difficult to spread from those isolated locations.
I like the 2 yr-olds which are 10 minutes from my house!.......

Yeah I suspect most bison are safe enough. I don't think that's the only herd that's infected though, although it might be the only one in Canada. In any case I wouldn't want to eat raw liver or offal from any critter. Your Dept. Of Agriculture should be able to give you more accurate info than I can.

The subject comes up from time to time in the US because the cattle ranchers are afraid of exposure; they'd have to euthanize their beef herds if our Dept. of Agriculture (state or federal) suspected an infection.

 

[forrestdweller]

i have not tried fox or badger -but a few other unusual things (the strangest was @ ""Mc Donalds"")- but if i had to try it i would make VERY SURE it's well-cooked to avoid trichinosis worms and tapeworms... . i also remember reading that the liver of bears and other animals contains dangerously high levels of vitaminA so i would stay clear of it!

 

[Robson Valley]

Find Ted & Shemane Nugent's cookbook = "Kill It and Grill It." Good stories and surprisingly good meat recipes.

Freezers here come in all sorts of sizes. With bulk food buying and prep, it does not take long for them to pay for themselves.
You find a deal, share a young pork, buy 10 chickens. . .. . swap some bison for elk/venison/moose. Never share grouse with anyone.

Over the span of a week or two, I'll cook for 6-8 people every night = about the same clean-up mess. Eat one portion and freeze the rest.
Can you imagine making lasagne for one? Using bison burger for cheap, I weighed the last batch = 10lbs. Just 2 pieces left.

My pie crust formula is exactly enough for 6 apple pies. That's what I do. Machine to peel, core and slice each of 24 apples in one pass.
I built a crude book case in the freezer for the pies. Why not? I can pretend to be the host with the most.
A side of bison, bought one cut at a time, would cost thousands of dollars. About $4/lb across all cuts for what I put in the freezer.

 

[Compo Semite]

I must admit to eating a road kill badger once upon a time through necessity . It was surprisingly good once it had been curried (gen). Iv'e heard since that roasted badger was eaten in Somerset back in the day. Anyone else of that? Fox though I have yet to sample.

 

[richardhomer]

Never eaten squirrel but would like to. Iguana is tasty but not many wild in the UK!

I've eaten squirrel, it's a very light meat. Quite tasty but you don't get a lot of meat on one. It's quite nice not a very strong taste to it i found .

 

[richardhomer]

A guy I use to work with told me that when he was younger he fell up on hard times. He took to shooting black birds with an old air rifle and stealing potatoes from over the allotments to feed himself.
This was not that long ago early 80s ,
I've had snails they are nice.

 

[Robson Valley]

The Fish & Game Club, back in the city, usually held a wild game dinner each winter.
Lots of contributions. Tried Lynx & Cougar, they were OK. The usual Canada geese and ducks.
Never caribou, mountain goat or mountain sheep. Bison, elk, moose, whitetail & mule deer, the bears.
I rank bison #1 then #2 moose then #3 elk. Then the others. Rattlesnake is OK, wild turkey (Merriam's) is fantastic.
Our "bush bunnies" are not big and have hind quarters, little else. Won't eat a spruce-cone flavored squirrel.
I like to hunt birds. Along the way, I've bought ostrich & emu, they're OK but tough. Never made it up top for ptarmigan.

One night, we cooked a mystery bird from my freezer. Was good. After several days, we agreed that it must have been a domestic duck.
I'd be inclined to pass on road kill unless I smacked the critter myself.

 

[Compo Semite]

A guy I use to work with told me that when he was younger he fell up on hard times. He took to shooting black birds with an old air rifle and stealing potatoes from over the allotments to feed himself.
This was not that long ago early 80s ,
I've had snails they are nice.

Yeah, that's pretty much the situation I was in when the roadkill badger incident occurred, that and the skips behind the local co-op kept me going. Never had snails though, I did make an attempt to gather some not so long ago and purge them and all that but by then my situation had improved so in the end I didnt fancy them and let them go...