Beaver Tales 2

Coldwood

Coldwood

Joined
Jun 5, 2006
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My friend the trapper finally scored for me what he called "an eatin' beaver" (no jokes, please) meaning that this particular beaver had been dining off willow instead of nasty pine.

He cut off the haunches. Soaked them overnight in baking soda. He stayed away from the front legs, explaining that there were glands up there that could taste bad if not properly removed. (Even though he's a trapper, he has not ever eaten beaver, waiting instead to see what my response is).

Meantime, my wife wished us well, said the timing was perfect. She's gone out of town for a craft show. She won't eat anything that has a "face" on it; prefers to buy her slabs of anonymous meat at the supermarket. However she is a sensible woman, grew up on a truck farm, I know that if push came to shove she would eat a rat if not several of her beloved chickadees.

So, it's me and the dog who was watching my movements in the kitchen carefully. The haunches were good red full meat; trimmed the fat off; basted them with a little olive oil, rubbed in a bit of salt and pepper, and set them at 400 d. in the broiler.

Is the meat good, yes. Does it taste like chicken, no; it is dark and gamy. I don't eat a lot of wild game, so this came as a bit of a surprise. Yet I keep going back to pull off another chunk.

What has this got to do with survival? Eat some wild meat before you think you can go out and do it. Bashing a critter and dragging it to the campfire might sound like a survivalist romance, but be sure you know how to clean it; (I've heard horror stories about people who didn't clean the right glands off of a deer and contaminated the meat); glands and all that. Seek professional help first.

Is beaver good? Damn straight. But if it hadn't been for my friend, I would have botched the job.
 
ColdwoodMy friend the trapper finally scored for me what he called "an eatin' beaver" (no jokes, please)
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Restraint..... restraint:o :D :grumpy: :mad: . I'm O.K. now;)


What has this got to do with survival? Eat some wild meat before you think you can go out and do it. Bashing a critter and dragging it to the campfire might sound like a survivalist romance, but be sure you know how to clean it; (I've heard horror stories about people who didn't clean the right glands off of a deer and contaminated the meat); glands and all that. Seek professional help first.
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Very good point. Someone that has never cleaned, skinned, and/or field dressed game before could be in for a very unpleasant surprise. Never had beaver :rolleyes: ;) meat before. Tell me, could you compare it to some other meat you've had before????
 
Good for you to try it.:thumbup: Told a buddy of mine that if he ever got one SAVE THE MEAT! I'll be damned if he didn't call me last weekend and had one in the truck. Told him to come on over and I'll help him skin it. This was a "problem beaver" and trapped off his farm up north, he just wanted the hide for a hat.:D Didn't even put the hinds in the freezer, went staright into the crock pot over night. Had roasted beaver sandwiches for lunch and dinner just needed to be warmed up that night. Had left overs last night with some fried taters. MMMM Thought about saving my buddy some, but then he might not call me the next time.:D
 
Tell me, could you compare it to some other meat you've had before????
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To me it is similar to deer meat, very dark deep red. Younger ones are sweet.
 
Well it ain't like the meat we get in the supermarket. It is very strong flavored. That's what surprised me at first. But good, yes. Hmmm. It's like eating a sugared strawberry and then eating a bowl of canned peaches and vinegar.
 
I grew up hunting, fishing, and eating what I brought home. My family was skeptical of my meats, but good old D.L., my mentor, was game to fix anything I could drag in. He was one of my Grandfather's close friends. Papa Oates died when I had just started hunting, and DL, having only a daughter, took me under his wing. One night we had a wild game feast at D.L.'s house, his family and my family all came. Dishes weren't identified until the meal was finished and we were having D.L.'s doughnuts for desert (he learned to make them while serving as an Army cook assigned along with Aussies to what became the Bataan March). I'll never forget my brother's and Mother's expressions when they learned they had eaten coon, possum, squirrel, rabbit, duck, dove, quail, and venison. Since those early days, I've tried just about every critter except porky pines (don't have them here), armadillos (no thanks), and skunks (just because). Lizard, beaver, goat, crow, snake, monkey, buffalo, grubs, frogs, shark, carp, minnows, songbirds, all God's creatures have been guests at my table. Dressing game isn't difficult, and tutorials can be found online and in print. Most critter gland no-no's are either myth, or error in contaminating the knife by cutting into the glands. All critters have glands, some exude scent, some are really lymph nodes. All are easy to spot when skinning.

Congratulations on a new adventure!

Codger
 
Most critter gland no-no's are either myth, or error in contaminating the knife by cutting into the glands. All critters have glands, some exude scent, some are really lymph nodes. All are easy to spot when skinning.

Congratulations on a new adventure!

Codger
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Ifn ya hit the Castor glands you'll know it.:D
 
Tarmix, it's kind of a kinky joke that I won't explain...just ponder on it for a while :)

Codger, I've never eaten all the stuff that you have, but I remember at my mother's table we had pheasant, squirrell pie, casserole dishes full of quail or dove, venison, bear meat, duck, wild goose, and real mince-meat pie made with real minced bear meat. Bear fat was rendered off to use as cooking lard, leather boot treatments, or sold to the local pharmacy because it was so pure, to be used in ointments...this was 55+ years ago.
 
Coldwood said:
Tarmix, it's kind of a kinky joke that I won't explain...just ponder on it for a while :)
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I will admit that I'm sllooowwww. But I got it:D Very , very good:thumbup:

Since I have only seen a beaver;) from the water, how much meat did you get from the haunches? I know they are bigger than most think, just curious.
 
Re: "All are easy to spot when skinning." !"?!? If you say so, Codger. ("I don't know nuthin' about skinnin no beavers, Miss Scarlet!!) I brought up this thread before...I've skinned chickens and rabbits and fish, but I am leary about skinning wild furred critters where I don't know where their glands and piss bags are. In a survival situation, you understand, where I might have to eat them.
 
Tarmix, I would say each haunch cut on this animal was about 1-1/2 pounds each...good meaty portions. On the other hand, I have been surprised to learn that a mature beaver can get up to about 60 pounds, more or less. That's a big animal. Too bad we can only harvest about 3 pounds of his meat, besides his skin...at this point. But this is just a start with my friend and I, we look forward to when we can cook the whole critter and have a feast with friends...and give honor and homage to the noble beaver. ;)
 
Coldwood said:
Tarmix, I would say each haunch cut on this animal was about 1-1/2 pounds each...good meaty portions. On the other hand, I have been surprised to learn that a mature beaver can get up to about 60 pounds, more or less. That's a big animal. Too bad we can only harvest about 3 pounds of his meat, besides his skin...at this point. But this is just a start with my friend and I, we look forward to when we can cook the whole critter and have a feast with friends...and give honor and homage to the noble beaver. ;)
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All yuks aside:D the fronts are good too IMO and the tail,no not the flat part, muscle has alot of meat also. I have those cuts in the freezer.:D
A beaver has alot of guts, taint nuttin on the ribs, but the cheek meat is rescueable. Theyz got a bit of back strap too, but not so much as ya would notice.
 
mewolf1, that's just about the impression I got from looking at the carcass on these critters. I think the best meat must be in the haunches, the rest is a big fat meat cage full of guts...no disrespect to the beaver (he knew who he was when he was alive.)

So this time next year my friend the trapper is going to save all his beaver meat parts and we are going to have a backyard BBQ - "Beaver Eating Festival 2007".

We're planning to make T-shirts. Anybody have a good idea for a theme? Any graphic artists want to get in on this?
 
Tarmix, I've got two pieces of tail in my freezer...LMAO...sorry, I just crack myself up! Actually I do, I'm planning to skin them out and use them for sheath covers on my survival knife (had to get the "survival" in there, otherwise this thread would be wasted)

Truthfully, I am planning to skin them out. But from what I've gleaned on this forum and Googling, the skin on a beaver tail is not as sturdy as it would appear. A bit flaccid after curing, it seems, so it would make a better over-sheath for another scabbard. But the scaly texture is good, so I'll probably make a rigid sheath out of cheap chrome leather and cover it with the beaver skin. Whaddya think?
 
Coldwood said:
...But the scaly texture is good, so I'll probably make a rigid sheath out of cheap chrome leather and cover it with the beaver skin. Whaddya think?
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I think that would be cooler than a polar bear's paws! I nominate a buckskinner style hunter or bowie knife for such a sheath.
 
I was thinking of a good beaver joke but I muffed it. :confused: :p :D

I once heard that the meat from the beaver's tail was good. No jokes please.(fat chance)

My dad has a top hat made from beaver fur. I have scraps from a beaver coat.
Its nice fur. Neat skin.
 
Re beavertails, I've also heard that some of the northern tribes, whites included, made a soup of the tail...and that otherwise than the tail core muscle, it is a bunch of white gristle. Yum. This would be in keeping, of course, of using all of the animal.

My Googling found a taxidermy site, where I learned that the tails are so difficult to skin that most taxidermists use a fake tail for their recreations.

That's off topic, I guess in a survival situation the tail might be considered food along with everything else.
 
Coldwood said:
We're planning to make T-shirts. Anybody have a good idea for a theme?
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The "coonasses" in Louisiana have bummper stickers that say "Eat more possum". How about "Eat more beaver" beneath a drawing of a blushing beaver? LOL! The possibilities are many. Anyway, the sun is shining, I gotta get out of the house and do something.
 
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