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wilderness food...
- Thread starter kevshin21
- Start date
I caught a rabbit in a live wooden trap I made when I was a teenager. I let him go and didn;t eat him but I've eaten at least 2 since (in the last 30 years), yeah probably more than 2. I shot those though. I've set some snares while out practicing survival techniques with my daughter, but we've not caught anything yet. I suppose we could if we set more than one....probably 5 or so, and if we paid more attention.
I trapped some quail when I was a kid with a trap my friend made. I didn;t really trap them, I just tagged along. We let them go also. I was about 13 I guess, and my buddy had this hole in the ground/funnel/coffee can trick. I could do it again if I had to, I think....hmmmm, maybe.
I've eaten fresh crawdads cooked right by the creek where they were caught. Ft. Hood, Texas when I was about 15 or so. Since then, I've eaten them again at least once....again, cooked within about an hour of catching them.
I ate a few baked ants on a dare about 4 years ago. We were sitting around building the campfire before dusk on a camping trip. One of us started talking about these ants that were traipsing through our site (or us through theirs). That started a discussion about survival and what people would eat and it turned into a dare. I cooked about a dozen...most fell into the fire or someway or another got away. Some I had to smash a little to get them to stay put on the stick while they cooked (I sure would hate for somebody to do that to me). Anyway, I ate probably 3 or 4, then two other guys ate some. We ate them whole....head and all. I really don;t think they needed to be cooked, exactly, but that's just what people think of when eating wild stuff...so we did it. I can;t remember there being any particular taste...if somebody asked I'd probably say they tasted like..........yep, chicken. But I doubt that's true...there really wasn;t a taste... maybe a little acid or something, but I can;t be sure now.
Most of the other stuff I've eaten I've either killed with a rifle or shotgun or somebody else did. Cougar, deer, oryx, rabbit, quail, dove, pheasant, wild pig, quail eggs, rattlesnake (then neatsfoot oil/tanned the skin), duck (domestic - my daughter's), softshell turtle, nearly every species of fish that can be caught in Texas, New Mexico, or So. California. Ate quite a bit of a blue shark I caught 12 miles off-shore from San Diego. Mackeral from Santa Barbara....cooked them in a foil/charcoal makeup in the window of a motel there. While deer isn;t bad, the best I've tasted was the cougar and the oryx..... both a real treat.
The rattlesnake was unique. Killed with rocks, a stick, and finally, MY knife. Another camping trip in the desert outside El Paso. Skinned him, cleaned him, and cooked him right there that evening. Slices of him we put on rocks ringing the fire and other parts we held near the fire with sticks and, again, MY knife
Now if anything was like the old saying "Tastes like chicken" I suppose that was it. We had no salt but somebody had Lays potato chips and I rubbed some all over a few slices of mine, and ate a mouthful of them during another bite or two. If I remember right, it was pretty good.... maybe it was the fun of camping or the camraderie, but I remember it tasting pretty good.
When I was 18, I ate a goose I raised since I was 16. I had come home one weekend and my Dad was tired of taking care of him. My mother was raised on a farm in Ohio so she knew what we had to do, so she coached us through butchering it and then she cooked it.
That's about it. Nothing too awful exotic I suppose. If I were trapped in the wilderness, be it forrest, desert, mountains, plains, whatever, I know that IF I did snag something, I wouldn;t have a problem eating it.
I saw Les Stroud (Survivorman) trap and cook a desert rat in his Utah mountain bike episode. He didn't clean it or anything, just took the whole thing and hung it over the fire. He cooked it for a long time, fur, tail, guts and all. Then he cut into it for supper. My wife and daughter were a little aghast. I didn;t say anything but Iknew I could do it without too much problem. It's catching it that would be hard for me.
I guess that's about all I've eaten.
EDIT: Snails! Aha! I knew I forgot something (probably remember another thing or two). I ate some snails at a restaurant in El Paso many years ago. They were gritty but EXCELLENT. We had these little forks and some butter mixture to dip into.
Well, that isn;t why I remembered and came back to edit. I ate some California snails we caught, took with us, and cooked right by the lake. Now THEY didn;t taste all that good. Might have been the way we cooked them I don't know, but they didn;t settle quite well. My buddy boiled some and this stuff was floating around in the water like egg-drop soup or something. We fried them after that in bacon grease, but after seeing them in the water they just didn;t look appetizing any more.
I trapped some quail when I was a kid with a trap my friend made. I didn;t really trap them, I just tagged along. We let them go also. I was about 13 I guess, and my buddy had this hole in the ground/funnel/coffee can trick. I could do it again if I had to, I think....hmmmm, maybe.
I've eaten fresh crawdads cooked right by the creek where they were caught. Ft. Hood, Texas when I was about 15 or so. Since then, I've eaten them again at least once....again, cooked within about an hour of catching them.
I ate a few baked ants on a dare about 4 years ago. We were sitting around building the campfire before dusk on a camping trip. One of us started talking about these ants that were traipsing through our site (or us through theirs). That started a discussion about survival and what people would eat and it turned into a dare. I cooked about a dozen...most fell into the fire or someway or another got away. Some I had to smash a little to get them to stay put on the stick while they cooked (I sure would hate for somebody to do that to me). Anyway, I ate probably 3 or 4, then two other guys ate some. We ate them whole....head and all. I really don;t think they needed to be cooked, exactly, but that's just what people think of when eating wild stuff...so we did it. I can;t remember there being any particular taste...if somebody asked I'd probably say they tasted like..........yep, chicken. But I doubt that's true...there really wasn;t a taste... maybe a little acid or something, but I can;t be sure now.
Most of the other stuff I've eaten I've either killed with a rifle or shotgun or somebody else did. Cougar, deer, oryx, rabbit, quail, dove, pheasant, wild pig, quail eggs, rattlesnake (then neatsfoot oil/tanned the skin), duck (domestic - my daughter's), softshell turtle, nearly every species of fish that can be caught in Texas, New Mexico, or So. California. Ate quite a bit of a blue shark I caught 12 miles off-shore from San Diego. Mackeral from Santa Barbara....cooked them in a foil/charcoal makeup in the window of a motel there. While deer isn;t bad, the best I've tasted was the cougar and the oryx..... both a real treat.
The rattlesnake was unique. Killed with rocks, a stick, and finally, MY knife. Another camping trip in the desert outside El Paso. Skinned him, cleaned him, and cooked him right there that evening. Slices of him we put on rocks ringing the fire and other parts we held near the fire with sticks and, again, MY knife
Now if anything was like the old saying "Tastes like chicken" I suppose that was it. We had no salt but somebody had Lays potato chips and I rubbed some all over a few slices of mine, and ate a mouthful of them during another bite or two. If I remember right, it was pretty good.... maybe it was the fun of camping or the camraderie, but I remember it tasting pretty good.When I was 18, I ate a goose I raised since I was 16. I had come home one weekend and my Dad was tired of taking care of him. My mother was raised on a farm in Ohio so she knew what we had to do, so she coached us through butchering it and then she cooked it.
That's about it. Nothing too awful exotic I suppose. If I were trapped in the wilderness, be it forrest, desert, mountains, plains, whatever, I know that IF I did snag something, I wouldn;t have a problem eating it.
I saw Les Stroud (Survivorman) trap and cook a desert rat in his Utah mountain bike episode. He didn't clean it or anything, just took the whole thing and hung it over the fire. He cooked it for a long time, fur, tail, guts and all. Then he cut into it for supper. My wife and daughter were a little aghast. I didn;t say anything but Iknew I could do it without too much problem. It's catching it that would be hard for me.
I guess that's about all I've eaten.
EDIT: Snails! Aha! I knew I forgot something (probably remember another thing or two). I ate some snails at a restaurant in El Paso many years ago. They were gritty but EXCELLENT. We had these little forks and some butter mixture to dip into.
Well, that isn;t why I remembered and came back to edit. I ate some California snails we caught, took with us, and cooked right by the lake. Now THEY didn;t taste all that good. Might have been the way we cooked them I don't know, but they didn;t settle quite well. My buddy boiled some and this stuff was floating around in the water like egg-drop soup or something. We fried them after that in bacon grease, but after seeing them in the water they just didn;t look appetizing any more.
Learning how to set snares would be the best skill to learn first for trapping, and that is simple. take a piece or 16 gauge(thats what I use) brass wire, about 11" long or how ever big you need for the snare, then make a nice little loop at the en, about 1/8 of an inch wide, and feed the rest of the wire through it.
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- Mar 22, 2006
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bunnies are pretty easy to snare, try to look for there trails either in the snow or through the brush, look for a place where numerous paths or sets of tracks seem to converge and set a snare there you can reinforce the sies of the trail with brush to try and funnel the rabbits through the opening. I've had some luck snaring squirrels as well, recently I've been playing with figure four deadfalls but haven't caught anything yey. any survival book worth it's salt should have a relatively detailed section on what your looking for.
Yea I know how to make and set traps (snare) but, as I said, I haven;t been successful yet. I think maybe it's because I haven't really endeavored and planned a route of attack, it's just been an introductory for my little girl (and for me to it seems). Another thing is, I'm kindly afraid if we caught one, well I know I'd have to kill it, and she likes rabbits, raised several already (along with her 15 ducks). (Although, she doesn;t know what happened to four of them
) She's NOT squeemish (Dad's worked hard at preventing that!), but just the same she loves animals. She's only 8 1/2Also, I'm confident I could build that live trap again.... no problem. But maybe not with what I could just find in the woods. I'm a woodworker with a full shop, so I'd have to do it there. If I made one out in the desert, using mesquite and whatever, it would probably be pretty crappy. I should try I guess. PLUS, I saw some plans several months ago for building one. It's better than the one I know. I saved it if I find it I'll post it here, OK?
One thing I've studied on a little is making deadfall traps. I never made one (like Strouds where he caught the rat) but I really want to try. Maybe next time we're in the mountains....spring or summer, we'll try to make one. It's easy, I know, but I don;t know that from experience.
I don;t have aim. What is that?
Hey FLIX
I wish I knew how to "quote" to different posters so I could put your quote here about wapiti. I've heard of that but can;t think of what it is! Is that some native purreed beef fat like lard smeared on fry bread or something? I'm not making fun, I'm just trying to remember what that is (if I ever really knew). I know I've heard of it......hmmmm pretty tired right now. If you tell me what it is, I'll try it!!!! (maybe)
Like my wife says "Oh, don;t worry about it. He'll eat anything! Twice! "I wish I lived up there in an area like where you live..... or even NY where RescueRiley is. It seems there's more latitude for survival there, at least more game. Well, maybe that's one of those "grass is always greener....." things. We have game in the desert, but there's a mental process that people go through....having to remind themselves that the desert's full of life. Still, I have kin in NE Ohio, and it's inspiring to go up there with our mindsets.
I loop my snares similar to that, but I can't say it like I know it works...since I haven;t caught anything. But I've hunted and camped since I was a kid, and didn;t stop, and you know you learn a few things after awhile. I know I'd eat if I was stranded, but it may take me alot longer and with more frustration than you guys who've succeeded already with a snare.
Allright, I gotta go to bed. I'm typing and not making sense. THis is a good thread. I'm just going to read it and not type for a few days maybe
I do eventually want to tell you Kevshin how I cook eggs by the fire. you might know some tricks or you might like my method just for the funof trying maybe.
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Hey FLIX
I wish I knew how to "quote" to different posters so I could put your quote here about wapiti. I've heard of that but can;t think of what it is! Is that some native purreed beef fat like lard smeared on fry bread or something? I'm not making fun, I'm just trying to remember what that is (if I ever really knew). I know I've heard of it......hmmmm pretty tired right now. If you tell me what it is, I'll try it!!!! (maybe)
Not to burst your "Survivor" bubble, but Wapiti is an indian word for elk. Darn fine eating and probably the coolest animal to hunt there is.
-- FLIX
Another thing to remember is not to leave the snare for too long, this is kinda obvious, but I've seen many people neglect their snares. Yes, there better ways of procuring game, but no matter who you are, knowing a rabbit froze to death, when you could have made the journey quick and painless can weigh heavy, Member the first bird ya shot??
well my bad that I didn't know what a actual snare was, I wasn't exactly raised by wilderness keen people (acutally I am the only one that is interested in the outdoors) I'm still wondering how it works even though I see the design (yes I know I am not very smart
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When I was younger, I ate both cow tongue and cow stomach (tripe), then I found out what it really was and haven't eaten it since.
LOL... you know, food is about perception, so it is very relative. One may think that something is delicious but another person on the other part of the world doesnt even think that it is food. Most American only eats the meat, but for us Indonesian, we eat almost the whole part of cow. Most of you love cheese, but a lot of Indonesian hates the smell of it (not me though, I love cheese). I read a tourist guide book about Kalimantan (Indonesian part of Borneo), and he described durian as thorny fruit with disgusting smells . But we dont think it is disgusting at all
So in theory, it is all about changing our perception.
In the tropics, insect, bug, snail, worm are the easiest sources of protein, but most of us dont associate them as food. Once we can change our perception, then we dont have to waste our time, and resource trying to catch bird, mammal . But that is in theory, I still cant force myself to eat caterpillar, maggots. But I have tried grasshopper, termite, snail, I cooked them first.
barrabas74
Gold Member
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I have eatin alot of things mentioned above...I have eatin live octupus, that was kinda wierd. I ate with a buddy of mine, they are only about a foot long and you swirl them around a chopstick and dip them in some sauce.
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I served part of my church mission on the navajo reservation, so I ate a lot of interesting things there, mostly to do with sheep. I've eaten blood sausage, heart, achii (fat from the stomach lining wrapped with intestines), horse roast, and probably some things that I don't know if I want to know what it was. I've had fresh mussels and crawdads right from the water, pretty much any kind of game meat imaginable. I once had bear meat, it was the richest meat I've ever had. You usually don't think of meat being rich but it was like eating a double layered triple fudge chocolate cake, only it was meat. I'm sure there's lots more but I can't think of it all right now.
-Ron
-Ron
I KNEW IT! HA! It figures I wouldn;t be able to think of it until you told me what it was! hehehehe!
I'm almost right smack dab in the middle of the Mescalero reservation... there're Elk everywhere up here, though I haven;t killed one. I forgot to mention I ate some though.... very good.
I ate some octopus too...many times...but it's always cooked and usually mixed in with rice. I like it. Forgot to mention earlier that I ate some grasshoppers too. I shouldn't have forgot that, because we ate a bunch of them. Ft Hood Texas again. Fried 'em up in a pot (all we had) then other times fried them on a cast-iron grill my Dad had, on top of the barbecue grill. I should've never forgot mentioning them. I'd eat some now if we had any abundance of nice big ones around here.
KEVSHIN
ALL this talk about food? I don;t see exotic food as anything special and I sure haven;t very many wierd things. I'm just a normal guy who camps alot, hunts some, and loves to practice survival stuff. ALL of us ate dirt when were kids...and who knows what else. If we got hungry enough, there isn;t much we wouldn;t eat. Might as well try a few strange things now, so we know we can eat it if we're ever stuck. I think, anyway.
So my daughter and I go out as often as possible in a vast desert behind our place. She can start a fire with nothing more than her Victorinox and Doan mag/flint ALL BY HERSELF (remember she's 8 1/2). Even when it's breezy, she can do it. We usually take some potatos and eggs with us. The potatos we bury in the dirt under the fire, then use the skin as "bowls". SOmetimes we wrap them in foil. Ok...this is simple stuff everybody knows.
But the eggs.......... some guys know this, some don;t. You might already know this. We take these eggs and, using the tip of the knife, gently tap the crown of the egg until we get a small hole (about 1/8" in diam). Then we set those eggs down in the coals...not too close to the main fire. You can drag a few coals a few inches from the fire and set the eggs in them. As they burn down, drag a few more over and keep the egg surrounded. The eggs cook in 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how close to the fire they were and how many large coals you used. You peel them like hard-boiled but they'll be about soft to medium. The bottoms are sometimes rubbery, but my daughter loves that part.
Ideally, you would build a small fire. One that would fit in the palm of your hand. You just keep feeding twigs and very small sticks until you get a nice bed of coals. Think small now...the whole bed of coals only about 5" in diam. Then just set your egg in there. If your fire is too big or coals too hot, the egg will pop....crack and start leaking. I'll still cook though.
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I see wild meat as no different than domesticated, in the sense that I would use spices or marinades for both types. I find that most wild meat is a little smelly while cooking and goes from mild to wild on the gaminess scale. With that said, this is my palatability gauge for some critters that Ive choked down.
Generally quite good to mild gaminess: Fresh water fish, game birds, Buffalo, Elk, (Moose...these swamp donkies are the best)
Medium gaminess and sometimes tougher (rabbits): White tail and Mule deer (I prefer a young Mulie), Rabbits, Porcupine
Very gamey: Caribou, any deer badly shot and chased. Just let them lie down for half an hour to stiffen up, then go pop it again.
Slow cooking lean dry wild meat like Caribou in plenty of liquid works well. Use plenty of fresh garlic
This has been my experience anyway. I have limited knowledge in regard to wild indigenous plants, although Im pretty good about many types of local mushrooms. Another observation is that the feed an animal is slamming down defines its taste. An eastern Canadian would be turned off by a western beef steak and vise versa. Because, the eastern cow is fed with corn silage and the western cow eats wheat grain graded too low for human food use (feed grain).
Generally quite good to mild gaminess: Fresh water fish, game birds, Buffalo, Elk, (Moose...these swamp donkies are the best)
Medium gaminess and sometimes tougher (rabbits): White tail and Mule deer (I prefer a young Mulie), Rabbits, Porcupine
Very gamey: Caribou, any deer badly shot and chased. Just let them lie down for half an hour to stiffen up, then go pop it again.
Slow cooking lean dry wild meat like Caribou in plenty of liquid works well. Use plenty of fresh garlic
This has been my experience anyway. I have limited knowledge in regard to wild indigenous plants, although Im pretty good about many types of local mushrooms. Another observation is that the feed an animal is slamming down defines its taste. An eastern Canadian would be turned off by a western beef steak and vise versa. Because, the eastern cow is fed with corn silage and the western cow eats wheat grain graded too low for human food use (feed grain).