Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Do any of you have favorite Wilderness ( Prairie) stew recipes...

I'm thinking as the economy gets tougher making Wilderness (Prairie) stew from the varmints we shoot might something to think about.

Anybody doing that?

Beaver meat makes great sausage,jerkey, chili, stew, and the livers are some of the best eats, in trapping camp it was fried beaver liver onions and eggs for breakfast and beaver jerkey in the pack for midday snacks. We'd put a bunch of jerkey strips on a grill suspended over the campfire when we headed out in the morning and beaver meat, onions, carrots and spuds in the dutch oven burried in the pit. Spent a couple of weeks every spring up in the bush trapping beaver.

Roast raccoon is great be sure to remove glands under front legs.

Stewed muskrat (just used the hind legs but we had alot of them) and dumpling still makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

erich

snapping turtles were always a treat.

Turtle feeds are a staple around here, as are big game feeds involving the usual suspects.

Varmints to me are fox, coyote, prairie dogs, etc. Table fare for buzzards....

I was reading some stuff on the Mountain Men and the info said they at the tail of the beaver. I don't if that's true or not. I would imagine they must have eaten beaver. Thanks for your input.

When I was kid growing up in Vermont the only varmint we had was Woodchuck. Everything else that we consider varmints out here in the West was classified as small game and license was required with limits on take and possession. I ate many a Gray Squirrel and rabbits in a pot of spaghetti.

Derby_dude: I have eaten Rock Chuck and Porcupine - enjoyed them both - but both are a lot of trouble for smallish meals.
I really like Cougar meat but again a lot of trouble and calories expended for modest amounts of edible meat.
I think I will stick with fish, chicken, beef, Antelope, Deer, Bear, Moose and Elk meat.
I consider myself a "stew" making expert but have only stewed the larger species of game meats.
Good luck if you decide to make some Prairie Dog stew.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VG, you ought to try Gray Squirrel and cottontail rabbits for small. Both are heavy hunted for stews back East or at least they were when I was a kid. Beagles are in demand for small game hunting back East or were when I was a kid.

Derby_dude: Our family had a large garden when I was very young. My father used to "harvest" the Cottontail Rabbits out of it (year round) and we ate them.
It has been so long (52 years or so) since I ate Rabbit that I have forgotten what it tastes like or what I thought of it.
And I never tasted a Gray Squirrel ever.
Late last summer I travelled over to the far NW corner of Washington state to see my younger brothers new "summer home" on Birch Bay.
This area is just a mile or two from the Canadian border and on the salt water.
Anyway he has BLACK SQUIRRELS on his property!
And there were several of them.
They appeared just a tad larger than Gray Squirrels but their profound black color may have made them look larger than they were!
I believe they may be protected there in NW Washington state but I would love to have one mounted on a limb in my den.
I have talked to many people that love to eat wild squirrel.
Lots of Cottontails around my house here in SW Montana but I don't Hunt them much.
Whenever I get in the mood to eat something wild and smallish I go shoot two Grouse and carefully cook them up.
I remember a Duck Hunt that four of us were on just a few months ago. We came across a flock of Hungarian Partridge and ended up double jumping the large flock and we got 8 of them.
We went home for lunch and had the 8 Huns for appetizers along with white wine - man were they wonderful!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy