Growing up in Florida and being poor and hungry at times, I thought Coots were pretty good eating, especially compared to nothing else that day on the table.. We even ate the gizzards fried up. I do remember the only way we cooked them was in a pressure cooker, seasoned well, the same way we ate Muscovy Ducks and dumplings when we went after them. Some bread and a cast net = dinner back then. We didn't eat them all the time, but sure didn't waste them. I remember eating Gopher Tortoise, Salt water catfish, lot's of Soft Shell turtles, mullet and mullet roe, and gizzards, swamp cabbage, and I reckon lot's of other stuff some folks might call unpalatable, that we were used to.
