Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Anybody eat Coots ?

Goofy looking critters - anyone eat’em ?

Nash Buckingham had a recipe for coot from a lady in the south..

I knew a guy who loved coots. He'd take all we could shoot....he pickled them. YUCK!

used to breast them out and make a stew with them. Now it would be tacos. For a long time where I hunted didn't have the.

Heck yeah! We shot our limit of cans one morning and my buddy busted out his 410 to make the coot shootin an little more sporting. Clean them and throw them in with the rest of the meat. I made a canvas coot for the spread just for fun.

The limit is large so if they can be made good to eat it would make for a better day of shooting.

Andrew Zimmerman of Bizarre Foods did a show in Louisiana, seems like coot and nutria were on the menu. Of course Andrew smacks his lips and "says that good".

They taste a lot better than merganser.
But that isn't saying much.

The old story here is that you season them up for coot and gravy, but also put a rock in the pot. When everything is done, you throw out all the meat and eat the rock.

The fact that you would know that speaks volumes.........

My dad said if you shoot it you eat it. I've shot one merganser. He had a good laugh.

As far as coot goes, I've soaked them in a brine and chopped up the meat and used it in Jambalaya or Gumbo but mainly I chop them up and used them for dog food. They love it and l like blasting them when nothing else is flying.

Sounds like a show for the MeatEater........

Poule d'eau gumbo

I tried getting the hide of a merganser last year... I don’t think it can be done.

Then again, you might not notice the difference of chewing on it’s hide from the breast meat anyway.

Ducks are plentiful and failing that bologna is cheap, why would you?

A coot is just a support system for a gizzard ... it is HUGE. Not too bad either.

My attempts to make a meal from the rest of the bird have been kind of painful.

First time in 30 years coots showed up here. In the san joaquin valley of my youth they were by the millions. If you squeeze the mud out of them , mix it with flour and fry it ,the taste will be the same as the coot!
Had a flight of greenwings wheel about 30 yards out. Shot one with a 2 dollar round. When i picked it up it turned into a merganser! Tried to give it to my lab and she spit it out and walked off with a glare😆

Coot gizzard gumbo....pol deaux?......Cajun friends used to talk about it.....gizzards cleaned, diced, sautéed with bacon, then added in place of chicken in chicken & sausage gumbo.....it’s a meat filler in stuff like that. If you have the time to clean and fool with it, it might be worth the trouble.

Don't Cajun's call them water chicken? My uncle was a provincial conservation officer and avid hunter. He said coots were fine to eat. I believe him, but I've yet to put it to the test. He and my cousin also swear by Sandhill Cranes, too.

Does cooter count? Had a lot of that...

I only shoot a very few, mostly to give my dog some retrieves. They are OK as an ingredient in gumbo.

When I lived in Louisiana had some in gumbo.

I braised a few once in wine and stock. Not bad.

Like most game meat, they have a worse reputation than they deserve.

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.

In high School back in the 70's my buddies and I used to ice skate on the frozen estuary near my home with our shotguns and shoot coots out of the cattail swamps. It was like pheasant practice. we'd skate 2-3 miles along the unfrozen tidal areas and blast away. Hate to say we never even thought of picking them up. I think the limit at the time was 25 each.

merganser, did I hear merganser. Come on they aren’t that bad. 😂😳

its like eating a jackrabbit its ok but i wouldn't do it again

Back in the 60s, my brothers and I convinced mom to grind and fry jack rabbit burgers. Disgusting.

^^This

Yep. Pretty dang good. But gumbo done right makes everything great.

Nope. too much like a Merganser, bottom feeders, fish duck, neighbor duck..

Jed Clampett must have liked them cause he was always bragging on granny’s coot cobbler

He is very right about sandhills...

Shot coots in rice paddies and they were really good...

One you lick the other you chew. Does that count?

Coots, mergansers, etc.... Why is it that none of these fish eaters taste like crappie or blue gill?

Coots don't eat fish. You must have never cleaned one. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Coot/overview
Their breast meat is very dark but had a nice flavor from the area my college roommate hunted ducks in.

Once got a couple extremely mixed limits on the Snake River when out with a buddy, and we kept all sorted and labeled all the way to the plates for a big evening meal. The bag included a back ground coot that we gathered up as well. The only bird that universally got negative comments was a green winged teal. The coot fit in with the rest of the bunch. Only about robin size when one knocks the feathers off, so it would take a good number to fill a pot.

They can be great.

Pressure cook them with red wine, sour cream, mushrooms, shallots or scallions, chopped carrots, a little tarragon, and salt & pepper. Pull the meat off the bones and eat it over rice with the sour cream, wine, and mushroom sauce poured over the top.

Some water chestnuts in the mix can be added. I like them in it. This is even better on wild rice.

Heard that my grandma would make coot pie during the depression...Assuming it musta tasted great, if you’re ass is starving.

🦫😬

I'd eat that anytime.