Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Anyone eat swamp rats (nutria)?

Anyone eat swamp rats (nutria)? What do they taste like, how do you cook them?

I have a friend that lives on Back Bay in Va Beach, Va and he's trapped them and I've eaten them with him when he's cooked them up. They actually aren't that bad at all. You can grill it like chicken and it doesn't taste too different from dark meat chicken. Maybe a little tougher or chewier.

I have eaten them cooked down in a gravy or in a baking bag and they are similar to wild rabbit in taste and texture. Have also eaten some sausage made with them that was most excellent .

I have had them with the meat boiled in some seasoning ( to your taste) in a gumbo. I have made a casserole with ‘em. Mighty good ! Served it to some deacons at church! A rat good casserole 😁

Yep, they're fugly but they taste good.

Clean em up and wash and bone the meat
Run em through the meat grinder
Make an etouffee as normal
Coupla healthy spoons over a plate of rice

Ah ! The smell of it

i ate muskrat at a blackpowder shoot years ago, cooked them over open fire. The must rat was actually pretty good

Big push in Louisiana several years ago to get people to eat more of them. They have become a nuisance . I have a cousin in Arkansas that tried to make a killing by raising them to sell for the meat and fur many years ago (50). Didn't take long for that venture to go broke.

The reason many were released into the wild I'm lead to believe . They are in parts of the Delta around Stockton and up towards Sacramento. Air rifle and boat equals dinner. Cook it up cajun style.

Thought there was a bounty on them in Louisiana , guess I could look that up.

I bet they make a good additive to breakfast sausage.

Might have to the way things are going with Biden at the helm

Yeah, way things seem to be headed, we may be glad to have a "Brandon Gumbo"...

I thought you had to be Cajun to cook nutria...

They can make about anything taste good.

DF

last I heard La, bounty was $5., in a boat you could most likely make $100. a day

I heard you had to use a shotgun in the swamps, that you couldn't sell them unless you had a permit.

They don't have them here so no , never ate one . I love Beaver though .

If you're not from Louisiana, can you just buy a Louisiana varmint hunting license, drive to the swamp and use your .22LR near the swamp and get a few, walking around or would it be best to pay someone to take you out in a hovercraft or boat? Not interested in the bounty.

Fee's are $150 for basic hunting license (out of state), I cannot answer the walking up to the swamp and killing one, as I have not seen one in 10yrs. Now beaver on the other hand, I kill 5-6 every time I go to the camp, depending on the time of day.

https://www.eregulations.com/louisiana/hunting/licenses-fees

up north we don`t have any of these creatures , but we do have both kinds of beaver . one is nice and quiet lives in the water ,the other is mean, nasty ,expensive ,and hard to live with.

Possibly, for a few years when two older guys are running it I went to the Southern Nationals rimfire silhouette in Winnsboro Louisiana now them guys cooked up some local foods that I'm not exactly sure what all the hell it was so......

7 minutes in a pressure cooker at pressure gets any tough critter to be tender enough to be cut with a fork!

Even Squirrel in a pressure cooker, quarter of an onion, clove a garlic is fantastic right out of the pressure cooker!