Just because I'm curious..
Might not be the right category, but I thought it fit.
For the past two days I've passed a group of 4 rather chunky lb turturkey vultures/buzzards and started wondering.... @judsoncarroll4 are they edible? And how would you prepare them for dinner? These birds were easily the size of a 20+lb turkey.
Inquiring minds would like to know.
Comments
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Edible, yes... legal to hunt, unfortunately, no. interestingly, the beaks of vultures and buzzards were once highly regarded medicinally.
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Geesh, why not? If you can hunt the feathered irritating rats known as Canadian Geese, you should be able to bag buzzards.
You can tell that I live in an area where Canadian geese are a major pain in the rump, can't ya?
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Oh, but you can't hunt Canada geese without a special permit, stamps and all... and only in a very limited season. See, some folks took a few too many during the great depression, when they wanted to do such outrageous things as to feed themselves and their families.... just because now those same geese are a nuisance that cause planes to crash and such doesn't mean our government has caught up to 2020... noooooo... government employees learn all they know from college classes, with books on info almost 100 years old and professors taught by people who learned what they "knew" in the crises of that era... how many of them do you think have ever been in the woods for more than a nature walk? There are real endangered species... there are also outdated laws that put the ecosystem out of balance.
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I agree 100%
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Canada Geese are an issue in many parts of Canada as well. We can hunt them during the legal season (fall migration) as long as you have a licence (at least in my jurisdiction), but the problem is that they have inhabited areas on public beaches, lawns and parks where there is not hunting or shooting.
They are a difficult bird to hunt. Very smart and easily spooked. You need a really good dog to be able to retrieve one. They are heavy and vicious if only wounded.
It is not legal to hunt turkey vultures here but I don't think I would want to eat one as all they seem to eat is carrion. And pretty old carrion at that.
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Given their diet especially, and also biology (super high acid content of stomach and such), surely vulture meat would taste terrible. I have come across stories in 19th-century diaries and memoirs of starving pioneers or mountain men in desperate situations eating a vulture because that's all there was, and finding vulture meat to be every bit as bad as you would expect. Thinking of other scavengers, older folks around here who lived through the depression remember their families catching possums and keeping them penned up for a time, feeding them whatever scraps they could spare, to "clean them out" and sweeten the meat before eating them. I'll bet it would take a whole lot of "sweetening" to make vulture palatable......
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@MaryRowe I have heard as well that it tastes bad for the reasons that you mentioned.
@RustBeltCowgirl This is exactly the type of posts I expected to see here. I hope this will be a well utilized subcategory.
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Keep an eye out for articles on the TGN blog.... there just may be some info on the culinary uses of possum soon....
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@judsoncarroll4 Maybe that will help spark a discussion thread on that subject on here too!
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@judsoncarroll4 I'd say we definitely need a possum topic!
Back in my young days, before I got old and stove up, I spent as much time as I could doing living history and buckskinner events. Spent a few years rendezvousing full time. Hung out with a rowdy bunch of "mountain men" who took especial pride in scooping up any fresh roadkill they came across on their way to the camp. They would then cook it up and throw a first-night-of-camp feast for any and all willing to give it a try. I never heard of any of them willing to try vulture, but have experienced several possum feasts, as well as just about anything else that moves on four legs between the Mississippi and the Cascade Mountains. Never tried to process and cook a possum myself, but what the heck--I'm open to considering the possibilities!
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I had a friend who was convinced that my saying "opossum" was some sort of intriguing regionalism.
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@blevinandwomba Out here in this part of rural Missouri, using the term "opossum" marks you as some sort of elitist city-dwelling-snob-bleeding-heart-liberal etc.etc.etc.--not that folks are given to stereotyping or anything like that of course......😏
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I've never had possum. They are not native to BC, although some have migrated into Southern BC from other parts of NA. I've only rarely seen one. Are they a dark meat?
@judsoncarroll4 Is that a real can label?
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Yes... and no. It was a novelty label for a product we used to carry in my family's grocery store - something for tourists who were being entertained in Appalachia. The large cans were actually corned beef, and a smaller can with a white label was potted meat. It was "hillbilly kitsch".... They could also buy little "moonshine" jugs with cider, a coonskin cap, moccasins, cowboy hats, etc.
Possum though, is actually very good when they eat a "clean diet". When they live on road kill and trashcans... etc, (and the etc can be gross), they are very gamey and smell very strong of what they have been eating. But, when their diet is apples, persimmons and hickory nuts... gosh, they are good! Yes, dark meat and rich. They are somewhat like coon, though a bit more "wild" in flavor. And coon, is much like bear.... if that helps.
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@judsoncarroll4 Oh my. I can't imagine seeing that in a store. I just...can't. But as a gag thing, yes. Can you tell that I am somewhat spoiled?
We don't have any of those particular peculiar critters here (notice how I avoided the term sterotypes). Haha Although choosing the term critters might have just said something else of me?
@torey I have heard of them in southern Ontario, but they are creeping into southern BC too? I didn't know that they were anywhere on the west side of the continent.
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No, it tastes like possum. Sorry, but chicken tastes like chicken and duck tastes like duck and coon tastes like coon and frog tastes like frog and possum tastes like possum..... only snapping turtle tastes like 5-7 different meats... and turtle is my favorite food!
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Wait a minute...maybe vultures do taste like chicken, in Nigeria at least.....
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We have possums in Northern Illinois. I don't see as many of them as I did when I was a kid, but I did find one sleeping in my garage just a few years ago.
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Oh, yeah... that helps a lot! And bear tastes something like chikun! 😎
But honestly... We can eat just about anything, and some days may be tempted to! But seriously, considering what vultures and buzzards and possum eat... why would we want to? Dumpster diving behind McD's sounds more appetizing right now! 😝
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What did they use these beaks for?
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I would find it easier to eat dandelion or cattail or even grass clippings.
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In my experience bear can have different flavours depending on what it as been eating. If they are fishing during the annual spawning runs, they will taste pretty fishy. If they have been eating fruit & berries the meat will taste a bit sweeter. If they are garbage bears, the meat may taste pretty bad. Spring bear is very lean and may have a bit of a stronger flavour. Not the best time to harvest a bear. The best meat is during huckleberry or apple season, at least in my opinion.
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@judsoncarroll4 Glad you explained what was in the cans!! My gag reflex was starting to go into overdrive! lol
Now, I would love to have a few cans when cooking for special guests!
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If you run a trap line, you will have more "interesting" meats. I can't stand to waste anything... especially meat. I find a lot of Asian recipes and techniques useful. I know this may sound offensive, but I mean it earnestly.... how often have you wondered if the beef in your Chinese food was really beef? This way,, you can eat really awesome food and actually know for sure what you are eating. Traditionally those recipes weren't for beef anyway....
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So glad others asked if the can was real. I didn't think it was, but then again I wasn't sure it wasn't.
My step-father used to kill robins, squirrels and other tiny animals for the family pot during the depression. His mother lived to be 108 and he lived to be almost 100. I don't think I'll be eating any possum, snake or other such delicacies to develop a new longevity diet theory.
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Sounds like a Cajun... you know what they say about us... we eat ANYTHING!
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Beaks were used as part of a cancer treatment.... kind of early homeopathy.... the idea being that since they could eat rotten, toxic things, the beak would give the person the ability to deal with their own toxic or rotting situations. Interestingly, it shows up in several cultures.
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I really like bear. To me, it is somewhere between beef and pork, but with a taste of the woods.
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