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In my household, I find that I am the one here who is most hesitant to eat wild game, and roadkill.
My thinking is that I can only fry something for so long without burning it.
I do fry somethings, but I tend to burn anything that I fry.
When it comes to roadkill or wild game, if there are any micro-organisms, tiny parasites in the meat, I want them dead.
I can boil something forever without burning it.
As a teen, one of our local churches held an annual Portuguese 'soupa-feed'; where one rancher would donate his oldest bull. They would cut him up and distribute the meat into six 50-gallon stock pots. All the church men would stand shifts stoking wood fires underneath those pots. For four days they would keep those pots boiling. At the end of four days of boiling, the old tough bull is reduced to a lot of thick beef broth. The church has a huge feast followed by a dance, the beef broth is served poured over a slice of fresh hard-crust bread. IT IS GOOD EATS!
So with this background I make stew. We have a deep stock pot. This thing is 2 foot tall.
Let me give an example: this past month, I was culling chickens. I butchered 2 every day and put them into the stock pot to boil. The stock pot usually already has some water in it, I add more water just to cover the carcasses. It boils all afternoon and evening. We check every few hours to add a little more water, when I go to bed I take it off the wood stove. In the morning my DW lifts out each carcass and pulls any remaining meat off the bone. Most of it falls off easy when you lift the carcass. The meat she canned each night, and once a week she canned the 'liquid' as broth. After a week of boiling chicken carcasses, the liquid is really thick anyway and it has a lot of lard in it.
So how is this an example of how we handle roadkill?
We do a similar procedure with roadkill that we suspect may be carrying parasites.
I butcher the game and put it into the stock pot to boil. I add water just to cover the carcass. It boils all afternoon and evening, we check every few hours to add a little more water, when I go to bed I take it off the wood stove. In the morning my DW lifts out the carcass and pulls any remaining meat off the bone. Most of it falls off easy when you lift the carcass. We strain the meat and chop it into tiny pieces, and return it back to the stock pot.
Then we add garlic, leek, and onions; and some mint, thyme, rosemary, and oregano. We let it boil for an hour [to blend the flavours], before putting in carrots and potatoes. When the carrots and potatoes begin softening, we add barley, just enough barley so that once it begins to expand and absorb the water it will thicken the stew.
Anyway I was asked how I cook wild game and roadkill. This is how we do it.
I have a tendency to burn stuff, so I have found that making stew is fool-proof.
If you suspect that your possum, fisher-cat, or musk-rat may be too 'gamey' to be edible, the blending of: garlic, leek, onions, mint, thyme, rosemary, and oregano, may be just enough to make it palatable for your family.
My thinking is that I can only fry something for so long without burning it.
I do fry somethings, but I tend to burn anything that I fry.
When it comes to roadkill or wild game, if there are any micro-organisms, tiny parasites in the meat, I want them dead.
I can boil something forever without burning it.
As a teen, one of our local churches held an annual Portuguese 'soupa-feed'; where one rancher would donate his oldest bull. They would cut him up and distribute the meat into six 50-gallon stock pots. All the church men would stand shifts stoking wood fires underneath those pots. For four days they would keep those pots boiling. At the end of four days of boiling, the old tough bull is reduced to a lot of thick beef broth. The church has a huge feast followed by a dance, the beef broth is served poured over a slice of fresh hard-crust bread. IT IS GOOD EATS!
So with this background I make stew. We have a deep stock pot. This thing is 2 foot tall.
Let me give an example: this past month, I was culling chickens. I butchered 2 every day and put them into the stock pot to boil. The stock pot usually already has some water in it, I add more water just to cover the carcasses. It boils all afternoon and evening. We check every few hours to add a little more water, when I go to bed I take it off the wood stove. In the morning my DW lifts out each carcass and pulls any remaining meat off the bone. Most of it falls off easy when you lift the carcass. The meat she canned each night, and once a week she canned the 'liquid' as broth. After a week of boiling chicken carcasses, the liquid is really thick anyway and it has a lot of lard in it.
So how is this an example of how we handle roadkill?
We do a similar procedure with roadkill that we suspect may be carrying parasites.
I butcher the game and put it into the stock pot to boil. I add water just to cover the carcass. It boils all afternoon and evening, we check every few hours to add a little more water, when I go to bed I take it off the wood stove. In the morning my DW lifts out the carcass and pulls any remaining meat off the bone. Most of it falls off easy when you lift the carcass. We strain the meat and chop it into tiny pieces, and return it back to the stock pot.
Then we add garlic, leek, and onions; and some mint, thyme, rosemary, and oregano. We let it boil for an hour [to blend the flavours], before putting in carrots and potatoes. When the carrots and potatoes begin softening, we add barley, just enough barley so that once it begins to expand and absorb the water it will thicken the stew.
Anyway I was asked how I cook wild game and roadkill. This is how we do it.
I have a tendency to burn stuff, so I have found that making stew is fool-proof.
If you suspect that your possum, fisher-cat, or musk-rat may be too 'gamey' to be edible, the blending of: garlic, leek, onions, mint, thyme, rosemary, and oregano, may be just enough to make it palatable for your family.
