How many of you do it? I have an aquaintance that keeps talking about how great beaver meat tastes. He even had a chart showing its nutritional value. Very healthy, tasty, and high in protein is what he says. He showed me pictures of him preparing it. I have to say, it looked like a delicacy the way he dispayed it.

Make sure they come out of clean water.beaver can live in some god aweful places.

yes taste great makes great jerky

Very good stuff.

Use to eat it quite often until I learned it's VERY high in cholesterol.

Very good eating. Just stick to medium sized ones. Also if they have a strong castor smell when skinning it probably a good idea not to eat them.

I eat most of the kits and sub adults I catch. Use the big mature ones for bait

they are good, just make sure they are fully cooked

Andrew Stanley cooked up some beaver tail on youtube a couple of years ago. I gave it a shot and was very surprised how good it was. A beavers tail comes in two parts: the flat scaley paddle and the meaty fur covered chunk in front of it. l chop off the scaley tail except for about 1.5 " . The whole thing is washed well and goes in the crockpot.. Add 2 tablespoons of salt, 1 teaspoon basil, 1 teaspoon rosemary, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 4-6 crushed garlic. Set crockpot on hi for 1 hours, reduce to low for 3-4 more hours. Remove from pot and pull off the remaining scaley tail. At this point I usually use two forks and pull the meat from the bone. The fatty tail is diced up and added to the meat. At this point you can do what you want: favorite seasoning, sauce etc. Good on hard rolls. Surprisingly tender.

Now that the weather is straightening out, I intend to use some rub and put it on the smoker for about 30 min.and then sauce it.

Slow cooking will tenderize just about any cut of meat, so I eat the big ones as well as the little ones. I did a 70# 2 months ago. All the same to me. No taste difference. Very tender

Ive served this to coworkers and told them it was beef. No arguments

I don't eat it. But got a few ppl around here I give all mine too after skinned. They really like it. And than at the annual game feed I supplied some that got made into stew and it all got ate. Everyone said it taste very similar to beef

I had it a few times. It's pretty good. Sorta like roast beef but sweeter.

I’ve had some of Sniper BB’s beaver jerky. Good stuff

A hearty beaver stew is hard to beat. Lived on it all winter and never got tired of it. It has three times the omega 3's that beef has so it is very good for you.

I don't care how big the animal is but I like to take the ones that have a nice fat rind as they are the healthiest ones. Make sure not to cross contaminate the meat with anything that might have castor on it.

Like trapper20 said, make sure it's fully cooked.

Couldn't disagree more. I've eaten many a beav down in MS that came out of some of the dirtiest swamp water you can imagine that tasted great. Meat taste is directly related to the animals diet. Exactly why grain finished beef tastes so good.

great picture there beaverpeeler,its the best stew one can make in these parts. everybody cleans it up when we make it up here.we only use fresh,one nite no soakers.

I have taken beaver out of mine tailings ponds,and I have also taken beaver out of sewage ponds,You eat them plueger.I will pass.

Just like any other animal or fish - decide when taken from clean living or filthy living. Some beef and pork feedlots are quite filthy and some are great. Same with some dairy farms. Personally I enjoy eating beaver.

I love eating beaver that I clean and prepare, castor is strong and you need to be
Careful with your knife work.

Just slightly aged, hung for a few days in the right temp makes them
Even better. Unlike was mentioned in the earlier post, I like to eat the back straps and the hind
Quarters medium-medium rare. Just salt pepper and butter, and of course a little onion too.

I use the front half for roasting and stuff the cavity with the veggies, season and roast at 300
Until falls off the bone.

Now that looks tasty! GOOD JOB!

Do you pass on eating pork as well? They wallow in sewage all the time!

Snapping turtle meat tastes excellent, and some of the best places to catch them are in sewage lagoons. Were you one of those spoiled kids that didn't have to eat everything on the supper plate or go to bed hungry?

Second year eating beaver. I put it second only to venison and often before grass-fed beef. It's really a three way tie. Beaver is a great meat. Unless I'm missing something also there are no glands to remove like muskrat (itself also an excellent meat).

Check out Wilderness Living Challenge (free on youtube) Season 4 (this year without one of the brothers but plus Zackery Fowler the slingshot guy)....beaver on the first episode...
https://www.trappersreport.com/story/Wilderness-Living-Challenge-SEASON-4

I prefer beaver meat to venison.

All this talk about eating beaver is making me want to trudge through the snow and
Make some sets, but I think I will wait a couple weeks for the thaw and gets some younger ones
That are getting kicked out.

Is there anything In beaver that it needs to be cooked through?
If I butcher my own hog I will eat if medium and have never had an
Issue, same with venison lamb and beef.

I'm almost afraid to say it but...I thought it just this year. Indeed!

Beaver may carry giardia in their digestive tracks so cross contamination is always a risk and probably the main reason to thoroughly cook the meat. But hey, beef and venison can carry worse stuff than that!

beaver is good and so is muskrat.beaver tastes a lot like beef to me.

I was pm'ed by somebody asking me to post my beaver stew recipe. So here 'tis:

1.5 to 2 lbs beaver meat cubed ( I usually use the back straps off of one large to XL beaver to get that amount). Then I put them in a zip lock with a couple of tablespoons of flour and shake vigorously. I heat several tablespoons of olive or sesame oil in a dutch oven and brown the meat. As it starts to brown I add about one medium onion and a few cloves of garlic (shredded, minced). At this point I add my seasonings, one tablespoon sea salt, 3/4 teaspoon black pepper, one teaspoon oregano. When the onion is fairly carmelized I add a carton of Pacific brand organic vegetable broth. Then I add my favorite vegetables which include several diced up potatoes, carrots, a turnip, corn, string beans, and whole canned tomatoes. I also like to add either cabbage or kale as the last thing to go in. Oh, I also add about a half cup of pearled barley. Then I just bring it to a light boil and it should be ready in about 45 minutes. For the most part the vegetables are interchangeable. If I have a green pepper that goes in too. Sometimes I add some hot salsa if I'm feeling like that.

My dutch oven has a lid and I keep it covered and boil on low heat.

I like to serve with hot homemade cornbread. (My recipe uses buttermilk).

And of course the leftovers are always better the next day.

Thanks Carl my wife just added it to her recipe book

Trichinellosis, aka Trichinosis, be gotten from eating beaver meat. However transmission to humans by that vector is very rare. As most are aware, it's mainly bears and pigs that cause Trich in humans. It should be noted that many meat consuming species can carry Trichinella worms, and there are many species of that type of roundworm found across North America. Some reptiles and birds can transmit Trichinella worms. Many species of mammals can carry these worms, including but not limited to: ground squirrels, felines, canines, ursines, seals and walrus. At least one species of these worms is so resistant to cold that even freezing for months isn't effective at killing them.

Cooking until every portion of that dish has reached at least 165°F for at least 3 minutes remains the most reliable method for prevention of Trichinosis.


Hank is good for no BS assessments and fantastic recipes.
Be sure to look up aging meat on his site: it's a game changer!!
https://honest-food.net/on-trichinosis-in-wild-game/

"Although there have been occasional reports of rare and low-level trichinellae infestation in beavers, no human cases of beaver-associated trichinellosis have been described. This report presents a possible case of human trichinellosis linked to beaver meat. Increasing consumption of beaver meat necessitates raising awareness of this potential source of trichinellosis."
https://www.researchgate.net/public...associated_with_beaver_Castor_fiber_meat

www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=disease.muscle2

Be sure and check out the "How can I prevent trichinellosis?" section at the end.
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/gen_info/faqs.html

This morning I seared hindquarters and backstraps with bacon grease in cast iron pot, tossed in garlic, onlions and carrots then into the oven at 200. The house currently smells wonderful and can't wait for dinner.