All about the beaver!

Got my first beaver this morning! Man that was exciting, I don't remember being that excited for my first coyote! It was about 40lbs. I brought it home skinned it out, I think I was doing pretty well until I got to the head and I slipped and cut a cheek, not a big deal since I will end up scraping and tanning it to hang on my own wall or make a beaver hoop. I cut the head off and will be stripping it down and bleaching it for display. I have read so much about beaver being tasty the I decided to cut the hind quarters, front quarters and back straps up and threw them in the crock pot with some cream of mushroom soup and a packet of Lipton Garlic and herb soup mix. I made sure to harvest the castor and oil sacks and will being reading up on what to do with them next. I know they can be ground up together and used for lure which is what I'm leaning towards unless I find a better idea. Also cut the tail off, I think the tail leather is kind of neat looking and would look good as a wallet or something, but I have read that the tail meat can be used for something I just can't remember what. The rest of the carcass will go on a bait pile.
Any ideas or suggestions on what to do with this thing? Thanks in advance

You can use the tail for making Beaver Tail Oil(BTO) or chunked or sliced for fishing bait. Don't let anyone talk you into eating the tail.

Congratulations on your first Beaver... Trapping them is a lifelong addiction of ine!

Congrats

Congratulations on your first Beaver... Trapping them is a lifelong addiction of mine!

Very cool... Congrats.

Nice! What method did you use to skin it? I've been going back and forth between clean skinning and fleshing on my knee. Havn't done enough yet to know which I like more but I seem to put less nicks in them when I do it on my knee.

Thanks all! To skin it I followed a video on you tube. Cut the feet off, then the tail and ran the knife straight up from the tail end around the vent to the lower jaw and worked from back to front. I was going to flesh it out and tan it myself and do a beaver hoop for the wall. But since its my first one I went ahead and called my taxidermist and he's going to send it out, have it tanned and make a nice presentation for me.
I've been trapping about 5 years now, but just went out after beaver 2 days ago. I can honestly say I have had more fun in the past couple days driving around the dirt roads, looking for beaver dams and sign than I have had trapping in the last two years.
There is just something about wading around these small streams and listening to the water that makes it even better than just being out trapping on land. Along with having a long season and being able to utilize so much of the animal this is definitely something I will be sticking with.

Why not just send it to the tannery yourself ?your taxidermist is getting paid just to drop your beaver in the mail.

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Your enthusiastic discovery of beaver trapping calls to mind this restaurant review from a few years ago:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...goes-viral.html

Don't forget to cook up the back section that's right before the tail. Lots of meat there and very tasty.

Congrats! How did you like eating the beaver?

Alright, so I chopped up the tail and it's in a pint jar in the basement, might stay down there until next trapping season then I'll see about separating the beaver tail oil and use the rest for coyote bait. I squeezed the oil out of the sacks and the castors are drying.

So the taste of beaver, I honestly didn't think it was that bad. It definitely had some sort of an herbal/plant taste when it first hits your tongue, but then it mellows out and is a lot like grass fed beef. I definitely prefer the taste of beaver over dog or goat. But it wasn't for the wife, she took a bite and it kinda went something like this: "Uh, ug, nope, yup, that's beaver, nope ,uh, nope, yup that's beaver UG" LOL! So she wasn't a fan.
It's something I'll try again, maybe on the grill or frying pan or grind it up for burger. I think the crock pot kind of holds some of that flavor from the fat left on from my hasty cleaning job, where the grill would allow some of it to escape.

Thanks for all of the info!

Yeah you need to get every piece of fat off the meat and I remove the castor and oil sack before I start turning the beaver or I tie off the hole tight with fine twine. That taste was probably from fat or oil,castor leaking during cleaning. You do not want any of that near the meat and wash your knife after skinning before you start cutting meat and change gloves.

The most important thing is to not let any of the castor or sac oil get on the meat. Even the smallest amount of contamination will cause the meat to not be so tasty. If it remains uncontaminated, the meat has a very similar flavor to beef. It is delicious.

knife contact with caster then meat is the reason for lots of nasty tasting meat.