Taste test - pine beaver vs sweet gum beaver

Well, I cut some backstraps from both into bite sized pieces. They were pan fried with a little salt and pepper. I could not tell the difference between the pine eating beaver's meat and sweet gum beaver's meat. Both were absolutely delicious. It tasted just like beef. So, I cut up about two more pounds of it and am making a beaver stew. With the meat I will have carrots, taters, onion, celery and mushrooms. I browned the meat, then I'm letting the meat simmer for about 2.5 hours to get the meat more tender, then I'll add the vegies. I'll let this cook for about 30 minutes, or until the vegies get done.

Sounds good Boss. Save me some I can be there for supper tomorrow.

try pouring that stew over a plate of ripple potato chips. i make the same stew, but leave out the veggies. just meat and gravy over chips.

Good to know, the only time I had a beaver with a off flavor was from castor contamination

Sounds good

Sounds great. Thanks for doing the experiment. I would have bet there would have been a difference and now I kno I would have been wrong.

I would have figured the pine one would have been off. Pine cone squirrels are terrible.

[Good information. Thanks

Maybe next on the list : deer fed coyote compared to a feedlot coyote???

We butcher ours too. Good eats.....jk

Hope it don't give you gas like it does me, haha

Beaver meat tastes great in a stew. Cant say I care for it fried in burger form much. Has a twang to it.

Sounds good. I caught a smaller beaver Saturday, the size when they still have light colored meat. Anyway, I cleaned it for eating and my wife trimmed it up and made it into a pot roast with potatoes and carrots from the garden. It was as good as a good beef or venison roast and it was a cattail/lily pad root eater.

Always good eat'in.

The stew turned out delicious! I know we had quite a bit of beaver meat when I was a youngster. Dad had a hankering for it. I've cooked it before, but it was a long time ago. It won't be so long until I do it again though.

would have bet good money the pine fed beaver would have tasted bad

Nothing like getting into your job Paul!

Me too.

It took me quite awhile to decide to try it. However, once the wife and I did, they get deboned and put in the freezer now instead of the bait pile. Tried it for the first time a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

My beaver stew also has stewed tomatoes, cabbage, green beans, and corn....sometimes turnips. It's always a challenge to get it all in there.

Like you say, nothing better.

Do y'all eat beaver from kill sets? I guess it would be okay in the winter but I still prefer to eat one that I've shot so it can bleed out more.

I've Never eaten it.

Thanks for the update Paul!

Mike

This has been most of my hangup as well... Eating something that was drowned and not bled out.

Mike

Both of the 25-30 pounders I trapped, cleaned, and ate were in bodygrips. They were fantastic eating. I have a buddy who finally tried eating one, again from a 330, after I convinced him to try it. He said his only regret is all the beaver meat he has thrown away through all these years. Loved it!

Moosetrot

I’ll have 2 McRibs please and I don’t want to know what’s in them!

All my beaver that I eat are from kill sets. Yummy!

I set snares for beaver when I want stew, that way they can be bled.

I'm surprised also but then again I like bobcat meat.

Beaver, pressure canned with a bit of beef broth in it,then poured over egg noodles or rice is also a great meal.

Went to the Bull Shoals area one year on a multi day squirrel hunt. Happened to be a poor mast crop that year and the cat squirrels were cutting pine cones. They tasted like they'd been marinated in turpentine. Absolutely couldn't eat them.

P

There goes that retirement you planned...

The liver, don't forget the liver.

I use the beaver livers in lure. The base for GL40 is aged beaver liver.

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I think he needs to try mountain lion now.

Mountain lion is excellent

Interesting. I've had good success trapping red fox with GL40 as a lure. In testing I did two years ago it came in second behind your Mississippi Special. Runner-ups included your K9 03, Cavan's Minnesota Red, Carman's Red Fox Gland, Hawbaker's Red Fox Gland Lure 100, Weiser's Red Fox Gland Lure, Lenon's Fox Super All Call and several others.

Does your Mississippi Special have aged beaver liver in it?

Ive eaten both pine and popular eating bvr, both great. Having 40 pounds of bvr sausage made right now... Bvr under ice a week no problem, they are in cold.

I would prefer a fast killed beaver over snared just for the stress hormones that the snared beaver is likely to have.

I've eaten beaver several times. But, each time I could taste the castor. I like the smell of castor, but not the taste.

That's because the meat got contaminated. It's easy to contaminate the meat if you're not real careful. I use one knife to skin the beaver, and I do it from the back I cut up the back and go around the sides with the beaver laying on it's belly. Then I change gloves and change knives and begin removing the meat. There's no way the castor can get to the meat this way, unless when working the hind quarters you puncture a castor sac. I'm real careful not to do that. The meat then tastes like beef with not a hint of castor taste.

Paul is right you should use a different knife or knifes for getting the meat off the carcase. i use different knifes for skinnin ,and another for takeing castor and oil glands separate from the meat knifes. Dad always said you skin the beaver then skin thebeaver for his meat.

take care

I do it with 3 knives. A filler knife for the opening cut, then peel back the skin just enough to cut out the butthole, castors,and oil glands in one big glob with a second knife. Then a 3rd knife to skin with. When I flip it over from the back to the tummy, I flip it on to a clean surface, and make sure not to drag ito to the spot where it was just laying, the filth from the fur will contaminate the meat if you do.

Paul

If there is no difference in the taste between either beaver meat have you been tested for Covid 19.......LOL

Good one Snap! LOL