How hungry would you have to be?

In late 1812, three members of the "overland Astorians" were returning East through the Rocky Mountains and had gone several days eating half a meal a day. They happened to be able to shoot a wolf that wandered close to their camp. They dried the meat for a "future" emergency, ate the skin after it was boiled and made soup from the crushed bones. They wrote that the soup tasted very good, given their "current circumstances."

A few questions spring to mind when reading about this. What would they consider a future emergency? They'd barely eaten for over a week and were travelling in winter through the mountains, by foot.
How bad would wolf skin taste? I sure hope they at least removed the hair. Maybe they singed it? Not sure that would help the flavor at all.
How bad did the soup taste, that it took those "current circumstances" to make it taste good?

Those early hunters/trappers/traders were tough as nails dudes for sure.

There is an old saying-" the difference between what I will eat and won't eat is about 48 hours"

I think I could eat wolf, less it’s hair.

wolf could be just fine to eat

probably tastes a lot like dog and coyote

Dog was supposed to be good eating,but I sure would think twice about the hide. But when one is starving--anything to fill the belly would be appreciated--hair or not.
Tom

They also ate some beaver skins and the soles of their moccasins.

They bought quite a few dogs to eat from the Indians that they met, if they couldn't buy horses to eat.

I've eaten dog and It was Ok.

Stories like this illistrate how scarce game was in much of North America at that time.

Very true. Once they crossed the divide going west, game was about nonexistent. Dried fish was the bulk of their diet. East of the divide, it was feast or famine. They'd starve for days, then gorge for a week on buffalo back hump.

I can't imagine skin having that much in the way of nutrition. Boiling it would probably free some of the nutrients from the collagen. Think I'd save the leg bones and do a bone broth.

They did exactly that.

To utilize a lean animal for maximum nutrition the fatty parts are extremely important.
In hard times the nutritional(fat) value of the skin and other parts of the animal is more important than the lean meat alone.
There are still older native people who eat rabbits(a very lean animal) whole,including the skin.The brains are high in fat and are eaten.The innards are cleaned out and eaten also.
I have seen how they prepare it.
There are two ways.Animals like rabbits can be boiled only long enough until the hair loosens and can be wiped off the skin.The fur can be saved and used as a type of felt inside winter moccassins.
Animals like porcupines the hair was burnt off over a fire then the skin was scraped clean of any charr.

Interesting. I haven't come across any specific references to organs being eaten.

I’m a picky eater somewhere down the road I’d end up being the meal for those guys. LOL

Those early traders were tough yes but they also did some dumb things in their push. David Thompson tried to hire Indians to lead him through the mountains of BC one spring but none would hire on. They tried to explain to him that it was too early; the trails in the valley would be flooded, the passes would be snowed-in and the game was still on the wintering grounds. But in their push they had to learn things the hard way.

One French Canadian in a group, of 5 Astorians suggested they draw straws to choose who became the meal. The party had one gun among them. One of the Company partners took the gun and pointed it at said French Canadian and said you're first. The guy begged for his life and vowed never to suggest it again. They did not eat him.

They absolutely made some horrible decisions at times. Mostly driven by their desire to beat their competition. The fur trade then was, literally at times, a cut throat business.

k snow what are you reading?

Currently, "The Perilous West". I am about 3/4 of the way through, excellent book. Centers on the overland Astorians heading West between 1809 and 1814.

Thanks I'll look it up. The whole Astorian story is amazingly perilous both the overland and ocean stories.

As of 7/25, there's a copy on the Trap Shed. That's where I got mine from.

I haven't read much on the overseas travel, except about their ship being blown up after the Indians siezed it.

I met a Hmong guy muzzle loader hunting some years back he had just shot a nice fat doe he was hauling it out whole , not field dressed I asked if he wanted to field dress it , he said he takes it home and Mom and grandma and other women gut , skin and use all the intestines , the heart the liver every organ they have something they make from it , except the lungs those are about the only part not eaten

The captain was hardcore and clashed with the civilian crew. The captain is why they lost their ship.

GCP, I've seen Hmong hunters put whole squirrels and chipmunks on coals. Singe the hair off and eat them. I'd have to be hungrier than I was to join them.

Not much I wouldn't eat if I was starving. Dog? Sure, probably taste like Thanksgiving turkey after going hungry for a week or more. The hide I would think would be the worst to eat. Bone soup actually sounds good. Eating another human..........well hopefully I'll never have to make that choice

4 or 5 years ago I was on my way to get groceries with 4 coolers in the back of the truck. I was taking the scenic route thru about 10 miles of backroads. I ran up on a tree leaning over the road and startled a buzzard which puked on my windshield and all my coolers. No smell that I have ever smelled was ever that bad. I had to go back home and wash and bleach everything. They kidded me at church and said God fed Elijah by the ravens. I told them I was not that hungry yet, but if God feeds me that way I hope he cleans it up at least a little or removes my sense of smell.

I have given rubbed up coyotes to a fella who was raised in Burma on occasion. He wants them left whole and burns the hair off without gutting them. I do not know handles them beyond that but he is always happy to get them.

I've eaten boiled marten on the trapline but not by choice. It was mightily terrible ! BUT.......I would do that again before I ate any part of a wolf. One thing is that wolves stink when skinning but marten don't.

Sort of like eating beaver if you are skinning them every day. The smell is so potent it reduces or eliminates my desire to eat it.

Saw a group of 'Yards roll the guts out of a deer into a large washtub and just start eating.

The underlayer of skin is mostly fatty tissue so if the fur can be removed then it could be healthy for them during the cold weather. Hair is 90 plus percent protein but how digestible it is in a single gutted animal like humans is questionable. Actually the tripe if cleaned up well would be decent calories as well. All that being said how likely would I be? I have never been that hungry so I don't really know. When I travelled in India it was interesting to hear how the diet impacted how fulfilled people could be with less then filling amounts of food. One disadvantage of being in their environment for extended periods of time and meat was about the only choice they had, it worked just like the meat diets of today, it gave them calories but burned off their body fat which would be needed if they were out for even longer time periods.

Bryce

Just an FYI , never eat the liver of a carnivore. Toxic levels of vitamin A I believe.

I use to work with a black man that wud take all the possums I cud bring him, he said he put them in the oven whole, hair on , guts still in them and cooked and eat them .
We had good paying jobs, so it wasn’t that he didn’t have money. He was happy when I brought them to him.

Randy Newberg ( He’s on YouTube) shot a wolf , they cooked and eat it, said it was good

The Hmong around here take my coyote carcasses they tell me they take the gall bladders and the stomach fat. Don't know if they use any other parts.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition preferred dog meat over Pacific Salmon when they wintered on the Pacific Coast. Lately in my area there are some selling their coyote carcasses to people who are cooking and eating them. There was a person arrested in Rome , NY last winter barbecuing a coyote, because a neighbor reported him as cooking a domestic dog.

I’ve skinned many coyotes, and I think I would starve first.

I was in the battle of Fallujah in 2004. I was in a semi-destroyed building where we had stopped to eat a little bit while waiting on an enemy sniper to be dealt with. I was eating the MRE with the 5 little hot dogs - we affectionately called it “the five fingers of death.” Because the part of the city I was in had been shelled as badly as it was, there was dried, raw sewage on the ground. It was mostly dust at this point. I was wagging that last finger of death at another Marine while telling a story and I dropped that little piggie! I was hungry! I grabbed it really quickly as if it hadn’t gotten contaminated yet. I poured a little water on it and my corpsman looked at me and said, “Don’t do it!” I ate that thing like an Ethiopian on a piece of rice and swallowed it. I never did get sick. It was delicious.

I remember reading that L&C actually traded for a few dozen dogs to use as food.

The Astorians travelling through the mountains ate a lot of dogs. The Indians would not trade or sell them any horses to eat.

The documentary on Lewis and Clark stated they ate almost totally elk meat for the winter at Astoria.

Bryce

I tried wolf, didn't care for it. Also, tried smoked cougar. That was much better than timber wolf.