Beaver meat

Does anyone have any recipes and tips for cooking beaver meat? Also what kind of other meats do you save from the animals that you trap?

Beaver meat is about the only furbearer that I eat on occasion. Ive tried lynx and dont care for it. Slow cooked in a crock pot, beaver is quite good. Something worth mentioning if your interested in nutrition is how scientists who have studied the diets of our ancestors got it wrong. Loren Cordain wrote one of the best selling nutrition/diet books of all time called the Paleo Diet. In that book he talked about how our ancestors ate a lot of lean meats and how healthy it was. Loren and his team came to this conclusion by studying wild game meat. Wild game meat is quite lean by itself but as anyone who hunts knows there is a lot of fat to be had from wild game. I've pulled 30-40 pounds of pure fat out of a moose's insides. Beaver are always fat and were a staple for many people. Sorry for the long winded reply that went off topic but fat is good for us and people should be eating more of it.

Best stew meat out there. Woods beaver are better than those from a marsh IMO. 2 yr old and younger, like any mammal. Cook it a good long time so it falls off the bone.

Legs are more flavor than the "backstraps".

While in Alaska, I consumed great quantities of beaver meat. Cooked in a variety of ways. I'm not much of a liver fan, but always ate livers from all big game (moose, bison, caribou, sheep, goats, blacktail deer, etc.). However, every spring (long about February), I'd get the irresistible urge for beaver liver. Real mild, and a 40-lb beaver has a 50-lb liver.

When I lived in lynx country, I would argue that lynx meat is some of the finest meat I've ever eaten. My wife, over a period of five years, developed a recipe for white-sauce pizza with about 4 lbs of chunked, fried lynx hams and backstrap. Now that I'm not in lynx country, we've tried the same recipe with bobcat meat, and periodically, it's a bit too musky for me. Mountain lion, on the other hand, makes a decent substitute for lynx on a good pizza.

I've tried about every furbearer meat that exists in North America and eastern Asia, and none of them are overly delectable. Striped skunk, properly taken care of, is enjoyable (for a chuckle, google the etymology of the name "Chicago"). The mustelids (mink, marten, fisher, otter, badger) are interesting, but only White17 is into them. I'll pass. Domestic dog is (in Far Eastern Russia) certainly edible, but wolf, coyote, red fox, and grey fox I can do without, thank you very much. Ate a Eurasian badger one time, and I'd just as soon pass next time it's offered.

Muskrat is certainly edible. Never tried nutria.

Have not tried spotted skunk.

Jack

Beaver was a valuable meat resource in winter for northern subsistence populations.
One of the only fatty animals available that time of year in the boreal forest.

I have eaten beaver and muskrat, and prefer muskrat, on the other hand...........

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight ! I am really into eating those tasty weasels !!
The only thing better than eating marten is puking in the tent while it's cooking !!

A gourmet repast !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Use it like you would any soup meat and it makes a dam fine soup.

If I have time, I like to fire roast it to give it some crisp, then slowly cook it down with onions and garlic, in beef stock and water. If I have time, cook it until it easily pulls apart, can eat on it's own or as pulled pork in a sammich or what have you.

These are the back hams and the rumps from 2 beaver. I didn't have enough dutch oven, so some went in the big pot over the turkey fryer.




If you got time, might as well make a day of it and let the kids wear themselves out.

This is great information! I’m trying to figure out ways to use as much of the animal as I can and not let it go to waste and all of this helps a lot!

Great looking fire roast, Temple ..that crisp does it .....makes me hungry !

I use the meaty part of the tail and the backstraps (I filet off the silverskin first). On smaller beavs ,I use the hind legs. Remove the fat. Plop in a crockpot with BEEF STOCK on low about 3-4 hours. After its cooked, I shred it, fry up some onions, add the beav meat to the onions, salt and pepper. Toss it around a bit. Use this in tacos, sheperds pie, stuffed peppers, etc. Very lean , has a nice taste. Freeze what I dont use.

I've BBQ'd it in a crock pot till it is falling apart. Decent. Not unlike duck meat. Dark and gamey. Not for the sensitive palate, but for an old crusty trapper, not bad. I like trying new things.j

x2..put chunks in bottom of crock pot, stir in 1 can of Cream of ANYTHING soup, add a handful of raisins and brown sugar, then cover with veggies.

I really like the meat trapper beaver burger recipe off you tube
Female bobcat or young males are good eaten , cougar is good
Mink make great crab bait . The rest are great for burying to build up your garden soil