Posted on 11/21/2010 5:42:03 PM PST by Immerito
n the November issue, we looked at how scientists are using DNA analysis to track down endangered species that are being hunted for food. Here, Dave Arnold talks about why some people prefer exotic meats.
For the most part, Americans are obsessed with tenderness, and favor mild-flavored meat. We eat a fairly small number of animals, almost all of them slaughtered young, when their meat is at its least flavorful. Fortunately, some of us are starting to realize that meat can be much more interesting. As the food revolution continues to gain traction, our ancestral lust for robust, unusual meats is starting to spark and reawaken.
America was once the premier place to eat strange animals. We were world-renowned for the quantity, quality, and variety of our game. We ate wild animals, farmed animals, young animals, old animals. If it moved, we ate it (exception: eagles).
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
Well there you go.
i doubt it's for the flavor...
sometimes I get the feeling that dark meat chicken is too exotic for most Americans.
“You can order beaver thanks to these laws”
Who says laws are a bad thing!
Meat is meat.
How lean - or fatty - it is and how it is prepared is the key.
You just can’t cook a piece of deer meat like you can a well marbled cow steak.
I've never heard it described that way.
We live in cattle country. Keep beef prices down by eating the lions that kill the calves. Nothing so delicious as mountain lion meat.
It’s all in the marinade.....
a lot of it depends on what they eat... round here deer eat pretty much the same thing cows eat and is no problem, predators on the other hand, can have a very gamey taste
“Lamb, for example, is typically slaughtered at less than one year old. Mutton, its full-flavored adult counterpart, was a culinary staple for millennia, but has virtually disappeared from our plates in the last hundred years.”
And good riddance, I say. I don’t care much for lamb of any kind, but mutton is just too strong and gamy, even for my tastes. Besides, goat meat is cheaper and tastier than any lamb, IMHO. Cabrito, curried goat with black beans...mmm!
As for lion...I certainly wouldn’t hold it against anyone who tried it. But I have a soft spot for big cats, so I’d probably choose not to eat it. No dogs or domesticated cats, either. Just not something I could personally do.
I’d try varmint (raccoon, opossum, squirrel) to see if it was any good. I enjoy rabbit and hare quite a bit. There’s also some sort of bayou rodent in Lousiana that’s supposed to be really good. Can’t remember the name, just that it’s an invasive species that used to be hunted down primarily for its fur. I saw Andrew Zimmern eat one on Bizarre Foods.
Come to think of it, ‘possum would be worth it just for the opportunity to blast one of those damn oversized rats. I’ve hated possums ever since a family of them built a nest in my dad’s tool shed when I was a kid. Nasty little things!
You might want to try some possum on the half shell; armadillo.
You’re talking about our yummy Nutria rat. They eat only vegetation. One of my employees went home and their father was cooking it, and said it smelled wonderful.
I love squirrel. I did eat a possum once. It was very good. Baked it in the oven with bacon draping over it. It did bother me a little cause I shot it out of the garbage can. Not much meat for the hassle of cleaning the thing. I love beef tongue. Kinda funny looking to cook but once you scrape off the outside it is just very tender and wonderful. No body will know it is tongue looks like a loin piece.
I’ve had lynx and it was pretty good.
I wouldn’t eat someone’s pet, though.
Somehow, I just can’t imagine eating a cat (lion, tiger, etc.),or dog. Yet I love eating squirrel, which really is just a specialized rat. That well-muscled haunch is so good. Raccoon, another rodent,is relished by some folk, and I’ve been served rabbit a few times, in the Navy, of all places. It was good.
I'm annoyed that my local stores don't sell goose, pheasant, goat or rabbit. I can get beef and chicken; that's about it. Even lamb is not so easy to find in my area -- which is a shame because I love lamb.
Frenchy’s Restaurant in Milwaukee used to feature exotic animal menu (don’t even know if they’re still open). A group of us went there, ordered many different dishes, and shared so we could taste lion, antelope....whatever. Very interesting and expensive!!!
Anyone who wants to go eating meat from species humans do not have a long history of close contact with is crazy and a menace to public health.
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