Posted on 03/22/2009 9:55:43 PM PDT by SeafoodGumbo
GALLIANO - They're killed by the thousands every year, their carcasses buried in the marsh.Their furry pelts, once sheared, dyed, made into coats and hats and sold on the international market, are now worth so little that some say it's more economical to cast them aside to rot.
Nutria were imported to Louisiana from South America in the 1930s to supply a booming American fur industry.
But they soon escaped into the wetlands where their population and their appetite for marsh-saving grasses exploded.
Decades ago, their numbers were controlled by the hunters and trappers who worked the marshlands of Terrebonne and Lafourche.
Today, few of those remain.
Read the rest here.
Stuffed Nutria Hindquarters
Stuffing:
3 tablespoons butter
1 pound nutria meat, ground
4 cups chopped onion
1 cup green bell pepper
1 cup red bell pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Enola’s Secret Seasoning or (Creole Seasoning)
1 cup stock or water
1-10 3/4 ounce can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups fresh La. Crawfish, peeled, deveined and chopped
13 slices of bread (stale)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put bread in food processor press pulse button several times. Bread crumbs must be course; set aside.
In a 5-quart pot on high heat melt butter. Add meat, onion and both bell peppers; cook and stir 10 minutes. Add red pepper, salt and seasoning; cook 5 minutes. Add stock and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add cream of mushroom; cook for 7 minutes. Add crawfish, then reduce heat to medium and cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add bread crumbs, stir until mixture is moist but holds together.
PREPARATION OF HINDQUARTERS:
15 nutria hindquarters
5 tablespoons Enola’s Secret Seasoning
Remove the large leg bone, then pound out legs, and sprinkle seasoning evenly on both sides. Lay leg flat, stuff inside, roll and tie with cooking string. Place stuffed legs in oiled baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees, covered, for 1 hour or until tender. Uncover, then cook an additional 10 minutes or until brown.
Makes 15 Servings
Is that a beaver?
South Louisiana Coonass Ping, cher!
No, look at the tail. It's a nutria.
Can we trap the environmentalists instead? Organ harvesting and all. ;o)
At $5 a tail, a person could make a nice chunk of change on the side.
They are here in Oregon too. The beavers are mostly gone from urban areas, but the nutria can survive. I offered to kill the mating pair at my apartment which has a little stream running through the middle of it. They managers looked at me like I was some savage. Two years later when all the trees were dead, the stream was damned and flooding basement apartments they asked me if I could kill them still. I said “what’s the point - the damage is done”. Oh well.
Just tell the local Vietnamese guys running the chinese restaurant about them. Problem solved.
If things (economically and socially) continue in the direction they are headed, a lot of people are going to re-learn and/or re-discover the skill of trapping animals for food — nutria included.
Is that a rat-hat you’re wearing?
Nutria Recipe:
1.One nutria,gutted,skinned,and quartered.
2.One bottle of whiskey (your choice).
3.Marinate nutria in whiskey for three days.
4.Throw out nutria and drink whiskey.
I didn’t know that; ya’ll are in for a surprise at how adaptive this rodent is. It is good to eat.
I wouldn’t mind knowing where the ultimate markets for the hides are.
China, Argentina and Russia are the overseas markets, according to the article. Some are bought by businesses in New York too, though it’s not clear if that’s for a domestic furrier or as part of the export process.
True, but the state went and made the process prohibitively difficult. You can't just head into the coastal marsh with a .22 rifle and have at it, like I did when I was a kid. You've got to find a property owner or hunting lease holder to sign off on your paperwork, before the state will pay you a dime.
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