possum and racoon?

Question

Does anyone know where there might be more information on the anatomy of these two critters, what kind of meat-dark or light-is it greasy etc etc?
Thanks

Answer 1

Interesting, my cousins used to eat those critters. They were part of that "get back to land" hippie thing in the early '70s.

Anyway, here's info and a few sites. Also there are lots of hunting cookbooks that will probably give you more information. I'm looking for one in particular on Amazon. If I find it I'll add it to the end of the posting.

Raccoon:
Start by skinning them. If you have an outdoor grill slow cook them on that, or put them in a large oven pan, like the turkey pans, cover and cook on low heat like you would a brisket. Around 250 until the meat is falling off the carcass. You will notice that the meat is quite greasy and the taste might be a bit unpleasant for today's taste. What I did was pull the meat from the bones and drain it. You will want to try to get as much of the fat out of the meat as possible. You can clean one or more of the baking pans, and put the meat in them cover and cook the meat again to try to get more of the fat out. You can make a primative strainer, by perforating one of the pans, put the meat in that one inside another and cooking it in the oven covered. This will let the fat run out of the one pan into the other. or use a metal colander. You get the idea.
I served my racoon as barbeque. It will look similar to pulled pork. Make whatever pork barbeque sauce is favored in you rregion. eg: vinegar and pepper based, or tomato molasses based, provide buns, pickles, and onions and you have racoon barbeque. You can serve the pulled or chopped meat in the turkey trays covered with foil. I recommend this method, as the taste is while not gamey, somewhat strong and may not appeal to modern palates. The sauce helps mitigate it. Good luck.

Also...
Raccoons should have all the fat, inside and out, removed, as well as the glands that are under the legs, along the spine, and in the small of the back. The meat is very dark, long-fibered, and somewhat coarse; it is improved by an hour's parboiling before continuing with a recipe. Young ones, 7 to 8 pounds, can be marinated overnight in 1 tablespoon salt per quart of water. Older ones, up to 13 or 14 pounds, should be marinated for 24 hours.

Gads! Actual Recipes!


Possum and Chestnuts

Skin opposum, remove glands and entrails. Scrape clean and scald in boiling water. Rub inside and out with salt and pepper and set in cool place. Stuff with chestnuts, apple sauce, and bread crumbs in equal proportions. Cover with slices of sweet potato, one cup boiling water, one-half cup lemon juice. Bake in butter and baste often until tender.

Old Fashioned Coon (Racoon)

Put one dressed coon in salt and soda water and let stand over night. Take out of water next morning and wash two times and put in kettle and boil until tender. Put in bread pan and put pepper and sage on it and bake. Serve with sweetpotatoes.

Stuffed and Baked Racoon with Apples

1 medium raccoon
4 lg. onions
4 strips salted pork
2 c. beef stock


Stuffing:
5 lg. tart apples
2 T. butter
1 t. cinnamon
1 c. dry bread crumbs
1 t. salt
½ t. pepper


Skin and clean the raccoon. Wash well and remove most of the fat. Place in a large soup kettle, cover with water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Peel, core and dice the apples into a mixing bowl. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the cinnamon, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Mix real good. Take the raccoon out of the cookign juices and cool. Stuff the raccoon and sew up the cavity. Place the raccoon, breast down o ntherack of a roasting pan, with the legs folded under the body and fastened with string. Drop the salt pork over the back of the raccoon and fasten with toothpicks. Place the onions beside the raccoon on the rack. Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes to brown the meat. Reduce the heat to 325 F and add the 2 cups of beef stock. Cook for one hour, basting as often as possible. Transfer to a heated platter surrounded by whole onions.

Possum

Take a possum and parboil until tender. Take out of water and put in bread pan, then pepper to taste. Take three large sweet potatoes and boil until tender. Lay these around possum in bread pan, put in oven and bake until brown. Serve warm.

Ah ha! I finally found it...
Kill It & Grill It: A Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish
by Ted Nugent

Answer 2

Raccoons should have all the fat, inside and out, removed, as well as the glands that are under the legs, along the spine, and in the small of the back. The meat is very dark, long-fibered, and somewhat coarse; it is improved by an hour's parboiling before continuing with a recipe. Young ones, 7 to 8 pounds, can be marinated overnight in 1 tablespoon salt per quart of water. Older ones, up to 13 or 14 pounds, should be marinated for 24 hours.


Opossum was once widely consumed in the United States where available as evidenced by recipes in older editions of The Joy of Cooking. In Dominica and Trinidad opossum or "manicou" is popular and can only be hunted during certain times of the year due to over-hunting; the meat is traditionally prepared by smoking then stewing. The meat is light and fine grained and the musk glands must be removed as part of preparation. The meat can be used in place of rabbit and chicken in recipes

Answer 3

The opossum is really greasy to eat, the coon is better but unless you bake it a really long time at low temps it is tough. The best coon I have eaten was parboiled in crab boil until tender and then cooked slowly on a charcoal grill and sauced with BBQ sauce near the end. Excellent!! As with all critters, and ladies too (lol), the younger ones are more tender and delectable!

Answer 4

actually i have heard that possum meat is a little greasey and stringy. don't know about racoon. people eat them. but i would rather chance it and pay the 99 cents a pound to buy a cheap cleaned defeathered chicken. but that's just me.

Answer 5

Soory. Ma wife needs to turn more tricks so's we kin afford to move into a nice traler park. Right now wes jest livin in the basement of an outhouse. Sally bit*h cain't seel herself nuff fer ma tastes. Durn it. Wisht i cud git ta yur level. Tarnation!

Answer 6

The opossum is the only North American marsupial. I has a pocket.

The meat is dark.

Answer 7

no, but I could tell you a really good story that involves my siberian husky, my dad, a possum, and a heavy shovel.
wanna hear???

Answer 8

found some roadkill eh? be careful they both are carriers of rabies

Answer 9

google it, country cooking,

Answer 10

Are you hungery?