Beaver recipes????

[Tripplebeards]

I trapped a half dozen Beavers and saved the back straps, quarters, hides, caster, and tails.

Figured I'd use the castor for trapping scent. The hides I'll end up getting tanned. The tails....??? Read they were edible but every YouTuber said they tasted like lard and fish more or less....no thanks. I immediately washed all the meat off after cutting up in case I had any gland leakage on them. The backstraps and quarters i aged for close to a week. It amost smelled like fresh grocery store pork after aging. I got alot of blood out with the aging process that's for sure. Let it sit in the fridge wrapped and suspended. I tried a back strap the other day. WOW!!!! It tasted like the best quality beef steak I've ever had! But it was chewy. I only fried it for a couple minutes in oil cut up into small pieces. I'm thinking about getting burger made with all the quarters and having some tallow mixed in? Suggestions?

[Winger Ed.]

You might try it with using your favorite possum or raccoon recipe.

[Kestrel4k]

My father made beaver tail and beans (finely chopping the tail);
worked just like pork & beans, it was good to eat growing up.

[Rapier]

"then eat the rocks."

[GregLaROCHE]

I’ve cooked beaver boiling in water with salt added. Onions and potatoes if you got them. It’s great winter meal, when you get tired of lean caribou, it’s a real treat, but I don’t think I would eat the tail. I’ve been told that beavers from lakes taste better. Maybe they are not fighting the current all the time.

PS I take my hat off to you. Beaver is about the most difficult to skin and flesh out that I’ve come across.

[BLAHUT]

Grandmother cooked bever, it was good, I do not know how she cooked it, slow and in with beans ??? Dogs loved it, sled dogs, husky's could crack the sculls to get the brains, only dog I am aware that can do that other than wolves.
A lot of people look down their noses at the thought of eating such things as possum, raccoon, marsh rat, snake,
I will venture a bet, that most cannot tell what the true meaning of en-eatable / non-eatable is ????




24 too 48 hours......................

[maxreloader]

I like my beaver raw but clean!

[Winger Ed.]

I like my beaver raw but clean!

Oh now that's just tacky, tacky, tacky.

[Tripplebeards]

I can tell you the backstraps tasted better than any wild game I've ever had. It tasted like store bought Angus steaks. Just wondering what to do with the quarters.

[MaryB]

Try slow cooking it or cooking in the insta pot under pressure... shred, use in tacos, mix in a little BBQ sauce for a sandwich...

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Oh...uhh...the nutria for lunch crowd is back....!

DG

[Tripplebeards]

I’m kind of shocked as good as it tasted I figured more people here probably had eaten Beaver.

[Shawlerbrook]

Only beaver I ever ate was chili.

[FergusonTO35]

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

[MT Gianni]

As you have found it can be good. Treat it like beef, depending on the age and fat content.

[Thundarstick]

I have eaten it, but only a stew. It could have been passed off as beef stew easily. I've skinned them as well, it's like skinning a fat hog!

[trapper9260]

I normally eat it , I trap them in season. You can cook it different ways . It is lean meat and make sure you trim as much the fat off. I take some and debone the legs and grind it up and use it like ground beef in anything you like. I also make burgers out of it . Just that make sure the burgers are solid before you flip them over. Also make pull meat use of my home made root beer soda in the crock pot on high heat for about 6 hours of more. Then eat as sandwiches. Also you can use the back straps like you did and also just cut it up and use like you like would do with beef . The tail is all fat that you can fry in the frying pan and eat it like almost pork rinds, or make beaver tail soup. I find it easy to skin a beaver and scrape the skin. It all depends on how you do it . I normally trap them beside other animals in season. Muskrat meat is on the same as beaver . Lean meat It is also one of most healthiest meat you can have that is what beaver is known for. Coon is ok as long you trim as much fat off as you can and remove the glands under the arm pit. possum it most fatty there is. It is good eating , just need to make sure you drain all the fat off when you cook it and also trim as much fat off.

[MT Gianni]

Beaver tail got it's reputation when the mountain men had no fat in their diet, It is necessary and craved by humans but we get so much nowadays we reject other tastes.

[Keyman]

We eat fall, and spring beaver. Winter ice chopping is to much work. Wife and I are waiting for the river ice to go out, and then go and shoot from the boat. No limit, where we live. 6 per trip is enough as they do take 20 minutes or so to skin. We do leave meat on the bones. A light salt soak over night, and into the crock pot in the morning. We use dried onions and lots of powdered garlic, also dried peppers. A 60 pound beaver take 8 to 10 hours to be tender, smaller ones cook quicker. I am going to brine, and smoke this spring. The trick to water shooting is to use a head shot, 22 only. This will not kill the beaver out right, and will allow you to dip them up with a landing net. If you kill them out right they will sink before you get to them. I have used the meat and mixed it with black bear and make sausage. All those I share with have wanted more. If you get a pond beaver make sure they have not been eating pine. Spring hides are not the best, as they like to fight, and the hides have tears in them.
Keyman

[trapper9260]

We eat fall, and spring beaver. Winter ice chopping is to much work. Wife and I are waiting for the river ice to go out, and then go and shoot from the boat. No limit, where we live. 6 per trip is enough as they do take 20 minutes or so to skin. We do leave meat on the bones. A light salt soak over night, and into the crock pot in the morning. We use dried onions and lots of powdered garlic, also dried peppers. A 60 pound beaver take 8 to 10 hours to be tender, smaller ones cook quicker. I am going to brine, and smoke this spring. The trick to water shooting is to use a head shot, 22 only. This will not kill the beaver out right, and will allow you to dip them up with a landing net. If you kill them out right they will sink before you get to them. I have used the meat and mixed it with black bear and make sausage. All those I share with have wanted more. If you get a pond beaver make sure they have not been eating pine. Spring hides are not the best, as they like to fight, and the hides have tears in them.
Keyman

You are so right about spring beaver. I use to do that not anymore . There is not as many around me like it use to be before we had a flood in 1999 . I just trap them when I trap everything else when the season opens in Nov.