Beaver recipes????

[Muskyhunter1]

They say the meat in the beaver tail is really good for fish bait. A bunch of videos on YouTube.

I have a few in my freezer and plan on trying them this summer. Here is a video how this fellow skins the tails.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQVkr2xKdGY

[MaryB]

Beaver tail bacon... guy brought it to the wild game feed one year. Wasn't bad!

[gwpercle]

I like my beaver raw but clean!

I also have enjoyed many a beaver .
But it has been a long time since I caught my last one ...
Trapping them used to take up so much of my spare time ... To the Hunt
Gary

[Thundarstick]

I had a wild uncle who tried to convince us teenaged boys that you where better off going to town and buying you a beaver, than spending the resources and time hunting for it. I never took his advice, as I figured the wild caught was better anyway, and I liked the hunt!

[Tripplebeards]

I’ve only eaten one other backs trap since the post. I tried it and what are you tuber said steamboat. I fried out little pieces and then I put it in the oven in tinfoil with water underneath and covered for about two hours at 350 till tender. It was a lot more tender, but I like the taste better when it was a little chewy and fresh off the skillet better. Still good. I ate it all. When turkey hunting is over, after next Tuesday, I’ll thaw out all of the of the quarters and get it ground into burger by the local butcher.

[gwpercle]

I had a wild uncle who tried to convince us teenaged boys that you where better off going to town and buying you a beaver, than spending the resources and time hunting for it. I never took his advice, as I figured the wild caught was better anyway, and I liked the hunt!

The Hunt is half the fun ... To the Hunt

[Tripplebeards]

I thawed out all the quarters the other day. I cut off some of the choice pieces of meat and ground them up in my little electric grinder. I have two grinders and one finally is going to get tossed. It’s leaking black grease where the grinder insert goes. Don’t want that stuff getting into my grind. Anyways I ground two pounds. Ran it through my grinder twice. I found a recipe on line for beaver burgers and gave it a whirl. They tasted better than any quality angus burger I’ve ever had. I cherry picked 12 pounds of meat off the remaining quarters I had left. There is a good 10 pounds of excess trimmings I saved that I’ll use for future trapping bait. I took it to the local butcher. He is adding 2 pounds of pork and is grinding up into burger for me. They bag it in to 14, 1 pound bags. All for a whopping $22. It would cost me more for pork and bags.



Test burger from recipe with melted cheese curds on top…



I gave one to the neighbor because I made 3 burgers. He was afraid to eat it. Him and his wife who said heeck no!…shared it. Said it was really good. It’s a super dark red colored meat.

[MaryB]

I thawed out all the quarters the other day. I cut off some of the choice pieces of meat and ground them up in my little electric grinder. I have two grinders and one finally is going to get tossed. It’s leaking black grease where the grinder insert goes. Don’t want that stuff getting into my grind. Anyways I ground two pounds. Ran it through my grinder twice. I found a recipe on line for beaver burgers and gave it a whirl. They tasted better than any quality angus burger I’ve ever had. I cherry picked 12 pounds of meat off the remaining quarters I had left. There is a good 10 pounds of excess trimmings I saved that I’ll use for future trapping bait. I took it to the local butcher. He is adding 2 pounds of pork and is grinding up into burger for me. They bag it in to 14, 1 pound bags. All for a whopping $22. It would cost me more for pork and bags.



Test burger from recipe with melted cheese curds on top…



I gave one to the neighbor because I made 3 burgers. He was afraid to eat it. Him and his wife who said heeck no!…shared it. Said it was really good. It’s a super dark red colored meat.

More of a beaver meatloaf burger...

[Tripplebeards]

Yep, that’s kinda what it reminded me of. I didn’t have any fresh onions, so I just sprinkled in some dehydrated ones and water mixture. I let it in my fridge for about 20 minutes before I cooked it up so the onions would start soaking up moisture.

[Tripplebeards]

I still have over a pound of it left. Mary gave me a good idea. I’m thawing it out and gonna make meatloaf with it for supper. Nothing will be added just some ketchup and low carb sugar mixed on top with some melted cheese.

[lightload]

Possums eat carrion.

[Thundarstick]

Possums eat carrion.

Chickens and hogs as well, if they can get at it!

[Winger Ed.]

Possums eat carrion.

Folks here say you need to trap them, then keep them caged & feed 'em table scraps so they'll 'purge'
for a week or so to get them cleaned out.

Personally, I was never that hungry.

[trapper9260]

Folks here say you need to trap them, then keep them caged & feed 'em table scraps so they'll 'purge'
for a week or so to get them cleaned out.

Personally, I was never that hungry.

You do not need to do all that to keep them and all. Just trap them and butcher them after you save the fur to sell. I mainly keep the legs and strap back on the large ones ., it is lean meat. Just eat them and you are good to go. Too many say to do this and that will some things to eat and you waste your time. The main thing is to remove all the fat you can . That is all you mainly to do.

[Tripplebeards]

I got back my burger. Only spent $21 to get it ground up and talk added. It tasted like gland!!!! I'll be tossing out all the burger. The burger I ground up didn't have any gland smell or taste so I must have gave the butcher some burger that the glands leaked on. Lesson learned. I'll still eat the back straps I saved.

[brewer12345]

Boy, I wish I had seen this thread sooner.

It is illegal to trap anything with a kill trap in my state, so the populations get to nuisance levels on some canals and ponds. We hunt them. I have about half frozen to death doing so after dark in February, but it is always worth the opportunity of making a headshot on a 50 pounder at midnight. Yee-haw!

Anyway, I have found a few keys to success cooking beaver:

- First and foremost, get as much of the fat off the meat as possible. The fat is nasty and will ruin your dish
- When you cook it, get rid of more fat by browning in a skillet or dutch oven and then dump all the resulting fat before continuing to cook it.
- Treat it like lean beef, as you have found.

I mostly follow beef recipes with it. Cubed, lean pieces of beaver work great in any beef stew recipe. A large hindquarter that has had the fat removed works great for an Italian pot roast recipe. Cubes do well in chile Colorado and carbonnade flamande. Smoking it low and slow works because the nasty fat drips off. If you season it very well, put it on a rack in a pan, double wrap it with tin foil, and throw it in a 250F oven for several hours and you get beaveritos. I have even cubed it, seasoned it, and canned it in a pressure canner.

I tried a small batch of burger, but the nasty taste of the fat seems to get spread throughout the grind.

[fourarmed]

Never trapped any, but a friend gave us some. Cooked it in a crock pot using a pulled pork recipe. Quite good. Some neighbors we just met dropped by and we invited them to try it without saying what it was. The lady took one bite and said "Oh, that's beaver!" Turned out her husband was a lifelong trapper.

[Polymath]

We use this one for crock pot moose, but I'm told it's good for Beaver too.

[BNE]

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

It may be tacky, but it made me laugh out loud.

BNE

[Shanghai Jack]

I have used the meat and mixed it with black bear and make sausage.
Keyman

bear beaver sausage