Published: February 08, 2008 11:28 am            

The Outdoors: Raccoon? You bet — just add some barbecue sauce

Originally published in the February 8, 2008, print edition.

In addition to all of that fresh air and exercise, one of the major benefits of hunting is bringing the fruit of our labor to the table.

Naturally, it helps to have a sense of adventure when sitting down to enjoy such a meal since no matter how fastidious one might be when cleaning and preparing game, an occasional bit of feather, a hair, a pellet, sometimes makes it way to the dinner plate.

While such finds sometimes are enough to cause truly finicky diners to push away a perfectly fine meal of breast of pheasant or ruffed grouse, I like to believe such discoveries make the whole wild game dining experience a bit more honest.

Dining on wild game with all of its surprises, most hunters would agree, borders on a spiritual adventure.

Unlike a commercially raised chicken, fed additives and antibiotics but coming to us picked spanking clean and neatly wrapped in plastic film, a pellet extracted from a fat pheasant breast is a reminder of how and from whence the meal came.

By nature, hunters are a bit more adventuresome in what they are willing to consume anyway.

I mention this only because of an article recently published in the Free Press calling attention to the growing popularity of raccoon as table fare for some urban dwellers in Illinois.

Considering that the raccoons squashed on our roads are just the ones unlucky enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, it is clear there are way too many of them out there, most of which have a taste for, among other things, pheasant and duck eggs.

So anything that encourages increased harvests of the masked bandits is fine by me.

But seriously, raccoon as the main course?

Hey, it’s not bad. Not bad at all.

Of course, this comes from one who has dined not only on raccoon but on woodchuck, muskrat and beaver, as well. Though I probably wouldn’t care to eat such critters on a regular basis, all were fitting table fare.

Nowadays, thanks to the convenience and efficiency of mass livestock production, the supermarket meat counters are lined with all quantities of domestic meats, but limited to the predictable and customary beef, poultry, pork, etc.

But there was a period a long time ago when menu variety truly was the spice of life.

I once had the opportunity to peruse the menu from a Mankato hotel menu, circa 1870s. Listed among the usual entrees of beef, pork, and chicken were meadowlark, blackbird and robin. No kidding.

Now I can’t attest to the tastiness of meadowlark but since the statute of limitations has long since expired, I’ll confess to once having sampled breast of robin, harvested with an air rifle and then charbroiled over an open fire.

Looking back, I now would compare it to the earthy, rich taste of woodcock — taken in season and legally, of course.

I’m not advocating the harvest of songbirds. (And let’s not argue whether mourning doves qualify.) But I’m not at all surprised that raccoon is finding its way to the dinner table in some households. As a farmer friend of mine, one who’s sense of culinary adventure extends no further than the pork he raises, once put it: “You can eat damned near anything if you smother it in enough cream of mushroom soup.”

He’s right, of course.

But personally, I liked my raccoon best when done in barbecue sauce.

        

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