Fresh coon

April 2, 2009 9:02 AM

With red pop! Yeah, I'm not eating that.
posted by GavinR (93 comments total)

I'm trying to figure out a humorous yet non-dickheaded-sounding way of making a comment about how uncomfortable the poster frame on that video makes me feel.

I'm coming up pretty dry.
posted by hifiparasol at 9:06 AM on April 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Previously, on EatingRaccoonFilter...
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:11 AM on April 2, 2009

If Mr. Soul Patch doesn't like it, then I'll sure try it.

Coon Man seems cool to me.
posted by cmoj at 9:13 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

When there was no meat, we ate fowl. And when there was no fowl, we ate crawdad. And when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:13 AM on April 2, 2009 [3 favorites]

I'm coming up pretty dry.

how about: ~^?
posted by sexyrobot at 9:13 AM on April 2, 2009

You ate sand?
posted by Gungho at 9:16 AM on April 2, 2009 [6 favorites]

He believes coon meat tastes something like mutton or pork, but to the uneducated pallet, it has the aroma and texture of opossum.

Oh, so it tastes just like opossum? Why would the writers think the readers would be more familiar with the taste of opossum than raccoon?
posted by demiurge at 9:17 AM on April 2, 2009 [5 favorites]

I like to eat opossum in a pita. It has a nice recursive feeling to it.
posted by hifiparasol at 9:23 AM on April 2, 2009 [10 favorites]

We ate sand
posted by poppo at 9:23 AM on April 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Why would the writers think the readers would be more familiar with the taste of opossum than raccoon?

Easier to catch?
posted by educatedslacker at 9:23 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

When there was no meat, we ate fowl. And when there was no fowl, we ate crawdad. And when there was no crawdad to be found, we ate sand. that slimy okra shit.

People will eat what there is to eat, when they get hungry enough. When people are consistently poor and hungry over sustained periods of time, local cuisines will develop out of neccessity. Cajun cooking is a prime example of this, and it's some of the best food on the planet, born of extremely humble origins.

The photo of the old guy with the sign is ironic in a squicky sort of way, due to long-term use of racial epithets. Sad it has to be that way.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:24 AM on April 2, 2009

Uneducated pallets?
posted by JoanArkham at 9:25 AM on April 2, 2009 [4 favorites]

This is where we differ. Rather than eating the raccoons, I would train them into a scavenging army and live like a king off of their offerings to me. "The Regent of the Raccoon Legion", that's what I'd call myself. And I'd make a throne out of garbage cans, and every night I would regale my army with tales of my might and power.

At least, I'm pretty sure this is what I'd be thinking about as I slowly starved to death from my inability to hunt in a city for food.
posted by quin at 9:26 AM on April 2, 2009

The interior paint has the faded sepia tones of an old man's teeth

This writing is awesome.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 9:27 AM on April 2, 2009

Detroit is fascinating. It's becoming this weird rural frontier of outlaws and improvisational living - in an urban setting.
posted by billysumday at 9:29 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Man I miss Red Pop! I wonder why we don't get Faygo in California.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 9:29 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Raccoon, which made the first edition of The Joy of Cooking in 1931, is labor-intensive but well worth the time, aficionados say. I did not know that. Thanks, Alvy&.

Semi-previously, with a focus on the coon dogs, not the coon meat.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:30 AM on April 2, 2009

Somewhere Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone just high-fived eachother.
posted by Smarson at 9:31 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Bear's Grease, Bullfrog Legs, Back Strap of Wild Hog, Armadillo Cheeks, Roasted Coot, Fried Mink, Turtle Claws. . . And Did We Mention, for the Main Course, a Nice Braised Shank of Free-Range Possum? The South's true country cuisine rises again.

The above was included in The Best American Science and Nature Writing for 2001. It's very good.

the taste of opossum

The plate arrives looking like a hillbilly coat of arms: a proud possum shank emblazoned on a shield of grits, flanked by asparagus fleurs-de-lis and chevrons of wild hog tenderloin. "Gusta Plus Possium." ..

All possum. The words trigger an odd reaction in my mouth. It starts with the texture: Fluttering pockets of fat are interleaved throughout the muscle fibers. Rubbery and slick, they bring to mind countless childhood dinners when my parents made me eat the fat from my pork chops. Then there's the aftertaste: that feral, faintly glandular presence rising through the sauce. This is an ancient animal, it tells me, one that was scurrying through primeval underbrush long before my ancestors, or their taste buds, had even evolved.

posted by stbalbach at 9:31 AM on April 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

It gets better every day...

on the eve of the final four, Detroit is painted as a place where the residents are reduced to eating coons, possums, house cats and dogs shot on Woodward and prepared with a healthy dollup of BBQ sauce.

We don't need support for the auto companies...we just need more small caliber rifles and a good PR person!
posted by HuronBob at 9:32 AM on April 2, 2009

Thanks for the link, stbalbach -- that's some great prose. Makes me remember getting grief for not eating the fat from my steaks. When I finally had a steak prepared well, I realized that it can actually taste really godddamn good.
posted by hifiparasol at 9:35 AM on April 2, 2009

> When men get hold of animals he blows them up and then he blows up. Fill 'em so full of chemicals and steroids it ruins the people. It makes them sick. Like the pigs on the farm. They's 3 months old and weighing 400 pounds. They's all blowed up. And the chil'ren who eat it, they's all blowed up. Don't make no sense.

No antibiotics and growth hormones in raccoon. They're not raised in feed lots and the meat isn't injected with up to 18% saline solution before freezing and packing.

The old man's got a point, there.
posted by ardgedee at 9:36 AM on April 2, 2009 [4 favorites]

My friends and I will roast a whistlepig a couple of times in the summer. Groundhog is quite good - it's a big animal, feeds a crowd, tastes like tough pork and most people will pay you to take them off their property.

I've never understood this aversion to eating "non-traditional" animals. Assuming your not taking out bald eagles and baby seals, it seems perfectly reasonable to add squirrel, possum, raccoon and groundhog to the menu. They're abundant, can be had with a small .22 rifle, and appear occasionally in the bushes to spice up your afternoon fishing trip.

"Catch any fish?"
"Nah, but I got two squirrels and a big turtle."

Meat is meat. I know deer hunters who won't eat groundhog, and it kind of irks me. What makes a wild turkey acceptable, but a nice fat squirrel somehow less so?

There's meat everywhere, people! Broaden your horizons!
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:37 AM on April 2, 2009 [15 favorites]

Detroit was once home to nearly 2 million people but has shrunk to a population of perhaps less than 900,000. It is estimated that a city the size of San Francisco could fit neatly within its empty lots. As nature abhors a vacuum, wildlife has moved in.

I am starting to suspect the article is exaggerating a bit. A decrease from 2 million to about 1 million isn't really congruent with wildlife taking back over, unless there are neighborhoods that saw more of an exodus than the average.
posted by crapmatic at 9:37 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

"Oh, so it tastes just like opossum? Why would the writers think the readers would be more familiar with the taste of opossum than raccoon?"

Because it's Southeast Michigan. The Billy is strong there. 'Course, most folks who know possum would also know coon, judging from my former neighbors.
posted by klangklangston at 9:39 AM on April 2, 2009

"Coon or rabbit. God put them there to eat. When men get hold of animals he blows them up and then he blows up. Fill 'em so full of chemicals and steroids it ruins the people. It makes them sick. Like the pigs on the farm. They's 3 months old and weighing 400 pounds. They's all blowed up. And the chil'ren who eat it, they's all blowed up. Don't make no sense."

I like this man.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:41 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I've had coon. Gamey. Little weird.
posted by notsnot at 9:42 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

The Light Fantastic - We can get Faygo down here in SoCal, it just takes some looking for - I (appropriately enough) saw it at the Major Market last night while I was looking for an entirely different obscure soda.
posted by FritoKAL at 9:42 AM on April 2, 2009

"I am starting to suspect the article is exaggerating a bit. A decrease from 2 million to about 1 million isn't really congruent with wildlife taking back over, unless there are neighborhoods that saw more of an exodus than the average."

Uh… "It is estimated that a city the size of San Francisco could fit neatly within its empty lots."

And since this is urban wildlife—possum, raccoon, skunk, coyote—that they're there in greater numbers isn't a surprise. It's not like there are herd of deer roaming, like there are in the suburbs.
posted by klangklangston at 9:42 AM on April 2, 2009

Where's Major Market?

(I could go for some Rockin' Rye.)
posted by klangklangston at 9:44 AM on April 2, 2009

"What people gonna do? They gonna eat each other up is what they gonna do."
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 9:44 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

My grandparents ate a lot of possum during the 1st few years they were married and waited for their citrus grove to become self-supporting. The key to tasty possum according to Grandma:

It must be caught live and unharmed!

That allows you to keep it in a cage and feed it nothing but corn meal for a few days to clean it out and greatly improve its flavor. Grandma also swears it's much better as leftovers the next day than fresh outta the oven. Supposedly, grampa favored possum chile verde
posted by buggzzee23 at 9:44 AM on April 2, 2009 [7 favorites]

I knew a guy in Atlanta like this. He said he was one of 22 children, so he learned to eat whatever he could catch. I was working maintenance at the Emory University grad student housing one summer, and Horace would trap raccoons and turtles (and who know what else) in the park behind the apartments.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:45 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

> A decrease from 2 million to about 1 million isn't really congruent with wildlife taking back over, unless there are neighborhoods that saw more of an exodus than the average.

Some neighborhoods are effectively gone, parts of town where you can see grids of paved streets and sidewalks with only one or two freestanding rowhouses per block, plants and trees growing where the neighbors used to be. Many -- possibly most -- of the factories within city limits are closed as well, including former auto factories the size of small towns.

If you're unsurprised by the idea of seeing deer or pheasant in a rangy exurb, you shouldn't be surprised by seeing them in an abandoned city. The land doesn't have to be scenic to harbor wildlife and it doesn't have to be free of humans, it only has to have be left alone long enough for wild plants to grow unimpeded by groundskeepers, homeowners and city works.
posted by ardgedee at 9:50 AM on April 2, 2009

He believes coon meat tastes something like mutton or pork, but to the uneducated pallet, it has the aroma and texture of opossum.

Opossum! That's the word I was searching for. It was on the tip of my tongue, until I swallowed it.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:51 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Try looking for Faygo at BevMo. The ones in Arizona carry them
posted by lizjohn at 9:52 AM on April 2, 2009

I make it a rule to never eat things that eat things that I don't eat.
posted by Smarson at 9:59 AM on April 2, 2009

Therefore you don't eat beef, since cows eat grass?
posted by billysumday at 10:01 AM on April 2, 2009

Wait, that doesn't make any sense
posted by Smarson at 10:02 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

My brother ran a muskrat trapping route, all through our posh suburban neighborhood. There were a lot of complaints from people who saw him carrying bundles of traps and the occasional muskrat, and thought he might accidentally trap their cats. A detailed review of the rule book, with two head-scratching police officers, determined that he had every right to do this. He didn't trap on private land, only culverts, storm drains, and other public property. Never ate them, though. Skinned them and sold the pelts.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:03 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Clarification: I make it a rule to never eat things that eat the things I've already discarded

that's not even half as witty. dammit
posted by Smarson at 10:05 AM on April 2, 2009

Okay, someone had to say it:

Detroitfilter?
posted by jester69 at 10:06 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I thought Faygo had been pretty much ruined by its connection with Insane Clown Posse.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:13 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Re: Faygo and related obscure soft drinks in SoCal.

Galco's.
posted by hifiparasol at 10:17 AM on April 2, 2009

This is a sad commentary on urban decay. Why are we giving so much money to the banks instead of people who actually work and make things for a living?

On a positive note, sometimes it is good to eat strange things. The best taco I ever had was in Mexico City. It has cow brains in it (this was before anyone knew about mad cow disease) The best chili I ever had contained bear meat.

I've never had raccoon but I bet it's pretty gamey.
posted by double block and bleed at 10:19 AM on April 2, 2009

There's meat everywhere, people! Broaden your horizons!

I don't like the way Baby_Balrog is eyeing me.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 10:19 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Does he eat out at the Road Kill Grill on special occasions, and treat himself to some Flat Cat or Centre Line Bovine?
posted by orange swan at 10:22 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

This is exactly like Twelve Monkeys.
posted by kbanas at 10:24 AM on April 2, 2009

I thought Faygo had been pretty much ruined by its connection with Insane Clown Posse.

It still tastes the same
posted by double block and bleed at 10:26 AM on April 2, 2009

raccoons are plentiful throughout michigan, even in the cities - there's a reason people put bungee cords on their garbage cans
posted by pyramid termite at 10:27 AM on April 2, 2009

The end of the article is pure, over-the-top gold:

"His woman left him in 1970 for a man he calls Slick Willy. Someone stole his pickup truck and then someone killed his best dog."

And now he hunts coons. The goold ole days are here again.
posted by GuyZero at 10:29 AM on April 2, 2009

but that red pop does something weird to people
posted by pyramid termite at 10:33 AM on April 2, 2009

when i lived in portland, oregon there were packs of racoons which lived downtown. they're social and make some weird noises and come out late at night.
posted by geos at 10:40 AM on April 2, 2009

New idea for Detroit - Weed City.
posted by billysumday at 10:47 AM on April 2, 2009

Horrible prose, but I'd expect that from the News.

There are a lot of vacant lots in Detroit. The New York Times wrote an article a year or two ago about all the folks doing urban farming on them. Near my partner's house are several mostly empty blocks where we can nearly always spot pheasant. Raccoons don't surprise me, either.

The unemployment rate in Detroit is very high. It is officially over 10% in Michigan (and has been for a long time). Folks get by any number of ways, mostly at least a little illegal. But, they already know no one cares about them or what they do, as long as they stay out of the suburbs.
posted by QIbHom at 10:51 AM on April 2, 2009

"His woman left him in 1970 for a man he calls Slick Willy."

I secretly hope his woman was Hillary Clinton.

I have found the idea of urban foraging interesting for some time, finding food where it's overlooked. However, the tone of this article seems to portray Detroit almost as a post-apocalyptic ghost town, returning to the wild. I haven't really spent any time in Detroit, so I don't know how close to the truth this is. All the other Detroit posts of late seem to support that particular portrayal, though not nearly as over-the-top.

Mr. Beasley sounds like he'd be really interesting to talk to, though. I'm sure he's got a lot of good stories, and I like his no nonsense view of the world.
posted by wander at 10:54 AM on April 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Alrighty, so what exactly is meant by "can serve up to four"? Honestly, 12 bucks for a raccoon sounds like a fairly expensive meal to me.
posted by graventy at 10:55 AM on April 2, 2009

It is this reporter's opinion that the best sauce for coon may very well be hunger.
posted by caddis at 11:05 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

People will eat what there is to eat, when they get hungry enough

...and then, if they spill any, why, they'll lick it up.

Detroitfilter?

Naw....

DetroitFilter!
posted by CynicalKnight at 11:08 AM on April 2, 2009

Alrighty, so what exactly is meant by "can serve up to four"? Honestly, 12 bucks for a raccoon sounds like a fairly expensive meal to me.

Not if you're eating this guy.
posted by Evangeline at 11:09 AM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

There's meat everywhere, people!

*pokes cat with fork*
posted by orme at 11:31 AM on April 2, 2009

Honestly, even as "city folk" I see no problem with this. The raccoons we had in in town Atlanta were HUGE - some were bigger than dogs - and the possums not much smaller. My dad used to make squirrel and dumplings every so often, though never with city animals (he swore they tasted of oil), so the extension to these animals doesn't seem that far to me. We also used to get deer, red fox, and other "woodland critters" well into Midtown.

Happily, I now live about 40 miles north of town, where there are plenty of thick woods and a large lake, so if food starts going scarce, I shant worry about it. Besides, I live near a landfill - there will be big animals coming to it (bears and cyotes) for long after humans stop putting fresh food into it.
posted by strixus at 11:45 AM on April 2, 2009

I live near a large urban "wilderness" area.
My neighbors feed the raccoons to keep them away from the cat food.
They rival Evangeline's linked animal.

I'd eat them (and have joked so to my wife) but I think they may taste of cat chow.
The possums, armadillos, squirrels, starling, deer and obnoxious neighbors are always a temptation. But that's what I get for leaving the house without eating breakfast.

I like different meats and would happily vary my diet if it were legal.
posted by Seamus at 11:51 AM on April 2, 2009

I grew up outside Detroit and during the summer, when the cat preferred the outdoors, some possums would come regularly to our open garage and help themselves to the cat's food. She was nearby and didn't seem to mind. I never heard or witnessed a fight between them. They were cute little buggers, with crafty eyes. The raccoons in Ann Arbor were a bold lot and didn't seem fazed by humans at all. They would go for the garbage in daylight. Someone above said the "the billy" is strong in SE Michigan, which is absolutely correct. Selling squirrel/possum/raccoon/woodchuck doesn't sound out of the ordinary for those parts.
posted by nikitabot at 12:16 PM on April 2, 2009

Plz eml where u get dis i want so badd

oops, wrong thread.

regards, princess3987690 at STUPIDcom
posted by digsrus at 12:22 PM on April 2, 2009

Gross.
posted by Flex1970 at 12:29 PM on April 2, 2009

I read somewhere that Oregon-bound Lewis and Clark ate squirrel meat but, because it's such a trash fish, gave salmon to their dogs.

When I was a kid, we never thought to eat tilapia because it's such a hardy fish that abounded anywhere. Brackish water, sewage runoff, whatever, they loved it. And don't get me started on corn meal mush, oh excuse me, polenta.

People come around to new foods when fashion or just being dirt poor require it. I'd love to see the faces of the first family to eat escargot.
posted by Tacodog at 12:33 PM on April 2, 2009

"His woman left him in 1970 for a man he calls Slick Willy."

He used to date Hillary?
posted by orthogonality at 12:34 PM on April 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Clarification: I make it a rule to never eat things that eat the things I've already discarded

That excludes a lot of tasty critters, including the most versatile of them all, the saintly swine.

Over the years, I've had squirrel, rabbit, frog, deer, elk, moose, bear, snake, more types of fish than I care to remember...even some deep-fried jellyfish. But for some reason, coon and possum don't quite fire up the salivary glands.

Anyone notice how the Coon Hunter said "Rock and Rye" when the host mentioned a wine. I suppose enough rock 'n rye would drown out any 'coon gaminess...
posted by VicNebulous at 12:51 PM on April 2, 2009

Once upon a time my friend and I thought it would be a good idea to hunt rabbits. Local free range meat for the cost of a bullet? Yeah! It was less messy than our detractors said it would be. But it took so much time to find, kill, and butcher them that when we ran some calculations, our meat was even more expensive than that at the farmer's makret.
posted by melissam at 1:09 PM on April 2, 2009

My youth was quite litterally a series of experiences where I hung out all day with guys like Mr. Beasley interspersed with trips to England for formal teas with aging vickers that smelled of mothballs. If I could write worth a shit I'd Truman fucking Capote.

Please god, tell me that I was less annoying than that guy at least though, please.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:09 PM on April 2, 2009

Anyone who has eaten shrimp, lobster or oysters and is freaked out by any mammalian meat is irrational or a hypocrite.

Everywhere I travel, I eat the strangest thing the locals eat, there is no telling when you will have the opportunity again.

Re. urban survival, as a poor hitchhiking couch surfer, I've killed and eaten squirrels, pigeons and a possum, not many raccoons where I grew up. City pigeons are the grossest, most are covered with parasites and full of intestinal worms, but the easiest to kill. All you need is piece of pipe to use as a blowgun and magazine paper blowgun darts. If you only eat the big muscles and roast them to a crisp, they are quite tasty.

San Francisco has all kinds of stupid ordinances that make even slingshots and blowguns illegal, and it is against the law to kill pigeons, squirrels and raccoons. Otherwise, I'd provide the best finger food you've ever had at local meet-ups. And you would believe me when I told you you were eating free range organic quail and hand fed virgin Peruvian rabbit.
posted by dirty lies at 1:13 PM on April 2, 2009

On eating sand (depressing)

Haiti's poor resort to eating dirt
posted by jcruelty at 1:45 PM on April 2, 2009

As a Detroiter I can vouch for the fact that urban wildlife is (relatively) plentiful here. I've seen pheasant and peacocks ambling amiably up my street, and I'm in a (relatively) populated area of the city proper. I haven't killed or eaten any of them, though. Not yet.
posted by joe lisboa at 2:06 PM on April 2, 2009

Also, klang: you disappoint me. Surely you know it's "Rock'n'Rye"!
posted by joe lisboa at 2:07 PM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Fine-dining version.
posted by hoboynow at 2:38 PM on April 2, 2009

I don't think that I could eat coon, given my lingering childhood affection for Rascal. (We read Where The Red Fern Grows one year in grade school, and I think that I may have been the only child in the class who was happy about what happened to those coon-hunting dogs.) I have, however, cast a speculative eye on the fine haunches and luxurious coats of the neighborhood rabbits.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:53 PM on April 2, 2009

"His woman left him in 1970 for a man he calls Slick Willy."

Maybe she dug his crazy hand jive? Oh, sorry, that's Way Out Willie. Still, though.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:57 PM on April 2, 2009

I think the Detroit News poached this story from detroitblog. It's a regular column in the Metro Times. Check out some of the other stories on detroitblog, it's a great example of human-interest reporting that isn't disgustingly sweet.
posted by formless at 3:10 PM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Why do all the roadkill-eating people have to be from Arkansas?
posted by Ugh at 3:12 PM on April 2, 2009

"I've never understood this aversion to eating "non-traditional" animals."

Eat too much lean meat and you can die. Rabbit for instance - very lean (hence the name 'Rabbit Starvation') It's not much of a problem since there's usually a variety available for someone's diet. If you're working/training hard you need about a gram to a gram and a half of protein per kilo of your weight to keep it up (bit less otherwise). But you need fat and fat soluble vitamins and other minerals.
People drink cow milk and eat chicken eggs because they get amino acids from them they might not get from other protein sources, although you can get those from soybeans, corn, etc. But not at the same levels in some cases. E.g. lot of Lysine in beef and cow milk, not so much in corn or rice (lots in potatoes tho - but again, no protein). And vitamin A and D. We put it in milk, but mostly because we tend to drain animal fats from the rest of our diet as a matter of course.
Still - people resist because in part they resist monosource foods. They know they can starve on (say) rabbit. The irony is, we only now have the illusion of variety.
I myself love liver and other organ meat. But try and get someone to eat it today. Ain't gonna happen. Folks think it's disgusting. I grew up eating eggs mixed with brains and drinking goat milk and greens like dandelion leaves. Loads of good stuff, minerals, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, all that. Ever have real butter? You feel healthy afterwards. While I'm talking about dairy - yogurt has tons of good bacteria in it that makes your gut healthy.
I'm not against a vegetarian diet, not my thing, but all of this other type of stuff no one even thinks about. Why drink yogurt or pro-biotics when you can just pick up a coke?
(Buddy of mine got stomach flu (vomiting and diarrhea). The doctors gave him some anti-nausea meds and Imodium. I picked him up some lychee and Florastor. You tell me, you want an addictive opiate to shut down your intestinal motility so your feces sits inside you longer or you want something to put good bacteria back in so you stop the infection?)

I think it's in part a marketing thing - much like potatoes were railed against as a vegetable of the devil way back when - although when their use in times of war as a crop you couldn't just burn out to starve the peasants became plain, that quickly fell away.
Of course, then it went the other way, forcing over dependence on one crop (I'm thinking the English and the Irish potato famine), so, same deal in the U.S. Just different branding.

Mostly I think it's the philosophy of convenience and ability to easily transport and sell.
It's way easier and cheaper to sell vegetable oil and one source meat than it is for the market to tolerate people getting their own meat.
So we have a sort of rabbit starvation going on now anyway. We're fat, but malnourished. We're able to continue working because of technology, but otherwise we're not healthy.
...as a country. I eat all this stuff. I greatly prefer venison to beef.
And folks are convinced it's not worth the effort to work on a recipe that starts with 'Catch, kill, dress out....'
I'm not big on raccoon, plenty of wild game recipes out there though.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:15 PM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I like his blues guitar playing at the end...
posted by fiestapais at 4:45 PM on April 2, 2009

I'm not eating that, either, but given that the median house price in Detroit is now $18,000, I can sure see why it would taste good to people who are out of work and hungry.
posted by Tena at 5:02 PM on April 2, 2009

I like to eat opossum in a pita. It has a nice recursive feeling to it.

MetaPocket
posted by zinfandel at 8:05 PM on April 2, 2009

As soon as I saw this, I had the same thought as formless--they totally ripped off detroitblog. Except detroitblog writes awesome human interest stories that honor the subject without any lazy sensationalism or backhanded comments.

This recent piece about a steam bath with two distinct sets of clientele was pretty great. Especially the part about the local news team trying to bust the place for illegal activities and not finding anything.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 9:45 PM on April 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

"What people gonna do? They gonna eat each other up is what they gonna do."

There's meat everywhere, people! Broaden your horizons!

/invites Baby_Balrog to dinner
posted by aetg at 4:12 AM on April 3, 2009

I myself love liver and other organ meat. But try and get someone to eat it today. Ain't gonna happen. Folks think it's disgusting.

Another issue that people have with liver is the perception that it concentrates heavy metals; not sure how true that is. I do love me some braunschweiger.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:00 AM on April 3, 2009

Is that what Braunschweiger was made of? I've been eating it for a while now because it's so cheap, but I assumed it was just made of snouts and tails.
posted by dunkadunc at 7:11 AM on April 3, 2009

I love braunschweiger, too. Unfortunately, it is on my wife's list of foods that she wants banned from the house because it "smells bad", along with anchovies, sardines, kippered herring, pickled eggs, etc.

Hey, where are all the vegans in this thread?
posted by double block and bleed at 7:39 AM on April 3, 2009

I'm a vegetarian, at least. (But I've always said that if I give that up, it'll have to be for human meat.)
posted by klangklangston at 8:12 AM on April 3, 2009

db&b, you need a new wife.
posted by QIbHom at 10:37 AM on April 3, 2009

I ate a groundhog once. I have not clicked that link.
posted by jessamyn at 11:17 AM on April 3, 2009

QIbHom: "91db&b, you need a new wife."

No I don't. Not after three kids and 15 years. The weird food thing is one of her very few failings and nothing compared to my bizarre quirks.

Sneaks to the kitchen to get braunschweiger, crackers and a beer. Must be very quiet...
posted by double block and bleed at 11:17 PM on April 3, 2009