Did you know that the first edition of the book "The Joy Of Cooking" had recipes on how to cook raccoon and squirrel? Found this on the internet not the book. Sounds interesting.....

1 raccoon, 4 - 6 lbs.
1 pod garlic
1 stalk celery
1 onion
1/4 c. Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning
1/2 stick butter
1/2 c. barbecue sauce, your choice

Wash raccoon well, do not cut the meat up. Cut small slits in shoulders and hams, insert garlic. Put rest of garlic along with celery and onion in the cavity. Melt butter and mix with Tony Chachere's. Rub meat down with the mixture and place in the smoker; add hickory chips to coals (optional). After about 4 hours rub meat with barbecue sauce. Cook for another 15 to 30 minutes. Check frequently. Serve with extra barbecue sauce.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LDThornton,

My how times have changed. Raccoon may have been in the 1st edition of Joy of Cooking (1931), but not the recipe shown from the internet. Tony Chachere didn't start his Cajun Food company until 1972.

The recipe didn't come from the book. I found it on the internet.

We've got raccoons here in downtown Toronto that drive us crazy. Anyone want a few, I'm happy to ship them off!!!

In an old cookbook, I once found a recipe for skunk stew, also known as mother-in-law stew! Truth be told, my mother-in-law is from Smokey Mountains of NC. She's made squirrel stew, usually referred to as "critter stew" (by me -- I'm not a fan).
For a good laugh, check out White Trash Cooking:http://www.amazon.com/White-Trash-Cooking-Ernest-Mickler/dp/0898152070/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258825737&sr=1-1-spell

How good the raccoon is probably depends on their diet. Really wouldn't want to try one of the big fat ones in Victoria where I used to live.

They don't appear here. Too cold (probably) or too many coyotes (maybe).

I have a cajun cookbook that has a recipe for squirrel - I'm thinking I would try that before raccoon.

My dad started a wild game feast campout in my old Boy Scout troop the first weekend in December and we had many adult leaders who were hunters and trappers. We had a couple of guys that would do coon on a spit, very greasy meat, but not bad, better than some other stuff that was cooked.

My grandfather started taking me squirrel hunting when I was 5. We would bring them home and clean them and my grandmother would make stew. It was great at the time but it has been years (probably 25) since I had any. I would certainly eat them before I starved. I worked with a guy from Louisianna that said they sold coons in the grocery stores where he grew up there. He gave me some great advice about buying coons. He said the stores sold them cleaned but left the feet on. He said never to buy on without the feet b/c you can't tell them apart from a small dog. Lol!

bd

there is a young hillbilly kinda guy that works in a neighboring department that traps coons, skins 'em an' sells the pelt. 30 bucks a piece.
I asked him what he does with the meat, told me he s-cans em, so.....
I gave him LD's recipe find from the internet but to this day he has not brought in any samples... he did make some coon jerky that I would not dare try... a colleague did before I was offered and he warned me

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jim Lampe,

Just an FYI....for the last 65 years the local Lions Club, on the 1st. Monday night in February has had a "Coon Supper" as a fund raiser. It started out as just a members only get together, but for the past 58 years has been open to the public.

Now Danville is a village of around 1000 people, and they will feed between 650-750 dinners. They come from near and far. And up until about 15 years ago, it was a stag event. The meat is cooked in roasters with garlic and other spices all day, and is very tender and tasty. And NO, it doesn't taste like Chicken!! But it is very good!

Let me know if you want tickets for the next one!

They have a big "coon supper" here in Arkansas, I believe it's in Gillette. It's a big deal and a favorite of all the politicians running for office. If you want votes from that neck of the woods you have to eat some coon and drink some cheap beer. I tried coon once and wasn't too fond of it. I had a guy tell me he had ate oppossum and thought it was pretty good til he found out "how they make their living".

Im a local boy born and raised in the Smokies. Great Grandmother born in the 18th century cooked squirrel + dumplings every sunday that were fantastic. Asked her about coon one day and said she wouldn't touch the stuff. She said anything that lived on trash tasted like trash. Wouldnt touch possum either. Gotta admit it makes some sense- she cooked wild game 80+ years can't discount experience right?

Also cooked rattlesnake on occasion, loved it but it was probably just the heavy spicing and just the idea of eatting rattlesnake.

I don't know about eating squirrel and raccoon. Up here in NJ we usually just run 'em over with the car.

And like hogs or cattle, an old boar coon wont taste as good as a younger one. as for around here. the coons dont live off garbage cans, the ones by my house lived on my chickens this past year. still wont eat one.

I checked a 1931, 1936, and 1943 Joy of Cooking and no Racoon in the index, and I checked the game chapter. Squab, rabbit, pigs feet, and wild duck, yes. Racoon, no. So unless somebody can give me a page # I'm saying somebody just made that bit up.

(The 1943 edition's cool by the way - there's a lot of wartime rationing/substitution stuff they removed in the post-war edition)

My brother-in-law used to hunt coon and he took the meat in and had sausage and hotdogs made. I did try some it was unique and very greasy. I didn't ask for seconds.