"Craziest" critter you ever smoked?


 

G.A. Green

TVWBB Member
Folks - was reminded the other day of being offered a big bite of beautiful white meat from my neighbor's grill. I was just a kid from south Texas and loved meat so I asked no questions.....it was really moist and delicious...I was horrified to learn I'd just eaten some ARMADILLO bbq!!!!!

What is the most outlandish critter you ever smoked?
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Back in 1989 I was touring the Cajun backwoods of Louisiana and found myself tasting deep fried alligator. I didn't care for it. Kinda Stringy.
Sorry-not smoked.
 
A couple spiders that made the unfortunate mistake of picking my grill to build their new homes. Wasn't much left to eat..
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Bill
 
Personally smoked would be rattlesnake or racoon.

Got invited to a function years ago that turned out to be pretty weird as I found out after the fact. Long story, but here's the Reader's Digest version. I had a former friend, Keith, who invited me over for a 4th of July bash. He and I had a mutual friend who owned a few acres with a barn a few miles out of town that he (the owner) kept two horses on. This became sort of a hang out after work for quite a few, Keith being by far the most frequent user. Keith had a young son that he had gotten some rabbits for and he immediately moved those out to the barn. Keith also had gotten a black pot bellied pig named Nolan (after former Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson) that he used to take with him to Razorback football games. You guessed it, Nolan also ended up residing at the barn. Then came a few turkeys, several ducks and a few chickens that Keith acquired. By now, you're getting an idea of what Keith has on the 4th of July's menu, at least some of it anyway. I only occasionally dropped by the barn, so I was completely unaware of what had transpired just prior to July 4. Since Keith and I were both hunters, I didn't really think a lot of there being game on the menu. The only hitch was I'd never known the guy to hunt rabbit or duck. I'm standing there with a sampler plate and inquired, then Keith informs me what the origins of dinner are. I dropped my plate in the nearest trash can, gathered up my wife and daughter (who REALLY hit the roof when they found out what they nearly ate) and left. I found out later from the landowner that he had asked Keith many times over a several month period to remove his livestock from his premises as he was feeling taken advantage of. Nolan had gotten huge by this point and was no longer attending Razorback games, so the landowner finally took him to a slaughterhouse, I guess to prove a point. Well, Keith's reaction was to stop by the barn late one night. He walked in, drank a beer with the couple of guys that were hanging out and then walks out back of the barn. He pulls out a 9mm and empties a 15 round magazine laying waste to all the critters, loads them up in the back of his truck and leaves. That was part of his menu for his bash. Never regretted ending that friendship. I tend to have a warped sense of humor, so after some time, I was at least able to find a small bit of humor in the situation.
 
Scott,

Call me cold/cruel/sick, but if it's raised in a barn its gonna be good on the bbq, and yes that includes the horses. Americans and thier horses.....personally I don't see the problem eating them.

I guess I grew up raising rabbits for food, and grew up with enough people who raised animals that I don't see a problem eating a few that have outgrown their welcome.
 
Josh,

Not at all on the cold/cruel/sick thing. I'm a life long hunter and do 99% of my own butchering/processing so the concept of raising animals for food doesn't bother me at all. The issue was my wife and daughter, who wouldn't have attended had we known what was being served. Another similar example would be the ill advised practical joke of slipping someone something to eat that they would object to without their knowledge of what it is or outright deception. Those generally don't end on a happy note.

I've had others tell me that horse is actually pretty good. I've never had the desire or occasion to find out first hand so I'll take your word for it. They survived, by the way. I rather think the landowner would have had major issues over his horses being shot. Apologies for giving that impression.
 
i'm sure i ate horse and whale in can from the orient while a child in the pacific islands. while going to school in north carolina we would eat possum stew. rabbit was a regular also
 
Re: Horse.

Several years ago, I read the Lewis & Clark Journals. When they got near the Continental Divide, they nearly starved to death because there are no critters at that high elevation. Prior to that, they had eaten everything they could trap or shoot, meaning literally every animal in North America. But, when faced with starvation, they began eating their dogs and horses.

By the end of their trip, their opinion was they loved eating horse, but their favorite of all was dog!

We may object to that now, but it is not too far back in US history/culture to consume such meat (just over 200 years).

Me? Have smoked Beef, Pork, Chicken. Also ate alligator, venison, buffalo, elk, duck.
 
Goat was the most "out there" meat but my in laws are old school Sicilians so you can imagine some of the stuff. One night they tried to sneak some rabbit in me, saying it was chicken. I was on to them. I don`t eat anything in the "rodent" family.
 
Ernest - another of my "early" memories was of eating barbecue "cabrito" at our deer lease in Sonora, TX, cooked by a kindly "visiting" mexican ranch hand. Young bbq goat was some of the better meat I've ever had.

I'm sure IRON CHEF Kruger (I mean that as a compliment!
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) can fill us in on cabrito?
 
Jerry,

I'm pretty sure the living quarters and cleaning processes of rabbit are much cleaner than commercial poultry
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Luckly I have a strong stomach otherwise I'd never eat chicken again after learning about them from farm to grocer.

Josh
 
I'm just way too basic I guess. Heck, I sometimes struggle with eating chicken. Not KFC mind you, just regular chicken.
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If I eat something nasty, it's like Mentos and Coke. You should see me picking through butt. If it looks the slightest bit off, in the garbage it goes.
 
I guess the wildist thing I have ever smoked was a couple of wood ducks and an unfortunate Woodcock that flew by a little too fast and a little too high and was mistaken for a duck. It was without a doubt the worst tasting stuff I ever smoked and more of it wound up in the garbage than was eaten.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Josh Z.:

Luckly I have a strong stomach otherwise I'd never eat chicken again after learning about them from farm to grocer.

Josh </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's pretty amazing how many chickens are kept in a commecial chicken house. All they do is stand at the trough and eat food that is automatically distributed. When you walk in the ammonia smell hits you like a brick. Yummo

Like Josh Z., I ate many a backyard-raised rabbit in my childhood. I can't remember if the brown ones were the best or maybe the black and white ones? Good stuff, but I still remember the first time that I saw the butchering...it was interesting for sure.

I've been hungry enough to eat a horse, but I haven't had any as far as know (except maybe at the college cafeteria?).
 
Just for Ernest:
Members of non-rodent orders such as Chiroptera (bats), Scandentia (treeshrews), Insectivora (moles, shrews and hedgehogs), Lagomorpha (hares, rabbits and pikas) and mustelid carnivores such as weasels and mink are sometimes confused with rodents.
So... Rabbits are not rodents. They are also very good to eat. As a child mu family kept a couple of hundred rabbits. We ate all we wanted and butchered and sold excess to a local market. While it is easy to tell rabbit from chicken, you can put either on my table any day.
While I have BBQ'ed mostly the "normal" stuff, I could think of 30 different kinds of animals that I have eaten. That not including any of the seafood with the exception of whale meat.
I think I would eat any of them again except sage hen. It just eats too much sage brush and the meet flavor was not good
 
When I was a peace corps volunteer I ate a lot of weird stuff. Best story though, is I was waiting for a bus at the border of El Salvador with a friend. We ordered the "special" of the day at some real local place which consisted of a wood fired oven and comal. What I got was quite a surprise.
I took one look at the plate and knew instantly what it was. It had a mushroom tip and was long. It was the REAL business end of the horse. My friend bet me to eat it. So I put some hot vinegar chilis on it, wrapped it up in a fresh corn tortilla and ate it. It wasn't half bad,but it makes a great story to tell people.

Other weirdest thing was sauteed cow utter. It tasted exactly how you would think. Bland and rubbery.
 
I went to school in Gainesville, Fl, and the popular BBQ shack served goat as their specialty. I never worked up the stomach to try it.
 

 

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