If you nab that coon which has been eating your chickens, get poetic justice by eating him. Here is a recipe out of The Wild Food Cookbook by Frances Hamerstrom.

"Raccoon, like pork should be thoroughly cooked, and for the same reason. It may contain Trichinae, and trichinois is a singularly unplesant disease to acquire. The intestines (and droppings) of raccoons often contain Baylisascaris procyonis. This is a round worm. It is the eggs which are usually ingested by people. Look out for the intestines! If the meat has been contaminated by contents of the intestine (such as from a gunshot), we advise not eating the meat of that individual. At any rate, cook raccoons thoroughly." (Note: I would also recommend handling the carcass using rubber gloves. Tack the pelt to a henhouse wall as a trophy.)

"Needed: Vinegar, carrots, onions and apple.

Remove as much fat as can be stripped off before roasting. Also remove the scent glands; these kernel-like objects are set rather deeply under the forelegs, and at the tail base. It is absolutely necessary to remove the scent glands to avoid ruining the meat completely. Wash coon well with vinegar water. Start in a slow oven, draining fat off frequently. Put raw carrots and onions and one apple inside the coon during the first part of roasting. When most of the fat had been taken care of by draining, remove the coon from the oven and take out the vegetables and dispose of them. Stuff the coon with standard sage dressing and return it to the oven. Roast at about 375 degrees F, timing as for pork (about 35 minutes per pound). Avoid serving oily or greasy foods with a coon dinner. Good accompaniments are: baked potatoes, creamed cauliflower, buttered whole onions, corn custard loaf, spiced beets and light fluffy desserts."

There you have it. I've had roast raccoon once and, well, it was different.

As a youth my father lived in the Ozarks for a couple of years. His father would send him out hunting for supper with a single shot .22 short rifle. To make sure he didn't waste ammo, his father would only give him one bullet and woe be it if he didn't come home with something. Usually it was a opossum since sometimes he could run one down and save the bullet for another day. He said sometimes they were caged and fattened. It is prepared much like raccoon or pork.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 05, 2000

Answers

Around here, rabies is really bad in the racoons -- would it still be safe to eat them, after they were well cooked, or would it be better to pass?

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), July 05, 2000.

The only means of transmission would be through saliva. I would cut the head off and then bury it to where dogs cannot get at it. The traps should also be disinfected. Thus, transmission of rabies shouldn't be a problem if you are careful. However, if you have the slightest doubt dispose of the entire carcass - again to where dogs cannot get at it. In an earlier post one person mentioned a neighbor's dog attacking a raccoon in a cage. I recommended they double check the dog's rabies vaccination is current and to also watch for signs of rabies in the dog. The raccoon may have spit at it. According to Dr. Spaulding's, "A Veterinary Guide for Animal Owners" (a great book everyone living in the country should have), primary signs are a distinct change in personality. A timid, fearful dog may get brave and friendly. A normally friendly dog may get surly and timid. He further said not all dogs have a frothy mouth and attack people or even imaginary objects. Some develop 'dumb rabies' to where they just sit, mouth often hanging open, and they have a peculiar look in their eyes. This is more dangerous than hydrophobia since their owners may try to reach into their mouths checking for objects, and thus being exposed to the saliva. Rabies has become so endemic (spelling?) in parts of the country perhaps all raccons should be treated as if they were affected. Even little children should be taught to avoid them.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 05, 2000.

I'm sooooooo glad I'm a vegetarain!!!!!! (ha) Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), July 05, 2000.

I am going to eat at Sonda's! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 05, 2000.

You need to remember at one time things like raccoons were once a fairly regular staple on frontier or rural tables. Deer were scarce. It is estimated during the 1930s there were about 3,000 deer in the entire state of Tennessee. If you saw one, it was fodder for around the pot-bellied stove at the country store for weeks. Now there are an estimated one million. It really wasn't overhunting. Deer like fencerows rather than deep woods. As the woods have been cleared, it opened up prime areas for deer. The raccoon population has exploded due to a lack of hunting since there is little demand for their pelts today. Waverly still has a coon club, but it is more for getting together with other good old boys than a sport.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 05, 2000.

Ken, you are right. People used to eat a much wider variety of foods than are commonly eaten today. My grandmother was born in 1888. I remember her talking about her dad or brothers bringing in all kinds of wild game. Virtually anything was used except armadillos, which were (and still are) carriers of many diseases, including leprosy. I also remember her telling about gathering all kinds of foods that grew in the wild. It was standard policy for all school children to carry a cloth sack with them to school so they could gather anything they found on their way home from school. Her personal favorite was persimmons. Her father's favorite was sour dock greens. Most folks around here now look at you like you are some kind of nut case if you even mention picking wild berries. My, how times have changed. Ah, the wonders of the grocery store chain world.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), July 07, 2000.

My father was in Milwaukee during the Great Depression. He noted stray cats all but disappeared during that time. They were known as 'city rabbits.' Most Americans are very particular on what they eat. It is predominately beef, pork, chicken and, to some extent, fish. In parts of Asia, cats, dogs, rats, monkeys and snakes are offered in stall markets.

Perhaps about two years ago I saw a TV segment on where nutrea (spelling?) were imported in Louisanna and released. They are something like a combination between a beaver and a muskrat. There was suspose to be a market for their pelts in China, which didn't pan out. Now they have become a nuisance. Reporter ate a nutrea dinner at the home of some good old country folks. They informed him it was roadkill nutrea. He asked how they knew it was fresh. They said when they went into town they would stop and draw a chalk circle around any they found. On the way back if they found one or more without a circle they knew it was fresh. Fortuntely the alligator population has rebounded, and alligators love nutrea.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 07, 2000.

Ken, I had to laugh at your post. You don't think perhaps those good old country folk were taking a little restitution from that reporter for lousy reporting do you. I can think of some media moguls I'd like to feed some road kill to. I can imagine eating road kill if I hit the animal, but I don't think I'd invite company over. We've eaten rattlesnakes we killed. Rather bony, but not bad.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), July 07, 2000.