RACCOONS SMOKED COOKED

[larry maddock]

yo dudes and dudettes,
im putting this here so others might look at raccoon thread.

this is really in answer to bekellog81 ground hog thread question to me.

using the tools at my friends lake house.

after exiting trash can--

22magnum to head as they walk along his porch top rail.

then skin, and rub spices into meat.

have weber 22 inch kettle heating coals.

use Offset coal cooking method.

after about 2 hrs wrap in foil.

then cook until finished. i call it at least 175 degrees internal.

[i never go anywhere without a thermometer]

meat will be shredded easily.

i use this myself






take skinned coon

 

[bekellog81]

Larry thanks for the directions, I am surely going to have to try this one out. It sounds really great.

 

[ham's on fire]

Hey Larry, Thanks for the info. Now I know what to do with the 2 little bandits I've been graining out on Friskies Ocean Buffet for the last 2 months :shock: Any field dressing tips you have would be greatly appreciated.

Ham

 

[monty]

Well, Ham, assuming you have normal field dressing skills I will caution you on one little and oft overlooked item on the raccoon. Under each forward leg, or arm as some would say, there is a small kidney shaped musk gland. Remove carefully! Cut around it without touching it and you will be fine!

If you whack a coon far from civilization you can expect to process and cook that animal as you would a deer or other wild animal. (Great trailside vittles!) If you whack a backyard coon treat it like pork, old time pork, for cooking. Raccoons are opportunistic foragers and although very meticulous about their habits in the wild, once allowed to do the trash route they become suspect carriers of all sorts of things we don't care to ingest. Just a caution.

I prefer to have plenty of garlic, peppers and onions on hand for my coons and they are great passed through a grinder and made into meatloaf or burgers! For smoking I would render a late in the year carcass for about an hour at about 170 with a generous drip pan underneath. Then slather with yellow mustard, hit with a rub and off you go!

Hope this helps!
Cheers!
Monty

 

[ham's on fire]

Hey Monty, thank you for the great advice. We're always up for a new eating adventure. Unfortunately, I think they figured out we were fatting em up for a reason and they quit coming back shortly after my post :lol:. But I have faith a new batch will be born this spring and we'll have our que yet.

 

[cheech]

Other than it tastes like chicken,

How does coon taste?

Is it any good?

Is it worth hunting one or is it because it gives you one more thing to smoke?

 

[monty]

Cheech, if coon tasted like chicken then I would just raise a few extra chickens! Raccoon tastes like raccoon and rabbit tastes like rabbit! Neither tastes like chicken. Depending on the season, recent diet of the animal, the hunter's skill in field dressing and the post kill handling of the carcass a coon can taste from mild to wild. I have never had a bad tasting coon although some have been stronger than others due to the many variables in a coon's life.

Coon hunting can be a great deal of fun, especially when done with a group of dedicated coon hunters. In some parts of the country it is a tradition and many families have generations of coon hunters all out in the field at the same time.

Ham, your coons did not figure out your intent. They just found a source of food they like better. Be careful of how you encourage them to hang around. There are some serious laws on baiting that cannot be ignored. Otherwise leave a little something around. They'll be back when the new source dries up.

Cheers everyone!
Monty

 

[jlloyd99]

Cheech, I know how you feel on that chicken thing. Every time you ask about how something tastes they have to give you that generic "It tastes like chicken" answer and whatever it is your trying never does. The only time anyone ever came close to being right about that was when I had some fried gator tail and then it was only the texture that reminded me of chicken. So now I just don't ask.
Monty is right on about the diet though and this is true for all wild game. A great example is deer. The deer here in MO eat corn because it's so plentiful, due to their diet they taste wonderful and have hardly any gamey taste at all (unless you get an old buck). However out West where they get mule deer who have been foraging on sage, well lets just say they take alot of soaking and they're still not very good eats. IMO it the taste is going to depend alot on what the critter was chowing down on.

 

[ham's on fire]

Hey Gang, Thanks again for all of the friendly advice. I have to agree that flavor in wild and domestic critters is certainly influenced by what they're eating. I really see it in the different variety's of ducks we shoot and I like them all, they just have distinctly different flavors. The only critters that I think even come close to tasting like chicken are Bull Frogs and Rattle Snakes. Both of which we have plenty of. I personally prefer the frogs.

Monty, as a multi generation Montana boy transplanted to California I'm a firm believer in and participate in several hunting traditions. Coon hunting has always seemed like it would be great fun and I'd like to try it. My coon inquiry was purely opportunistic on my part, I have 2 barn cats that do a great job, the Raccoons keep stealing their food and well, I'll throw just about anything into the smoker at least once :D.

Lady J & Ben if you ever want to trade some of that Corn Fed Deer for a bunch of Sage Fed Antelope and deer let me know. I'll even throw in the grinder. :lol:

HAM

 

[cajunsmoker]

Well, I just found this thread :roll: . My hometown is 10 miles from Gillette, Ark. home of "Friendly people and the Coon Supper". This is a major political event in Arkansas and as such people kind of learn early how to cook Coon. The best way to cook a coon is to season it with garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper and salt. Then pack it in a roasting pan with about 5-10 sweet potatoes. Cook low and slow in the oven or smoker at about 250-300 degrees for about 4-6 hours or untlil the coon is falling off the bone.

 

[scooter]

here is a link that might be interesting for the wild game smoker:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/martin/wildrecipes/
check it out

scooter

 

[bassman]

Actually, the tase is smoewhere between a spotted owl and a Condor!

 

[richtee]

Well, since it's out of the graveyard... ugh. I'll eat alot of things...but varmits I don't. I know- I have heard the virue of squirell and possum and coon and... but "It Ain't Me Babe"...Bob Dylan.

Love those anchovies tho!