Pack Rats
We are planning to volunteer this summer in Libby, MT. The ranger advised they can have a problem with pack rats. We spent last summer in Idaho and caught 27 mice over the summer. Anyone had successf...
Forum Discussion
Heres a idea serve them to your friends
The animal must be quickly dispatched, preferably by a fast twist of the neck or a sharp blow to the head, the intent being to promptly put them out of pain. Anyone concerned about carrier fleas should use long gloves.
Then for the sake of the best tasting meat, the rat needs to be immediately skinned, gutted and washed, the object being not only to remove bitter fluids but to allow the flesh to quickly cool down. The strong “gamey” taste of any wild meat is most often the result of adrenaline caused by it being tormented, or else not being quickly enough dressed and cleaned.
To dress the rat, a slit is made just beneath the skin from the chest to the groin, the paunch carefully emptied so as not to spill the contents, and the skin worked off the body the way you might remove a coat. It can then be cut up into pieces or stretched whole onto a spit for open fire grilling.
Native Americans sometimes pounded the entire animal, bones, organs and all into a mush they’d sometimes combine with nuts and berries, getting more needed fat, vitamins and minerals that way, but for those transitioning into a primal diet or lifestyle the gutted method may be preferred. Tasting a lot like rabbit and providing several ounces of meat, the only problem with Pack Rat is how tough it can be.
The remaining key to a delicious rodent meal is to either braze the meat for a very short period of time on very high heat, sealing in the juices, or else slow cooked in seasoned water and made into a gravy. Pressure canning is another way of tenderizing, while simultaneously preserving the food for future consumption.
For some, adding Pack Rats to their diet would be a matter of overcoming a culturally impressed revulsion, either against eating rodents or against killing any animal.
LOL yumm
The animal must be quickly dispatched, preferably by a fast twist of the neck or a sharp blow to the head, the intent being to promptly put them out of pain. Anyone concerned about carrier fleas should use long gloves.
Then for the sake of the best tasting meat, the rat needs to be immediately skinned, gutted and washed, the object being not only to remove bitter fluids but to allow the flesh to quickly cool down. The strong “gamey” taste of any wild meat is most often the result of adrenaline caused by it being tormented, or else not being quickly enough dressed and cleaned.
To dress the rat, a slit is made just beneath the skin from the chest to the groin, the paunch carefully emptied so as not to spill the contents, and the skin worked off the body the way you might remove a coat. It can then be cut up into pieces or stretched whole onto a spit for open fire grilling.
Native Americans sometimes pounded the entire animal, bones, organs and all into a mush they’d sometimes combine with nuts and berries, getting more needed fat, vitamins and minerals that way, but for those transitioning into a primal diet or lifestyle the gutted method may be preferred. Tasting a lot like rabbit and providing several ounces of meat, the only problem with Pack Rat is how tough it can be.
The remaining key to a delicious rodent meal is to either braze the meat for a very short period of time on very high heat, sealing in the juices, or else slow cooked in seasoned water and made into a gravy. Pressure canning is another way of tenderizing, while simultaneously preserving the food for future consumption.
For some, adding Pack Rats to their diet would be a matter of overcoming a culturally impressed revulsion, either against eating rodents or against killing any animal.
LOL yumm
