Raccoon the other dark meat
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - He rolls into the parking lot of Leon’s Thriftway in an old maroon Impala with a trunk full of frozen meat.
Raccoon - the other dark meat.
In five minutes, Montrose, Mo., trapper Larry Brownsberger is sold out in the lot at 39th Street and Kensington Avenue. Word has gotten around about how clean his frozen coon carcasses are. How nicely they’re tucked up in their brown butcher paper. How they almost look like a trussed turkey ... or something.
His loyal customers beam as they leave, thinking about the meal they’ll soon be eating.
That is, as soon as the meat is thawed. Then brined. Soaked overnight. Parboiled for two hours. Slow-roasted or smoked or barbecued to perfection.
Raccoon, which made the first edition of “The Joy of Cooking” in 1931, is labor-intensive but well worth the time, aficionados say.
“Good things come to those who wait,” says A. Reed, 86, who has been eating raccoon since she was a girl. “This right here,” she says, holding up a couple of brown packages tied with burlap string, “this is a great value. And really good eatin’. Best-kept secret around.”
Raccoons go for $3 to $7 - each, not per pound - and will feed about five adults. Four, if they’re really hungry.
Those who dine on coon meat sound the same refrain: It’s good eatin’.
As long as you can get past the “ick” factor that it’s a varmint, more often seen flattened on asphalt than featured on a restaurant menu. (One area exception: The French restaurant Le Fou Frog in Kansas City, Mo., served raccoon about a dozen years ago, a waiter said.)
Eating varmints is even in vogue these days, at least in Great Britain. The New York Times reported last week that Brits are eating squirrels with wild abandon.
Here in Kansas City, you won’t see many, if any, squirrel ads in the papers. But that’s where Brownsberger was advertising his raccoons last week.
The meat isn’t USDA-inspected, and few state regulations apply, same as with deer and other game. No laws prevent a trapper from selling raccoon carcasses.
[...]
And the taste?
Definitely not chicken.
With the continuing of Dem social engineering pork spending, it might be all we can afford. If the socialist Brits are eating squirrel now, can raccoon for the US be far off? With the majority of our earnings going to support Obama’s bloated govt, we might be forced to eat more ‘coon. Of course, it will be better for everyone. /sarcasm
