*warning: pictures of skinned beaver below

After we watched a couple of Alaska based reality shows where people ate beaver and raved about it being the best meat out there, we decided that if we caught a beaver, we’d at least try some.

Sure enough, we scored a huge beaver on the first day we checked traps. I watched John skin the beaver, remove the castor and then remove the tenderloins and hind quarters. As I held the meat in my hand, I was amazed at the tenderness of it. Unlike beef that’s quite firm and rarely flimsy when you hold a roast, the meat was almost soft.  I guess I’d describe it as soft and tender but also lean without lots of fat since we removed a lot of it as it was being prepared for cooking.

I seared the meat and then it all went into the lined crock pot followed by a can of mushroom soup, one package of dry beef onion soup mix, and one can of water. The meat was topped with one pound of small golden potatoes, a small bag of baby carrots and a turnip. It cooked on low all day ,and when we got home, our supper was ready.

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I never came from a hunting family so every time I’ve tried game, it’s been a new experience, so in this case, it was nothing new to try something new. The youngest son opted out; he wouldn’t try it. That’s okay, because I’m not about to try his offering of a blood pancake. We all have our aversions to certain foods, and I respect his decision to not try it.

The meat fell off the bone. It was tender and moist and if I hadn’t made the meal myself, I would have thought I was eating pot roast. It was delicious! So all the rest of the beaver we’ve trapped have gone into the freezer with the turkey, moose, bear and deer already there. It will be nice to have more variety and not have to go to the grocery store as often. the one thing I learned is that I cooked way too much; there wasn’t a lot of meat shrinkage after cooking and we had more than one meal. I used the left overs and made a beaver pot pie for later. Our grandchildren loved the beaver meat too. It’s great when you can share times like these with little ones so they understand where food comes from.

The leftover carcasses are being used for trapping more animals that need to be managed, and we have fleshed out the pelts for now. We may sell them, or we may just tan them ourselves. We haven’t decided.

More stories hopefully to come as we continue our trapping journey to try to catch coyote, bobcat, fox and fisher. We’re up to six beaver with four in the freezer.