A friend of mine is from Mexico city. Her parents, both dentists, make an anual trip to middle-o’-nowhere Oaxaca do some dental work for the very poor people in the area who normally have absolutely no access to dental care. My friend would go with them some times. While there, they would be fed by and sleep in the homes of various inhabitants of the area. The food was almost exclusively rice and beans; they simply didn’t have anything else available.
One dinner, my friend saw that there was meat! This was very unusual. While eating, she saw some rib bones that she didn’t recognize. They were smallish, but certainly not from a chicken. She didn’t want to make her mother freak out (apparently she is prone to doing this) so she waited until after dinner to ask, out of earshot, what the meat was. The answer?
“Era carne del tejón.”
She didn’t know the english word, and I didn’t know the spanish word, so I had to go look it up. From her description, I thought it was something like a big guineapig. When I finally got around to looking it up, I saw that she had eaten :eek: badgermeat! :eek:
Dinner the next day was an armadillo that the dog had dragged in.
My squeemishness aside, I wonder how tasty these fuzzy relatives of the skunk are. Does anyone know how edible badgers are? Are they commonly eaten anywhere? Is there any reason one should avoid eating them?
When she wasn’t looking I gave in to temptation and put this on her laptop.
Well, my first thought was that badgers are related to skunks and have scent glands. Seems that might taint the meat. It also occurs to me that they are carnivores, and I know that people do eat bear… So I Googled “badger meat.” And it turns out that people do eat badger sometimes. You want to be careful, though – the meat can carry trichinosis, as can other carnivores (bears, boars, etc.) Did you ask your friend how it tasted?
I don’t know about badgers but I do know that armadillos are terrible. I had to eat armadillo on the half shell once at a survival camp and that was the worst part of the trip.
Badgers can be really gamey. Soak the meat in milk for 24 hours. Then pressure-cook it for about 15 minutes. Then, and only then, dip the meat in an egg wash, add your flavorings, dip it again in the egg wash, season again, then fry in 1 inch of oil in an iron skillet.
Guinea pigs were mentioned in the OP, so I hope it’s not too much of a hijack to mention that they are a very popular dish in Ecuador, and possibly other South American countries.
Yeah, but she said she was so focused on “just eat it and get it over with,” and that it was seasoned, so she didn’t really remember.
Yeah that’s what I thought it was at first by her description, so I didn’t think it to be too odd. I didn’t think they had such critters in Mexico though, which is why I looked it up.
Mmm, tastes like leprosy.
Just watch out for snaaaaaakes.
Trich is killed with thorough cooking, no? Maybe I’ll try LiveOnAPlane’s recipe if I ever catch one.
Heh. I was acquainted with a gal who once wore that suit at official UW functions. By her talk, (and my Og, you work with other health professionals on a late shift, it’s amazing what they’ll talk about. Especially the female ones!) she never objected to being eaten! :eek:
It’s in threads like this one where I feel compelled to share my photos of the rare wild guinea pig found in its natural habitat in the back country of Brazil. Note their peculiar dwellings:
Though you think I am kidding here, these guinea pigs actually live and breed on that little island in a pond in the town square of a tiny Brazilian town a hundred miles out of Rio de Janeiro.
I can see one dozing in the edge of the bamboo in View 3.
According to a wild game cookbook my brother has, beasts with scent glands can be made less gamey if the glands are removed as soon as possible after death.
My ladyfriend tells me that, while growing up in some Andean village in Peru, she ate many a guinea pig. This led to me inquiring if they were the same “guinea pig” as the rodents at PetSmart or if there was some wild version but, nope, I guess they’re pretty much the same varmint.
I’m not really up to buying and cooking my own guinea pig but I guess if I should find myself in Peru, it’s something for the list.
