Around here in central MO, there are a lot of people (but way in the minority of course) like me who eat a lot of wild game and fish. In Texas, I ate mostly seafood because it was available and I like to catch it. Here we eat mostly venison. I butchered 7 deer this year, 5 of which we kept for our family’s consumption. We also eat some duck and quite a bit of Canada Goose, and bass and bluegill from our pond, and quite a lot of catfish and Asian carp from the Missouri River. Occasionally we buy frozen chicken breasts, and once a year or so I will buy a pork butt for Chili Verde. My kids hate to have to eat beef when we travel. Doesn’t taste right to them. One year we ran out of venison and bought some beef in the late summer before hunting season, and my kids hated it.
Funny thing is, I don’t hunt much, save the occasional rabbit or squirrel. I do fish. But we have so many friends that like to hunt and always have more than they can use, and are looking for a place to get rid of the meat. Hunting is a big deal around here, and some people just really like to hunt. For me, hunting was always a way to fill the larder cheaply. If it is expensive to do, it aint worth hunting it. But I come home during hunting season to deer and duck on my front porch, so its real cheap for me.
My guess is that penetration (i.e., what % of the US population eats those meats at all in a given year) is very, very small…likely less than 1% in most cases. At which point, per-capita consumption is very close to zero.
“What animal is luncheon meat? It all happened so fast. We were in the woods. Joe and I caught it, it was wiggling. All we know is that it’s some kind of meat and you should eat it around noon!”* - Jerry Seinfeld
Since moving to a predominately Middle Eastern neighborhood in Chicago, I eat a lot more lamb than the average American - kabobs, lamb chops and the ubiquitous gyros (Greek, but most of the Mediterranean has some variant). The other major ethnic group is Mexican and folks from Central America, and I’ll try pretty much any meat served as a taco filling - Americans really don’t know what they’re missing by not eating goat. Damn, it’s tasty!
Beef, chicken and pork are my main staples. I have no aversion to seafood I just don’t eat very much of it. That’s where my omega-3 daily dose comes in handy. Nothing like a little fish oil in the morn’n b’y!
I don’t know what the Hebrew word for it is, but the ancient Jews did make a distinction between fish (which is kosher) and other seafood (which is not).
And I guess I’m ahead of the curve on both lamb and bison. Bison’s pretty popular around here, and I eat probably a pound or two of it per year, and on the rare occasions I can get out to an Indian restaurant, my most common order is lamb.
How do you prepare your Canada goose? The things are pests around here and I’d like to find some use for them, but “everyone knows” that they taste horrible, so I haven’t tried.
I don’t know where you live but I’ll pass along that it’s illegal to harm Canadian Geese in the United States. So I’d suggest avoding any culinary uses for them.
I’m assuming Carptracker was referring to Canadian Geese he ate before the Federal Migratory Bird Act was enacted.
Geese and duck hunting is legal with the proper state hunting permits and within set hunting seasons. Google “Canada goose hunting” and you’ll get loads of hits for hunting clubs, etc.
Hunting Canada Goose is MOST certainly not illegal. We even have special early seasons to get the non-migratory ones, because everyone wants to thin them out, while still limiting harvest on the migratory ones. Of course, there is still a legal harvest on the migratory ones too. Usually two or three a day, per person. The limits on snow geese (which are not Canadian Geese, I know, but also migratory) have been loosened to the point where no one could possibly shoot that many. It is even legal to use electronic recordings of their calls, amplified, because they want you to shoot more of them. Snow geese are so overabundant now that they are destroying their nesting habitat, and are expected to go through a big population bust eventually. They are doing immense environmental damage in the arctic.
Lots of ways, but smoked Canada goose breast is awesome. I eat it like roast beef, often with a bit of horseradish. Hot or cold smoked, either one. MMM.
Often I take the legs and wings, keeping the back meat on the wings, and boil them until tender, in water containing some onion soup mix. Then I take them and put them on the grill or in the broiler with some barbecue sauce on them, and they are a lot like eating ribs, but not greasy. My daughter calls the legs done this way “rat on a stick” and I have to admit it does seem to have that appearance, but the flavor is delicious. When I take them to potlucks, they disappear quickly, because it has gotten around how good they are. But the real treat is the broth that remains in the pot. Take that onion soup mix, with just a little bit of stray goose meat in it, saute some onions in butter and toss them in, and serve it up as onion soup, with sourdough bread and some provelone melted on top and it is really great. The goose gives the onion soup a richness that is incredibly good.
I have ground buffalo meat from time to time. I can’t quite describe how it’s different but it’s… different. I think more of a meaty flavor? If that makes sense. Like someone added MSG to it. It’s usually about $5.99 a lb, whereas 93% lean beef is around $4.99 a lb. Sometimes the buffalo goes on sale and that’s when I stock up on it.
Not much really, I just tell em they’re gonna die.
Here are the Missouri seasons on waterfowl, showing that in the early season this year, (before the migratory ones get here) you can shoot three geese, and after the migratory ones get here, you can only shoot two. Certainly not illegal to shoot them, during the correct seasons. They are covered under the migratory bird treaty, but so are ducks and even crows. But that does not mean you can’t hunt them. Just means that limits are set by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, in consultation and by agreement with Canada and Mexico.
I live in Missouri and there are like a dozen well frequented sushi restaurants in town. There’s several popular Middle Eastern and Indian restaurants and buffets that serve lots of lamb dishes. Lobster is loved all over the nation, though understandably more on the coasts. People on the coasts also obviously eat more seafood in general than people inland, but population wise, the majority of US population lives near the coast anyway. But I think you’ll find it true in every country in the world, that the majority of that country, especially the poorer population, don’t have a particularly varied diet. I doubt America stands out, percentage wise, in this regard.
I don’t know what the Hebrew word for it is, but the ancient Jews did make a distinction between fish (which is kosher) and other seafood (which is not).
I think the rule is that anything that “swims in the waters” is only kosher if it has scales. Thus, shrimp and catfish are both excluded.