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Rampaging raccoons: how the American mammals took over a German city β and are heading across Europe
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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I wonder if there's any good eating on them.
"To help with population control, at least one butcher has even started making sausages and meatballs from their meat.
βIβve never had anyone say it is disgusting or that you canβt eat it. Honestly, everyone likes it,β he told CNN in 2024."
I am not sure I could bring myself to try it.
Eh, if the food hygiene standards are good, why not?
I'm sorry there's no English version of this, even though at this point these guys had done their s3 of Madventures in English. Check it out. But this is in Finnish, Mad Cook. In this episode they're cooking pigeon. Just a street pigeon. There's some guy in Helsinki who has government approval to shoot pigeons in Helsinki for the city or smth, so it was fresh, not a corpse they found.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOMnx0MVClw&t=324
Graphic warning if you're avoiding seeing where chicken nuggets actually come from.
My wife is from Mississippi. Her family's handed down self written cookbook has "cooked coon" in it. There is no doubt eating on them - if it's good is a whole other question though.
Hmm.
Thrash diet probably doesn't make them too tasty. Someone mentioned badger and now I'm wondering what they're like, given they can eat hundreds of Earthworms a day.
People eat badgers in my country... stupid people will eat anything.
What's wrong with eating badger?
I'm going to be eating horse tonight.
Although eating large herbivores is seen as "more normal" than eating small omnivores. But I bet the badger's diet makes the meat... interesting, to say the least.
Nothing wrong, per se, just non sensical.
The animal does not have much to eat, the meat is though and very fatty and heavily scented. Also, unless it is "fat", it is not edible, leading to badgers in the area becoming leaner and more muscular.
Allso, it's a protected species.
It's protected in the UK, I believe, but it's classified as "least concern" on the IUCN Red List.
I don't recall ever seeing one in the wild myself but there is a hunting season for them in Finland. Or rather it's classified as a game animal and there's a time during which hunting it is not allowed. No hunting season, per se. Oh and apparently there's a risk of trichinosis, so it's mainly killed for the pelt and for fear of it harming small game and birds. (Is what I read just now, not my opinion.)
I don't mind fatty, necessarily. Especially when it comes to game, as they're often really lean. I'd be every interested to know the scent and flavour it has.
I tried lamb a few months ago and eugh, it has a flavour I just actively dislike. Even when I tried dousing it in garlic and other spices. Perhaps it's the cruelty tasting through, idk. Horse, reindeer, moose and deer are all pretty great, but they're all medium to large herbivores, so, rather similar-ish.
Was that lamb properly cleaned? Sheep and goat have glands throughout the body that need to be removed in order to make the meat more palatable; it's still edible, just unpleaseant and smelly.
I personally prefer adult sheep or goat. The meat is very though and oily but slowly roasted, with strong herbs, it breaks down and becomes tender. The fat in the meat is superb to cook root vegetables in.
Nothing against horse; unusual nowadays but it helped a relative of mine to ward off a serious malnutrition, leading to low blood iron levels. Game meats are game meats. I personally enjoy boar but not being a hunter makes it hard to source such meats.
Idk. Perhaps not? I would assume yes, though, as it was from a local butcher's. Wouldn't know, though.
I'll try some nice cut of an adult sheep sometime. I'm not too keen on the morality of eating lamb anyway. Game meat is better in that sense, imo. But also better just as meat.
Horse is somewhat unusual but I really got into it when the horsemeat scandal was on as back then there was mince for sale in stores for some reason, idk why. But it was crazy cheap compared to good quality beef. It's still a bit cheaper, but not much.
Boar would probably be good, because it's like pork, but actually an animal that has exercised plenty. I wonder what bear tastes like, but I don't think I'll have the opportunity to try that out anytime soon, although there is bear spam in a supermarket near me. Never really enjoyed canned meats, eww. Perhaps I'll order some frozen at some point in the future if I really care to, but eh, I'm not that keen.
When eating carnivorous animals there is a high risk of prions, worms and other diseases to be passed on. Raccoons are well-known carriers for rabies (I don't know much about badgers). RFK Jr got his brainworm from eating carnivorous game.
I wouldn't say "high". Depends on where you're hunting and the diseases that are known to exist in that area.
Chronic Wasting Disease, as in if a badger ate some diseased deer brain or something. But as of now, no evidence of it, so I wouldn't call that "high risk", but that's just my personal risk calculation.
Trichinosis is a risk here, but as long as you properly cook the meat, so that it's all above 75C, it's fine.
RFK Jr probably ate some diseased thrash panda raw from the grill of his car.
YOU LEAVE THOSE LITTLE GUYS ALONE π₯Ίπ₯Ίπ₯Ί