Woodchuck for dinner?

[kc]

Any of you ever eaten Woodchuck? whats your opinion.

 

[Chas1]

Never considered eating one but, there are some pretty avid chuck hunters here so hopefully some will chime in.

 

[royinidaho]

Never ate a ground hog.....

But collected a nice young rockchuck. Cleaned and saved the back half. There wasn't much to the front half.

I lived at the time, next to a drive in theater and figured I'd cook the chuck on the hibachi and watch the movie. I snaked wires from the closest parking spot so I could hear the audio too.

That little sucker muscled up like the Hulk. I kept cooking and it kept muscling up.

When done it had great flavor but was unchewable. Texture of and inner-tube, literally.

I'd suggest doing what the folks do in Oak Harbor, Ohio for muskrat days.

Pressure cook the darn thing till its tender then do something fancy with it. Maybe BBQ or something.......

Good luck!

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

I had it once it was just the back legs in BBQ sauce it wasent bad. I guess its how you cook it it was tender and tasted like BBQ

 

[Chas1]

Well there ya have it, I guess you can eat em. Learn something new everyday. Thanks for responding guys.

 

[Miller Outdoors]

I've never eaten woodchuck before but I've had beaver a few times, and I must say it was quite good.

 

[zupatun]

One of my colleagues at work used to regularly eat whistle pig growing up in TN, but we never got a chance to get the Virginia variety on a plate. Grass eater, should taste pretty good...

Second the comment for overcooking. I'd think like squirrel, if you over-do it it may be un-chewable...my Mom fries it and I like stew or Chili.

Matt

 

[Buffalobob]

Tried it couple ways. Roasted over a fire at night while catfishing. The dogs would not eat it and neither would the catfish.

BBQ'd on the grill real slow with lots of sauce. You could just barely cut it with a knife it was so tough. I threw it straight into the garbage can from the grill. It never even made it into the house.

 

[Chas1]

"It never even made it into the house"

Not to be laughing at your expense but, you did make me laugh. I'll bet you had a few choice words to go along with it.

 

[paphil]

I've got a pretty good recipe that has been handed down for generations in southwest Pa. You need some hickory wood and three or four young groundhogs. You use a good hot campfire and need a good marinating sauce made of salt, viniger, butter, and some black and red pepper. Start by splitting the hickory into thin flat pieces, you want them to look a little like roofing shingles. Then marinate the ground hog overnight and nail or wire them to the shingles and set them up around the fire, taking care not to let them get burnt. Using some of the scrap hickory for the fire will improve the taste considerably. Cook on low heat for three hours or untill the groundhog falls off the board. Throw away the hog and eat the board! Recipe also works well on carp!

 

[Hairtrigger]

Use a Vmax bullet so you dont have any pieces large enough to eat... problem solved

 

[Damol]

Never tried it myself but I can remember Elmer Keith wrighting about summer fishing trips on the snake river when he was a young boy, he took care of the camp for his older brothers and his dad. His dad gave him a .36 navy revolver on these outings and he would use it to shoot chucks to make a change from trout for dinner. If I remember correctly he said he would shoot a couple of young ones and they had a tast that was a bit like pork. I dont remember how he cooked them but I remember he said they only ate the young ones. He said he would do it a couple of times per week and they all liked it.

 

[Buano]

I've tried woodchuck a few times when other people fixed it. I remember each was boiled a long time. Taste was edible but not something to order when going out. It wasn't too tough, but I don't know how it was cooked.

 

[shorty]

I remember reading an article some years ago, it was in Varmint Hunter Magazine. A Dr. and his wife took a sabbatical to Mongolia. They have a similar large rodent there that they cook by peeling back the hide enough to clean out the entrails and cut up the choicest cut's(???). Throw the meat back into the skin with water, seasoning, and God knows what else, tie up the back end of the marmot and put him on the coals. They turn the critter constantly to ensure even cooking.
They continue this way until all hair is singed off and marmot is done, they can tell when it's chow time when the water/steam has heated to the point that it starts to sound much like a lobster I guess. They call it the "Last whistle of the Marmot"

**** tough people if you ask me