Road kill

[n2ize]

Anyone use road kill as a food source. I once saw a meat-chili recipe that called for using the meat from almost any kind of fresh road kill. This may sound distasteful to many and I can understand that, it doesn't sound like the most appetizing way to get my meats but, then again, neither is the slaughterhouse and, if I ever good a good tour of a slaughterhouse I'd probably want to go 100% vegan. But thinking about it if the road kill is fresh it is just as good as any hunted meat. It may seem to some to be a cruel exploitation of an unfortunate animal that met with an unfortunate end but, so is leaving it to rot on the highway or, dumping it in the trash or on the side of the road. I mean, the animal is dead, and if the meat is good what would be wrong to use it as a food source ?

[W1GUH]

Once when I was group camping and sitting around the campfire one afternoon, one of our more colorful fellow campers came up the the fire and put some strips of raw meat on the grill. Said it was fresh killed squirrel he just found on the road.

Yum!! No, I didn't taste it. But...as for all things like the...probably tasted just like chicken!

[NQ6U]

I don't know if I'd eat road kill but I used to hunt gray squirrel with my .22 and I can tell you this: it's delicious and it doesn't taste anything like chicken.

[W3WN]

There's just something about that taste of asphalt, synthetic rubber, and oil & gravel that really makes the taste.

[KK4AMI]

In my neighborhood, its pretty standard to hit deer on the highways especially at night. Its also pretty standard to tag the carcass and throw it in the back of the pick-up and take it home (winter time only to avoid ticks and diseases), to help reduce the cost of auto repairs. I've come close to hitting deer 3 times in my 16 years here. I doubt I would try to salvage the meat if I did hit the deer. Injuries to the shoulder and rump usually results in the meat being blood shot (all the blood coagulates in the wound areas). That doesn't make the meat taste very good.

[W1GUH]

I've heard (but think it's an old wive's tale), that if you feed your dog raw venison and he tastes deer blood, from that point on he'll attack deer for the meat.

Confirm or deny?

[n2ize]

In my neighborhood, its pretty standard to hit deer on the highways especially at night. Its also pretty standard to tag the carcass and throw it in the back of the pick-up and take it home (winter time only to avoid ticks and diseases), to help reduce the cost of auto repairs. I've come close to hitting deer 3 times in my 16 years here. I doubt I would try to salvage the meat if I did hit the deer. Injuries to the shoulder and rump usually results in the meat being blood shot (all the blood coagulates in the wound areas). That doesn't make the meat taste very good.

Thats why I suspect the "road kill chili recipe" was more tongue in cheek than real. Don't get me wrong, it's a great chili recipe. I based my own chili on it. But I substitute quality store bought meat for the road kill meat. Or, I make it with no meat.

[kb2vxa]

If I kill it I may consider it but I draw the line at splat cat and sail rabbit. Oh, not what you may think. Sail rabbit has been squashed repeatedly lying in the sun for days, flat as a pancake and sails like a Frisbee... kinda like poor man's jerky with fur. Otherwise you can skin it, gut it, wrap it in aluminium foil, stick it on the exhaust manifold and when you get there it's cooked to a turn. Sorry Sara, a caribou won't fit under the hood of a Mack.

[W3MIV]

My favorite road kill recipe is for "Hushed Puppies." It's in the Road Kill Cookbook, which is a truly interesting collection put together by a guy who carries an entire butcher kit in the truck just in case he comes across a fresh one.

[KK4AMI]

I've heard (but think it's an old wive's tale), that if you feed your dog raw venison and he tastes deer blood, from that point on he'll attack deer for the meat.

Confirm or deny?

I wouldn't waste venison on dogs. My dogs are rabbit hunters so I'm usually trying to break them from deer hunting. I do give the dogs the liver of the rabbit as a reward for a good hunt!