Cooking wild game

I have been looking for this information for some time. I am an avid hunter so I know how to properly clean the game that I kill. But in a true survival situation, how well must the game be cleaned. I'm assuming that there aren't any main sources for water, and that what water I had on me would be too valuable to waste on thoroughly cleaning the game. My assumption is that if you cook it long enough, you don't need to worry about it... is this correct?

Just my opinion, but in a survival situation I would not worry too much about plain old dirt. I'd just clean it off the best I could. But I would trim away all bloodshot meat as well as any meat that has been tainted with urine or fecal matter. The latter particularly is something I would not take a chance on ingesting no matter how well cooked it was.

I would be esp careful when gutting it, to make sure fecal material didn't contaminate the knife or meat.

A contagious disease is something that could be an issue, although I don't think there are all that many that are transmissible to man. A disease virus or bacteria could be transmitted while handling the animal when butchering, rather than through the cooked meat. Tularemia (rabbit fever) is the first thing that comes to mind. Or rabies, which can be found in any warm-blooded mammal, transmitted by saliva or blood (and possibly other body fluids). Some varieties of existing bird influenzas might be an issue with wild birds (who can carry it without dying of it). Leptospirosis can be transmitted to man from infected animals through their urine.

Rabies is endemic in American wildlife, and seems to show up in cycles. Tularemia can be found in many countries besides the U.S., and although most cases of the disease here are in certain parts of the country, & most are currently transmitted by ticks, it can be acquired while butchering an animal that is carrying it, but not by eating the cooked meat.

A pair of good rubber or nitrile gloves could go quite a ways toward protecting you, and facial protection could be a good idea, too.

Maybe Trusbx could chime in here...

Sue

Sparty, I'm not an expert but the way I see it is in a real survival situation I wouldn't have to clean a big game. I would, you guessed it, hunt for frogs and probably boil the legs in a mess tin <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

BTW, I would thoroughly cook them to make sure I don't get sparganum worm larvea migrating to my brain and then suffer from headaches and twitching before falling into a deep coma. <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Clean it like you would normally, as far as gutting, skinning, and if needed, quartering. Although, you might want some of those guts- deer salad was a delicacy, the liver is full of goodness, and the brain is almost all fat. So are they eyes.

Learn what to look for for tulemaria, and don't eat any animal that you think was rabid. Wear you gloves, just like always, dress any wounds you might have had BEFORE the cleaning begins, wash up afterwards with plenty of soap and water.

As for the cooking meat if you have doubts, boil it. Boil, boil, boil. You might have just reduced the tenderest parts of the deer to chewy boot leather, but it the protien will be there. Just remember to drink the broth- that's where all the good stuff will be. And rememeber to crack the big bones, so you can get the fat out of the marrow.

With the little stuff like frogs and mice, skin them, smack them to crack the bones, and throw the entire thing into the pot to boil.

You forgot the 1/4 cup of Caberne and Portabella mushrooms

Puff balls and wild onions for flavor, and some mashed cattail tubers or daylily roots to thicken it. Garnesh with fresh watercress. Serve with fresh wild sorrel, chickweed sprouts and dandelion leaves that have been tossed together with wild rose petals.

The root starches aren't much to look at right now, but they'll thicken a little. Everything else is in season. In a few weeks, use the last of last season's acorn flour and a little bear grease to make fritters out of the day lily flowers before they open. Yummy!

As you said in your post, you are a hunter and are familiar with the cleaning process, so I will spare you all the lectures about gloves and cuts on your hands. I've never worn gloves to clean animals and probably never will.

To answer you question, there are several ways to deal with larger game in a situation where water is in short supply. While in the San Bois Mtns in Southeastern OK once, myself and others got cut off by a large creek in heavy downpours and sustained ourselves for several extra days on ferral hog...but in that case, lack of water was not the problem.

I wouldn't hesitate to use local water sources for minor cleaning..knowing that the cooking process will render any microbes harmless, but barring no water, I would tend to clean by hanging...squirrles, rabbits, ducks..just hang em up and clean em...then you don't have to deal to much with the earth problem...but if that isn't possible, then perhaps the inside of a piece of bark or large rock work well. If we are talking larger game then I might just clean and prepare smaller pieces at a time. For example, on a deer, I would start with a hindquarter, cleaning on the particular area, then the other, then the backstraps(inner and outer), then the shoulders. Granted, you are dealing with meat aging and in extremely hot weather, I might not go past a day for fear of the meat turning, but if you leave the skin on, it should protect from most insects and hanging will allow it to cool better.

I'm no expert here and more than likely, in a short term survival situation, I probably wouldn't be looking to take down anything other than frogs, rabbits, ducks, squirrels..you know one meal at a time.

Hope this helps. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Just make sure and remove the glands and nodes from animals such as coons (Yes, I've killed them in daylight). If the luxury of an apple and onion are around besides portabella mushrooms and water and such, using half of each and changing several boils of water until boiling it stops it from foaming makes it more palatable.

Be careful with the day lilies, a lot of the day lily family is very poisonous. Especially those yummy looking tubers and bulbs.

NICE!!! I guess you're not too worried about living off the land if you need to either huhh???

Troy

NICE!!! I guess you're not too worried about living off the land if you need to either huhh???

Troy

Nah, nothing to it. I make a killer bunny stew. The caberne and portabellas are really for quail, add some wild rice and you're fat. I've learned to cook prickly pear cactus like eggplant, and blanch jojoba nuts to get the bitter taste out, etc. The last thing I'll do is go hungry.

No, not really. *blush* Other than being extrememly cranky, the Stroud diet would probably be a good thing for me. I could go a month, so long as the weather was warm and there was plenty of water.

If you get me much outside of my stomping ground, I'm in trouble. When I was very little, my grandfather tought me what I could eat in the woods, and how to fix it. Ate some really strange stuff with him. But if I've got the right terrain and the time, I'm a gourmet survivalist. :P

Oh, gods yes!

One of the nastiest smells I've ever come across was a racoon hide that was to be tanned, and the glands had been cut during skinning. Worse than ammonia.

Yep, I've got a pretty good idea of what I can eat out of the yard, the city park down the street (you'd be surprised at the look you get when you ask the parks guy if it's OK to harvest the dandelions <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />), or along the canal path... I just can NOT understand HOW people manage to starve in this country <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />.

Troy

I'm catching up on my reading ... Boiling has been mentioned a few times, if it isn't practical, couldn't you skin, gut & toss in the fire or roast? I guess there would be some loss removing the burnt exterior but the remaining meat would be pretty palatable - no ? <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Why waste that much meat... put it on a sharp stick and roast it.

Troy