A beautiful raccoon heart at the December ‘09 Rewild Camp. I cut it out of a full grown female raccoon who died under the wheel of a car on Powell st. I wanted to eat it, but I don’t know about the toxicity of organ meats of urban omnivores. Especially those riffling through garbage cans in Methland, USA (S.E. Portland). I’m still debating on whether or not to eat her legs which are currently in my freezer.
Photo by Forest
I started eating roadkill by eating a possum collected from SE Portland…hey, we get toxins in every breath of air and every drink of water these days, so a little city roadkill is like a few drags on a cigarette or a drink out of the Columbia river right?
Go for it! (Maybe I’m just a gross person who will die of cancer in a few years…who knows…)
Which reminds me, I’ve got a Canadian goose in my freezer I need to cook…any brillant recipes out there?
Confiet and age it.
slow cook it in turkey fat or olivie oil. and then put it in the firdge and age it with salt for a month. then reheat. soooooooo good!
If there’s a question about the safety, I’d suggest a long, slow simmer in a stew. It should kill anything that would hurt you. It would also stretch the meat out over a few meals. You might also consider braising it.
If there’s a question of how it will taste, a nice marinade or brine can go a long way. Do it in something acidic, like wine or vinegar, to tenderize the meat. Leach out the bad and bring in the good.
Unless you know it’s fresh (you saw it die) roadkill should generally be cooked well done.
Hi Scout,
Have been viewing your beautiful raccoon heart for weeks now, and thinking …
most likely you wanted to eat it raw, and did find a site, one most likely you have already come across.
I must admit, James and Craig have both given you pretty good suggestions.
Me? I like to eat meat med rare. No road kills yet, but one never knows….
Please let us know, what recipe you have decided upon, and the end, no pun intended, results that you experienced.
Hugs, Christine
Cooking it in a stew won’t remove chemicals that have built up in the cells from all the crap it’s been eating. It would kill all the bacteria but may not do much for poisons that the raccoon has become semi-immune to.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t eat it. Just saying cooking time doesn’t have much bearing on toxicity.