Here is an interesting thought

[Meridian_Mike]

My wife's grandfather always volunteered to clean the rabbits and squirrels we shot as we would just pull the heads off but he liked them so he would do the cleaning. He had no teeth but could gnaw all the meat off the head then would hold the skull, crack it with his spoon and eat the brains. I never tried them but he sure loved them. He was from West Virginia and back on 'Strange Creek' they didn't have much but made the most of what they had.

Exactly....

[bighomer]

Don't eat wild game much anymore, but back in the day rabbits, squirrels, frogs, groundhogs possums and quail didn't stand a chance around here.

[Meridian_Mike]

Don't eat wild game much anymore, but back in the day rabbits, squirrels, frogs, groundhogs possums and quail didn't stand a chance around here.

[Colonel26]

Fried quail, biscuits, and gravy. Ain’t no better meal anywhere. Second in the wild game department would be my wife’s fried rabbit and biscuits.

I haven’t gone frog gigging in years, but we used to eat a lot of frog legs too. I have eaten squirrel, but not the brains. I hear old folks around here talk about how good they were though. Of course, I’ve heard them talk about having possum and sweet taters for Sunday dinner too, soooo....... I do hear that whistle log (groundhog) is mighty fine though.

All skinned with a trusty pocket knife of course.

[zoogirl]

Oh, am I EVER a city girl! Squirrel brains...whew!
See, I come by ‘zoogirl’ honestly. I’ve had many a pet rabbit and two grey squirrels. Never ate one.
I’ve eaten plenty of lamb, and the odd bit of goat. I dearly love moose, elk and venison, if someone offers it to me. Fish, no prob, including most sushi. I just don’t eat stuff I’ve had as a housepet.
Btw, pet squirrels are freakin’ hilarious!

[Colonel26]

I saw a bumper sticker one time that said, “Bambi makes cute sandwiches.” Lol

I can attest that thumper does too. Been a long time since I had squirrel. But I surely could eat for a month or two just on the ones in my yard!

Lamb is good, and the last time I had goat was in Monterrey, Mexico. Best I remember it was pretty good too.

[Meridian_Mike]

Yep, that is another animal I have had a time or 2..... Goat.
We came to visit my Granny one Sunday for dinner and she had a stew as the center piece of the meal. It sure looked good and smelled great with the potatoes and carrots in it. There was the usual green beans, turnips and cornbread as sides. Along with sweet tea of course......
So we sit down, ask God's blessing for our food and dug in. It was halfway through the meal before Granny announced it was goat stew..... I guess she thought we would turn up our noses and not eat it if we knew up front.

We looked up for a short moment...... shrugged..... then went back to eating...... even my sisters enjoyed it.

GOOD stuff!!

Mike

[treefarmer]

Somehow I had totally missed this thread, being too busy is a bad excuse. I read through it and it is a hoot! Can't help y'all on the tobacco issues but can share some thoughts about the culinary topics.
The "liver and likes" in our neck of the woods is called "liver and lights". Makes me wonder which is correct or if it a regional thing. "Lights" is the old timers name for the pork lungs and "likes" is of course what you do when you partake of a big bowl of hog livers and lungs and lots of black and red pepper. This delicacy should always be accompanied by some sort of corn bread.
One offal y'all haven't brought up is "sweetbreads", the thymus gland in the neck of cattle. It is a great tasting meat. Cubed, breaded and deep fried, good stuff.
Now the liver from the poultry is okay but the bigger the better with this type of offal. Pork, calf(actually any bovine, cow or bull) and venison liver is quite good in my book. Liver can be over cooked and it quickly become something like edible shoe leather but cooked quickly it is great.
Venison heart is always a special treat at our table. I was a bit disappointed Thanksgiving afternoon, my grandson shot his first deer and busted the little buck's heart with the .243, dog enjoyed it. Gizzards were also mentioned, now that is a delicacy in most places, fried is fine and also baked or boiled in with the chicken and rice. Grandma used to call chicken and rice, "perlo" probably a southern term for pilaf.
Did any of y'all ever have swamp cabbage? Remember the "Heart of Palm Salad" in the fancy restaurant, it starts out as a Sable Palm, the State Tree of Florida. The bud of the tree is removed and sliced/chipped up, usually with the same stockman knife that you just cleaned a bunch of fresh caught bream from the creek. See we ain't off topic very far, knives have to be used with all these delicacies. I could go on.
Treefarmer

[Meridian_Mike]

..."save the neck for me Clark"...

That statement is always used as we are serving the Christmas dinner on Christmas day.....
(We all enjoy watching Christmas Vacation....LOL)

AND, my Grand Son's name is.... you guessed it.... CLARK!

[Meridian_Mike]

Did any of y'all ever have swamp cabbage?
Treefarmer

I have never had it but I will try (MOST) anything once....

Now, I know you have eaten "Poke Salad".... right?

My Granny used to fix it for my Dad.... He loved it! Bake up a pan of cornbread and dig in.

Personally, I have never had any.... as understand it, if you don't know how to prepare it correctly, it is poisonous.... My Granny used to say you have to boil it 3 times. Well, if it takes that much work to get the poison out, I just don't like my chances.

[bighomer]

Man I was raise on poke sallet, when I was a Yonker we had bar-b-cued goat every 4th of july, I reckon until I was a teenager, the old neighbor that raise the goats and butchered them passed away and that dried up mommas supply, hadn't et any in a long time. By the way fellers this is the off topic area, you don't have to throw in a knife but it's ok if yawl do.

[Meridian_Mike]

There is a bunch of folks in our general neighborhood....(give or take 10 miles or so) that still does have a goat bar-b-cuein' every year. So that practice is still alive and well.

To my wife, eating a goat is akin to eating your pets.
I had to quit deer hunting because my wife would give me down the road over killing Bambie. Every time we pass one that has been hit on the road she says, "poor deer"..... That is when I try to tell her that we have too many deer around here and some need to be harvested. (Those words always fall on deaf ears)

I wanted to have a few chickens so we could have fresh eggs and a fresh hen occasionally...... (more of same from wife).

Oh well......., when walmart goes out of business we will starve.

[Steve Warden]

Went to my first WalMart back in the late 80's, down in Arkansas.
My father-in-law told me if they don't have it, you don't need it.
After going in, I believed him!

True story - several years later we were visiting in Arkansas again and went in WalMart.
They had a display of small bags of chips, 25 cents each or 3 for a dollar.
I asked my wife to read the sign to me to make sure I was reading it right. I was.
So I grabbed four bags (one for my wife and me, and one for each of the kids), went to the checkout and told the young lady I would pass on the generous offer of 3 for a dollar and said to just charge me at 25 cents a bag. I received a most quizzical look! I pointed to the sign, which happened to be in view of the register, and I still don't think she got it.

[Meridian_Mike]

Went to my first WalMart back in the late 80's, down in Arkansas.
My father-in-law told me if they don't have it, you don't need it.
After going in, I believed him!

True story - several years later we were visiting in Arkansas again and went in WalMart.
They had a display of small bags of chips, 25 cents each or 3 for a dollar.
I asked my wife to read the sign to me to make sure I was reading it right. I was.
So I grabbed four bags (one for my wife and me, and one for each of the kids), went to the checkout and told the young lady I would pass on the generous offer of 3 for a dollar and said to just charge me at 25 cents a bag. I received a most quizzical look! I pointed to the sign, which happened to be in view of the register, and I still don't think she got it.

LOL... that is great.... surprised she didn't charge you $1.25 for 4......LOL.

Another great way to stump the cash register attendants now-a-days is to ask them to "count out your change" MANUALLY after a transaction. ($8.56 purchase.... hand cashier a $10.... $8.56... 57, 58, 59, 60, 65, 75, $9 and $10....Thanks you!) That is a LONG LOST art. Heck, we were taught how to do that in the 2nd grade..... I thought it was FUN!!

[Colonel26]

Poke sallet is good stuff. We used to boil it, throw out the first water, cook it down some more, and then throw it in a skillet with eggs and scramble it all up. I’ve never heard that the greens were poison, but old folks said if you didn’t pour the first water off they’d give you the scours. Some mommas used the poke with the first water on it in the spring as a “tonic” to clean out the young’uns. Lol

TF, I love liver and onions. So does my middle boy. But I’ve never had sweatbreads or gizzards. I’ve heard they’re good. But I can tell you that rooster fries are delicious. So are mountain oysters. Y’all know what them are, right?

BigH I’ve never been to a goat barbecue. But I do have some down here in the pasture. Maybe when they kid......

[Meridian_Mike]

Poke sallet is good stuff. We used to boil it, throw out the first water, cook it down some more, and then throw it in a skillet with eggs and scramble it all up. I’ve never heard that the greens were poison, but old folks said if you didn’t pour the first water off they’d give you the scours. Some mommas used the poke with the first water on it in the spring as a “tonic” to clean out the young’uns. Lol

TF, I love liver and onions. So does my middle boy. But I’ve never had sweatbreads or gizzards. I’ve heard they’re good. But I can tell you that rooster fries are delicious. So are mountain oysters. Y’all know what them are, right?

Yep.... know what they are....
Nope, aint never had any....
Like I said, I'll try anything ONCE....

Now, rooster fries are a new one on me.......

[bighomer]

That Wal-Mart tale reminds me of a tale my buddy told me, when we was in high school he worked as stock boy - sack boy at the local grocery store, they had some canned vienna sausage that just wouldn't sell at a quarter a can, the boss told my buddy to get a cart and put those cans in it and put a sign on "special three for a dollar" my buddy swears every can was gone by the end of the day.

[Meridian_Mike]

That Wal-Mart tale reminds me of a tale my buddy told me, when we was in high school he worked as stock boy - sack boy at the local grocery store, they had some canned vienna sausage that just wouldn't sell at a quarter a can, the boss told my buddy to get a cart and put those cans in it and put a sign on "special three for a dollar" my buddy swears every can was gone by the end of the day.

LOL.... I love it!!

[Doc B]

I usually average about one of these per year. Hate to let them go to waste. Usually fry them up and serve them as hors d'oeuvres, for people to try. They are very good...but really bony.

[Meridian_Mike]

I usually average about one of these per year. Hate to let them go to waste. Usually fry them up and serve them as hors d'oeuvres, for people to try. They are very good...but really bony.IMG_0600.jpg

Oh yes....
Now that is a nice size one there.
(Does it taste like chicken?)

[Doc B]

I usually average about one of these per year. Hate to let them go to waste. Usually fry them up and serve them as hors d'oeuvres, for people to try. They are very good...but really bony.IMG_0600.jpg

Oh yes....
Now that is a nice size one there.
(Does it taste like chicken?)

It actually does

[doglegg]

That is indeed a big one. They sometimes make me act like chicken.

[Steve Warden]

That Wal-Mart tale reminds me of a tale my buddy told me, when we was in high school he worked as stock boy - sack boy at the local grocery store, they had some canned vienna sausage that just wouldn't sell at a quarter a can, the boss told my buddy to get a cart and put those cans in it and put a sign on "special three for a dollar" my buddy swears every can was gone by the end of the day.

Dad was a store manager at an Ace Hardware in Columbia, Maine. The owner sent him to a marketing seminar and there they told everyone to try an experiment when they got back to their stores. So he did. He got two boxes and filled them with pencils.
He marked one box 10 cents each, the other box marked 10 for a dollar. Dad said no one touched the 10 cents each pencils and couldn't keep the 10 for a dollar box full.