What from the line ends up on the table.

AWS

Retired PM Staff
I just saw the comments on the old Mountain Lion thread and m curious if any save the meat from the line.

When I trapped a lot we saved most of the muskrat hind legs, beaver liver, hind legs and backstraps and young raccoons for the table. While I've seen recipes for skunk and possum I was never that desperate.

I did make a lot of fox bait from the skunks.

Muskrats are a lot like rabbit, we would stew them in onions and bay leaf and serve them with dumplings and sweet/saur red cabage. The rest of the carcass made great mink bait in bank holes.

Beaver was great, the livers are quite large for their size and was a staple on the trapline, we'd slice up the liver, dredge it in seasoned flour and fry it with onions for breakfast. The large muscles in the hind legs got roll cut thin, peppered and hung over the campfire to make jerkey and the backstraps and hind leg trimings went into the stew pot when at home we made a lot of beaver summer sausage and fresh brats.

Young raccoons got roasted just like a turkey. Some years we would do one for Thanksgiving.
 
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Grind fresh beaver to add to elk/deer just enough grease to make good sausage, eat quite a few bobcat back straps over the course of the season.
 
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