Post by beaudro on May 7, 2008 10:25:41 GMT -5
Not sure if this belongs here or in the historical documents, but it's something to put in the pot.
It's well known that about 80% of a rocky mountain fur trappers diet consisted of meat, and just about any kind of meat too.
here's what lewis and clark had for dinner on several occasions.
"Lewis & Clark remarked "on October 2, 1805, nothing except a small prairie wolf killed that day" they did not comment as to the flavor. Merriweather Lewis's journal entry of June 3, 1806 states "our party from necessity having been obliged to subsist some length of time on dog have now become extremely fond of their flesh; it is worthy of remark that while we lived principally on the flesh of this animal we were much more healthy and more fleshy than we had been since we left buffalo country...."
Joe Meek also had a plate full once or twice. along with other palates.
Joe Meek favored dog meat as being superior to bobcat or lynx, although lynx was said to be excellent when fat. Marmot, wolverine and woodchuck made their way into the pot, too. If hungry enough "porcupine was passable with some sweetgrass and roots. "Field mice made a smaller game but, one can "subsist, as did trappers, by hunting crickets and field mice. Otter, marten and muskrat filled the hollows when nothing better was available, marten was the rankest and most disagreeable of these fleshes."
here's a dutch oven favorite
Moses Schallenberger was snowbound in the Sierra Mountains in 1844, he wrote after trapping a coyote. "I soon had his hide off and his flesh roasted in a dutch oven. I ate this meat but it was horrible. I next tried boiling him, but it did not improve the flavor. I cooked him in every possible manner of my imagination, spurred by hunger could suggest, but could not be eaten without revolting my stomach." On another occasion he wrote of catching two foxes, "roasted one and found the meat, though entirely devoid of fat, was delicious."
It's well known that about 80% of a rocky mountain fur trappers diet consisted of meat, and just about any kind of meat too.
here's what lewis and clark had for dinner on several occasions.
"Lewis & Clark remarked "on October 2, 1805, nothing except a small prairie wolf killed that day" they did not comment as to the flavor. Merriweather Lewis's journal entry of June 3, 1806 states "our party from necessity having been obliged to subsist some length of time on dog have now become extremely fond of their flesh; it is worthy of remark that while we lived principally on the flesh of this animal we were much more healthy and more fleshy than we had been since we left buffalo country...."
Joe Meek also had a plate full once or twice. along with other palates.
Joe Meek favored dog meat as being superior to bobcat or lynx, although lynx was said to be excellent when fat. Marmot, wolverine and woodchuck made their way into the pot, too. If hungry enough "porcupine was passable with some sweetgrass and roots. "Field mice made a smaller game but, one can "subsist, as did trappers, by hunting crickets and field mice. Otter, marten and muskrat filled the hollows when nothing better was available, marten was the rankest and most disagreeable of these fleshes."
here's a dutch oven favorite
Moses Schallenberger was snowbound in the Sierra Mountains in 1844, he wrote after trapping a coyote. "I soon had his hide off and his flesh roasted in a dutch oven. I ate this meat but it was horrible. I next tried boiling him, but it did not improve the flavor. I cooked him in every possible manner of my imagination, spurred by hunger could suggest, but could not be eaten without revolting my stomach." On another occasion he wrote of catching two foxes, "roasted one and found the meat, though entirely devoid of fat, was delicious."