Who's Eaten Coot ???

[samsmix]

Here in "Montucky" there is a 15 bird daily bag limit on mud hens (coots), but nobody shoots them. Why are they considered a game bird? I shot one out of a flock of ducks by mistake, and being a good sport I tried to eat it!
WOW! Lets just say if I were as flexible as my dog, I'd lick my butt to get the taste out of my mouth! YUCK!

So the question is: Who eats Coots?

Mergansers?

Whistlers (Goldeye)?

[CO@heart]

I don't, but when I was 10 my grandfather would let me shoot them with my 410, in the duck blind with his hunting buddies, we would go back to the cabin to take a nap, and he would always leave them outside, so when I would wake up, the coots would be gone, my grandfather always blamed the missing birds on the coyotes. It took me a few years to realize that he would chunk them in the woods for the coyotes, I doubt they would eat them, but good luck and if you take any youngsters with you, those are good birds to start on in my opinion.

[bswiv]

Once, for the same reason you did. I've been much more careful about what I shoot sense...........................don't want to do it again!

[castnblast]

I did once too...NEVER, NEVER, AGAIN!!! they taste like:barf:...Or Barf+mud...If I were a starving coyote, I don't think I'd eat one...I'd eat a buzzard before I tried one again...

[davlandrum]

My mom's husband says they used to eat coot. Sounded like the most important thing was wrapped in bacon and slathered in onions. They were poor enough that taste was not the most important aspect of food.

He did one a few years ago to see if it was "as good as he remembered" and couldn't get more than one bite down.:barf:

[Trapp]

I've eaten plenty in my duck hunting days.....

Now I am out of Louisiana (by far the best duck hunting.....)

We would cook em in a gumbo or a stew. I didn't think they were half bad

Of course I am pretty sure them coonasses can make anything taste good!!

Nutria rat, possum, coon.......

Oh yeah... we always called em "Pool dou"

[samsmix]

If "coonasses" is a racist term, I would prefer your "Trapp" stay closed!

[Trapp]

Racist?

Not a bit...

Would you prefer southern Louisiana Redneck?

Swamp people?

Acadians?

Blah.........

[samsmix]

In that case I stand corrected, and you have my appology for the play on your name.

Sorry, but I worry about those who think we gun owners are all a bunch of Never-do-wells. I did not mean to be trigger happy in my respose.

[MeekAndMild]

Coonasses ain't Cajuns. They, or should I say we? were mostly Scots-Irish, as often as not Protestants, who settled just to the north of Cajun territory. But nowadays there are a lot of Catholics who speak French and are named Macthis or Macthat. Not that all the French speakers were Cajuns as a lot up Alexandria way were Belgian and considered themselves coonasses. Gets complicated.

Back on topic, you can make a pretty good gumbo with coots, squirrel heads and even possum if you spice it up. The spice is the important thing. I had my first Yankee-cooked mudbugs a couple of weeks ago and it took all I had in me to not just walk off from supper. Danged fools didn't put any pepper, no cloves, no garlic, no onions, no spice at all and it was like eating swamp mud!

[cajun47]

coonass used to be popular when i was very young. about 30 years ago. we used to call each other that all the time. i haven't heard that in a very long time though. its a silly name made by cajuns for cajuns as far as i know. personally i only had one person try to use "coonass" toward me as an insult. i laughed in his face so loud and close i kinda spit on his eyes and nose and laughed some more. im guessing the coonass thing faded away when the cajun thing became popular.

"Pool dou" man i love that! the ones i kill and eat come out of a lake 4 or 5 feet deep. their gizzards(the best) are always full of grass(sea weed). maybe they dont mess with the mud at my lake that much or maybe its cause im a swamp person and im used to the mud taste lol?

i eat lots of crawfish, catfish, turtle and bull frogs. eating nutria rats isn't that popular in my area of the swamp land but my buddies and i gave it a shot not long ago. we killed 3, cleaned them and filled my huge black iron pot to the top with nutria and onions. one case of beer later we ate. taste like rabbit. i love it but i admit killing and cleaning them big old rats with a snake tail is a turn off. on the other hand they live in the water and eat grass. very clean animal. i never tried or ever will try possium unless im starving to death. never tried coon but i guess i would.

[cajun47]

"Coonasses ain't Cajuns. They, or should I say we? were mostly Scots-Irish"

didn't know that. i guess i really don't know where "coonass" came from. all i know it was a fad in my little cajun town about 30 years ago.

about that mud taste most of you speak of, it may be what i call "wild taste". i love that. i don't even soak deer meat to get the blood out. i want all the blood in the pot. i grew tired of store bought cow, pig, chicken long ago.

[Scorch]

We used to have this old guy around that would tell you recipes for just about anything. Possum, raccoon, rockchucks, you name it. My hunting buddy and I got a recipe from him for coot. We shot a limit of coot, washed them in milk, marinated them in a wine sauce for 24 hours, slow roasted them in the oven, and when they came out they tasted . . . awful, just awful. Imagine mud and coot poop mixed with milk and wine marinade, and you might get the idea.

[geezer in NH]

:barf: shooting one the penalty is eating what you shoot. Yuk BTDTNA

[Dirty_Harry]

I don't even know what a coot is, I guess I am a northern fellow.

[davlandrum]

DH - we have coots in Oregon. They have a distinctive white bill and are mud ducks. There used to be a lot of them on the lake where my Grandpa lived, but we don't see the huge rafts of them as much anymore. Might have something to do with the increase in eagles, osprey, and hawks since then. Maybe...that is a straight out made up guess...

[arizona hunter]

My brother said he tried one just to see what they taste like-mud! Never again. They should be listed as a pest like crows or coyotes.

[JWT]

Shot them occasionally as a kid growing up in Wisconsin. Always tossed them away, or let them float away.

Dad always said don't bring them home they're not edible - taste like mud - and that was unusual since he always said " if you shoot it you clean it and and it."

[Smokey Joe]

As is often the case, those who don't like eating coot never had one prepared properly.

Coot breast, parboiled, then fried in butter with garlic, is heaven on a plate. I once won a bet with a friend who said I couldn't prepare a coot to his taste--I added that I'd do it in 10 minutes, bird to plate. He conceded that it was delicious.

And gizzards! Just a big hunk of muscle! My duck hunting buds wouldn't take them home but I'm too Scotch not to. Remove the tough inner sac and the 2 ligaments, and nothing left but muscle. My wife worked up a recipie for curried coot, duck, and goose gizzards that had me asking other hunters for their unwanted gizzards please.

BTW, coots don't eat mud, or anything unpleasant. They are water weed eaters just like that prized duck, the canvasback. Leastways 'round where I hunted them.

[Dirty_Harry]

Smokey Joe must have had some choice USDA, black dangus Coot

[K80Geoff]

Not being a regular poster here in the hunting forum I am curious about the term "Coot".

I know of the bird in the rail family properly called a Coot by ornithologists. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAbou...ican_Coot.html

However on my native Long Island, where waterfowl hunting (Before Hilly and Chucky) was once common, old timers who hunted ducks referred to any sea duck as a "Coot" and avoided them like they would a game warden.

"Hey boy, you shoot one of them coots ya gotta eat it". They also refer to someone as an "Ol Coot" as a mild pejorative.

So just what are you folks discussing here? Coots or coots?

[davlandrum]

As is often the case, those who don't like eating coot never had one prepared properly.

That sentence gave me terrible flashbacks of every one of my relatives telling me that I would like liver "the way they made it"...:barf:

No offense to those that eat it, but I would rather eat my rubber boots after mucking the barn........

[FirstFreedom]

Since I don't believe this is a reference to my crazy college days, I'll say no, have not eaten coot.

davlandrum - ditto on liver. I've heard people say "I hate cow liver but love deer liver" - well acting on that info, I tried some of my deer's liver a couple months ago, fried in butter, and while not as offensive as cow liver, it was highly offensive. Dog's enjoyed it immensely though.

[Davis]

An eatery in Shreveport called Bubba's and Budreaux's speciallizes in cajun and coonass cuisine. Nah, coonass isn't racist. Most coonasses refer to themselves as such. I know quite a few coonasses, as well as cajuns.

Davis

[Eghad]

When I forst moved to SE Texas in 1976 the old timers used to refer to armadillos as 'Hoover Hogs"....lol.