Let's eat some CROW "literally"
Jun 12, 2019 6:11:56 GMT -5
whitetaildave24, lawrencecountyhunter, and 1 more like this
Post by featherduster on Jun 12, 2019 6:11:56 GMT -5
This is from the MEATEATER web site:
Crow Preparation
My ambition to eat a crow wasn’t born out of desperation; I’ve got a freezer full of delicious ungulates, upland birds and waterfowl. Rather, I wanted to see if the hype is true, or if outdoorsmen are overlooking a bird that is sporting to hunt, widely distributed and generally unbounded by strict seasons or bag limits.
I shot my crow in South Dakota where there is a spring and fall season that each last two months. Crows can be hunted with any resident or nonresident hunting license and have an unlimited daily limit and possession limit.
I plucked the entire crow and left the skin on. Naked of feathers, it looked like a Thanksgiving turkey shrunk by the power of 20. Think of the size of a teal or pigeon.
Ryan Callaghan was equally excited to try crow, and even offered to cook it. For preparation, he rubbed the bird in oil, covered it in spices and stuffed it with a mirepoix of carrots, onions, celery and garlic. It then went into a sous vide bath for five hours at 158 degrees.
After emerging from the plastic bag, the bird was tender but gray. The color wasn’t very appetizing, but that’s more a product of sous vide than it is by nature of being a crow. To finish the bird and add some color and crispiness, Cal ran it over a hot grill for a few minutes on each side.
Crow Review
While Cal carved the bird, a small crowd of MeatEater employees began to circle. No one here had ever had crow before, but that was about to change.
Cal and I took the first bites on top of toasted French bread along with diced tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and olive oil—crowschetta, if you will.
It tasted… great.
However, anything served that way would taste good. To get a more honest assessment of the meat’s edibility, Cal and I each took pieces of the drumstick. It had good flavor but was a little tough. I’d say it was comparable to any dark leg meat off of an upland bird.
Soon after, reviews from fellow MeatEaters started rolling in. Sam Lungren remarked that it was similar to pigeon and had a slightly chalky texture. Ben O’Brien said that it tasted as good as it looked. Janis Putelis gave the classic line that it tasted like chicken. About 10 others tried it as well, and no one got sick or had a bad thing to say.
Cal summed up the taste test by noting that crow are officially on his radar as a gamebird: “If I’m in a spot where it’s legal, and I haven’t seen these guys poking around a nearby parking lot picking up French fries, I’ll be all over them.”
I think everyone came away with a similar sentiment. Although generations of hunters have dismissed crow as table fare, the majority of them have never tried it. For all those who’ve said you can’t eat crow—well, they should figuratively and literally eat crow
Crow Preparation
My ambition to eat a crow wasn’t born out of desperation; I’ve got a freezer full of delicious ungulates, upland birds and waterfowl. Rather, I wanted to see if the hype is true, or if outdoorsmen are overlooking a bird that is sporting to hunt, widely distributed and generally unbounded by strict seasons or bag limits.
I shot my crow in South Dakota where there is a spring and fall season that each last two months. Crows can be hunted with any resident or nonresident hunting license and have an unlimited daily limit and possession limit.
I plucked the entire crow and left the skin on. Naked of feathers, it looked like a Thanksgiving turkey shrunk by the power of 20. Think of the size of a teal or pigeon.
Ryan Callaghan was equally excited to try crow, and even offered to cook it. For preparation, he rubbed the bird in oil, covered it in spices and stuffed it with a mirepoix of carrots, onions, celery and garlic. It then went into a sous vide bath for five hours at 158 degrees.
After emerging from the plastic bag, the bird was tender but gray. The color wasn’t very appetizing, but that’s more a product of sous vide than it is by nature of being a crow. To finish the bird and add some color and crispiness, Cal ran it over a hot grill for a few minutes on each side.
Crow Review
While Cal carved the bird, a small crowd of MeatEater employees began to circle. No one here had ever had crow before, but that was about to change.
Cal and I took the first bites on top of toasted French bread along with diced tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and olive oil—crowschetta, if you will.
It tasted… great.
However, anything served that way would taste good. To get a more honest assessment of the meat’s edibility, Cal and I each took pieces of the drumstick. It had good flavor but was a little tough. I’d say it was comparable to any dark leg meat off of an upland bird.
Soon after, reviews from fellow MeatEaters started rolling in. Sam Lungren remarked that it was similar to pigeon and had a slightly chalky texture. Ben O’Brien said that it tasted as good as it looked. Janis Putelis gave the classic line that it tasted like chicken. About 10 others tried it as well, and no one got sick or had a bad thing to say.
Cal summed up the taste test by noting that crow are officially on his radar as a gamebird: “If I’m in a spot where it’s legal, and I haven’t seen these guys poking around a nearby parking lot picking up French fries, I’ll be all over them.”
I think everyone came away with a similar sentiment. Although generations of hunters have dismissed crow as table fare, the majority of them have never tried it. For all those who’ve said you can’t eat crow—well, they should figuratively and literally eat crow
