Gopher dishes?

TheHolyLancer said:
Can gopher be cooked into something or else is it coyote food?
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Unless it's a survival situation, I wouldn't eat it. It's rat. But if you had to, fry the crap out of it.

The other thing with gophers is that they are cannibalistic and therefore prone to all the nastiness that comes with eating your own species.
 
gopher recipes.

Of course they are rats:D what's your point. Squirrels are rats as well.;)


Here's kind of a generic recipe that I use for "different" things that are not readily found in recipe books. This one is for feral cats, but you can substitute gophers or tree rats or jackrabbits, ir racoon or possum, or beaver, or muckrats or..well you get the idea.

After cats have been acquired. This is one of my personal favorites.
One large or two medium cats skinned,dressed and cut into segments. Simmer for two hours. Cool and remove meat from bones.
3-4 tomatoes diced
One large onion, cut in large chunks.
One large red pepper, cut in chunks.
One green bell pepper, cut in chunks,
A half dozen garlic cloves crushed.
Olive oil.
In a large cast iron pan, brown onions in olive oil. Remove from pan. saute peppers, tomatos and garlic, and add the browned onions to the pan.Add cat meat and mix.

Add
One cup uncooked rice.

Two and a half cups chicken stock.

Cover and bring to a boil.reduce heat to simmer. cook until all liquid is gone.

Hot chiles or beans can also be added.

Use mixture to stuff pita bread, tortillas or tacos.
Enjoy.

If no cats are available, urban coyote may be substituted.

I like cats, I just can't eat a whole one myself.
 
Xman said:
Unless it's a survival situation, I wouldn't eat it. It's rat. But if you had to, fry the crap out of it.

The other thing with gophers is that they are cannibalistic and therefore prone to all the nastiness that comes with eating your own species.
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.......like Mad Gopher Disease....those are the ones that usually end up as road kill. Gophers are a very good food source.......for magpies, ravens, crows, coyotes, etc. Humans? are you kiddin?
 
Yup, just like stir-fry but without all the work. Can't you just see Ron Popei or whatever his name is at 3a.m. on t.v. selling people a 22-250 cuz it'll make cookin just THAT much faster? Or is that channel just in my head?

I've never eaten em myself, but met a guy who claimed to have many (30?)recipes... He's wierd and works at the eastbound Mohawk on the TransCanada in Calgary. Don't ask how that topic came up while pumpin fuel.:popCorn:
The 'locals' used to eat lots of them back in 'the day'. Not too many people talk about that though.
 
You gentlemen don't know what your missing. Gophers or marmots are very good eating. They need to be cut into small pieces and deboned first but they are worth it.
They can also be a little tough if to overcooked, so either slow simmer in wine for a few hours or fast cook at high heat.

The local native bands used to fight wars over good marmot territories, they would even come over from the Kootenys' to the Okanogan for them.
They taste a lot like rabbit and chicken.

Though they will eat meat if they can get it, they are predominantly vegetarians so what is so poisonous about them?
It's all about perception I guess, you guys sound like a bunch of anti gunners spewing off their knowledge about guns. bearhunter
 
Gophers are only canibals for self-protection. If you kill a Gopher and leave it there, the members of the colony will drag it down and eat it so that won't stink up the neibourhood and bring in more creatures to eat them!
Scott
 
Interesting point that bearhunter brought up, along those same lines, during the Depression years on the prairies, farm families were forced to consider eating them and some did to keep above ground.

Look at our American friends especially in the south eastern states regularily hunt and eat squirrel, which is a close relative to our ground squirrel. So...

We live in such a naturally rich North American continent, it is not often we have to eat critters of second or third or last choice.
We are very lucky to be here.
 
m39a2 said:
Gophers are only canibals for self-protection. If you kill a Gopher and leave it there, the members of the colony will drag it down and eat it so that won't stink up the neibourhood and bring in more creatures to eat them!
Scott
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Never quite thought of it like that before... interesting theory. Not sure I believe it though. Usually so hot and dry on the prairie a dead squirrel turns into little more than a fuzzy door mat in just a short time due to heat and insects. I'm also not convinced that during their evolution squirrels have had all that much experience with large numbers of them getting blasted above ground and having lots of training in the how and whys of cleaning up. Like most animals of their size they normally are either picked up by the 'Ferrugies', badgers/yotes or die curled up in a quiet place. I personally think they are more in line behaviour-wise with chickens. While 'vegitarian' they become more like sharks with the introduction of a few drops of blood. Food is food.
If they didn't want to 'advertise' their locations wouldn't 'dog towns' be a whole lot better hidden? Hawks pick them out from miles away based on those visual markers alone. Far more are taken from the sky than from scent lead ground based enemies... just my opinion.
In my experience they don't drag them down to eat them either, they normally do it right there and then.
I'll definitely be discussing this one with the boys though. Thanks for bringin it up. Any research on this?
 
Brutus said:
Interesting point that bearhunter brought up, along those same lines, during the Depression years on the prairies, farm families were forced to consider eating them and some did to keep above ground.

Look at our American friends especially in the south eastern states regularily hunt and eat squirrel, which is a close relative to our ground squirrel. So...

We live in such a naturally rich North American continent, it is not often we have to eat critters of second or third or last choice.
We are very lucky to be here.
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No ####...look at all the other things they do in the Southern States, check out Jerry Springer one or twice. Eating gophers ??? Ill take pussy any day. :D
 
Well, for all you southern boys all a 'fearin' them nasty ole gophers, you's a missin a mighty fine meal!

Seriously though, natives up north here have eaten them for centuries and I've had a few myself. They basically taste like most small animals; similar to rabbit. Not bad at all, but a bit of work to get that small amount of meat of them. I've done them fried up with grouse and rabbit in a cast iron skillet and if it wasn't for the size you couldn't tell the rabbit parts from the gopher parts. If you're out camping, just clean it whole and do it up on a spit. At home gopher also goes good with a thick spicy gravy if you don't like the "gamey" taste.
 
I'm all for eating them, for christs sakes it's just meat. I've hunting and cooked rabbit and squirrel, but never cooked up a gopher yet though I've shot plenty, will be sure to try it.

Who cares if they'll eat meat/canibalize, so do bears, and almost all of us here will still eat them.
 
me neither.....those fat balls of grass are for target practice. You'll be lucky if you don't eat one that may have a little stricnine in it's system as I believe they are allowing farmers to use it again in the South? I may be wrong on this though!
TFG
 
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