I was intrigued to learn that first, Germany is being overrun with raccoons brought over there from America a century ago: and second, that a local butcher (with official permission) is making a range of consumer meat products out of them.
A butcher in northeast Germany has come up with what he believes is an innovative solution to the country’s growing raccoon problem: turning them into sausages and other meat products.
Michael Reiss, a hunter who set up a butcher’s shop in Kade, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) west of Berlin, in 2022, told CNN Wednesday that he developed the idea after trying to think of a standout product to take to the Green Week international food fair.
He realized that raccoons who are killed as pests are simply thrown in the bin, and decided to ask local officials if they could instead be processed and turned into food.
After receiving the green light, Reiss started making his “raccoon balls,” meatballs made from raccoon meat, which he said turned out to be a hit at the fair and with customers at his shop, which is called Wildererhütte.
Soon Reiss was selling online, and he now makes a total of seven raccoon meat products, including salami.
. . .
After being introduced to Germany for use in fur farms in the 1920s, raccoons were first released into the wild in 1934, according to the Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU).
Since then, the mammals, who are highly adaptable and can live in towns and cities as well as forests and grasslands, have bred swiftly.
There are now an estimated 2 million raccoons in Germany, reported German press agency DPA, citing researchers at the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt.
The animals, who are originally from North America, typically weigh around 10 kilograms (22 pounds), but large males can reach 20 kilograms (44 pounds).
They now represent a danger to domestic biodiversity, especially the reptiles and amphibians that they eat, according to Germany’s Senckenberg Nature Research Society.
There's more at the link.
Considering that large parts of North America (including our cities) are overrun with trash pandas (a local nickname for raccoons), we might have a new export market here! I daresay any number of locals equipped with air or rimfire rifles could stack up a bountiful harvest to send to Germany. Perhaps we could add possums, skunks and sundry other wildlife of similar size?
On second thought . . . skunks . . . perhaps not! On the other hand, if we exported them to Ukraine, would they be a suitable biological weapon to unleash against Russian invaders?
Peter
22 comments:
I've never eaten raccoon, but have heard it's good, but requires knowledge of how to clean the animal to avoid ruining the meat. That, and those that dig in the trash probably are not the best to harvest.
What's next? Cats and dogs? Oh wait....
I think it was the NYT 25 years ago that suggested that one had to eat 21 squirrels a day to get the proper amount of protein or something. I stopped reading after that.
I worked with a man who trapped to supplement his income.
He told me that raccoon that are harvested in the fall make outstanding meatloaf. It was the absolute hit of the Dansville, Michigan Free Methodist church picnics for many years until one old biddy asked for the recipe. Alas, after that, it was not so popular.
"Neighbor - How long has it been since you had yourself some raccoon balls ? Well - that's too long !!" ( revised Old Wolf Brand Chile TV advertisement)
Racoon used to be a regular thing on the table, used to be a Thanksgiving dinner main event even.
Funny how things change...
No, no, no, no, no. But they are pests.
I was living with my grandparents in 1970 (I was 10) when a raccoon family was eating the outside cat food on their back porch. We were sitting in the den when the raccoon mom and dad brought up their four babies. So cute and so dangerous.
LOL, funny how that works...
The raccoon seems to be known in Europe as a "Wash Bear" - I guess for its habit of washing its food. Waschbär in German, vaskebjørn in Danish. The French call it raton laveur -- washing rat which is a little less flattering. It can be bare hands in Portugese --mão-pelada. In Afrikaans it is Wasbeer, apparently.
Say it in Greek --ρακούν--, and it sounds just like raccoon to me.(It is Greek to me)
Thank you Google translate.
In general, .22 is a better bet than air rifle, you do need the extra penetrating power. In the vein of “helping” the Germans control their raccoon population, might I advocate for introducing pythons? They’ve done a dandy job of clearing out raccoons in Florida!
Raccoon is good eating but if you buy them from someone you don't 100% trust make sure the paws are left on. You don't want to cook fido. Lol.
Germans will eat anything if you put it in a sausage casing and cook it.
I have no idea how many possums & coons I shot at my last place, coming up on the porch after the cat food.
--Tennessee Budd
Down here in the Carolina low country the black folk eat them but only after keeping them alive for a few weeks & feed them table scraps. The ones that live & eat in the salt marsh tend to taste like puff mud & fiddler crabs, not appetizing.
Well, that's... wild.
If I lived in Germany, I might conceivably be moved to try it (since they only ship to addresses within Germany). Not sure if it's practical to visit the store without a car, since it looks like the nearest train station is several miles away, unfortunately.
It's a fun idea!
The native indian girl acting as guide in the Plymouth Colony living museum was tanning a raccoon hide the day we were there. She said the meat was delicious, like strawberry flavored beef. She too warned you needed to trust your source, and avoid urban garbage eaters...
nick
Back in the 1970’s when I had a short trap line I checked between chores at the dairy I tried coon but found it a bit greasy for my taste, might have been better grilled. My wife’s grand mother was telling us about eating skunk during the Great Depression when they were living on Tug Hill in north western N.Y.
It's like eating possum...I think I'll take a hard pass, BRM
Well, we've had to put up with their cockroaches.
I like the fact that he had to ASK a LOCAL OFFICIAL for permission first. Once a socialist, always a socialist.
Food is highly regulated. In case of meat that is a good thing - because we sure love our uncooked, raw pork. And without decades of very strict controls we would have a serious health crisis.
So yes, there is a special "Amt" for foodstuff which has to give you permission if you want to sell it to a third party. To make sure your production facilities are hygienic and that the meat is tested for parasites before being sold.
For example: EVERY hog hunted in Germany is tested for parasites and in most regions it is also tested for radiation because of residue of the Chernobyl fallout.
But as someone else noted: we love our Wurst, we even eat them raw. And that is only possible if you can trust the producer.
Mmmm . . . Raccoon . . .
As a youngster living 'Up North' (central Minnesota), my best buddy's dad would buy us the .22LR rounds to eliminate the buggers that were raiding his sweet corn plots. Sweet corn-fed Coon tastes a lot like coconut-fed Rat . . .
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