Gator- tastes like chicken, kind of tough and chewy, but come on, have you ever seen an alligator? Of course it was going to be chewy.
Frog legs- pretty much a dead ringer for chicken wings if you didn’t know what a wing was supposed to look like. Maybe just the tiniest hint of something fishy going on there.
Escargot - an excellent excuse to eat a bunch of butter and garlic and for some reason it’s fancy even though you’re eating a garden pest
Squirrel - kind of greasy, but not bad, darker meat than I expected. Not really enough meat on them to be worth it though, at least not the squirrels we have in my neck of the woods, I’ve seen some pretty big squirrels in other parts of the country though, so maybe they’re a little more worthwhile. If you had a handful of squirrels I suspect they could make a pretty good soup or stew though.
Rabbit- tastes like chicken, I’ve had it a few different ways, I don’t know that I would know the difference if you swapped rabbit for chicken in any of them, but I had a rabbit pot pie at a restaurant a few years ago that has been my happy thought ever since, probably the tastiest thing I have ever eaten.
Deer venison - very similar to beef, a bit gamey but I dig that.
Quail - tiny chicken, that’s pretty much all there is to it.
Pigeon- much darker than chicken, a bit greasy, overall pretty tasty (these were country pigeons, I don’t recommend eating city pigeons) a single pigeon breast is pretty much exactly the right size to make a pigeon nugget.
Bison- lean beef, maybe a bit stronger tasting but overall pretty well within the beef spectrum. If you didn’t tell me it was bison, I’d probably assume it was either really cheap or moderately expensive beef.
Wild boar- pork but not, kind of hard to explain this one, and the way I had it prepared had a lot of spices and seasoning so I can’t really give a straight appraisal of the meat itself.
Kangaroo- it tastes like it evolved on a different continent than any other mammal you’ve ever eaten. It’s still very much in the red meat family but there’s something else going on there that’s kind of hard to place, sort of gamey and stronger tasting.
Goose- kind of like a mix of duck and turkey, leaning more duck-like, and yeah, that tracks, you could probably just about assume that from looking at a goose.
I wouldn’t really consider these to be exotic, but a surprising amount of people don’t seem to have tried them, and they’re some of my all-time favorite meats.
Duck- its more like a red meat than chicken, can be kind of greasy/fatty but in a good way
Lamb- red meat, kind of a strong gamey taste (that again, I personally really like) oddly somehow gamier than venison despite venison actually being a game meat and lamb being domesticated. You could probably serve me deer and tell me it was beef and slip it by me, but I don’t think you could pull it off with lamb.
Goat- lamb, but moreso.
Liver- it’s kind of hard to describe liver in any way but livery, but iron-y and minneral-y are probably the best adjectives I can come up with. I’ve had beef liver and chicken liver, beef is definitely a stronger flavor but both are recognizably livery. Chicken liver is probably mild enough that as long as it’s prepared well most people could enjoy it, beef liver is definitely more of an acquired taste.
Chicken hearts- stronger flavored and tougher than regular chicken, but still recognizably chicken, imagine dark meat but lean. Little bit of a irony/mineraly taste, but not in a livery way, can be a little tough/chewy, and if you’re inclined to batter and fry them, they are the perfect size to make sort of a popcorn chicken thing with, or if you want to have little bits of meat for a stir fry or something and don’t feel like chopping up the meat yourself. They are also dirt cheap, at least around me.
Tripe- a bit chewy, honestly not too much going on flavor-wise, there’s something going on that tastes/smells of a barnyard but in a very pleasant way, but it’s almost more of a suggestion of a taste than an actual flavor.
Beef tongue- recognizably beefy, but definitely has something going else on, not quite livery but leaning that direction. Definitely something you need to braise or sous vide or something for a long time because it will be damn near impossible to chew otherwise, and it has its own unique texture, it will probably make you think a lot about your own tongue while eating it.
Chicken feet- look, there’s really no meat worth speaking of on a chicken foot, it’s basically all skin and connective tissue which is tasty and an interesting texture, but not worth it to me to eat themselves, some people do, but it’s not for me. ut if you want to take you chicken stock to the next level, use some chicken feet.
And these are probably the opposite of exotic, just weird or have bad press
Pickled pigs feet- salty vinegary vaguely porky jello with bones in it. I like salty vinegary things, so that’s not a bad thing in my book.
Scrapple- local delicacy for those of us in the Delaware valley, if you’ve ever heard spam described as everything but the oink, well scrapple has some oink in it too. It’s soft and mushy and fries up to a real nice crisp on the outside. Taste is sort of in a similar vein as a breakfast sausage, really nothing too wild about it.
Pork roll (you north jersey folk calling it Taylor Ham are crazy, it says pork roll right on the package, you’re wrong) is basically just spam with a better PR department, less salty, slightly different spices, doesn’t come in a can.
And on that note- spam, it’s delicious but very salty. If you like ham you’ll probably like spam.
Wow, that’s quite a list.
I agree with most of that but would not mistake rabbit for chicken.
Rabbit is much leaner, much sweeter, and has a different grain to the muscle, closer to very tender pork. Good eating but needs to be cooked in some fat.
Agreed. Rabbit doesn’t taste like chicken to me either. I live close to a rabbit farm, so I get it fairly regularly. To me, it’s best as a filler in sausage. I like to make rabbit sausage with apple or cranberry. It’s pretty lean so I also add a bit of fat - either pork or beef.
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For squirrel I had good luck slow cooking a few at a time, picking all the meat, and using it in casserole. Kinda like dark meat chicken. They have lots.of tiny bones so it is a bit of work.
This guy eats
Ostrich is delicious. I’ve eaten it in a restaurant once and cooked it myself two or three times. It tastes like a red meat, but cooks like white meat, so you have to be careful because it can overlook in a snap.
I had a roommate who used to make ostrich chili all the time. It was pretty good. Still prefer beef though.
100% agree. I was at a festival, saw a stand selling “ostrich steak” sandwiches, which I’d never heard of before. I figured I’d try it. The meat, which was served on a hoagie roll, looked and tasted like London broil. Good stuff! I’m surprised it’s not more common!
Years ago, we got a huge case of Slim Jim’s that said they were made with ostrich, instead of the usual beef and pork. Tasted like Slim Jim’s. So there’s that.
I used to compulsively rip chunks out of my fingers using my teeth as a form of anxiety driven self harm. I’d say it’s close to pork, but I haven’t tasted raw pork
That’s enough Internet for me today, but hope you are doing better now.
Long pig, they called it
You win my favorite internet comment of the day.
My personal cuticles need more seasoning.
I don’t know if you are looking for meat analogues, but I got to eat hand made seitan once. Really great texture. It isn’t something I see anywhere in places I tend to be so it was exotic to me. It was pretty labor intensitto make, I thought. It took a lot of water!
I used to make this myself. It was a mission to make.
Indeed. I used to have friends who would make tempeh but I don’t remember ever having theirs and it is more available anyway.
That’s very interesting. I had no idea this existed.
I don’t use facebook anymore but iirc there is a group called the seitan society which tries the most ridiculous recipees with seitan. just the images alone were stunning.
Just don’t say it’s new to the religionists No Gluten, Glutng Poison, etc. My grandfather passed through Berlin during World War II, thanks to a crust of bread.
If you can find this, it’s really good. I have never met someone who did not like it. Rinse it off, marinate it, throw it in curry, whatever. My ex used it, or real duck in fresh spring rolls. Available at many Asian markets.
It’s rooted in a Chinese Taoist vegetarian festival called ‘the Nine Emperor Gods’. It has become quite big in Thailand.
Seitan is soooo good. I had it in a curry in London and loved it. Haven’t had anything as good since.
It’s essentially just pure Gluten right?
I think l so, the two people making it referred to “vital wheat gluten” and it was the primary ingredient by far. There were other ingredients, too. I think they used some nooch and tamari. Unsure on seasoning.
Rattlesnake in the wild, thanks to an insane ex-military Scout leader I had that was trying to prove a point to us (his Scout troop).
It was actually a lot better than I expected, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a number of (hopefully) obvious reasons.
Same, reminded me of somewhat greasy chicken.
Rattlesnake. Not bad, but totally unremarkable - tasted like chicken. Still, I’d recommend it, because the best thing about it is getting to say you’ve eaten rattlesnake.
Not bad, but totally unremarkable
Pretty much sums up my experience with rattlesnake, as well. The novelty of it was the most interesting part, really.
Though that really applies to just about every “exotic” meat I’ve had. They all taste like a slightly worse version of other, more conventional meats, and it’s immediately made clear why it’s not more popular in the first place.
I think I had grilled blow snake once. I was camping with a bunch of other kids and somebody caught the thing. You’re right it tasted like chicken.
I’ve eaten a rat.
In my youth I was trekking in Thailand and we arrived to our next destination late at night and we were starving. The only option to get food was a street grill which served only two foods: rat-on-a-stick and some kind of a fried jellyfish-on-a-stick.
The rat was actually pretty good. My friend chose the jellyfish and regretted this instantly.
LOL, I’m getting Discworld vibes. The vendor wasn’t Disembowel-Meself-Honourably Dibhala by chance?
Things were pretty crazy, but not Ankh-Morpok-level crazy ;)
Alligator. Chewier than chicken. Tasted kinda like chicken. Would try again, I guess.
Also had ostrich burgers a couple of times. I’m told I was shitfaced and enjoyed them immensely, but I couldn’t tell you for sure, for I was shitfaced.
Ostrich burgers are excellent. There used to be a sports store near here that served burgers (bison, elk, ostrich) and the ostrich was the best. Also deep fried alligator nuggets, but honestly once you bread and deep fry something they’re pretty much all the same.
Is it just me or is this diet sounds extremely australian?
Nah crocs not gators for Australia.
Snake ate the ducks we were going to eat so it was allowed to digest them then we ate the snake.
Not bad, tasted a bit like duck weirdly. Lots of bones.
So like a turducken but a snuck?
Snake ate the ducks…
This. Should not be possible. Snakes are so strange.
😀 👍
I can get you exotic meats. Hippo steaks, giraffe burgers…
It’ll all be goat.
Got any goose grease?
Believe it or not, also goat.
No, I’ll have to take a trip to the store for a can of expensive goose grease.
Bear, when travelling in Sweden. It was smoked, I believe, and served on a sandwich. No particularly distinguishable taste, but it was very lean and easily fell apart when bitten. Turned vegetarian not long after, lol.
Lol a meat so exotic it turned you vegetarian.
Ate a platter of 3 different fried insects. I think it was wood worms, bees, and crickets. The bees were the best.
None of them were horrible. Would do it again.
Dog, it was chewie and not tasty at all, no wonder most people don’t eat it.
I wonder if it’s because it’s a carnivore. Are there any other carnivores people generally eat? Hmm…
lots of kinds of fish. most other carnivores are not cost effective to be eaten regularly.
I heard something somilar about why cat doesn’t taste good.
Bears supposedly have very distinct tastes depending on whether they’ve been eating meat and fish or fruits and honey.
Think you meant to reply to the other guy.
Where dogs are eaten they are usually omnivores. Lots of scraps mixed with rice, at least in Southeast Asia.
Bear. I’ve never had it but I’m told it’s super greasy
Chicken
It can be really good, though undeniably gamey.
What’s your favorite breed?🙂
I have no idea, as far as I know there are specific meat dog breeds.
Horse. A friend of mine brought some from Iceland and was kind enough to share. Its somewhere between pork and beef to me.
The fermented shark he brought back on the other hand, was the worst thing I have ever tasted. The smell alone cleared the room, and as one chef instructor said, “it smells like dirty pussy”.
I also ate horse in Japan and didn’t enjoy it
I had horse steak from the UK, it was superbly tender and a lovely mellow taste. I was quite surprised.
You have to chase hákarl with brennivin. Although brennivin itself makes me gag.
What is brennivin? To be honest I’d try it again if theres a better way to eat it
It’s a particularly gross Icelandic liquor. Some people enjoy it apparently. Wikipedia says that it has hints of the flavor of fresh rye bread. I strongly disagree.
Flamingo, but the meat is a bit tough…