Chris Green DVD ( eating Corvids)

[steve_b_wales]

I was watching Chris in his latest video, where he was shooting corvids. He shot a Carrion Crow, Jackdaw and a Rook, then proceeded to cook and eat the breasts. According to him, they were delicious. Personally, it doesn't appeal to me. I'm happy to try most foods, apart from strong, smelly Cheese. Chris pan fried them in butter, oil and garlic. 

[Scully]

Must admit it doesn’t appeal to me either, but then neither does Rook pie or squirrel. Each to their own. 
 

[Blackpowder]

1 hour ago, steve_b_wales said:

I was watching Chris in his latest video, where he was shooting corvids. He shot a Carrion Crow, Jackdaw and a Rook, then proceeded to cook and eat the breasts. According to him, they were delicious. Personally, it doesn't appeal to me. I'm happy to try most foods, apart from strong, smelly Cheese. Chris pan fried them in butter, oil and garlic. 

He is welcome to them, never felt the need or been hungry enough.

Blackpowder

[London Best]

If he cooked them in ruddy garlic he would have no idea what a filthy old crow would taste like anyway.

[bluesj]

Rook pie is good! Got to be made with young birds. Used to have it as a kid, but then again money was tight.

[marsh man]

I have eaten at some time in my life nearly everything that is hunted in the UK including the ole Coypu rat , but I have never fancied or had need to eat what a lot of you call Corvids , I used to shoot a lot of them in my trigger happy days but the last few years I have only shot the odd few to hang on canes on the crop fields , firstly the cartridges are getting expensive and I don't like the idea of killing a large number of birds and dumping them .

The next thing Mr Green might try cooking up is a Clay Pigeon , I am sure with the right amount of spices in a slow cooker it would be on par with a dirty ole Crow that have been feeding off a rubbish tip  

[dessyb]

blame it on cider👹

[Old Boggy]

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

I have eaten at some time in my life nearly everything that is hunted in the UK including the ole Coypu rat , but I have never fancied or had need to eat what a lot of you call Corvids , I used to shoot a lot of them in my trigger happy days but the last few years I have only shot the odd few to hang on canes on the crop fields , firstly the cartridges are getting expensive and I don't like the idea of killing a large number of birds and dumping them .

The next thing Mr Green might try cooking up is a Clay Pigeon , I am sure with the right amount of spices in a slow cooker it would be on par with a dirty ole Crow that have been feeding off a rubbish tip  

So what did coypu taste like John ?

I too have eaten lots of things that were once on the quarry list including most if not all of the wading birds, but would draw the line at corvids, although I do remember having rook pie as a kid that my Dad shot (branchers) in the trees opposite our house with a .410.

In his previous video, Chris Green cooked and ate cormorant, which he said tasted like beef. That too I would give a wide berth to.

OB

[steve_b_wales]

1 hour ago, London Best said:

If he cooked them in ruddy garlic he would have no idea what a filthy old crow would taste like anyway.

To be fair, he only put a few garlic cloves in the pan, complete with their skins on, so I don't think that would have 'improved' the taste of the

 

20 minutes ago, Old Boggy said:

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, marsh man said:

I have eaten at some time in my life nearly everything that is hunted in the UK including the ole Coypu rat , but I have never fancied or had need to eat what a lot of you call Corvids , I used to shoot a lot of them in my trigger happy days but the last few years I have only shot the odd few to hang on canes on the crop fields , firstly the cartridges are getting expensive and I don't like the idea of killing a large number of birds and dumping them .

The next thing Mr Green might try cooking up is a Clay Pigeon , I am sure with the right amount of spices in a slow cooker it would be on par with a dirty ole Crow that have been feeding off a rubbish tip  

Each to their own of course, but killing large amounts of corvids is great news for the farmers whose land they allow me to shoot on. Apart from eating their crops, the damage and death that they cause to sheep  and song birds is huge, as no doubt you are aware. As for cost, personally, that doesn't come into it for me. 

Edited December 31, 2021 by steve_b_wales

[ditchman]

when i was a very young boy...the farm workers used to get a young lad to climb the rookery and tie the young squabs with rafia to the nests and when they were big enough they would harvest them...........the workers also used to go down to the mill, fishing and catch big eels to eat ....and scoop up elvers when they were in season....

[marsh man]

3 hours ago, steve_b_wales said:

 

 

 

Each to their own of course, but killing large amounts of corvids is great news for the farmers whose land they allow me to shoot on. Apart from eating their crops, the damage and death that they cause to sheep  and song birds is huge, as no doubt you are aware. As for cost, personally, that doesn't come into it for me. 

Believe it or not some of the farmers are not to concerned when they have got a few Rooks on the drillings as they eat the Leather jackets and with the grain drilled a good depth they are not doing to much harm , if the numbers build up we put a Crow cage down and moved it about the estate when they begin to get wise , apart from the labour moving them about they cost very little to maintain , these would be working from dawn to dusk each and every day of the week , far more efficient than a lone shooter and less disturbance .

We haven't got that many sheep except some that are brought from your neck of the woods for Winter grazing  , Crows and other Corvids are included in with what can be shot on the Pigeon permits that are issued out for the February roost shooting , so overall we haven't got the problems that you might have when it comes to shooting Corvids and like you say , everyone to there own and shooting large numbers of Rooks ect is no longer for me .

[Walker570]

Short story if I can... the Ranch owner in Texas where we hunted told me of visiting a ranch camp once where the Chinese cook was in a panic as the team which should be turning up and eating that night had rung to tell him they had been held up and there next morning. He had a meal all ready and would he like to share some of it to save wasting it. He sat down and ate a hearty portion and then the Chinese chef asked him if he had every eaten armadillo.  No, the rancher said and the chef replied, well you have now.  He told me that was one of the best meals he had eaten in 75years, so just goes to show that properly prepared almost any meat can be enjoyed. 

In Newfoundland the locals would not eat bear meat.  We took the backstraps out of one we shot and I prepared the steaks and cooked them in the skillet with just salt and pepper and they where delicious and enjoyed by our Danish friend as well.  Almost like best beef fillet..

Edited December 31, 2021 by Walker570

[TIGHTCHOKE]

8 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

So what did coypu taste like John ?

I too have eaten lots of things that were once on the quarry list including most if not all of the wading birds, but would draw the line at corvids, although I do remember having rook pie as a kid that my Dad shot (branchers) in the trees opposite our house with a .410.

Chicken, of course!   

2 hours ago, Walker570 said:

Short story if I can... the Ranch owner in Texas where we hunted told me of visiting a ranch camp once where the Chinese cook was in a panic as the team which should be turning up and eating that night had rung to tell him they had been held up and there next morning. He had a meal all ready and would he like to share some of it to save wasting it. He sat down and ate a hearty portion and then the Chinese chef asked him if he had every eaten armadillo.  No, the rancher said and the chef replied, well you have now.  He told me that was one of the best meals he had eaten in 75years, so just goes to show that properly prepared almost any meat can be enjoyed. 

In Newfoundland the locals would not eat bear meat.  We took the backstraps out of one we shot and I prepared the steaks and cooked them in the skillet with just salt and pepper and they where delicious and enjoyed by our Danish friend as well.  Almost like best beef fillet..

I used to eat armadillo in Belize!

[7daysinaweek]

Ate a moorhen omelette once; it was quite nice. 

I will pass on the crows and rooks.

 

[marsh man]

10 hours ago, Old Boggy said:

So what did coypu taste like John ?

I too have eaten lots of things that were once on the quarry list including most if not all of the wading birds, but would draw the line at corvids, although I do remember having rook pie as a kid that my Dad shot (branchers) in the trees opposite our house with a .410.

In his previous video, Chris Green cooked and ate cormorant, which he said tasted like beef. That too I would give a wide berth to.

OB

Evening Chris ... Before the beaters got fed for lunch on a shoot day,  we all used to take bit and pieces for other beaters to try , we had all sorts , one chap , who ended up being our longest serving beater and one of , if not the oldest we had used to bring a box of Apples , another who was a butcher brought the odd Pork pie , some took home made drinks that blew some of my hair out and so on .

One day we had another keeper come and I believe he came from Sandringham as a few weeks before we had a field trial and one of Sandringhams keepers won it and said he would like to see how the day went on a shoot day .

While we were having lunch he got his large lunch box out and went round the beaters to see if they wanted one of his sandwiches , I had one of course and if I remember rightly it was very nice and tasted like a young Rabbit , after we all tried one and some of us had two he asked us what we thought was in them , some said deer , others said Leveretts , Rabbits , Hares and so on , no one was right and he told us it was Coypu , they were vegetarions and very clean animals , since then we have ate Squirrel in game cassarole along with chunks of all types of deer , game birds and wild fowl.

The chef we used to have done the same meal for the beaters that the guns had , this would consist of a big deep sided try , all the different meats would be spread about 2 inches on the bottom then it was covered with a pastry top , one tray was normally ample and we often got two , rather then send half of it back I filled my lunch box and the dogs box and either had the left overs for tea or fed the dog on it till it was gone , waste not want not so they say .

When I drove  the guns about I would pour there drinks and soup out at elevens and often had a small amount in the bottles left over , rather than chuck it out we often had a glass of whatever it was with our tea , neither of us are drinkers and half the time we didn't have a clue what it was , I know they often had Champaign with Sloe Gin and many a time the dregs in the bottle of Champaign would go straight in the fridge to have with our tea a little later , tell yer , we didn't have much but we lived well 

Happy new year Chris and to your lovely wife and I will get in touch over the next few days .

All the best     John 

[marsh man]

On 31/12/2021 at 21:30, 7daysinaweek said:

Ate a moorhen omelette once; it was quite nice. 

I will pass on the crows and rooks.

 

Morning 7daysinaweek , Was the omelette done with the meat off a Moorhen ,or the eggs ?

We had eaten many a Moorhens egg during the 60s and early 70s , we had some reedbeds on the marsh that held many Moorhens nest , as young boys we didn't mind getting our feet wet and very often our legs as well , the ole trick was trying a big spoon on the end of a bamboo cane and nick them off the nest , my grand parents who lived down the same road as us would love them and with money being tight they would make full use of whatever we got .

This got me thinking of the aroma in the there small kitchen when they were cooking some Coots we had shot , the smell was very gamey and in a stew they would melt in your mouth .

Coots were fairly rare before the bad Winter of 1962 / 3 but once all the Broads froze over they all came down to the estuary for open water even though large parts were frozen over , I can well remember me and my mate who were both laid off work at the time due to the bad weather pushing on to a large raft of Coots and giving them four barrels as they ran on the water to take off , I can't remember the exact number we got but we spent a long while chasing the wounded ones in the icy  conditions and time we got back to our boat shed we had double figures , these were all used as they kept fresh hanging up in the freezing conditions , not long afterwards a ban was finally put on shooting wildfowl , this was the first one I could ever remember and rightly so as we were picking up loads of dead wading birds that had froze to death due to the artic like conditions ,  Happy Days , or so we thought at the time .

[7daysinaweek]

4 hours ago, marsh man said:

Morning 7daysinaweek , Was the omelette done with the meat off a Moorhen ,or the eggs ?

We had eaten many a Moorhens egg during the 60s and early 70s , we had some reedbeds on the marsh that held many Moorhens nest , as young boys we didn't mind getting our feet wet and very often our legs as well , the ole trick was trying a big spoon on the end of a bamboo cane and nick them off the nest , my grand parents who lived down the same road as us would love them and with money being tight they would make full use of whatever we got .

This got me thinking of the aroma in the there small kitchen when they were cooking some Coots we had shot , the smell was very gamey and in a stew they would melt in your mouth .

Coots were fairly rare before the bad Winter of 1962 / 3 but once all the Broads froze over they all came down to the estuary for open water even though large parts were frozen over , I can well remember me and my mate who were both laid off work at the time due to the bad weather pushing on to a large raft of Coots and giving them four barrels as they ran on the water to take off , I can't remember the exact number we got but we spent a long while chasing the wounded ones in the icy  conditions and time we got back to our boat shed we had double figures , these were all used as they kept fresh hanging up in the freezing conditions , not long afterwards a ban was finally put on shooting wildfowl , this was the first one I could ever remember and rightly so as we were picking up loads of dead wading birds that had froze to death due to the artic like conditions ,  Happy Days , or so we thought at the time .

Good afternoon MM

The omelette in question was chicken egg with the moorhen breast meat taking centre stage. 

In the 90's me and a friend had been out with the hawks early one morning and the Harris hawk had got to grips with an unfortunate moorehen whilst moving from tree to tree. My friend had raved about how tasty they could be; he favoured cooking them in a omelette. I can still remember him dicing the very dark breast up into very small pieces and cooking it briefly in a frying pan then adding the egg. I recall, it was very similar to woodpigeon in taste, also texture and was agreeable to my palate despite being somewhat different. 

I have tasted most countyside edibles and inedibles at one time or other. Peacock, fox and squirrel to name some of the more peculiar ones; never tasted the humble rat and will pass on that one. 

I have never tasted a coot but would surmise that they would be very similar. Will never know.

Used to pick up quite a few wild duck eggs on my escapades as a nipper from the wild canal banks that were abundant in our surrrounding area. 

Was always going home with something in my pocket which was also always used. The sixties for many MM were certainly tougher times in many ways than we have now and means must. I can conjur in my minds eye the 'urgency' when happening upon that glut of moorhens. 

Hope the new year finds you and yours a well as can be MM.

atb

7diaw

[ShootingEgg]

Have tried rook but just tasted like offel .. very strong and not that nice... 

I guess if they'd had road kill fox then that's what I got a taste of haha.

[Walker570]

Excellent article in the Telegraph Saturday about cooking game, good to see.