Can you eat coyote meat? Yes! Do people eat coyote? Not that often, but with more hunters adopting a no waste creed, coyote is on the menu more often than you’d think.
On a cool fall evening in my early 20’s I found myself sitting around a fire with a group of new friends. We were sitting in front of a makeshift home fashioned into a hillside with mud, leaves, and straw on a woven stick framework.
In total, it was perhaps 10×10 on the outside, and the ceiling on the inside was no more than 4 feet at its highest point. That was Max’s house, where he’d already lived for 2 full years, even though some of the coldest Vermont winters on record.
Max was a primitivist, who made his own clothes and everything he needed to survive with his own two hands. All his tools were stone or wooden tools he’d made himself.
He was wearing all roadkill buckskin, from deers he’s salvaged throughout the year, with wood and antler buttons.
His meals were all food he’d foraged and included a lot of scavenged roadkill.
On this particular evening, the meal was roadkill coyote with acorn polenta.
I’d never had roadkill, or coyote, but I wasn’t about to turn down a meal from a friend who I knew had spent literally that entire day foraging and preparing it. Max wasn’t used to company for meals, and was obviously a bit self-conscious.
Imagine the trepidation of hosting a dinner party for new friends, and then add to it the fact that your home is made out of mud and you’ll be serving them roadkill coyote.
None the less, he was an impeccable host. That day he’d also taken the time to find birch bark sheets for plates for his guests.
The coyote on my bark plate was moist and fatty, but quite tough. I tore off tiny pieces with my teeth to cut down on the long job chewing each tough piece thoroughly.
So what does coyote meat taste like?
What does Coyote Meat Taste Like?
I have to say it didn’t taste like much of anything in particular, good or bad. Perhaps that has to do with a lack of salt or seasoning.
The guys in this video do a much more careful job roasting a coyote, and they describe it as a fatty rich meat, that you’d have trouble telling apart from pork in a pulled coyote meat sandwich.
It was protein, and thus it was satisfying after the hike in, and for that reason, I’d eat it again if I were hungry.
Can You Get Rabies from Eating Roadkill?
When I got back home to my computer, a bit of research informed me that so long as it’s thoroughly cooked, just about any meat is safe to eat.
What about rabies you say? Can you get rabies from eating roadkill?
Rabies and other pathogens are rare, but either way, they’re destroyed in thoroughly cooked food. The main risk, if pathogens are present, is to the person processing the raw meat of the animal.
You can read more about that from the Louisiana Department of Health or the New York Department of Fish and Game.
Both state that rabies is completely destroyed by cooking, and that processing the animal and coming into contact with the raw tissue, especially spinal fluid and salivary glands, is the main risk.
In Vermont, modern primitivism is taking hold, and I’ve found more and more of my friends taking to the woods for a rather extreme break from modern society.
As a way to spend a misspent youth, primitivism beats just about any type of rebellion urban teenagers might dream up in my opinion.
What about you? Would you be willing to try coyote? What about roadkill? Leave a note in the comments below.
Beyond Eating Coyote Meat
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James
I would definitely try coyote, or roadkill. (Depending on what creature). My concern would be the judgment of the person who prepared the animal. Things like dead too long, insect contamination, predator contamination ect. I have been told that some animals are not good to eat when roadkill due to the processes that take place in the body when killed by a speeding vehicle. (Not dangerous just not good). I do not know if this is true. Roadkill could be a source of perfectly good free food.
James
Well I’ve never eaten coyote before but I have eaten fox & roadkill on many occasions. The fox was tough but edible and I’d eat coyotes no problem. Roadkill as long as it’s fresh, well I don’t have a problem with that either.
Dougie Quick
Here is my only qualm …How long as the carcass been laying there? Not to mention if it near a populated area, what has that dog been eating? But if it was far enough out in the sticks and obviously fresh then I am more comfortable with the idea….there is a third issue with road kill and that is the adrenaline released when the animal is hit …I might have suffered for hours and what doe THAT add to the mix? ….. You know how people worry about antibiotics and steroids in store bought meat? When a mammal suffers trauma/shock how corticosteroids (cortisol?) floods it’s system and tissues? Likely WAY WAY more than ever would be in grocery store meat …I’m just saying
Ashley Adamant
Good points all around. At this point in my life, I’m only comfortable eating road kill that I saw get hit. I want to know it’s fresh, and that it was a clean kill precisely to avoid the issues you mention. After the apocalypse, I’d be less picky…
Cody
I would definitely try im always open to new food sources
Darrel s Snider
My nephew hid a coyote with his pick up very healthy looking and fresh I had never eaten coyote never thought about it so I went on line and found recipes wow so cooked a little back strap just see to me it tast a lot like beef not pork if I were lost in the wilderness would eat Coyote yes but hunt it for food if I were hungry yes other wise I’ll stick to deer lol
Wanda
I have gone hungry as a child so you bet I would. My husband likely would not unless terribly hungry. I made sure I can hunt, forage and make fire as a result of my childhood and also the hurricane Harvey over 2 years ago.
Ron
I’ve eaten it. I shot a young female coyote on a cold Texas afternoon. I skinned it and left it hanging until morning. It certainly looked like good meat so I grilled it. Excellent, a lot better flavored than the whitetails on my ranch. There’s no secret. Shoot a young animal during cool weather and process it reasonably soon. I’ve cooked bobcat gumbo, too. Terrific. Possum? I tried it twice. The first one tasted like sweet, tender, overly fat pork. The second possum was so awful, I’ve never tried it, again.
Raymond Stanton
Growing up my father frequently stopped on the side of the road for various animals. I’ve helped clean many to eat, but we never did try a coyote. I’m looking into to hunting them so hopefully I will give it a taste soon.
huntsalone
coyote tastes same as dog meat not half bad when done right
Rob
I have never eaten coyote before but I have eaten many other animals. I would eat it if fresh, I grew up poor in the woods so I’m not particular about what the animal is. Toughness can be dealt with by stewing, marinating, or slow roasting. Good article, I really enjoyed reading it.
Ashley Adamant
Thank you!
Bill Rich
Coyote is a good meat. I tend to put meats I’m not sure of into a stew, which helps blend the flavors and tenderize the meat. If I can identify any of the scent glands i cut those away. The hardest meat to eat that I have tried was in Palau, where we were served fruit bat, also know as flying foxes. This was prepared by boiling in coconut milk, with the innards in place and the fur still on. The body was the size of a large fox squirrel, and smelled musky like a ferret.One of the locals disjointed the critter and I slid the skin off before eating the meat. We had asked our hosts for local food, so eating this was a point of honor. It sounds like eating the coyote was the same for you. Over the decades I have tried every thing that walks, crawls or flies, some by necessity and some for respectful reasons. None were horrible except for the fermented duck embryos in the Philippines. Just could not get those down.
Chaplain Floyd Dale Stearns
I have lived off the woods for about years. In northern part of New Mexico. So I have tried everything I could get my hands on. But I’ve never ate a coyote but I’ve ate skunk, coon, rats, etc the only think was bad meat was the skunks. God bless you Chaplain Dale Stearns