What Does Fox Meat Taste Like? [Can You Even???]

What Does Fox Meat Taste Like

Humans are known to consume a wide variety of strange meats. You’d be astonished at some of the foods that man can consume. 

Although fox meat is not a common meat to eat and there are a few risks involved with handling it, this meat is just about edible.

It is reported that fox meat is extremely gamey (like earth) in taste but also extremely unappetizing. The texture of fox meat is excessively stringy and chewy. It is also quite a lean meat. It must be tenderized before it can be eaten.

Best Ways to Cook Fox Meat

In doing research for this article and going through various hunting blogs, plus other obscure sources, here is the best article I found on cooking fox meat. It is excellently researched and obviously written by a good cook.

His conclusion is that the best thing to do with fox meat is to soak it in salty water (brine) overnight, throw away the water and then slow cook it in a crockpot for about 8 hours.

If I had to make fox meat, here’s what I’d do, based on a ton of research into other blogs and my own extensive knowledge and experience, including cooking wild boar meat in France. For my first attempt at preparing fox meat, I would make a rich Indian curry to smother the flavor of the meat. Here goes:

  1. Only use the meat of a fox that truly lived out in the wilds (and wasn’t surviving by raiding trash cans).
  2. Soak the meat in a strong brine of 1 tbs of sea salt to 1 cup of water (keep adding salt and water until the water covers all of the fox meat).
  3. Add 1/2 cup of (any) vinegar, 10 black peppercorns, 1 tbs ginger powder and 1 tbs garlic powder.
  4. Stir everything well, cover and refrigerate overnight.
  5. Every few hours that you are awake, stir the mixture.
  6. The next morning, pour out the brine mixture and wash the meat, to remove as much odor as possible.
  7. Cut 2-3 skinned onions into about 8 pieces each.
  8. Sautée them in oil with 2-3 tbs of curry powder.
  9. Put the onions into the bottom of a crock pot.
  10. In a food processor, blend 3-4 peeled garlic cloves, 3 inches of ginger (not peeled) plus a pinch of red pepper in some water.
  11. Add the garlic/ginger paste to the crock pot.
  12. Put the fox meat on top (it is not necessary to remove the bones at this stage, but all skin and intestines should have been removed).
  13. Cover with just enough water to reach the top of the meat.
  14. Cook everything at High for about 7 hours in the crockpot (so it is ready a little before dinner time).
  15. About an hour before dinner, remove just the meat (with bones) from the crockpot and set aside.
  16. Fish around your crock pot and pull out any other bones.
  17. Blend all the other ingredients that are left in your crockpot. (If you have a stick blender, also called an immersion blender, you can do this directly in your stock pot and save time on transferring everything over to a blender.)
  18. When fully blended, taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings. You can add a bit of tomato sauce or paste at this point, salt, more curry powder, etc. It should be the consistency of a slightly runny but thick sauce at this point. If it is too runny, transfer the curry over to a pot and boil the sauce uncovered at high on the stovetop until the sauce is at the consistency you want, stirring often to ensure that nothing sticks on the bottom. During this extra boiling to evaporate the liquid, be careful not to cook it until it is dry and the bottom burns.
  19. When the fox meat is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and place the meat back into the crock pot (or the pot on the stove, if it is being boiled and thickened).
  20. When the sauce is at the consistency and taste you want, serve your dish over white rice with a side of vegetables.

General Cooking Tips For Preparing Fox Meat

Here are some tips to minimize the strong taste of fox meat:

  • Soak raw fox meat overnight in a brine made of 1 tbs salt to 1 cup of water.
  • Soak it covered overnight in your refrigerator.
  • While soaking, make sure the fox meat is fully submerged in the water (and covered).

You can also add some extra spices like bay leaves, ginger, lemon juice, rosemary, pepper, or apple cider vinegar; their acid content will make meat more tender by breaking it down.

Cook it for a long time in a crock pot in some kind of spicy liquid.

Why do People Eat Fox Meat?

People generally eat foods like fox meat to avoid starvation when nothing else is available. I recall reading a recipe for fox in a wonderful French cookbook that was written during WW2, when France was occupied by Germany, and there was very little to eat.

Do Humans Eat Red Foxes?

Do Humans Eat Red Foxes

Not generally. About the only time that red foxes are eaten is when people are faced with starvation or as a novelty.

Is Fox Meat Dangerous To Eat?

No. Even a fox that had been infected by rabies is safe to eat as the virus is killed while cooking. However, when hunting or preparing the meat, one should be very careful not to let it’s blood mix with yours. In practical terms, this means to make sure a live fox doesn’t bite you when you are hunting, and when skinning and cooking the meat, don’t let its blood enter your system via any wounds you might have, like a cut finger. Foxes are predators and since they eat dead animals, raw fish, and even rodents in the wild, they might have some infections and diseases, so it is wise to be careful when handling uncooked fox meat.

Do Fox And Wolf Taste The Same?

Not really. Fox meat has a stronger pungent smell and there are no known reports of it being delicious. Wolf meat, on the other hand, while strong and gamey in taste, is often reported to be good to eat.

Does Fox Meat Have Nutritional Value?

Yes, it is high in protein and low in fats. It also has no carbs.

Is It Difficult To Find Raw Fox Meat?

Yes, unless you want to hunt it. Foxes are generally hunted because they are predictor and attack farm animals, particularly chickens. While fox fur is considered valuable, the flesh is thrown away, which is why you generally won’t find fox meat to find.

Does Fox Meat Taste Like Goat Meat?

Not really. Goat meat is a prized meat in many parts of the world and there are no parts of the world reporting on the deliciousness of fox meat.

How To Make Fox Meat Tender?

You can make fox meat tender by adding vinegar to water, or another acid, and soaking it overnight. Cooking fox meat for many hours at a low temperature also helps to soften the meat.

Can You Reheat Fox Meat?

Reheating leftovers is the best time saver and helps reduce food wastage, and yes, you can reheat this meat using the same precautions you would in reheating any other meat.

Conclusion

To sum up the answer to the question, what does fox meat taste like, it has an extremely strong and unpleasant gamey taste. The meat is tough and stringy to make it even more unappetizing. It is a meat people tend to eat when desperate for food but not for enjoyment. To improve the experience of eating fox meat, it is advisable to remove as much of the flavor as possible by soaking it in salty water for many hours and then slowly cooking it in spices that will cover up the taste.

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