Ah the crow!

Our very own Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is entertaining a Crow hunting season for the state of Utah, beginning in 2014…that’s this year folks!  Do you want to hunt crows?  Can you tell the difference between a crow and a raven?  You are not supposed to shoot ravens!  Only crows.

Why would you want to shoot a crow? Is it messing with your stuff?  It doesn’t take much to make me want to shoot almost any animal, be it bird or critter.  So, it’s nice to see the DWR thinking about allowing us to shoot these birds.  I haven’t done a lot of study on them, but it seems the crow is smaller than a raven, so that should make identifying them easier.  But I’m certain a lot of ravens will go down by accident during the scheduled hunting seasons…oh well….”Cried the raven…Never More….”

The proposed new season says it will have a 10 bird daily limit….WHY?  The law also states that if you shoot a crow, you have to remove it from the property on which it was shot (harvested) and dispose of it by tossing it in a land fill that allows the disposal of animal carcass’, burying it on the land where it was shot, or incinerating it.  It says nothing about “eating it”!  So, why a limit?

I suppose that 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie, would equate to about 1 and 8 crows baked in that same pie….why not?  But blackbirds are not on our list of “shoot-able” (harvest-able) birds, so let’s substitute crows.  And a 10 bird limit would allow us to make a more meaty pie…more is always better right?  MMMMM, crow pie!

I went looking for recipes for crow and did manage to find some, but then I was reminded about the old saying “Have you ever had to eat crow”?  That question has always had a negative connotation, meaning that crow is not good tasting and to have to eat it….well, you just messed up big time.

But with recipes, I have only found one that did not work out so well…remember the Vienna/Kipper Enchiladas?   All you have to do is cook/boil/bake/BBQ/smoke or what have you long enough to make it tender, and add enough disguising spices and sauces to it to cover the original taste and suddenly it is good.  It must be the same with crow.

Breast the crow is what I found on the internet, as the rest of the bird is basically nothing.  Clean them up with water, soak them in some sort of concoction of your desire to start the breakdown of the original meat smell and taste for 24 or more hours and then do the boiling/baking/slow cooking/ BBQing/smoking etc. that makes you feel like you are the king/queen of the land and then cover the whole “cooked” pile of meat with some sauce that totally disguises the flavor…..MMMMMMM.   I first think of hot sauce on my tongue and the burning sensation with no flavor whatsoever.  Yes the meat did get swallowed but at what expense?  Wait until tomorrow….come on ice cream!!!!!!

In my search I did find a very interesting YouTube video of a guy, obviously a red neck sort, that was trying his best to produce a good informative video to help people like me understand how Crow tastes, but his language prevents me from posting it up on this “family friendly site”.  He did say it wasn’t too bad, but when you see his method of cooking it leaves a lot to be desired and only a person starving to death would eat what he cooked.  I’m not sure he had all his faculties about himself when he did it either.  You will have to do your own research to find him, but he IS there.

So, let’s have a crow season Utah!  I like the idea, I’m just not sure I want to dine on my harvest.  Check this out:

And so, was it the “fennel”?

Who wants to go on the hunt with me?

Bears Butt

April 27, 2014