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Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans

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Re: Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans

#41

Post by King-Aaron »

vacri wrote: post #3
kirrent wrote: post #2

It's worth pointing out that this isn't some hypothetical. Kangaroo meat is available at most grocery stores and butchers, it's fairly cheap, and quite delicious. It's the red meat I buy most often.

It's also worth saying that kangaroo in Australia is a bit like deer in the US: city people think the animal is a bit magical, country people think it's a bit of a pest; some people hunt it for food; you can buy the meat in some butchers but it's not in the diet of most; and occasionally it's culled because of population explosion. The only real difference is that the deer is not a national symbol.

As someone who grew up on rural prime production properties and now lives in the city, I find this assessment to be spot on.

I know peers who get excited when we go for drives outside of the city limits, so they can see a Kangaroo. I get stressed out driving the car out of the city, because if you see a Kangaroo you're likely to run into it at a hundred k's an hour. They are a bit of a pest in the numbers they've expanded to.

Re: Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans

#42

Post by cyberferret »

My family has started eating kangaroo quite a lot recently. We used to eat a lot of lamb back when it was a cheap cut of meat decades ago, but the ever rising price (lamb shanks used to be around $2 each as a throwaway cut, nowadays they are around $10 each in my local supermarket) has made us switch to roo.

I love it in stir fries, an my oldest teenage son who is becoming a gym junky loves eating it because of its low fat content and high protein. I think the secret is getting the marinade right. We tend to douse it in a lot of mediterranean herbs and wine overnight so it has a similar taste to highly spiced lamb yiros meat when cooked up in a pan.

Interestingly, one of our cats eats nothing but raw kangaroo mince (aside from dry biscuits) and he has grown HUGE (as in huge frame, not fat). Talking to vets and other cat owners, apparently kangaroo meat can do that to a cat...

Re: Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans

#43

Post by userbinator »

petitmiam wrote: post #38
jlawer wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairly cheap... but still more expensive then non steak beef, pork or chicken. I would eat a heap more of it, but its often ~ $16 a kilo when I can get chicken breast for $8

The price seems to have gone up considerably in the last 5 years. We used to eat kangaroo steaks and burgers regularly, but now we only consider it if it's on sale.

I guess the price is going to start dropping again once there's too many...

Re: Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans

#44

Post by geowwy »

kirrent wrote: post #2

It's worth pointing out that this isn't some hypothetical. Kangaroo meat is available at most grocery stores and butchers, it's fairly cheap, and quite delicious. It's the red meat I buy most often.

I don't really have the skills to cook nice Kangaroo but I think it has a lot of potential as pet meat.

We switched our pets to kangaroo and feral goat, supplemented with some chicken necks and offal, with some veggie scraps for the dog. The price is not much different from processed pet food (~$4/kilo) but it's done amazing things for their health.

Re: Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans

#45

Post by cyberferret »

voycey wrote: post #17
voltagex_ wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still a bit game-y for me. What else do you put in the burgers?

If its gamey it means you are wayyyy over cooking it! It literally goes off a cliff after medium rare so stick to that max :)

Agreed. As per my other post on here, I usually like cooking thick fillets of kangaroo meat. After marinating it, I like to sear the outside in a hot pan so the outside is almost charred, but the inside is still quite rare. Cooked this way, then sliced into 1cm thick segments and draped over a nice salad is one of the family favourites.

Re: Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans

#46

Post by augustocallejas »

juandg wrote: post #10

And yet California insists on continuing to ban all kangaroo imports into the state.

This ban affects dog food that contains kangaroo, and affects states outside of California too:

https://www.royalcanin.com/products/royal-canin-veterinary-d...

> This product cannot be shipped to the state of California due to current California state laws. Additionally, this product may not be available to purchase from Royal Canin directly if you are located in Nevada, parts of Utah, Arizona, Hawaii, or parts of Oregon because your order may be fulfilled from California

Re: Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans

#47

Post by barry-cotter »

Jedd wrote: post #29
stevenjohns wrote: post #11

Kangaroo is one hell of a pest in Australia. It's a native, which made it illegal for the general populace to hunt in the early 2000's (this doesn't apply to Australian Aboriginals). Non-Aboriginals who want to hunt them have to go through tedious multi-day "ethics" courses on about how you should and shouldn't hunt them, and even after that your options are limited and the process is ridiculous. Unfortunately this h…

Grammatical aside -- historically, aboriginal is an adjective, aborigine is a noun -- so you could talk about Australian aborigines, or aboriginal Australians. Agreed on pest status of kangaroos. They are hugely destructive animals, worse than goats especially as the larger kangaroos can clear almost any fence, plus can do you some serious physical harm if they feel threatened. There's arguably 4-6 species that come…

> I feel that the 'dirty' attitude you're referring to is shared by almost every non-USA society (or at least, non-USA western society), especially amongst those that are informed regarding USA style gun laws and consequences of same.

Switzerland, Czechia and all the Nordic countries disagree. ~Every house with an adult male Swiss citizen living there has a gun. Czechia recently added the right to bear arms to their constitution. All of the Nordic countries have large national gun clubs, I think the Norwegian one has over 10% of the population as members, to dissuade Soviet and now Russian aggression.

Re: Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans

#49

Post by afinno »

jjcm wrote: post #4

I've been living out here in Australia for about a year and a half now. It really is a delicious meat, though it's so lean that your options for how to prepare it are pretty slim. I've found that mince is the easiest to work with by far. Kangaroo tacos are really delicious. Burgers with it are decent too. It's very close to beef in taste, just a slight bit bloodier tasting.

My preference is a stew.

http://kitchenaut.com/post/129627783499/mums-kangaroo-stew

Can confirm that this recipe is great.

Might even turn someone that thinks kangaroo meat is too gamey.

Re: Australians told to eat more kangaroo as population hits double that of humans

#50

Post by stouset »

eesmith wrote: post #24
X86BSD wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gamey'ness is usually bad meat. People say the same about Lamb. It tastes "gamey". That's because you are eating tough old lamb. I bet it's the same for kangaroo. If it's very lean I would add some fat to it. Pork fat :) I bet that would make a killer sausage.

Isn't "lamb" a young sheep? How can it be tough and old? Sheep meat is mutton. Makes a lovely curry.

In the US, there is no distinction made between the age of sheep in the labeling of its meat. No matter how old the animal, it's lamb, not mutton.
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