Beaver

Beaver meat is a wild game product that’s surprisingly mild for a game animal — the flavour is often compared to lean beef or pot roast, without the strong gamey taste associated with many wild meats. The meat is dark red, fine-grained, and quite lean, as beavers store most of their fat in their broad, flat tails rather than through the muscle.

Beaver was historically one of the most important food animals for Indigenous peoples and early European settlers across North America. It’s typically slow-cooked — braised, stewed, or roasted — to keep the lean meat from drying out. The tail, rendered of its fat, was considered a particular delicacy.

Beaver is not available through commercial channels in Australia. It remains a wild-harvested game meat in North America, taken through licensed trapping or hunting.