Aussies: Eat roos, save the planet
Australian scientists have recommended their beef-loving compatriots switch to kangaroo meat to clamp down on the methane emissions that bovine burger precursors pump out into the atmosphere. The gastro-switch will simultaneously turn what most Aussies consider a particularly large form of vermin into a profitable agricultural …
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Can't wait!
I had a 'roo steak at glasto this year and it was really really nice. Can't wait for it to be easily available.
hmmmm! Giant Rat!
Sounds appetising!
*\. I'm off to destory the world with a quater pounder!
Roo rustlers
If you equipped the boomers with boxing gloves then rustling probably wouldn't happen.
Paris cos she knows when she's been jumped.
Efros
Makes me hopping mad
This is going to lead to so many bad puns about wooly jumpers...
Also, 'roo steaks would probably be pretty nice. *googles for them*
All they need
is for Delia to produce Cooking with Kangaroo.
In bad taste
Seriously, roo's are just are not as tasty as cows. The meat is quite a lot tougher and not as flavoursome. It won't catch on I tell ya!
Mind you the barbie sausages that the aussies eat are even worse, so you might be able to replace some of the pigs with roo and improve the cuisine somewhat...
<--- bbq flames
Roast Leg of 'Roo...
That'll need one BIG mutha of an oven!
Not so sure about the appeal of "Roo Tail Soup", although I imagine you'd get much more out of your average 'Roo tail than your average Ox tail.
And you'd need a new name for "OXO" cubes. Should make the "OXO" family a bit jumpy too.
Would clothing made from 'Roo skin automatically qualify to be called a 'jump-suit' or 'jumper?
The one with the built-in tail.
(Dear god, I need to get out more!)
Mmm, tasty jumping meat
Whilst roo might be a bit tougher because they actually use their muscles rather than just kinda hanging around slowly gaining weight - it's darn tasty.
I had a nice rooburger last friday actually. Delicious with a bit of mustard and ketchup.
I'm all for it mate!
What's the big deal?
I don't think there is a native animal we don't eat already. Except maybe wombat. A bit too chewy I imagine.
I still wouldn't eat roo with horseradish and mint sauce though...
Kangaroos don't fart?
"the authors reckon the removal of sheep and cows would mean the rangelands could actually support up to 240 million kangaroos."
Surely by increasing the number of kangaroos being farmed, the methane that they produce will increase. They're herbivores as far as I know, so they probably fart a great deal to.
It could be a ruse .....
(Couldn't resist)
I've had 'roo - a bit salty, but not bad - would be alright in a meat pie or bangers, but not much of a steak.
I've also had croc and emu ... and 'roo is definitely best of the three.
Roos are deflatufied
Roos or rather the bacteria in their gut don't produce methane but some form of acetate instead. Consequently they don't fart at all.
Paris cos she don't fart either just queefs.
Efros
Roo bolognese...
I've had roo as well. In fact we were poor volunteers at the time, living and eating off a very limited budget.
Minced roo meat was the cheapest meat on offer at the local supermarket - it was actually in the dog food aisle, but we were assured that it was fit for human consumption, as the roo meat that was only for dogs would have been dyed purple.
It was fine actually, and made a pretty good bolognese! We're all still alive to tell the tale. :-)
This is good!
If it works out, the cost of roo leather should plummet! 20% lighter than cowhide, more flexible, more durable and cooler than cowhide (perfect for the blistering uk summer)...
My bike leathers are made of skippy (from Arlen Ness) and they were a grand... Why can't they have started this years ago?
Mine's the 1 piece race suit with the gixxer key.
Yummy
JUmp steak is rather tasty. I can remeber when I was living in Adelaide you could get roo in the meat section of most supermarkets.
Meat?
Any form of meat isn't going to be environmentally friendly compared to a vegetarian diet. If the US would eat a few more lentils and beans, we might actually have some rainforest left instead of burning it all down for cattle feed.
Animal rights destroy planet...
@AC "Can't wait for it to be easily available."
It was easily available until viva got involved. Bunch of hippies that they are! kinda backfired on them though, now they're saying "support our crazy take on animal rights and help destroy the planet!"
http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/exoticmeat/index.htm
Roo the day!
I didn't, after buying a pair of Kangaroo-skin motorcycle gloves.
I'm a 24/7/365 biker - don't own a car, so my kit gets used every day, and not gently. These gloves are the best I've ever owned, though, due to me managing to dodge the less focust and more hormonal drivers that grace our lovely british roads, I've not had to put them to the ultimate test, and am going to retire them cost my daughter broke the lining on one. (its complicated) after two and a half years hard use!
Looking forward to trying the meat, just hope its not as tough as the gloves!
Mine's the kangaroo skin one with the WD40 int he pocket!
stir fried roo
is very nice, as is emu and crocodile. I've not had dog myself, but have been assured that it's very nice :) There are loads of meats that might not make a decent steak, and lots that do, but that are perfectly fine for a stir fry or mince etc. In fact a lot of them are exceptional in a stir fry after having been pretty much brought up on just chicken, beef & pork.
The problem is it's near impossible to get most of them, and definately impossible to get cheaply, as there's not much of a market due to the strange convention of only eating a couple of meats in the UK.
Thankfully some of the old regional dishes are still alive so that i can have a nice slice of blackpudding* with my bacon in a morning, from the canteen at work no less!
*for those in the US, or the South, that's congealed pigs blood, spiced, mixed with fat & oats, and then boiled in pig intestines :)
11 per cent of Australia’s total emissions
so presumably the other 89% is Fosters related.
Paris because she is responsible for many emissions
Large form of vermin?
That suggest the Strine definition of vermin is an animal that is too little or too big to hump.
@tom
I never did understand organisations like viva - what's inherently worse about eating Ostrich or 'Roo compared to Cow, Pig and Sheep?
Bah, guess I'll never understand them at all, anybody that doesn't appreciate a good steak is some sort of alien in my book.
I particularly dislike the fact that they took it upon themselves to harangue the supermarkets until they stopped stocking these meats.
It's my choice to eat them or not, not yours you filthy hippies.
Must Be Eaten Fresh
The meat needs to be eaten fresh, only a couple of days after slaughtering. It's extremely tender at this stage and tastes more like beef. If it is a week old it is tougher and hand has a different gamey taste. It doesn't have a good shelf life.
re: hmmmm! Giant Rat!
Roos aren't rodents, to my knowledge.
In fact, they're marsupials (like a koala).
If you want to eat a giant rodent, go to Brazil and try the Capyvara.
My wife says it's tasty (she's from Brazil).
Capyvara is the largest rodent.
@Must Be Eaten Fresh
"It doesn't have a good shelf life."
Next time, try keeping it in the refrigerator.
Re: What's the big deal?
You don't eat Jump Bears.
NOBODY eats the Jump Bears.
Re: Meat?
Harmony, how do you turn 1 million acres of scrub grass into something that produces human-edible vegetables?
You can't.
So let a 'roo loose and get it to turn that tasteless, inedible (to human digestion) grass over hundreds of acres into meat and then harvest the concentrated meat.
What ?
not a single mention of 'Want to go large with your MacRoo burger?'
I'll have a few Pingu wings as a side order aswell please
I'll have mine
with some grated puffin a la Clarkson.
Efros
throwback
30-odd years ago there was a fuss in the US because some of the beef that McDonalds was serving turned out to include kangaroo meat. I'm not sure whether the concern was nutritional or about accurate labeling.
But it sounds like just the thing with a side order of Hoppin John: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoppin_John
@h4rm0ny
A purely vegetarian diet wouldn't make my immediate environment very friendly...
But, how do you milk them?...
My impression is that Kangas have a bit more attitude than cows - unless they're Gary Larson's Far Side ones, of course.
On the methane front, it seems they also have a different digestive process which generates very little.
As for other alternatives, is cannibalism so bad? Think about all those council estate feral teenagers with no future, tenderised over the years in a cider marinade... What?!
(backs out of the room quietly)
Veggie boys gonna be happy
I wonder what our Veggie readers think about all of this.
Mmmm...tasty
Roo is actually pretty good. It's widely available, but is still being treated as a niche thing.
Really, we should have started doing this 220 years ago, and we wouldn't have caused half as much damage to the environment by unleashing ungulates on the continent.
Milking roos would be a problem, though. Marsupials in general would be difficult. Placentals are much easier to hook up to the machines. That would leave us with bats or dingos...
Well
What about a bit of gene manipulation to put a roo's digestive juices into a cow? Then we could carry on eating beef without beefing about the environmental impact (not that I do anyway). Guess the possible side effect of producing jumping cows needs to be looked into as well. Good for making milk shakes, I'd have thought.
Roo
I had a roo burger last time I was in Aussie.... bloody nice, mate! Similar to venison IMO.
Icon, 'cos that's what is next :D
Skippyburger with chips thanks.
Kangaroo has little fat and the animals are very friendly to the top soil in that they don't loosen it like other livestock causing those dust storms they get from time to time. It all makes perfect sense, and it tasted good too. Superoo my order thanks.
Idea
How come no one else has thought of this? If the goal is to stop nauseous gas, why dont we eat politicians ?? Surely all that hot air that comes out of them cant be good for the ozone.
Never had 'roo...
I'd like to give it a go.
Waiting here in the 'States with utensils ready and taste buds tuned.
P.S. Strictly speaking, if you want to be green, you should be eating local. But I'd still like to give it a try. :)
"and for you Sir"
'roo steak thanks, medium rare with the mustard suace.
Hold the salad. I wouldn't want to slide from the top of the food chain."
Throw another roo on the barbie
Here in Aus, roo is easily avaiable from the local supermarket - though in much smaller amounts to the usual beef, lamb, etc. Dog food, though, is full of the stuff. My dog lives on a diet of roo ears, testicles, etc, and seems to get along just fine.
Incidentally, emu can also be found in the pre-packaged meat department making Australia the only country in the world that has a coat of arms made of dinner . I'm an expat Brit and when I point this out the locals get all shirty and try to throw it back at me so I tell them that lions are really expensive and we've eaten all the unicorns.
i eat roo regularly
And its delicious, it just takes a bit more skill to cook then steak (lets face it steaks very forgiving as to how you cook it).
However, its beginning to get more expensive here in Aus because more and more people are eating it. It used to be about $10/kg cheaper then steak its now down to about $3/kg cheaper... :(
Highly recommended!
Tasty !
Tasty and very yummy and as it is a very lean meat without excessive fat and the animal creates far less greenhouse gas to maturity unlike your average equivalent heavily polluting feedlot McCrapper CJD burger grown bovine variety !
But then again , in what other country can you eat it's national symbols(Kangaroo and Emu) as they very plentiful in numbers and are both fully capable of self regulating it's numbers dependent on climatic conditions unlike the mad cow variety which needs major human assistance drugs inclusive to multiply !
Marcus
The best way to prepare a roo steak is to rub it in a bit of olive oil 15 minutes before barbecuing - since the meat is naturally low in fat you just need a little oil to help it cook properly.
It has to be done rare, if you overcook it it becomes tough and tasteless, so if you like your meat charcoaled then roo is not for you.
In our local supermarket it's significantly cheaper than beef or lamb, lower fat, and if we're doing our bit for bovine flatulance reduction, well that's just a bonus isn't it :-)
Through summer our family has BBQ roo at least a couple of times a week...
glorious food
The local baker (here in Canberra) does a very nice kangaroo pie. A friend of mine won't eat it because "it's on the coat of arms". Bah.
Kangaroo can taste somewhere between extremely lean beef and venison.
Wallaby is much the same.
Possum is rather nasty (but I had it in cannelloni so the preparation may have messed it up).
Emu is very nice, not like poultry at all - more a red meat.
Crocodile is like a cross between chicken and scallop.
Camel is nothing to write home about.
Buffalo (I think it was actually bison) is very gamey.
Dog is absolutely delicious, especially if fattened up on rice for about two weeks before slaughtering.
I wouldn't touch koala because I doubt the nasty brutes are fit for human consumption.
Well, since npbody else has said it...
I'd jump at the chance to eat a 'roo!
Hmm, as I think about all the animals I have (or may have, I've eaten in some pretty dodgy places) eaten over the years, Kangaroo is one of the few beasts I haven't sampled!
Mine's the one with the well gnawed bones in the pocket.
Well a real Aussie would know ...
... they're called Drop Bears, not jump bears. But, you're right, nobody eats Drop Bears, because nobody gets close enough and lives! Viscious buggers, they are.
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