Raccoon is a mystery meat to most game cooks. Much of it has to do with the mumbo jumbo associated with removing the musk glands from the animal.
Whether true or not, universal agreement exists that coons are rank and inedible unless they are properly musked.
Some lecture that several dozen such “glands” must be removed, and that being able to find them embedded between every vertebrae in the backbone and elsewhere takes years of experience.
George Ricks scoffed at this.
“It’s simple, but it’s important to do,” Ricks explained.
Here is how Ricks musks his coons. Incidentally, we ate this coon, and it was delicious:
1) Remove one gland from the joint between the thigh and lower hind leg.
2) Remove the second pair of glands from the rear part of the loin (aka backstrap). One is located on each side.
3) Remove the third set of glands from the joint between the body and the front leg of each animal.
4) The final pair of glands to be removed is located on each side of the coon’s neck.
