Thread: What are the best cuts of meat from a possum ?

Well, a clued up operator cancelled our fly in trip before we moved to level 3 and I decided to walk in to the local hills. Instead of steaks and cast iron campovens, I had dehy and a tiny billy. Unfortunately, i found I had just single serve packets and I thought of a plan to eke out my food supplies.

A few minutes after I had tucked myself down in the pit, there was a rustle. Brer possum had come out to lick down the empty tin foil and cans I'd left under the corner of the fly. Sitting up in my sleeping bag, I reached forward and stuck the end of the suppressor 6 inches from its head and POP !

Come morning, I looked forward to harvesting a good feed from the night's takings. But, on opening it up, I found that, unlike on a hare say, the backsteaks were vestigial triangular pieces. Also, the guts were right there and its lucky I didn't run the knife through them. The back legs had a fairly standard layout and seemed to offer the most clear meat, virtually as much as a hare but less than a wallaby, of course.

So, my question is, which parts do people take ? Back legs only ? Front ? Flaps ? Is there as secret "must have" cut ?











I cooked it up with bacon fat, garlic, shallot and turmeric for an hour and although still a little rubbery on its own, I mixed it with the "cottage pie" slurry and it certainly didn't detract from that worthy scoff. Anyway, I wasn't hungry afterwards.

It's only been 1 day and it has come to this already?

I think the intestines would have been tastier?

Dogs seem to like possum...


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I used to avoid carrying too much food by taking a trap and setting it outside the tent. The possum would set off the trap in the night, I would wake up, and kill the possum. In the morning, I would skin it and wrap the legs (front and back) any other larger bits in aluminium foil and leave in the tea billy fire hot coals for 20 minutes. Unwrap the aluminium foil and eat, just like chicken. The important part is to make sure the anal glands are cut out and not damaged in the skinning process or the possum carcass is inedible due to the stench.

The A-Hole?

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Well, a clued up operator cancelled our fly in trip before we moved to level 3 and I decided to walk in to the local hills. Instead of steaks and cast iron campovens, I had dehy and a tiny billy. Unfortunately, i found I had just single serve packets and I thought of a plan to eke out my food supplies.

A few minutes after I had tucked myself down in the pit, there was a rustle. Brer possum had come out to lick down the empty tin foil and cans I'd left under the corner of the fly. Sitting up in my sleeping bag, I reached forward and stuck the end of the suppressor 6 inches from its head and POP !

Come morning, I looked forward to harvesting a good feed from the night's takings. But, on opening it up, I found that, unlike on a hare say, the backsteaks were vestigial triangular pieces. Also, the guts were right there and its lucky I didn't run the knife through them. The back legs had a fairly standard layout and seemed to offer the most clear meat, virtually as much as a hare but less than a wallaby, of course.

So, my question is, which parts do people take ? Back legs only ? Front ? Flaps ? Is there as secret "must have" cut ?

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I cooked it up with bacon fat, garlic, shallot and turmeric for an hour and although still a little rubbery on its own, I mixed it with the "cottage pie" slurry and it certainly didn't detract from that worthy scoff. Anyway, I wasn't hungry afterwards.

The best bits are the pieces that don't have tire marks on them

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Well, a clued up operator cancelled our fly in trip before we moved to level 3 and I decided to walk in to the local hills. Instead of steaks and cast iron campovens, I had dehy and a tiny billy. Unfortunately, i found I had just single serve packets and I thought of a plan to eke out my food supplies.

A few minutes after I had tucked myself down in the pit, there was a rustle. Brer possum had come out to lick down the empty tin foil and cans I'd left under the corner of the fly. Sitting up in my sleeping bag, I reached forward and stuck the end of the suppressor 6 inches from its head and POP !

Come morning, I looked forward to harvesting a good feed from the night's takings. But, on opening it up, I found that, unlike on a hare say, the backsteaks were vestigial triangular pieces. Also, the guts were right there and its lucky I didn't run the knife through them. The back legs had a fairly standard layout and seemed to offer the most clear meat, virtually as much as a hare but less than a wallaby, of course.

So, my question is, which parts do people take ? Back legs only ? Front ? Flaps ? Is there as secret "must have" cut ?


I cooked it up with bacon fat, garlic, shallot and turmeric for an hour and although still a little rubbery on its own, I mixed it with the "cottage pie" slurry and it certainly didn't detract from that worthy scoff. Anyway, I wasn't hungry afterwards.

I always thought the best way to use possum meat was to leave it in the creek until the eels came then eat the stones from by the stream instead.....

My lab eats the head first...maybe she knows best.

aahh the good ole days , possum and pukeko stew.........(not).....
isnt the tastiest and tenderest bit the old boot that you threw in the pot?

I guess it all depends on how hungry you are, but I would just stick to the back legs.

Across the throat, plucked and skinned hundreds but never so hungry as to eat one, Wallaby now that’s worth a chew.

Thanks for posting about this, I can say that possum's quite low on the list but if needs must, there's plenty of them out there and it's good to know the a, b, c of prepping them.

Take whatever meat you can get, put it all through the mincer and mince the lot, then marinate it for about 2 days and hope the smell goes away. Throw in mince with some rice risotto.

Thats what I would do, but I hope it never comes down to that.

I have big fat rabbits tormenting me from across the road, I will bowl them over at the risk of discharging a firearm in a built up area if I get desperate enough.

Well, it sounds as if not many people have tried possum and it's even less popular than mountain oysters. It really wasn't that bad, just another red meat and not too dry. Must be a lot more difficult "bush meat" being eaten all over the world. We don't know how lucky we are. I would rather it had been venison eye fillets but I just couldn't figure out where they were living this month.