Note. Animal food gives the greatest food value per pound.
a. Butchering and skinning.
(1) Mammals
[a] - Remove the skin and save for other uses. One cut skinning of small game (Figure VIII-9). Open the abdominal cavity. Avoid rupturing the intestines. Remove the intestines. Save inner organs (heart, liver, and kidneys) and all meaty parts of the skull, brain, tongue, and eyes.
[b] - Wash when ready to use.
[c] - If preserving the meat, remove it from the bones.
[d] - Unused or inedible organs and entrails may be used as bait for other game.
Figure VIII-9. Small Game Skinning
(2) Frogs and snakes.
[a] - Skin.
[b] - Discard skin, head with 2 inches of body, and internal organs.
(3) Fish
[a] - Scale (if necessary) and gut fish soon after it is caught.
[b] - Insert knifepoint into anus of fish and cut open the belly.
[c] - Remove entrails.
[d] - Remove gills to prevent spoilage.
(4) Birds.
[a] - Gut soon after killing.
[b] - Protect from flies.
[c] - Skin or pluck them.
[d] - Skin scavengers and sea birds.
(5) Insects.
[a] - Remove all hard portions such as the legs of grasshoppers or crickets. (The rest is edible.)
[b] - Recommend cooking grasshopper-size insects.
(6) Fruits, berries, and most nuts can be eaten raw.
b. Cooking.
(Note) To kill parasites, thoroughly cook all wild game, freshwater fish, clams, mussels, snails, crawfish, and scavenger birds. Saltwater fish may be eaten raw.
(1) Boiling (most nutritious method of cooking—drink the broth).
[a] - Make metal cooking containers from ration cans.
[b] - Drop heated rocks into containers to boil water or cook food.
(2) Baking.
[a] - Wrap in leaves or pack in mud.
[b] - Bury food in dirt under coals of fire.
(3) Leaching. Some nuts (acorns) must be leached to remove the bitter taste of tannin. Use one of the following leaching methods:
[a] - First method: Soaking and pouring the water off. Crushing and pouring water through. Cold water should be tried first; however, boiling water is sometimes best. Discarding water.
[b] - Second method: Boil, pour off water, and taste the plant. If bitter, repeat process until palatable.
(4) Roasting.
[a] - Shake shelled nuts in a container with hot co
[b] - Roast thinly sliced meat and insects over a candle.
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