The White Hat Guide to Cooking Kangaroo & Wallaby

Eating kangaroo can be an emotive issue nowadays, even amongst carnivores. However it is interesting that both Professor Ross Garnaut and Professor Tim Flannery endorse eating kangaroo as a more sustainable alternative to sheep and cattle. Here is what Tim Flannery has to say

“The four large kangaroos of southern and central Australia (the red, euro, eastern and western grey) [are now present in much larger numbers than before European settlement and] support a substantial and sustainable meat industry, and it is this meat industry that is the focus of the anti-culling activists’ outrage. . . . from an environmental perspective the kangaroo meat industry is by far the best managed meat producing industry in Australia. . . . Environmentalists should actively support the industry. In fact many of them do. . . . The pathos of the situation is that not only are the campaigners not serving their own best interests, but they are threatening, however unwittingly, to damage the environment at the same time. To shut down the kangaroo industry would be to cut off one of the most sustainable and humane animal-based industries in rural Australia.”

We therefore offer a couple of suggestions for cooking roo before pulling our heads below the ramparts again.

Cooking Roo

Some basic suggestions:

• Because roo meat is very dense don’t expect it take much flavour from a delicate marinade. On the other hand, rubs and coatings work very well.
• Roo mince contains very little fat. If you cook a patty of straight roo mince it will come out like an ice hockey puck. A nutritious ice hockey puck mind you but because it has no internal lubrication while cooking it may well be tough on the outside and raw on the inside. We recommend fleshing out your rissoles our hamburgers with breadcrumbs &/or vegetables in the mix.
• Similarly when using roo mince in dishes like spag bol or chilli con carne we recommend using as little as half as much meat as you would use you are using beef or pork mince and pad it out with finely chopped vegetables. The richer flavour of the roo will make it taste just as meaty and you will have snuck in an extra serving of veggies under the kids radar
• Roo works particularly well for warm salads. Pan fry or barbecue a roo steak or fillet until medium. Set aside and let rest for 10 minutes or more you will ten find the dense texture allows you to slice it very thinly for combination in a warm salad. This works particularly well if you have used something like a herbed coating on the roo.
• There is no point just substituting kangaroo tail in an oxtail recipe. A kangaroo’s tail is all muscle to help guide it through the bush at speed and easily clear high barriers such as kangaroo-proof fences. An oxtail may be used occasionally to swish away some troublesome flies so is substantially fat.

Kangaroo Recipes

• Kangaroo Tail Soup