Eating Kangaroo Meat: Kanga Bangers make me feel dirty
The other week while going through my pantry I re-discovered the 750ml bottle of Nando’s sauce I’d bought from Costco a few months ago. I hadn’t opened it yet (this was one of the few things I’d bought for novelty factor as I don’t use sauce much) and decided that seeing as I like the taste of it I’d make an effort to finish most of it off before I left for Taiwan.
I’m not a fan of drowning out steak in sauce (gravy aside) so the next logical step was sausages. I figured the odd plate of sausages for dinner with a salad during the week and some snags for lunch on the weekends would see the bottom of the sauce bottle soon enough.
Usually I’d get my sausages from the butcher but I was feeling lazy and instead trundled into Coles. Normally I’d buy sausages and eat them plain to enjoy the flavour but if I was going to Nando’s sauce them I wasn’t too fussed on what I was buying.
…and that’s when I saw the Kanga Bangas.
I’ve long since held out from eating Kangaroo meat as apart from looking suspect (I like my meat artificially bright red thankyouverymuch), the idea of eating Kangaroo just never appealed to me. The tacky label looked like something Big Kev came up with and when beef sausages with various flavours weren’t that much more expensive there seemed to be little point.
However, given that I was leaving Australia soon somewhere in the back of my mind that silly little patriotic switch went off and I decided it was probably something I should try before I leave.
The first thing you’ll notice when you rip open a pack of kanga bangers is the smell. The second you burst that pack open it’s like the last dying breaths of the kangaroo killed for your meat escapes and transports you straight to the abattoir.
Yes it’s that bad. Be warned if you’re going to keep these things in the fridge that you seal them. I didn’t and everytime I opened the fridge door I was instantly turned off the thought of eating, great for fat people – not so good for everyone else.
Cooking time Kanga bangas take no longer then normal sausages to cook. I did notice however that 2 of the sausages split despite me puncturing them with a fork, leaving me to think whatever sausage skin they use to encase kangaroo sausages is sub par.
Up until a few moments ago I’d never really understood what ‘tastes gamey’ actually meant. Sure I’d had duck and rabbit and been told they were gamey but to me they were just slightly stronger then chicken and still more then palatable.
Kangaroo meat finally made me understand.
The meat itself doesn’t taste bad but it does have a rather strong meaty aftertaste. Not a good aftertaste like salami but more of a ‘wow I can actually taste the death in this meat’ type taste.
Mind you this was after me drowning the sausages with Peri Peri sauce. I did try a first bite just to see what they were like but after that there was no way I was getting through the rest of them sans masses of artificial flavouring.
Texture wise kangaroo meat is a lot smoother then your standard beef sausages, I assume this is due to the fact that it’s a much leaner meat. A kanga banga is sort of like eating meat paste almost, they are much closer in texture to frankfurters then you’re standard meat sausage.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I tried some Kangaroo meat but true to my gut feeling I knew there was a reason I hadn’t tried it before. Kangaroo meat also comes in steaks but to be honest I can’t imagine having to chow down on a big slab of stinky gamey meat being any better then sausages.
Despite the fact that it’s healthier, better for the environment (kangaroos don’t emit anywhere near the amounts of methane cows do), readily available and cheaper… somehow I don’t think Kangaroo meat is going to become an Australian favourite anytime soon.
October 18th, 2009 at 5:19 pm James(Quote)
Possum sausages are way better!
October 18th, 2009 at 9:57 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
What?! I hope you’re kidding.
I’ve held a possum before and its just skin and bones, they must need what a couple of hundred to make just one sausage!
October 19th, 2009 at 7:53 am Erica(Quote)
try kangaroo meat pie, it tastes just like beef pie, not as bad as the steak I guess (not that I have tried the steak before)
October 19th, 2009 at 11:08 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Ooh where do you get the kangaroo pies from? I only saw sausages and steaks.
Kinda sounds silly to have a kangaroo pie just because it tastes more like beef when beef pies are pretty cheap as it is (even though they don’t really contain much beef).
On the otherhand….it’s kangaroo!
October 19th, 2009 at 11:30 am James(Quote)
Sort of kidding (about them being better, as I haven’t tried kanga bangas) but you can get possum chipolatas (small sausage) in some restaurants.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/06/14/1023864348213.html
October 19th, 2009 at 12:16 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Holy crap ewwwww. Seems all the possum meat comes out of Tasmania! Not only that but we seem to export most of the meat to China.
Seriously if I’m walking down the streets of Taiwan and some guy offers me crispy stir fried possum on a stick I think I’m going to die.
This on the other hand sounds like a (potentially disgusting) blog post. Hmm, Bar Corvina in St. Kilda hey…
Right… expect a review later this week.
October 19th, 2009 at 5:41 pm James(Quote)
Some from Tas & some from New Zealand.
As far as I know it’s illegal to kill possums on mainland Australia.
In Tasmanian they’re pretty abundant and not exactly going to become extinct anytime soon, and in New Zealand they are a major pest to native animals (they were imported from Australia originally AFAIK)
Don’t bother trying possum in Taiwan, the canines are way better…
October 19th, 2009 at 11:07 pm J(Quote)
I bought kangaroo sausage a few weeks ago and probably is one of the most disgusting food I’ve ever had. It had this awful after taste that lingers in your mouth for a long time.
Hmm it would probably be rare to find possums in Taiwan as food since they were linked with SARS a few years ago.
Its actually illegal to eat canines in Taiwan.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:35 am Erica(Quote)
I had my first kangaroo pie at sovereign hill at a school tour. I don’t think kagaroo pie is more expensive than meat pie.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:02 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
So I finally got down to Bar Corvina today only to discover THEY DON’T SERVE POSSUM ANYMORE!
The ownership seems to have changed hands a few times since the 2002 Age article and they haven’t served it in a while.
In hindsight I probably should have called but to be honest it’s only slightly less awkward calling a place up and going ‘hi do you serve possum?’ rather then just walking in and asking it.
(for the record the waitress thought I was joking until she asked one of the cooks there!)
November 12th, 2009 at 10:20 am Anne(Quote)
Oh Dear, How sad for all those Kangaroo meat eaters out there , I hope you have yourself regularly wormed and have your blood checked regularly for any parsite activity.
Kangaroo meat doesn’t come from “farms” the are killed in the wild,their babies usually clubed over the head with the tow bar of the vehicle that their dead mum is hanging up on the side of. Not unlike baby fur seals in Alaska, Not unlike the dolphin kills by the Japanese for food or the beautiful whales they also butcher its all inhumane and uncalled for.
What are you going to think when in 30 years time there will be no Koala’s, and No Kangaroos left within Australia except for maybe in Zoo’s. Ha I here you say “that will never happen” well guess what folks it already is. My grandchildren will probably never see one in the wild and that makes me angry, that there are people out there brutally killing our native wildlife and making profit from it and that State and Federal Governments are giving them a tick of approval. Its a very,very sad day when you think its ok to eat our native wildlife.
I’m disgusted
November 12th, 2009 at 12:45 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Argh I hate righteous environmentalist nutbags.
Why? Kangaroo meat goes through the same quality checks as any other consumer meat. If I lived in Vietnam I might care but this is Australia, we have pretty strict food quality standards. Sure they’re not infallible but they’re no better or worse then the rest of the meat industry here.
Why would they club babies? As far as I know there’s no market for Kangaroo veal. Kangaroo numbers have been culled for years so why not make a sustainable industry out of it?
The number they kill is directly proportional to the amount of kangaroos around. They survey populations and then draw up a quota. From what I understand this quota is strictly enforced and the meat processing plants only take kangaroos that fall within this quota.
As much as I didn’t fancy the taste, it’s ridiculous to claim killing kangaroos is the same as clubbing baby seals or whale hunting. Kangaroo meat is eaten and there’s even a market for the pelts. They are in abundance and harvesting of them is strictly controlled.
Pending catastrophic disaster how the hell is this going to happen? If you’re talking about habitat destruction then that’s got nothing to do with the food industry. Last I checked nobody is eating Koala’s either.
Why don’t you just cut the crap and spit it out. Eating kangaroos is purely an emotional issue for you. Kangaroos were being culled before the meat industry evolved and what’s more “the RSPCA has described Kangaroo harvesting as “one of the most humane methods of animal slaughter possible”".
Note the disease statistic in that link as well which puts rejected meat at 0.7% or “about half to one-third of what is usually rejected for cattle and sheep”.
But that doesn’t matter so long as nobody eats your cuddly widdle friends. Seriously go eat some soy beans or something.
March 10th, 2010 at 7:54 pm kellienq(Quote)
You seem to have done your research on eating possum and yet you dont believe what you are told about kangaroos?
Im sorry to inform you, but they ARE full of worms, ring worms to be exact. Not to mention the E-Coli. The latest Animal Lib investigation = they tested roo meat from different coles supermarkets across sydney – took it to an Independent lab and they found all those nasties in the meat. If this was a lie, why would Russia pull the export of roo meat – they stopped taking it due to health and hygiene reasons.
http://animal-lib.org.au/campaigns/120-kangaroo-campaign.html
AS for the ‘clubbing over the head’, what do you think happens to the joeys that are pulled from the females pouch? If they are big enough they are normally let go – the problem here is that a kangaroo is still on mums milk until they are at least 18mths old, normally then; mum still has a infant joey in pouch. That joey is yanked from her and either decapitated, blunt force to the head, head stood on or bashed against the car bull-bar.
They eat whale meat, seal, dolphins, cats, dogs – and you see the world jumping up to stop that; so why not try to stop us killing our national animal? For me; choosing NOT to eat roo meat is a matter of principal. I flatly refuse to eat an animal that is on our coat of arms – let alone something that can cause your death (as it has been linked to do).
The industry killed 25 million roos in the last 10 years, problem is they are telling us that there are 25 million left in the country…… where are they? We are told there is plagues – and yet a plague is seen as a mob of 100! So please do the maths – 10 years it took to wipe out 25 million (unknown numbers for unlicensed shooters, road kills, droughts, fires); if there are only 25 million left – what does that tell you??
All Im asking you to do is dont get on the defensive when someone asks you to acknowledge the facts. Do the research and find out yourself.
http://www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.com/kangaroo-facts.html
March 11th, 2010 at 1:37 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Well why is kangaroo meat still for sale on the shelves then?
Surely the public liability isn’t worth the risk for large retailers stocking Kangaroo meat. If someone gets sick and it’s traced back to kangaroo meat they aren’t going after the people shooting them, they’re going to go after the supermarket chain that sold them the meat.
The webpage you linked to also mentioned that the carcasses were tested from mobile chillers, not supermarket shelves. I’m not aware of the manufacturing process for kangaroo meat but I refuse to believe there’s widespread infection of kangaroo meat on supermarket shelves for human consumption.
The Health Department would be all over it.
As for the joey problem I do take issue with that. If the joey’s are viable for 18 months inside a mother’s pouch then I don’t really see any way around that for the meat industry. Perhaps Kangaroo’s aren’t a viable choice for humane harvesting.
Having said that we do eat lamb which is essentially the slaughter of sheep at age 3-6 months. Not sure how I feel about that seeing as I quite like the odd lamb curry.
I see this largely as an emotional argument, in the same basket as religious nutters telling me what meats I should and shouldn’t eat.
Whether the Kangaroo is a national animal or not is irrelevant to me. If they can be farm harvested the same as other animals for mass consumption then I’m all for it. Unfortunately in the case of joeys in the pouch and on foot who are still dependant on their mothers this doesn’t seem to be the case.
This Animal Welfare Protection Society report is a good read on the issue too.
Personally I haven’t eaten kangaroo meat since I wrote the original article. Kangaroo meat availability in Taiwan aside I don’t think it’s something I’ll have again. I just didn’t like the taste of it. I think in the face of more traditional meat alternatives we’re used to eating this will be the case with most people too.
Unless we’re talking about the Japanese and hunting whales then if demand drops so should supply and in turn hunting quotas. Just don’t buy it.
May 5th, 2010 at 4:02 pm higguns(Quote)
LOL.. Roos have a symbiotic relationship with a gut worm that is not passed on through the meat.. if you could get worms from the meat do you sincerely think it would be commercially available?
The roo have been eaten in this country long before europeans came along.. and in my experience the indegenous people of this country knew a damn sight more about nutrition than we do! Enjoy your ozone creating top soil destroying bovine and swine burger Silly person!
September 2nd, 2010 at 2:53 pm Macca(Quote)
Congratulations! You’ve joined the ranks of the moral-void, inconsiderate, degenerative Australians!
God forbid Australians think about any other creature than a cat or dog! Destroy the environment, kill all the animals. Because we’re superior to them.
P.S. I am Australian.
September 8th, 2010 at 6:43 pm Josh(Quote)
Gonna take a wild gues that ‘Macca’ is a vego.
Look in the mirror. See those pointy teeth each side? They’re called canines. We’re meant to eat meat so spare us all the ‘degenerative Australians’ that ‘kill all the animals’.
Sustainable harvesting of native species is far more in the interests of the nations environment than continued consumptino of introduced, destructive, methane emitted sheep and cattle. Promoting eating native species is a step in the right direction
January 10th, 2011 at 9:23 am Annika(Quote)
There’s a sad range of opinions expressed her. Of course something highly processed will taste like shite. How can something processed out of a bag be used to judge the qualities of a meat?
Fresh roo meat is very much the only meat I eat. It’s very good… if treated as game and not beef or lamb. I eat it because it’s native australian and becasue there’s where I happen to live. The native wildlife is not threatened by this since it’s the ‘traditional’ live stock keeping that’s destroying the habitate.
All over the world game is treasured, but roos are apparently put in the too cute to kill category. The steak, even the glass of milk, on your table has suffered more than the roo on mine. I will not even enter the discussion about eating or not eating meat, we’re omnivores… neither carni- or herbivores.
The roo meat goes to russia as cheap meat simply because animal activists manage to stop the introduction of roo meat on the serious market. If they hadn’t, roos could suddenly have become regarded as a valuable resource and well worth keeping the native habitat for rather than to clear it away to raise the ‘traditional’ sheep and cattle that’s turning the landscape to desert.
As it is now, the roo meat is used as cheap meat for sausages or is left rotting on the ground because they eat the feed for sheep and cattle. Just start to use your brains and stop the hypocricy.
November 23rd, 2011 at 5:58 pm Peter H(Quote)
Back when you tried them, Kanga Bangers were not very nice. They reminded me of those Icky-Thump black-pudding things from The Goodies!
Since then, they have changed. They are not as black now, and are MUCH nicer. Cheaper too, prob as they become more mainstream and production costs can be spread over more sales.
The other products which have been added include steaks, marinated steaks, kebab sticks and small roasts. DELICIOUS.
Try them again – definitely worthwhile. 2 reasons why I support them more than beef etc:
1. they’re HEALTHY – almost fat free (less than 2%) and extra-high in protein. They are the onkly red meat I know of that receives the Heart Foundation Tick
2. they’re environmentally friendly. Before you start saying “but you kill animals” take a look at nature – animals kill and eat animals everywhere, and humans ARE animals. The reason I say they’re E-F is that:
* they use less water – no need to train the Great Artesian to feed & water them
* they don’t cause ground erosion like hard-hoofed introduced species (cattle & sheep) which both trample the grass and then break up the remaining bare soil
* carbon-wise they fart a lot less
* locally-produced, they don’t need to be transported halfway across the world
* they don’t need to be farmed, are not locked behind fences, and have a pretty enjoyable lifestyle before becoming my dinner. The ultimate in “free range”
November 23rd, 2011 at 6:59 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
I’m kinda confused… how do production costs change the color and taste of the meat so drastically?
I mean at the end of the day so long as it’s not out of date it’s still kangaroo meat right?
January 25th, 2012 at 11:25 am Sandy(Quote)
I get mine from an organic butcher. They use proper Kangaroo meat and not the flavoured one. You buy them the same as any butcher sausage.
In my fridge they smell fine. Garlic-iky like beef sausages. Chutney on them is nice as well as your standard sauces.
March 6th, 2012 at 12:18 am Nafe(Quote)
Roo meat is amazing and very healthy. Tastes gamey? Now emu is gamey, not roo though. Think you’ve been thinking about Skippy a bit too much and ur brains rejecting the flavour haha. Stick with ur nando sauce buddy.
March 6th, 2012 at 10:34 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
So I take it you equate gamey to tasty?
Roo meat has a distinctive gamey taste, never had emu so can’t comment on that.
…and even peri peri couldn’t mask the gamey roo taste!