Alpaca Meat?

Wow - never thought of this. I knew they are wonderful for fiber and also as pack animals on a trail. Here is our local supplier (Stevensville, MT), wonder if any of you are familiar with this idea!

http://alpasano.com

"Raised without synthetic growth hormones or routine antibiotics, Montana-pastured, locally processed under state inspection"

"A versatile red meat, sweeter than beef, very lean, low fat, very low cholesterol, high protein"

Holy smokes!

Once upon a time I had Alpaca fever. I still find them attractive as potential livestock. Most people in the Paca world would flog you for suggesting an alpaca cheese burger. Without getting too involved lets just say that if you get alpacas that have been registered as fiber only (non breeders) I don't see why you couldn't eat them suckers. If they don't conform to industry standards for a breeding animal then why not. If anyone has the space a pair of pacas simply for fiber to use or barter with is great. They dont take up much room, more or less poop in the same spot and that poop is considered black gold by many. Their digestion is hyper efficient and they are adorable.

But anyways I always wondered why not eat the non conforming ones or use em for a rug. How comfy would that be! The ultimate sheepskin.

I'd eat em

EDIT and a P.S. They do not have the bone structure of a llama. Using them as a pack animal is not advised. They cant do it.

When I lived/worked in Tierra del Fuego, they had a wild cousin "Guanaco".
Most of the homesteads would 'take' one each year, just as people in MI take a deer each year.
A friend of mine (a local chef) told me that whenever I ordered 'milanesa' in a restaurant, I was eating guanaco.

Quite tasty.

I think the biggest downside is the year long pregnancy. In a year one hair sheep will probably have twins and be close to having a second set. Over 12,000,000 people in U.S. follow some kind of Kosher dietary law that would prevent them from eating any cameloid.

Just one point, Joseph. While the kosher industry claims that there are 12 million kosher consumers in the US, the actual number who follow a kosher diet for most of their eating is much smaller. The 12 million number includes any number of non-religious Jews who buy matzo during Passover, but eat cheeseburgers without guilt (well, much guilt) the rest of the year.

I concur that the number of strictly kosher people is lower than mentioned such as your cheeseburger example. I would argue that the number of people who follow the clean and unclean dietary laws as outlined in Leviticus is growing. Hebrew roots churches are springing up all over the mid west. As well as main stream mega church preachers are now teaching avoidance of unclean animals.

So back to alpacas. What makes a camelid unclean vs a cow standing in sewage upto its chest in a dairy.

David Hogan wrote:So back to alpacas. What makes a camelid unclean vs a cow standing in sewage upto its chest in a dairy.

Because they did not have CAFO's in Old Testament times.

Ill go with that.

So has anyone tasted Alpaca?

David Hogan wrote:So back to alpacas. What makes a camelid unclean vs a cow standing in sewage upto its chest in a dairy.

I agree you can make any critter unhealthy via mismanagement. Camelids are prohibited by dietary law as written in the Old Testament. For a mammal to fit into the clean category it must chew the cud and be of split hoof. Camels are directly mentioned as being unclean.

Yes, I just returned from Peru where they eat alpaca meat.

It is delicious!!!

Very powerful animal and the meat is lean and tasty.