In a fire hall in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, about 150 people heaped food onto their plates. But this wasn’t a typical spaghetti dinner or seafood boil.

The menu included stingray casserole, bear stew, and raccoon and rabbit sausage. Larry Primeau organizes the annual Taste of the Wild Outdoors dinner. He’s the volunteer rescue captain at the fire station. He also has the cooking skills and hunter friends needed to organize the dinner.

There was also roasted gray squirrel, bobcat lo mein, wild boar ham, and coyote teriyaki. The mystery meat this year was alligator. Venison and salmon rounded out the selection. 

Previous years featured wood duck, snapping turtle salami, and smoked eel. Would you try beaver shepherd’s pie? How about goose in sauerkraut? Groundhog chili?

Jim Jasterzenski traveled about 74 miles to the dinner. He rated the bobcat as very tender.

The raccoon andouille sausage was served with cheddar mini pierogies. (Traditionally, pierogies are Polish dumplings, and andouille sausage is made with pork.)

The bear stew tastes like beef, says one diner. 

What about fox and coyote? Smoking the meat helps conceal its musky natural flavor. 

All the game on the menu was legally harvested somewhere in the United States. Most was from Pennsylvania.

It is generally against the law to sell wild game meat in Pennsylvania. But tickets to the event are sold as a fundraiser. Schuylkill County Wild Outdoors is a charity. Mr. Primeau raises money for youth outdoor activities. He encourages anglers, hunters, and trappers to try eating new species. 

Dave Mease, Jr., donated the bobcat, coyote, stingray, and salmon to the dinner. 

“The cool thing is you get to try things you’d never get to eat,” Mr. Mease says. Last year’s mystery meat was crow. “It was actually really good.”

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. — Genesis 9:3