Highway Cooking Lessons From the Man with the Van

While I know this has been a long time coming, I can’t get this incident out of my head. I think I may have missed out on a chance of a lifetime and I’m having a hard time letting it go.

 

As Cakes’ and I were winding our way up (and then back down) River Road in Louisiana on January 28^th, past all the grand plantations alongside the Mississippi River, we saw a man with a van by the side of the road. He was selling stuff out of his van. That in itself was not so unusual. That is, until I read his hand lettered cardboard signs, which proclaimed: “Fresh ‘Possum And ‘Coon Meat For Sale”. We whizzed past on our way to have a tour, and lunch, at the Myrtles Plantation. I took special notice of the man with the van and said to Cakes that it was too bad we were staying in a hotel, because I really would have liked to try cooking something so exotic (for a Canadian prairie girl anyway) as ‘possum or ‘coon.

 

We whizzed by again (in the other direction) a couple of hours later. I looked longingly out the window, but it didn’t occur to me until we were at least an hour down the road, that I should just have stopped and talked to the man with the van and asked him all the things I was wondering about: How does it taste? How do you cook it? Does he eat it? How does he like it? What was Great Grandma Bessie’s prize ‘possum recipe? Alas, we didn’t turn back, and now I’ll never know where that conversation might have gone and what interesting things the man with the van might have said.

 

It’s clearly still bothering me though, that we didn’t turn around, because here it is a full 6 weeks later, and I’m still thinking about it.

 

I have had to console myself with a vicarious taste of possum meat through The Innernet. A quick googling of the phrase “possum recipe” has turned up a surprising amount of information.

 

At one time ‘possums and ‘coons were not only widely accepted food, but were considered a delicacy as is evidenced by this passage from the October 28, 1886, edition of the Arkansas Gazette:

 

“ Last evening at 8:30 o'clock a goodly company sat down at the hospitable board of the Lazarus House to partake of a sumptuous ''possum supper,' at the invitation of Messrs. R.P. Williams, Louis Sarazin and Wash Hawthorne, three mighty 'possum Nimrods, who a night or two since slew four of the 'pesky' but toothsome critters.

 

The critters were cooked and the feast prepared under the able direction of Mrs. Molly Blackmore, the proprietress of that favorite hostelry, the Lazarus House, and her cooking won well deserved encomiums from one and all.

 

It was indeed a treat and one scarcely knows to whom to accord the most praise — the Nimrods who captured them, the cook who cooked them or the Great Father who made them.”

 

 

Why is it that the passion for a nice roasted possum appears to have died out immediately after the printing of that article in 1886? Why do most people probably consider the prospect of eating possums or coons up there with eating rats?

 

Why is it that we (seemingly arbitrarily) decide which animals make desirable food and which are relegated to the status of the inedible? It clearly isn’t because of some universal human understanding that some animals are not good to eat or might make you sick: The Chinese eat rats, dogs and snakes; The Japanese eat puffer fish; The French eat frogs legs; Hindu’s don’t eat beef; Jewish people don’t eat pork…. This is especially perplexing to me as, once upon a time in the not too distant past, eating things like possums, coons and squirrels was the norm

 

Tom King has provided an excellent discussion on that topic:

 

“Nowadays, varmints are primarily consumed by impoverished rural people - subsistence food - or by hunters of righteous ethic. Most "cultured" people view such food, and the people who eat it, as distasteful. Yet Jimmy Carter writes fondly of eating possum as a child, and Mark Twain, prior to his return from a visit to Paris, sent home a list of foods to be prepared upon his arrival - possum, coon and prairie hen were featured items. Lewis and Clark, nearing the end of their heroic exploration, wrote that they and their men would truly miss the taste of dog meat, a winter staple of the native American diet.”

 

-Tom King “The French Eat Rats”

 

The Innernet reveals that there are a few die-hards in addition to my man with the van. Several websites offer up tasty modern-sounding recipes and advice on how to catch, kill, skin and prepare a possum or a coon.

According to one website forum  

“Opossum should be handled in accordance with the general rules for game in the field. The blood should be drained and the entrails removed. The body cavity should be wiped clean. When hung for 48 hours, they are ready to be skinned and cooked.

Opossum meat is light colored and tender. Excess fat may be removed, but there is not a strong flavor or odor contained in the fat. Chill to firm up fat for easy removal.

If possible, trap 'possum and feed it on milk and cereals for 10 days before killing. Clean, but do not skin. Treat as for pig by immersing the unskinned animal in water just below the boiling point. Test frequently by plucking at the hair. When it slips out readily, remove the 'possum from the water and scrape. While scraping repeatedly, pour cool water over the surface of the animal. Remove small red glands in small of back and under each foreleg between the shoulder and rib.”

 

And

They taste “…a little like pork, but darker. A little greasy like raccoon. Older ones are tough.”

 

The bulletin board at Homesteading Today revealed how ordinary people feel about and what they do with fresh ‘possum and ‘coon meat when they can get it:

 

As Ray, a regular poster, said:

 

“I've eaten a few opossum in my time…The fat is marbled inside the muscle so no matter what you do you’re gonna eat a lot of fat. The meat has a real spicy taste all by itself and the small ones are actually very good to eat...”

 

LWB, also a poster on the board, is clearly another bloke who likes his possum and his coon:

 

“My sweet wife of 28 years does a coon recipe handed down from her dear mother that is the best I have ever tasted.

Cut up the coon being sure to remove all the glands (this is VERY important)
Put coon in pressure cooker for 45 min on 10 lbs. pressure.
Boil whole unpeeled sweet potatoes until they are just tender not mushy.
(Put some peppers in with coon and potatoes while they are cooking. We use a small amount of Habanero but you can use any kind according to how hot you like it. The coon also should be lightly seasoned with salt and black pepper before cooking.)

Using a cast iron skillet make gravy using Crisco, flour and the water out of the pressure cooker that the coon cooked in. You will probably have to make 2 skillets of gravy.

Spray a roasting pan with Pam. Place coon in pan. Peel and quarter the potatoes and arrange around the coon. Put the peppers that you used in the cooking on top of the coon and potatoes. Pour the gravy on top of everything.

Bake uncovered in a 375 degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.”

 

Just Game Recipes boasts no less than 18 interesting and delicious sounding recipes for possum and raccoon such as “Roast Possum with Spiced Apples and Sweet Potatoes” and “Barbequed Raccoon”.

 

In addition, there were some surprising and intriguing non-possum, non-coon recipes listed such as:

 

Armadillo Sauce Piquant

Baked Camel

Baked Muskrat

Baked Young Woodchuck in Sour Cream and Mustard

Crow and Mushroom Stew

French Fried Skunk

Herb Charcoal Antelope Steak

Marinated Porcupine Chops

Parrot Pie

Smoky Mountain Fried Squirrel

 

 While I may have missed out on my chance to cook and eat fresh ‘possum or ‘coon, I do know a nearby park overrun with squirrels….

Comments

[raspberry sour]

keep us posted on the squirrels. i see endless possibilities in that smoky mountain fried squirrel...

[anthony]

Somebody was kind enough to send me a copy of Mrs Beetson's* Kangaroo Tail Soup

-----
Ingredients:
1 tail, 2 lb. of gravy beef, 4 oz. butter, 1½ oz. of flour, 3 quarts of water, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 2 or 3 sprigs of parsley, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper.
Method:
Prepare and slice the vegetables, wash the tail and divide it at the joints. Heat the butter in a stewpan, fry the tail until well browned, then remove it and fry the meat previously cut into rather thin slices. Strain off the butter and put it aside until required. Replace the tail in the stewpan, add the water and half a teaspoon of salt, and bring it to the boil. Skim well, put in the prepared vegetables, parsley, bay-leaf, and a good seasoning of pepper, cover closely, and simmer gently for about 4 hours, skimming when necessary.
strain; if convenient let the liquor stand until quite cold, and remove every particle of fat from the surface. Re-heat the butter used for frying, adding more if necessary, stir in the flour, and cook for a few minutes. Add the stock, bring to the boil, put in a few pieces of the tail, season to taste, make thoroughly hot, and serve.
Time.- From 4½ to 5 hours. SUFFICIENT for 1 large dish.
-----

* Mrs Beetson was a kind of 19C Nigella Lawson

[Lyn]

I love a good roo steak. I miss it terribly. Sigh. I also dig the 19C kitchen maven thing! My sister once gave me a book called the Virtuous Housewife (or similar?) which was a reprint of a 19C housekeeping-cooking type guide which was both fascinating and hysterically funny at the same time.

[vanman]

I liked discription of how to cook Kangaroo Tail Soup, but I guess I'll never find it in Europe supermarkets... At least I didn't see it till this moment

[Hilda]

I ate a kangaroo steak in Australia in one of those big grill-it-yourself restaurants. I specifically picked kangaroo because I just wanted to try it and was obliged by my Australian hosts who pointed out that they practically never eat 'roo nor do they know people who usually eat it. It tasted like a very good cut of beef to me, but without even a trace of fat, which made it very hard to digest. It was worth a try.

[Rerto Jordans]

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[discount coach]

The past is gone and static. Nothing we can do will change it. The future is before us and dynamic. Everything we do will affect it.