Happy Thankgiving

Here is a recipe for possum I found while searching "roasted butternut squash" this morning.

E. W.'S ROAST POSSUM WITH SWEET POTATOES

1 possum
Salt and pepper
1 pod red pepper
1 sweet potato per person

Simmer possum until partially done, changing the stock a couple of times according to age and amount of wild taste. Add a piece of red pepper in the final simmer. Place possum in roaster. Add small amount of water. Sprinkle possum with flour and baste with fat, if necessary. (Usually fat on possum is sufficient.) Surround by small sweet potatoes and bake until possum and potatoes are browned. Cooking time, from 1 to 2 hours at 350 degrees. Makes from six to eight servings.




At first I thought it was a joke, but then I was like "wait, Beth Ditto sometimes talks about eating squirrel growing up in Arkansas, is this a Southern thing?" The answer is Yes.


Wikipedia says the opossum was a favorite game animal in the southern regions of the United States, which have a large body of recipes and folklore relating to the opossum. The meat is light and fine grained, but the musk glands must be removed as part of preparation. Opossum can be used in place of rabbit and chicken in recipes.



More interesting possum facts:

• When threatened or harmed, they will "play possum," mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal. The lips are drawn back, teeth are bared, saliva foams around the mouth, and a foul-smelling fluid is secreted from the anal glands. The physiological response is involuntary, rather than a conscious act. Their stiff, curled form can be prodded, turned over, and even carried away. Many injured opossums have been killed by well-meaning people who find a catatonic animal and assume the worst. The best thing to do upon finding an injured or apparently dead opossum is to leave it in a quiet place with a clear exit path. In minutes or hours, the animal will regain consciousness and escape quietly on its own.

• Adult opossums do not hang from trees by their tails, though babies may dangle temporarily. Their prehensile tails are not strong enough to support a mature adult's weight. Instead, the opossum uses its tail as a brace and a fifth limb when climbing. The tail is occasionally used as a grip to carry bunches of leaves or bedding materials to the nest.

• Opossums have a remarkably robust immune system, and show partial or total immunity to the venom of rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and other pit vipers.

• Thanks to their lower blood temperature, rabies is almost unknown in opossums.

• The opossum lifespan is unusually short for a mammal of its size, usually only 2 to 4 years.

• An early description of the opossum comes from explorer John Smith, who wrote in Map of Virginia in 1608 that "An Opassom hath an head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is of the bignes of a Cat. Under her belly she hath a bagge, wherein she lodgeth, carrieth, and sucketh her young."