Recipies for small game

[Mechanicalmayham]

I usually do roasts or stews with my small game so I am looking to change some things up this year. So I am looking for new and different recipies. What do you have?
Also looking for recipies concerning woodchucks.

[JWFilips]

Here is one I used for years ..Not sure who's it is but I have used it for 40 years ( but not so much now because my old nose doesn't like the smell of cleaning a ground hog anymore) Now if only I can teach a young one how to clean the little bugger I would be eating good again. I do remember serving up some to my son 25 years ago (He was 5 at the time) I asked him what part of the groundhog he wanted .........He said " I'll have the face, Dad" !


1 Groundhog, skinned & cleaned
3/4 cup Vinegar
2 tablespoon Salt
2 quarts Water
1/2 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Allspice
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
1/4 cup Bacon fat
3 Large yellow onions
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup Water
1 cup Sour cream

Skin and clean the groundhog. Wash and put into a stainless steel pot or plastic bowl. Cover with water and 3/4 cup of vinegar and 1 T. of salt.
Let stand in a cool place overnight. In the morning, remove from liquid, wash well and pat dry with paper towels. Place in large stewing pot with 2 quarts of water & bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, removing the scum on the surface. Drain and rinse the groundhog and cut meat into serving pieces. Combine the flour, 1 Tbs salt, allspice and Black Pepper Then dredge the pieces of meat in the mixture. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Melt the bacon fat in a heavy iron frying pan on stove until smoking. Quickly Brown meat on all sides. Transfer the browned meat into a greased 4 qt. Cast Iron Dutch oven.
Place sliced onions on top, add water, cover and bake in a
preheated oven for 2 hours or until the meat is tender. Transfer the meat to a platter & keep warm. Put the Dutch Oven on top of the stove over medium heat and spoon in the sour cream stirring constantly. Let the sauce just come to a boil. Put the meat back
into the Dutch Oven and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Great with Crusty Bread!

[Reg]

About any stew recipe works good. Used to hunt and eat quite a few rock chucks, the western relative of the wood chuck. Did find it took a very sharp knife to get one skinned, they are really tough and it was best to run them through a pressure cooker first before actually cubing them for the stew pot. Darned good eating though.

[Janoosh]

My Italian Great Grandfather used to curse at the woodchucks in Italian so we kids wouldn't understand. We understood the English part, though..."You're eatin my garden now....but I'll be eatin you later". I was to young to know the recipe then, but now now was cacciatore style. Some Great eatin! Had woodchuck again at a game dinner in Washington Hollow, cooked the same way, and the guy serving said I was the only one eating it, so I told him this same story.
.

[Janoosh]

I was in Boston for work and ate in a Italian restaurant behind a deli. Ordered rabbit, and the rabbit was cooked in a white wine sauce with onions and vinegar peppers. I was told that was Sicilian style,,,I cleaned the plate!

[enoch59]

OKay, well I just finished a recipe for Squirrel Balls from Wild Game Cook Book by Martin Rywell 1952-55. Remove any hair on squirrels after thawing. I use a small torch for this chore. Parboil squirrels in salted boiling water for 15 minutes and allow to cool. Strip meat and run thru a grinder. The meat I did had zero fat in it so I had to add some grease ( bacon fat ) to the grinder to get everything flowing smoothly. I took about 1/2 lbs. of squirrel meat and added 1/4 yellow onion chopped fine, 1/2 cup mashed potatoes, 2 Tbls. bread crumbs, 2 Tbls. LeRoys Hot & Sweet BBQ Sauce. Blend together by hand and chill in fridge for a few hours. Form mixture into round balls about the size of a quarter and fry in bacon fat. Use a splatter screen to keep mixture from spitting all over the kitchen ( and you too ). I had about 1 1/2 lbs. of ground squirrel left over that I bagged up and threw into the freezer for use another time. Makes great dog food additive. My hound went berserk when I told him it was squirrel and now he wants it in all his meals. These are very tasty. The one problem I had was just how deep the fat mixture should be. If you have a deep fat fryer then you are set. I had a slight problem with the balls sticking to the pan I fried them in. Anyway make lots cause they are really good.
If you ever wanted to know how to cook Skunk or Owl, Opossum or Armadillo. Wild Duck or Pheasant, Quail, Rail or Snipe then this is the cookbook for you published by Pioneer Press. If you can't find it don't hesitate to pm me and I'll try to get you a recipe from it. Enjoy, Enoch.

[L Ross]

Pot pie! Pressure cook the critter until tender. Take the meat off the bone and cube. Check really close for bone bits. I pre-cook the vegetables a little. Potatoes, carrots, peas, rutabagas, onion. Mix the meat, veggies, and some cream of something soup, or left over gravy and pour into a pie pan with top crust. Pierce the top crust to allow steam to escape. Bake at 350 until the crust is done.
Rabbit, squirrel, woodchuck, barn pigeon, duck, coon, possum, muskrat, beaver, it all works.

Duke

[ThatFishGuy]

I really need to try and make some squirrel pot pie ^^^ thanks for the idea!