Go for the gopher

[wpjson]

I usually do not post recipes and I never, ever post any of my meals, but this is the exception. Here is how I prepare gopher.

Age the animal for 2 days on ice.
Marinate in a mesquite mix for 1 day.
Cook over a cool fire in a Dutch oven for 2 hours.
Remove the meat with a fork.
Combine with wild onions, wild mustard, Elk Thistle and Rosemary cook in a very hot skillet in olive oil for just a few minutes.

Serve with roasted elk thistle blossom, wild salad, sweet corn, washed down with green rosehip tea with a twist of lemon and topped off with homemade golden current ice cream, sweetened with blue agave

 

[coloradoclyde]

:shocked2: :hmm: :shocked2: :wink:
Were you by chance on the Food Network's show
Chopped? if not I think you could be. :thumbsup:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

that's good by me but I'd braise and simmer until the meat fell off the bones then make dumplings to add to the meat and stock with seasonings added.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I use groundhog, and put the meat in the slow cooker after I've removed much of the fat, and the scent glands, and when done I allow it to cool, and serve it to the hunting dog.

LD

 

[sidelock]

You ain't kiddin me! You don't need all that prep. Just put em in a vurry hot skillittt of hog grease (called lard) an fry hard wid onionns till charcoal culler an serv wid lots of gravi an blak pepper.(or mabe red) YUMMMMMMM. Same as good :bull:

 

[wpjson]

Over in the Bitterroot last weekend. Was going to travel the Magruder Corridor, but it got washed out the day before. :cursing: Drove over the back roads to Shoup, Idaho instead. Got a few gallons of Blue Elderberries. :grin: Spent our anniversary on The River of No Return. :rotf:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

but my dog likes slow cooked groundhog...

LD

 

[sidelock]

I may have seen you. We had company from VA and spent the day Sunday driving down the RIVER OF NO RETURN and through Salmon to show off the country. We had a nice day and hope your day was nice as well. I did notice the elderberries but we didn't pick any. :v

 

[sidelock]

My mom cooked a groundhog onced thut tasted so bad we throwed hit outin thru thu winder to thu yard. Well --- mi rabitt dawg grabed it an took a big bittte. An hit was so bad after one bite mi dawg run over to a yard corner and started to lik his but to git the taste outen his mouff. Really----I have had some good groundhog just like good fried wild rabbit. BUT FRIED SQUIRREL IS MY FAVORITE OF ALL WILD GAME. (sept maby frog legs)

 

[George]

Dutch oven, slow cooker, braising?? You boys are far too civilized. There is a proper, HC/PC way to cook gophers, the way real men do it. :haha:

The Horse and the Dog in Hidatsa Culture, Gilbert L. Wilson: Hidatsa teenage boys, guarding the tribe's horse herd on the Missouri River near the Mandan Villages, ND, ca 1770, and they shot gophers with their bows or snared them using a noose made of a hair from the mane of a horse:

"Then we roasted gophers. First we opened the gophers and drew out the entrails with our fingers. The lips of the opening made in the carcass of the gopher for the purpose of removing the entrails, were now skewered together by a spit thrust in near the tail. ... The carcass was held in the fire until the hair was singed, when it was taken out and scraped with a stick to remove the charred hair. It was then held about five inches from the fire, being turned now with one side, now with the other, toward the fire. The spit was held in the hand....The gophers were fat and made us feel good. I also parched two of the ears of corn I had brought."

:grin: :grin:

Spence

 

[gearheart]

cibi condimentum fames est

 

[George]

Yes, and with some of the cooking we do in camp, it's a good thing. :haha:

Spence