Muskrat Loathe
I’m going for my very first muskrat dinner tonight.
I graduated from the U of D, and have lived in the home of tax free shopping since 1975 but have never really felt like an honest to goodness Delawarean. Maybe this will do the trick.
My guess is that it will either be surprisingly good or totally uneatable.
I’ve lived in Delaware all my life and have never eaten muskrat. You are a brave soul.
Ha! My G-pop used to go muskrat hunting in the swamps of New Castle. He’s take his catch to one of the butchers in Wilmington…I think on King St.
Every once in a while he’d take one home for my G-mom to cook for dinner. This happened once when my mom was dating my dad. They pulled a little trick on her by saying it was rabbit….
During the meal they told her what it actual was. This was followed by mom running out of the kitchen, into the bathroom, and depositing the half-eaten meal into the commode! LOL!
Though, in hindsight, she said it wasn’t bad; it was just the thought of eating something with the word ‘rat’ in it!
They only eat vegetation, so they’re not bad. They ain’t Kobe beef though. Plus, it should comfort you to know that Delaware has a law enacted in the 19th Century that requires the trappers to leave the head and one paw on all muskrats sold. The purpose of this law is to ensure that they’re not selling you cat.
No kidding. Ask to see the head.
I feel better just know that such a law in on the books.
“ but have never really felt like an honest to goodness Delawarean.”
Born in Delaware 1954 and that Delawarean feeling pretty much left around 1976. Nobody really gives a shit about Delaware’s history and it “is” amazing! It sucks the first state to ratify the U. S. Constitution and now we seem like the asshole of the nation.
Delaware’s first governor John McKinly February 12, 1777 to September 3, 1777 was take POW by the British Army. 232 years later we the people are the POW’s of a blind government.
Even More trivia:
Muskrat is a cognate of the Abenaki/Algonquin word for the same animal: Musquash.
kilroy, you type like a muskrat with only one paw.
Muskrat = road kill. but it isnt as good as snipe.
Reis
“kilroy, you type like a muskrat with only one paw.”
Gee, I start playing nice and the hunters are coming for me!
However, LOL
LOL! Reis’ comment is an early entry for 2009 Comment of the Year!
I’m sure that muskrat is not South Beach friendly, so that is gonna be my excuse for not trying it.
The muskrat hunters set the marsh on fire everyyear to clear off the dead grass which lead to a church in New Castel to be burned to the ground
WAIT. People eat WHAT??? Muskrat?!
That is disgusting. I am completely horrified.
Mrs XStryker
“WAIT. People eat WHAT??? Muskrat?”
Tasty as scrapple but not as good as Groundhog
I’ll do you one better. I’m a U of D grad and have called Delaware home every year since my birth in ’74. I haven’t eaten Muskrat. I have never attended Punkin’ Chunkin’. I have never attended a NasCar race in Dover. And forget the traditional canal boundary, I make every effort to ensure I never travel south of RT 40.
What’s wrong with you people?
It’s yummy. A little gamey, with earthy tones and strong flavored. I think it really depends on how it is prepared. Wow, that really sounded like Andrew Zimmern.
Grilled human infant tonsils might taste like a chocolate shake. Your point is?
And forget the traditional canal boundary, I make every effort to ensure I never travel south of RT 40.
I love that.
Dorian,
Let’s be running mates in 2012, shall we?
I’ll take charge of Kent and Sussex counties and hang out with the soybean farmers, mobile home-park residents, tree-stump chainsaw-carvers, scrapple eaters, people who call the 30-year-old high school “the new high school” and John Atkins voters.
You can hang out with the Chateau Country pinky people, complain about the inconvenience of switching over to digital TV, score crack in Wilmington, live in a cookie-cutter housing tract with a pincushion for a backyard, spend four hours a day stuck in traffic, get your ass shot up and vote for Tom Gordon.
All in all, I know which I prefer. I hate traffic.
Grilled human infant tonsils might taste like a chocolate shake. Your point is?
I withdraw my offer of a joint campaign. That was really the first thing that came to your mind, you sicko??
I’ll run with you Dorian. Seems we have much in common… except I do travel south to the beach. Bet that doesn’t count! 😉
First let me say I am honored that you created an anti-me user name. Number two: rich people prefer powder to crack – who doesn’t know this? Thirdly, I never sit in traffic – I take the train or bike. I also generally relate “cookie-cutter” tracts to the MOT area rather than Wilmington, but that’s fine. Finally the digital TV thing I don’t understand at all frankly.
And I stand by the “Grilled human infant tonsils” comment. It’s funny in context.
DV, Bizzaro-Dorian is just pissed-off about the Nascar comment….you know, since it wasn’t mentioned…
Take a left and another left…..one more left, sorry, another left. Right. NO left. And another left…. Finally, take a left.
Go F1 or Rally!
Delaware, you can keep your rodent-eating ways. I’ve only been here since 2005, and if a refusal to eat hillbilly meats means I’ll never be a true Delawarean then I think my pride will manage.
What do you define as hillbilly meat?
I’ve never had muskrat, but I have had squirrel, rabbit and frog. Hmmm….maybe I should consider it and add to my vermin list.
I’m still thinking about the article mentioning “muskrat season.” There’s a muskrat hunting season?
I had muskrat once. It was a muskrat and portabello mushroom ravioli with a mushroom cream ragu. It was actually very good. The meat itself reminded me of wild duck. Just a bit gamey with that hint of freahwater aquatica (in a good way).
I’ll try anything once, and muskrat I would eat again. Look at all the fools who eat crab, especialy the soft shell variety.
I think that dissing soft shell crabs is a banning offense on this blog.
But the raviolis actually sounds good, so am hoping for the best for Jason’s meal…
There is no hunting season. Muskrat is typically trapped with a spring loaded trap set outside the hole a ‘rat uses to travel under the marsh. Trapping was preferred when the hides were the goal for sale. The “meats” as the carcass is called was often an afterthought, though it is nearly as valuable as the hide these days. About three dollars and fifty cents.
If one is hungry enough one will eat anything. And I would much rather eat a muskrat than go hungry, though there are certainly better wild foods. Of course, if the economy keeps going the way it is, people might start thinking about the fact that what’s edible doesn’t always come wrapped in plastic and styrofoam.
“I think it really depends on how it is prepared.”
True of virtually every exotic delicacy. Parboil them first (takes out some of the gaminess), then slow bake them in an oven or barbecue. Leave the head on for a conversation piece, of course. Make a merkin for your favorite gal out of the fur.
Bon appetite.
So, how was it?
It was pretty good. I went hungry by design and the first quarter was delicious. As it cooled down it seemed a bit greasy and parts of it were much more gamey than other parts.
Given the flavor, I was thinking that Meatball’s muskrat and wild mushroom ravioli was probably awesome.
It was more expensive than I thought ($15.00) but they give you five or six quarters. I had it with the traditional stewed tomato and hashbrowns.
I’d go back to the Wagon Wheel to try their other offerings, but no liquor license (Boo!) and that meal was crying out for a nice cold beer since there is work invloved in getting the meat off the bone. (Not as much as crabs but more than a pork chop.)
Until the 1980’s, a muskrat hide, flensed and stretched, fetched up to $40 per on the Japanese driven hide market. For some reason I don’t understand, the price dropped precipitously and the trappers stopped trapping. I knew a guy in highschool who actually paid for his car by trapping, semi-curing, and selling hides.
As to burning the marshes, this is done unoficially in order to get rid of the non-indiginous and harmful fragmitis infestation. In order to wipe it out, the land has to be burned several years in a row in order to damage the roots enough that it doesn’t come back.
Fantastic, J!
I’ll have to give it a try if I ever come across it…
I popped back it to see how this ended up. I also noticed that the anti-me seems to have taken offense to ‘hillbilly’ being used as an adjective.
This is a fair complaint I think. I know a great deal of people from northern Tennessee and south eastern Kentucky (Smokey Mts.). They’re hillbillies.
People from Kent and Sussex are more accurately described as hayseeds or rubes. 🙂
NCCo residents are urban east coast elites and/or pinko commies.
… or liberal Democrat socialists…
I stand in solidarity with my husband. Keep your rodents and your scrapple. I will be content as a Connecticut Yankee in Markell’s Court.
Mrs XStryker,
If you put enough ketchup on it, you can put almost anything in your mouth.