Possum

Ingredients

• Stick him, and hang him up to bleed
• two pods of red pepper
• Pour a pint of water into the oven
• sprinkle him with black pepper
• salt
• a pinch or two of sage
• A dash of lemon

Method

1. 1

   Hang the possum to bleed, then scald to remove hair.

2. 2

   Parboil in pepper-water for one hour, then boil in fresh water for another hour.

3. 3

   Place in a Dutch oven, season, pack with sweet potatoes, add water, and bake slowly until brown and crisp.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from Camp cookery (Kephart) (1910) by Kephart, Horace, page 35. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Possum. — To call our possum an opossum, out- side of a scientific treatise, is an affectation. Pos- sum is his name wherever he is known and hunted, this country over. He is not good until you have freezing weather; nor is he to be served without sweet potatoes, except in desperate extremity. This is how to serve "possum hot." — Stick him, and hang him up to bleed until morn- ing. A tub is half filled with hot water (not quite scalding) into which drop the possum and hold him by the tail until the hair will strip. Take 72 CAMP COOKERY. him out. lay him on a plank^ and pull the hair out with your fingers. Draw^ clean^ and hang him up to freeze for two or three nights. Then place him in a 5 -gall on kettle of cold water, into which throw two pods of red pepper. Parboil for one hour in this pepper-water, which is then thrown out and the kettle refilled with fresh water, wherein he is boiled one hour. While this is going on, slice and steam some sweet potatoes. Take the possum out, place him in a large Dutch oven, sprinkle him with black pepper, salt, and a pinch or two of sage. A dash of lemon will do no harm. Pack sweet po- tatoes around him. Pour a pint of water into the oven

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.