Fresh Muskrat....WHAT!!!

Picture this:  Well dressed, fashionable, well organized, trendy, cute Mom driving along in her cool little car (read overworked, snot on sleeve from 6 month old with cold, in a rush because she is going to be late for the daughter and in a white mini van, who tripped down the stairs with the baby because she was in said rush I can Dream Damn't), minding her own business. When driving home I pass a sign that says Fresh Muskrat.  WTF I say to myself. So I turn my car around to see if I read it wrong.  NOPE,  sure enough larger than life the sign reads: Fresh Muskrat!

EWWWW! Anything with the word rat in it spells gross to me.  I mean I will not even own a pet rat, domesticated of course.  I view squirels as rats with furry tales, so you see where I am coming from.

I decide to explore this, as we are fairly new to the area, and maybe people use them to hunt or fish (again not my choice but I live on the eastern shore).  Wrong again, they( I am pausing here to say if you are eating or weak of stomach tread carefully on the next few lines) EAT THEM!!!!!!!  It is an Eastern Shore delicacy, so I guess I should be expecting Andrew Zimmerman soon.

Wow! So here it goes for any of you interested the recipe and please do not feel free to tell me how it is I am NOT going to try it.

I mean come on this is how the recipe starts, when cooking with rats.  How can that be healthy don't they carry the plague? Anyway here goes and don't say I never exposed you to any culture.

Two things to watch out for when cooking with rats:

1. The musk! (It’s in the rear. Scrape it out.)
2. The bones! (They are small, and there are many.)

BBQ Muskrat

Ingredients
1 medium to large muskrat

Baking mixture:

1 c. duck sauce
2 beef bullion cubes
2 c. water
dash of salt and pepper

BBQ sauce:

1 T. flour
2 tsp. vinegar
1 medium onion
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dark brown sugar
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 c. catsup

Preparation:
Place muskrat in shallow baking dish with baking mixture. Cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. While muskrat is cooking, mix the other ingredients in a saucepan to make the BBQ sauce. Make sure to stir frequently, as it tends to stick. Cook for only 3-4 minutes. Drain essence of cooked muskrat. Pour on BBQ sauce, working all over. Put back in oven (uncovered) for about 15 minutes.

Mom's Old Fashioned Muskrat

Ingredients
2 muskrats
3 slices fat meat
salt (to taste)
2 tsp. pepper
sage (to taste)
1 medium onion (sliced)
cooking oil

Preparation:
Clean muskrats. Put in a pot. Cover with water. Let boil for 5 minutes. Pour water off. Add fresh water, fat meat, salt, pepper, sage and onion. Let boil until tender. In an iron skillet, put a small amount of cooking oil. Put muskrat in skillet and let brown a little.

(courtsey ofhttp://www.pbs.org/independentlens/muskratlovely/recipes2.html)