Text 5926, 84 rader
Skriven 2013-10-20 06:59:00 av DAVE DRUM (1:261/1381)
     Kommentar till en text av JIM WELLER
Ärende: Beaver Tails
====================
-=> JIM WELLER wrote to DAVE DRUM <=-

 DD> Beavers

 JW> They can also be very tasty.

 DD> That can be said (both statements) of many aquatic mammals. You guys
 DD> have your beavers, Cajuns have their nutria.

 JW> They are both vegetarian rodents which as a group tend to be tasty.
 JW> It is the fish eating carnivores, primarily the Musteloids and
 JW> Pinnipeds, that one wants to avoid.

The muskrat (musquash) is so fishy that "Muskrats are the moral equivalent of
fish for otherwise observant Roman Catholics in this blue-collar town just
south of Detroit. Every Friday in Lent, when church rules call for abstinence
from meat, these Catholics gather in family kitchens, fraternal halls and a few
restaurants for meals featuring the little swamp rodent as the main dish.

Although the Archdiocese of Detroit can find nothing in its archives,
generations of residents in the Downriver section of Michigan believed they had
a dispensation from the church to eat muskrats on meatless days. The notion was
that since muskrats (always pronounced MUSH-rats here) live in the water like
fish, they should be considered the same.

''I was raised as a Catholic and we always knew it was O.K. to eat mushrats on
Friday,'' said Craig Johnson as he dug into a plateful of muskrat and potato
patties at Kola's Kitchen restaurant here. ''My mother served it on Fridays for
years.''

To outsiders who express some repugnance at the thought of eating rats of any
variety, Downriver residents have ready answers. Muskrats live in the water and
wash the plants they eat before eating, they respond. ''They're cleaner than
chicken,'' is a typical comment." Wyandotte Journal

From the Detroit Free Press of November 25, 2012 -- "Yes, at least those in the
Detroit Archdiocese. Spokesman Joe Kohn explained that approximately 200 years
ago, Father Gabriel Richard granted a dispensation, allowing starving fur
trappers and their families to eat muskrat on Fridays during Lent, reasoning
that the mammal spends a good chunk of its time in the water -- and Catholics
are allowed to eat fish on Lenten Fridays."

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

      Title: Smothered Muskrat & Onions
 Categories: Game, Dairy, Vegetables
      Yield: 2 servings

      1    Muskrat
      1 tb Salt 
      1 qt Water
  1 1/2 ts Salt
    1/4 ts Paprika
    1/2 c  Flour
      3 tb Fat
      3 lg Onions; sliced
           Salt & pepper
      1 c  Dairy sour cream
 
  Skin and clean the muskrat, remove fat, scent glands and
  white tissue inside each leg. Soak muskrat overnight in a
  weak brine solution of 1 Tbsp salt to 1 quart water.
  Drain, disjoint and cut up. 

  Put flour, salt & paprika in a paper bag. Add muskrat
  pieces and shake until each piece is well coated. Melt fat
  in heavy fry pan, add the muskrat pieces and saute slowly
  until browned.

  When meat is browned, cover with onions, sprinkle with
  salt and pepper and pour the cream over. Cover fry pan and
  simmer for 1 hour. 

  Recipe from: Ripon's Official Muskrat Page 

  From: http://mysite.verizon.net

  Uncle Dirty Dave's Archives

MMMMM

... In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection.
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