"Sylvia's Soul Food" By Slyvia Woods and Christopher Styler, A Wonderful Soul Food Cookbook

In one of my frequent trips to what I call "junk stores", I found a wonderful little soul food cookbook called "Sylvia's Soul Food: Recipes From Harlem's World Famous Restaurant" by Sylvia Woods and Christoper Styler. Sylvia Woods either is or was the owner of a soul food restaurant in Harlem which has now morphed into a soul food empire according to their website. I have found what appear to be puffed descriptions of Mr. Styler which describe him as being a chef, writer, etc. but I suspect he wasn't much more than a ghost writer in this effort. The edition of the book which I found was a hardback printed by the William Morrow Company in 1992. The copies I find on the interet are very different from the plain red cover I found in a Goodwill store for $1.59. They all appear to be paperback with a gaudy photo montage on the cover. When I found the book, I scanned it and realized it has some very interesting recipes which are rarely found in cookbooks published anywhere. I have eaten and loved other people's versions of some of the recipes, never had a few others, and would love to try nearly all of them. This book is a little joy to behold and can be found fairly cheaply on most used book websites. However, if you order it from the used websites, be sure to know in advance if you are getting the hardback or the paperback versions. There is also a second cookbook from the restaurant which I have never seen. I'm surprised I never ran into it anywhere before, at least on the internet. The pork section of the book is a joy to behold especially if you grew up in the south or Appalachia. It contains a recipe for Backbone In Gravy and I have to admit I have never seen a backbone recipe in any cookbook anywhere, not even in one from some little southern church. I grew up on backbones and love them still today. But I have to admit that I almost totally eliminated pork from my diet about seven years ago when I realized that I had a totally blocked carotid artery and was facing a potentially life threatening surgery. As part of an effort to live as long as possible, I changed my diet drastically and took up daily exercise. But I can still exercise fond memories of grease and colagen up to my elbows and back to my ears on occasions. The cookbook also contains a recipe for Pigs' Tails. I have eaten a lot of pig tails in my time and love nothing in the world better than a large restaurant sized pot full of pig ears, tails, and feet cooked along with potatoes,carrots, and an onion or two. I also love that same large pot filled with organ meats at hog killing time. But I stopped that when it came to a choice of such foods or a coffin. But I did dearly love pork livers, kidneys, hearts, lungs or "lights", and spleens or "melts" as we called them when I was a boy. It is fun to find a cookbook and a big city restaurant which is proud of its pig tails, chitlins, and backbones. In this cookbook, there is even a recipe for Fried Chitlins. I have never seen a printed recipe for chitlins in my life. I also have to admit that I have never tried chitlins even though I spent years believing that "no hog should ever have to die in vain" and that we should "eat everything except the squeal". That recipe calls for the chitlins to be "thoroughly cooked to make them tender before they are quickly fried". I will say that in the right cook's hands I would try chitlins. But I have never been in a home where they were being cooked. A variant of the Fried Chitlin recipe is Chitlins and Maw which calls for 2 pounds of pork maw and 5 pounds of precooked chitlins.This is a boiled recipe and I can assure you that with 7 pounds of the two meats in the pot along with several vegetables it won't matter if an extra mouth or two shows up at the supper table. For those of you who don't know the term "maw" it is pork stomach or tripe. I have had tripe on a few occasions in a Vietnamese restaurant I love to visit and I like tripe a lot. In restaurants and butcher shops, tripe may have come from either cattle or hogs. The great recipes just go on and on in this book. The Beef section has Oxtails In Gravy and Grilled Beef Liver. All through my life I have eaten liver from beef, pork, and chicken; and, about two weeks ago I had chicken gizzards which can still be found on the menu of a local Lee's Famous Recipe. I have considered several times to buy an ox tail and cook it at home but never carried through with the idea In the Poultry section, there are recipes for Chicken And Dumplings, Turkey Wings And Gravy, and Roast Turkey. The book has a separate section devoted to Barbecue which has a great looking recipe for Barbecued Pigs Feet. I have eaten pig feet my whole life but never had the barbecued. This one is worth trying! The truncated Fish And Game section of the book is a disappointment after the great preceding sections on Beef and Pork. It only has six recipes but one of them is for Rabbit Flavored And Fried ang another for Hash Venison. But I must ask where are the recipes for alligator, muskrat, ground hog, elk, squirrels, bear, raccoon, and other wild game which many southern cooks are still cooking and eating regularly. The section labled Beans, Potatoes, Rice, And Salads has a recipe for Red Beans And Rice which uses a smoked ham hock instead of the andouille sausage which nearly all other such recipes for this dish use. It might be interesting done with the ham hock. It also contains another chitlin recipe called Rice And Chitlins Perlew which is worth investigating. This section also has recipes for pinto beans, butter beans, and lima beans. Nearly all of them use smoked ham hocks for flavoring. There is a separate section labled Vegetables And Greens which has the obligatory recipes for okra and collard greens. But it also has an interesting recipe for Collard Greens And Corn Meal Dumplings. I have never seen corn meal dumplings in my life and I'd love to try this recipe, or to try corn meal dumplings in the customary way that regular flour dumplings are usually made...like the BIG FLUFFY DUMPLINGS which my mother used to make. Yes, I know that it would be very hard to get fluffy corn meal dumplings since the nature of corn meal doesn't lend itself to fluff. The idea of corn meal dumplings is very intersting to me since one of my favorite occasional breakfasts is corn meal hoe cakes. A favorite supper for me is also fried cornbread and gravy which is made by slicing left over cornbread, frying it in bacon grease, removing the cornbread temporarily from the skillet before making the gravy, and then bathing the cornbread in the gravy. All in all, this book was one of best deals I have ever made for $1.59. If you like soul food, southern food, pork and beef innards and other southern, African American, or Appalachian foods, this is a great book to own.

"Remember Me? A collection of recipes from my years at the Courier Journal" by Alice S. Colombo

I have often said on this blog that I love cookbooks, especially local fundraising type cookbooks from Appalachia and I often buy them from Goodwill, Salvation Army, and and other independent "junk stores". Yesterday, February 14, 2025, I ran into a slightly different type of cookbook and bought it at Goodwill in Paintsville, Kentucky. The title "Remember Me? A collection of recipes from my years at The Courier Journal" is a bit odd for a cookbook. But this one was compiled by a former food writer at the Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. Even though it was from well outside Appalachia, I bought it. It was compiled by Alice Colombo and contains many recipes she had been allowed to publish over the years by restaurant owners she had met in her work, some of her own recipes, and others from God only knows where. It was published by a company called Publishers Printing Company in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, and that company now appears to be defunct since I can't locate a website or anything about them other than one article saying they had moved several years ago to another location they owned in Lebanon Junction, Kentucky. The book is spiral bound, 8 1/2" x 11" and printed on high quality, heavy, slick paper. It does contain a note from the author saying that any of the recipes which carry the "Copyright" symbol had previously been published in the Courier Journal and are copyrighted. This is not either Appalachian or purely Kentucky in nature since it contains several recipes from restaurants the author had either visited in her professional writing days or during personal visits for other reasons and had obtained the owners permissions to publish them. The most interesting of these recipes are from the first three chefs at the famous Brown Hotel in Louisville and are there particular and progressive recipes for the famous Kentucky Hot Brown. They include the recipe of Laurent Gennari who was the first chef at the hotel and worked from 1923 to 1927 and presumably invented the Hot Brown. The next is labeled "The original Hot Brown by Fred Schmidt who worked at the hotel from 1927 to 1930. Although it is labeled "The original Hot Brown...", it is clear that if Mr. Gennari was using his own recipe in the preceding four years, Fred Schmidt didn't invent the Hot Brown and his recipe is not the original. The third Hot Brown recipe is credited to "Mr. Harter" who seems to have worked at the hotel from 1930 to some unknown date which Ms. Colombo reported by saying "Mrs. Clark didn't give the year Mr. Harter left the Brown." But considering the fame which the Hot Brown has achieved in Kentucky and elsewhere, it is nice to find these historic recipes of its development over the early twentieth century. For those of you who don't know about the Kentucky Hot Brown, it is a construction of sliced turkey, cheese, and bacon on white bread toast and is served all over Central Kentucky and several other areas since its invention by whomever, most likely Laurent Gennari, at the Brown Hotel in Louisville close to a hundred years ago. The three recipes in this cookbook don't agree on the spices and minor ingredients. But they show some combination of the following: butter, milk, eggs, salt, pepper, white pepper, and whipping cream. The book also contains recipes from famous or somewhat popular restaurants in Kentucky, Nevada, South Carolina, Indiana, North Carolina, Minnesota, New York, Louisiana, Florida, California, Ohio, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Illinois,Georgia, Missouri, Michigan, and Virginia. The book is broken into somewhat more sections than most cookbook authors bother to do. They include Appetizers and Beverages; Soups, Chili, and Stews; Salads and Salad Dressings; Breads, Rolls, Muffins, and Sweet Rolls; Vegetables; Grits and Rice; Dairy and Cheese; Sandwiches, Stuffings, and Dressings; Marinades and Sauces; Entrees; Seafood; Casseroles, Eggs, and Quiches; Pasta and Pizza; Nationality foods; Cakes; Frostings, Fillings, Sauces and Syrups; Fruits;PIes and Tarts; Cheesecakes; Cookies and Brownies; Desserts and Puddings; and Candy. Other than the Hot Brown, I have not found a particular recipe which stands out to me as one I would love to try. But the book is over 352 pages and I have to admit that I have not yet fully examined it from cover to cover. The information page of the book states that at the time my copy was published two printings had been produced, the initial of 1,000 copies and a second of 500 copies. Somewhere in a used book store, junk store, or yard sale, you might be able to find a copy. The book does list a website which works as of February 16, 2025, which has a page with a contact form for interested parties to fill out along with an e-mail address for the author. If the book interests you, take a shot at it and you might find a copy. There is also a list of businesses which were selling the book at the time of publication. But with the 2011 publication date, it is probably not a good bet that they are still holding unsold copies.

"Hungarian Recipes" Reflections On An Intriguing Cookbook From The Magyar Evangelical and Reformed Church in Elyria, Ohio, 1957

I love food.  I like to cook but I don't claim to be a good cook.  I also love cookbooks, especially interesting, odd, unusual cookbooks, and I have bought cookbooks which fit that description for many years at yard sales and discount stores such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc.  I don't even remember when or where I bought this little cookbook but I strayed into it again and, due to the fact that it is a piece of work from a truly unique cultural group in America and contains a few odd, interesting, and unique recipes, I decided to write about it on this blog.  My copy is the 12th printing of the book with a copyright date of 1957.  It is, amazingly, available online in whatever the current printing may be.  In the copy I own, it labeled as being "Compiled by The Dorcas Guild of the MAGYAR EV. and REF. CHURCH 119 West River Street, Elyria, Ohio".  The copy available for sale on the internet today is labeled "Compiled by The Dorcas Guild of Community of Faith United Church of Christ (formerly Magyar UCC)".  My copy sold in 1957 for one dollar with shipping available for 25 cents extra.  The copy available today online is priced at $15.00 with standard US shipping.  Inflation has obviously had some effect on the cost of cookbooks.  Interestingly, the cover of the book is exactly the same plain green it was in 1957.  The only change is the address and name of the church.  It is said to be available until December 31, 2025.  One other interesting footnote to this story is that despite my not remembering where or how I came to own this cookbook, I used to have an aunt, uncle, and three cousins who lived in Elyria, Ohio.  The book is only 40 pages in a pamphlet form but it is loaded with recipes.  

For me, the most interesting recipes in the book would be the following: Liver Dumplings, Veal Heart And Lung Soup, and Kidneys With Rice.  There is also one recipe for Chicken And Rice which calls for "1 chicken--using bony pieces: neck, feet, wings, gizzard, liver".  The wording in that ingredient is taken verbatim from the book.  Many of the meat based recipes also call for generous portions of lard.  I am forced to wonder if the 2024 version of the book still calls for lard but I doubt it.  The book also has a large section of recipes for dessert items, cakes, pies, cookies, etc.  For those of you who might not know the term Magyar, it is defined as:

"a member of a people who originated in the Urals and migrated westward to settle in what is now Hungary in the 9th century AD"

 

Basically, Magyars are Hungarians.  For those of you who have spent your entire lives in Central and Southern Appalachia and wonder what connection there is between Appalachia and Magyars or Hungarians there was once a large community of Hungarians in Martin County Kentucky who were brought into the area to staff a large, cooperatively operated coal  mine near Beauty and Lovely on the Tug River.  This is a fascinating little cookbook and you can find your copy at the link above at a considerably larger, but currently standard level, price.  I would love to try the recipes I mentioned above but doubt that I ever will due to changes in my eating habits over the last 6 or 7 years. I was raised on organ meats and love to eat them but I just don't do that anymore.  If any of you readers try the book and recipes, please leave the rest of us a comment about what you learned from the experience.  

 

 

Muskrat For Supper, Ring The Dinner Bell!

 

When I was growing up in Appalachian Kentucky, my family ate nearly everything available with only two exceptions, muskrat and opossum.  We were always told that both were "nasty" and we shouldn't eat them.  Since then I have eaten both although it has been a long time since I ate either.  The firs time I ate muskrat was about 28 years old and working as the broodmare and yearling foreman on a Thoroughbred farm in Lexington, Kentucky, known as The Stallion Station. Our maintenance foreman was an African American man named Harvey "Bull" Jackson.  I will always remember Bull for a variety of reasons but one of the fondest memories I have of him involves the first time I ever ate muskrat.  Bull and I had to come in every Sunday morning with one man each to help us and do the bare minimum work on the farm.  My helper and I had to check on all the horses, do the feeding and turn out or put up whichever horses needed to be moved, and do any treatments for sick horses.  Bull and his helper had to check fences, water lines, etc. and do any necessary repairs.  We got in the habit of meeting for breakfast in the tack room at the foaling barn which had a good table, a hot plate, a sink, and hot and cold running water.  

 

One Sunday morning Bull came in with a big platter of meat all cooked up and set it down on the table and said "I brought breakfast.  Sit down and eat."  When I looked at the meat, I knew it was some kind of wild meat and thought it was probably groundhog which I love.  I've written about eating and cooking groundhog in more than one place on this blog.  I grabbed a leg, took a bite, liked it a lot but could tell that it wasn't groundhog.  "What is this, Bull," I asked.  He responeded, "Ruth cooked that.  Eat that.  It's good."  I finished the first leg, grabbed another and asked again, "What is this, Bull?"  I got the same answer, "Ruth cooked that.  That's good.  Eat that."  I knew Bull's wife Ruth and knew she was an excellent cook so I kept eating.  Finally, when he saw that I was enjoying the meat, he told me, "That's muskrat.  I went out last night to the ponds and shot some muskrats.  Ruth cooked them up for supper and we had that left over.  You like that don't you?"  I told him that I did like it and we finished the pan of meat.  I've been a muskrat lover ever since but I have not had the opportunity to eat a lot of it. 

In my recent blog post about eating groundhog, linked above, I made reference to a cookbook I have called "The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook" which had a couple of groundhog recipes which I mentioned in that blog piece.  It also has recipes for muskrat along with several other species of animals which most people don't eat but which I have found to be very good grub as we say in the mountains of Appalachia.  In their introduction to the section on muskrat the authors of the cookbook say: "In New Orleans and other eastern cities whose restaurants serve muskrat in season, this delicious meat is often listed as "marsh rabbit" to avoid the stigma attached to the word "rat".  It is a pity that the name puts off some people, for the tender, fine grained meat is excellent fare."  The authors of that cookbook are absolutely correct.  I have only been to New Orleans on two occasions and have never seen it on a menu where I have eaten.  I would love to try it in a commercial kitchen there someday.  I also know that in the Detroit, Michigan, area muskrat is commonly eaten and is generally thought to have been rooted in Catholic culture.  History says that in that area "tradition has it, it was during these early years of the 19th century that the humble pastor of Ste. Anne Parish in Detroit, Fr. Gabriel Richard, lobbied for a special dispensation to the region’s residents to consume muskrat throughout the Lenten season." I have also heard it told that in the Detroit area muskrat is commonly served smothered in sauerkraut or with sauerkraut as a side dish.  I've never been in Detroit in my adult years although I have spent several weeks in Michigan over the years in other parts of the state and have never seen muskrat on a menu in the state. I would love to attend the Lenten dinner described in the article linked above.  

My L. L. Bean cookbook has four recipes for muskrat.  The first describes oven roasting muskrat in much the same way Ruth Jackson cooked hers and similar to the way my family has often cooked both groundhog and raccoon.  Their second recipe is for "Marsh Rabbit" New Orleans Style.  They claim this recipe can be used equally well for rabbit, squirrel, groundhog, and beaver.  That recipe mentions "deglanding" the muskrats prior to preparation and I would agree with that idea.  Muskrats are so named because they have musk glands near their rectums and exude musk for purposes of defense, marking territory, and attracting mates and the musk can be quite strong in adult males.  Skinning of muskrats, beavers, or any other mustelids should be done with careful attention to removing those musk glands without damaging them and infusing the meat with the musk.  This second recipe contains several vegetables including carrots, onions, and green peppers. It also include a quarter pound of diced ham.  This recipe is also heavily spiced with a combination of red pepper seeds, cayenne, bay leaves, thyme, marjoram, parsley, salt, and pepper.  It is intended to be simmered for 1 1/2 hours in a Dutch Oven or heavy casserole dish.  Between the many vegetables and the diverse collection of spices, it appears to me that muskrat should become so well disguised that it's distinctive natural taste could well be lost.  The third L. L. Bean recipe is much simpler and called Braised Muskrat.  The only additives are onions, thyme, 1/2 pound of salt pork, and a touch of salt and pepper.  It seems that this recipe would be much more natural in flavor and true to the real muskrat.  The last L. L. Bean recipe is called Basic Sweet-Sour Recipe For Braised Muskrat Or Other Furred Game.  It is reputed to good for several other animals including beaver, squirrel, groundhog, and raccoon.  I have a bit of an issue with any recipe for any product which makes any claim leaning toward its being universally applicable to anything that creeps, crawls, or flies too low over the supper table.  It also includes onions, green pepper, and lard for flavoring.  The spices are salt, pepper, theyme, 1/4 cup sugar, dry mustard, and vinegar.  Once again, this recipe seems to be attempting to mask the natural flavor of the muskrat.  

There are also numerous recipes available on the internet for muskrat ranging from braised and baked to stewed and fried.  If you love wild meat, muskrat should never be avoided.  It is good, pretty, red meat with a nice color and taste.  You can find a recipe which appeals to your individual taste and try it.  It is well worth eating.  Just ask any devout Catholic in Detroit.  

Ground Hog Day, Yum, Yum!

 

Tomorrow, February 2, 2024, will be Groundhog Day just as the second day of February 2 has been every year since February 2, 1887, which coincidentally was just 6 days before my father Ballard Hicks was born. It began in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and has slowly spread all over the nation.  Tomorrow, the mayor and various other public officials in Punxsutawney will be joined by a bevy of media reporters and photographers, and a small crowd of assorted gawkers to learn if their beloved groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, now likely in his 125th or so generation, will or will not see his shadow and will or will not predict six more weeks of winter.  It is a nice little piece of public relations for a relatively small town of roughly 6,000 which brings in a few hundred outsiders once a year to buy breakfast and maybe a tank of gasoline after having spent the preceding night in a local motel.  

But, in my childhood on Beaver Creek in Knott County Kentucky, groundhog day could come on any day of the year when the weather was warm enough for groundhogs to not be hibernating.  We had groundhog day anytime a member of the family was lucky enough to encounter, kill, dress, and cook a nice fat groundhog.  The primary event at our house on groundhog day did not involve standing around and waiting for the local officials to fish a pet groundhog out of its concrete burrow, hold it up in front of an adoring crowd, smile for the cameras, and expound on their interpretation of what that groundhog could not verbalize for itself about the weather.  Our version of groundhog day involved hearing the excited yells of whichever family member had actually bagged a groundhog and was yelling from the yard for the skinning knife and a dishpan in which the dressed meat could be brought into the house.  The primary event on groundhog day at our house was supper and, if we were lucky, groundhog day could happen several times a year.  It was also unlikely to be on February 2nd especially if it was a hard winter and the local groundhogs were still hibernating.  

Sometimes, we got lucky and spotted a groundhog minding its own business within range of a .22 rifle near the house.  Sometimes, our dog might just stray into a groundhog, alert the family, and drive it into its den which we would dig it out of with as few tools as possible.  If necessary, we might have to build a small fire or use a bee smoker to smoke it out of its hole if it was in a particularly rocky spot.  But, whatever the circumstances, when we spotted a groundhog it was lucky if it did not become the guest of honor at supper time.  You literally have not had a fine supper until you have eaten a groundhog baked slowly in the oven with black pepper and sage and surrounded it on the supper table with a pan of cat head biscuits, homemade butter,  shucked beans, new potatoes, and whatever else might be available from the garden, cellar, or among the pantry full of canned goods.  Baking with black pepper and sage was our favorite recipe for ground hog but I have seen many other variants on the best way to cook a groundhog.  

For many years, I have owned a copy of "The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook" by Angus Cameron and Judith Jones.  That book has two recipes for what they call woodchuck, the other prevalent name for the fat fellow we sometimes called Mr. Whistle Pig due to the sharply pitched whistle which they use as a warning cry if they spot or sense danger.  The L. L. Bean cookbook has one great sentence to begin their little section of recipes about groundhogs: "When one considers the number of woodchucks shot each year as varmints it is a pity that so few of them are eaten."  That is a beautiful sentence and sentiment. I have to admit that I have never actually tried either of the recipes in the book but they are both interesting.  The first is "Baked Young Woodchuck In Sour Cream And Mustard".  The second is "Oven-Barbecued Woodchuck Or Muskrat".  That is a wonderful sounding idea and I should have tried it long ago.  And, Yes!, I have eaten muskrat also and it is wonderful when it is prepared properly.  But that is fodder for a whole other blog post.  

A quick search of the internet produces a recipe called "A Groundhog Stew". Another is for "Braised Groundhog Tacos".  Another, under the label "How To Cook Groundhog" calls for a basic stew with vegetables much like a pot roast.  Yet another internet recipe calls for "Buttermilk Fried Groundhog" which could be very interesting with buttermilk made from Old Bossy's fresh milk prepared in grandma's churn.  There are several more easily found and readily prepared groundhog recipes to be found on the internet.  But I must also offer this one word of caution about killing and eating groundhogs.  Sadly, the widespread dissemination of coyotes all over the country has had a directly related reduction in the numbers of groundhogs in most areas.  But, at least once every one of you should try a groundhog for supper on groundhog day at your house.  But you should also consider doing whatever you can to help protect, preserve, and disseminate groundhogs in your area. 

Putting Up Peaches! Freezing.

 

For the past several years, I have bought fresh peaches from a Mennonite friend I know who travels with a truck and trailer to peach orchards in several states and sells peaches from his home in Crockett, Kentucky, in the Mennonite community in which I have so many friends and connections.  We freeze the peaches and use them during the winters for cobblers which are wonderful in cold weather.  We have also begun in the last year to fry peaches just as you would fried apples and they are also a great addition to a country breakfast and a nice flavor break from always eating apples.  Due to both the loss of quite a bit of food value and the extra labor involved, this year we decided to try freezing one half bushel box of peaches with the skins on instead of peeling them.  As a test, we made one cobbler with the first box of peaches we bought a few weeks ago without peeling them and it worked quite well.  I have always eaten fresh peaches skin and all and the idea of eating the skin has absolutely no negative connotations for me.   So yesterday, July 31, 2021, we decided to freeze our second half bushel of peaches with the skin intact.  The amount of waste, especially without hogs or chickens to eat the peelings, is incredibly smaller.  Where we usually have gotten seven bags of peaches, minus the few we eat, cook into a fresh cobbler, and a few to give to an elderly neighbor.  Without peeling the peaches, we got the same amount of eating, fresh cobbler peaches, and give away peaches, but had nine bags for the freezer.  That math makes a lot of sense.  I have to admit that we did not do any research about freezing peaches with the skin on before we attempted this which is not usually our first action.  This morning, after having already frozen the peaches, I have read a few articles on the internet from people who have regularly frozen them with the skin on and they all agree that they like it that way.  But one person said that peaches frozen with the skin on will shed the skin when they are thawed.  We will have to see how that turns out in a month or so when we eat our first bag of frozen peaches.  My niece in Kendallville, Indiana, who has frozen, dried, canned, and preserved food for many years in any way possible says that she uses a hot water bath with peaches to cause them to shed the skins before she freezes them.  We considered doing it that way but decided the extra labor with the hot water made it more attractive to just remove the pits, slice them, and freeze them.  Plus, there were two jobs when I was growing up which I hated with a passion and they were helping can beets and tomatoes because my mother used the hot water bath method to get the skins off the beets and tomatoes and that hot water in a three bushel tub was something that I never came to accept willingly.  I just did not want to repeat the experience with peaches.  

I can't wait until that first fall morning when we have fried peaches as a part of our breakfast. 

"Rosie Hicks and Her Recipe Book" by Donnie Henderson Shedlarz & Edited by Thomas Burton--Book Review

This is the official description of this book on the official website of the editor, Thomas Burton, who is the author or editor of roughly a half dozen other Appalachian books. 

"Rosie Hicks is the deceased widow of Ray Hicks, the internationally known traditional storyteller from North Carolina. She lived in the shadows of all the publications and publicity of Ray; nevertheless, she is an interesting person in her own right. Her life is an engaging story, both as an individual and as a representative of a culture that has for the most part passed away. And that story is told in this little book directly from a series of recorded interviews by Donnie Shedlarz. The book focuses on Rosie’s wonderful anecdotes of growing up in Beech Mountain, North Carolina, including her marriage to Ray; but it also includes the recipes that she kept in an old recipe book, as well as a number of family photographs."  Thomas Burton Website 

The person who conducted the oral history interviews on which this book is based was Donnie Henderson Shedlarz who died of some unnamed lung ailment and asked Thomas Burton, before her death, to finish the work on this little book.  Thomas Burton transcribed the interviews of Ms. Shedlarz and edited the book which was published by Landa Books in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  I am unable to locate an internet website for Landa Books and have to assume that it is no longer functioning or was a purely personal project of Thomas Burton or someone else associated with Ms. Shedlarz.  This book was produced in what must have been a self-publishing, or vanity press, effort and is quite difficult to locate.  I have previously read three others of Thomas Burton's books including one called "Beech Mountain Man" which is an oral history biography of Ronda Lee Hicks, a nephew of Ray and Rosie Hicks who was quite a reprobate in his own right.  Burton had a long standing friendship with several members of the Hicks family and it is not surprising that he would have volunteered to complete the work which Shedlarz, a mutual friend of Rosie Hicks and Burton, had begun.  Shedlarz and Rosie Hicks had become friends during contacts they initially made at story telling festivals around the country where both appeared at times along with Ray Hicks.  

This book is small, brief, and that is its greatest shortcoming.  Rosie Hicks was a fascinating Appalachian woman from a different era, having been born in 1931 in an isolated portion of Western North Carolina where she spent her entire life.  She was a teenager when she married her husband Ray Hicks, who eventually became the most famous Appalachian story teller.  Rosie eventually, because of traveling to story telling festivals with her husband, developed a minor reputation as a story teller also.  But this book does not focus on her story telling although it does contain two brief stories from her repertoire which I will discuss briefly below.  The book is purely an oral history memoir with a sizeable collection of Hicks family photographs and photos of the index card pages of Rosie's personal recipe book.  The text portion of the book is only about twenty-five pages and the entire book is only sixty-one pages.  But it is well worth reading if you can locate a copy.  Burton did a creditable job of sticking to her unique dialect in his transcriptions and the book can shed some light on a few aspects of Appalachian dialect in Western North Carolina.  

There are several old Appalachian folk sayings and riddles in the book along with two short Appalachian Folk Tales from Rosie Hicks' collection.  One is called "Gallymanders" and the other is called "Mule Eggs".  Both are variants of common themes among the folk tales of Appalachia.  I do not pretend to be an expert on Appalachian Folk Tales but I have read and written about one of Leonard Roberts' books of folk tales.  Roberts is considered the best known expert in that area although he has now been dead nearly forty years.  I have to admit that I should read and write further about this important aspect of Appalachian Culture.  For those of you who have had no experience with Appalachian Folk Tales, these two in Rosie's book are a good place to start.  The book also has a sizeable collection of traditional Appalachian riddles.  Although my wife and I have not tried any of Rosie's recipes yet, some of them are worth examining including her Black Magic Cake, Prune Sour Cream Coffee Cake, and Stack Cake.  If you can find a copy of this book, I think there are aspects of it all of you can enjoy.  

A Pretty Good Brand Of Sorghum That Is New To Me

I have written several times on this blog about various brands of sorghum which is one of my favorite foods.  I use it in a variety of ways including eating it in hot cereal, no pancakes and hoecakes, and for cooking at times.  I had run out of my favorite local, Morgan County Kentucky sorghum from Holbrook Brothers recently and actually done without for a couple of weeks since I have seriously worked to minimize my contacts in the world of the Cornona Virus and an uncaring White House.  But we ran out of several things we use regularly about two weeks ago and I took a trip to Save-A-Lot in Sandy Hook, Kentucky, about 25 miles away because they have a newer, larger, more airy store than our local store which is small, tightly packed with narrow, congested aisles and, in today's world, that is not someplace I want to be even with a mask and gloves.  The Sandy Hook store also has a large, well stocked produce department and produce was one of things we needed most.  

I had not even added sorghum to my list before I went to the store and was surprised to see a relatively local brand on a display near the produce section.  The maker is Lloyd Roe Farms in Pomeroyton, Kentucky, in adjoining Menifee County.  Since I had been without sorghum for a couple of weeks, I grabbed a jar and added it to my cart.  I neglected to check it closely but noticed later that it had some granulation visible through the clear glass jar.  When I got it home and tried it, I discovered that it was granulated close to 60%.  I blame this oversight on the fact that at about the same time I grabbed the sorghum I was also beginning to suffer symptoms of some virus or other which dissipated in about three hours and which I am sure was not Coronoa.  I have also seen my local doctor since then and he agrees.  But, when I realized that the sorghum was severely granulated, I knew that I had  bit of mild work to do to reliquify the sorghum.  I did sample the sorghum with a spoon before I tried to reliquify it and found it to be sweet, not bitter, not scorched, and a pretty good variety of sorghum if you discounted the granulation.  My favorite method of reconstituting granulated sorghum or honey is to heat it in a pan of hot water on the stove.  I will place the open jar in enough water to rise about half way up the jar, bring it to a boil and immediately turn the heat off and allow the honey or sorghum to sit in the hot water until it cools to about room temperature.  I check it then to see if it has fully returned to its liquid form.  If not, I repeat the process until it fully back to its liquid state.  The second time sufficed well for this particular jar of sorghum.  Let me say at this point that I also do not hold Lloyd Roe Farms responsible for the fact that the sorghum was granulated even though I know that overcooking sorghum can result in granulation.  But overcooking also usually results in scorching and that is unmistakable by taste or smell.  This sorghum was not scorched and I do not think it was overcooked even the least bit.  I just think the store probably had it in stock too long resulting in the granulation.  I will also say that, at some time in the future, I will locate a freshly cooked jar of Lloyd Roe Sorghum and give it one more honest test.  

After being heated to its liquid state, the sorghum was tasty, sweet, not bitter, not granulated, not scorched and a perfectly acceptable brand of sorghum with only one or two minor points to be discussed.  It was thin and I like thick sorghum which has not been overcooked or scorched.  But the thinness could also be due to having been heated twice in a hot water bath.  The other point I have to bring up is that the jar is a clear glass jar which is about the same height of a regular quart Mason jar in which we find most brands of good local sorghum anywhere in the country.  But, the jar does not have that signature pot belly or bulge in the middle which regular Mason jars have.  As a result this jar, hold what the label says is 35 ounces or .992233 kilograms or 2.1875 pounds which is considerably less than that typical pot bellied Mason jar holds.  Most brands of sorghum I buy in those pot bellied Mason jars are labeled to hold 44 ounces or 1250 grams.  That is a difference of about 9 ounces of product at about the same price as the larger jars of other brands.  For me, and for most other buyers, that is an issue most of us will not ignore.  I leave that to the judgment of the reader.  It is a brand of sorghum which is good enough that I will try it again when I find it ungranulated.  But I would be more willing to try it again if I received that other nine ounces and I bet you would too. 

Sorghum, Eating It, Comparing And Evaluating It

For a little more than a year now, I have been eating sorghum nearly every day in oatmeal at breakfast.  While that is the most consistently I have ever eaten sorghum, it has never been unusual for me to buy, eat, and keep sorghum in my house.  I grew up with sorghum in Knott County Kentucky and one of my fondest memories is of my father taking me with him once when I was about ten years old to buy sorghum where someone was grinding cane with a mule and cooking sorghum at the edge of the field.  For the past twenty-seven years, I have lived in Morgan County Kentucky, the home of the annual Morgan County Sorghum Festival which takes place the last full weekend in September each year. Morgan County is the heart of Kentucky sorghum country although some people in Liberty, Kentucky, the county seat of Casey County in West Central Kentucky, try to make a claim to the title. I must admit that I have never grown cane or actually made sorghum, but I will insist that I am an expert on the subject.  I have eaten three quarts in the last year.  Over the LAST sixty plus years, I have eaten sorghum made in several states, and in several different counties in my native Kentucky.  Deliberately, over the last year, I have chosen to buy different sorghum each time I have bought it and I am now ready to critique and compare these three varieties at least.  

Holbrook Brothers Pure Sorghum--Photo by Holbrook Brothers

For several years, I have been convinced that some of the best sorghum I have ever eaten has been grown and cooked by Holbrook Brothers Pure Sorghum in West Liberty where I live.  Originally, this variety of sorghum was grown and cooked by Dr. William Holbrook, DVM, and his brother Linville Holbrook.  They grew several acres of cane every year and were major influences on the creation and perpetuation of the Morgan County Sorghum Festival.  Sadly, both of the brothers are now dead.  But a second generation son is carrying on the tradition of growing and cooking the best sorghum in the area.  When I buy sorghum, I look for a rich, brown color; a sweet but not overpowering taste; and a level of thickness which shows me that the people running the cooker were both skillful and unafraid to boil the syrup down far enough to achieve that rich color and taste without scorching the product.  I have always said that there are three qualities that should always be avoided when buying and eating sorghum.  Those qualities to avoid are 1) sorghum that is too thin to the point that it runs rapidly off a spoon or a fork at room temperature; 2) sorghum that is mixed with any other form of sugar, syrup, or other additives.  Never, ever buy sorghum which says on the label that it contains any amount of corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose or any other additive or stretcher.  3) scorched sorghum should be never be used for human consumption.  If it has been scorched, it is good only as an additive to animal feed such as sweet feeds for cattle and horses.  There are two early signs that sorghum has been scorched.  The first is the odor when you open the jar.  If it has been scorched, the smell will tell you in an instant if you are an experienced sorghum eater.  The second sign of scorched sorghum is that it will usually be too thick from having been overcooked. But it is also possible to put a fast scorch on it simply by cooking too rapidly with too high heat. While I love thick sorghum, I also hate scorched sorghum.  The operator of the cooker must walk a fine line between achieving that wonderful color, flavor, and thickness and overheating and scorching the product.  If a sorghum producer, at the point of production on the farm, will not provide you a small spoonful to taste test, walk away and look for sorghum elsewhere.  It is also a great idea to look for sorghum which is being made by an active member of the National Sweet Sorghum Producers & Processors Association.  Their members are generally dedicated sorghum producers and fully committed to the art of making high quality sorghum.  Sometimes, such sorghum might be a little more expensive but it will almost always be worth the difference.  They describe their commitment in the following terms: 

• Recapturing and fostering the study of the art and science of sorghum production.
• Developing and disseminating information concerning these subjects to interested parties.
• Encouraging and promoting the combining of the best methods of the old fashioned sorghum maker with the best of today’s technology to make the best possible products from sorghum cane juice. (National Sweet Sorghum Producers & Processors Association)

The second variety of sorghum I have eaten in the past year was made by Oberholtzer's  Kentucky Sorghum.  It can be bought in a variety of stores and even from Amazon.  I have never been to Oberholtzer's production facilities but I can tell you that, based on the large variety of places I have seen it for sale, it is mass produced.  While it has an acceptable taste and color, it is too thin which is common with mass produced product. I have heard the claim made that Oberholtzer's Kentucky Sorghum is made by an Amish family and I have no cause to doubt that because of the German last name.  It is labeled as "Real" and "Not A Blend" and I have no reason to doubt the validity of those statements.  But it is just not the kind of sorghum you can find if you are willing to make a few phone calls, search the Internet diligently, and ask questions of dedicated sorghum eaters in your area.  Take a drive in the country and find a farm family who are raising less than 20 or 30 acres of cane, cooking the syrup themselves according to methods one of them learned from her parents or grandparents, and, if you are really lucky, you will find them sweating over a pan of syrup, stirring it with brand new hoes, and taking a break with a piece of squeezed cane for a snack.  But, if you don't have the time to find your sorghum that way, come to West Liberty, Kentucky, during the last full weekend of September and find a producer who lives locally, speaks with an Eastern Kentucky Appalachian accent, and offers you a free taste whether they think you are a buyer or not.

Oberholtzer's Sorghum Label--Photo by Roger D. Hicks

The third variety of sorghum I have eaten lately is actually made in Monterey, Tennessee by the Mazelin Family.  It is labeled "Pure" and "No Additives".  But I found it at my local Save-A-Lot grocery store which is a sure sign it is mass produced since Save-A-Lot is a fairly large chain with more than a thousand stores. This sorghum has a fairly good taste and color but is too thin which is also a signal that it is mass produced. The Save-A-Lot chain is headquartered in the Saint Louis area more than four hundred miles from Monterey, Tennessee, which is another indicator that the sorghum is most likely mass produced.  I do not have any particular aversion to this variety of sorghum other than the taste and thinness but I doubt that I will ever buy it again unless I run out and can't find one of my favorite varieties.  I do not consider this variety worth recommending although you, as an individual might come to like it.

Mazelin Family Sorghum Label--Photo by Roger D. Hicks

I understand that some veteran sorghum eaters and producers who read this post might disagree with me and I respect that.  If you have a favorite brand of sorghum, please let me know and if I can locate a jar I will definitely try it.  If you are a sorghum producer and have the desire to have me try and write about your product, get in touch with me either through this blog or at my e-mail ( rchicks@mrtc.com )  and we can arrange to have you send me a jar.  I am also always interested in seeing new recipes using sorghum in any form of food but especially in entrees since there are fewer and fewer people cooking with sorghum other than in baked goods.  Now go out in the area near you and find some local sorghum and try it, especially if you have never eaten sorghum.  When you do that, please send me a message or a comment on this blog so all of us can see what you found and your reaction to it. 

FOOD PRESERVATION IN APPALACHIA

Canning, Skinning, Smoking, Pickling, Drying, Etc. 

My post about Hog Killing Time In Appalachia from November of 2013 has been one of my most frequently visited, read, and commented upon posts since I began this blog.  A recent review of the comments on that post has motivated me to write about food preservation in general in Central and Southern Appalachia.  Although I grew up in a small country store with access to a great deal of prepared foods, I also grew up in a family which still grew and preserved most of the food we ate in one way or another. My parents, maternal grandparents, and most of my aunts and uncles had survived the Great Depression and were extremely frugal with both money and any other assets they owned.  We hunted and fished opportunistically.  We would seize the chance to kill and eat a passing game animal and fished when the work around the house was done. We knew what a Hoover Box was and how to make and use one.  We never forgot the Hoover Days and always strove to never have to repeat them.  We had no intentions of living in a Hooverville.  My maternal great-grandfather Hence Hicks was murdered hoeing in a corn field in 1935, the height of the Great Depression, because he had $4,100 hidden in his hat band which he had scraped out of the ground with a hoe one dollar at a time. The last milk cow my maternal grandfather, Woots Hicks, ever owned he bought from my father as a springing heifer and paid Daddy with $90.00 of Roosevelt dimes which he and my grandmother, Susie Allen Hicks, had saved one dime at a time.

Woots and Susie Allen Hicks Photo by Roger D. Hicks

I have always known I was very lucky to have had that kind of childhood and I frequently tell people that I and most of the cousins with whom I grew up, by the time we were grown, could have successfully hunted, killed, dressed, and preserved nearly anything from a field mouse to a bull elephant if that opportunity had presented itself to us.  My parents and grandparents had grown up in the Appalachia of the early twentieth and late nineteenth centuries in a time and place where self sufficiency was the most important skill anyone could possess.  They had grown up, as had all of their ancestors and neighbors, in a world where nearly everyone caught, killed, raised, prepared, and preserved everything they ate as well as most of the items they wore.  As little as possible was wasted of any animal or plant they raised or acquired.  They used a variety of methods to preserve food for the long winters and lean times which might afflict them in the future.  They salted, smoked, dried, preserved, canned, pickled, and much later froze nearly all of their foodstuffs and they taught me most of those techniques. My wife and I recently bought and began using a Food Saver vacuum sealer to help us get longer shelf life from our frozen foods.  We don't garden anymore but we often buy in bulk, especially if items are on sale.  We also regularly buy organic, pasture raised chickens from a local Mennonite farmer and freeze them for the year.  We still make shucked beans every year from beans we buy by the bushel and freeze them after drying to prevent insect infestations. We also buy produce from a local Mennonite farmer and preserve some of that as it is available. We will never totally abandon our Appalachian ways; even though my wife is a native of Wisconsin, she has culturally assimilated quite well to Appalachia over the last 26 years.   

Mountain Smoke House by TNYesteryear.com

When I was growing up we raised large gardens, kept small herds of livestock of most varieties, and hunted and fished especially in an opportunistic manner which was intended to maximize our utilization of the resources which were available within several miles of our homes.  My father and maternal grandfather, Ballard and Woots Hicks both told me of having hunted wild hogs as boys and young men.  They also had worn clothes which were partially or wholly made from the hides, pelts, and wool of domestic and wild animals until the paved highways and railroads began to bring store bought food and clothing to the mountains.  Today, although I might not ever be considered a likely candidate to participate in such a thing, I sometimes see episodes of the popular "reality" television shows which put cast members in situations requiring self sufficiency and survival skills and find myself critiquing their performances and making negative comments about how poorly they hunt, fish, build fires, or find enough food to survive. 

Another Mountain Smoke House Photographer Unknown

I will discuss each method of food preservation with which I was familiar in childhood and I am betting that many of my readers of a similar age and time will know some of the same techniques I was taught.  I also hope these same people will still be practicing many of these techniques.  First I will discuss skinning, scaling, gutting, and preparing meat from a variety of animals both wild and domesticated. We fished and hunted small game on a regular basis in my childhood and fresh fish, turtles, squirrels, rabbits, ground hogs, raccoons, and other game animals, as they became available to us, were regularly seen on our tables.  When we were fortunate enough to catch or kill more than we could eat at one or two meals, we preserved that meat for leaner times.  Most fish were cleaned the same way by scaling, gutting, beheading, and frying within as short a time as possible. Today, I never eat fried foods and do not recommend that method to anyone due to the high levels of cholesterol it contains. We generally skinned catfish. There were times when we might be able to catch more fish than we could eat and when this happened we usually froze the extras since I was born in the 1950's when freezers were already popular.  Extremely large amounts, such as fish caught by gigging, on a trot line or in a trap, might be canned at times.  Canning is a particularly favorable method for dealing with bony fish such as suckers, which we usually caught by either gigging or snagging, since the double cooking of hot pack canning and later preparation tends to reduce small bones to an unnoticeable state.  These types of fish would be scaled, gutted, beheaded, and cut into sections before being placed in half gallon or gallon large mouth jars.  They were then cooked in a hot water bath process which would kill bacteria and preserve the partially cooked food for later complete preparation.  At times, we might also use gigging, graveling, or trot line fishing which could produce large quantities and varieties of fish, turtles, and frogs. In my youth in Eastern Kentucky, it was also not uncommon to know of people who were "dynamiting" fish with about a quarter stick of dynamite tied to a rock and thrown in a hole of water known to be heavily populated. I have also known of a few people who used old Army field telephones in small holes of water to obtain fish.  By dropping the wires from the telephone into the water and cranking it vigorously, you could sometimes generate enough electrical charge to obtain fish from a small hole of water. Also, I have seen a practice used at times for fish that I would never advise anyone to use, poisoning a hole of water with either commercial bagged and powdered garden insecticides such as Sevin Dust or crushed walnut hulls placed in the water at the top of small hole of water.  The possibility of poisoning yourself is far too great to ever do such a thing even in desperation. I am not condoning, approving, or admitting to these practices since all of them are illegal.  I am simply stating a fact that they were common in Eastern Kentucky in the 1950's and 1960's.

Canning Jars Photo by "Make It Do"

We rarely got enough frogs, even by gigging, to need to preserve them.  But, on the rare occasions when we did, they would be skinned, cut up and frozen.  In an earlier time, they might have been smoked although I have never eaten smoked frogs.  We would also skin and save the front quarters of larger frogs which most people do not do today.  Turtles, especially by graveling or hand fishing, were more likely to be caught in large quantities and saved for later.  I have never liked cleaning turtles although I love to eat them.  There are several ways to clean turtles and while some of them might be easier than some of the others in my mind there is no really easy way to clean a turtle.  The way we liked best, and to my mind the easiest, is to boil a large container of water such as a five gallon bucket and simply drop the live turtle into the boiling water which kills it instantly and simultaneously loosens and cleans the skin and shell.  I realize full well that this method will cause the squeamish to become somewhat uncomfortable just as will the wringing of a chicken's neck or the breaking of a rabbit's neck by hand with the creature suspended by the hind feet.  But survival fishing and hunting is never for the squeamish anyway.  But the end result of putting a turtle in boiling water is a simpler, faster, easier cleaning process.  The dead turtle is then slit along the joint between the two halves of the shell and the guts are removed.  Due to the placement of turtles at the bottom of the food chain, we never ate turtle hearts or livers as we did with most other animals.  The head is also removed although I did work for several years with a man who also cooked and ate turtle heads. I will never forget the time I walked into his house and saw a large aluminum pot full of turtle boiling merrily along with a large snapping turtle head floating to the top just as I walked by. After the two halves of the shell are separated and the turtle is gutted, the four legs and tail are detached from the shell and skinned.  Along with the neck, these are the bulk of the meat of a turtle but there are also several tasty, meaty chunks of muscle which attach the individual parts of a turtle to its shell.  These must be removed with a sharp knife one piece at a time.  When I was young, we usually fried turtle, but it is also quite good in soups, stews, and stir fries. One of my favorite seasonal meals is the annual Wild Game Night at Natural Bridge State Park  in Slade, KY, where they usually serve an excellent snapping turtle soup which they prepare in a manner very similar to New England Clam Chowder. I cannot vouch for the soup actually being prepared from scratch in their kitchen.  The park could be buying it frozen in bulk from a restaurant wholesaler.  But it is good turtle soup.  Another more modern method of cleaning turtles involves cutting off the head and placing the nozzle of an air compressor in a hole in the skin and inflating the turtle until it separates from the shell.  But no matter how you kill the animal and separate the two halves of the shell, removing the meat from a large turtle is always a slow, time consuming process.  But the bright side of it all is that no matter how you dispatch and clean the animal, the food involved, with its wonderful and unique taste, is well worth the effort.  The most difficult way to clean a turtle is to simply use a very sharp knife to remove the head and separate the shell and is usually the most common method used by the novice.  The more turtles you clean the more willing you are going to become to find a faster, easier way to do the job.  The meaty, reptilian, and slightly fishy taste of a turtle is wonderful and well worth the work no matter how you clean and cook it. When turtle is properly cooked, you will get both a mild reptilian taste and a reminder of the swamp.  As I do every time I discuss eating turtles and frogs, I feel the need to dispel the common myth that they both "taste just like chicken".  I have said before in another post that anyone who believes this has either never eaten good turtle or frog which was well prepared, does not have the sense of taste to discriminate between simple, clean flavors,  or they have been in the habit of frying everything they eat in the same old, worn out grease.  Frogs taste just like frogs and turtle tastes just like turtle. Neither of them tastes remotely like anything else, especially chicken. The same holds true for alligator.  If you are frying either of them, use clean, new shortening and bread them with a combination of meal and a bit of flour, salt, and pepper, and perhaps garlic,  and you will find the real taste of turtle, frog, or alligator.  I have never caught or killed an alligator and don't expect to do so.  But more than twenty-five years ago, when I was working on the Vision Quest Wagon Trains, I knew a few Seminoles in South Florida who hunted alligators on the Brighton Reservation.

Smooth Soft Shell Turtle Photo By Wichita State University

Also, let me help you dispel your persistent belief in one of the great myths about turtles, that they are vicious and "will eat you alive".  Yes, turtles will bite but if you know how to catch and handle them they are relatively harmless no matter what size they are.  First and foremost, grasp a live, conscious turtle only by the tail.  When you grasp them by the tail, it is physically impossible for them to bite you.  Grab them by the tail, lift them off the ground or out of the water and hold them at arm's length from your body until you have a more permanent place to put them.  If you are hand fishing or graveling, when you stick your hand under the creek bank, rock, or sunken object and realize you have a turtle, the first thing you should do is quickly slide your fingers along its spine.  The bony projections on the spine of a hard shelled turtle will always point toward the tail.  Grab the tail and proceed as above.   Also, remember that soft shell turtles are almost never involved in biting.  You recognize them by their long, thin, nose, and soft, smooth, leathery shell.  They are nearly harmless.  Also, never forget that Alligator Snapping Turtles are on the endangered species list and should never be caught, harassed, harmed, killed, or eaten.  Go to a good wildlife identification guide in your state and learn whether Alligator Snapping Turtles are native to your waters, learn to recognize them and differentiate them from other species in your area, and NEVER harm an Alligator Snapping Turtle in any way.  Also be aware that the Spiny Soft Shell Turtle is also endangered and should never be harmed either.  Follow the same precautions about them that you do for the Alligator Snapping Turtle. 

Common Snapping Turtle Photo By State Of Michigan

I also have little tolerance for those people who discuss eating some form of wild game and then provide a way "to get the wild taste out" such as smoking, soaking in salt water, or making jerky or summer sausage.  In my mind, this is just a way for people who don't like wild game to still claim they eat wild game.  For me, the entire point of eating wild game is to find the unique wild game taste which is natural for each species, learn to enjoy it, and justify killing the animal without basically wasting its meat and life in order to appease a desire to appear to be "doing the wild thing".

Frogs are one of the easiest animals in the entire world to clean.  You simply pick up the frog and using your left hand fold it over so that the point where the hind legs join the back is up in the air.  Then you cut the hind legs off and find a point at the pelvis where you can slip a finger between the skin and flesh.  Then the skin will slide off the legs nearly as easy as popping a grape. Cut off the feet and you are done. For larger frogs, we usually also skinned and ate the front quarters which takes only a bit more work.  You cut off the head, remove the front legs and shoulders from the spine, skin it, and you are done.  There is less flesh on the front legs but on a large bullfrog there is far too much to waste.  I prefer my frogs fried much as I would a turtle. But I repeat I no eat fried foods due to the excessive amounts of cholesterol frying produces. Frogs are also good broiled, and cooked in soups. stir fries, and stews.  And, to repeat myself, they do not "taste just like chicken".  At times, I have also eaten frogs freshly caught, skinned, and simply broiled on a stick over an open fire within a few feet of the water in which they were caught. There is nothing better than a broiled frog which was alive ten minutes before it was eaten.

American Bullfrog Photo By MDC Discover Nature

Nearly all small game animals are cleaned the same way but might not be cooked exactly alike.  In nearly all cases, you skin the animal by beginning with a slit in the abdomen, peel off the skin while losing as little flesh as possible, cut off the feet and head, remove the viscera, retain the heart, liver, and perhaps the lungs if you are not too squeamish, and prepare the animal in the style you like best.  But there are a couple of exceptions to this general rule.  With squirrels, you never throw away the head.  It is the best part of the squirrel with the unique taste of the tongue and brain.  Just skin the animal and cut off the ears and nose, remove the eyes and cook the head with the rest of the animal. Some people even eat squirrel heads with the eyes intact but I have never done it.  I have generally not eaten heads from other small game animals but I am sure they are nearly as good as squirrel heads based on how many I have seen Andrew Zimmern eat on television. Squirrels are also sometimes cleaned in a faster, simpler way than other small game.  It is possible to cut the tail from the spine without removing it entirely.  You then place a foot on the tail, grasp the squirrel by the hind legs and pull.  This will generally result in removing the skin along the entire back and part of the sides.  The remaining skin can just be slid neatly off the belly and legs with a small cut here and there. I prefer squirrels cooked in a pressure cooker since they have little to no fat and can become tough if they are not cooked properly.  Then I like to make cream gravy over them and serve them with fresh new peas and biscuits which is a wonderful meal.

Grey Squirrel Photo By Geneblitz

 Ground hogs have musky glands under their armpits which need to be removed which will give the meat a strong, musky taste if they are left intact. I prefer ground hog baked with salt, pepper, and a bit of sage. But younger ones can be fried with success. Another beauty of ground hogs is that they are purely vegetarian and the meat is exceptionally clean in comparison to other animals which sometimes scavenge or even kill smaller animals for food. My mother, when my father had stopped hunting and I was too young to hunt, used to actually pay other older local boys for ground hogs because she loved them so well.  It is also interesting that her parents for several years had a pet ground hog in their home on Rock Fork.  He actually stayed with them for several years and would leave in the fall to go a short distance to hibernate and would suddenly reappear when the ground began to warm up in the spring.

Groundhog Photo by Pestworld.org

Opossums should not  be killed immediately upon capture if possible.  Since they are a bottom tier scavenger and will eat carrion they should be caged and fed fresh fruit, preferably persimmons, for a few days to clean out their system before killing, skinning, and eating. But if you do not have persimmons handy, you can use apples, pears, or any fruit available. Sweet potatoes also work well for cleaning out an opossum. This will result in much better tasting meat. Most opossums are also quite fatty and greasy.  They are best baked over a rack to allow drainage of as much of the fat as possible.  Most of the people I knew as a child baked opossum seasoned with salt, pepper, and sage and baked it alongside sweet potatoes which they say improved the meal.  Raccoons are often the largest small game animal available in Appalachia and a good sized raccoon can sometimes weigh thirty pounds or more.  This means you might have enough meat to freeze half for later.  They are also wonderful baked, barbecued, or stewed.  Rabbits are generally the easiest of the small game animals to clean.  You can simply pick the animal up in one hand along the skin of the back, cut a hole in the skin large enough to insert a couple of fingers, and pull in each direction toward the head and tail.  The entire skin will slide off as easy as pie.  Remove the head, feet, tail, and guts and bingo, the rabbit is ready to wash and prepare. Rabbit hearts and livers are also quite tasty. I love the iron rich taste of nearly all organ meats. Rabbit is probably the cleanest tasting, least gamey meat in the woods and many people who will not touch raccoon, muskrat, or opossum love rabbit.  It can be prepared fried, broiled, boiled, used in soups, stews, or nearly any way you might cook chicken.  But please remember, it does not "taste just like chicken".  With rabbits and squirrels, it is also often possible to get more than you can eat depending on the bag limits in your state.  In that case, clean, quarter, wash, and freeze the extra in meal sized quantities.  You can do the same with any other small game animal if you have more than you can eat on the day you kill them.  Muskrat is wonderful food and my family never ate them.  In my late twenties, I was a Thoroughbred horse farm foreman in Lexington and worked with a maintenance foreman named Harvey "Bull" Jackson who finally exposed me to muskrat.  It can be prepared in most ways you would prepare groundhog or raccoon and it is wonderfully clean, tasty meat. Muskrats are pure vegetarians and this contributes to the clean taste of the meat. One of my most treasured memories is of the Sunday morning Harvey Jackson and I were working and he brought in muskrat he had killed the night before and had his wife, Ruth, prepare for our breakfast in a tack room before we went out to work.  Always remember that muskrats must be cleaned without breaking the musk glands near the anus.  They must be removed without puncturing and will seriously ruin the flavor if left on the animal.  I have seen recipes from Michigan in which muskrats are baked with sauerkraut.  It is not appetizing to me at all even though I like sauerkraut in other ways, but you might try that if you do not like them baked, fried, boiled, or stewed.
  
I have never eaten guinea, goose, porcupine, or armadillo but I have been told by others that all three are good eating.  I live in an area where a few people keep guineas and sooner or later I will buy one and try it.  It might be a little more difficult to find goose but I will get there.  As for porcupine and armadillo, the finding might be even more difficult since neither of them is available in Eastern Kentucky.  I have seen armadillos on a regular basis in the deep south in Georgia, Alabama, Texas, and Florida but I never met anyone who regularly ate them.  It is also wise to remember that the armadillo is the only animal species that can transmit leprosy to humans.  But modern scientific advances have made leprosy easily curable.  So enjoy your armadillo at the next opportunity.  The only porcupine I have ever seen in the woods was in Pennsylvania at a state park called Pit Hole City.

Pit Hole City, a former oil drilling boom town which had completely disappeared over time, was being developed into a park at the time I saw the porcupine.  Candice and I had not been dating very long at that time and we went there to hike and have a picnic.  The woods were quiet and peaceful and we both lay down in the leaves and went to sleep.  Suddenly we were awakened by a rather heavy rustling in the leaves behind our heads.  We had gone to sleep within three feet of a game trail and a large porcupine came sauntering through within a couple of feet of our head.  It ran up a nearby tree when we awoke and jumped up.  I have always thought we were lucky that neither of us made physical contact with the animal when we awoke.  Someday, I hope to find a porcupine in a situation where I can eat it since I have read in numerous places that they are very good eating.

I have also never eaten beaver but they have returned to Eastern Kentucky over the last few years and I have a friend who traps them regularly during trapping season.  He has promised to save a carcass for me after he has salvaged the hide which he sells as a source of income.  I have read that old trappers loved the beaver tail and often lived primarily on those during trapping seasons.  I can't wait to try beaver.  Another word to the wise, if you do decide to eat beaver, remember they also have large musk glands near the anus and those should never be broken during the skinning process.  

These are a few of the wild foods I love best and I hope you love them too.  Always obey the game laws, respect bag limits and seasons, never kill anything you don't intend to eat, and never allow yourself to refuse to try a new food source just because you have never had it.  Bon appetit!