Wild Game Roasted Opossum

roasted opossum

(from Mrs. Elliott's Housewife: Containing Practical Receipts in Cookery, by Sarah A. Elliott, 1870)

"FAVORITE DISH WITH CHAPEL HILL STUDENTS IN OLDEN TIMES."​

Ingredients:

1 possum​

salt & water bath​

weak red pepper water​

3 slices of bacon​

small sweet potatoes​

salt​

butter​

pepper​

dry sage​

​

Needed for Optional Stuffing:​

bread crumbs​

salt​

butter​

pepper​

sage​

Instructions:

After having the possum nicely cleaned, put it in salt and water for six hours. Rinse it well, and put it in an oven with weak red pepper water, and give it one boil up. Prepare a dressing of bread crumbs, salt, butter, pepper, and a little sage, if you wish to stuff it like a pig; if not, put it in an oven or stove pan, with one pint of water, and three nice slices of bacon on the possum, and bake it. When it is nearly done, place small sweet potatoes around it, and add more water (from the kettle) if it is needed, and bake it until well done, and the potatoes soft. Put butter, pepper, dry sage, and salt on it, place it in the centre of a flat dish and put the potatoes around it. Serve it with Worcester or Odenheimer sauce when it is cold. It is a rich dish, and seldom eaten hot.​

Artwork - by Frank E. Beddard in 1902, Public Domain​

 

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That should be an easy dish for an reenactment, possums aren't very rare .......