For every occasion… page 29 of “North Carolina Wild Game Cookery.”
I’ve posted a couple of times about recipes found in our North Carolina State Publications Collection, usually around the holidays, but today I present to you a newly digitized volume that beats all former posts like Michael Phelps swimming against a pool of puppies: North Carolina Wild Game Cookery.
This short booklet, published sometime during the 1970s, helps you prepare whatever game you might have ready for supper. Bear Roast, Catfish Jubilee, Bagged Quail, Pigeon Pie, and Venison Stroganoff are just a few of the dishes included. Pages 28 , 29 , and 30 have lists of suggested menus, for occasions when you “have an appetite for bear,” or are interested in a “novelty dinner” of stuffed possum and buttered cabbage. I know it isn’t hunting season in North Carolina for most of these animals, but since these types of recipes aren’t found in your typical grocery store checkout aisle I figured I could present them here now for you to keep on hand for later.
I would also like to point out “Jim Graham’s Tar Heel Brunswick Stew.” Jim Graham was North Carolina’s Commissioner of Agriculture at the time this booklet was published. Brunswick Stew, for those who aren’t from ’round here, is a stew served in the South that typically features lima beans and corn as well as multiple types of meat in a slightly sweet tomato base. Jim Graham’s version includes a stewing chicken and 1 pound of additional red meat (veal, beef, goat or squirrel are suggested). If you don’t make your own stew, you can often find it where BBQ is sold or at restaurants offering traditional Southern home cooking.
We grew interested in this book with recent discussions around the Library and Archives related to Slow Poke the possum, about whom we now have a fantastic NCpedia article that links to photos from the Archives. Thankfully, Slow Poke was neither stuffed, broiled, fried, nor otherwise cooked while he enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame … although his chances at times looked bleak. My colleague Mike Childs will be filling you in about Slow Poke on this blog at some point in the future, so stay tuned!
If your family has a wild game recipe you can share, leave it in the comments below. We’d love to see more recipes like these.
