A heapin’ helpin’ of groundhog pie

Image via Wikipedia

So ol’ Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow yesterday, and thus, according to Pennsylvania Dutch folklore, we must endure six more weeks of winter. 

I don’t know why we hold out such hope for an early spring — indicated by a groundhog, a climatologist, or any other animal — because who ever lived through a Northeastern winter, with its dead-end, frozen-muck March, could entertain notions of a real spring before Tax Day? You want an early spring? Move to Hilton Head.

But if you feel so betrayed by the groundhog, eat him. According to Recipe Girl: 

Woodchucks, groundhogs, whistle pigs, pasture pigs, whatever you call them, have dark meat with a mild flavor and adapt readily to any squirrel or rabbit recipe. The fat is unobjectionable, but generally removed anyway. The ‘chuck has scent glands high on the inside of the forelegs and in the small of the back, which must be removed. Generally only the older animals are parboiled or soaked before cooking, although some cooks soak woodchucks as a matter of course in cold salted water for 6 to 12 hours.

I’ve never had woodchuck; I’d try it, but don’t seek it. Woodchuck cuisine was once good enough for the late, great Gourmet magazine, which offered a recipe for Creamed Woodchuck back in 1942 (perhaps war-time rationing led to this). But as recently as 2008, the NY Times presented a recipe for Woodchuck au Vin. How about Woodchuck Pie? 

Of course, none of these recipes actually tell you how to obtain “1 woodchuck, dressed and cleaned of scent glands.” A “dressed” woodchuck is a dead woodchuck, but the recipe narrative always begins after the difficult part is over, doesn’t it? 

via Groundhog / Woodchuck Recipes.