Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[Lou66]

Bird,, possum you need to boil it first to get the grease out of it.. then fry it.. Now that I can afford other meats, possum is the last on the list.. behind rat and dog.:laughing:. Lou

 

[robbyr]

In the seventies, we had armadillo a few times. Once barbecued on a pit, once on a rotisserie. I remember getting off school bus and making armadillo sandwich. It was good and I generally don't like wild meat. Then we started hearing they carry leprosy so haven't had any since. The only deer meat I ever liked was if my wife cooked it and I had a big pan of gravy to go with it. Still prefer beef.

 

[jinman]

...My mother said dad brought in a possum once for her to cook, but he had skinned it out right on over the head and mother said that skinned head that looked like it was grinning was too much for her and she refused to cook it...

My grandmother could not cook a skinned squirrel. She said the carcass (when headless) reminded her too much of a tiny baby. Just looking at it made her mind conjure up horrible unthinkable things. However, we had two ponds full of bullfrogs and my mom would gladly fry up a mess of frog legs if we got enough for a meal. 8-10 nice sized bullfrogs would make a good meal. We did have to skin and clean them as well as cut the tendon behind the knee so the legs wouldn't jump out of the frying pan while being cooked.

Brandi, I'm thrilled to hear you are doing so much better. We are a tight-knit group here. When one of us feels bad, we all suffer a bit out of sympathy.

 

[jinman]

...The only deer meat I ever liked was if my wife cooked it and I had a big pan of gravy to go with it. Still prefer beef.

I can tell you for sure that there is a huge difference in Texas deer meat and Pennsylvania deer meat. It's all in what they have in their diet. A US Navy buddy of mine went from San Diego back to PA for a deer hunt. He boned all his buck, wrapped the meat in small quantities in butcher paper with labels, then, he froze the meat solid in a freezer. On the day he was to fly back to SD, he wrapped all the individual pkgs in newspaper and but them in a Navy seabag. I picked him up at the airport and took him to our shared apartment. When we opened the seabag, I was shocked to find the meat still frozen solid. From that meat, we had several dishes, but I made some venison scallopini that tasted almost like veal. There was no wild taste and easily cut with a fork.

 

[Lou66]

Jim that is true about a deer diet,, When I was a kid we live next to family that grew soybeans and alfalfa,, the deer we took off his place was about as good of meat I have had.. Never was a trophy hunter,, young buck or doe,, yearning is all I would kill.. I know they would come in at night and have to kill 30 to 40 deer,, would take them to the prison in McAlester,, they process them for the prisoner I guess.. Mr. Gibson hated deer,, they could eat his fields up in a couple of weeks if not stopped.. Game Warden in that part of the county hated them too.. he spend many nights trying to find somebody to help him kill them and haul them to the prison.. I help a couple times but just wasn't my cup of tea.. Deer season in Oklahoma was 9 days and you were allowed one buck.. But you could kill them on your own place anytime during the year as long as you didn't cross a boundary line or sell the meat.. I don't know what the law is now.. Lou

 

[Bird]

My grandmother could not cook a skinned squirrel. She said the carcass (when headless) reminded her too much of a tiny baby. Just looking at it made her mind conjure up horrible unthinkable things. However, we had two ponds full of bullfrogs and my mom would gladly fry up a mess of frog legs if we got enough for a meal. 8-10 nice sized bullfrogs would make a good meal. We did have to skin and clean them as well as cut the tendon behind the knee so the legs wouldn't jump out of the frying pan while being cooked.

Brandi, I'm thrilled to hear you are doing so much better. We are a tight-knit group here. When one of us feels bad, we all suffer a bit out of sympathy.

Jim, I can barely remember the old doctor who delivered me, as well as my brothers and sisters. His office was the front room of his house, there were big pecan trees in the yard, and he kept some squirrels in a cage in the back yard. When we were kids and went to see him, he'd give us some shelled pecans to feed the squirrels in the cage. And I remember my Mother saying that he once told her he couldn't eat a squirrel because it just looked too close to a human body. I never heard of anyone else noticing or thinking that.

And I also remember when a frog leg that kicked in the skillet caused my mother to refuse to cook anymore frog legs for quite awhile. Dad was finally able to convince her that we'd always remove the nerve that caused that so it wouldn't happen again.

 

[dave1949]

Jim, I can barely remember the old doctor who delivered me, as well as my brothers and sisters. His office was the front room of his house, there were big pecan trees in the yard, and he kept some squirrels in a cage in the back yard. When we were kids and went to see him, he'd give us some shelled pecans to feed the squirrels in the cage. And I remember my Mother saying that he once told her he couldn't eat a squirrel because it just looked too close to a human body. I never heard of anyone else noticing or thinking that.
<snip>

I guess you could say the doctor had seen his share of squirrely people.

 

[Bird]

I guess you could say the doctor had seen his share of squirrely people.

There is no doubt about that. I have a Carter County (Oklahoma) History book that was published in 1957 and talks some about Dr. H. A. Higgins, born in 1874 in England and came to this country when he was 18. He practiced medicine in the Ardmore area for more than 50 years, making house calls on horseback in the early days.

 

[dave1949]

There is no doubt about that. I have a Carter County (Oklahoma) History book that was published in 1957 and talks some about Dr. H. A. Higgins, born in 1874 in England and came to this country when he was 18. He practiced medicine in the Ardmore area for more than 50 years, making house calls on horseback in the early days.

That's some history. Those old county history books have some fascinating stories that bring local history to life.