Chownings Tavern Brunswick Stew
 

I for the most part followed the Colonial Williamsburg “Chownings Tavern Brunswick Stew” recipe . I’d wanted to replace the chicken they call for with tree rats but good intentions or laziness didn’t provide me with enough squirrels . So in their place I used pheasant thighs . And to be honest , for a first try it isn’t to bad . First pick was as it was simmering and the second the finished product . I still wanna try this with tree rats ,maybe next season .

I've always wanted to try muskrats and this sounds like a good possibility for them.





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Doubt you will like Marsh Rabbit. Pretty gamey

Only thing you could say in their favor is that a Priest downriver from Detroit proclaimed muskrats to be a fish so they could be eaten on Friday

Black folks on the Eastern Shore were said to eat them when I hunted a fair amount over there .

My thought that the stuff tasted halfway decent musta been true as the pot Lickers at the shop all made multiple trips .

Don't know what the economics are today, but a while back, carcasses were bringing more than the pelts.

Actually I've had Muskrat and they were pretty good. We had a farm outside of Smithville, Dorchester County, MD and it was a very small enclave of black descendants of slaves. Wonderful people they were and every weekend after Thanksgiving their church would put on a supper and Muskrat was on the menu. They cooked it cacciatore style. We used to give them lots of ducks, geese and rabbits but they actually preferred those Marsh rabbits. We had over 1000 acres of marsh and they had exclusive rights to trap them so they did us a favor.

Musk rats are fine for a stew. You stew them all up with all sorts of nice veggies, toss the whole thing in the dog dish and eat the pot!!

There are plenty of good critters to eat in this world, without have to eat a musk rat.....

I hope I don't live long enough where that becomes an attractive option.... :D

There is or was a fellow name of TJ Jenkins that ran a small outfitting buisness in Dorchester County called “Muddy Marsh Outfitters” . I bow hunted with him several times . His center of operations was down close to the lower Dorchester County I suppose you’d call it dump facility . TJ is originally from Bath County VA . Anyway he told me he and the guy that worked with him had trap lines in the marsh they leased for nutria but they caught a pile of muskrats as well . He also told me they sold the muskrats to local black folks for about $1 a piece . That was about 25 years ago , so he may bot be trapping anymore .