I hate the little buggers. I waited up last night for one that started getting into the trash. He showed up around 01:30 and the little .410 double ended his trash picking days. I don't know what it is about them but I just find them revolting.

We see a lot more raccoons around here than we do possum. Possums rarely get into anything and don't normally cause problems. But when they do, I remove them through judicious application of rule #7-1/2.

When I lived in the south I used to hear people joking about eating them. I wouldn't eat one unless I was one foot in the grave with starvation.

Any possum eaters out there?

Never ate possum, but live in the city. The occasional fox will come through the neighborhood. Mainly stray crats digging through the dumpsters. .410 sounds like it did a good job

Opossum are indeed eaten and supposedly fine fare. Shot some myself but never ate any.

Possums are fine fair, but like all wild game a lot has to do with the proper processing of the game.

Possum recipes.

LOUISIANA 'POSSUM AND YAMS

1 med. possum
6 med. yams

Season well with salt, black pepper and cayenne. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar and 1 cup water. Cover and place in refrigerator overnight. When ready to cook, place in pot with 1 quart water. Simmer about 1 1/2 hours. Remove from pot and place in a shallow baking dish. Slice yams lengthwise. Place yams around 'possum. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar on yams. Pour 1 cup of liquid from pot over 'possum. (Remove excess fat first.) Bake in moderate oven (300 degrees F.) until yams are done and 'possum is tender.


ROAST POSSUM WITH SWEET POTATOES.

1 possum
Salt and pepper
1 pod red pepper
1 sweet potato per person

Simmer possum until partially done, changing the stock a couple of times according to age and amount of wild taste. Add a piece of red pepper in the final simmer. Place possum in roaster. Add small amount of water. Sprinkle possum with flour and baste with fat, if necessary. (Usually fat on possum is sufficient.) Surround by small sweet potatoes and bake until possum and potatoes are browned. Cooking time, from 1 to 2 hours at 350 degrees.


Possum and Taters

Ingredients:
1 young, fat possum
8 sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sugar
salt

Directions: First, catch a possum. This in itself is excellent entertainment on a moonlight night. Skin the possum and remove the head and feet. Be sure to wash it thoroughly. Freeze overnight either outside or in a refrigerator. When ready to cook, peel the potatoes and boil them tender in lightly salted water along with the butter and sugar. At the same time, stew the possum tender in a tightly covered pan with a little water. Arrange the taters around the possum, strip with bacon, sprinkle with thyme or marjoram, or pepper, and brown in the oven. Baste often with the drippings.


Stuffed Possum

1 possum (whole)
1 qt. cold water
1/8 cup salt
5 beef bouillon cubes
2 bay leaves
3 celery stalks (chopped)
2 onions (sliced)
1 bag packaged stuffing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Soak possum in cold salt water for 10 hours. Rinse meat in cold water and refrigerate 2-4 hours. Prepare stuffing according to package directions. Stuff possum cavity with prepared packaged stuffing. Close cavity tightly. Place stuffed possum in roasting pan, add water, bouillon cubes, bay leaves, celery and onion. After 2 hours turn meat. Reduce heat to 300 degrees. Cook for 1 more hour. Test roast, if not done reduce heat and cook until done.

Al

Got a small one out in the live trap tat came last night.

don't know where they all are coming from that is now 6 since Christmas. Going to start using them for coyote bait.

Al

quote:

Originally posted by alleyyooper:
Got a small one out in the live trap tat came last night.

don't know where they all are coming from that is now 6 since Christmas. Going to start using them for coyote bait.

Al

Good luck on that. I've never seen anything (except humans) eat a possum.

I remember a recipe a neighbor told me in North Carolina. I just found it online:

SOUTHERN BAKED POSSUM (OPPOSSUM) WITH SWEET TATERS

1 fat possum
Salt & pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 c. water
5 strips bacon
2 lg. onions
1 tbsp. celery leaves
1 lg. can mushrooms
5 lg. sweet taters, cut in halves
3 tbsp. lard
1 tbsp. chopped parsley

Nail head of possum to a board, just a little larger than the possum. Skin it. Make paste of lard, salt, pepper and rub over entire possum. Fill cavity with onions, garlic, chopped parsley and celery leaves. Place possum and board on rack in roasting pan. Lay 5 strips of bacon across breast. Add water and mushrooms. Add water as needed. Surround the possum with sweet taters. Leave uncovered.

Bake in oven (300 to 350 degrees) until tender. Baste every 15 minutes.
To determine when done, pull leg away from body.

When done, throw away the possum and eat the board.

I've ate possum, coon, and muskrat. They are all fine if you take care of the meat. Muskrat is almost sweet. Coon is alot like bear. Don't remember but the possum was probably like chicken. No seriously I can't remember what the possum was like.

God Bless, Louis

Way back when Dad carried the mail here in central La. folks were allowed to mail things in a paper bag with the top rolled down and taped shut. One day an old woman met him on the road with such a package, so Dad told her he had to know what was in the sack. She said it was a 'possum and sweet 'tater plate she wanted to mail to her son in California. Always wondered what shape it was in when and if it arrived.

As a side note 'possums carry a parasite in their gut which can infect a horse's nerveous system if the 'possum poops in the feed trough. Totally disables the horse, have to put it down. 'Possums die around here. GW

Never shot one; never ate one. Ran over one Tuesday morning an the way to work........

You wonder why they're revolting? I remember when we were kids wandering around in the woods and would find a cow carcase. We'd take sticks and beat on the ribs to see a couple of 'possums run out of the rear end. GW

quote:

When I lived in the south I used to hear people joking about eating them. I wouldn't eat one unless I was one foot in the grave with starvation.

I would just go ahead and die.

We have them get into the feed barrels on a regular basis, and if I catch them I do not waste even .22 shells, I grab them by the tail and slam them against the ground a time or two and that finishes the job.

Growing up in north Texas, during the summer I remember from when I was a kid, driving up to a dead cow and a half dozen of them sleepy-eyed sunsabitches running out of the ass of that carcass.

I've eaten them and they are ok at best. Need to get the glands out and par boil to get some of the fat out. I wouldn't go out of my way to eat one but it's not terrible.

Some of my farmer ancestors lived out in the sticks near Possum Kingdom before there was a lake built there. I never heard a single one ever mention they knew of anyone one eating a possum, raccoon or armadillo.
There is an old photo my grandfather in the 1930s where he is holding a couple of really big catfish on a sand bar in the Brazos River. In the back ground on the sand bar was an old magneto crank telephone.

quote:

Pour 1 cup of liquid from pot over 'possum. (Remove excess fat first.)

quote:

Skin it. Make paste of lard, salt, pepper and rub over entire possum.

quote:

Need to get the glands out and par boil to get some of the fat out

Holy crap, I have put some nasty stuff in my mouth over my brief 43 years, but the thought of rendered possum fat literally made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

mmm mmm, possum grease on a soda cracker, sticks to the roof of your mouth a little bit, but you can save that for your late day snack

I've eaten lizards, snakes, rats, mice, bats, monkeys, armadillos, and much, much more. But I cannot stomach the idea of eating a possum. If it was a matter of survival I'd wait for the maggots and beetles to show up on the carcass and I'd eat those instead.

EPM is the disease that Possum's can transmit to horses. It's Neurological, but treatable.

Has anyone else heard the term "grinners" applied to the o'possum? It's a term that fits for sure.

lc

I have never been that hungry, nasty bastards!

.

After years of Pogo comics I would never think of eating them.!

Gren, you know the source of possums in the Pacific Northwest was the workers from the South who were hired to build liberty ships at the Kaiser Shipyards in Portland. Prior to World War II there were no possums in this part of the country. Agree they are kind of revolting to stumble on in the dark.

Guys, why the hate for possums?

They are cute fruit eaters that live in trees...

Cute?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjChbYf2y5E

quote:

Originally posted by Ghubert:
Guys, why the hate for possums?

They are cute fruit eaters that live in trees...

Not a U S opossum.

None of those snouts look long enough for a Va. possem! Great Grandad had a possem pen behind the chicken coop, when he cought one he penned it and corn feed it two weeks before cooking.
Aaron

quote:

Some of my farmer ancestors lived out in the sticks near Possum Kingdom before there was a lake built there.

I never heard a single one ever mention they knew of anyone one eating a possum, raccoon or armadillo.

There is an old photo my grandfather in the 1930s where he is holding a couple of really big catfish on a sand bar in the Brazos River. In the back ground on the sand bar was an old magneto crank telephone.

I grew up in the area just north and west of PK, I do not EVER remember hearing of ANYONE eating those greasy bastards.

Have any of you ever heard the old tale that possums bred thru their nostrils????

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
Have any of you ever heard the old tale that possums bred thru their nostrils????

Do opossums really mate through the nose? This is a myth that has been around for ages and has become so prevalent that I actually have seen a few websites about opossums which state it as a fact. The truth is, there is no truth to it. The whole crazy idea seems to have come about because the male opossum has a bifid (forked) penis, and the only corresponding parts on the female appeared to be the nostrils. The myth states that after mating through the nose, the female later sneezes the tiny fetuses into her pouch. Rather than indicating what a unique animal the opossum is, this story actually just reveals how bizarre some people are in what they can imagine. In reality the male has a bifid penis because the female has two uteri (wombs), and sperm are deposited into each womb during copulation. But mating occurs through the vaginae (sic), not through the nose.

Amazing what you may learn from Google.

Samm