Kid,
Ate a number of porkys going through high school. Gave a couple to a friend that had his inlaws over for rabbit. Everyone liked it. Cook it the same as rabbit. If someone turns their nose up wait an hour or 2 it will smell better.

showed up for deer season one year with 64 muskrats ( marsh hare). We hadm fried, stewed and left over.

A buddy hung the entire porky over a roaring fire hung by wire he found on a log tripod. He got this information from a survival book.

The thing smelled like buring chicken feathers.

I talked him out of eating it as we were hours from a phone.

The porcupine we have here are very tasty, you just cook it up as you would a leg of lamb. Potatos, garlic and rosmary.

As to the spines, you can pull the skin off while it's still warm and it brings the smaller quills out with it. The larger ones you just pull out like feathers.

I'm not sure that we are talking about the exact same animal here though.