Mama Leila's Hand Me Down Oven Baked Possum

Wild Possum

Yikes

Remember that trip we took back in October to the South? Such fun. The food was incredible. One of my favorites? The oven baked possum.  Unforgettable.  Thought about it for weeks after we returned.  Last week, I was craving a piece of possum, and finally found a recipe in one of my treasured cookbooks: "White Trash Cooking" by Earnest Matther Mickler.  I barbecued the little critter, instead of baking, but you get the general idea. The only hard thing about making this dish is catching a possum. Lucky for me, my hubs is a bow hunter.
Love it. I know you will too.
Happy first day of APRIL.



Mama Leila's Hand Me Down Oven Baked Possum
White Trash Cooking, Earnest Mickler

1 possum
salt and pepper
vinegar
brown sugar
bacon fat
2 onion, chopped
sweet potatoes

After you harvest the possum, be careful not to let him get away.  While you're talking  and planning how you are going to eat him, he's going to be slipping right from under your nose. All he was doing was playing possum.
Skin and clean him, before he goes another foot, so he won't get away. When you get him home, rub salt and pepper all over his body, then run a mixture of vinegar and brown sugar over the salt and pepper.  Wrap up the possum in a good baking pan and let it stand in the refrigerator overnight.
The next morning, put the pan with the possum still in it (hopefully) on top of the stove.  Add 2 or 3 spoons of bacon fat and sear hi on all sides.  Then add chopped onion.  Put in oven and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Pull him out and roll him over, and now you can add your sweet potatoes (just surround him with 'em).  Put back in oven and bake for another 1 1/2 hours or until he is tender and juicy.

Tip from Mama Leila: "Possum is tender and mild regardless of what other people might think, you just have to watch 'em cause they'll slip away."

Happy April Fools Day  :)

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