MUSKRAT This is a sample recipe page from Recipe Girl. View ALL RECIPES Spice Up Your Recipes With Uncle Steve's:  Dried Chiles     Chile Powders     Grow Your Own Hot Spice With Uncle Steve's: Hot Chile Pepper Seeds Another true fur bearer, the muskrat (also known in restaurants and in some areas as "marsh rabbit," although there is a true swamp or marsh rabbit) is noted for its clean food habits. It's a vegetarian and as such seldom eats anything to give an off-flavor to its dark meat, but it can carry tularemia. The fat is unpleasant and should be removed. This is most easily done if the skinned and cleaned carcass (it has musk glands, too, which should be removed) is refrigerated overnight. This hardens the fat and makes it easier to peel off. The muskrat, even a young one that will weigh about 1 pound and serve 2 people, should be soaked overnight at least, in 2 or 3 baths of water with 1 tablespoon salt per quart, or use 1 cup vinegar to each quart of water. Older, larger specimens will reach 3 pounds in weight and require longer soaking. Incidentally, the muskrat fur, after the long guard hairs were plucked off, was at one time called "Hudson seal" -- a favorite fur of fashionable women earlier in the century. Jacqueline E. Knight As muskrat is mainly herbivorous, its flesh is sweet and palatable, similar to rabbit, although darker, and is fine grained. It can be delicious roasted, broiled, braised or stewed. They should be skinned and cleaned as soon as possible, then washed in warm salted water. Be sure to remove all the musk glands from inside the legs as well as the white tissuet skin and all the fat. Soak the meat in a weak brine for 2-3 hours to draw out the blood before cooking. Try them: dredged in seasoned flour and pan fried with sliced onions. battered and deep fried. Or ground in a meat loaf. From: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

================================ Allegheny Baked Marsh Hare (Muskrat) Recipe By: Jacqueline E. Knight Amount Measure Ingredient Preparation Method 1 Muskrat Salt 3 medium Potatoes 2 tablespoons Butter Freshly-ground black pepper to taste 1 teaspoon Dried summer savory 1 cup Minced celery 2 large Carrots cut into quarters 3 slices Bacon Soak muskrat in water to cover, with 1 tablespoon salt per quart of water, overnight. Cook potatoes and mash with butter, 1/2 tablespoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, the savory and celery. Stuff muskrat with potato stuffing, and sew up or truss. Rub with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Put on a rack in roaster, with legs tied to body. Arrange carrot quarters around the muskrat and the bacon on top. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Pour 2 cups hot water over the meat and cook an additional 35 minutes. Remove bacon and cook for 10 minutes more. This recipe yields 2 to 4 servings. ================================ Cream Muskrat Casserole Recipe By: Hunters Information Service Amount Measure Ingredient Preparation Method 5 tablespoons Butter 2 Muskrats cut into pieces 1 1/2 cups Thick cream 1/3 cup Vinegar 5 Scallions diced Salt to taste Freshly-ground black pepper to taste 1/2 teaspoon Thyme Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in casserole and brown the muskrat pieces lightly in it. Mix the cream, vinegar, scallions, salt, pepper, herbs and butter together. Pour half the cream mixture over the muskrat. Cover casserole and simmer over very low heat for an hour. Be careful not to burn the mixture. Skim off the butter and add remaining cream mixture. Heat gently for 10 minutes until sauce thickens.