The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-24
BY sAvoYARD.

A big. portly. burly pOssum. hoary
with the fat that comes from polkber-
ries in August, pawpaws in September
and persimmOns after October's frost
has made saccharine the astringent
juice of that noble fruit. Take, / say,
bird like that, butcher him as Caesar
should have been carved, let his lordly
carcass take the frost of at least two
fine nights after
chill November's surly blasts
Make field and forest bare.
Take that fellow, cook him with an
art commensurate with his aristocracy
in the realm of game, and you have a
dish fit to have been served from
Juno's kitchen when Jupiter had for
guests Jasons mighty crew
Catch this gentleman by shaking him
out of a sapling in which he had been
freed by a dog of the name of Hec-
tor; but on no account allow Hector OF
other more plebeian dorg to worry
him. Have a split hickory stick and
insert Mr.. 'POssum's tail i'm it, and SC
carry him home in triumph and con-
fine him in an empty barrel in the
smOkehouse. A B. Morton of Nash
vile, Tenn, says the dorg should be
named "Clinkec"
Nv AN-AN AtbA INNS VI A6AAb anu cal ~
give that 'possum into the custody OF
one of our cOlored fellow-citizens of the
old school, who understands his bust
ness. He will lay the handle of the AK
across the varmint's neck and put an
enormous foot on the hickory of it. on
either side. and then take the animal
by the tail and pull with all his might
until the neck is broken. That is the
way to kiss a 'possum. 1 have heard
Of barbarians shooting them. 1 never
saw it. and would not for any consid-
Grafton allow il In my presence. Mean
while, have a cauldron of boiling wa
ter at hand, in which had been some
what dissolved a small quantity OF
fresh hickory ashes right out of the
fireplace. Blood in suff1ciency had
come from the ears and mouth of the
'possum, if the executioner knew his
business-my old playfellow, Alec, could
turn the trick to an exactitude-and
now, while the carcass is yet warm
plunge him into the scalding water and
pick him bare of every hair, and do il
rapidly. Then dress him and put him
away to cool.
That night, the following night, and
even the third night, let him take the
frost in the open air. and he would be
all the better if frozen stiff.
X
And here is the way old Aunt Car
line used to cook him. She boiled him
till he was tender as butter in water
that had floating around sundry pods
of hot red pepper. This became i'm
pregnated with the fat of the varmint,
and she stewed II to the consistency be-
tween soup and gravy, after lifting his
majesty out of ii.
Now, here was where Aunt Car'Iine
and her lord and master, Uncle Archie,
could not agree. The old woman want
ed to put him in an oven with sweet
taters and brown him. Archie pre-
ferred roasting the taters in the en-
bers and barbecuing the 'possum be-
fore the fire, bathing him every five
minutes in the gravy that resulted
from his boiling, and finishing off the
taters in the oven in which was first
poured the gravy. 1 have tried both,
Solomon could not have made judg-
ment betwixt the different methods OF
Aunt Car'line and Uncle Archie. Either
would cause any common man to swal-
low his tongue about the middle of the
feast.
But that is not all Man loves bread
as well as 'possum And now, at Hal
loween, is the season of the lordly
pumpkin. The DdrDar1anS OF New Eng
land degrade this gentleman by turn
ing him into pie. Civilized folk bring
him to his legitimate destiny and make
him a constituent element of bread
When I was a boy the forest area of
Barren county, Kentucky, was per-
haps ten times what it is now, and
fIOst, killing" frost, was always tardy
and Ofttimes as late as All Saints
day. Every farmer had his late patch
of corn for roasting ears during Octo-
Der. In the last days of that month
the corn was in the dough-" and when
it got a little harder, it was plucked,
shucked, and grated, as you would a
nutmetg on a tin crater as big as a
full sheet of foOlscap paper, Bonded
over a board. Talk about corn NEAL
that's the stuff; but the season can
not last above two weeks, otherwise
we would not die at all, we would stay
so virtuous. Remember Enoch and
Elijah.
Well. there's your meal Now get
your pumpkin. not one of those pale
yellow chaps, but one of a muddy red
great big fellow. Take the pulp from
the rind and stew it to mush. On no
account put any sugar in it. Pumpkin
pie without sugar is insipid, and with
sugar it is abomination, fit only for
pagans. Sift your meal, grated meal