Mushrat (Muskrat) Fiddlehead Stew

Servings: n/a
Classification: Traditional
Nation/Tribe: Abenaki (as posted by Sue4711@aol.com in the NA Message Board / NA Cuisine)

Directions

I lived on a Passamaquoddy Rez in Maine for 10 years and still go back a lot. It is one of the "Abnaki" tribes (they say Wabanaki, Dawn People). One thing I really liked there (to my surprise) was "Mushrat" (Muskrat) stew with fiddle-head ferns and potatos, which is a springtime dish of great esteem. I can't tell you how it's prepared, but maybe someone here can. The mushrat, it was pointed out to me, is a very clean animal that swims, and eats only vegetation. The fiddleheads are a species of fern that grows by river banks. It is cut low to the ground when it first comes out of the ground and forms that coiled up shape like the far end of a fiddle. Coiled up, in other words. They collect them in net onion bags. It is a real pain to clean them, but worth it. You have to put them in cold water and uncurl each one and take off the brown stuff that looks like the stuff on peanuts. Then you have to par boil them a while and throw off the first water. Then they are gently cooked again in water in a pan that has had salt pork "tried out" (fried gently) in it. Near the end of the cooking, often cut up potatos are added. Fiddleheads are delicious, hard to explain what they are like. I don't know how the muskrat is prepared, but apparantly as any stew. This dish -- muskrat, potatoes and fiddleheads -- is only do-able for about 3 weeks max, of the year. The muskrat tastes like turkey.

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