Porcupine, is the only animal in the Canadian wilderness that can be easily hunted in a survival situation (no firearm or bow). Because of this, Dr Gino Ferri dubbed the porcupine "the survivor's friend". It is also why during the early 1900s, Canada removed porcupine from legal animals to hunt. This was to keep the populations high, so that if in a survival situation, a stranded hunter, or an injured trapper could still obtain food.
My mother's co-worker is making a dogsled team. One of his newer dogs is real vicious, and decided to maul and kill a porcupine the other day. He assumed I would know what to do with it (wonder how he got that idea
), and I found a young dead porcupine in my possession late last night.
Well, I hate wasting a good thing. So I removed the head and claws. Claws will be later made into necklaces, and the jawbones will make pendants for my nephew and a fellow bushcrafter when he arrives from Australia (howdy Wentworth).
The quills were too small to gather (1.5 cm long). So with no other use for him, I decided to go out and make lunch
.
The porky up close
I first gutted, and then skinned him. And while I did this, I built up a large fire made from birch, alder, poplar/aspen and some hemlock (the tree of course). I chose those woods because... well.. I had no others .
Porky waiting to be roasted
As he cooked, I boiled rice on my MSR Dragonfly, and mixed olive oil, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt and cumin. As the meat began to sizzle, I smeared this "BBQ Sauce" on the browning meat.
See? BBQ Sauce
And with 2 hours of slow roasting.. layer upon layer of sauce smeared and basted onto the glistenning meat.. you know what it tasted like?
Wood . I'm serious, I was surprised that it didn't even taste like the sauce, the overpowering piney-meaty flavour masked hot cayenne!
So here's my advice.. if you get a porcupine for dinner;
a) drag an old rag across the quills about a dozen times, to help pull them out. Then you can learn quillwork.. or throw it out... or send the quills to me
b) Marinate the Porky for at least 24 hours in a strong marinade! I'm talking Soya Sauce, Worchestershire, Red Wine, Cayenne and Garlic all at once!
But the meat was fine... though I ate more rice than meat
My mother's co-worker is making a dogsled team. One of his newer dogs is real vicious, and decided to maul and kill a porcupine the other day. He assumed I would know what to do with it (wonder how he got that idea
), and I found a young dead porcupine in my possession late last night. Well, I hate wasting a good thing. So I removed the head and claws. Claws will be later made into necklaces, and the jawbones will make pendants for my nephew and a fellow bushcrafter when he arrives from Australia (howdy Wentworth).
The quills were too small to gather (1.5 cm long). So with no other use for him, I decided to go out and make lunch
.
The porky up close
I first gutted, and then skinned him. And while I did this, I built up a large fire made from birch, alder, poplar/aspen and some hemlock (the tree of course). I chose those woods because... well.. I had no others
.
Porky waiting to be roasted
As he cooked, I boiled rice on my MSR Dragonfly, and mixed olive oil, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt and cumin. As the meat began to sizzle, I smeared this "BBQ Sauce" on the browning meat.
See? BBQ Sauce
And with 2 hours of slow roasting.. layer upon layer of sauce smeared and basted onto the glistenning meat.. you know what it tasted like?
Wood
. I'm serious, I was surprised that it didn't even taste like the sauce, the overpowering piney-meaty flavour masked hot cayenne! So here's my advice.. if you get a porcupine for dinner;
a) drag an old rag across the quills about a dozen times, to help pull them out. Then you can learn quillwork.. or throw it out... or send the quills to me
b) Marinate the Porky for at least 24 hours in a strong marinade! I'm talking Soya Sauce, Worchestershire, Red Wine, Cayenne and Garlic all at once!
But the meat was fine... though I ate more rice than meat
