How To Skin A Porcupine

Since I was a boy, I've e'er heard that porcupines are excellent survival nutrient considering they are like shooting fish in a barrel to catch and guild if you lot don't take any weapons. But no one ever addressed how to handle the critters for eating. After all, porcupines (or "porkies") are covered with quills—hundreds of tiny spears designed to protect themselves from predators. Those quills certainly remain formidable deterrents to accessing the meat from one even after information technology's dead. How much skilful tin can porcupine meat be as a survival food if you terminate up getting your easily bloodied from quills while trying to make employ of it? Cooking porcupine is an art.

Cooking Porcupine every bit Survival Food

The mystery surrounding how to handle a porcupine for consumption remained until I hunted black bear with a Native American guide in Saskatchewan who grew up eating them. His name is Brian MacDonald, and he lives in Buffalo Narrows. He'south got years of experience living off the state in northern Saskatchewan's wilderness.

"Y'all burn everything off, the quills and hair, over an open fire before you melt it," MacDonald said. "That's the simplest mode to get rid of the quills earlier treatment the carcass to prepare information technology to cook, so you can avoid getting stabbed.

"Scorching the quills and hair this way gives the meat a special flavor. I remember the concluding one I ate with my cousin, and nosotros really enjoyed it. You tin can employ a piece (or pieces) of wire to fasten its legs to a branch or pole and suspend it over the fire upside downward.

"If you've got a burn down that's burned down to the dress-down, you can lay a porky on the dress-down, quills down, and scroll it from side to side to burn off the quills, too. Simply you don't desire to do this likewise long. If at that place are any quills remaining afterwards you accept the porky off the coals or out of the fire, scrape them off.

"After the quills have been burned off, it's piece of cake to gut the fauna and remove any pare that's remaining. And so we cut the carcass up into pieces and boil it. The meat from porcupines is existent rich and succulent."

Skinning Secrets

Since talking to Brian nearly his method of removing quills from porkies, I plant out that in that location's an alternative. Some fans of porcupine flesh pare the critters before gutting and cooking them. How practice you peel a porky? Very carefully!

Cooking Porcupine: Porcupine, skinning, tailbone — Once the tailbone is severed, the skinning goes faster. (Photo by Richard P. Smith)

Seriously, it'due south not actually as bad y'all might retrieve. Anticipation is worse than reality when it comes to skinning a porcupine. Some people who have skinned porkies recommend wearing light leather gloves while doing and then to avert getting stuck by the quills. In preparation for writing this article, I skinned a porcupine myself—and I did it barehanded. Based on personal feel, I don't think gloves are necessary for skinning a porky, but if y'all experience better about wearing gloves to skin a porky, go right ahead.

At that place are no quills on a porky's belly, the underside of its tail or its lower legs. All of the quills are on superlative of the tail and the animal'due south back and sides. By but touching those areas that don't have quills and the skin as information technology'south pulled abroad from the carcass, there'southward no way yous can get stabbed.

It's all-time to hang a porky past its hind legs for skinning. I used two brusque pieces of rope to necktie each hind leg to a tree branch about caput high. Step 1 is to make a cut effectually each hind leg below the rope. Step two is to make a cut downwards one hind leg, across the crotch and up the opposite hind leg.

Farther Cuts

Once those two cuts are made, only separate the skin from each hind leg with your pocketknife blade. Hold the top end of the pare on each leg with your complimentary hand, pulling abroad and down as you separate the skin from the carcass with your pocketknife blade. Skin each hind leg down to the tail, and so cut through the tailbone with your knife. You can push down on the underside of the tail to assistance break the tailbone. It will be easier to cut through the tailbone if y'all can find a articulation in the bone.

After the tailbone is severed, skinning the rest of the carcass goes fairly speedily. The weight of the tail and its many quills helps pull the hide downwards as yous piece betwixt the skin and carcass with your knife. In that location's also more skin to hold onto with your free manus by then to pull downward, which helps pare the skin from the carcass more than apace. The fresher the carcass is, the easier it is to peel the hibernate from the carcass by pulling downwards.

I skinned the porcupine I worked on down to the cervix, and then cut the head off at the neck. If yous want to salve the entire hibernate and quills, the head tin be skinned likewise. Some people use porky quills for artwork or crafting. I recollect a preserved porcupine hide would brand a corking decoration.

Critter Cookin'

In one case a porky has been skinned, the fauna can so be gutted and butchered without worry about the quills. Although a porcupine carcass can be cut into pieces for cooking, like Brian MacDonald typically does, the animal can likewise be cooked in one piece after it has been thoroughly cleaned and rinsed with water. In a survival state of affairs, you may choose to cook the unabridged carcass over an open fire, turning it regularly to make sure all of the meat is thoroughly cooked.

I person who dines on porcupines regularly recommends chilling the meat to remove all of the fat. The summer porky I skinned—roadkill—didn't have much fat on information technology, but past fall, when more fat would exist present, I'm sure this step would exist more of import. They too recommend parboiling the carcass while covered with simmering h2o to which a teaspoon of baking soda has been added. The timing for parboiling is 15 minutes. After parboiling, the carcass can and so be baked.

To bake a whole porky in an oven, the chest cavity can be stuffed with dressing and/or vegetables, covered with aluminum foil and broiled at 350 degrees. In terms of cooking time, allow 20 minutes per pound plus 30 minutes. E'er bank check to make sure all of the meat is thoroughly cooked before serving.

Put water or broth in the baking pan to go along things moist. Check the wet level periodically to make certain it doesn't all evaporate. Near 15 to xxx minutes before information technology's done, the foil can be removed to dark-brown the meat. Some people also apply butter or margarine to the meat at this bespeak.

Other Methods of Cooking Porcupine

Porcupines can also be baked, either whole or in pieces, in charcoal-broil sauce, gravy or soups to keep the meat moist. When using gravy or soups, vegetables can be added to get with the meat.

If you cut a porky carcass into pieces, the pieces tin can be fried like chicken besides being baked or boiled. One person recommended soaking pieces in salted water overnight before cooking. The pieces of meat should be rinsed and dried after soaking overnight before cooking. Some people glaze the pieces with flour, dip them in eggs and ringlet them in cracker crumbs earlier frying. Porky pieces can too exist coated with Milk shake & Bake for baking in the oven.

Pieces of porcupine tin exist cooked slowly in a crockpot, too, with vegetables to make a repast. And if you lot have a pressure cooker, you tin use it for cooking porkies to produce tender meat.

Versatile Ingredient

There'south no end to how porcupine meat can be used. Information technology tin be substituted into any meat dish. For instance, a regional favorite in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where I alive, is a blazon of meat pie called a "pastie." Pasties are unremarkably fabricated with beefiness burger mixed with cubed carrots, potatoes and some onion. Porky meat tin be substituted for the burger.

Cooking Porcupine: Porcupine pastie, ground meat — A Pastie, the regional proper noun for a blazon of meat pie fabricated with basis porcupine. (Photo by Richard P. Smith)

To make a porky pastie, the meat tin can be ground or cutting into small pieces to mix with chopped-up potatoes, carrots and onions. Put a softball-sized portion of the meat and veggies on a pie crust. Fold the chaff over the contents and pinch the edges closed. Bake the completed pasties on a cookie sail at 325 to 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. I similar to pour ketchup on my pasties when eating them. Others prefer adding gravy, merely they taste fine without any additional flavoring.

Cooking Porcupine Stews

Chunks of porky meat can also be used in stews or stroganoff. My married woman and I make two types of stroganoff with venison or carry meat that porky meat tin be substituted for. For creamy stroganoff, the pieces of meat are mixed with two cans of cream of mushroom soup and one can of foam of celery soup and baked for ii hours at 350 degrees. Sour cream is mixed in before serving over wide egg noodles.

For more of a liquid stroganoff, we cook the meat in a large frying pan on the stove with ii cans of consommé and i can of French onion soup. A small can of mushrooms is another ingredient. When the meat is most ready to serve, sour cream is stirred in. The meat and broth are added to infinitesimal rice in a bowl and eaten with a spoon. Porcupine burgers are another option for basis porky meat. Patties can be cooked in a frying pan as they are or mixed with onion soup mix and crackers.