The best time to eat any of the animals enumerated above is from Christmas to the 15th of February.
How to prepare them.—As soon as the animal is killed skin it, take the inside out, save the liver and heart, and wash well with lukewarm water and a little salt, inside and out; then wipe dry with a towel, put inside a few leaves of sage, bay-leaves, mint, and thyme, and sew it up. Hang it outside in a place sheltered from the sun, such as the northern side of a building; leave it thus five or six days, then take off, and cook.
How to skin a Skunk.—We were hunting one day in New Jersey, northwest of Paterson, with a friend and two farmers living there, when one of them shot a skunk. We asked him how much he could get for the skin. He said it was not worth while to take it to town, but that he would eat the animal, as it was very good.
We thought at first that he was joking; but putting his gun and game-bag to the ground, he looked at us earnestly, and said, "Gentlemen, you seem to doubt; I will show you how it is done." We soon saw that we had been mistaken.
We made a fire, took hold of the skunk by the head with one hand, and with a stick in the other held the skunk over the fire. He burnt off nearly all the hair, taking care to avoid burning the skin, commencing at the hind legs; then with his hunting-knife he carefully cut off the bag containing the fetid matter, and skinned and cleaned it.
We then examined the skunk, and although it had not been washed, we could not find any part of it with a bad smell, and if we had not seen the whole operation we certainly would not have thought that it was a skunk, the very name of which is repulsive.
The following week we dined with the farmer, ate some of that identical skunk, and found it very good.
How to cook the above-named Animals.—Take out the leaves of sage, etc., which you put in the animal before exposing it to the weather. Pound well the liver and heart with about the same quantity of bacon, then mix that with two or three teaspoonfuls of chopped parsley, a pinch of grated nutmeg, salt, and pepper; stuff the animal with that mixture, and also with six small onions fried in butter, and a bunch of seasoning composed of four sprigs of parsley, three of thyme, two cloves, two cloves of garlic, and two bay-leaves, and sew it up again. Butter it well all over, place it on a spit before a very quick fire; put three or four sage-leaves in the dripping-pan, and baste often with the drippings. Serve it when cooked with the gravy, throwing away the sage-leaves.