Porcupine
Be sure of the game laws, for some states will not allow the killing of porcupines by anyone not in distress. But if you are lost in the woods, Porky has just been saved for you, since you can knock him over with a stick, make a fire and cook him, thus very pleasantly saving yourself from starvation.
Throw the carcass into the fire to burn off the quills, then skin him, empty him, salt and pepper him, impale him on a stick and roast him over the coals, like a suckling pig. Or if you are permitted, take him to camp, cut him up, and fry him in bacon fat, just like lean pork.
The toasted skin has the cracklin' quality of roast suckling pig.
A survival recipe first and a camp recipe second, written when porcupine was legally protected in several states precisely so that a lost traveller could always find a meal. The instructions are sound but assume a level of field butchery worth spelling out.
- Check the law first, as the text saysPorcupine remains specially protected or unregulated depending on the state, and the old "lost in the woods" exemption is not universal. Confirm current regulations with the state wildlife agency before taking one for camp rather than for genuine emergency.
- Quills before anything elseBurning the carcass in the fire chars the quills off so they can be brushed away, but quills work forward, not backward, and a barb driven into a hand will not pull out cleanly. Handle the animal belly-up by the unquilled underside, and wear gloves.
- Skinning versus singeingThe recipe says to burn off the quills and then skin the animal, though it also praises the cracklin' quality of the toasted skin. If you want the crackling you must scrape the singed hide clean rather than removing it, which takes patience and a dull knife edge.
- Trim the fat hardPorcupine carries a heavy fat that woodcraft writers describe as strongly flavoured, the animal living largely on conifer bark and cambium. Removing most of it before cooking is widely said to improve the meat.
- Cook it throughWild rodents can carry parasites and bacteria, so treat this like pork rather than like venison: 160F at the thickest part, no pink. Spit roasting over coals reaches that easily if the fire is kept low and steady and the carcass is turned often.
- Old animals need moistureA young porcupine spits or fries well. An older one is sinewy, and cutting it up and simmering it in water with salt for an hour before frying in bacon fat gives a far better result than dry heat alone.
- YieldA dressed adult may give roughly 6-10 lb of carcass, though weights vary a good deal; much of that is bone and trimmed fat.