When groundhog was on the menu of Pennsylvania

3 min read

3 days ago Nathan

Every February 2, since 1887, a groundhog named Phil has made an appearance before a group of top hat–wearing local gentlemen in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
Believe it or not, in earlier decades, the reason the little rodent may have been tempted to dive back into the ground had nothing to do with six more weeks of winter but rather with the (very legitimate) danger that some might be planning to eat him.
There was a time not too long ago when eating groundhog was fairly common throughout rural America.
Groundhog dinners were once popular fundraisers among Pennsylvania Dutch communities in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with offerings ranging from roast groundhog with bread stuffing to buttermilk-brined groundhog braised with vinegar and wild ramps.

According to some, if properly baked, groundhog is indeed an underrated delicacy, including the smoked one.
However, to anyone horrified by the idea of butchering the furry creature, it’s worth remembering that it’s no coincidence that the holiday of Groundhog Day originated in this Pennsylvania Dutch stronghold.
The so-called Grundsau (or “Groundhog”) Lodges were popular gentlemen’s clubs that sprang up around the region in the 1930s. Because these organizations were often hunting lodges and as Punxsutawney’s first branch sprang up in 1887, it’s not hard to imagine that at that first celebration Phil, or one of his relatives, may well have been on the menu.
But, since the dead of winter is hardly the best hunting season, members of Punxsutawney’s Groundhog Lodge may have consumed more “groundhog punch”, a controverse blend of vodka, orange juice, milk, and raw eggs, than actual groundhog.
Yet there’s no doubt that locals enjoyed dining on woodchuck well into the last century, particularly during the annual Groundhog Picnic in the summer and early fall, in a regular custom for members of the club to take an afternoon off with mattocks and spades and dig up and slaughter a sufficient number of woodchucks for a feast.
For the uninitiated and the squeamish, properly prepared groundhog tastes very much like rabbit, while some even compare it favorably with lamb and chicken.

In any case, lot of game animals currently disdained by most American diners, including squirrel, raccoon, groundhog, beaver, possum, and muskrat, were once staples of the country’s cuisine, with dishes featuring these creatures abound in cookbooks from the 1600s through early 1800s.
And groundhogs are so abundant that most states impose few, if any, hunting restrictions on them. More interestingly, relying on them as a food source instead of, say, pigs or cows, represents a conscientious departure from factory farming.
Either way, choosing to eat meat is a personal and complicated issue, but opting out of the meat industrial complex where possible reduces both cruelty and environmental impact.
And for those willing to set aside their preconceptions, is absolutely something good!