Dr. Garbee’s Wild Game Dinners

When Dr. Eugene Garbee became president of Upper Iowa College in 1952, he started a tradition of hosting an annual Wild Game Dinner. He had acquired a taste for wild game, and knowledge of how to cook it, growing up in the Missouri Ozarks. Some of the dishes that were served at his dinner:

  • Rattlesnake Paste on crackers
  • Moose Nose Hash
  • Roast Elephant Trunk
  • Raccoon Sausage
  • Fayette Sparrow Birds in Nest
  • Rotisseried Volga River Beaver
  • Minnesota Black Bear Roast
  • Hasenpfeffer of Fayette Rabbit
  • Walker's Ridge Squirrel Stewed in Onions
  • Charbroiled Muskrat Saddles
  • Roast Growler's Gulch Possum


Davenport Quad-City Times - Apr 16, 1967



He collected together his favorite recipes into a cookbook: For the Chow Hound With a Taste for Something Different... Dr. Garbee's Wild Game Dinners. You can probably find a used copy somewhere.



Some of his recipes:

Fayette Sparrow Birds in Nest
Take a raw potato, cut it in half, hollow out enough room for a cleaned sparrow, insert the bird, put the two halves back together again, tie the potato with string and wrap with foil and bake.

Mother's Squirrel and Dumplings
Mother's favorite recipe. She wanted the head left on. Mother always claimed the head — picking off the tender juicy muscles and finally breaking open the thin skull bones for the brains — was the most tasty bite of all, for her.

2 squirrels, with heads on.
¼-pound fatback (salt pork).
1½ cups of seasoned flour, half teaspoon of salt, half teaspoon of pepper.
½ cup of diced onions, or large onion slices.
1 large turnip or 1 or 2 large carrots, chopped.
Bouillon.
Dumplings.

Cut the squirrels into pieces, including the heads. Dredge in the seasoned flour in a paper bag. Fry out the fatback in an iron skillet or dutch oven. Brown the squirrel, add two cups of bouillon and cook for an hour or until tender. Then add vegetables and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Add more bouillon if needed. Use your own favorite dumpling recipe.

Rattlesnake Paste
Cut rattlesnake in chunks two or three inches long. Cook in a small pressure cooker until tender. Add a bay leaf. Cook 10 to 12 minutes. Grind two or three times.
To one cup of ground meat mix in the following: three tablespoons bacon grease, melted butter or oil to which has been added a pinch of marjoram, rosemary and savory, salt and pepper.
Heat for a minute or two before stirring in the meat to make a rather thick paste. More fat may be added if desired. Cook in a double boiler for 20 to 30 minutes. Serve on crackers or thin sliced rye bread.

More info: wikipedia, iagenweb.org
     Posted By: Alex - Fri Jan 10, 2025
     Category: Food | Cookbooks





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