Let me preface this by saying I mean no disrespect, but Barnaby has this hilarious cookbook called White Trash Cooking. While I have been known to eat Little Smokies and SPAM, I had never heard of some of the ‘delicacies’ listed in this fine publication.

Let me share one with you: Cooter Pie. I’m unclear as to exactly what a cooter is, and honestly, I’d like it to stay that way. The following recipe is duplicated exactly as published, I just want to clarify a few things first:

1. If it has eggs I’m guessing it’s a she not a he,
2. I’m never whacking the head off anything with a hatchet,
3. I’ve never called it a “toe of garlic,”
4. I’m concerned why this is best prepared in a black dutch oven. Will my white-bottomed one not work?

Cooter Pie (The Hunter’s Delight)

First you take a live cooter and wait for him to stick his head out from under his shell. When he does, you grab it and whack it off. Take a hatchet to the underside so you can get to the meat and remove it along with the liver, tripe and eggs (if he has any?). Set aside.

1/2 cup of chopped bacon
2 medium onions, chopped
2 toes of garlic, crushed
1 stewed tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon of thyme
1/4 cup flour

Fry all the the above down until it’s browned, then add the cooter and continue to cook. It’s best in a black iron dutch oven. Don’t forget to salt and pepper it to your taste. Brown the flour in an iron frying pan. Stir constantly to avoid burning. Bake sure you brown it good. Then add it to the cooter with enough water to make it soupy. Stew down til meat is falling off the bone and the liquid is thick. Now make a biscuit dough and drop small-sized biscuits over the top of the stew. Stick it in a preheated oven at 400 degrees and bake until done (golden). A hunter will come out of the woods to get this!

The recipe that follows in the book is Mock Cooter Soup. Cooter’s good enough to have a mock version? I’ll stick with chicken, thanks!

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