Possum

The story comes from Mac Robertson, the recipe was found in my father's home (Bill Pittendreigh, Sr.)

Grandfather John Malcolm Pittendreigh was a millwright and worked for the Soco-Lowell Machine Shops located in Soco, Main. He and a crew of other Soco-Lowell men traveled throughout the South in the early 1900's setting up textile machinery in cotton mills. Grandfather was the head man or working foreman of his crew.
Grandfather and Grandmother were married in Saco, Maine November 2, 1912. my uncle Bill, their first child, was born August 22, 1914. Bill was one year old and Grandfather and Grandmother were living in a house he rented in Marietta, Georgia, it was Thanksgiving 1915. (Again, something new. I had no idea they once lived in Marietta. This is now part of metro-Atlanta, but at the time it was probably a small town).
Grandfather always liked to try to fit in wherever they traveled. He knew at that period of time people in the South disliked "Yankees" with a passion. Wherever he and Grandmother traveled he tried to observe the local customs and traditions and fit in.
That Thanksgiving he told Grandmother not to fix "Thanksgiving Dinner" he had already taken care of it. About noon that day, a Negro woman, which is what African Americans were call in that era, dressed in a white apron with a red bandanna tied around her head, knocked on the door. Grandmother went to the door and the woman informed her that she had been told to deliver dinner to this house at noon. She presented Grandmother with a large tray cover by a large linen napkin. Grandmother thanked her, took the tray, and carried it to the dining room table.
When she removed the napkin, "Thanksgiving Dinner" turned out to be, a 'possum with a sweet potato in his mouth surrounded by turnips, carrots, and collards. Grandmother described it as looking like a big rat floating in a pool of grease. She said it nearly made her throw-up. She wasn't going to have any part of it. According to her, Grandfather and Bill ate the whole thing.
The word soon got around the mill that the "Yankee" from Soco-Lowell had 'possum for Thanksgiving dinner. Grandfather was accepted by the local folks as being a "Yankee" that was alright.
(If this was in 1915, then it was a mere 50 years after the Civil War. I would think there was indeed a lot of hatred of Yankees. I remember some of that from my own youth in the South. Fifty years -- there would have been a lot of Civil War vets still living at the time.)

RECIPE

When you catch the opossum, you will need to keep it for a few days and feed it lettuce. This will improve the flavor.

Put ½ cup of lime into a gallon of boiling water and scald quickly and pull off hair while hot. Scrape well. Remove feet, tail and entrails like you would a pig. Cut off the ears and remove the eyes, or you can remove the entire head. Pour hot water over it and clean it thoroughly.

Put 1 cup of salt into cold water – enough gold water to cover the possum. Add 1 pod of red pepper and let it stand over night.

In the morning remove salt water and pour boiling water over it. Cook in enough boiling water to boil up over the possum but never enough to cover it completely. Cook until the skin can be pierced easily with a fork. Let stand in water until ready for baking.

When ready to bake, place the possum in pan with skin side up. Bake in a moderate oven until crisp and brown. If fire is too hot skin will blister and burn.

Carve the possum and surround with potatoes, which have been previously cooked.