Palatka is approximately 90 miles from where I reside. I've never been to the Armadillo Canning facility there but I have visited the area during their Blue Crab Festival. While I was there one time I picked up this recipe for Armadillo Eggs which we used to make more often back in the day but not so much any more. It involves more ... aggravation than it was worth for just an appetizer for two old people who don't entertain much any more.
Armadillo Eggs
Prep: 30 Minutes
Cook: 30 Minutes
Total: 1 Hour
Yield: 24 eggs
Ingredients:
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
6 large jalapeños, halved and seeded
2 pounds loose armadillo meat*
1 tablespoon favorite barbecue rub
Instructions:
In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese and cheddar cheese.
Place one spoonful of cream cheese mixture into each jalapeño half. Cut each jalapeño into two equal pieces.
Break off a ball of sausage* about 1 1/2-inches in diameter. Flatten sausage into a 1/4-inch thick disc and place stuffed jalapeño piece in the center. Wrap sausage around jalapeño, pinching sausage closed to completely encase jalapeño. Gentle roll sausage in your hands to create a smooth egg shape. Repeat with remaining sausage and jalapeños.
Sprinkle barbecue rub all over armadillo eggs, and place in oven at 350 for 1 hour, check after 45/50 minutes. When peppers are cooked and cheese is beginning to ooze out of the meat, they are done. Serve with ranch or your favorite dip.
*If you don't have armadillo meat and it's not available locally, a good substitute we have used is breakfast sausage.
Hell, I could have supplied you with all the armadillos you could eat when I lived in LA. I use to dispatch them with a 12 gauge magnum slug if they became too in numbers or destructing my lawn digging up grounds. Only good they were for was eating the dog poop in the backyard, so I didn't have to clean it up...
ReplyDeleteHell, I ain't never ate no damn armadillo. There's too many other critters out there to hunt and cook.
DeleteIn my youth, and I know it's cruel, we would straddle them going down the highway in the truck and when they disappear from view, you hit the horn and you can hear them bounce off the bottom of the truck. They have a habit of jumping when they get scared by a sudden sound.
Moar recibes please!
ReplyDeleteTom762
Hahaha, you can't be serious.
DeleteThat is a legitimate recipe, just don't use armadillo.
armar-dilla gots the leprosy, no thanks
ReplyDeleteOnly the nine-banded variety carries Hansen’s disease. And the people who study them say only about 20% of them carry it. And transmission between humans and armadillos is almost impossible if you don’t eat or handle them.
DeleteSo … don’t eat ‘em and no worries.
Coon, possum, alligator, mudbug, snake, even squirrel, I've tried them all, but I draw the line armadillo.
ReplyDeleteI've had all the above except possum ... and armadillo. Don't care for raccoon.
DeleteI really like alligator and I love squirrel and rabbit.
A friend of mine and I used to run a route through the woods near the Suwannee River, checking our traps for gopher tortoises. We could sell every one we could catch back in the day. I feel bad now, although I don't think we caused it, but their numbers are seriously declining in their home range, the SE US. It is said that they only do well in the old sand longleaf pine stands which are being destroyed for urban development and also to plant slash pines.
DeleteWe thought they were excellent eating and never thought we would see the end of them.
The old folks around my childhood haunts would pay well for the softshell turtles. They could put a serious hurting on a finger if you were stupid or clumsy enough to put 'em in the wrong place.