Instructions: Another true fur bearer, the muskrat (also known in restaurants and in some areas as "marsh rabbit," although there is a true swamp or marsh rabbit) is noted for its clean food habits. Its a vegetarian and as such seldom eats anything to give an off-flavor to its dark meat, but it can carry tularemia. The fat is unpleasant and should be removed. This is most easily done if the skinned and cleaned carcass (it has musk glands, too, which should be removed) is refrigerated overnight. This hardens the fat and makes it easier to peel off.

The muskrat, even a young one that will weigh about 1 pound and serve 2 people, should be soaked overnight at least, in 2 or 3 baths of water with 1 tablespoon salt per quart, or use 1 cup vinegar to each quart of water. Older, larger specimens will reach 3 pounds in weight and require longer soaking. Incidentally, the muskrat fur, after the long guard hairs were plucked off, was at one time called "Hudson seal" - a favorite fur of fashionable women earlier in the century.

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