As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter......
The eating of small game can be a notorious thing. Cottontails seldom live long enough to become tough as jerky when cooked, but the reality is most things do, and mixing young and old things in a pan, is a most unpleasant experience.
There are basically two ways to eat types of small game from quail, morning doves, pigeons, pheasants, partridge, grouse and squirrels and that is you can parboil them first and then fry them, or you can fry them and simmer them for hours, or fry them first and then use Presto or Mirro pressure cooker.
Yes the slow cooker will also work in most cases, but I once had a pair of Canadian geese which got off the boat with Noah in which I bake them, slow cooked them and finally after 8 hours of that, I shoved them into a Presto pressure cooker for 3 hours and got the meat off the bones.
It was still tough meat, but it could be eaten. I never have come across anything like this ever before or since.
I really am fond of squirrel which is a surprise to me, as they have rat and gopher teeth, but a squirrel is one of the most pleasant tasting of meats ever. They make spectacular stews and the hind half parboiled and fried like chicken is better than chicken.
White people used to eat Meadow Larks which is now illegal, but the Indians ate any song bird that moved, guts, bones and all roasted in the fire.
You can roast meats like quail with good effect too. Just know that the darker the meats like partridge and morning dove are richer in flavor like goose liver is to chicken breast.
This is simply the reality of introducing a way to make meat something to eat, instead of something the cats and dogs are gnawing on as you starve.
So from porcupines to beaver to muskrat, it is all of culinary quality.
I do though have one addition here not of the meat kind, but for your bread in the times ahead. This comes from G. W. Sears, the 1899 wildlands treker. It is novel, but the reality is butter is something you are not going to be able to churn, and it will not keep.
I also doubt you are going to be clarifying butter and then canning it in jars for keeping. GWS comments that he uses condensed milk for his butter for bread. I make the caveat here that this is not evaporated milk as they are two different things.
Condensed milk is sweet and thick. It is processed and would reasonably keep for some time with a closed cap in a cool place.
Well enough of this.
agtG
