Huntin and cookin with a levergun

[Rusty]

OK lets say you go out with your Marlin M39 and bring back a sack full of tree rats, a rabbit, and something else you don't want to talk about. You clean your catch throw 'em in a pot with some veggies. When you're done would you call what you fixed "perlou?"

Perlou is a southern term ( I'm pretty sure it's specific) I was just wonderin what ya'll might put in yours? Here it's given the specific name such as chicken perlou, rabbit perlou and so on. We usually use a lot of rice in ours.

The reason I was wondering is that I just got done reading a Book by Jimmy Carter "An Hour before Daylight" and he talks about the black tennant farmers that worked for his daddy making it. They would say come have some perlou, and one would say what's in it? The answer would always be if I told you you wouldn't eat it and they would laugh it off.

[JerryB]

Rusty. when we lived in Arcadia my daddy and uncle made it with different game but most always liked a curlew in the perlou. It was always good too. Sometimes a heron or a sandhill crane.

[Coldfingers]

Ya learn something every day. I had never heard the word there Rusty. Or never paid any attention if I did. Looked it up in the websters and the basic definition of it is "need"

Got my curiosity up there. Does one "Need" perlou? Does perlou need something...salt?carrots?bunnies?Possomtoes?

I am just curious there as to the origins of the word in it's reference to the stewpot. I can understand it. Have a pot of sumpin on the woodstove most of the winter. I "need" to have it there and always feel a need to sniff at it and throw a little something in it. Perhaps I need to rename it?

I perlou an answer...

Scotty

[mescalero1]

I remember a time down on the border, a pretty young lady said she was hungry; the old man told her to open the stove and help herself.
She did & screamed.
Old Evans usually had the head of a dear in the stove, if you was hungry , you just reached in and got some.

[Duff L Bagg]

Sometime about 10 or 12 years ago I renamed my "game stew" to "Lewis Gates wilderness stew" a reference to the movie Last of the dogmen staring Tom Berenger and Barbra Hershey. The name change drives my girlfriend nuts.

The movie Last of the Dogmen is one of my favorites. BTW Barbra Hershey never looked so good as she does in this movie.

[meanc]

If it crawled climbed walked or swam in Alabama, I've probably eaten it.

When I was a kid we used to eat stew made from chicken and turkey.

Also had it of opossum,squirrel, and raccoon.

Then there was turtle, frog, snake and craw-dad.

Never heard it called Perlou, though

[Rusty]

You're right Duff. that's a fine movie. Gates never does say what's in his "stew either, but it looks like it all came out of a can so how bad could it be?

When I looked the word up on Websters it looked like to me perlou means need in Indonesian.

I was thinking the term might have roots in Creole speak but I've never heard one way or the other.


Jerry, I'm not sure I could "afford" a curlew or a Chokoloskee chicken as we used to call 'em. I bet one of those would set you back about $800 now days.

Turtle perlou is pretty good too.

[Coldfingers]

Rusty,

You mean I was looking at an Indonesian websters? Heck, I get so lost on the information highway...

[Bruce]

I can honestly say that I do not ever recall any get together here in north Florida where there was not some chicken perlou to eat. I think it is mandatory to have it at the hunt camp the night before hunting season opens. Of course it must be cooked outside in the largest pot you can find. If it is cooked inside, we call it chicken and rice.

[Duff L Bagg]

Hello Bruce, I have a question for ya, what is the going rate for a pot of Chokoloskee chicken.

[Pete44ru]

[When you're done would you call what you fixed "perlou?"]

I call it Game Ragout' (say: ragoo).

If it's only meat was squirrel, I'd call it "Brunswick Stew", although many call your perlou "Brunswick Stew", also.

If the only meat was racoon, I wouldn't adulterate it with any other meat - as I find roast/stewed 'coon to be the best tasting game meat that's gone down my neck (with the possible exception of moose).

.

[Stan in SC]

Perlo is NOT the same as Brunswick stew.It has a more pronounced rice base and Brunswick stew has a different color and a much greater percentage of meat in it.It's hard to describe unless you are from the south and have eaten both .

Stan

[Hobie]

Brunswick stew. Meat, other stuff as available in a stew, simmer until cooked. Eat with biscuits if you can afford 'em.

[O.S.O.K.]

A great way to prepare your catch is to make gumbo.

Chop an onion and a couple stalks of celery and sautee in a little oil or fat. Then, get some bacon grease- about 1/2 cup or so. Heat this and add enough wheat flour to make it pasty or like peanut butter. Brown this to taste - usually tan to chocolate color. This should be in something like a 4 quart bot with lid. This is the rue. Add the sauteed onion and celery. Now add some chicken stock, tomato juice, okra and your game meat - cut into 1-2" chunks. Some just leave the bones in and these cook out and settle to the bottom. And you can brown the meat first before adding if you like - but it's not necessary. Should be fairly thick - like thin gravy. Bring it all to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook for several hours covered. Add cajun seasoning and cayan pepper sauce to taste. Serve this over rice and with cornbread - jonnycake is traditional in my family. That's just cornbread in a round cake pan.

If you don't have cajun seasoning (and I recommend Louisiana Fish Fry Products brand) then you can use onion powder, garlice powder, cayan pepper, salt, black pepper, paprika.

[rjohns94]

mine tends to be more along the lines of brunswick stew. it gets the remnants of the squirrel, rabbit, pheasant, dove seasons, along with some other bigger game bits as I find needs a cooking. Its always a surprise in every bite.

[JerryB]

Rusty, I reckon you know but some folks would be a bit suprised at what was cooked for food out in those old cental Florida prairies around the old cow camps.

[Pete44ru]

[some folks would be a bit suprised at what was cooked for food out in those old cental Florida prairies around the old cow camps.]

Cow Pies ?

.

[cshold]

Man!!

I just gained about 5 lb's reading these post's

[Ben_Rumson]

OK I sniffed around a bit online.. Biggest hits I got were for Chicken Perlou, also called Chicken Perlow, they were made with rice .. No hits for Perlow either in Merriam- Webster's.. Ran across another recipe where a third name came up ..Pilau.. Ran that thru Webster's got a hit...
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pilau Prolly one of them deals where the names change over time..

[Rusty]

Maybe I need to drop Junior a line. He has a bit about cookin on his site as well. He might know something on this as well.

I learned a long time ago not to ask what it is... just be thankful for it.

MY wife does a lot of cookin in a crock pot when both of us are workin it's the easiest way out. She has some thing in there right now that she made with cabbage, sweet potatoes, boneless short ribs and all the other stuff that I can't tell what is. I don't know what it is but it goes down mighty easy.

[Bruce]

Duff,

Now you know you boys need to leave those wild south Florida chickens alone. One bowl would probably cost you about $1,000 and a lot more attention than you would want.

The last undercover operation takedown that I organized (99/2000) centered around that community. A few of the charges out of the nearly two hundred involved the beloved bird. Our agent made his self at home - as their cook.

[Bogie35]

When I was a kid, a fella name "Pee Wee" did the cooking. It was always "vertebrae stew". It was chicken necks, rice, and plenty of onion slow simmered all morning in a huge cast iron cauldron. A little hot sauce and some slice bread, and we wondered what the rich people had to eat. Delicious!

When asked why he used chicken necks, Pee Wee would say that the bones would slow down the dog drivers so there would be enough for everybody!

bogie

[Sixgun]

I just threw up all over the computor screen. I guess I am not as old fashioned as I though I was. I like to KNOW what I'm eating. No more Pennsylvania scrapple for me.----------Sixgun