MOOSE MEAT AS FOOD' 217 



Rocky Mountains, tells of cooking the muffle of a 

 moose which he killed.^ 



''The head of the moose was cooked in the best 

 style of the hunter's art. It was coated with clay 

 all over, by rubbing the sticky, putty-like substance 

 into the coarse, long hair, till it was enclosed 

 in a case of mud two inches thick. . . . Meantime 

 a hole was shovelled out, large as a pork barrel, 

 and was filled up with dry wood, which was made 

 to burn like a furnace till the sides of the oven 

 were almost white with heat. The head was 

 dropped into the hole, and covered with live 

 coals of fire. Over all was thrown the loose dirt 

 dug from the hole, and the moose-head was left 

 to roast till the next morning. . . . The clay was 

 baked like a brick, and when cracked and torn 

 off it removed the skin, and left the clean, white, 

 sweet meat exposed." Mr. Hibbs vouches for 

 the resulting dish as delicious, and no doubt it 

 was. 



A fair substitute for the baking hole dug in the 

 ground is a double baking tin. The muffle should 

 be cleaned as for stewing. If roasted three or 

 four hours in the double baker, with three or four 

 thin slices of pork, the muffle being basted fre- 



7 The Big Game of North America, edited by George O. Shields 

 (Chicago, 1890), p. 22. 



