Something fishy

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

Anyone longing for meat rather than another Lenten Friday fish fry, might consider a trip to southeast Michigan. Catholics there have another choice on Ash Wednesday and Fridays - muskrat.

	L e n t
	• Everyday People, Everyday Faith articles
	• Other Lent articles

Fr. Gabriel Richard, a missionary, is said to have permitted it in the early 1800s because the French-Canadian trappers and their families were going hungry. He decided that even though the foot-long rodent is a mammal, it lives in water.

How do you fix muskrat? Methods vary, but include sauteeing, frying, boiling and baking. Cookbooks also advise removing the musk glands and being on the lookout for tiny bones.

For Johnny Kolakowski, owner of Kola's Food Factory in Riverview, sauteeing in butter and garlic is the way to go. He serves it with sauerkraut (possibly an attempt to lure in Green Bay Auxiliary Bp. Robert Morneau), mashed potatoes and gravy. The prime pieces, he said, are the hind legs.

For Fr. Russ Kohler, pastor at Most Holy Trinity Parish in Detroit, and a regular at the muskrat dinners at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Newport, the marinade is the key. He favors a secret recipe based on a French liqueur. At the St. Charles Borromeo dinner, a fundraiser for youth sports, the meal includes creamed corn and mashed potatoes.

As many might guess, muskrat is more popular with men than women. As Candy Chinavare put it, "They pack the men in. The majority of women can't get past the 'rat' thing."

Kolakowski agreed. He said he sells several dozen muskrat dinners on Friday nights, mainly to older men, down from 150 a night in the 1980s. Still, it's not uncommon for camera-toting young men to order a muskrat dinner, Kolakowski said.

So what does muskrat taste like? Chicken, of course, but you probably saw that coming. Actually, Fr. Kohler said, muskrat has the consistency of chicken, but a "unique" taste.

OK. That's not much help. Lots of things have a unique taste. Kolakowski is more definitive. He said muskrat tastes like duck, explaining that they both live in water and eat the same things. The only difference, Kolakowski said, is that one walks and one flies.

Oh yes, muskrat dinners also seem to be popular in Delaware, although they're not allowed on Fridays in Lent.

Perhaps the final word should go to the late Bp. Kenneth Povish of Lansing, Mich. In a 1987 column in The Michigan Catholic, Detroit archdiocesan newspaper, he wrote "anyone who could eat muskrat was doing penance worthy of the greatest of the saints."

Maybe it is the perfect Friday food for Lent, but only in southeast Michigan - as if the Detroit Lions weren't penance enough.