As we're on the subject of Badgers and Roadkill...
On the way home one night in early winter, there on the side of the road was a freshly killed badger (still warm). I'm not an expert on aging the animals, but at a guess I'd say it was a young one of the year. Tho' fully grown, it still had a very clean fresh look about it. Therefore in theory, the taste shouldn't be too strong as it's not an old animal.
I removed the back leg at the femur/pelvis joint cutting as close to the pelvis as possible. I removed the foot at the ankle joint. As there's quite a lot of fat on these animals, I decided to use this to my advantage, and forget about cooking oil. Therefore I kept as much fat as possible on the joint. Try to avoid getting badger hairs on the meat - they're a nuisance to remove. I then washed the joint and put it in the fridge.
Next day I removed the two bones from the leg. My butcher believes in cooking meat with the bone in for increased flavour, and suggested cutting the bones out, and then replacing them again. When the meat is cooked, it's then a simple matter to slide the bones out without having to cut them out. I kept the femur but discarded the tibia/fibula.
I then bundled the joint into a little parcel and held it with elastic strings, covered it with foil, and popped it in the oven at 180 C for 50 minutes with a further 10 minutes without tinfoil to crisp the fat. No need to use cooking oil.
It's the best badger I've ever tasted! tho' It's only my 3rd to try. The flavour wasn't too strong - I'm sure it must have been a young animal. Keeping the fat on was a good decision too, as last time I removed most of the fat.
Zek.
