The kangaroo is _par excellence_ the wild game of Australia, and
coursing it gives active employment to its pursuers. The flesh of
all the several species is good. The fore-quarters, indeed, of the
forester, the largest of the family, an animal which frequently weighs
200 lbs., are somewhat inferior, and are usually given to the dogs; but
from the hind-quarters some fine steaks may be cut. When cooked in the
same manner, they are very little inferior to venison collops.
The brush kangaroo (_Macropus cœruleus_) is a very fleet active animal,
sometimes of about 20 lbs. weight, having fur of a silver grey colour,
with a white stripe on each side of its face.
The flesh of the larger kangaroo, as well as that of the wallaby, a
smaller animal, averaging about 12 or 14 lbs., is often hashed, and
with a little seasoning and skill in preparation, it is excellent. The
wallaby is commonly stewed for soup.
The best part of the kangaroo is its tail. Talk of ox-tail soup, ye
metropolitan gourmands! Commend us to the superb kangaroo-tail soup
of Australia, made from the tail weighing some 10 or 12 lbs., if a
full-grown forester.
The pademelon, a smaller species of kangaroo, weighs about 9 or 10
lbs., and when cooked like a hare, affords a dish with which the most
fastidious gourmand might be satisfied.
The following is the native mode of cooking a kangaroo steak:--It is
placed in a scooped out stone, which is readily found in the streams,
and pressed down by heavy stones on the top of it; the heat is applied
beneath and round the first top stone; at the critical moment the
stones are quickly removed, and the steak appears in its most savoury
state.
The aborigines of Australia always roast their food; they have no means
of boiling, except when they procure the service of an old European
saucepan or tin pot. ‘It is a very remarkable fact’ (remarks Mr. Moore)
‘in the history of mankind, that a people should be found now to exist,
without any means of heating water, or cooking liquid food; or, in
short, without any culinary utensil or device of any sort. The only
mode of cooking was to put the food into the fire, or roast it in the
embers or hot ashes; small fish or frogs being sometimes first wrapped
in a piece of paper-tree bark. Such was their state when Europeans
first came among them. They are now extremely fond of soup and tea.’
A native will not eat tainted meat, although he cannot be said to be
very nice in his food, according to our ideas. Their meat is cooked
almost as soon as killed, and eaten immediately.
The parts of the kangaroo most esteemed for eating are the loins and
the tail, which abound in gelatine, and furnish an excellent and
nourishing soup; the hind legs are coarse, and usually fall to the
share of the dogs. The natives (if they can be said to have a choice)
give a preference to the head. The flesh of the full-grown animal may
be compared to lean beef, and that of the young to veal; they are
destitute of fat, if we except a little being occasionally seen between
the muscles and integuments of the tail. The colonial dish, called a
_steamer_, consists of the flesh of the animal dressed, with slices
of ham. The liver when cooked is crisp and dry, and is considered a
substitute for bread; but I cannot coincide in this opinion.
The goto, or long bag of kangaroo skin, about two feet deep, and a foot
and a half broad, carried by the native females in Australia, is the
common receptacle for every small article which the wife or husband may
require or take a fancy to, whatever its nature or condition may be.
Fish just caught, or dry bread, frogs, roots, and clay, are all mingled
together.
Mr. George Bennett (_Wanderings in New South Wales_) thus speaks of
Australian native cookery:--
‘After wet weather they track game with much facility; and from the
late rains the hunting expeditions had been very successful; game was,
therefore, very abundant at the camp, which consisted of opossums,
flying squirrels, bandicoots, snakes, &c.
‘One of the opossums among the game was a female, which had two
large-sized young ones in her pouch; these delicate morsels were at
this time broiling, unskinned and undrawn, upon the fire, whilst the
old mother was lying yet unflayed in the basket.
‘It was amusing to see with what rapidity and expertness the animals
were skinned and embowelled by the blacks. The offal was thrown to the
dogs; but, as such a waste on the part of the natives does not often
take place, we can only presume it is when game, as it was at present,
is very abundant. The dogs are usually in poor condition, from getting
a very precarious supply of provender. The liver being extracted, and
gall-bladder removed, a stick was thrust through the animal, which was
either thrown upon the ashes to broil, or placed upon a wooden spit
before the fire to roast. Whether the food was removed from the fire
cooked, or only half dressed, depended entirely on the state of their
appetites. The flesh of the animals at this time preparing for dinner,
by our tawny friends, appeared delicate, and was no doubt excellent
eating, as the diet of the animals was in most instances vegetable.’
Another traveller in the Bush thus describes the aboriginal practices
and food:--‘We had scarcely finished the snake, when Tomboor-rowa and
little Sydney returned again. They had been more successful this time,
having shot two wallabies or brush kangaroos and another carpet-snake
of six feet in length. A bundle of rotten branches was instantly
gathered and thrown upon the expiring embers of our former fire, and
both the wallabies and the snake were thrown into the flame. One of the
wallabies had been a female, and as it lay dead on the grass, a young
one, four or five inches long, crept out of its pouch. I took up the
little creature, and, presenting it to the pouch, it crept in again.
Having turned round, however, for a minute or two, Gnunnumbah had taken
it up and thrown it alive into the fire; for, when I happened to look
towards the fire, I saw it in the flames in the agony of death. In a
minute or two the young wallaby being sufficiently done, Gnunnumbah
drew it out of the fire with a stick, and eat its hind-quarters without
further preparation, throwing the rest of it away.
‘It is the etiquette among the black natives for the person who takes
the game to conduct the cooking of it. As soon, therefore, as the skins
of the wallabies had become stiff and distended from the expansion of
the gases in the cavity of their bodies, Tomboor-rowa and Sydney each
pulled one of them from the fire, and scraping off the singed hair
roughly with the hand, cut up the belly and pulled out the entrails.
They then cleaned out the entrails, not very carefully by any means,
rubbing them roughly on the grass or on the bushes, and then threw
them again upon the fire. When they considered them sufficiently done,
the two eat them, a considerable quantity of their original contents
remaining to serve as a sort of condiment or sauce. The tails and lower
limbs of the two wallabies, when the latter were supposed to be done
enough, were twisted off and eaten by the other two natives (from one
of whom I got one of the vertebræ of the tail and found it delicious);
the rest of the carcases, with the large snake, being packed up in a
number of the _Sydney Herald_, to serve as a mess for the whole camp
at Brisbane. The black fellows were evidently quite delighted with the
excursion; and, on our return to the Settlement, they asked Mr. Wade if
he was not going again to-morrow.’
The kangaroo rat, an animal nearly as large as a wild rabbit, is
tolerably abundant, and very good eating, when cooked in the same
manner. The natives take them by driving a spear into the nest,
sometimes transfixing two at once, or by jumping upon the nest, which
is formed of leaves and grass upon the ground.
It is less sought for than its larger relatives, except by thorough
bushmen, owing to the prejudice excited by the unfortunate name which
has been bestowed upon it. Those who have once tried it usually become
fond of it; and to the sawyers and splitters these animals yield many a
fresh meal, during their sojourn amidst the heavily timbered flats and
ranges of Victoria and New South Wales. The animal is not of the rat
species, but a perfect kangaroo in miniature.
The flesh of the phalangers is of delicate flavor. The large grey
opossum (_Phalangista vulpina_) forms a great resource for food to the
natives of Australia, who climb the tallest trees in search of them,
and take them from the hollow branches. The flesh is very good, though
not much used by the settlers, the carcase being thrown to the dogs,
while the sportsman contents himself with the skin.
The common opossum (_Didelphys Virginiana_) is eaten in some of the
states and territories of America; it is very much like a large rat,
and is classed among the ‘vermin’ by the Americans. Their flesh is,
however, white and well-tasted; but their ugly tail puts one out of
conceit with the fare.
The wombat, a bear-like marsupial quadruped of Australia, (the
_Phascolomys wombat_,) is eaten in New South Wales and other parts of
the Australian Continent. In size it often equals a sheep, some of the
largest weighing 140 lbs.; and the flesh is said by some to be not
unlike venison, and by others to resemble lean mutton. As it is of such
considerable size, attaining the length of three feet, it has been
suggested that it might be worth naturalizing here.