At Dark Mofo's Winter Feast, the longest night of the year, punters queued for brushtail possum bao. Chef Jeremy 'Jezz' Waterhouse, from Hobart's South Wine Bar, first put possum on his menu three years ago. 'People were a bit freaked out. My wife thought I was crazy,' he said. It took six months of trial and error to create a recipe that feels familiar enough to coax people into trying it. The whole carcass is brined for 24 hours, dusted with spices, sous vide for 10 hours, then shredded. At his restaurant, Waterhouse serves possum as rillette and pizza half a dozen times a year.
Ethical and Ecological Considerations
Last year, Winter Feast received questions about the ethics of eating possum. Ecologist Henry Cook explained that brushtail possums are abundant in Tasmania due to habitat modification and the decline of the Tasmanian devil, their natural predator. 'Ecologically, it's all very much above board,' he said. Possums are already culled as pests, so eating them is a pragmatic choice. Lenah Game Meats, which supplied the possum, follows a philosophy of 'eating the problem,' viewing invasive species as a nutritious food source with a low carbon footprint.
Cultural and Historical Context
Kitana Mansell, a Palawa woman and chef, noted that Tasmanian Aboriginal people have eaten possum for millennia, traditionally slow-cooked in earth ovens. Her company Palawa Kipli is Tasmania's only Aboriginal-owned food enterprise. Lenah Game Meats also supplies possum skins to First Nations people for cloaks, lifelong garments traditionally worn from birth.
Public Reception
Punter Andrew 'loved it!', while Angus felt he had 'settled a score' with the possum in his roof. The writer described the taste as 'a little sweet, melts in the mouth, perhaps in the ballpark of duck, but lighter.' The experience was not transcendent but nor did it feel offensive.
