I KNOW that everyone checks this blog daily for photos of new roadkill cakes and sundaes and such. I know that it’s a very popular subject because I can tell when you’uns search for Hillbilly Cakes or Road Kill Ice Cream. It’s just a subject that isn’t covered very often. So I am making a commitment to inform the interweb users that these desserts that I have such a love of creating are based on real recipes.

Just to be clear, I don’t actually put possum or pole cat in the ice cream cakes. They are just SHAPES. Inspirations from nature.

However, I was just in New Orleans and I stumbled in a delightful little shop in the French Quarter called the Kitchen Witch. It was a book store specializing in vintage eclectic cookbooks. I LOVED walking around and scanning the silly local cookbooks from all over the world. Right in front of me was this Cherokee Cooklore book. It was published in 1951 and is full of photographs of a Cherokee Chief’s daughter making bean bread from scratch. They even show the field where the get the corn for the meal.

As I turned the pages, looking for familiar recipes (I am 1/12 Cherokee and my family was from North Carolina where this book was published) and I found my very favorite hillbilly treat, Leather Breeches, which is basically dried green beans that are re-warmed and turned yummy again, but sort of leathery, like the name.

Then I looked further and found this recipe for Yellow Jacket Soup. Ok. I am NOT going to be attempting this one. I walked into a nest of yellow jackets when I was 12 and got stung 30 times, barely making it to the hospital. I don’t think so.

But you guys can try!

Also, on the other page is the recipes for Coon, Groundhog, and Possum.

Let me know if you can’t read these. I would be happy to transcribe them for you adventurous chefs.

Really Adventurous.