Smoked Groundhog BBQ Sandwiches
Wild groundhog cooked low over coals until it shreds, then sauced and piled on buns at camp.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 44
- protein
- 48 g
- serves
- 5, scales
- prep
- 30 min
- cook
- 330 min
- total time
- 360 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Groundhog, skinned and field dressed | 6-12 lb | one animal; older ones need the longer end of the cook |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet yellow onion | 1 large | sliced thick so it survives the heat |
| Dark beer | 1 bottle | stout or brown ale |
| BBQ rub | 3-4 tbsp | any big-game or coarse pork rub |
| BBQ sauce | 1 cup | |
| Buns | 5-6 | |
| Heavy-duty foil | 1 roll |
Method
- Dress the animal at home if you can. Cut out the pearl-sized scent glands along the backbone and inside the front legs. They are small and easy to miss, and leaving them in is the difference between dinner and a story.
- Rinse the carcass, pick off stray hair, and pat it dry. Coat it all over with rub. Lay the onion slices in the cavity and over the back.
- Build a fire and let it burn to coals. You want a grate running around 250-275F, which means a small bed of coals off to one side and the meat over the cooler half. Feed it a few sticks every twenty minutes.
- Smoke uncovered for about two hours, lid on if you have one, so the outside takes color.
- Lay the animal on a double sheet of foil, pour the beer over it, and crimp the foil shut tight. The steam does the work from here.
- Back on the grate for another two to three hours at the same heat. It is done when a leg bone pulls free with no resistance.
- Open the foil away from your face and let the steam out. Move the meat to a board and shred it with two forks, keeping the pan juices.
- Stir in the sauce and a splash of the juices, pile it on buns, and eat standing up.
This is a long cook, so it belongs at a camp you are not leaving. Five and a half hours of tending a fire is the whole point of the day, not an inconvenience. Groundhog is lean, dense, and full of connective tissue, which is why it goes in two stages: dry smoke first for flavor, then sealed in foil with beer so the collagen breaks down instead of the meat drying out.
The glands matter more than the rub. Miss them and no amount of sauce fixes it. Everything else here is forgiving, including the temperature, as long as you stay under 300F and give it the time. Sauce goes on at the end because sugar burns long before the meat is ready.
Packing
The animal rides in the cooler on ice, bagged, with the glands already removed. Rub premixed in a film canister, sauce in a squeeze bottle, buns on top of the food bin where nothing crushes them. Bring more foil than you think you need.
Variations
- Same method works for beaver, raccoon, or a tough old squirrel pile. Adjust time by weight.
- No buns, no problem: shredded meat over instant rice out of the same pot.
- A dutch oven with the lid on replaces the foil step if you are carrying one.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/smoked-whistlepig-sandwiches