The More You Know: WY Chef Says The Best Way To Cook Groundhog Is With A Pork Rub

A Wyoming groundhog could make a fine meal, in observance of Groundhog Day this week, if you slow-cooked it in a smoker with a nice pork rub, a Wyoming barbeque chef said.

The question of whether groundhogs are edible came up after fellow Cowboy State Daily reporter Clair McFarland and I filed a report from the site of the Lander Lil prairie dog statue at dawn on Groundhog Day.  

And the matter of dining on groundhog isn’t hypothetical for me. I’ve done it.  

But more on that later.

Phil Sees His Shadow

“Groundhog” is one of the colloquial terms for the largish burrowing rodents, formally known as marmots.

Back East, they’re called woodchucks. Here out West, they’re known as rock chucks, and some also call them whistle pigs.

The star of Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, is Punxsutawney Phil, a groundhog who lives in Pennsylvania.