Hedgehog

hedgehog a small insectivorous animal, Erinaceus europaeus, found throughout W. and C. Europe. It is best known for a defence mechanism which consists of rolling up and exposing a spiny back to the world, a method which fails against the threat of road traffic. It is nocturnal in habit, and hibernates from October to April.

There are related species in other parts of Europe, and in Asia; but the porcupine, although similarly protected by spines, is an animal of a different genus.

Hedgehogs are not normally sold or hunted for food, except by gypsies, whose traditional method for dealing with them is to encase the animals in clay and roast them, after which the baked clay is broken off, taking the spines with it. The meat is said to be tender and well flavoured, resembling chicken or sucking pig. Fernie (1905) provides alternative methods of cooking, and cites the Tramp’s Handbook (1905) as evidence that hedgehogs are nice and fat at Michaelmas, when they have been feeding on windfall crabapples. He adds, but without giving a source, that in France the foresters of the marquis de Cherville were given to concoct a delicious stew of hedgehog with morels.