Dolly Parton Grew Up 'Eating Whatever's Running Around' - Here's The Game She Ate

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Dolly Parton has, essentially, won at life. She's a legendary music superstar, a generous philanthropist, and a beloved cultural icon. She has been offered the Presidential Medal of Freedom several times, and played a not-insignificant role in funding the Moderna COVID vaccine. Hers is the kind of rags-to-riches success story we see far too rarely these days. She was born in a tiny cabin in rural Tennessee to a family who paid the doctor who delivered her with a sack of cornmeal. As proud Appalachians, the Partons often ate game growing up. In a 1992 New York Times interview, Dolly fondly recalled "eating whatever's running around," including groundhog, squirrel, and bear meat.

In an interview with People alongside her sister Rachel to promote their cookbook "Good Lookin' Cookin'," Parton described eating groundhog, which was apparently her father's favorite. "Mama used to call them whistle pigs, because they were that much like a pig," said Parton. (They're also called whistle pigs because of their distinct, high-pitched distress call.) "It tastes very much like a pig, but I wouldn't want to eat one now." She would also eat squirrel and rabbit meat growing up, and although this was more out of necessity than anything, she still recalls it favorably, describing squirrel as tasting "sweet" and "like chicken" in a 2003 interview with Conan O'Brien.

Dolly Parton didn't only eat the small, trappable kind of game growing up. In that same New York Times interview, she mentioned eating bear meat. "In the Smoky Mountain National Park," she said, "there were a lot of migrating bears. My father and my uncles were big bear hunters, and they had bear dogs." She also talked about eating fried catfish and frog legs sourced from local waters. (Today, catfish may not be the safest option to eat, despite being among the cheapest.)

Now, if you go to Dollywood expecting to find squirrel or bear (or raccoon, which Martha Stewart vows to never eat), you may be disappointed — or maybe not, depending on how much you like eating game. Instead, you'll find an assortment of food for all types, including crowd-pleasing recipes for Dolly Parton's favorite food: potatoes. It's not as unusual as Appalachian game, but it's enticing all the same.